STRATFORD -- The state House of Representatives has passed a bill that would establish a special taxing district for the Point Stratford development -- the former Army Engine Plant -- in the south end of town. State Rep. Laura Hoydick, R-Stratford, said the new district is needed for the success of the development, envisioned as an area of parklands, apartments, shops and entertainment.
"I'm excited that we're moving forward with this," Hoydick said. "This is vital to expanding the town's tax base, creating jobs and turning a brownfield site into something vibrant," she said.
State Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford, also said he was happy with the vote.
"Stratford has waited 20 years to see this property return to productive use, and this is another positive step in that direction," Backer said. "This bill helps in the redevelopment of these 80 acres and hopefully employment, housing and grand-list expansion." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
City taxpayers' bill for driveway grows
BRIDGEPORT -- A Superior Court judge approved a settlement Thursday that will add $122,302 of taxpayer money to the nearly $400,000 the city has already paid millionaire developer Manuel "Manny" Moutinho to build the 1,200-foot gravel driveway across city airport property in Stratford to Moutinho's seaside mansion. "I don't blame Manny Moutinho," said city activist Maria Pereira, who sat wide-eyed in the back of the courtroom during the hearing Thursday. "I blame the people who are responsible for spending taxpayer dollars for this -- City Attorney Mark Anastasi and certainly this falls at the feet of Mayor Bill Finch." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Residents divided pm parkway trail study
A feasibility study on a multi-use trail that would run through the entire Merritt Parkway corridor was met with both criticism and support at a public information meeting Wednesday evening at New Canaan's Outback Teen Center.Oponents of the study, conducted by the state Department of Transportation, said the trail would be too expensive, destroy the character of the parkway and force hundreds of trees to be felled.Judy Neville, a member of the town's Board of Finance, criticized the study saying it doesn't go far enough to mitigate traffic disruptions near congested areas such as the Talmadge Hill train station. "Traffic on (Route) 106 is a nightmare and you're just adding to that," Neville said. "You haven't responded to that. You're making it worse, significantly worse." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Think green; $20M recycling center proposed for Southington
SOUTHINGTON — Turning Earth LLC is negotiating with town officials to begin construction of a $20 million high-tech organic recycling plant at 111 Spring St. If approved, the 37-acre facility is expected to be operational by early 2016.
Turning Earth is a Pennsylvania-based company that partnered with Covata Energy Corp., which operates the Bristol trash-to-energy facility used by Southington and 13 other local communities, in October. After searching for a potential home for the plant, the company found Southington to be ideal, said W. Blake Sturcke, executive vice president, head of corporate development and founder at Turning Earth. “We’re very excited and we feel we will be a great partner with the town of Southington,” he said. “We are very pleased with the progress we have made and are looking forward to continuing to advance the process. Our soil scientist has analyzed the composition of the soil at the Spring Street location and found its characteristics to be very well-suited to development on that site.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Depot square "A once and a generation opportunity for Bristol"
BRISTOL — A Boston bank that offered to finance almost two-thirds of the initial phase of the Depot Square project calls it “a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Bristol.” In a March 13 letter to the project manager for the Long Island-based Renaissance Downtowns, an Eastern Bank vice president, Christopher Scoville, urged the developer to construct the first building with “as close to 100 percent residential as possible” and to postpone the plan to put up a second building at the same time. Scoville told Renaissance’s Ryan Porter that because Bristol “hasn’t seen substantial market-rate and non age-restricted apartment or retail construction in many years, we feel that a phased introduction of a large number of units would improve our ability to underwrite the proposed debt.”
