BETHEL -- The cramped space that has been used as the police station for the past five decades is a "disgrace," according to one former town official. Others agree and believe the department is long overdue for a new facility. Bethel residents will vote Tuesday whether the town should construct a $14.1 million new police station on Judd Avenue. A needs assessment prepared in 2004 by the architectural firm, Jancunski Humes, indicated the existing department building's 9,262 square feet needed to increase to 25,500 square feet. An updated assessment this year revealed the need has grown to 25,900 square feet. Yet, the department is still operating out of the same facility that was built in the 1960s and hasn't been expanded since the early 1980s. "Where they are now should've been closed long ago by the Board of Health," Geraldine Mills said. "It's a disgrace."
Mills served on various town boards for 27 years, including as chairman of the Permanent Building Committee. She has kept tabs on what's happening in town, and with children and grandchildren in law enforcement, she has a high respect for the Bethel Police Department. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Six-story apartment complex coming to downtown Middletown
MIDDLETOWN >> A Massachusetts developer is in final negotiations with the city to build a six-story apartment tower adjacent to the MiddleOak building. The city announced in a press conference Wednesday in Mayor Dan Drew’s office that Hajjar Management, of Milton, Mass., could get approval from the Common Council as early as its first meeting in 2015 to begin work on its 89-unit complex. The building would comprise one- and two-bedroom and studio apartments, ranging in size from 570 to 1,100 square feet and $1,100 to $2,300 in rent, according to Dan Kelly, president of Comeau & Kelly, a Stoughton, Mass.-based construction firm.
Tom Ford, a senior vice president at MiddleOak Insurance, said the target tenant market was “young professionals, empty-nesters, possibly graduate students at Wesleyan.” An August report from Centerplan Development Company and the Leyland Alliance identified new residential and some commercial construction as the best candidates for redevelopment downtown. “This is a paradigm, shift, it’s a game-changer in the development of downtown Middletown,” Mayor Daniel Drew said Wednesday. “It’s going to bring a lot of people into downtown Middletown … it is our belief that the inclusion of those people in downtown’s landscape will continue to enhance the economy, it will continue to attract additional business.” Drew said that, for the first seven years of the building’s life, the city would freeze its assessed value, but that thereafter, the city would pull in $350,000 a year in property taxes, plus whatever the new residents would pay in taxes on their cars. “It’s a standard tax incentive that municipalities have available for economic development purposes,” said Drew. He said the building should increase the city’s grand list by $12 million. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Stonnington Building Committee rejects Route 1 school site
Stonington - The K-12 Building Committee has now discarded one of the sites it was considering if the board decides to recommend the town build a new middle school. At a committee meeting this week, Chairman Rob Marseglia said members decided to no longer consider purchasing a parcel of land east of the high school on Route 1 because of concerns about the size, configuration and makeup of the land. He said he is now setting up a meeting with town officials to see if the land behind the high school is a viable location for a middle school. "We have to look at the deeds and see if there are any roadblocks," he said. At Wednesday night's Board of Finance meeting, board member June Strunk said the owners of the Route 1 property did not want the committee to walk the site. The committee is slated to hold the second of three public forums to get input from residents on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. at the high school. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Transportation a second-term priority for Malloy
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy outlined a major second-term policy goal Wednesday for the first time since his re-election, saying he will engage the public and political establishment in a broad discussion of how Connecticut must invest in transportation to compete economically in the 21st Century.
“I think part of the problem in Connecticut is that we’ve actually not told people the true size and the cost of what needs to be done if Connecticut is to be able to compete in the next 50 years,” Malloy said in opening remarks at a transportation forum at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.
