Two miles of sewer line in Talmage.

An outing to the symphony for city kids.

Solar panels glinting on a Penn Township roof.

All across Lancaster County, people are finding an astonishing number of ways to spend federal stimulus dollars.

And the list of projects goes on and on.

When a year ago today President Barack Obama signed the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, everyone expected road work and more road work.

But a new medical clinic with 24 exam rooms on North Arch Street?

A couple of Web-connected traffic cameras on the Route 30 bypass?

Research into high-tech magnets in Landisville?

Kitchen equipment in a Rohrerstown school?

A pair of wind turbines — twice the height of the 14-story Griest Building — overlooking the Susquehanna?

Who knew?

At the bill signing, Obama pledged wise investments and unprecedented transparency in his plan to kick-start the economy and invest for long-term prosperity.

A year later, how has Lancaster County made out? Did we get a fair share? Was the promise of transparency just window dressing? Is the money being well spent?

For answers, we scoured www.recovery.pa.gov and other Web sites for Lancaster County-specific information. We found it easy to get a snapshot of the local stimulus landscape, but not always easy to get project details.

For that information, we needed to give Google a break and go to the people handing out or getting money.

We found smiles on the faces of many of those people.

"It's just unbelievable," said Sherley Baker, a retiree in Salunga whose mobile home qualified for $1,140 in weatherization upgrades. "I'm a lot warmer, and I expect that I will be seeing a lot of savings because my furnace doesn't come on as much."

"A wonderful windfall" is how Robert Schellhamer, head of the Lancaster City Housing Authority, described the $991,476 his agency received. It's replacing four aging elevators and more than 300 windows at two high-rises for senior citizens.

"We feel we're making an investment in the future," said Scott Sheely, who oversees workforce development for Lancaster County. The $1,876,920 boost his agency got put 328 low-income teens to work last summer and quadrupled the number of unemployed workers getting retrained.

Meanwhile, though "things are slim in the construction industry," according to Dale Shenk, a vice president with Simeral Construction of Lititz, his company hasn't laid off a single worker. Simeral won contracts totaling $9.8 million for four stimulus projects in southcentral Pennsylvania, including one in Lancaster city.

At this point, no one can say exactly what the two-year impact of the Recovery Act will be on Lancaster County. The grand total will likely approach a billion dollars.

Sounds like a nice chunk of change, doesn't it? But it's only equal to 5 percent of the county's Gross Domestic Product.

It's anyone's guess whether the act's laundry list of tax cuts and spending did much to soften the recession's blow here.

What can be said is nonfarm job loss in Lancaster County has slowed. Job loss averaged 1,167 jobs per month in the first half of 2009. In the second half, the rate of job loss fell to 250 per month.

Altogether, 12,300 jobs were shed between January 2008 and December 2009.

But some believe the bottom hasn't been hit yet, a concern that causes Charlotte Katzenmoyer, among others, to question whether the stimulus package was big enough.

"A year ago, I thought we'd get a lot more money," said Katzenmoyer, the city's public works director.

She said the $1 million grant the city received to address chronic sewage overflows "doesn't do anything for us" in attacking a problem expected to cost more than $70 million to fix.

And while the city also got $3 million for sewer pump station upgrades and about $840,000 for energy conservation measures at the police station, City Hall and the recreation center, Katzenmoyer is disappointed so many other projects are going unfunded.

"I know lots of construction companies that still can't put crews back to work," she said.

James Creedon, Pennsylvania's chief implementation officer for Recovery Act programs and a member of Gov. Ed Rendell's cabinet, hears complaints like Katzenmoyer's all the time.

"The demand out there for infrastructure upgrades … is enormous," Creedon said, and while the Recovery Act was meant to help, some people's expectations have met with a jarring dose of reality.

"We've done good things, but disappointed people who thought there was a magical pot of money they could access," he said.

Pennsylvania's share of Recovery Act assistance likely will exceed $26.8 billion, or $2,153 per person, but Congress took a shotgun approach to how it's been distributed.

The amount set aside for infrastructure improvements of all kinds — highways, public housing, sewers — likely will fall short of $4 billion. And for all that road work people expected, Pennsylvania was allocated only a tad more than $1 billion.

"A billion dollars is a lot of money," Creedon said. "It's kind of scary to think it's not enough … but we could do more."

