Officials detail failed bus terminal plan.
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A Southeastern Regional Transit Authority bus pulls up to the temporary terminal on Borden and Third Streets in this May file photo. Plans to use $2 million in stimulus funds for a new terminal could not be settled in time to meet a federal deadline.

Michael Holtzman
Herald Hews Staff Reporter
Posted Dec 17, 2009 @ 11:23 PM
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Well...this may finally be the end of two great mindless leaders in Fall River, Bob Correia and Ken Fiola. Couldn't happen to two more incompetent people. We're talking ZERO productivity from almost $300 thousand worth of combined salary, much more if you count benefits!

FALL RIVER — The heads of two agencies involved with the possible procurement of a downtown bus terminal disagreed over responsibility for the deal falling apart before the deadline to use $2 million in federal stimulus funds for that purpose.
Joseph Cosentino, administrator of Southeastern Regional Transit Authority, and Kenneth Fiola Jr., executive director of the Fall River Office of Economic Development, addressed the City Council’s Committee on Public Works and Transportation Tuesday night.
Cosentino detailed the unsuccessful attempt this year to procure a station to replace the temporary trailer at Borden and Third streets using stimulus funds.
He said a compromised agreement to buy the National Grid building at 118 Fourth St. for $297,500 fell apart over “misrepresented” information by several parties “that the site was clean” and had undergone environmental testing.
“If the misrepresented information hadn’t been made in July, we might have another site and been able to go forward with the $2 million in stimulus money,” Cosentino said Thursday.

When you combine this bus station screw up with Durfee Tech, which he still wants to discuss with Mayor Flanagan for the developers, Peabody, you've got sufficient grounds to replace this millstone. He's not just unproductive, he's become an anti-Fall River irritant to boot when you consider the damage to Fall River he still wants to do with Peabody and the loss of a much needed bus station site in the Downtown area.

" He told the council committee that National Grid representatives met them at the target property on July 8, telling him and SRTA appraisers the company held a clean “21E” report, known in Massachusetts as an environmental site assessment.
The 0.75-acre property across from the temporary terminal has been vacant for roughly six to eight years. SRTA engineers learned then about a large basement-level garage where trucks were stored and four drains existed.
Cosentino said the testing documentation never came during a month of enquiries and the owner eventually said it did not exist.
Cosentino also blamed Fiola at the council discussion for representing “the new site was available and clean.
He said yesterday that during a March meeting with Fiola and Mayor Robert Correia “that was the site chosen by the mayor at the urging of Fiola.” "

Makes you wonder why the pair of Correia and Fiola are pushing so hard to have these particular projects move forward in the way they did, and in the case of Durfee Tech, still do. I suggest it has something to do with the fact that Correia lost, miserably, during the primary and he now has to squeeze as much development and construction into a small space of time as possible to take care of big contributors who were counting on a second Correia term. Get those contracts ready and signed prior to January 4th, right Bob? And Fiola has been quoted this week as wishing to get Peabody representatives, probably Biffster McClean himself, together with Mayor Flanagan to see if the Durfee Tech project can continue. All I can say is that the entire City wants Peabody out and will be watching what happens with this developer and this property. No one wants more public housing in Fall River, PERIOD. Why is it being pushed by Correia and Fiola? M-O-N-E-Y !

Peabody cranks out federally subsidized low income housing like an efficient assembly line. They have been doing this for decades and are plugged into federal money pipelines, and have very powerful and influential "friends". They do not use their money to finance these projects. It's all federal money from start to finish because there is no risk to the developers. THESE GUYS ARE IN BUSINESS ON OUR TAX DOLLARS! They have a process in place that streamlines construction and administration to cut out inefficiencies and produce a profit from each project just below the federal limit of,  I believe, 18%. With that level of profit per project, there's plenty to provide local proponents of the projects with a whole bunch of.........the sorts of things that are delivered by "BAG" men, if you catch my drift. That explains why there has been so much effort by FROED, Fiola and Correia to not just get a project completed, but to have it completed by Peabody. Sad, but true. I've simply stated what most thinking people in Fall River already believe. That says more than an election result.

The next few weeks will be more than interesting. The next few weeks promise to be a defining period in the modern history of Fall River.