SOUTHINGTON — Backhoes tore apart a former factory building in the Ideal Forging complex on Center and Mill streets Tuesday.
The buildings are being demolished as asbestos and acids used in metal etching are removed as part of a plan to replace the former factory with a residential and retail complex called Greenway Commons.
Meridian Development Partners, a New York company, owns the property between Mill Street and Center Street. Howard Schlesinger, a member of Meridian, said it’s good to see progress in the project.
“I think it’s encouraging for everybody. It’s been a long road,” he said.
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans for Greenway Commons in 2007, about the same time as the major economic downturn.
Meridian spent years pursuing grants for the cleanup. The company got a $3 million state grant in July 2012, which is being used for demolition. Portions of the site began coming down in 2011.
The work is noticeable from the linear trail although the backhoes can be seen from Center Street, too.
Cheryl Lounsbury, the Town Council’s vice chairwoman, was glad to see demolition continue.
“It’s good to see it moving forward,” she said. “That lets us go on to the next phase.”
Lounsbury said the project was stalled by the recession but its restart was encouraging.
“This is a great sign to me that the economy might be turning,” she said.
She also expected the addition of the shops and residents of Greenway Commons to help Southington’s downtown.
“We’re getting more life and some more vitality in the downtown from that project,” she said.
Schlesinger said the work was on track. The buildings slated for demolition should be all torn down by late July or early August, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
VOLUNTOWN - The town will finally receive long-awaited state funding through the Small Town Economic Assistance Program for a public works garage. Voluntown received work of the $500,000 grant on March 16 for the construction of the new facility. First Selectman Robert Sirpenski said the department has been using a garage that’s essentially a glorified shed for roughly 30 years. “Really what we have now is a big storage shed that was never intended to be used as a public works garage,” he said. Sirpenski added the facility is “woefully inadequate.” The current facility is not large enough to hold the public works trucks, so workers park them outside, leaving them vulnerable to weather and causing rust as well as limiting the life of the trucks. When the vehicles need repairs, employees are forced to work on the trucks outside in rain and snow. Holes adorn the walls of the building, letting in snow during the winter. The building has no indoor bathrooms or heat. Jim Crider, Voluntown’s road foreman, said news of the grant makes him “a very happy man.” Crider sees multiple benefits to the new facility including rectifying hazardous conditions for workers as well as increasing worker productivity. During winter, workers spend an additional hour getting trucks defrosted prior to bringing them out on the roads. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Byrnes is senior director for business development and corporate strategy at AI Engineers Inc. AI founder Abul Islam proposes a high-rise office-apartment building on the former Broadcast House site on the northern edge of Constitution Plaza.
Byrnes, 68, has spent more than 40 years in engineering/transportation, rising from a Connecticut Department of Transportation engineer to deputy commissioner then, from 2002 to his retirement in April 2004, as the agency's head.
Byrnes is a licensed Connecticut engineer, with a BS in civil engineering from UConn and a master's from Cooper Union in New York City.
Malloy's big ask: Find $100B for transportation
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy named a group led by a former legislative tax expert Tuesday to identify the means to pay for a 30-year, $100 billion effort to modernize and maintain Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure.
The Democratic governor gave the panel until late summer to make recommendations, meaning he is unlikely to place a transportation finance plan before the legislature until a special session this fall or the 2016 regular session.
“I’m looking to get it right, as opposed to get it by any particular date,” Malloy said.
Cameron Staples, a Democrat who represented New Haven in the state House of Representatives and now is president of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, was named as chairman of the Transportation Finance Panel.
Staples was co-chairman of the legislature’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee in 2005 and 2006, when it raised taxes on wholesale fuel receipts to finance $2.3 billion in borrowing for highways, bridges and 400 Metro North rail cars.
That move more than doubled the state’s wholesale fuel tax receipts over the next decade. Combined with an existing retail gasoline tax, it left Connecticut with one of the highest overall fuel taxes of any state in the nation. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
“Construction employment continues to recover in many parts of the country even as some markets have a hard time stabilizing,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “States like Nevada and Mississippi continue to experience significant monthly swings in construction employment as the recovery struggles to take hold in certain hard hit markets.”
Texas added more new construction jobs (44,600 jobs, 7 percent) between February 2014 and February 2015 than any other state. Other states adding a high number of new construction jobs for the past 12 months included California (43,400 jobs, 6.5 percent), Florida (29,600 jobs, 7.7 percent), Washington (18,000 jobs, 11.6 percent) and Colorado (16,900 jobs, 12.3 percent). North Dakota (14.7 percent, 4,800 jobs) added the highest percentage of new construction jobs during the past year, followed by Idaho (14.3 percent, 5,000 jobs), Colorado and Washington.
Four states shed construction jobs during the past 12 months while construction employment was unchanged in Delaware. Mississippi lost the highest percentage and total number of jobs (minus 4,400 jobs, minus 8.7 percent). CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Governor:
At 1:30 p.m., Gov. Malloy will be joined DOT Commissioner Redeker and Waterbury Mayor O'Leary for a groundbreaking ceremony for the I-84 widening project in Waterbury at the Park and Ride Lot at Exit 23 Eastbound.
At 1:30 p.m., Gov. Malloy will be joined DOT Commissioner Redeker and Waterbury Mayor O'Leary for a groundbreaking ceremony for the I-84 widening project in Waterbury at the Park and Ride Lot at Exit 23 Eastbound.