HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — UConn's Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a $115 million development plan to relocate its satellite campus in West Hartford to downtown Hartford.
The plan calls for renovating the old Hartford Times building on Prospect Street, including renovations to its historic front and building a five-story addition, an atrium, and a two-story connection that loops around from Prospect to Arch Street.
That part of the project will cost about $100 million, said Laura Cruickshank, UConn's master planner and chief architect.
The school also plans to spend up to $4 million the purchase another building a block away on Prospect that would house additional offices and classrooms. The rest of the money would be used for "soft costs" such as furniture, equipment and architecture fees, she said.
UConn also plans to have retail shops at street level on the campus.
The school is planning to share some space and resources with the nearby Hartford Public Library. It's also working with the Wadsworth Atheneum, Connecticut Science Center and Connecticut Convention Center to integrate the campus into the neighborhood. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Eversource gas to return $1.5M to customers
Berlin natural gas utility Eversource Energy, previously known as Yankee Gas, will return $1.5 million to its 220,000 customers starting in December, after a regulatory investigation revealed the company over-earned its approved amount.
Eversource also agreed to not ask for a rate increase until 2017.
Regulators at the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority set how much profit a natural gas, electric, or water utility can earn off of customer rate. For all of 2014, PURA found Eversource overearned above its approved rate of 8.83 percent by between 1.11 percent and 1.62 percent per quarter.
"We are pleased with the decision by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to approve a settlement we reached with the Office of Consumer Counsel and the legal staff of PURA," Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said. "It is important to note that we have not had a distribution rate increase in more than three years. The agreement approval comes at a time when so many of our customers have been feeling the pinch of high energy supply prices."
As a result of the overearnings, Eversource reached an agreement with the Office of Consumer Counsel to begin paying its customers back $1.5 million. Customers will receive the money back in the form of a rate reduction credit for three months starting in December. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
East Hartford, CT, Officials, Tribes meet about casino
EAST HARTFORD — Town officials met with representatives from the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes this week to discuss a proposal to turn the vacant Showcase Cinemas on Silver Lane, off I-84 near Rentschler Field, into a $138 million casino.
In the early 1990s, Ravosa was a member of the city council in Springfield, Mass., where MGM Resorts International is building an $800 million casino that is expected to draw customers away from Connecticut's Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort casinos. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Road construction, site work to begin for new Chesire outlet center
CHESHIRE >> The Massachusetts-based developer of an outlet center planned for the intersection of Route 10 and Interstate 691 has gotten the state approval it needs to begin construction of roads and other site improvements needed to reduce traffic congestion expected to be caused by the complex.
The Office of State Traffic Administration (OSTA) has given W/S Development of Chesnut Hill, Massachusetts, approval to begin $2.2 million worth of infrastructure improvements to the intersection and on the 104-acre property where the complex will be built. OSTA a division of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, granted the approval April 15, according to documents provided to the Register. Kevin Nursick, a spokesman for the state DOT, said the infrastructure improvements must be implemented and approved by OSTA before the town can issue any certificates of occupancy for any of the businesses in the 470,000-square-foot retail center.
“This process is standard for any development of a certain size that it is determined will have an impact on a state road,” Nursick said. “It’s designed to make sure that these projects are developed in an orderly fashion and doesn’t result in increased traffic congestion.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Residents ask Malloy to stop bridge project
KENT — A group of residents on Carter Road are urging Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to cancel a planned bridge project on a town road using both federal and town funds. No state funds are involved.
The four couples emailed a letter to Malloy on Tuesday saying it is unnecessary spending on the project that would replace a culvert under the road. The town has told the residents that the road would be closed for six to nine months while the construction is underway.
"We applaud your efforts to reduce unnecessary spending by the state of Connecticut," the letter states. "Here is an idea that can help you to modify an overly expensive planned DOT project and thereby save taxpayers between $1.5 or $2.5 million (the numbers we are given for this project keeps shifting)."
The signers are Allan and Jackie Priaulx, John and Patricia Noneman, Karen and Lewis Altfest, and Linda and Dan Palmer.
The town has budgeted $290,000 in its capital fund for the bridge repair and it is eligible for 80 percent matching federal funding. First Selectman Bruce K. Adams and Road Foreman Rick Osborne said the four-year project is expected to start in the spring of 2016. It has not gone out to bid yet so the final figures are not known.
"It will go out to bid two months before the project is to start," Osborne said Wednesday.
Adams said he was surprised to hear Wednesday that the residents are appealing to Malloy. There are no state funds involved because the project is funded through town and federal money.
Allan Priaulx said Wednesday he thinks it will be discussed at the town budget hearing Friday evening.
A HEARING WAS HELD on the project in November 2014 and the cost estimate was $2.3 million at that time. It also was revealed that residents along the road will have to endure an 11-mile detour that will take them through Warren along Route 341 to Route 7 or Cornwall via Route 45 during the construction period.
The culvert is 58 years old and originally was constructed by Kent's town crew. The residents in their letter suggest that a similar design could replace the aging structure and it would cost much less.
Adams said to be eligible for federal funds, the town must abide by all of the federal guidelines.
"We could do it for less money, but it would be way more than the $290,000 that we've set aside for it," Adams said. The brook that goes under the road is connected to Kent Falls and the fish living there would have to be protected through installing a "fish ladder," which involves the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. "The Carter Road culvert is about a mile above Kent Falls and fish cannot get there naturally in the first place," the residents' letter states. "There are some brown trout in the brook now, apparently there because of hatchery stocking. If we need to benefit a few fishermen with more trout, why not just dump a few barrels of fish from a nearby hatchery rather than build an expensive ladder?"
Adams said he wasn't contacted by the governor's office regarding the letter. However, he has been in regular contact with Priaulx. "We request that you as governor intercede and insist that DOT, DEEP-Fisheries, WMC Consulting Engineers and the Town of Kent rethink this needlessly expensive approach," the residents wrote. "It makes much more sense to instead replace the current culvert with one similar to the existing structure, which has lasted more than 50 years."