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Carr Brook Bridge work to close portion of mainn street for 5 months
PORTLAND >> A portion of Route 17A will be closed to through traffic for up to five months beginning May 7. That is when a contractor hired by the state Department of Transportation will begin the replacement of a bridge over Carr Brook. The project is costing the state $2.175 million and the construction is expected to continue through Oct. 1, First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said on Wednesday. Through traffic coming from the south and headed toward Glastonbury will be detoured off Route 17A at Summer Street, Bransfield said. Summer in turn runs into Bartlett Street, which crosses Gospel Lane/Route 17. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
US House approves pipeline, Senate supporters pushing vote
WASHINGTON >> Senate supporters of the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline have introduced legislation authorizing its immediate construction and say they expect the measure will come to a vote in the coming days. The legislation was introduced by Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota. In a statement, they said it has the support of all 45 Senate Republicans and 11 Democrats. The legislation is the latest response in Congress to the Obama administration’s recent announcement that it was delaying a decision on the pipeline indefinitely, citing a Nebraska court case relating to the project. The House has voted previously to approve construction of the pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to the United States, where it eventually would reach Gulf Coast states.
CT highway tolls may result from White House policy change
A change in White House policy may clear the way for tolls on Connecticut’s interstate highways, according to the House chairman of the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee. “This is a significant hurdle that now has been jumped,” said Rep. Antonio Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill. “We saw that they had to do something like that.” The Obama administration sent a four-year, $302 billion transportation plan to Congress this week, hoping to jump-start a national debate on how to repair and replace the nation’s aging infrastructure while accommodating the needs of a growing population.
Action is urgently needed because the federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to run dry by late August, said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Unless Congress acts to shore up the fund, transportation aid to states will be held up and workers laid off at construction sites across the country, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
No longer an eyesore but future on Meriden NRG proprty unknown
MERIDEN — At 82 feet tall, it would be difficult to miss the building that energy firm NRG had planned to use as power plant. Placed on top of Cathole Mountain, the off-white building could be spotted from areas throughout the city and was considered a blemish for more than a decade.
Once the skies cleared from a foggy Thursday morning, there was nothing left to be seen at the peak of the South Mountain Road side. Since the late 1990s, a power plant project had been planned for the 36-acre site at the north end of the city. The 544-megawatt, natural gas-fired generating plant never came to fruition due to financial problems and the declining need for power generation, but the shell of two buildings stood for years. Demolition has been ongoing for the last few months after the city and NRG agreed to a deal that would not only result in the removal of the buildings and two storage tanks, but also multiple payments to the city to add to the $30 million the city has received over the years from NRG. Tuesday, evidence of the largest building’s removal could be seen and at some point Wednesday, the entire building was gone. Through the rain, it was unlikely that many noticed, but among them was City Attorney Deborah Moore who took a photo from Broad Street looking toward the NRG site. Moore sent the image to City Manager Lawrence J. Kendzior who then forwarded it in an email to the City Council and the Record-Journal. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
MERIDEN — In an effort to fulfill promises made as part of the project labor agreements for construction at Platt and Maloney high schools, a local union is offering job opportunities to students at Wilcox Technical High School. Ralph A. Inorio, business manager of Construction and General Laborers Local 455, said the idea came during a reunion with former high school classmate Cynthia Kisner, dean of students at Wilcox. “I asked her if she would be open to the union reaching out to students,” Inorio said. She was, and 15 Wilcox seniors filled out applications for the Construction Craft Labor Apprentice Program. It includes a four-week training course that will teach them skills needed on the Platt and Maloney job sites. After students complete the training, set to begin in July, they will be hired as apprentices on the school projects. Inorio also extended the offer to recent Wilcox graduates, one of which passed the first round of interviews, he said. “They’re more or less guaranteed a spot on the sites,” Inorio said The project labor agreements set a goal of having locals make up 30 percent of the work force on the Platt and Maloney projects. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
AGC: Transportation measure will speed up action on highway & transit bill
The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in response to the Obama administration's release of proposed surface transportation legislation that would provide an estimated $302 billion for highway, bridge and transit construction over a four-year period: "The administration's proposed transportation bill should accelerate debate and action on a new highway and transit bill before the current legislation expires at the end of September. This new proposal demonstrates the administration's intent to play an active role in advocating for timely legislative action to ensure our continued economic vitality. As important, the proposal sets a clear marker that any new legislation must span, at a minimum, four years and increase investment levels. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
School cost: $51.3M
WATERBURY — An elementary school that city officials hope to build off Ferrone Avenue would cost $51.3 million, according to an estimate released Thursday. The price is contained in an application for state construction aid reviewed by the Board of Education's Building Committee on Thursday. The proposed school would be the fifth in a series of new neighborhood schools built in recent years. The new schools are designed to each serve 550 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The district is gradually pulling away from the concept of big middle schools.