The repair bill just for the state's bridges, for instance, is more than $14 billion, according to a PennDOT estimate after the 2007 collapse of the I-35 Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis.

The limits of the Recovery Bill notwithstanding, the breadth of its octopus-like reach across Lancaster County is impressive.

We took a stab at following the money. It's a moving target because the stimulus runs for another year.

What follows is an imperfect, unauthoritative overview, but one that should at least be in the ballpark of the Recovery Bill's cumulative impact on our community.

Tax cuts: About $400 million

Because groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings hog most of the attention, the public often loses sight of how much of the stimulus package was devoted to tax cuts.

From the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit to the $400 Making Work Pay tax credit that reduced withholding from paychecks, tax cuts deliver 37 percent of the stimulus' kick.

No other single category comes close to the emphasis Congress placed on tax cuts.

"That's something that's not talked about nearly enough," said Ethan Pollack, policy analyst for the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute.

So how much money is coming back to Lancaster County because of tax cuts?

The Internal Revenue Service said it's too early to know because taxpayers haven't filed returns yet.

Secretary Creedon's office, however, is estimating Pennsylvanians, including businesses, will enjoy $11.07 billion in tax savings.

Because Creedon's staff declined to estimate Lancaster County's share, we made a rough calculation based on Lancaster County's 3.6 percent share of Pennsylvania's total personal income.

Assuming there's a correlation between tax cuts and personal income, tax cuts may be boosting Lancaster County's economy by around $400 million.

Everything else pales by comparison.

Transfer payments: About $346 million

Another difficult-to-lasso figure is the local stimulus impact of social spending on programs ranging from medical assistance to unemployment compensation.

The state anticipates disbursing about $8.1 billion in stimulus-enhanced transfer payments.

Because the Public Welfare and Labor & Industry departments declined to estimate Lancaster County's share from the various programs, we were left to make a guesstimate of $330 million — based on the county comprising 4.1 percent of the state's population.

One more target of the stimulus was Social Security recipients. Each one received a one-time boost of $250, and that would have infused another $19 million, plus or minus, into Lancaster County.

Education: $60,130,061

Stimulus funding saved the jobs of 54 teachers in the School District of Lancaster, allowing the district to maintain an average class size of 25 students.

The infusion of federal funds also saved city taxpayers money. The school board raised property taxes by 3.52 percent, well under the 5.8 percent limit imposed by state law.

The district also had extra funds to bolster special education and offer supplemental programs, such as tutoring.

To a lesser extent, the county's 15 other school districts, plus La Academia Charter School, benefited similarly from the injection of Recovery Act funds.

All told, public schools will receive $41,165,440 in stimulus funding over two years.

In addition, Head Start preschool classes run by the Community Action Program are receiving $422,154 for cost-of-living increases and seven new positions.

Higher education also got a share. Millersville University and Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology are receiving stimulus funds totaling $13,651,046 to save about 90 jobs.

William Griscom, Stevens Tech's president, said the saved jobs provide value to the community because the students they train graduate with little debt, quickly land jobs, stay in Pennsylvania and often start their own businesses.

Additionally, income-eligible students at multiple local colleges received stimulus-funded Pell grant and work study funding totaling $3,929,659.

Intermediate Unit 13 received $207,859 for early intervention services.

The Lancaster district won a $664,401 grant for software, and Rohrerstown Education Center and three city schools received a total of $64,502 for kitchen equipment.

And, last but not least, the 72-member Lancaster Symphony Orchestra received $25,000 for a day of performances for all third, fourth and fifth graders in the School District of Lancaster, about 4,200 pupils.

Transportation: $45,606,156

Nothing says "your tax money at work" like diamond-shaped signs warning: Construction ahead.

The Recovery Act pumped almost $25 million into seven road projects here, the largest being the resurfacing of 7.6 miles of Route 222 between Manheim Township and Ephrata Township.

David Royer, the county's chief transportation planner, said PennDOT's directive last year was to pick "shovel ready or all but shovel ready" projects.

Besides the $11,565,487 resurfacing of Route 222 north of Lancaster, the following projects were chosen:

• Resurfacing 9.3 miles of Route 30 between East Lampeter and Salisbury townships ($3,990,989).

• Resurfacing Route 272 in Drumore, East Drumore and Fulton townships ($3,887,833).

• Resurfacing 5.25 miles of Route 222 between Refton and Quarryville ($3,027,354).

