Shovels Were Ready, State Wasn't: A Stimulating Tale, Part 1

Mayor Sebastian Giuliano was blunt in his early assessment of federal stimulus funds.

"At an early meeting I told them, 'Send money directly to the project, to the municipality, not to the state because it's not going to go as far, or as fast.'"

Today, Giuliano looks absolutely prescient in his cynicism.

Last year about this time, the federal government was soliciting projects as potential targets for stimulus funds. The feds demanded that those projects be "shovel-ready," or able to be initiated in four months or less.

"We had several projects that were ready to go," Giuliano said.  "I just told them that I hoped it wasn't going to be a Catch-22.  That you won't give us the money because it was a project we already planned on, and had bonded for.  I wouldn't be able to get a project underway in four months unless we had planned on it, and it was already bonded."

Money for a project on the books

And that's how Middletown became a recipient of stimulus funds for a project that would have been completed with or without stimulus money - a major repaving project on Industrial Park Road, between the entrance to Aetna and route 372.

The only hitch?  The State of Connecticut inserted itself between the federal government with their stimulus funds, and the cities that needed the work done.

So, a year later, Middletown has received the paperwork to accept the money, and if the Common Council approves the receipt of those funds at their next meeting, work may get underway in April or May - a year, and a few months after the stimulus was supposed to be applied.

In 2005 the Industrial Park Road project was one of many approved for bonding.  The money was available, and the city expected to pay in the range of $800,000 to get the job done.


Lists and more lists

But in December 2008, the city's Economic Development Committee, and the mayor began assembling projects which could be considered.  On December 29, Mayor Sebastian Giuliano sent Governor Jodi Rell a list of Middletown projects which appeared to fit the stimulus criteria.  Among the items on the list was the Industrial Park Road project, bundled with other road improvements on Westlake Drive, Westfield Street and Nejako Drive, estimated as a $2.5 million project that would create 75 jobs.  Interestingly, improvements at the Melilli Plaza parking lot were also on that list, estimated at $500,000.

Those projects remained on Giuliano's list in March 2009, and also made Rell's wish list, though it was not on the Connecticut Conference of Mayor's list.

Fast-forward many months, and Governor Rell distributed the tasks of evaluating projects and allocating American Resource and Recovery Act (ARRA) dollars to various state departments aligned with the appropriate entities and projects.  The Department of Transportation was tapped to distribute $468,526,469 in ARRA funds, with the Midstate Regional Planning Agency (Middletown, Cromwell, Portland, Haddam, East Haddam, East Hampton, Middlefield and Durham) receiving $2,135,706 to distribute to projects in member towns.  In total, $90.6 million was distributed regionally across the state.

Here's your money, we'll take some

Midstate Regional Planning decided to distribute money based on population and number of miles of roadway, and therefore, Middletown received the lion's share of the funding.  Midstate Regional Planning and the Department of Transportation approved the re-surfacing of Industrial Park Road at a cost of $1.2 million, though because of the limited funding, only $1,043,000 was made available to Middletown for the project.

With still another hitch.

The state was deducting a total of $90,615 for materials testing ($25, 985), administrative oversight ($60,630), and audits ($4,000).

"There a certain percentage set aside on all projects for incidentals, and another percentage for contingencies,"  according to Phil Scarrozzo, Connecticut Department of Transportation Accountability Officer.  "Incidentals consist of things like testing and auditing, and contingencies are set aside on any construction project.  For example, if you dug into a road and found toxic waste, it would have to be remediated, and the contingency would take care of that."

The DOT sets aside 25% for incidentals, and 10% for contingencies.

"The good thing about the contingencies," Scarrozzo said.  "Is that if they aren't used, they can be turned back for other new or existing projects.  We have until September 30 to reallocate funds."

So far approximately 15 regional projects have gotten underway, but the DOT is anticipating another 85 to come on line within the next year.

"Seventy of those jobs will be hitting the streets in the Spring," Scarrozzo said.  "So we'll be anticipating a booming year.  Normally our department handles twenty jobs a year, and this year we'll see 100."

Looking for Common Council approval

In Middletown, Department of Public Works director Bill Russo, and Bob Dobmeier, Deputy Director anticipate a quick request for bids on the Industrial Park Road project if the money is approved by the Common Council at their February meeting.

"We'll bid it in a month," Dobmeier said.  "And in the winter, the bidding is in our favor."

You can track state stimulus projects here.   To track the $16 million in federal stimulus dollars that have been distributed in our zip code, go here.  Of note in the federal report, $90k has gone to an out-of-state company, the Louis Berger Group assisting the Army in the Army Reserve Training Center doing something which is difficult to understand, given the description provided at the site.  Wesleyan University has received $1,405,881 for genome, black hole, amphibian bodywall patterning, vertebrate telomere DNA, nicotine and beta lactamases research.  According to the Federal site, a total of 6.07 jobs have been created for the $16 million invested.

TOMORROW: A Stimulating Tale, Part 2: From the Refrigerator to the Front Burner