Niles council votes to buy American with stimulus money

The Buy American vote is not protectionism, but a way to create jobs and get mills going, a UAW member said.

BY JORDAN COHEN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

NILES — With a wish list of stimulus projects totaling $37 million, council has voted to purchase American-made goods and services, should it be awarded federal stimulus dollars.

President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion recovery package into law Tuesday.

The city has a list of seven projects that it has submitted for consideration, the largest being $30 million for a new waste treatment facility. Among the other projects are $2 million for the Fairlawn Avenue Sanitary Detention Basin, $2.2 million for rehabilitation of state Route 46 and $840,000 for the Niles Trumbull Transit System.

Council on Wednesday committed itself by unanimous vote to “purchasing only products and services that are made or performed in the United States” with economic recovery money, however it included the phrase “whenever and wherever possible” in its resolution.

“Some people think this is protectionism, but it’s not,” said Robert Faith, a member of United Steelworkers Local 2155 who encouraged the Buy American vote. “This will help create jobs and get steel mills going.”

Mark Hess, grants and development coordinator, estimated that the seven projects would employ 185 persons, but that all of them would likely be current city employees.

“These projects will basically deal with construction, engineering, material manufacture and supply jobs,” Hess said. “I don’t believe we would be adding jobs at this point.”

Other council items:

UMayor Ralph Infante released the year-end report of the Niles Trumbull Transit System stating the public transit service finished 2008 within its $1.1 million budget and expects “to stay in the black” this year despite a projected budget increase of $1.5 million. The mayor said the additional funds would be covered by the federal government and agreements with other agencies.

UCouncil also approved an “add-on” fee to be imposed through its collection agency on property owners who are delinquent with utility payments. The agency, RBC, Inc., Columbus, would impose a 45 percent fee for debts that are the subject of litigation and a 30 percent fee on delinquencies not involved in any legal action.