Murphy says gas-tax increase necessary
WASHINGTON -- "This town,'' said Sen. Chris Murphy, "has its head in the sand.''
No, the Connecticut Democrat is not a big fan of business as usual in Washington.
For the past 21 years, business as usual has meant not increasing the federal tax on gasoline. And so, as of next month, the Federal Highway Trust Fund will officially be insolvent.
"This is not a joke,'' Murphy said. "The shovels will stop.'' So Murphy and Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee have proposed raising the gasoline tax -- and they're not messing around. It's a big enough increase -- successive 6-cents-a-gallon increases for the next two years, and then indexing the tax to inflation going forward -- to actually get something done. And it's big enough to provoke outrage from anti-spending outfits like the Club for Growth, which calls the plan "a $164 billion tax increase, plain and simple.'' CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE
Brookfield OK's bond for greenway
BROOKFIELD -- Town residents voted to move ahead with the 2-mile Still River Greenway project Tuesday. They supported the $2.4 million bond to finish the project, 1,360-273.
Town officials said 80 percent of the project's cost will be reimbursed by state and federal grants.
The Still River Greenway project still requires final approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before construction can begin.
Steel Point a long time coming but glad its here
Roughly 30 years ago, I saw the first plans to redevelop Steel Point and I was a Bridgeport resident back them. The first renderings were fantastic. Leonard S. Paoletta was Bridgeport's mayor back then. The project called Harbor Pointe went nowhere. Then in the early 1990's the property was targeted for a casino entertainment resort and developers Donald Trump and Steve Wynn were among the contenders; as were the Mashantucket Pequots, owners of Foxwood's Casino Resort in Ledyard, Connecticut. The state legislature shot those plans down as there was opposition to expanded casino gaming in the State of Connecticut. We had Alex Conroy propose Harbour Place during the administration of Joseph P. Ganim and politics and corruption derailed plans to transform the land into a waterfront tourist destination. Harbour Place included permanently docking an ocean liner on Bridgeport Harbor to serve as a hotel. The city did acquire the 50 acre parcel, demolished the buildings that were on it and left it a vast urban wasteland. CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE
All lanes of I-84 to close this weekend
SOUTHINGTON — All lanes of Interstate 84 will be closed in both directions near Exit 30 between Friday and Monday while the bridge over Marion Avenue is replaced.
Kevin Nursick, spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said the steel support Beams under the bridge and the road deck will be removed and replaced. “The bridge was built in 1963, the old superstructure is in poor condition and is at the end of its natural life,” he said.
The Southington Rest Area along I-84 will be closed at 9 a.m., followed by the I-84 Exit 30 off and on ramps from 5 to 9 p.m. Marion Avenue will be closed at the ramps and no through traffic will be permitted. Atwater Street will also be closed from Canal Street to Marion Avenue. The lane closures on Friday night will be phased, with one east-bound lane at Exit 27 closing at 6 p.m., and at 7 p,m. one westbound lane at Exit 31 will close. Other lanes will close later in the night Friday. CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE
New London approves $196M in bonding for school
New London - Anxiety, tension and, at times, confusion hung thick in the air on the third floor of City Hall on Thursday night as the City Council and two of its committees met to take up the proposed ordinance that would authorize roughly $200 million in bonding to fund a school construction project. Ultimately, after some amendments and political maneuvering, the City Council approved two separate ordinances that totaled $196 million in bonding for a project that will complete the facilities portion of the city's transition to an all-magnet school district. "This is one of the greatest days in the city's history," Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said after Thursday night's meeting. "I look forward to signing the ordinance tomorrow."The plan will involve renovating as new Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School and New London High School, and constructing a building to house a science, technology, engineering and math middle school at the high school campus.
Some facilities of the Garde Arts Center, as part of its own capital improvement plan, also would be expanded and renovated to accommodate an arts magnet high school downtown. CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE