The Constitution Pipeline — already almost three years into the regulatory process — recently passed a significant milestone when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the project its certificate of public convenience and necessity. FERC has confirmed that there is a pressing, national and regional need for additional supplies of natural gas, and when in service the project will supply enough natural gas to serve the daily needs of approximately 3 million homes.
Now, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has before it permit applications dealing with water and wetlands. The public has an opportunity to comment on these permit applications, and we strongly believe that the project can be constructed and operated with a minimum of disruption to our streams, wetlands and the overall environment.
Constitution has worked closely with the Army Corps of Engineers, DEC and numerous other state and federal regulators to develop construction plans that will minimize negative impacts upon the environment. Water crossings won't occur during fish spawning seasons, and water quality will be maintained and continuously monitored during construction.
Customized plans have been drawn up for each stream and wetlands crossing, to ensure that unique situations are addressed. And none of this is simply left to the discretion and good intentions of project contractors. At every step of the way, construction activities are monitored and supervised by independent experts retained by FERC to insure that construction plans and environmental regulations are followed.
Less than one-10th of an acre of wetlands would be permanently lost due to construction activity, a remarkably miniscule amount given the complexity and length of the project. Moreover, Constitution has devised six separate mitigation projects, which will be developed in areas affected by the pipeline, which will establish, restore or enhance over 124 acres of wetlands. As such, the project will result in a net gain of wetlands, rather than a loss. In Wright, an existing compressor station owned by Iroquois Pipeline will be upgraded, resulting in less impact upon air quality than original plans, which had contemplated an entirely new compressor.
Meeting discusses proposed power plant near Oxford airport
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OXFORD, Conn. (WTNH)– Emotions ran high at Oxford High School Thursday night as the state’s siting council held a public meeting to discuss a Competitive Power Ventures’ controversial plan for a natural gas power plant.
“I think the concern for our health and safety far outweighs the need for jobs,” said one person who stepped up to speak at the meeting.
The site sits off of Woodruff Hill Road and the plant is an idea that isn’t being received warmly by all. Some argue the the plant will create pollution that would be hazardous to the health of those who live in the area. But at the meeting, officials with the company were given the chance to make their case.
“The region was determined to be short of capacity,” said Competitive Power Ventures representative Andrew Bazinet. “CPV made a conscious decision to move the project forward.”
It was an argument many also agreed with, saying they think the project will brings jobs and more domestically produced energy to Connecticut.
The plan to build a power plant in Oxford is nothing new. In fact, 15 years ago a 500-megawatt plant was approved to be built; however, because those behind the project now want to make the plant 800-megawatts, it requires the approval of the siting council.
Officials with Competitive Power Ventures say they hope to begin construction on the project at the end of 2015. They add it will take two years to finish the job.
Council approves sale of most notable eyesore
NEW BRITAIN — The Common Council has agreed to sell one of downtown’s most notable eyesores to a New Haven developer.
The council voted unanimously this week to sell 57 Court St. to Raymond J. Akoury of Commercial Design Builders, LLC. Mayor Erin Stewart is scheduled to sign the paperwork next week.
Akoury, who will buy the 20,488-square-foot property for $40,000, plans to renovate the building into 34 one-bedroom units.
Akoury said Thursday “it will take nine months to one year before it is renovated. Hopefully, a year from today it will be occupied.”
The property,— which was once an apartment building but has been vacant since the 1990s — “will basically be the same building, but brand new,” he
said. “We will remodel the existing apartments. There will be a new sprinkler system, a new elevator and there will be plumbing and electrical work. There will also be all new high-energy windows to replace the broken ones that are there now.”
