Congresswoman Maxine Waters secured $7 million this year for projects in her district, which includes South Central Los Angeles and Inglewood, she announced in February.

“In this time of economic hardship, I know how important it is to invest in our communities and this funding will go a long way for the citizens of the 35th district,” she said.

Projects to benefit from the funding include Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn’s computer aided dispatch system, which will help speed up emergency services in the city by dispatching them through computer. About $423,000 will go to the project. Also, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will get about $344,000 for the Ballona Creek Watershed project, which will involve preventing pollution from storm water drain off.

Other disbursements will go out to the Frank R. Seaver Science Center for $1,000,000; Los Angeles Southwest College Transit Center for $400,000; El Camino College Improvement Initiative for $195,000; The African American Male Achievers Network’s Science Technology Engineering training program for $39,000.

“I have worked for many months with community leaders from Inglewood, Westchester, Gardena, Hawthorne and Los Angeles to make sure funding was directed to where it was needed the most,” Waters said.

“President Bush has been threatening to withhold this much-needed funding from our community in a misguided attempt to take spending authority away from Congress. But my colleagues and I have successfully pressured [him] to agree to release funding for [fiscal year] 2008 appropriations earmarks, instead of carrying out his threat to withhold the funds.

“I worked with leaders of Congress to make sure that the highest level of scrutiny was given each project funded this year and am confident that this money will be put to good use in our community. I am pleased with the progress we are making in improving the lives of our residents and I will continue to work to ensure that we have all possible resources available to continue this progress.”

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