Your stimulus dollars in action, buying high-efficiency refrigerators, low-flush toilets and a windmill for the Shalom Apartments (run by the Jewish Seniors Agency of Rhode Island) in Warwick, RI.
As reported in The Providence Journal:
Shaun Donovan, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is in Warwick this Monday morning to announce $1.4 million in stimulus funding that the Shalom Apartments will use to improve energy efficiency.
As part of the project, a wind turbine will be installed to generate 80 percent of the electricity for common areas. High-efficiency refrigerators and low-flush toilets will also be installed.
The work is expected to lower utility costs by 50 percent.
Shalom I and II provide 153 units of affordable housing, according to the Web site of the Jewish Seniors Agency of Rhode Island, which manages the apartments. The apartments house people 62 or older and those 18 or older with handicaps.
Why is this stimulus?
Sounds like a good thing for people to get new refrigerators, low-flush toilets (maybe not so good), and a windmill. But there is no indication the old ones were broken. To the contrary, according to the Annual Report of Shalom Towers, the facilities are “maintained meticulously.” The facilities may be outdated, but must we upgrade everyone’s toilet with federal dollars?
The JSA does good work, and already receives funding from HUD for affordable housing. There also was a prior stimulus grant of $208,808 for “rental assistance payments.”
There is nothing “stimulative,” however, about these stimulus funds. No new permanent jobs will be created, and the energy cost savings will take decades to recoup, if ever.
This simply is social spending under the guise of stimulus. If the social spending were justified, then make the case, but don’t spend money under the false pretext of stimulus.
But rest assured, Mimi and Pop-Pop say thanks for the gelt.
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Related Posts:
Please, No “Latke Czar”
The Fierce Urgency of Sow
Stimulus — Just $99.99 While Supplies Last
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Comments
I can't wait to hear the old folks commenting on the sound of the wind turbines outside their bedroom window at night. They're going to have to rename "Shalom Towers" to something akin to "Rockets from the West Bank" when they have their first owners meeting after those things crank off on a modestly breezy night. Can wind turbines be declared as not Kosher?
77% of the Mimi and Pop-pop's in the country don't need to be bribed with a new commode to vote Democratic. Oy vey.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034574.html
Do you think they got the new toilets because their grandchildren participated in the 'Big Schlep?"
Don't question governments bearing gelt. Old people need refrigerators and toilets. They live for them. It was an age-appropriate appropriation.
About those wind turbines. In winter they collect ice and could conceivably fling a fatal knife-sharp piece of ice at mom or pop.
@MatB&W;: 77% of the Mimi and Pop-pop's in the country don't need to be bribed with a new commode to vote Democratic.
Don't think of it as a bribe. Think of it as more of a 'reward' for blind loyalty to the Democrat Party.
.