Peabody officials yesterday lashed out at Governor Mitt Romney's decision to block $5.7 million to pay for a flood control project in downtown Peabody.
Romney blocked the money as part of $76 million in election-year spending he vetoed last week. At a State House press conference Friday, Romney said he had tried to contact Peabody officials to obtain more information about the funding, but was unable to reach anyone.
Yesterday, state Senator Frederick E. Berry said he planned to call a press conference today with Peabody's mayor and two Democratic state representatives to ''expose the governor for not telling the truth."
''We hand-delivered all kinds of information. They had all the information they needed," said Berry, a Peabody Democrat. ''I don't want to use the word 'lie,' but . . . how he could say he didn't get the information? That's not true."
Yesterday, Romney's communications director, Eric Ferhnstrom, said the governor stands by his statement.
''Governor Romney is not a rubber stamp for the expenditure of taxpayer funds. If there is no information to support a particular expenditure, our inclination is to be cautious and to wait until a rationale is put forward," Ferhnstrom said. ''In this case, we endeavored to get answers to our questions but none were forthcoming. We would be happy to take another look and if it appears to be a necessary and worthwhile expense we will include it in the next" spending bill the administration proposes.
The money would have been matched by about $22 million in federal aid to help the US Army Corps of Engineers dig two culverts underneath downtown Peabody to stop persistent flooding, officials said. Heavy rains have caused severe flooding four times over the past 20 years, including a particularly heavy flood last April that swamped cars, endangered the public, and damaged property, local officials said.
''We've been fortunate that we have not had a fatality," Berry said.
Berry said the Legislature might not have a chance to restore the spending until next year.
Mayor Michael Bonfanti of Peabody said his office never received any calls from the governor's office and that he had called the governor's aides this week out of concern that the money would be vetoed. Bonfanti added that Peabody City Hall was closed Thursday and Friday for the wake and funeral of a former mayor, Peter Torigian.
''We don't want to get into a contest of who said what or did what," Bonfanti said. ''We just want to get this resolved."