Engineering giant CH2M Hill earned millions cleaning up the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, including a hefty bonus for finishing ahead of schedule.
On Wednesday, the Douglas County-based firm put a little of that money back into the community when it gave the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. a $1.7 million endowment to bring jobs to the area.
It is the organization’s first endowment, said executive vice president Tom Clark. “People don’t die and give their money to the Chamber of Commerce.”
The Rocky Flats cleanup began in 1995 and was overseen by Kaiser-Hill, a company jointly owned by CH2M Hill and Kaiser Group International.
At its height, the project involved numerous subcontractors and about 5,000 employees. Kaiser-Hill earned a $355 million bonus for finishing work on the $7 billion Department of Energy project under budget and one year ahead of schedule.
All the employees who worked on the project were laid off in phases, beginning in 2003, said Kaiser-Hill CFO Gregg Crockett.
Some went to work at Department of Energy projects elsewhere. Some went to CH2M Hill. Some retired or got jobs locally. Some may still be looking for work, said CH2M Hill spokesman John Corsi.
Several years ago, the company invested $3 million to set up a work center and provide outplacement services to those whose jobs were cut. The outplacement effort helped to minimize the amount of time that most of the workers were unemployed.
Only a small number of workers used all 13 weeks of unemployment insurance they were entitled to, Crockett said.
Kaiser-Hill’s board realized that the Denver metro area suffered a loss when jobs were cut and the Department of Energy’s $500-million a year project dried up, Corsi said.
“Rocky Flats going away represents a huge economic loss to metropolitan Denver,” he said.
Clark’s organization will use the endowment to help provide incentives to companies that wish to expand or move here.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporter’s error, it misstated the day that the Metro Economic Development Corp. announced it received an endowment from CH2M Hill. It was Wednesday.
