Now that we've got the stimulus, what to do with the money?

Unraveling a $787 billion federal stimulus bill can be a complicated, confusing and competitive business, local officials in South Hampton Roads are learning.

"Each week and day it's evolved - our understanding of how it works," said Ron Williams, a special assistant to the Norfolk city manager.

City staffs have formed stimulus work groups and scoured Web sites for potential grants. School systems have heard how much they'll get but not how they can spend it. Housing authorities have dialed into conference calls with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development only to find the federal agency is still seeking guidance itself.

At the waiting end are people eager to see the results, especially those awaiting the jobs the bill was intended to create. To them, the process may appear especially confusing, said Mary Ann Saunders, assistant to the Chesapeake city manager.

"They think we're getting one check," she said. "It's really coming from a lot of different places."

Saunders said she has spent hours over the past month combing federal and state Web sites dedicated to the stimulus, staying in touch with national associations, and going back and forth with legislative aides about deadlines. City department heads are hearing about grant opportunities daily.

"I think this is going to go on for months," she said.

Norfolk got a jump on some localities by convening its stimulus work group five days before Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The group, with representatives of 17 departments, meets weekly to dissect the spending package and its evolving rules.

"We needed to be prepared, to have some analysis so we could gain a sense of what is in the legislation," Williams said.

The Suffolk City Council passed a resolution March 4 authorizing its city manager "to do all things necessary" to apply for money. Staff members will hold their first stimulus work group this week but have been staying on top of developments, said Sherry Hunt, the city's chief of staff.

"A great deal is still very unclear, and we're trying to just filter through the information as best we can to understand it," Hunt said.

Cities have some sense of what they will get because a large portion of Virginia's $4.8 billion direct stimulus money is to be doled out based on noncompetitive formulas for existing programs.

For example, housing authorities will get money to renovate buildings based on how many public housing units they have, said Clarissa McAdoo, executive director of the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. That will mean $956,244 for Suffolk, or enough to rehabilitate 121 of its 466 units, she said. She didn't yet know how many jobs the work will create but estimated it will begin by the end of summer. Sixty percent of the funds must be spent within two years, and all of it in three.

The region will get $41.4 million in transportation money through the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization. The agency's board will meet Wednesday and decide whether to divide the pot among its 13 member communities based on population, as proposed by a subcommittee.

That would give Chesapeake about $5.3 million. The city plans to use it to pave roads.

"I'm not sure how that provides jobs," City Councilwoman Debbie Ritter said. "But that's OK. It's work that we need done."

Some school systems have seen estimates ranging from $12.9 million for Suffolk to $28.1 million for Virginia Beach. But the strings attached to the money are largely unknown.

"It's hard to determine what your budget will be when you know the amount you're going to get, but you don't know how you're going to be able to spend it," said Chesapeake school spokesman Tom Cupitt.

Portsmouth expects to get nearly $21 million over the next two years for its schools. Of that, about $9 million must be spent on Title I and special-education programs, said Superintendent David Stuckwisch. Currently, the city's school officials plan to put the $12 million into their operating budget, with about half of that - $5.87 million - going toward next year's expenses.

"The money is coming out faster than the regulations," Stuckwisch said.

Outside of the formula-based funding, cities will compete for stimulus money beyond the $4.8 billion designated for Virginia. Norfolk, for instance, plans to apply for dozens of grants, for things such as parks construction, hiring police officers and updating heating and air conditioning systems in city buildings.

It will be several months before Norfolk knows exactly how much it will receive and how that money can be spent, said Williams, the city manager's special assistant.

Pilot writers Aaron Applegate, Hattie Brown Garrow, Jen McCaffery, Debbie Messina, Cheryl Ross, Lauren Roth and Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer contributed to this report.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com

Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com