STAMFORD — After nearly two years without a permanent post office, the downtown will finally have a new location next spring.
The U.S. Postal Service confirmed this week that it would open a new post office at 550 Summer St. to replace the historic post office it closed in 2013.
“We looked at many, many properties,” Christine Dugas, spokesperson for the USPS, said of the search for a permanent replacement downtown. “Those we looked at didn’t meet our requirements. This one did.”
Dugas said it will take some time to convert the leased, 3,000-square-foot former bank building on Summer Street into a post office with three full-service counters and space for more than 1,000 post office boxes.
The post office boxes that were formerly located on Atlantic Street were moved to the USPS’ West Avenue location after the historic building closed.
News of the post office opening came as a welcome relief to city residents.
Larry Hillman, of Bedford Street, said it was inconvenient to go outside the neighborhood to other post offices in the city. “I’d be glad if there would be one on Summer Street,” he said.
Nathan Williams, who was running an errand downtown this week, agreed. “I always thought it was a mistake to close that one down there,” he said, pointing toward the Atlantic Street building. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
East Hampton High building project gets good news from state
Don’t blame town officials if they shoot off some skyrockets. They got the money.
For months, town officials had been on eggshells waiting to learn whether or not the state would pay its full share of the high school renovation project.
Earlier this week, the General Assembly passed legislation during a two-day special session that ensures the town will get the additional $7 million, state Rep. Melissa Ziobron said.
“I am thrilled that we were able to secure the reimbursement so the taxpayers of East Hampton can finally get this issue behind them so they can have certainty in the future,” Ziobron said Thursday.
Ziobron had led the effort to ensure East Hampton got the full share of the money. “I am very proud of my efforts.”
It was the lone bright spot amid recent turbulence during which officials dealt with the resignation of the superintendent of schools and the defeat of a third proposed town budget.The state had originally committed to pay half the cost of the $51 million school project.
Then, earlier this year, the state Department of Administrative Services reviewed the plans for the renovation of the school. DAS officials concluded dwindling enrollment at the high school could not justify the scale of renovation project the town had already begun. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Delayed Wallingford road paving leaves residents frustrated
WALLINGFORD — A road restoration project delayed since last year has left residents wondering when the town will get around to repaving the road, which is riddled with potholes, ridges and loose stones.
Tankwood Road is located off North Farms Road north of Route 68. Municipal crews started work on the road and replaced the storm drains last year, but have yet to repave the road. Last November, Public Works Director Henry McCully said the project took longer than expected due to unanticipated issues that arose once crews started working.
The project was postponed until the spring last November due to the seasonal closing of asphalt suppliers.
Sally Dillon, of 22 Tankwood Road, said she received notice from the town months ago that the project would pick up again in April.
“They said it would start in April and it would take about three weeks,” Dillon said last week, adding that she was never given any reason as to why the project has been delayed
“We’ve never been told anything,” Dillon said.
Public Works foreman Steven Palermo said an especially long and brutal winter delayed work even further. “The long winter unfortunately put everyone behind on their paving and we’re just waiting to get it in,” Palermo said.
While the completion date for the project remains undetermined, he said, “it will get done before the fall.” A municipal truck could be seen driving down the road this past Monday. Palermo said that was likely a patch truck.
Kathy Pommer, of 18 Tankwood Road, moved onto the street in January 2011. She said at that time the road was fine.
“The road was in great shape and it degraded really quickly” Pommer said. “I think it’s a high water table, it probably erodes from underneath.”
She noted many people in the neighborhood have issues with water in their basements. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
MONTVILLE – A new indoor sports complex in Montville is on track to open later this summer.
The facility planned for the Lombardi Business Park was announced in October, and construction on the 80,000 square-foot facility on Sachatello Drive, in the Oakdale section of town, started not long after that.
"It's coming along," Mayor Ronald McDaniel said. "It's supposed to be open by Labor Day."
The Wide World of Indoor Sports complex off of Route 85 will consist of four indoor soccer fields with office space for staff. There will be two concession bars for sale of drinks and pre-packaged food and a mezzanine to watch games.
The Montville project was initially scheduled to be complete in June, according to the Wide World of Indoor Sports website.
"They had some false starts and some issues, but are well underway now," McDaniel said.
McDaniel said the regional facility will benefit sports teams looking for a place to practice and play games. The fields can be used for soccer, lacrosse, flag football, softball and baseball, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CT uses patchwork approach to replace aging infrastructure
As a state in a region that are both the oldest per-capita in the nation, Connecticut would appear the most likely to feature a coordinated plan to speed the transition of its aging workforce into a younger, more technically agile one.
It doesn't.
Yet Connecticut's public and private sectors, keenly aware for at least the last two decades that it faced a day of reckoning with its graying population, are taking baby steps to try and confront and manage a dilemma that experts say will hit full flower in 2020.
That's when, according to demographers and policymakers, America's working-age population cohort born 1982 and later will begin outnumbering their Baby Boomer parents.
Jobs promoters say that while Connecticut lacks a coordinated public-private sector blueprint for diversifying the age-cohort of workers, it remains ahead of the curve with a patchwork-quilt of skills development, mentoring and internship initiatives that make it attractive for young people to stay or return to Connecticut to work, start a business, buy a home or raise a family. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Southington motorists to face detours this month
SOUTHINGTON — Motorists downtown and in parts of Plantsville, Milldale and Marion will likely bump into detours this month as several road repairs and a massive building demolition progress.
Keith Hayden, public works director, said Thursday that a section of Marion near Wolcott will have several projects this month that will require detours in that part of town.
School Street is being reconstructed and its grade lowered, County Road will be paved and a new box culvert will be installed on Old Mountain Road to replace a failing bridge, he said.
School Street will be closed to through traffic, as well as County and Old Mountain roads until work is done. Local traffic will be allowed so residents can come and go. School Street work should be done by mid-fall; the two other projects should be finished sooner, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State in search of contractor to run trains from New Haven to Springfield
HARTFORD — Even if the state can get construction of the troubled New Haven to Springfield commuter rail project back on course, there will still be a critical question lingering: Who is going to run the trains?
The answer is virtually certain to affect fares, service quality and possibly timetables on a project that several Connecticut communities are counting on to spur residential and business development near their rail stations.
The state transportation department in April began seeking proposals from prospective contractors, but it's not clear that anyone is stepping forward to bid. The DOT on Thursday declined to say whether it has received any formal proposals.
The most likely candidate would be Amtrak, which already holds the contract to operate Shore Line East for Connecticut. More important, Amtrak owns the entire 62-mile rail line between New Haven and Springfield, and currently runs a limited schedule of intercity trains.
But last month it was revealed that Amtrak is locked in an acrimonious dispute with Connecticut over who will pay to upgrade the line to accommodate high-frequency commuter service. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hamden pulls bond on 2 unfinished developments
HAMDEN >> Only once in her career in Hamden can Town Planner Leslie Creane remember a bond being called on an unfinished project — that is, until last month, when the Planning and Zoning Commission called not one but two bonds on developments that were never completed.
“It’s highly unusual,” Creane said of the bonds called on the Trailside Village development in Mount Carmel and Hamden Farms on State Street. “We have looked at calling one other bond in all the years I’ve been here.”Both of the projects in question were completed to the point where residents could move in the units, but other work — and in the case of Trailside Village, mandated work on town roads — has gone unfinished. When a developer is approved to construct a project, they are required to post a bond that will assure the work will be completed correctly. If it isn’t, the town has the right to call the bond and use the money to have the work done. Ordinarily, a developer will avoid having a bond called at all costs because of the affect it has on his business, Creane said.
“When we contact the bond holder — the insurance company, they contact the developer,” she said, which usually results in the work being completed. “It is really bad for their credit and reputation to have bond pulled,” she said. “Sometimes, they will come back finish it out, sometimes, the bond company will do that, and sometimes they will give town access to the money, but it very, very uncommon that we have had to call bonds.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State Street bridge nearing completion
NEW HAVEN >> What feels to New Haveners like the nation’s longest-running road construction project — no, not the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, it’s the State Street Bridge — could finally be nearing completion.
“Hopefully, by the middle of August it will be open,” said Vladislav Kaminsky, a supervising engineer for the state Department of Transportation, the agency overseeing the much-delayed bridge work. He’s not saying the construction crews would be completely done at that point. After the bridge is made accessible to traffic, more sidewalk work will be needed and walls added on both sides of the bridge. Kaminsky said this “miscellaneous” work will take a couple of months. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Yet Connecticut's public and private sectors, keenly aware for at least the last two decades that it faced a day of reckoning with its graying population, are taking baby steps to try and confront and manage a dilemma that experts say will hit full flower in 2020.
That's when, according to demographers and policymakers, America's working-age population cohort born 1982 and later will begin outnumbering their Baby Boomer parents.
Jobs promoters say that while Connecticut lacks a coordinated public-private sector blueprint for diversifying the age-cohort of workers, it remains ahead of the curve with a patchwork-quilt of skills development, mentoring and internship initiatives that make it attractive for young people to stay or return to Connecticut to work, start a business, buy a home or raise a family. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Southington motorists to face detours this month
SOUTHINGTON — Motorists downtown and in parts of Plantsville, Milldale and Marion will likely bump into detours this month as several road repairs and a massive building demolition progress.
Keith Hayden, public works director, said Thursday that a section of Marion near Wolcott will have several projects this month that will require detours in that part of town.
School Street is being reconstructed and its grade lowered, County Road will be paved and a new box culvert will be installed on Old Mountain Road to replace a failing bridge, he said.
School Street will be closed to through traffic, as well as County and Old Mountain roads until work is done. Local traffic will be allowed so residents can come and go. School Street work should be done by mid-fall; the two other projects should be finished sooner, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State in search of contractor to run trains from New Haven to Springfield
HARTFORD — Even if the state can get construction of the troubled New Haven to Springfield commuter rail project back on course, there will still be a critical question lingering: Who is going to run the trains?
The answer is virtually certain to affect fares, service quality and possibly timetables on a project that several Connecticut communities are counting on to spur residential and business development near their rail stations.
The state transportation department in April began seeking proposals from prospective contractors, but it's not clear that anyone is stepping forward to bid. The DOT on Thursday declined to say whether it has received any formal proposals.
The most likely candidate would be Amtrak, which already holds the contract to operate Shore Line East for Connecticut. More important, Amtrak owns the entire 62-mile rail line between New Haven and Springfield, and currently runs a limited schedule of intercity trains.
But last month it was revealed that Amtrak is locked in an acrimonious dispute with Connecticut over who will pay to upgrade the line to accommodate high-frequency commuter service. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hamden pulls bond on 2 unfinished developments
HAMDEN >> Only once in her career in Hamden can Town Planner Leslie Creane remember a bond being called on an unfinished project — that is, until last month, when the Planning and Zoning Commission called not one but two bonds on developments that were never completed.
“It’s highly unusual,” Creane said of the bonds called on the Trailside Village development in Mount Carmel and Hamden Farms on State Street. “We have looked at calling one other bond in all the years I’ve been here.”Both of the projects in question were completed to the point where residents could move in the units, but other work — and in the case of Trailside Village, mandated work on town roads — has gone unfinished. When a developer is approved to construct a project, they are required to post a bond that will assure the work will be completed correctly. If it isn’t, the town has the right to call the bond and use the money to have the work done. Ordinarily, a developer will avoid having a bond called at all costs because of the affect it has on his business, Creane said.
“When we contact the bond holder — the insurance company, they contact the developer,” she said, which usually results in the work being completed. “It is really bad for their credit and reputation to have bond pulled,” she said. “Sometimes, they will come back finish it out, sometimes, the bond company will do that, and sometimes they will give town access to the money, but it very, very uncommon that we have had to call bonds.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State Street bridge nearing completion
NEW HAVEN >> What feels to New Haveners like the nation’s longest-running road construction project — no, not the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, it’s the State Street Bridge — could finally be nearing completion.
“Hopefully, by the middle of August it will be open,” said Vladislav Kaminsky, a supervising engineer for the state Department of Transportation, the agency overseeing the much-delayed bridge work. He’s not saying the construction crews would be completely done at that point. After the bridge is made accessible to traffic, more sidewalk work will be needed and walls added on both sides of the bridge. Kaminsky said this “miscellaneous” work will take a couple of months. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE