Yuba County gets $109 million in stimulus funds – with strings

Though they haven't quite curbed unemployment as much as backers might have hoped, federal stimulus dollars are still flowing into the Yuba-Sutter region, with updated figures shown on the state website tracking such expenditures, www.recovery.ca.gov.

Through the first quarter of this year, Yuba County received more than $109 million, though the list comes with some caveats.

For example, more than half the money the county received, $68.7 million, is listed under "transportation," but some of those amounts are listed with Yuba County because the Caltrans district office is in Marysville, even though the actual projects Caltrans accomplished with the funding may have been elsewhere in the district.

The largest single amounts directed to the area are $10 million to the Linda County Water District, for a new water treatment plant, and $12.06 million to United Excel, a government contractor doing unspecified work out of Beale Air Force Base.

Headquartered in Kansas, United Excel's website describes the company as specializing in designing and building health care centers, more recently for military bases.

Sutter County has received $43.9 million through March of this year in federal stimulus dollars, with the most, $14.8 million, going to water and environmental uses.

The total for Sutter in that category is inflated by the single largest expenditure, $10 million to Live Oak for a wastewater treatment plan.

Second highest for Sutter County was education, with $13.6 million.

Colusa County has received $5.2 million.