Foxwoods gets a makeover
Mashantucket - While blasting for the $115 million Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods is making a lot of noise lately - it starts around 2 p.m. most days - plenty else is happening at the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe's resort casino, which is in the midst of two other construction projects.
A $23 million renovation of rooms in the Grand Pequot tower and a $15 million makeover of food-and-beverage and retail in Foxwoods' concourse area began this spring.
Chris O'Connell, vice president of development and resort services, led reporters on a tour Thursday. He said the "monumental task" of renovating 785 Grand Pequot rooms, including 86 suites, is about 50 percent complete. Begun in April, the work is to be finished by next May.
All the old paint, wallpaper, carpeting, furniture and fixtures are being replaced.
O'Connell said a room that has yet to be renovated had a "1990 feel about it." A renovated room, on the other hand, features closet space instead of armoires, bright lighting in the bathrooms and "outlets all over the place." Night lights are activated by motion sensors and towels are stowed on shelves beneath the sink, eliminating the need for wall-mounted bars and racks.
The white counters and tabletops of crystallized glass are resistant to stain, O'Connell said, be it by mustard, relish, lipstick or ink.
In redesigning the concourse area, Foxwoods is seeking to replace the small-town New England motif that's been in place for 20 years with a more contemporary approach, according to Jens Baake, vice president of food and beverage.
"Our team went out on the (Mashantucket Pequot) reservation and took its inspiration from the land," he said. "It was clear the design had to be linked to nature. … The window space was an opportunity for our guests to see what's around them."
New London dedicates new magnet school
New London - Kayla Mateo's favorite subject is math, but the fifth-grader at Nathan Hale Magnet Elementary School for Performing and Visual Arts rarely uses a pencil and paper to solve equations.
"We use the computers to do math, sometimes we do word problems and sometimes we do regular math problems," she said Thursday as she gave a tour following an official dedication ceremony for the school, which boasts a student to computer or iPad ratio of nearly 1 to 1.When the newly renovated Nathan Hale opened in August, it became the second elementary magnet school in the city. It serves about 550 kindergarten through sixth-grade students, including roughly 20 out-of-district children."The children of New London and the parents of New London deserve this school," Superintendent Nicholas A. Fischer said at the dedication ceremony. "The people of New London deserve this school because the children are the future of this city, and the more attention we pay, not just to the quality of the facility but to the quality of the adults and the teaching and the care we give to children, the more we have to say about how important our city is."The school is loaded with technology, including projectors in each classroom that transform the white board into an interactive "smart board" capable of displaying images from the teacher's computer or camera. Teachers, like kindergarten teacher Jean Jordan, can use that technology to further engage students in the day's lesson."It's nice because when I'm reading them a book, they can see the pictures (on the board) but they can also read along with me," said Jordan, who has taught in New London for nearly 30 years.Keeping with the school's focus on visual and performing arts, the building has a dance studio with a spring-loaded floor, two music rooms, an electronic keyboarding classroom, two art classrooms and two computer labs. As the year goes on, more arts education will be integrated into the curriculum."We want each child to have a special dance, music or art experience by the end of the years," Principal Donna Slate said.
1.3M to lose jobless benefits by year end
Kerstin Foster depends on her $430 weekly unemployment check to make her rent, car payment and electricity bill. That's why she's worried about being cut off at the end of the year.
Foster, 45, is a single mom raising a 12-year-old son in Naugatuck, Conn. She was laid off in January from a civil engineering construction job, but believes she's close to landing a new job. She also knows it could still be a few more months before she is actually hired."I don't know if I should buy my son Christmas presents," Foster said.Looming in front of her is the week of Dec. 28, when she and 1.3 million other jobless Americans are scheduled to lose federal unemployment benefits.
That's when an emergency program to help the long-term unemployed like Foster will expire. During the Great Recession of 2007-2009, when the unemployment rate climbed to more than 10%, the government extended federal benefits to jobless Americans, whose state unemployment insurance had run out.Those benefits have been either extended or expanded 11 times, since being first enacted in June 2008. The last time was in Jan. 2, as part of a measure to avert the "fiscal cliff."
The federal unemployment insurance benefits kick in after a person's state benefits run out, and range between 14 to 47 weeks, depending on the state.
Farm River bridge plan creates anxiety in North Branford
NORTH BRANFORD >> It’s not a big bridge or very noticeable even. But it’s causing big anxiety in town.Fatigued by delays, traffic tie-ups and business disruptions at the Route 80/139 road projects in town for more than a year, business owners and Town Council members again lashed out at planners seeking input on replacement of the Farm River bridge this week.The estimate of a 2015 summer build for the $3.1 million span has moved to a fall 2015 award of bid and a summer 2016 build, officials for the Department of Transportation and engineering design firm STV Inc. said. The good news provided by planners seeking the backing of townspeople for the revised bridge plan is that the bridge will be built with a temporary span on the side instead of one-way alternating traffic, as originally proposed and ripped by locals as “an impossible situation.”Designers showed off plans for a temporary span to be built on the south side of the old bridge (built in 1930) that would take two-way traffic while the old bridge was being torn down and replaced.But that didn’t appease local business owners, such as Dawn Jacobson of Imperial Pools By Nova or Tony Catapano of Walt’s Auto Repair, who are located on the south side and concerned about customer access.
Some questioned the new timetable, some noted that the first, alternating-traffic plan was to be done in mere weeks while this one is a year from bidding to finish, and some questioned the width of the structure.Council member Andrew Esposito called other road projects in town “debacles,” and council member Al Rose said he is in construction and has seen what the state has done with road cuts near Valley Road and Route 139. “Do not believe anything they tell you,” he warned anyone dealing with a temporary acquisition of property by the state. “Do not believe any of the maps that they have, and make them state exactly what they’re doing.”
Cash-strapped states turn to public-private partnerships
Still strapped for cash in the aftermath of the recession, states increasingly are partnering with private companies to build and maintain highways, prisons, water facilities, tunnels and even hospitals and schools.Since these partnerships began two decades ago, their popularity has increased to the point where today, two-thirds of the states have laws authorizing so-called “P3s,” and 24 states recently have considered legislation related to the partnerships, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.Under the P3 strategy, private companies typically cover the upfront costs of projects, in exchange for the right to run the facilities and to collect tolls or other payments. Privately-run toll roads have been around for a while, but now other types of P3s are drawing interest, in large part because states are running out of bonding authority and other public revenue-raising methods.
Take the $663 million Port of Miami tunnel, which is designed to funnel port traffic directly to the waterfront from an interstate highway, thereby avoiding downtown Miami’s traffic lights and narrow streets. The project began in 2009 with a “design-build, finance, operation and maintenance” contract with Bouygues Civil Works Florida, which is constructing the tunnel.