Sikorsky runway closed for winter
BRIDGEPORT — One of two runways at the city’s Sikorsky Memorial Airport will be closed for the winter, the result of a federal review into operations there.
“The airport is still able to operate, but partially,” City Council President Thomas McCarthy, who also sits on the Airport Commission, said.
The Stratford-based airport has been in the midst of a long-delayed, runway-safety upgrade mandated after a 1994 plane crash that killed eight people. The focus of the work has been the already completed realignment of nearby Route 113 and installation of a bed of concrete-like material designed to decelerate aircraft that overshoot the runway.
The project also includes runway reconstruction, an upgraded drainage system and removal of hazardous waste.
The Federal Aviation Administration launched its review after a contractor, over Labor Day Weekend, allegedly drove a truck through an area where planes taxi.
No one was in danger, but the FAA takes such incidents very seriously and ordered the runway reconstruction stopped, pending a probe. The FAA began looking into safety protocols, training records and airport operations, and has yet to lift the work stoppage.
Even if it did, repaving cannot be done during the winter, said Brett Broesder, a spokesman for Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, another Airport Commission member.
“The city and the Sikorsky team are working with the FAA on a new safety plan for recommencing construction, (but) paving will not be undertaken until early spring,” Broesder said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Meriden awaits answer from HUD on downtown housing plan
MERIDEN — The city is expected to learn this week whether the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has accepted its final transformation plan for the downtown Choice Neighborhood.
A final draft of the report was submitted to HUD last week and a conference call on whether it’s accepted is set for Wednesday.
“We’ve had regular monthly meetings with them,” said Brian Daniels, a city councilor and chairman of the Choice Neighborhood planning team. “They’ve given us feedback and recommendations on the drafts.”
The transformational plan began in November 2013 and among other things includes proposals for replacing 140 units from the outdated Mills Memorial Apartments into mixed-income communities in the city’s Transit-Oriented District.
The Choice Neighborhood Initiative is a partnership between the Meriden Housing Authority and the city. Wallace Roberts & Todd of Pennsylvania was hired as planning coordinator and lead planner for the neighborhood portion of the plan. MHA and its procured developer, Pennrose Properties, will plan and build the housing. Meriden Children First oversees the social aspects of the plan.
The two-year study aims to provide a blueprint for improving educational, health and employment outcomes for families in the neighborhood, and recommends transportation, recreation and safety improvements, according to city leaders. A $500,000 HUD Choice Neighborhoods grant paid for the research and development of the final draft which included a survey of about 350 residents CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
In fact, Congress wants to take the $29 billion from the Fed and close the account for good too.
The Fed created this "surplus account," shortly after it began operating in 1914. The idea was that it would serve as a cushion to absorb any potential losses the Fed incurs.
However, many members of Congress believe that the Fed doesn't need the money any more and should be put to better use.
"It is appropriate to liquidate [the Fed's surplus] account to meet today's realities," Randy Neugebauer, a Republican Congressman from Texas, told the House earlier in November.
The House agreed, and overwhelmingly voted to include the Fed's billions in the highway bill.
However, some believe the move to dip into the Fed's cash is politically motivated and is just the latest in a series of salvos against the Fed from members of Congress.
The Fed doesn't want to look like Congress' bank account.
"To the extent that they're seen as a piggy bank, [that image] threatens them," says David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Attracting Future Construction Workers . . . in 140 Characters or Less
In the spring of this year, a Chicago concrete and building materials firm, Ozinga Bros., launched its “Born to Build” ad campaign to celebrate hard-working industry professionals. In England the year before, the UK Contractors Group launched a social media campaign also called “Born to Build” to attract fresh talent into the industry. Are the campaigns working?
U.S. campaigners were encouraged by responses to their initial burst of billboard, TV, radio, print, online and social media promotions and scheduled a second round. And in September, they introduced a game app called “Super Nano Trucks” to educate children about construction trades and to raise awareness of the industry among parents. Super Nano Truck game players can playfully mix concrete, deliver it, and ride other construction equipment.
Meanwhile, Born to Build organizers in England are trying to introduce school-age young people to the building going on around them and to make worker-age young adults “aware of what this great industry has to offer.” Organizers reported that some 1.2 million people were touched by the campaign in the first few days of its launch via video, Twitter, and a website. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Renovation, expansion project underway at Housatonic Community College
BRIDGEPORT >> Construction has started on a $37.5 million expansion and renovation to Lafayette Hall at Housatonic Community College.
The expansion will add 46,000 square feet to Lafayette Hall, which was the former Hi Ho Mall before the college moved there in 1997 from a former Singer sewing machine factory on Barnum Avenue on the city’s East Side. The addition will create a new welcome center, which school officials say will make it easier for students to enroll and register for classes.
The project also will expand and renovate the school’s library, academic support center and science labs, according to school officials.
“The new space will allow us to expand academic programs and provide new ones to meet today’s employment requirements,” Housatonic Community College President Paul Broadie said in a statement. “We are projecting adding programs specifically in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) courses.” The expansion and renovation project is expected to boost the city’s economy by adding more than 600 construction jobs. Work is expected to be finished sometime in the first half of 2017, just in time for the school’s 50th anniversary. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE