Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Legislators tackle I-84

The WRA (by Paul Hughes) , Courant (by Edmund H. Mahony) and AP (by Susan Haigh) are reporting on the legislative parties' competing news conferences held yesterday. From what I read, I didn't see anyone breaking any news... although that's not to say, they shouldn't be going "on the record" with their concerns... they should.

Nonetheless, the Courant does provide some of the dollar figures quite clearly:

Paid to LG DeFelice construction company: $52million
Paid to MaGuire inspection company: $6million
Estimated cost to repair I-84: $19-27million
Recovered from DeFelice: $1.5million
Recovered from DeFelice insurer: $17.5million
Withheld by Federal Hwy Administration: $5million

What I'm waiting for is a press release from the Deputy House Speaker Mary Fritz (D-Cheshire). I'm wondering about her thoughts on this whole mess and what she feels Maguire and their inspector, William Fritz, could have done differently... or what state legislation could have prevented this debacle. Unfortunately, she hasn't yet posted anything on her official state website (click here).

Tim White

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mary knowing we are watching: PRICELESS

Anonymous said...

Tim
You are trying to create controvery where there is none. You go after vickie and mary and never al. Gee I wonder why?

Anonymous said...

The buck stops with Rell on this one. Korta was a Rowland hack at the DOT and Carpenter has proved to be a dolt in a suit.

Anonymous said...

Boy. The Romans built roads and other structures that lasted. They had no modern equipment etc. I guess the construction genes were not passed on to DeFelice. What's wrong with us today? Greed maybe??

Tim White said...

1:01 Are you suggesting that I'm simply being partisan?

I recently mentioned that I completely agreed with Democratic Sen. Gaffey in his opposition to the reappointment of DOT Commissioner Ralph Carpenter. As well, I mentioned that the Commish needs to go. And as 2:29 points out, I'm pretty sure there's only person who can do that.

As I've said before... if I agree with you, I'll say it. If I disagree with you I'll say it.

In this case, with so many legislators speaking out, I think it makes perfectly good sense for the leadership to share their views on what went wrong and how we can fix it. And as a member of the legislative management committee, I feel that Deputy House Speaker Fritz is part of the leadership in fact, not just in "title."

Anonymous said...

where was Chris Murphy while this was going on....out pretending to live around here in his pit stop to DC?

And Dick Blumenthal is always ready for a press release after things go wrong. Great job putting the screws to the bonding compnay here...not

Anonymous said...

Not being able to trust a local company who was around for many years. Unbelievable. Maybe there was so much in kickbacks that there was not enough money to do the job right.

Anonymous said...

What was Wm Fritz's job? Has he said anything publicly about what happened? Is he still working on the same job?

Tim White said...

according to the Courant, William Fritz is now the 1st Selectman of Clinton.

I believe the Courant described him as the lead inspector for Maguire, but see a recent "transportation" post for links.

Anonymous said...

Nancy Johnson's campaign rented space from Maguire. Was she in on the deal TOO?

Anonymous said...

dunno. no one ever said their office had leaks