Fort Trumbull Water Main To be replaced

The water main replacement at Fort Trumbull is well underway. This week city and state employees began the large project of laying the initial drainage pipe. The drainage pipe will be necessary because the 100 year old original water pipe is buried an estimated 16 feet underground.

The pipe featured in the picture above will be pumping out water as the workers dig deep and in sections to lay new pipe as they remove old pipe. This project also has to occur without interruption of service to the local area residents of which the workers on the street have said they are certain will not happen.

Most of the local residents, including the one small Italian owned business in the area said they are not particularly happy about the disruption in traffic and the noise commotion caused by the workers, but understand that the improvements are needed. All local residents at Fort Trumbull are in fact unanimous about one thing, and that is they will be excited when the project is complete and their street is back to normal.

Milford Schools Undergo Summer Upgrades

With the school year ended and summer rolling in the Milford school system has taken no time off. As the students rolled out the contractors rolled in, fixing everything from leaky roofs, to floor replacements to computer and computer room upgrades.

Emergency lighting at Foran High School is scheduled for and upgrade, making that school compliant as an emergency shelter in the event of a crisis. The lighting is also ecofriendly and is expected to use less energy.

The task is all part of Supt. Polanski's mission to keep Milford schools growing to a first class institution a job that he recently took on and perilously sailed through some difficult tests of budgetary restraints. Polanski's budget was challenged by local Alderman in a melee of hard questioning, and local parents retaliated with over 2000 signatures on a petition to reinstate the money that the Alderman cut. Polanski emerged with as good of a victory as one could expect, no teachers layed off and the city lost one of its three trash pick up days to fund the schools.

Polanski was recently praised by the Board of Education last Monday night when members released a statement calling him a compassionate and decisive leader who brought needed changes to the district.

This fall the construction will be hopefully complete, and when it is, next years students will enjoy the many improvements that I believe are moving Milford in the right direction of building a solid foundation, and a better learning environment to secure their place in the future.

Laborers' Local 665 Takes Issue With Turner Construction

At about 8:00 A.M. this morning a bus and a contingent of about 100 union workers arrived at the Turner Construction Milford H.Q. on Wheelers farms road. The peaceful protest took place on the sidewalk adjacent to the street as indicated in the photo.

I asked Joseph Ambrosini what the nature of the protest was, and he was kind enough to have his associate provide me with a document titled the "Turner Construction Campaign Fact Sheet" dated 2/2/08. According to that fact sheet, one of the issues the Laborers' Local has with Turner Construction is its policies. To quote the document verbatim it states: "Unfortunately, Turner Construction has consistently been hiring construction sub-contractors which have hired undocumented workers, failed to pay the state of Connecticut for workman compensation dues, failed to follow and pay prevailing wage standards along with other various policies that are bad for Connecticut taxpayers and threaten the safety of projects throughout the state."

Another reason for their "open air" protest was to engage in a "public advocacy" and awareness campaign to inform businesses, the public, political and community leaders as to the alleged undocumented worker problems sanctioned by Turner Construction. At the time of my arrival between 8:30 and 11:30 it appeared that no other local public persons expressed any interest or participation, besides myself.

To get both sides of this story, I contacted the Milford Turner Construction office for comment, I spoke to the receptionist who answered the phone who had no comment other than to refer me to Chris McFadden at their N.Y. office. I contacted Chris for his comments on these labor issues he did eventually return my call at about 1:00 P.M. today in response to the allegations made against them.

McFadden started off by stating that "Turner complies with all laws pertaining to labor, state and federal taxation. He acknowledges that there has been an ongoing issue between Turner and its unions since January of this year citing previous state inquiries. Turner indicated that the dispute was likely due to the fact that a "Collective Bargaining Agreement" has not been signed and this was likely upsetting the union workers."

Mcfadden also said "that on every work site 90% of all workers are union members except in cases where they are acting as a consultant for their clients who often want to use their own sub-contractors for projects. Turner indicated that they have a strict policy of compliance and whenever they discover violations by their subcontractors they immediately demand they become compliant with all laws and company policies. However, he also mentioned that Turner cannot police every subcontractor as effectively as they would like. In such cases they rely on the advice and reports of other union workers who are free to contact their H.Q. with any job site concerns. In summary McFadden is of the opinion that Turner construction has done everything in its power to comply with the stated issues and concerns of their unions."

As a special note I would like to add that the people who attended the protest were receptive, very kind, knew the prevailing issues really well and spoke with humble concern and sadness for the middle class in America. They also provided an atmosphere likened to kindred family unity in support of one another. I thank all those there this morning for their hospitality, and offerings and wish them the best of luck in resolving their differences with Turner.

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Correction From:

"However, he also mentioned that Turner cannot police every subcontractor as effectively as they would like."

To:

"We work very closely with our clients and the contractors working on our projects to ensure compliance with all labor laws. Turner is compliant with all labor laws. The contractors with all labor laws as well."

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