HARTFORD, Conn., June 18 (UPI) -- Connecticut's Mohegan Tribe says its receipt of $54 million in federal Recovery Act loans will put more than 100 people back to work on a stalled project.
Despite the U.S. Agriculture Department awarding the tribe low-interest loans May 27 to build a community and education center under a program intended to "create jobs and improve needed infrastructure in rural communities across the nation," the money went to one of the nation's biggest casinos, The Hartford Courant reported Friday.
Tribal spokesman Chuck Bunnell, said the building will house the tribe's library, archives, tribal court, human services and other government departments.
"It has nothing to do with the casino," he said.
At first, the Mohegan Tribe financed the project, which was scaled down from $90 million to $75 million, with casino revenues. After the recession hit, however, the tribe canceled its plans to issue tax-exempt bonds to pay for the project and applied for the federal loan last year, the Courant said.
More than 100 construction workers, sheet metal workers, union plumbers, carpenters and others were laid off when the tribe halted construction in early 2009 after nearly two years of work.
"What it will do is it will put back to work the people who lost their jobs when we stopped the project," Bunnell said.
