STAMFORD — Just when it seemed that the boatyard battle had moved beyond the blueprint for it, and on to who gets to vote on it, the developer submitted changes last week that could send the project back to square one.
“It’s essentially a new application,” said Dr. Damian Ortelli, chair of the Harbor Management Commission. “You can change a little bit here and there but if you’re making drastic changes it’s got to be fully reviewed by the boards again.”
If Building and Land Technology’s changes are significant enough to re-set the land use vetting process, the project would have to go back to the Harbor Management Commission and the Planning Board. The first two recommended denying the plan in the fall. The Zoning Board, which has the final say, was expected to wrap up its ongoing public hearing on it and possibly vote on it in the coming weeks.
Planning Board Chair Theresa Dell, who hadn’t seen the revisions, said she also thought significant changes should restart the review process. Her board also voted to deny the application, in October. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Tour of North Stonington schools highlights challenge of renovation
North Stonington — Emergency showers that don't drain, rooms that can't be heated properly, and windows built with hazardous materials are all problems that must be fixed in the town's schools, said members of the school administration and Ad Hoc School Building committee on a tour of the town's three school facilities last week.
Standing in an eighth-grade science classroom in Wheeler Middle School, Superintendent Peter Nero pointed to the emergency chemical shower, located above the teacher's chair.
"When this drains, it drains onto the floor. You've really got (potential) wastewater of a chemical nature on the floor. You also have electricity in three or four different spots here," he said, pointing to areas in the corner where the teacher's desk stood.
"This was supposed to be a temporary fix," he added.
The condition of science labs were one of the criticisms in last year's New England Association of Schools and Colleges report about Wheeler Middle/High School.
The report stated that "(the) science labs and equipment in their current state will increasingly limit science teachers' ability to carry out labs and group investigations, and longstanding concerns exist."
"We can do the book work with the kids, and they'll do well on the test, but the actual experimentation doesn't happen," Nero said.
The middle school labs lack sinks and gas hookups for experiments that require a flame, and the square footage limits the class size, barring some students from taking classes. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Vermont power line approval big step for Canadian power, southern New England
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Long-term plans to bring renewable Canadian electricity to the power-hungry markets of southern New England got a big boost when Vermont utility regulators approved a plan to build a 1,000-megawatt transmission line down Lake Champlain and across the state to feed the regional power grid, experts say.
TDI New England is still awaiting its final federal permits before it can begin construction and contracts to deliver power, but the system could become the first piece of a system to supply renewable electricity to Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Unlike the Northern Pass project proposed for northern New Hampshire, the $1.2 billion, privately funded TDI project faced no significant opposition in Vermont, something unusual for the state.
The difference is the entire TDI project, which would provide enough power for about 1 million homes, would be invisible. Almost 100 miles of cable would be laid on the bottom of Lake Champlain from the Canadian border to Benson, with the remaining 50 miles buried in public rights of way to Ludlow, where it would connect to the New England power grid.
"I think TDI did a stellar job of reaching out to everybody, all the stakeholders," said Chris Recchia, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, which works on behalf of ratepayers before the state's utility-regulating Public Service Board, who called it a "textbook case of how to do this right." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Cost Overruns For Yard Goats' Ballpark Began Early On
HARTFORD — The new year in Hartford was ushered in with troubling news: The Yard Goats would likely not be playing baseball in Hartford in April.
As it became clear that cost overruns for the city's new stadium had reached $10 million, there was anger and recrimination, shock and outrage — all erupting at a contentious meeting of the stadium authority last week.
But a Courant review of project documents and interviews with those involved in the stadium show that problems with costs began almost from the time ground was broken 11 months ago, and a half-dozen players weren't able to keep the project on track. "We were aware that we had an aggressive construction schedule, and there were challenges to $56 million that were being identified," Oz Griebel, president and chief executive of the MetroHartford Alliance and a member of the stadium authority, which has been overseeing development of Dunkin' Donuts Park. "I was under the clear impression that in regular meetings in the [construction] trailer there was discussion of both the schedule and the budget challenges."