BY JERRY F. RUTLEDGE
Staff Writer

A line item in a U.S. House appropriations bill could send $250,000 to help Phenix City redevelop its riverfront along the Chattahoochee River.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, who represents Russell, Lee and Macon counties in Alabama's 3rd Congressional District, said the House Appropriations Committee included the funding earlier this week in the Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill for fiscal 2007. Local matching funds will be needed if the project remains in the final version of the bill later this year.

"I am thrilled to have secured this funding for Phenix City and hope the House will continue to support this important project," Rogers said in a statement. "We are still very early in the process and tight budgetary constraints could affect the final funding level. However, I am certainly encouraged at this point and will work with my colleagues in the Alabama delegation to do all I can to ensure the project moves forward."

Phenix City is pressing steadily forward with its Downtown/Riverfront District Plan, a $273.5 million project that stretches over 141 acres from just south of the Dillingham Street Bridge north to the Riverview Courts Apartments near the 14th Street Pedestrian Bridge.

The plan includes turning Riverview into a multi-use area with apartments, condominiums, offices and retail. Another section of Riverview -- The Triangle -- would be redeveloped to house a satellite campus of Troy University Phenix City. A streetscapes project designed to transform busy Broad Street into a true downtown -- a more pedestrian-friendly, commercial/residential street -- is also part of the plan.

Phenix City Mayor Jeff Hardin said Rogers met with the City Council early in the appropriations process and asked how he could help with the redevelopment project. The city presented its long list of projects associated with the redevelopment and requested $1 million. The $250,000 appropriation is the result of that request.

"Money is very tight in Washington these days, with the hurricane relief and reconstruction and other things," Hardin said. "We know the appropriation still has a way to go in Congress, but Phenix City is very appreciative of what Congressman Rogers has done to help us get this money in the appropriations bill."

City Manager Bubba Roberts said acquiring key pieces of property in the downtown/riverfront area, putting power lines underground and changes in the storm sewers in downtown are other areas in which the money could be used.

The next step for the bill is passage by the full House, which Rogers believes could happen in the next week. If it passes the House, the bill will go to the U.S. Senate and then to a House-Senate conference committee, if the Senate bill differs from the House version.

Once the money passes through Congress, it must go through a state agency before eventually reaching the city. The Alabama Department of Community Affairs would likely be the state agency to disburse the funds.