EDC Worries About Losing Federal Funding For Parking Garage

With a new Republican-controlled House in Washington, assurances that money promised by the federal government to build a parking garage in Middletown may be hollow.

"Congressional Republicans are eliminating orphan earmarks," town planner Bill Warner said. "You can imagine the millions they would recover."

The monies for the parking garage, distributed between Federal Transit funds, DOT grants and federal highway dollars,  once amounted to nearly $18 million.  But some of that money has been spent, and some of it has eroded away due to missed deadlines.  However, Senator Joseph Lieberman's office
introduced legislation to protect some of the remaining dollars.

"Even though we have congressional language protecting or money," Warner said.  "Congress can undo that."

When newly-appointed Committee member Dan Drew tried to get clarification on just how much money was left, he was never able to get a clear answer.

"We've been to Washington and spoken with the feds," Warner said.  "We can't get a straight answer."

Warner, in his discussion said that there was somewhere between $4 million and $6.9 million in highway money remaining.

Warner urged the EDC to take action to demonstrate to Washington that progress was being made on plans for a parking garage so that Lieberman could make the case that the promised dollars were not "orphan earmarks."

The prospective project is currently at a standstill as a service life assessment is made of the current parking arcade on Dingwall Drive.  The assessment is being conducted to help city leaders decide whether a garage should be built where the current arcade stands, or on the site of the Melilli Plaza parking lot.

"My biggest concern is that we are not going to get our act together in time to capture that money," EDC chair Gerry Daley said.  "I've seen the language in that bill, and it doesn't give me any assurances."

Daley noted that the debate about the parking garage site began when new parking director Tom Hartley argued that the proper location for the garage ought to be the Melilli site.

"Personally, I think it's unfortunate that the whole idea of moving it to Melilli came up," Daley said.

The EDC urged Warner to speak with the mayor, and with the parking director to urge haste in making progress toward creating a contract for the new garage.