October 9, 2013

CT Construction Digest October 9, 2013

Ground breaking for new Black Rock School

BRIDGEPORT -- Myasia Kitchings, 11, said she knew why she and her fifth-grade classmates lined up Tuesday along the blacktop outside Black Rock School. "Because the mayor is here," said Myasia, watching as officials prepared for the ceremonial groundbreaking on an $8.8 million, 18,000-square-foot addition to the 108-year-old school. To the side was a mound of fresh dirt and about a dozen shiny new shovels and hard hats. The expansion, which will come at the expense of five houses to the rear of the school, will allow for eight new classrooms, a multipurpose room and an elevator to make the school fully accessible. The school is also in line for a second playground and a new entrance facing School Street instead of Brewster Street.

Natural gas pipeline expansion to Danbury proposed

Connecticut's energy policy under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy makes it clear that the state needs to use more natural gas -- a fuel that is much cleaner and, at the moment, much cheaper than other petroleum-based fuels.The Algonquin natural gas pipeline wants to provide it.
Spectra Energy Corp., a Houston-based company, owns the 1,100-mile line that runs through Putnam County in New York, Danbury, Brookfield, Newtown and Southbury on its way from New Jersey to Boston. The company is proposing to increase capacity on the line."It's to bring added supply to meet demand," Marylee Henley, a spokeswoman for Spectra, said Tuesday.

Construction to begin on Thompsonville Firehouse

Hartford Superior Court Judge Susan Peck has dismissed a lawsuit the Concerned Taxpayers Group of Thompsonville filed against the Thompsonville Fire District's board of fire commissioners, paving the way for construction to begin on a new $3 million firehouse. "The [Concerned Taxpayers Group] did not present evidence that they would suffer irreparable harm by the construction of the new firehouse ... and did not seek an injunction to prevent the construction of the firehouse," Peck wrote in her Oct. 3 ruling. The taxpayers group filed the suit in an attempt to regain residents' right to vote on the fire district's annual budget and to possibly halt construction of the new Thompsonville firehouse.Fire Board Chairman Dominic Alaimo said that Enfield Builders was at the firehouse site Tuesday and that the company plans to have excavators start work on the project on Wedneday.

Amazon back in talks with Windsor

WINDSOR — After a month of public silence and concerns that a deal to build a distribution center in Windsor was off, officials from Amazon have put the plan back on the table.The officials are seeking to have their request for a tax abatement and reduced building permit fees brought back to the town council's finance committee for consideration.The company unveiled plans in August to build a 1.5-million-square-foot distribution facility on Day Hill Road that is expected to produce 300 jobs.But Amazon officials abruptly withdrew their request last month after Deputy Mayor Alan Simon suggested that the town drive harder bargains concerning abatement approvals, including requiring companies to commit to higher wages, local hiring and accountability clauses.

Hearing on controversial housing proposal is on in Avon Tuesday

AVON — A public hearing will be held Tuesday on a proposed housing development between Haynes and Lenox roads that that residents in that neighborhood have opposed.
That hearing will held by the planning and zoning commission and according to an agenda for the meeting it starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Company One firehouse of the Avon Volunteer Fire Department at 25 Darling Drive.Sunlight Construction is hoping to build 39 homes on a 45-acre parcel off Lenox Road. The town's inland wetlands commission has approved Sunlight's plans, according to minutes of the wetland board's meeting on Sept. 3. Now, Sunlight needs permits from the planning and zoning commission.This is the second time this year that Sunlight has presented plans for the parcel to town land use boards. This spring, it sought approval for 57 homes, which would have been a mix of condominiums and single-family houses. That plan provoked an outcry from residents of the neighborhood, who said the plan was too dense and would hurt wetlands in the area. In the face of that opposition, Sunlight withdrew its first proposal to revise it.