State to Brookfield: Show your work, or pay $7M
During a recent state audit of Brookfield High School's $28 million renovation, investigators asked to see bids and receipts for the subcontractors who did the work.
The Board of Education couldn't find them.
So the state told the school board to return $7.2 million in grants the state education department awarded the project, which was mostly completed in 2008.
Fortunately for Brookfield taxpayers, there is a backup plan: The school has asked the general contractor for its copy of the required records, and the contractor says they are in storage but retrievable.
While the backup plan may sound like a straightforward solution to a serious problem, it does not address how the records were missing in a town trying to rebound from back-to-back accounting controversies involving the former superintendent of schools and the first selectman.
For now, it is enough for acting schools Superintendent Ralph Iassogna and First Selectman Bill Tinsley to be sure the state Department of Administrative Service gets the required bid documents by the state-set deadline of Feb. 27.
"Yes, it's worrisome, but I am confident we will come through this," said Tinsley, whose expense reporting was the subject of a recent investigation by the town's Board of Ethics. "We recently changed superintendents and we lost our finance director, and that has made it difficult to get through the audit process."
Iassogna, who took over the school system in the fall after the school board fired Anthony Bivona, said yesterday that the high school project had been completed years ago, and the town should have the required documentation.
But the town said the school district should have the documents, and would assist the district in getting them for the state. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CT DOT officials discuss Curtis Street bridge repair
NEW BRITAIN — The Connecticut Department of Transportation will conduct a public information meeting concerning the rehabilitation of Bridge No. 02917, which carries Curtis Street over Route 72 in New Britain. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7 p.m., in Room 504 at New Britain City Hall, 27 West Main St. In the event of inclement weather, the meeting will be held on Thursday, Feb. 5.
The existing bridge, built in 1973, is a two-span structure carrying two lanes of local traffic. The superstructure consists of a reinforced concrete deck supported by concrete I-beams with reinforced concrete abutments and a center pier. Seven-foot sidewalks are on both sides of the bridge. The curb-to-curb roadway width is 36 feet and the out-to-out deck width is 52.5 feet. An anodized aluminum mesh fence is mounted on top of two foot high parapets. The estimated 2012 Average Daily Traffic on the bridge is 4,060 vehicles, while the estimated 2013 ADT on Route 72 is 65,500 vehicles.
The proposed rehabilitation consists of replacing the existing superstructure with continuous weathering steel girders. The abutments and pier will be modified as necessary to ensure the structural stability of the proposed deck and structural members.
The rehabilitation is anticipated to begin in 2017 and last a full construction season. The estimated construction cost for the project is $7.8 million. Property acquisitions in the form of temporary and permanent easements are anticipated to provide adequate end wall protection at all four corners of the bridge. No environmental permitting is anticipated.
The public information meeting is being held to present the project and to solicit any comments and viewing the community may have concerning this proposed project. The meeting facility is ADA accessible. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CT approves $480M for waste water projects
The State Bond Commission on Friday approved $480 million in grants and loans to wastewater projects in Hartford, Bristol, Norwich, and more statewide.
The Metropolitan District Commission received $80 million in grants and $178 million in loans for a 20-year investment in Greater Hartford to separate the flow of stormwater from sanitary sewers.
The Bristol Wastewater Treatment plant received $9.5 million in grants and $9.5 million in loans for various upgrades, including removing phosphorous from wastewater in order to protect the Pequabuck River.
The Norwich Wastewater Treatment Plants received $20 million in grants and $80 million in loans to upgrade its infrastructure and nitrogen removal.
The remaining $103 million will be used for a variety of projects across the state, including planning studies, engineering designs, and green infrastructure projects, including compensating for sea level rise.
Berlin OK's consultants to work on revised police station proposal
ERLIN — The rising costs of material and construction are pushing the price tag of a new police station up by as much as $50,000 a month, a concern to town officials trying to come up with an alternative to the $21 million proposal rejected in November by voters. The steady creep in project costs was one issue raised Tuesday night by town officials who asked the council for up to $20,000 to hire two consultants who would report on less costly alternatives. The goal is to provide a new station for police, who have outgrown their 40-year-old headquarters in the town hall basement.
The council approved the spending in a party-line, 4-3 vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. Republicans said they are concerned that the consultants will not come up with a proposed pared down enough to please voters.
Democrats said the funding is a small step in the process, necessary to give the police commission and public building committee the information they need to recommend a revised station proposal.
Council Vice Chairman William A. Rasmussen Jr. said the Republican opposition made no sense because a delay adds thousands per month to the eventual project cost.
The monthly inflation cost estimate came from Town Engineer Arthur Simonian, who said it is based on an annual 5 percent rise in construction expenses for a project close to the $21 million the original proposal would have cost.
Since the referendum vote in November, the police commission has begun weekly meetings to discuss how to reduce the cost of the project but still provide the 42-member police force with the space and updated facilities and equipment it needs. The department had 18 officers when the original station was opened in 1974. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Pending appeal, Stop & Shop construction in Litchfield could begin in May
LITCHFIELD >> There is finally light at the end of the tunnel for local real estate mogul Mark Greenberg, who has been waiting for close to three years to build a new, 38,000-square-foot Stop & Shop store in the Litchfield Village Green Plaza.
A lengthy application process led to a lawsuit, which has held up the demolition and subsequent construction of the big box store. A judge ruled in the local zoning board’s favor on Thursday, and now the only roadblock to a new store is a possible appeal.
Tracie Baker, who owns property within 100 feet of where the store would eventually be built, has until Feb. 18 to file an appeal with the Connecticut Appellate Court. “If they don’t [appeal], on five o’clock on Feb. 18, we’re going to push ahead to demolish buildings somewhere in the neighborhood of May 1,” Greenberg said Monday. “Hopefully we’ll have a new store opening in early 2016.”
The plan is to demolish three existing buildings in the Village Green Plaza, including the large, vacant The Market building at the back of the property. At the time the application was submitted, there were nine stores and restaurants that would need to vacate prior to the demolition—two of which were defunct. One of these, Bosson Optical, has since moved into an office space on 29 West St. “We believe that all tenants are accounted for in terms of getting out of the space that they presently are in to allow for demolition,” Greenberg said Monday. The other businesses are CCA, China Rainbow, Mother Goose Toy Store, Hometown Pizza, Litchfield Laundry and Dry Cleaning and Northwest Mutual. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Developer: Hartford Baseball Stadium Groundbreaaking Approaches
With the first pitch for the New Britain Rock Cats just 14 months away, Hartford's plan to turn an empty lot into a minor league baseball stadium is moving forward.
Contract documents between the developer DoNo Hartford LLC and the city could be signed as early as Wednesday. "There is a pretty fair chance that we'll be signing documents tomorrow, but certainly by the end of this week they will be executed," said Bob Landino, a principal with DoNo. He added that a groundbreaking will likely happen by February 11 or sooner. "We're pretty much on schedule."
In an email, the city said the contracts would be signed "very soon."
Landino said the main delay in finalizing the deal came about as the city decided to change the way it financed the ballpark. The old plan was for DoNo to borrow the money to build it; under the new plan, the new Hartford Stadium Authority will issue the bonds to cover the no-more-than $56 million stadium. The city will then lease the stadium from the authority for more than $4 million a year.
The ballpark is the first part of a larger, $350 million development project in the city that will include not just a stadium, but also housing, retail, a brewery, and a grocery store. The stadium is being built on city land. Unable to reach an agreement to buy roughly 14 parcels across the street from the venue, the city decided to use eminent domain and take the properties. Now, the city and the property owner are in court arguing over how much the city will have to pay. That land will be used for other parts of the project. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE