Illinois Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin announced a small number of projects coming to Central Illinois as a part of the $1.7 trillion Fiscal Year 2023 omnibus appropriations bill.
A total of $182 million is being direct by Congress to come to the State of Illinois alone.
Included in the bill is the renovation of the LaGrange Lock & Dam near Beardstown. $49.3 million is going to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete design on the modernization of the LaGrange Lock on the Illinois River as part of the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program. The program seeks to expand and modernize seven locks at the most congested lock locations along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and fund $1.7 billion in ecosystem restoration.
The bill also includes $1 million to the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield to create a new Institute for Rural Health.
There are also a number of projects that were funded in the cities of Springfield and Quincy through the omnibus bill.
The U.S. Senate also included a Pike County initiative in the recent passage of the FY23 Omnibus Appropriations Act.
The New Philadelphia National Historical Park Act will designate the original town site of New Philadelphia, Illinois, as a National Historical Park. New Philadelphia, now incorporated into Barry, Illinois, in Pike County, was the first town platted and legally registered by an African American, “Free” Frank McWorter. Founded in 1836, New Philadelphia’s population peaked in 1865 as home to 29 households and 160 people. By 1885, New Philadelphia lost its legal status as a town because of population decline as a result of the railroad bypassing the town. New Philadelphia was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 2009.
By becoming a National Historical Park, the site will be able to seek federal grants and funds each year for maintenance through the National Park System under the U.S. Department of Conservation.