If a gold statue of President Barack Obama is built in the middle of Loveland, townsfolk can thank the federal government, the state of Ohio and one clever resident of the Cincinnati suburb.

Electrical engineer Mike Budzynski says in his application for federal stimulus money that his company will employ 12,000 people within a month of receiving the cash.

Budzynski's project likely will catch the attention of those handing out Ohio's share of the federal stimulus money. But it's unlikely that his project will receive a dime.

Gov. Ted Strickland's office unveiled the list of stimulus applications made to the state so far.

The list contains more than 7,700 projects, from the traditional road and sewer projects to the more fanciful, such as Budzynski's. Every county has at least five projects in the mix. The total price tag -- a whopping $48.4 billion -- far outstrips the available assistance.

Villages, cities, townships, nonprofit agencies, private businesses, schools and budding comedians all are competing to catch the governor's eye.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has the most projects -- 607 -- followed by the western Ohio city of Piqua, with 71. More than 350 requests have come from people or entities in Franklin County.

Projects include hiring cops; building roads ($100 million for the Nelsonville bypass); expanding health-care facilities; tearing down a mall ($15 million to demolish Columbus City Center); expanding a mall; expanding a bike/jogging pathway ($2.1 million to finish the Alum Creek Trail); refurbishing historic buildings; building a new animal shelter ($18 million in Franklin County); planting trees; planting windmills; and building schools (New Albany wants $50 million, Gahanna $15 million).

The list includes pleas for help -- senior citizens who can't pay their bills, a single mom struggling to make needed home repairs and a laid-off worker who needs $2,750 to learn a new trade.

It's still too early to know who will get funding and who won't.

State officials are reviewing the details of the federal stimulus bill, said Amanda Wurst, Strickland's spokeswoman. Various state agencies will review the submissions to determine which appear eligible for stimulus funding and provide more information about how to apply for the money, she said.

She said three sources of funding are available to Ohio: the $8.2 billion being allocated by formulas, as well as pools of funding to be awarded by federal entities based on discretion or a competitive review of proposals from state and local governments.

About $5.8 billion of the formula money for Ohio is being used to help balance the state budget, and the bulk of the rest is expected to be allocated using existing funding mechanisms.

"We want these resources used in a defensible way, in a way that is consistent with federal requirements, and we want them to be used as rapidly as possible for projects that are not only going to enable people to go to work, but for projects that will contribute to the long-term benefit of our state," Strickland said last week.

But the benefits of some projects submitted to the governor seem debatable. Among them:

• A wrestling program "to train and display talent of professional wrestlers who have been trained by Ultimate Impact Wrestling trainers We would (teach) each of them the necessary skills of particular holds, wrestling persona, microphone communication. We would need to obtain a building for training and shows as we have currently been using my garage for training and (it is) unheated," wrote a man from Fremont.

• An origami paper-folding company. "With very little overhead, several of our local senior citizens can be taught to fold the delightful Chinese origamis and produce a lovely Web site that will attract women who like little decorations for their homes," a Zanesville woman wrote. She said she would peddle the products on eBay.

• A $1 billion homeland-security project. A Beachwood man wrote that he would drop "explosive ordnance by military to achieve earth and rock penetration of hundreds or perhaps thousands of feet in depth." He provided no explanation of why anyone would want to do that.

• A local "infrastructure" project in College Corner, not far from Miami University in Oxford. Project creator Emmette Boone wrote, "I have a few projects to work on around the Boone household, and as long as Uncle Sugar is passing out money from the paychecks of future generations, I thought why not stick it to those yet unborn suckers, the ones we don't abort first, of course. Oh, you may conclude there might be a couple of planned cost overruns, but you know how those darned government funded projects go." He applied for $20 billion.

• A Reedsville woman is asking for $250,000 for an "authentic Italian restaurant serving the finest homemade Italian food which has been passed down from generation to generation to be called 'A Taste of Italy.'  "

• For a mere $1 million, hotbarspot.com would provide webcams in bars throughout Columbus, with live feeds into expensive hotels to "provide business travelers with up to date information on available entertainment."

And then, of course, there's the Obama statue.

The 45-year-old Budzynski told The Dispatch yesterday that he couldn't resist submitting the proposal. He figured one of two things would happen: He would be arrested or his project deleted.

His application reads: "I plan to build a 120 foot solid gold Statue of Obama in the middle of our town. Everyone can bow down to the great savior and realize that without him and government our lives would have no meaning. I want to make it in gold because I want to show that government spending has no bounds and all of our prayers for free jobs safe from layoff, zero-percent home loans, free gas, and free medical care for every person on Earth.

"I figure this will employ 2,000 artists including a number of redundant people standing around looking busy. It will likely result in 10,000 people keeping their jobs. This number may be revised to 100,000,000 people since there is no real way to determine if a job was saved."

Budzynski said his "project" was born out of frustration with both political parties. "When you look at the amount of money this country owes, I just don't know where it's going to come from," he said yesterday.

He called his fictitious company Cerdo Masivo.

Translation: "massive pork."

You can check out the long list at http://recovery.ohio.gov/docs/02_24_09_Submitted_Requests.xls.

jriepenhoff@dispatch.com

mniquette@dispatch.com