By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- A $1.3 million grant that came Durham's way from the federal economic stimulus bill so far has helped underwrite 214 short-term jobs for teens, laid-off workers and others affected by the recession, city officials say.

By far the largest number of those jobs, 156, came in a summer youth-employment effort that's designed to help teens and people in their early 20s gain experience, a track record and references they can later capitalize on when seeking other employment.

Many of the jobs wound down as participants went back to school, but some will last through the end of March, said Nick McCoy, senior workforce development manager in Durham's Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Local governments, nonprofits and private business all served up temporary opportunities. Participants in the youth program received an average of $8 an hour in pay.

The 156 jobs were in addition to 54 others through the mayor's summer youth program that the city normally funds each year, McCoy said.

McCoy and other officials briefed elected officials on the effort last Thursday, as part of an ongoing attempt to keep the City Council informed about the city government's handling of stimulus funding.

To date, the feds have promised the city nearly $14.5 million in so-called "formula" funding through the stimulus bill.

The formula designation means it's being passed out through existing programs that use population and other factors to see that medium-sized and large cities get at least some of the money.

Durham's largest formula grants have been for road construction and transit programs. It has also received money to pay for energy-efficiency renovations, to support police operations and to underwrite job-training programs like those McCoy's office operates.

Officials estimate that a $4.3 million grant to the Durham Area Transit Authority has helped save nearly 29 jobs at the bus system by helping plug its ongoing operating deficit.

Without the money, the city would have had to consider cutting the system's fiscal 2009-10 budget, administrators have said.

But Durham hasn't fared nearly as well in the quest for money from programs that use competitive application processes that pit it against other communities.

It has landed nearly $1.2 million in competition-derived grants, the largest being a $724,497 award to the Police Department that officials intend to use to combat Durham's drug trade.

The police money will help pay for computer equipment and the salary of an intelligence analyst, underwrite the creation of a Spanish-language tip line and provide funds to pay informants, officials say.

But on the flip side, city applications totaling roughly $46 million to subsidize water and sewer repairs got turned down, thanks in part to state government rules that favored channeling the money to towns with fewer resources or bigger problems.

The Police Department also missed out on about $5.9 million in grant applications that would have supported 35 jobs and provided funds for training, equipment and other needs.

Still pending are two big aid requests, one for $31.2 million that would help pay for the redevelopment of the Rolling Hills and Southside neighborhoods, the other a $68.7 million application for money to support streetscape repairs in the Fayetteville Street corridor and four other commercial districts.

In each case, applications have gone in and officials are now waiting to see what the feds say.

Federal officials are monitoring how the city uses the money it's received so far. Representatives of the Washington-based Government Accountability Office showed up in Durham on Oct. 7, talking during their visit with assorted members of City Manager Tom Bonfield's staff and receiving copies of a number of documents.

The GAO has been tracking how states and cities are using federal stimulus money and has already issued one major report on the issue. That came out in September and followed similar meetings with state and local leaders in other parts of the country.

Bonfield said GAO representatives have "been to quite a few different cities in North Carolina," and added that he'd heard their opinions about what they'd seen here were "all very positive."