• Repairing the Route 324 bridge over Pequea Creek, north of Marticville ($1,477,437).

• Concrete parapet repair to four bridges in Quarryville Borough and Manor, Salisbury and Warwick townships (about $700,000).

• Traffic cameras and signs on the Route 30 bypass at Route 283 and Route 501 ($318,350).

"There was quite a bit of scrambling around and debate last February and March (among county and municipal leaders)," Royer said, "but I think everybody came to realize these are good projects that will help stimulate the economy."

PennDOT spokesman Mike Crochunis said that while not all of the projects topped the local priority list, "design-wise, they were ready to go."

Funds became available for the Route 30 and Route 272 resurfacing projects only later in the year after bids for projects around the state came in below estimates.

"It's nice we could add the Route 30 resurfacing because that pavement has served its time," Crochunis said. "Our maintenance crews have been patching it for some time."

Mass transit didn't get overlooked in the allocation of transportation funds.

Red Rose Transit received two grants totaling $7,594,706 to renovate and expand its 31-year-old operations center and install solar and geothermal systems and a green roof.

David Kilmer, RRTA's director, said he had gotten most of the design work completed, but prior to the stimulus grants had no money for construction.

He said the facility's biggest defect was a heating and air-conditioning system "held together with chewing gum and Band-Aids."

In Elizabethtown, the derelict Amtrak station is getting a $9.3 million makeover that includes two elevators, while $494,000 will be used to make accessibility improvements at the Mount Joy Amtrak stop.

And Lancaster Airport is spending $3,250,000 for a 1,100-foot taxiway to accommodate business jets.

Environment: $23,504,590

Stimulus funds are making Lancaster County greener and more energy-efficient.

The program with the broadest reach is Housing Development Corp.'s effort to weatherize hundreds of low-income housing units in Lancaster, Lebanon and Chester counties. The total price tag: $8,784,262.

"We do air sealing, insulation, caulking, door sweeps. We'll replace a furnace and sometimes an old refrigerator," HDC's Bill Belden said. "One issue we have is people don't believe you when you tell them it's free."

Stimulus also is being felt down on the farm.

Nine Lancaster County farms are receiving $5,490,000 in conservation improvements to help protect the Chesapeake Bay.

And the state has stimulus dollars to fund all manner of renewable energy projects. They include:

• $1,500,000 for two 360-foot wind turbines along the Susquehanna River in Manor Township to power nearby Turkey Hill Dairy.

• $1,181,250 for a combined heat-and-power system at Mount Joy Wire Corporation.

• $773,416 for anaerobic digesters to convert manure into electricity at Meadow Springs Farm and Meadow Valley Dairy.

• $474,502 for a biomass/wood-burning system for heat and electricity at Esbenshade Greenhouses. The system will generate power equivalent to that used by 198 homes.

• $250,000 to retrofit lighting in 12 buildings at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.

• $219,162 to install a solar panel on the public works facility in Penn Township, producing electricity to power the equivalent of seven homes.

• $100,000 for 122 air-conditioner control units and 200 streetlight retrofits at Masonic Villages.

• $96,098 for energy conservation in Warwick Township.

"What we're doing is providing momentum for a more efficient, more sustainable economy," Dan Griffiths, a DEP deputy secretary, said. "And this isn't like a usual federal government program. This is: Get the money on the street, get the project done, and we need to know everything in detail."

In addition, the county received directed funding of energy conservation projects. They are:

• $1,493,500 for energy-saving windows, roofing and lights at the courthouse.

• $1,148,800 to improve energy efficiency at 40 E. King St.

• $257,500 for a solar energy system at the Public Safety Training Center.

• $257,500 in grants to municipalities and nonprofit agencies for energy audits.

• $257,500 for solar energy and geothermal systems at the Environmental Center.

• $257,500 for municipalities to replace incandescent traffic signals with efficient LED signals.

• $72,100 for energy-saving information technology retrofits.

• $51,500 for energy audits at Lancaster County Prison and Youth Intervention Center.

Separately, Lancaster City is receiving about $840,000 for energy-efficiency measures at the police station, City Hall and recreation center.

Housing: $17,988,104

The Recovery Act is helping to improve housing for low-income families and seniors.

Garden Court Apartments on South Marshall Street has $11,219,998 to renovate 264 apartments, and Park Avenue Apartments has $1,365,625 to renovate 24 units.

