The man appointed by Gov. Beverly Perdue to oversee every dollar and every contract emanating from the $6.1 billion stimulus allotment for North Carolina, is beginning to tour the state, informing people about how to access the system.
Dempsey Benton, director of the NC Office of Recovery and Investment (NCOERI), will travel the state with a series of workshops that started this week.
It’s part of a new outreach effort to calm the waters of discontent about the dearth of information thus far about the state’s stimulus efforts.
www.NCRecovery.gov – the website where citizens are supposed to go to learn about how stimulus funding is to be distributed and to what projects; how to apply for funding and contracts; how the state will track funding and how its spent; and estimates on the economic impact and jobs created – still offers none of the above beyond press releases touting what projects have already been set in motion.
If Gov. Perdue is to be believed, that is about to change.
Last week, Perdue announced a series of NCOERI workshops across the state, spearheaded by Benton, to help address much of what has, thus far, been unknown.
The first workshop kicked off Tuesday at Winston-Salem State University for ”local municipalities, businesses and interested citizens,” according to a press release, with both state and federal officials taking part.
Other state-sponsored stimulus workshops are planned for Asheville, Charlotte, Greenville, Raleigh, and Wilmington ”in the next few weeks,” NCOERI’s website promises.
”Details will be announced soon.”
The NC Dept. of Transportation has also begun conducting ”outreach meetings for disadvantaged business enterprises” across the state, with one of the first held in Raleigh last Tuesday.
The meetings are to inform so-called minority-owned businesses ”of contracting opportunities in transportation and on projects funded with monies from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” according to the NCDOT website.