Akoury, who has developed several properties in New Britain, said he believes the building — known as Courtland Arms — “can cater to some Hartford people, young professionals and college
students.” The plan calls for Akoury to build three handicapped units on the ground floor and 31 units on the top three floors. Akoury told council members Wednesday that he plans on investing $1.5 million in the property. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Middletown planning board defershigh-rise vote
MIDDLETOWN >> City planning commissioners failed to approve an application to build a six-story downtown office and residential building Wednesday evening, leaving Massachusetts developer Hajjar Management Company Inc. with the option to return Feb 11 after a meeting with the Design Review & Preservation Board. Commissioners voted 3-3 with one abstention after a lengthy discussion about design elements of the building. Envisioned for 138 College Street, adjacent to the MiddleOak Building, the project would include 89 market-rate, one- and two-bedroom apartments and studio apartments on upper floors with commercial office space on the ground floor facing College Street.
It met with controversy in December when Mayor Daniel Drew announced the city was negotiating a deal to abate property taxes for the first seven years.
“This is a paradigm, shift, it’s a game-changer in the development of downtown Middletown,” Drew said at the time. “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.” On Wednesday, commissioners were more concerned with the footprint of the building and zoning codes. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Waterford finance board approves $400K for school demolition
Waterford — The Board of Finance Wednesday approved an appropriation of $400,000 for the remaining costs of remediation and demolition of the 90-year-old Cohanzie School on Dayton Road.
In approving the funds, the board rejected a request from the Board of Selectmen to approve an appropriation of $700,000 to cover the expense. Remediation or demolition of the school could cost up to roughly $700,000 more than originally anticipated, though state grants are expected to cover most of the expenses, Director of Planning and Development Dennis Goderre has reported. The $400,000 is sufficient to cover the remaining costs of a $1.19 million option that would allow for remediation and retention of the original 1923 portion of the school with $30,000 to spare, but would not bridge the gap and cover the $1.5 million full demolition of the school.
Cohanzie School was left vacant in 2008 as part of a building project approved at a 2002 referendum that consolidated the town’s five elementary schools into three, prompted by declining enrollment and increased operational costs.
Goderre has said the construction firm Centerplan Companies, which holds an option to purchase the property, has not yet made its final determination about whether it will keep and factor the 1923 section into its plans for a multifamily housing development on the site.
The town is slated to receive two state grants totaling $982,500 for remediation and demolition, offsetting most of the cost of demolition and remediation.
The appropriation still requires approval from the Representative Town Meeting.
State panel advises 'fix it first' approach on transportation
Connecticut should make a few targeted improvements in transit bus service, but should focus its transportation dollars mainly on shoring up existing highways and transit systems rather than initiate new projects, a report recommends. For too many years, the state has done too little routine maintenance of its highways, bridges and rail system, and postponed costly replacements, according to the Connecticut Public Transportation Commission. "The age of much of the transportation infrastructure in Connecticut is such that deferred maintenance of roads, bridges and rails has led to disruptions and unanticipated expenditures, as demonstrated by last summer's failure of the New Haven Line's Walk Bridge in Norwalk," the commission's report said. The decrepit swinging bridge, on the Metro-North system, got stuck repeatedly last year, halting rail traffic. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy received the report at the end of December, and the commission released it publicly this week. Malloy's administration is expected to consider the recommendations while refining the large-scale, long-range transportation proposal that it has drafted. Various communities and planning regions want more roads, new bus service and even streetcar systems, but the commission is advising Connecticut to stick to a "fix it first" philosophy to get its existing infrastructure into good condition.
Under Malloy and his predecessor, M. Jodi Rell, Connecticut has replaced hundreds of Metro-North rail cars that were well past their scheduled replacement dates. The state is in the final stages of the decade-long replacement of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, the "Q" Bridge, on I-95 in New Haven, and is planning to widen I-84 east of the Route 8 interchange in Waterbury. The commission's report says that hundreds of bridges in the state need repair, and that many states have slowed the pace of transportation funding in the past decade, adding to the backlog of maintenance work. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Labor Committee public hearing agenda takes shape
The legislature's labor committee met Thursday and agreed to hold public hearings on about a dozen issues, including a measure to prohibit workplace bullying and a proposal to bar employers running credit checks on job applicants. Also on the committees agenda are a slew of bills that would revise the state's prevailing wage law, which sets out precisely how much contractors must pay their employees working on municipal construction jobs. Many leaders of cash-strapped small towns have been pushing for the law to be changed. The committee did not discuss the prevailing wage proposal -- or any of the issues -- in detail. " "We're only moving it forward to a public hearing and not yet duking it out over whether it should be a bill moved out of committee," said Rep. Peter Tercyak, the committee's co-chairman.
