Economic stimulus money will be giving the communities in the Arkansas Valley a big boost this summer. Nearly a million dollars is already planned to be put to good use funding four watershed projects in Southern Colorado.

The biggest project uses more than $800,000. It's designed to update and enhance irrigation in Otero and Pueblo counties. The plan is to lay irrigation pipe which will save farmers time, reduce water use, and increase crops. Now that the contracts have been signed, farmers can't wait to get started.

"As soon as they get the okay to go, they want to go and do it, but we will be looking at installations starting at mid June all the way through probably October, November," says District Conservationist Dave Miller, for the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).

Not only will communities in the Arkansas Valley see big savings from these projects, but there will be a big boost to the economy for building them as well; farmers will be purchasing most, if not all of the materials locally to get the jobs done.

The NRCS says, half of the nearly one million dollars has to be assigned by June 15. But ranchers say why wait, all of the money should be gone by the June 10.