By George P. Hassett

Elected officials and city residents voiced their anger over another delay to the long proposed Green Line extension through the city at a public meeting with state officials on Sept. 6.

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said he was “shocked, saddened and frustrated” that Gov. Deval Patrick, who won wide support in Somerville during last year’s elections and campaigned on a platform of transit-oriented growth, would continue a long history of delays for the important project.

‚ÄúIf you told me in July that we would be facing another delay in this project, I would have laughed it off as inconceivable. I would have said, ‚ÄòNot this administration.‚Äô But I‚Äôm not laughing now and neither are the people of Medford and Somerville,‚Äù he said       

In 1990, state officials promised Somerville residents they would complete a Green Line extension through the city and into Medford as a way to offset air pollution caused by the Big Dig. In 2005, the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) sued the state because it had not taken the necessary steps to complete the project on time. In November 2006, CLF and the state settled and agreed on a binding commitment to complete the project by 2011. That commitment was pushed back to 2014. At the Sept. 6 meeting James Coleman of the Department of Environmental Protection said state officials have decided to seek federal funding for the project and a 2014 completion date is now unlikely. 2016, he said, is the expected completion date now.

However, Curtatone said federal funding is not guaranteed and Board of Aldermen President Robert C. Trane said politicians in Washington may not be receptive to funding expensive transportation projects in the Boston area.

“After all the follies of the Big Dig, Washington does not want to hear about Boston transit projects,” Trane said.

Other speakers at the public hearing echoed Curtatone’s sentiments. State Rep. Denise Provost, D-Somerville, said she was “unalterably” opposed to any further delay of the extension. She said the adverse health impacts Somerville residents face make the state’s commitment a moral obligation in addition to a legal one.

“The Green Line extension is so important because Somerville has suffered for many decades as a regional transit corridor without any mitigation,” she said.

City Clerk John Long said he was speaking against more delays in the project because of his eight-year-old son, who has asthma. “Today should be his second day of the third grade, but he is home with a virus. Asthma levels are elevated in Somerville and air pollution from traffic is to blame.

When this project is built more children in Somerville will be born without asthma,” he said.

State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino said the project‚Äôs history is full of broken promises from state officials.   

‚ÄúWhat we need now is action.  I as an elected representative, and our many residents who have waited far too long, have a responsibility to hold the administration accountable.  And we will continue to do just that. I expect the Commonwealth to uphold its legal and ethical obligations to Medford and Somerville.  Nothing short of that is acceptable,‚Äù he said.