Malloy declined to offer specifics after his remarks, either about potential projects or new ways to pay for them, such as tolls or higher gasoline taxes. He will deliver an inaugural speech and a State of the State address on Jan. 7, when he begins a second term and the General Assembly convenes its 2015 session. “I’m going to be talking about transportation in the terms I just outlined for you so that people can make decisions,” Malloy said. “That will be ongoing throughout the next four years. Certainly, we will begin in earnest shortly.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Continuum of Care breaks ground on New Haven route 34 site
NEW HAVEN >> In 18 months, Continuum of Care, which provides mental health services to more than 1,500 people annually, will have a new headquarters as part of the latest development along the Route 34 corridor. Officials held a ground breaking ceremony Wednesday on the 5.5-acre site bound by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Legion Aveune for the Continuum building, which is the first piece of a $50 million development on the site. Centerplan Development Corp. is in a joint venture project with Continuum that was made possible with a $7.5 million state grant, as well as with New Market Tax Credits. This is the first time that a state grant was combined with the New Market Tax Credits to finance a public-private partnership. Capital One, N.A., Mid-City Community CDE, Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. and The Community Builders provided $13 million of the New Market Tax Credits. Patti Walker, president and CEO of Continuum, said a new headquarters where it can consolidate administrative offices now scattered among four sites, as well as stay in New Haven, was only possible because of the state grant. She thanked Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for his “outstanding” advocacy around mental health services and for the help from the Office of Policy and Management on getting the tax credits. Mayor Toni Harp said behavioral health services are crucial and an expanded Continuum, which already has 700 workers, is important for the state. She said Continuum meets the needs of a vulnerable population that often can’t speak for itself. The mayor promised full neighborhood participation in the rest of the development of the Route 34 corridor. She said she has stayed involved in the design of Continuum and will for the rest of the project, which will include a pharmacy, a restaurant, an office building and possibly a hotel. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Malloy signals expensive transportation projects on the horizon
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told a group of transportation advocates Wednesday that he intends to have a frank conversation with the public in the coming months about the true costs of necessary infrastructure upgrades. Malloy was the opening speaker at a Hartford forum called “Getting to Work: Transportation and Jobs Access for the 21st Century.” He told the panel that transportation will be a priority for his administration in the coming legislative session, but said the public first needs to be engaged in a candid conversation. “Part of the problem in Connecticut is that we’ve actually not told people of the true size and the cost of what needs to be done if Connecticut is to compete in the next 50 years. There are many projects that people need to understand the scope of and the potential expense of,” he said. The governor pointed to a series of projects including replacing aging bridges, widening I-84 between Waterbury and New York, widening I-95 between Branford and Rhode Island, expanding rail services, and more aggressively modernizing Metro North. Malloy said he wasn’t “second-guessing” the state’s Transportation Department, which often makes decisions based on affordability rather than the best transportation policy.
“They were making judgments based on what they could reasonably look at with the state’s willingness to fund,” he said. But rather than leaving decisions to the Transportation Department, the governor said the state’s political leadership and public need to confront daunting price tags associated with needed transportation projects. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Constitution Pipeline gets conditional approval from FERC
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission provided conditional approval for construction of the planned 124-mile Constitution Pipeline that would link the Marcellus Shale region of Northern Pennsylvania to natural-gas markets in New York and New England.
The pipeline project is a venture between Williams Partners LP, Cabot Oil Gas Corp. , Piedmont Natural Gas Co. and WGL Holdings Inc. According to the venture partners, construction could begin in the first quarter of next year to help meet demand in New York and New England by the winter of 2015 or 2016, assuming the proposed pipeline receives other needed approvals in a timely manner.
Hydraulic fracturing and other new drilling techniques have caused the amount of natural gas flowing out of the state’s Marcellus Shale to soar in recent years, overwhelming the ability of producers to move the gas to markets and forcing some drillers to re-evaluate their operations. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Inside job as yet for courthouse
TORRINGTON — Though it doesn't look like much yet, workers have been laying the groundwork for the new Litchfield Judicial District Courthouse on Field Street. Jeffrey Beckham, a spokesman for the state Department of Construction Services, said Wednesday that while it was stated at a meeting in October that construction could begin Nov. 1, work has continued on plans for the 183,600-square-foot building, though most of it has been done indoors. Workers who were digging into Clark Street on Wednesday were there to update sewer and water infrastructure in the neighborhood, a project that must be finished before the foundation work can begin nearby. "Once that's done, we will move into a phase involving the courthouse's subsurface foundation, including construction of several concrete piers and then the foundation for the new courthouse itself," Beckham said. KBE Building Corp. — the general contractor that won a state design build competition for the $67.8 million construction contract — will erect a new courthouse on the former Torrington Co. parking lot by the spring of 2016. It will combine court services that are now spread among four locations in Litchfield, Bantam and Torrington. The entire project will cost about $81 million. Beckham said because the project is a design-build concept, part of the work has involved finishing designs since a contract was signed in September with KBE. The company partially designed the building in the competition to win the bid for the project, but plans were not finalized when the ground was broken last summer. "State construction projects of this complexity often experience progress in fits and starts, and each project has its unique challenges," Beckham said. "This one is currently proceeding at a satisfactory rate."
The courthouse has been in the works for four decades, but it wasn't until earlier this year that it was funded by the State Bond Commission. City officials are optimistic the courthouse will draw businesses to the section of the city that has been stagnant since the Torrington Co. moved out years ago.