New London still hopes for state funds for magnet school
New London — The city is working with the state Department of Administrative Services to determine whether the magnet school construction plan overwhelmingly approved by voters at referendum earlier this month could be among the school building projects recommended for funding to the General Assembly when its next session begins, Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio told the City Council on Monday night. On Friday, a spokesman for DAS told The Day that the project will not be recommended to the General Assembly because it was not approved at referendum until after the June 30 deadline. "We have been in communication today with the staff at DAS and we have been informed that no final determination has been made about the inclusion or exclusion of our school construction project in regards to their recommended priority list to the legislature," Finizio said Monday afternoon. "Our staff and DAS staff will be working on this and will continue to work on this over the next several days to try to reach a resolution on this question." Only projects that had been approved at the local level by June 30 will be considered for the 2014-15 school building project priority list, which the state Department of Administrative Services presents to the state legislature by Dec. 15, the spokesman said. Even though the City Council approved the project and the associated $168 million bonding ordinance before that date, the state did not consider local approval to be completed until the bonding referendum question passed on Nov. 4. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Expanded rail line aims to spur transit oriented development
Q&A talks about the recent expansion of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail line with Kevin Nursick, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
Q: There's obviously an immediate economic impact from the state spending $58.8 million to build three new rail stations between Hartford and Springfield. But has the state researched or projected a number for the long-term impact from enhanced rail service? What will it mean for Meriden, Berlin and Wallingford to have new stations?
A: Increased and convenient service is an incentive for people to live, and for businesses to locate near the stations. This would allow a person living near the station in Meriden, for instance, to take advantage of jobs in New Haven, Hartford, or Stamford without being dependent on a car. Meriden already has a developer who is getting ready to construct higher density housing near the station. With more people living near the station who are less dependent on driving, retail, restaurants, markets and commercial development will follow allowing communities to construct livable and walkable downtown areas that can grow without the normally associated traffic problems.
Q: The rail line is supposed to be a catalyst for transit-oriented development, including creating new opportunities for businesses to access expanded markets. How does increased rail service accomplish this?
A: On the business side, a business owner can locate in Hartford and conveniently travel to New Haven, Stamford, New York, and in the future Boston without remaining overnight. The service has the potential to tie the Boston, Hartford, New Haven, New York corridor together so it acts like a single metropolitan area. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Oxford hub may include grocery, new library
OXFORD — The town is inching closer to having its own grocery and a new library at its future central hub. According to Kathy Ekstrom, development manager at Seymour-based Haynes Development, the company has reached the final step of the Office of the State Traffic Administration process, which will provide the necessary approvals for a traffic light at the entrance of the Oxford Town Center project.
Ekstrom said once Haynes receives OSTA approval, Price Chopper can move forward in obtaining building permits, which will allow construction to begin in late winter or early spring, with plans of opening in October 2015. "A lot of time and energy is going into this project and the interest is mounting daily," Ekstrom said. The anchor tenant of the plaza will be Market32 by Price Chopper, which recently announced it would invest $300 million over the next five years to renovate and rebrand stores under the new name. The entire project is comprised of three components: retail, a green and marketplace, and residential space. Plans are also in the works to create space for the Oxford Public Library, which has been at a temporary location in town hall's basement since 1978.
Haynes recently presented conceptual designs to the Oxford Library Building Committee at its Nov. 5 meeting. These plans allow for an approximately 10,000-square-foot space adjacent to a proposed medical office building and overlooking the marketplace green, a long-anticipated upgrade from its current 3,075-square-foot location. Director and reference librarian Dawn Higginson said the library needs more room to accommodate its 33,000 volumes; the current space can only hold 20,000. The library also boasts nearly 6,000 cardholders — more than half of Oxford 's population. "As the town's growing, I think the library needs to grow with it," she said. "It's like 'The Little Engine That Could.' We'll get there eventually. I'm hopeful that either with this Oxford Town Center project or a future project, if that doesn't work out for whatever reason, we will still move forward and build a bigger space to house the needs of Oxford ." The proposed construction timeline would anticipate a spring 2016 occupancy for the library, according to meeting minutes. Haynes has long been a supporter of the library," Ekstrom said. "With support of the library building committee and town administration, we are hopeful to enter into an agreement that will work for everybody and together we can finally make the new library a reality for the residents of Oxford."