Republican state Rep. Craig Miner, R-Litchfield, said he wanted to make sure that his affirmative vote in agreeing to hold hearings on the proposals should not be read as a sign that he would support all of the concepts. Among the other bills the panel agreed to hold a hearing on is a controversial proposal that would permit state or municipal employees to receive workers' compensation if they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing a traumatic incident, or its immediate aftermath. Under current law, only physical injuries are eligible for workers' compensation. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Randall Beach: Malloy's I-95 vision a nightmare that must not come true
Our Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has begun his second term by proposing one of the dopiest ideas I’ve heard in a long, long time: Let’s widen Interstate 95, all the way from Greenwich to the Rhode Island border! Is he serious? Apparently, he really thinks this cockamamie plan makes sense.
Malloy used his State of the State address to talk about a “collective vision” that will provide Connecticut with “a best-in-class transportation system.” “Vision”? The man needs a new set of eyeglasses. He could then take a clear, focused look at our most notorious highway. Yes, we all agree our transportation system is a mess. Our roads are perennially clogged because our train and bus services do not provide a workable alternative for many of the state’s residents. And so that part of Malloy’s speech was sensible; we do need to spend plenty of public money to upgrade mass transit. But can you imagine, can you visualize, what it would mean to unleash all those construction crews onto all of Interstate 95 in Connecticut? We at the New Haven Register, up until we moved to our new location off of the somewhat less-clogged Interstate 91, had a ringside seat to the never-ending Interstate 95 reconstruction in the Long Wharf area, replete with new approaches and new bridges.
It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t fun. And the work continues. One day, after many of us have retired, they will finish that particular project.
And then what? Call the work crews back, to add new lanes?
You would think the concept is so crazy that it would not be supported by our legislators. But I was troubled to read that Malloy’s 16-minute speech was interrupted by applause more than 15 times.
One of the guys who liked it was Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff. He described Malloy’s transportation “vision” as being “like music to my ears.” Duff, who lives in Norwalk, must know full well what it’s like to rely on Interstate 95. And so it’s odd that when he envisions a “vision” that includes widening that road, he thinks of sweet music. I should think “heavy metal” grinding might be more appropriate. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Murphy presses again for gasoline tax hike to shore up highway fund
Washington – Sen. Chris Murphy, in partnership with Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, has renewed a push to raise the federal gasoline tax — a move to shore up a transportation fund that will soon run out of money, threatening road and bridge projects in Connecticut and elsewhere across the nation.
The federal Highway Trust Fund was propped up last summer through temporary funding set to expire in May. About half of the trust fund’s money comes from a federal gas tax, now about 18.4 cents a gallon, that hasn’t been increased since 1993. Since then Americans are driving less and cars are more fuel efficient, while the cost of building roads and highways has gone up.
Murphy’s proposed fix is to raise the tax 12 cents a gallon over two years.
If new money isn't added to the trust fund before the May deadline, federal highway money to states would be severely cut. Despite the looming deadline, however, Congress has not come up with a permanent solution to keep the highway trust fund completely solvent.
“Nobody likes to pay more gas tax,” Murphy said. But he said the tradeoff in better transportation is worth the price. He also said the gasoline tax is one area where Connecticut receives more from Washington than it pays in.
“The reality is that Connecticut does incredibly well when it comes to the gas tax,” Murphy said. ”It gets $1.60 in transportation funds for every dollar paid in gas taxes.”
That’s because the trust fund distributes money to the states in a formula that’s based in part on how many miles are driven on that state’s federal highways.
Murphy suggested a gas tax increase last summer but has not introduced a bill yet.
The recent precipitous drop in gasoline prices has prompted some to say that imposing a hike in the gas tax now would not be as tough for drivers to accept as it was when gasoline hovered near or above $4 a gallon.
