Gov. Dannel Malloy was in Derby last week hyping a proposed fund that would be used, in part, to lure manufacturers to cities such as Ansonia and Derby, former manufacturing hubs in Connecticut.
Malloy said he will ask state lawmakers this month to put $25 million into an “advanced manufacturing fund.”
According to a press release, the money would be used to:
- Help manufacturing companies expand and modernize
- Provide access to training and specialize education for workers
- Attract new companies to the state
Also, the money would give priority to companies that locate in 42 communities that were historically manufacturing hubs, including Ansonia and Derby.
Malloy said the goal is to reduce unemployment in those communities.
While both Ansonia and Derby have unemployment rates above the state’s 6.9 percent average, the unemployment rate dropped during 2013, according to data from the state labor department.
Ansonia’s unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in December 2013. That’s 762 people out of work. The unemployment rate in Ansonia was 10.2 percent in January and February of 2013.
Derby’s unemployment rate was 7.3 percent (or 502 people out of work) in December 2013, down from a high of 9.8 percent in February 2013.
Malloy appeared at cities throughout the state last week to build support for his initiative.
Derby Mayor Anita Dugatto, elected in November, said during her campaign that bringing back good-paying manufacturing jobs was a key to long-term economic success in Derby.
She liked what Malloy had to say during a press conference at Derby City Hall Jan. 30.
The fund, if created, could be used to help lure manufacturers to a commerce park along a new road Derby built behind BJ’s Wholesale off Division Street, Dugatto said.
Click here for story from 2009 on the road.
“We have space. We just have to market ourselves properly,” Dugatto said.
Dugatto’s administration is attempting to set up a new web site that will be used to inform residents — and tell manufacturers about development opportunities locally.
According to Malloy’s office, the manufacturing industry employs 159,200 people in the state. Industry wages average $76,108 annually, almost 30 percent more than average wages for all industries in Connecticut.
Here’s a rendering of the road behind BJ’s Wholesale from 2009. Article continues below.
DOT Parcel Layout 2 2 by ValleyIndyDotOrg
O’Sullivan’s Island?
During his Derby appearance last week, Malloy also unveiled a plan to provide some tax relief for Connecticut residents.
Click here for a story from CT News Junkie.
Malloy’s appearance in Derby after the city’s Board of Aldermen decided to close public access to O’Sullivan’s Island, contaminated city-owned land where the Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers meet that was turned into a park.
Aldermen, at the urging of the Valley Council of Governments, want to do further soil contamination testing on O’Sullivan’s Island so it can be certified as “remediated” by state environmental officials.
Getting the designation will allow VCOG and the city to receive long-promised but never delivered grant money that is supposed to be used to build a fishing pier at O’Sullivan’s Island.
City and VCOG officials are searching for money to pay for the additional testing and, depending if anything is found, more cleanup work.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency did a PCB cleanup on the southern side of the property, where a toxic waste dump was found in the early 1980s.
However, the city doesn’t have documentation showing the status of contamination left behind on the other side of the property, which had been used for generations as a training facility for firefighters.
Derby officials didn’t hit up Malloy for money during his appearance last week, and O’Sullivan’s Island wasn’t raised as an issue.
But Dugatto said an O’Sullivan’s Island Advisory Committee is being formed to deal with the issue. The group is scheduled to meet Thursday (Feb. 6) at 7 p.m.