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Every police vehicle in the Steamboat Springs Department of Public Safety will get computers for the first time. Routt County and Steamboat Springs will get a new computerized communications system. Hundreds of homes in Routt County and the surrounding area will get free weatherization work that will reduce energy bills by up to 25 percent.

These are just part of a long list of ways in which the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is helping Routt County and Northwest Colorado. Since President Barack Obama signed the Recovery Act into law in Denver in February, every community in Colorado has benefited from these investments. And that certainly includes Steamboat Springs and neighboring towns.

The Recovery Act is a steady two-year plan that is helping to strengthen America's - and Colorado's - economy. The law directs $787 billion into local communities through tax cuts, increased safety net services, infrastructure projects and investments in growth industries, like high-speed Internet, health care information technology and the New Energy Economy.

Colorado expects to receive at least $5.5 billion from the Recovery Act. Roughly $60 million has been allocated so far to Northwest Colorado, including Routt, Moffat, Grand, Jackson, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties. Those dollars are being distributed across a number of areas, including education, highways, work force training and unemployment benefits, energy efficiency, housing, health care, law enforcement and federal parks and lands. In the seven months since the law was enacted, thousands of jobs have been created or retained across the state. Here are some more examples of local impact:

- More than $5 million is helping to keep teachers in the classroom across K-12 schools in the six-county northwest region.

- Colorado Northwest Community College is using $600,000 to maintain education programs and improve the campuses.

- The Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association will be able to hire a new nurse practitioner, a new medical assistant and extra hours for Spanish interpreters.

- Thousands of working families have been bringing home more in their paychecks because of the Making Work Pay tax cuts.

- Thousands of people are getting higher unemployment and food stamp benefits.

- The Northwest Colorado Council of Governments has hired new employees to help ramp up weatherization services to hundreds of homes in the region.

- The Steamboat Springs Department of Public Safety will be able to hire a new police officer for three years.

- The Routt National Forest will use $5 million to hire contractors to remove beetle-killed trees.

- Dinosaur National Monument will use $13.1 million to construct a new Quarry Visitor Center to replace the original center that was closed a few years ago because of unsafe conditions.

While the Recovery Act is not without its critics, all of the benefits listed above would be erased - with needs kept on the backburner - had these funds not been available.

Colorado's economy and ability to help struggling families would have been crippled without this federal aid. Given the depth and duration of this recession, state government's ability to provide services has suffered, and it would be much worse without the Recovery Act.

We would have been forced to shut down the Children's Health Plan Plus program, which serves nearly 65,000 pregnant women and children statewide. Without the Recovery Act, the state would have been forced to cut thousands of people from Medicaid and reduce benefits for thousands more. Without the Recovery Act, the state would have had to make drastic cuts to education programs from pre-school to college, including the possible closure of colleges and teacher layoffs.

Congress passed the Recovery Act in response to an unprecedented economic downturn. It's helping to solve the most severe economic problems in 75 years, providing a responsible balance of relief and investment across Colorado and America.