But there are huge political obstacles to Murphy’s idea.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said last week the Obama administration wants to adhere to a plan to finance new infrastructure spending by closing tax loopholes that favor the wealthy.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said there is little appetite in Congress for the plan.
“I don’t know of any support for a gas tax increase in Congress,” he said.
Most House Republicans have taken a “no new taxes” pledge. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Construction firms add 48,000 jobs in December
Construction employers added 48,000 jobs in December and 290,000 for the year, the largest annual increase since 2005, as the sector’s unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said many firms are expanding payrolls to keep pace with growing construction demand, but are having a hard time finding qualified workers to fill key positions.
“Construction firms are clearly ramping up their hiring to keep up with swelling demand for construction,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “Demand for workers to construct apartments, pipelines and huge industrial projects is likely to remain robust in 2015.”
Construction employment totaled 6.16 million in December, the highest level since March 2009, with a 12-month gain of 290,000 jobs or 4.9 percent, Simonson noted. Residential building and specialty trade contractors added a combined 13,500 employees since November and 132,100 (6 percent) over 12 months. Nonresidential contractors hired a net of 34,400 workers for the month and 158,200 (4.3 percent) since December 2013. The heavy and civil engineering construction segment, which includes pipelines, petrochemical and power plants, and public works construction, added 11,600 jobs in December and 57,900 (6.6 percent) over the year.
The number of workers who said they looked for work in the past month and had last worked in construction fell to 680,000 from 958,000 a year earlier. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Company pleads guilty to filing false tax returns tied to prior scandal
WATERBURY — A construction company connected to a past mayoral scandal pleaded guilty Tuesday to filing a false tax return. The company faces probation and a heavy fine. In addition to the tax charge, Cherry Hill Construction of North Branford also pleaded guilty to making a false statement in connection with a federal act that regulates retirement plans in private industry, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The pleas were made in federal court in New Haven.
Federal authorities claim the company admitted to underfunding a 401(k) retirement plan for its workers by $950,000. They also claim the company filed a corporate tax return in 2010 that inflated the contributions to the plan, which led to increased deductions for employee benefits.
THE COMPANY, which offers demolition services, Dumpster rentals and landscaping, has placed bids with municipalities in the area.
Towns and cities pay the company based on payroll forms it submits. Authorities say the company was awarded work, but was supposed to pay its workers the prevailing wage, plus fringe benefits, which include retirement pay. The company faces up to 10 years of probation and a maximum fine of $750,000 when it's sentenced in April. Federal authorities say the company has now fully funded its retirement plan and has paid back $193,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties.
State records list the company's president as Ivan Sachs. A member of the Sachs family, Louis Sachs, pleaded guilty in 2005 to trading bribes and favors for demolition contracts for the business.
Louis Sachs was an official of Cherry Hill when the company received contracts to demolish blighted buildings in Waterbury while former mayor Philip Giordano was in office.
Sachs admitted to delivering a load of mulch to one official of the Giordano administration and delivering a Dumpster to another official, according to Republican-American archives.
Federal authorities said at the time that Sachs also paid about $8,000 in cash to one of the officials, and made contributions to Giordano's campaigns for mayor and U.S. Senate. Giordano was later convicted and sentenced to federal prison for sexually assaulting two young girls. Sachs was given a year of probation and was fined $5,000.
That past federal case led Waterbury officials to temporarily suspend Cherry Hill's ability to bid on city projects.
MORE RECENTLY, the company lost a bid to demolish the Prospect Street parking garage in Waterbury last month when it failed to sign a bid document. City officials called it an oversight on the company's part, but said strict city procurement rules prevented Waterbury from awarding the work to the company. City procurement rules require bidders to acknowledge an add-on to the project to make sure contractors understand the work the city advertised, and submit informed bids.
Cherry Hill had underbid the next lowest bidder by $4,000. The demolition, which is being funded by a state grant as part of the $12.2 million Waterbury Next campaign, is slated to happen this spring.
A message left at Cherry Hill's office Wednesday was not returned.