Stimulus jobs already starting before money arrives
BURIEN, Wash. – Federal stimulus checks haven’t arrived in Washington state yet, but some agencies aren’t waiting around. They’re already ramping up, and it’s having an economic effect.
A weatherization project for low-income housing in South King County is one of the first projects in Washington state being paid for with federal stimulus money.
Gary Chittim
Crossposted from KREM.com
March 23rd, 2009
BURIEN,
Wash. – Federal stimulus checks haven’t arrived in Washington state
yet, but some agencies aren’t waiting around. They’re already ramping
up, and it’s having an economic effect.
A month ago, his Ben Uskoski’s contracting business was tanking and he had to make a decision.
"I was an electrician before I went out on my own so I said, ‘I can do electrical work,’” said Uskoski.
That proved to be the right decision because Michael Kim of Advance Energy Management just happened to need electricians -- a lot of them.
"Put an ad out on Craigslist and literally got bombarded with phone calls in the first couple of hours,” said Kim.
One of the first was Uskoski and the stimulus trigger was pulled.
Kim needed 23 electricians to weatherize a low income housing apartment complex in South King County. Usoski called everyone he knew and 23 electricians suddenly went from laid off to gainfully employed, installing new energy efficient light fixtures and bathroom fans in the sprawling complex.
That's when he gave Platt Electric down in Tacoma a call.