The application and estimate was developed by O&G Industries, the city's chief school construction consultant. It would yield state reimbursement of 68 percent of eligible expenses. Taxpayers are expected to cover about $18.8 million of the construction, property and furnishings cost. That includes some ineligible expenses not covered by state aid. State regulations, for example, only allow reimbursement for purchase of 15.5 acres for a school of this type. The selected property, held by a development group, is nearly 20 acres and O&G has estimated it could cost as much as $400,000 to buy, $90,000 of which would not be subject to state assistance. City officials have sought to build in the city's East End for years to relieve overcrowding at Chase and Generali elementary schools. Finding a suitable building site, however, has proved difficult. There have been a series of searches.
A plan introduced in 2013 to use a public forest next to Hamilton Park was abandoned because of public opposition. A 2011 plan to build at the corner of East Main Street and Pierpont Road was withdrawn after officials raised objections about the location and cost. Politicians and school officials were surprised when a fresh search earlier this year turned up an undeveloped 20-acre property off Ferrone Avenue. To proponents, the site looked nearly perfect. It's in the heart of a thickly settled neighborhood and would pull students almost exclusively from the immediate area. There are no homeowners or businesses to displace. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
AGC: Transportation measure will speed up action on highway & transit bill
The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in response to the Obama administration's release of proposed surface transportation legislation that would provide an estimated $302 billion for highway, bridge and transit construction over a four-year period: "The administration's proposed transportation bill should accelerate debate and action on a new highway and transit bill before the current legislation expires at the end of September. This new proposal demonstrates the administration's intent to play an active role in advocating for timely legislative action to ensure our continued economic vitality. As important, the proposal sets a clear marker that any new legislation must span, at a minimum, four years and increase investment levels. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
School cost: $51.3M
WATERBURY — An elementary school that city officials hope to build off Ferrone Avenue would cost $51.3 million, according to an estimate released Thursday. The price is contained in an application for state construction aid reviewed by the Board of Education's Building Committee on Thursday. The proposed school would be the fifth in a series of new neighborhood schools built in recent years. The new schools are designed to each serve 550 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The district is gradually pulling away from the concept of big middle schools.
The application and estimate was developed by O&G Industries, the city's chief school construction consultant. It would yield state reimbursement of 68 percent of eligible expenses. Taxpayers are expected to cover about $18.8 million of the construction, property and furnishings cost. That includes some ineligible expenses not covered by state aid. State regulations, for example, only allow reimbursement for purchase of 15.5 acres for a school of this type. The selected property, held by a development group, is nearly 20 acres and O&G has estimated it could cost as much as $400,000 to buy, $90,000 of which would not be subject to state assistance. City officials have sought to build in the city's East End for years to relieve overcrowding at Chase and Generali elementary schools. Finding a suitable building site, however, has proved difficult. There have been a series of searches.
A plan introduced in 2013 to use a public forest next to Hamilton Park was abandoned because of public opposition. A 2011 plan to build at the corner of East Main Street and Pierpont Road was withdrawn after officials raised objections about the location and cost. Politicians and school officials were surprised when a fresh search earlier this year turned up an undeveloped 20-acre property off Ferrone Avenue. To proponents, the site looked nearly perfect. It's in the heart of a thickly settled neighborhood and would pull students almost exclusively from the immediate area. There are no homeowners or businesses to displace. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE