Brookfield recreation project nears completion
BROOKFIELD -- The last thing beachgoers want to see on the sand at their favorite beach is a construction crane.
But once work is completed at the Town Beach off Candlewood Lake Road -- and at Cadigan Park across the street -- First Selectman Bill Tinsley says the town "will have one of the premier recreational areas in the state."
The $5.3 million revitalization project, which increases the usable area of both park and beach, was approved by the town in September 2013. The work is still under way, but Director of Parks and Recreation Dennis DiPinto said it looks like the project will come in according to budget, and that what was becoming a rundown facility will look fresh and modern again. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CNG gas line expansion largest in three decades
EAST HAMPTON >> With expressions of thanks and expectations of good things to come, ground was formally broken Thursday for a nine-mile extension of natural gas service into and through East Hampton. Work on the extension by Connecticut Natural Gas is already well underway in portions of both Portland and East Hampton. But the late morning event, which was held in front of the headquarters of the American Distilling Co., on East Main Street provided an opportunity for CNG, American Distilling and town officials to publicly signal their commitment and support for the project. And not just any project, according to Anthony Marone, CNG’s senior vice president for customer and business services.
“This is the largest expansion CNG has done over the last three decades,” Marone said. And it comes amidst a surge in CNG’s commitment to expand natural gas service in the Connecticut River Valley area, Marone said. Even as work continues to push the pipeline east from Portland, work is also continuing in Essex and is about to expand into Deep River as well, Marone said. The Deep River project will be CNG’s “third new community in three years,” said Ed Crowder, a spokesman for UIL Holdings Corp., CNG’s parent company. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Groton holds first community forum on new school construction plan
Groton — About 40 people attended the first of two community meetings Thursday on a proposal to build one new middle school and two new elementary schools at a cost to local taxpayers of $94.8 million.
The proposal, called the Groton 2020 Plan, would build a new 169,000-square-foot middle school next to Robert E. Fitch High School to create a campus environment, then build two new 86,000-square-foot elementary schools at the site of Carl C. Cutler and West Side middle schools.
The plan would reduce the total number of schools in Groton from 10 to 8, closing Pleasant Valley, Claude Chester and S.B. Butler elementary schools, which are an average of 62 years old.
Superintendent Michael Graner told the audience Groton has a "looming problem" in its public schools and must make them more effective, competitive and racially balanced. "We are inefficient," he said. "We have a racial imbalance problem that people are not interested in solving with another squiggling of lines."
The second community meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on May 28 in the Town Hall Annex.
The hour-long presentation focused on the need to improve educational quality by providing modern schools rather than spending more money to upgrade decades-old buildings. Attending to the capital needs of Groton's existing elementary schools alone would cost the district about $27 million, the presenters explained. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE