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Niles council votes to buy American with stimulus money
TweetThe Buy American vote is not protectionism, but a way to create jobs and get mills going, a UAW member said.
BY JORDAN COHEN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NILES — With a wish list of stimulus projects totaling $37 million, council has voted to purchase American-made goods and services, should it be awarded federal stimulus dollars.
President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion recovery package into law Tuesday.
The city has a list of seven projects that it has submitted for consideration, the largest being $30 million for a new waste treatment facility. Among the other projects are $2 million for the Fairlawn Avenue Sanitary Detention Basin, $2.2 million for rehabilitation of state Route 46 and $840,000 for the Niles Trumbull Transit System.
Council on Wednesday committed itself by unanimous vote to “purchasing only products and services that are made or performed in the United States” with economic recovery money, however it included the phrase “whenever and wherever possible” in its resolution.
“Some people think this is protectionism, but it’s not,” said Robert Faith, a member of United Steelworkers Local 2155 who encouraged the Buy American vote. “This will help create jobs and get steel mills going.”
Mark Hess, grants and development coordinator, estimated that the seven projects would employ 185 persons, but that all of them would likely be current city employees.
“These projects will basically deal with construction, engineering, material manufacture and supply jobs,” Hess said. “I don’t believe we would be adding jobs at this point.”
Other council items:
UMayor Ralph Infante released the year-end report of the Niles Trumbull Transit System stating the public transit service finished 2008 within its $1.1 million budget and expects “to stay in the black” this year despite a projected budget increase of $1.5 million. The mayor said the additional funds would be covered by the federal government and agreements with other agencies.
UCouncil also approved an “add-on” fee to be imposed through its collection agency on property owners who are delinquent with utility payments. The agency, RBC, Inc., Columbus, would impose a 45 percent fee for debts that are the subject of litigation and a 30 percent fee on delinquencies not involved in any legal action.
Comments
37 Million Dollars - 7 Projects - 185 persons employed to complete the projects - AND NOT ONE NEW JOB CREATED! Doesn't sound like Niles gets the message - this is not a welfare package, it's a stimulus package, it's supposed to create new jobs and put people back to work. It is not a reward for political patronage nor is it a way to potentially raise the wages of existing employees.
Pumping and dumping counterfeit money out of thin air. When will this circus, this mysterious chance process, EVER end?
New construction projects ARE job creation projects. Contractors put on new employees when they get big contracts.
PLUS, the stimulus projects HAVE to be infrastructure and public services projects that are ready to go out to bid within 60 days, meaning things that are already engineered and ready to bid.
The stimulus projects CAN'T be bribes to existing companies to hire new employees, or for creation or expansion of new employers.
The infrastructure in this country is in such poor shape, it wouldn't make sense for Pres. Obama to through money at some of the half-baked job creation schemes that have come around in the last decade while our infrastructure continues to decay.
So,no offense, but get your facts straight before you make critical and demeaning statements about what some communities are trying to do to create and preserve jobs.
Union steelworkers to build the frames. Union laborers, Union masons to do the dirt and brick work...All big $ wages = small quantity of people working. This Stimulus Package should be spread out more evenly to get more,(non-union), people decent paying jobs.
A simple freeze of capital gains tax on small business would have had a much greater effect on LONG TERM job creation than this joke of a bill will have. Even IF this does create jobs-they will be short term ones at best, than it's back to the unemployment line.
I have mixed emotions about the "Buy American" type program. It will eliminate -to a point- fair trade and increase project costs yet it will give security to the steelworkers to be able to work an extra week or two to fill the orders for these small projects.
Creating government jobs is pure socialism pure and simple.
I agree that this stimulus package is not completely wonderful, but the economy is in need and so is the infrastructure.
If construction can get going again, then other jobs will follow. That's why new construction starts is one of the best indicators of economic health. Construction pays well and the money that the workers make goes into the economy through the stores, the banks, the restaurants, etc.
Although not everyone likes jobs where you get dirty, those jobs drive the economy.