Thanks for the memories, federal stimulus.

Government and educational leaders from around the city stepped up to the microphone at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Stimulus Oversight Commission Thursday to sing the praises of the stimulus dollars pumped into their institutions over the past year. They also said goodbye.

Money from the $787 billion stimulus package approved in February 2009 dries up next year. The University of Pittsburgh got $23.65 million in stimulus funds, including $7.5 million in the 2010-11 fiscal year. When that money -- which Pitt largely pumps into a research funding -- goes away, "we face a tough year," vice chancellor Paul Supowitz told the state panel, which met at the school's William Pitt Union.

Pitt is still doing OK -- it secured $730 million in total research funds this year from various sources and received the fifth highest amount of National Institutes of Health funding of any university nationwide in fiscal 2008. The impact will be greater on institutions with less wiggle room, such as the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Research shows much of the academic achievement gap between low- and high-income youth is tied to summer learning options, and kids without summer activities can lose up to two months of academic progress before the school year starts. To address that, the city district started an all-day, free camp for middle schoolers this year called the Summer Dreamers Academy, which boosted summer program registration from 800 to 2,300 students.

The camp, which is budgeted to cost $4 million to $5 million annually, is scheduled to shut down after next summer when the stimulus funding ends, said Cate Reed, the district's project coordinator for strategic initiatives.

The Port Authority used $62.5 million in stimulus funds to help its $528.7 million North Shore Connector tunnel project, the agency's CEO Steve Bland said, using the money for work on trolley tracks, "station finishes" such as escalators and elevators, and other construction needs. The federal money "came at an absolutely crucial time," Mr. Bland told the oversight panel.

"There was a very real risk that the project could have been sealed and deferred," he said.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Deputy District Engineer Lenna Hawkins said $64 million in stimulus funds were going into the long-delayed replacement of the locks at Charleroi, where one lock is operating that is 80 years old, though the life of a lock is usually 50 years. "There is a great deal of risk at this facility," she said.

The state Stimulus Oversight Commission meets every few months to monitor spending. It usually meets in Harrisburg but has lately called meetings outside the Capitol to review regional stimulus projects -- its last session in April was in Allentown. Panel members toured the tunnel project, the Fort Duquesne Bridge and a weatherized home in Perry South on Wednesday.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.