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Oct. 7, 2010
Local Constellation Energy representative David Wagner has issued a correction about a statement he made during an update report he presented to the Garrett County commissioners last Tuesday about his company’s Criterion wind turbine project along Backbone Mountain.
As was reported in the last issue of The Republican, Wagner told the commissioners, “As of last week, we had 200 people on-site, and the statistics indicate about 75 to 85 percent of those folks are locals.”
After receiving a call from a local resident challenging this statement, Wagner said he reviewed the contractor reports and discovered that his statement was incorrect.
“After reviewing the reports for the months of June, July, and August, the most recent months for which data were available, an average of 64 percent of the Criterion workforce were classified as local employees,” Wagner said in an e-mail yesterday. “Local employees include tradespeople hired through the union local, and local non-union and management employees.”
He added that throughout the construction phase of the Criterion project, Constellation Energy has made a concerted effort to be up-front, timely, and transparent in its communications with the community and the local government.
“However, my initial calculation of the percentage of the workforce that were local hires was simply incorrect,” Wagner said. “I regret this error and apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”
