BL Companies lays off 25, proposes on Town project

BL Companies in Meriden laid off 25 people. BL may be unknown to many of you. At least I had never heard of them until recently when they responded to the town's RFP for a building infrastructure review... a review that got proposals with price tags in the six figures.

Btw, that review came up at the Energy Commission on Monday night. And though this review had been billed (to some degree) as an alternative to a townwide energy audit... when discussed by the EC... the energy component of the RFP was believed to be less in scope than a comprehensive energy audit. So I'm not happy about that because I got the sense that this infrastructure review was supposed to include a comprehensive energy audit. And not that the town needs to do everything right now... but why the lack of communication? I mean, what's the point of having the Energy Commission if they're not in the loop on energy issues?

If we're going to discuss energy issues, particularly townwide energy issues, then the EC ought to be part of the process.

The lack of communication is ridiculous. And in fairness, I'll point out that the EC didn't meet for the past two months (they never meet in December). But they first discussed the infrastructure RFP (probably) last spring or summer. So if the RFPs energy component was not a last minute addition, then there was plenty of time to get it on the ECs agenda.

Alternatively, I suspect it was a last minute addition... which is not necessarily bad. But it would raise the question... why the poor planning? And who's responsible for the poor planning?

I'm so tired of this Council's complete incompetence at the confluence of energy and engineering.

Tim White