One of Connecticut’s leading labor councils claims East Hartford is mismanaging $3.6 million in federal funds to build the Brewer Street firehouse, a project it says doesn’t put local companies and minorities to work.
The town bonded an additional $2.5 million to erect the firehouse and companion fire-apparatus repair facility, both to be completed in September 2011.
“East Hartford Mayor Melody Currey and various local and state officials have done nothing to assure that our local economy gets a boost from these federal economic stimulus dollars,” Connecticut Labor Council Business Manager Charles LeConche said in a statement Friday after he and fellow council officials toured the site.
“Now that all of the VIP visits from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Congressman Larson and others to this new jobsite are over, let’s take a hard look how these stimulus dollars will really affect our local economy.”
LeConche accused Currey and Larson of grand standing at the Aug. 16 groundbreaking for the project, but failing to follow through to insist that the contractor hire local firms and workers.
Reached Friday, Currey said she is a longtime union supporter. She e-mailed HBJ Today a copy of a Sept. 21 letter from the Greater Hartford-New Britain Building and Construction Trades Council of the state AFL-CIO praising her support for a project labor agreement committing to using local union workers to build the $6.1 million facility.
The mayor also said the project employs local minority workers.
Larson’s office did not have an immediate comment.
Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. in Baltimore did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
