SOMERVILLE – The cost of the borough's new police and fire headquarters has gone up by a third because the state Department of Labor has ruled the contractor must pay prevailing wages which could amount to $100 per hour.
The cost of the new building, at the corner of Gaston Avenue and High Street, has jumped from $31 million to $42 million.
That has forced the Borough Council to approve an annual $400,000 increase in the 40-year lease-purchase agreement with FDS Somerville for the long-awaited facility to consolidate the county seat's police department and fire companies under one roof.
That will bring the annual cost of the 45,000-square-foot building to more than $1.6 million, Colin Driver, the borough's director of economic development, told the Council on Monday.
The reason for the increase is an unanticipated ruling by the state Department of Labor that the contractor, under the state law for public works projects, must pay the prevailing wage.
For example, according to state guidelines, for a public works project in Somerset County, the prevailing wage for a foreman carpenter is $62.72 per hour in wages plus $37.56 per hour in benefits for a total outlay by the employer of $100.28 per hour.
"It's become outrageously more expensive," said Councilman Granville Brady.
Brady added that the Department of Labor's decision is "an attempt from the state to enrich the special interests of unions at the expense of Somerville's taxpayers."
Brady, who is retiring this year from...
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