W.Va. stimulus site noted

By JESS MANCINI, jmancini@newsandsentinel.com
POSTED: August 2, 2009

PARKERSBURG - The Web site on how stimulus funds are being spent in West Virginia has been cited for its effectiveness and ease of use.

Good Jobs First says West Virginia is one of six states in the country with exceptional sites according to its Show Us the Stimulus report. The states are West Virginia, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Maryland.

West Virginia Interactive of Charleston, which is part of NIC Inc., designed the West Virginia site. West Virginia was rated fourth overall, said Pete Fairhurst, general manager of West Virginia Interactive.

"I'll take the top five any day of the week," he said.

NIC, which manages and designs the Web sites for more than 2,000 state and local agencies and governments, specializes in government Web sites, said Matt Turner, spokesman for Gov. Joe Manchin.

"They're very functional on how they do their Web sites," Turner said.

West Virginia Interactive also is redesigning the governor's Web site, he said. Fees to maintain the site are made from the charges made to do business online with the state, Fairhurst said.

"The recovery Web site didn't cost taxpayers any money whatsoever," he said.

The West Virginia stimulus site, recovery.wv.gov, is linked from several government sites including the governor's and the main portal, wv.gov. It receives about 3,000 hits a month, Fairhurst said.

It was developed through a partnership between West Virginia and West Virginia Interactive, which was created in 2007 to help state agencies with online services. West Virginia Interactive also developed the state's main site, WV.gov and is working with 20 state agencies to modernize Web sites.

The company also is developing a site for the new Judicial Reform Commission.

A message and picture of Manchin are at the top of the home page with the financial information about how the money is spent below.

A graphic on the home page breaks down how much money is being spent for health, education and transportation, the three major areas, and programs for energy, environmental, housing, workforce and public safety.

Next to the graphic is a map of West Virginia and the 55 counties where information about how stimulus funds will be spent in a county is available by clicking on the county.

For example, by clicking on Wood County, the user finds that $3.273 million will be spent on roads, such as the overpass on Wood County 25. More than $913,000 will spent at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport and the Department of Education is spending $3.3 million on Title 1 grants.

Among other findings and recommendations by the report:

The objective of the Recovery Act is job creation and retention, but only Colorado, Maryland, Washington and West Virginia provide employment data for individual projects on their main stimulus site. Eighteen states do so in highway reporting.
Ten states cite the contractor and dollar amounts.
Put a summary of key information about spending at the top of the home page.
Report on individual projects being funded.
Information on how to apply for funds and contracts should be readily accessible.
Most states are doing an inadequate job in providing stimulus information, according to Greg LeRoy, director of Good Jobs First.

"Many states are failing to support President Obama's vow that the Recovery Act will be carried out with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability," said Good Jobs First Executive Director Greg LeRoy. "By failing to use broadly available web tools, they are making it more difficult to measure the success of the (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) in mitigating the effects of the recession."