Obama OKs $734M for buildup

Guam will receive more than $734 million for military buildup projects, as outlined in the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which was signed into law Wednesday by President Obama.

That's more than four times the amount that was appropriated for the Department of Defense for military construction in 2009, according to Gary Hiles, chief economist at the Guam Department of Labor.

"The $734.2 million in military construction projects is more than double the previous record of military construction appropriation for Guam of $345 million in fiscal 2008. The appropriation for fiscal 2009 was $180 million," Hiles said.

"That's probably the biggest appropriation that Guam has seen for a military project," added James Martinez, president of the Guam Contractors Association.

This sum roughly translates into about 7,000 new construction jobs created for fiscal 2010, based on the ratio of construction industry project amounts to jobs in the 2007 Economic Census for Guam. Every million dollars in expenditures created about 10 construction jobs at that time, Hiles said.

It's the skilled trade workers who will be the most in demand, according to Martinez. However, Guam probably won't see these jobs open up until early next year, Martinez said. The projects most likely will be let out for bid during the first quarter of 2010, in the March-to-April time frame. That cushion of time will allow Guam's construction industry to evaluate how many qualified workers there are in the labor pool, he said.

"I would expect that by the end of calendar year 2010, Guam will add in the neighborhood of 2,000 to 3,000 construction jobs to the existing number of 6,700 as of June 2009," Hiles said.

But the defense spending bill requires that construction companies look for qualified U.S. citizens and residents first before turning to recruitment of foreign workers.

Reliable Builders Project manager Rey Brigino said he hoped the local worker pool would support the need presented by construction companies. BY AMRITHA ALLADI • PACIFIC DAILY NEWS