Renters in danger of being evicted because they lost jobs or had hours cut can turn to stimulus funds for temporary help. Funds totaling $2,350,286 are available.

The Lancaster City Housing Authority is getting $991,476 for new elevators and windows at Church Street Towers and Farnum Street East.

"The funds allowed us to undertake a couple of work items we otherwise would have had to do over several years," director Robert Schellhamer said. "Would I like more? Absolutely. But I'm not complaining about a million dollars. We're getting very valuable work items out of it."

The county Redevelopment Authority quickly plugged $903,494 into three shovel-ready sewer projects. Aging sewer lines are being replaced in Columbia and lines are being extended in Talmage and Kinzers.

"The neighborhoods we serve have to be low- and moderate-income residents," authority director Matthew Sternberg said. Extending lines to older homes allows properties to be upgraded and expanded for affordable housing.

The government is providing rental assistance payments totaling $578,363 for Duke Manor Associates, Lancaster House South and Housing Associates of Lancaster.

The city is using $482,390 to rehabilitate four vacant houses for resale as owner-occupied homes.

Columbia Catholic Housing for the Elderly received $96,472 for housing assistance at St. Peter Apartments.

Health care: $4,870,130

Lancaster County's two federally funded health centers are using stimulus funds to expand facilities and services.

SouthEast Lancaster Health Services was awarded a competitive grant of $3,250,000 to build a clinic with 24 exam rooms and space for Southeast's administrative offices at 333 N. Arch St.

The grant also funds renovation of vacated offices at the 625 S. Duke St. clinic into expanded dental space. The number of dental chairs will double to 12.

Southeast also received $723,690 for an electronic health records system and updated heating/air-conditioning, and $242,688 to hire two dental assistants, a dental hygienist and a dental clerk.

Jim Kelly, Southeast's director, said the Arch Street project received stimulus funds because it was shovel ready and would expand care.

"Absolutely, it's money well spent," Kelly said, because it increases access of appropriate medical and dental care to people who otherwise might seek treatment in a more expensive setting, such as an emergency room.

Meanwhile, Welsh Mountain Medical and Dental Center will use $479,495 to expand and update its dental services and trim its waiting list of more than 600 families.

A separate $174,257 grant will help fund the center's sliding fee discounts and pay for home visits to Plain Sect mothers with newborns.

Workforce: $3,211,920

More than a thousand unemployed workers and low-income youths are training for jobs with stimulus funds funneled through Lancaster County's Workforce Investment Board.

Some are taking basic classes to prepare for entry-level work in restaurants or on construction sites. Others are taking classes at Harrisburg Area Community College, Lancaster County Career and Technology Center, Consolidated School of Business and York Technical Institute.

"The numbers are literally four times the number we trained in other years," said Scott Sheely, who oversees workforce development for Lancaster County.

Law enforcement: $858,608

Seven police departments are using $416,205 in stimulus funds for equipment ranging from laptops to furnishings for a mobile forensic unit.

The departments are Lancaster city, Columbia and Ephrata boroughs, and East Hempfield, East Lampeter, Lancaster and Manheim townships.

The county received $240,782 for services related to juvenile offenders and $121,621 to retain an assistant district attorney and a coordinator for the domestic violence unit.

The city received $80,000 to support the Weed and Seed crime prevention program.

Research, development: $630,770

Several local researchers in academia and industry got a boost from stimulus funding. They include:

• Peter Fields' research at Franklin & Marshall College into stress in the ribbed salt marsh mussel ($209,151).

• Janardhan Iyengar's research at Franklin & Marshall College into Internet network technologies ($171,619).

• Illuminex Corporation's development of solar-energy producing nanowires ($150,000).

• Advanced Cooling Technologies' development of thermal interfaces for photovoltaic systems ($149,958).

• Electron Energy Corporations' development of magnetic nanoparticles ($100,000).

Miscellaneous funding: $5,165,017

Lancaster City is receiving $3 million to upgrade sewer pump stations and $1 million to alleviate sewer overflows.

Community Action Program will use $1,036,699 to provide child care for 15 more children, assist victims of domestic violence, provide rental assistance, and help displaced homemakers become self-sufficient.

And there's a separate grant of $128,318 for homeless shelters and food banks.

jhawkes@lnpnews.com