Biden, Dodd, Himes Champion Repair of Merritt Parkway With Federal Recovery Funds
FAIRFIELD — With an excavator and bulldozer behind him as backdrop, Vice President Joe Biden on Monday said federal recovery funds are doing more than helping cover the cost of reconstructing portions of the Merritt Parkway. Joined by Sen. Christopher Dodd and Fourth District Rep. Jim Himes in a park-and-ride lot at exit 46 of the parkway, Biden said the funds are also rebuilding the country’s economy and its future.
About 300 people attended the mid-afternoon event, which also drew about a dozen anti-Dodd protesters.
Beside repairing infrastructure, Biden said, “We’re reinvesting in getting people off their knees, back to work, but also toward something — a more resilient, a transformative economy.”
Biden said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also has saved the jobs of 2,500 educators in Connecticut who would have been laid off in September. The recovery act, said Biden, is more than about jobs, “it’s about staying competitive in the 21st century, so we can lead the world in the 21st century, as we did in the 20th.”
Overall, Biden said, the U.S. Department of Transportation has made available $48.1 billion for transportation projects nationwide.
Himes said the most important thing we must focus on is getting America back to work.
“There’s no better social program in the United States of America,” said Himes, “than a good-paying job.”
Dodd said the American dream lives on in Connecticut because we still know how to build things, and have a skilled and competent workforce.
He said funds from the federal recovery act have saved 41,000 jobs in Connecticut, and the state, he said, is poised to receive another $1.6 billion in direct aid, and an additional $1.3 billion in Medicaid assistance, “thanks to Congress and the Obama administration.” These funds, he said, are going to make Connecticut’s roads safer, more environmentally friendly, easier to drive on and less congested. “We’re going to rebuild this economy by rebuilding our infrastructure in this nation.”
Digressing to the Obama administration’s goal of providing health insurance to nearly everyone in the country, Dodd said, “It’s a shame in America that too many of our people are uninsured and, by the way, we’re going to get that public (insurance plan) option for Americans. They deserve it.”
Craig Miller, the project superintendent for O&G Construction Co. in Torrington — the contractor for the “Safety Improvements of the Merritt Parkway Federal Stimulus Project” — said the project employs operating engineers, laborers, carpenters, masons and Teamsters, with 60 to 70 workers on the job day and night. Including sub-contractors, Miller estimated 100 people will be employed in the course of the project.
Dodd has been receiving low poll numbers and may face a Democratic primary next year. He also recently had surgery for prostate cancer.
Gesturing toward Dodd, Biden said, “This is my single best friend in the United States Congress, and one of my closest friends, period.” The best news of the day, he said, is that Dodd got a call on Friday saying “he is cancer free.”
Some of the protesters carried signs opposing Dodd’s reelection. They were restricted to a location overlooking the park-and-ride lot that was at a distance where their vocal protests could barely be heard.
