NEWINGTON — The Town Council approved hiring a Hamden-based building consultant for $30,000 this week, to take a second look at the structural condition and needs of Town Hall.
After completing the study Diversified Technology Consultants will request an additional $16,000 for construction cost estimates, to include a top-to-bottom building rehaul as well as a more simple renovation.
Town Facilities Manager David Langdon told the council Tuesday that the building’s poor condition is making his job and those of fellow town employees more difficult. An emergency sewer repair briefly closed Town Hall for several days in October, he pointed out, and that’s just one example of the structure’s failing systems.
“I’ve inherited a mess,” Langdon said. “Some of the original mechanical units date back to 1950. Hiring DTC to be our second set of eyes can do a world of good,” he said. “They are the right fit for what we need to accomplish to get this project going.”
Architect Kaestle Boos and contractor Downes Construction conducted structural analyses last year and devised several different plans for renovating and reconstructing the building. These proposals were put forth by the building committee charged with planning the long-awaited project, but deemed too costly by the public. The last $34.5 million plan failed to gain residents’ approval in a public hearing in October, leading elected officials to put the project on hold as they reconsidered their options.
Mayor Roy Zartarian suggested hiring an outside firm to conduct another study, after which the council could give the committee direction on how to proceed.
“We’ve got to decide which direction we’re going to go in based on the engineers’ report,” he said this week.
Langdon ensured officials that DTC was the right fit for Newington. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Delivery of 208-foot Wallingford linear trail bridge expected Thursday
WALLINGFORD — Four sections of a 208-foot bridge crossing the Quinnipiac River are scheduled to be delivered Thursday and will be installed as part of Phase 3 of the Linear Trail expansion.
The bridge was made in Alexandria, Minnesota, according to Democratic State Rep. Mary Mushinsky, who also serves on the Quinnipiac River Linear Trail Advisory Committee. On Jan. 17, four trucks left Minnesota to deliver the segments to Wallingford, according to Kevin Nursick, spokesman with the state Department of Transportation.
Contractors began working on the site in June 2015. Phase 3 of the project, which expands the trail into Yalesville, is expected to cost $2.4 million and is slated to be completed in July 2016.
The bridge sections are scheduled to arrive on site between 7 and 10 a.m. During this time, the first section of the bridge will be installed on the first abutment, which is closest to Route 15. From 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., the crane will move north to abutment 2 on Fireworks Island.
From 12:30 to 1 p.m., visitors will be allowed to access abutment 1 from Warehouse Point Road. At the same time, the second, third and fourth sections of the bridge will be installed.
Since the bridge is being delivered in four sections — each segment will be 52 feet long — Town Engineer Rob Baltramaitis said he does not expect the delivery to impact traffic. He added roads will not be closed.
“Other than a big day with construction of Phase 3, certainly it’s a milestone day, but it’s nothing unique about the delivery process of the bridge,” Baltramaitis said.
Mushinsky said she and the committee have been anxiously awaiting the bridge delivery. They were told the bridge could not be delivered until after the new year to ensure the roads were open for holiday traffic. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hartford mayor Luke Bronin announced Wednesday morning that the city has reached a settlement with the developer of Dunkin' Donuts stadium and its Double A tenant baseball team, the Hartford Yard Goats. It sets a May 17 completion date of the stadium, with the first pitch likely being thrown as early as May 31.
The settlement calls for the Yard Goats to put up $2 million and for the developer, DoNo Hartford LLC, to put up $2.3 million in the form of higher payments in lieu of taxes to the city for its proposed mixed-used development downtown. DoNo Hartford will also pay approximately $225,000 per year in additional taxes on the DoNo development for the life of any bonds issued by the city or the Hartford Stadium Authority.
Hartford taxpayers initially will have to shoulder $5.5 million in additional debt to fund about $10.4 million in stadium cost overruns. However, additional tax payments from DoNo will offset that amount to $3.5 million leaving the city on the hook for about a third of the funding gap.
The stadium's original pricetag was $56 million, but the project developer, Middletown-based Centerplan Cos., revealed in December that the project was about $10 million over budget.
"Nobody is standing here waving a 'Mission Accomplished' banner," Bronin said, adding there is still more work to do. "This represents our best effort … to protect the long-term interests of city taxpayers."
Centerplan, in a statement, praised Bronin's leadership. It said his "swift action to convene key stakeholders" protected the stadium and the interest of taxpayers. Company officials said it also sets a path for the progress of future projects.
WEST HARTFORD — Even though it will affect his street, resident John Dolan agreed that Eversource Energy's plan to build a 3.8-mile underground transmission line is necessary."We don't really have a choice," Dolan said at an open house Wednesday night to discuss the plan. "For reliable electricity, this needs to be done."
Eversource hosted the two-hour open house Wednesday to explain the project to residents in the three towns affected. Residents were able to talk with Eversource officials at four interactive kiosks, as well as see maps of the proposed routes and the project's municipal filings.
The company plans to build the transmission line through Newington, West Hartford and Hartford, with the majority in West Hartford. The line will run between the Newington substation and the southwest Hartford substation, near New Park Avenue.
The 115-kilovolt line aims to increase power reliability and "build redundancy" into Eversource's system, adding another path for the electric current to flow, Eversource spokesman Frank Poirot said. All improvements will be made underneath the street or underground, with nothing visible aboveground except for manhole covers, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Building of senior housing begins in Seymour
SEYMOUR — Construction started Monday on a downtown senior housing complex.
The project to build 26 apartments in a five-story building at 38 Columbus St. is funded through a $4.7 million Competitive Housing Assistance for Multifamily Properties grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The building will be above an existing parking lot next to the senior apartments in the former Eckhardt Furniture Building at 16 Bank St., according to Joseph Migani, senior architect at O'Riordan Migani Architects. He built those 12 senior units above four retail locations as the first phase of the project in 2008.
The new Columbus Street building will include a community room for seniors to gather and socialize, Migani said. Under the zoning ordinance, the project should have had one parking space per unit, but the commission waved that requirement and allowed the proposal to include four spaces on public parking lots within 300 feet of the site. Migani said a predevelopment loan of $250,000 paid for a survey, test borings, marketing analysis, permit drawings and specifications, allowing him to apply for the CHAMP grant. Although he didn't get any money from the federal homeland bank board as he had originally hoped, Migani said CHAMP made up the difference when it awarded the grant in April 2014. "The wheels of progress grind slowly," Migani said. He said he couldn't have gotten funding from market rate bank financing because the below market rents wouldn't pay for it.
With the state funding, the state will dictate rents on the project for 30 years. The maximum rent for a one-bedroom apartment, set by the department of Housing and Urban Development, is currently about $813 for a single person, Migani said. "It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it's a good public policy initiative," Migani said. "We're in this for generations, managing this state funded project." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Oxford voters get another chance to speak out on power plant tax deal
OXFORD — Hundreds of residents who voted down a tax stabilization plan for the CPV Towantic Energy center at a town meeting in September will have another say on the proposal next month.
This time, all registered voters can make their voices heard at a daylong referendum on Feb. 8 at Quaker Farms School. "I think the results are going to be different," First Selectman George R. Temple said. On Sept. 3, more than 500 people packed the auditorium at Oxford High School and voted 331-192 against approving the plan during the contentious meeting. Many of those who voted 'no' did so because they believed it would send a strong signal to CPV that taxpayers didn't want the company's proposed 785 megawatt power plant, at any cost. Temple says that is the wrong way to look at the tax proposal. "The opponents thought they would just go away," Temple said. "They are not going away." Following the meeting, Temple said Oxford would have to revert to a tax plan approved in 1999 when a previous version of the power plant was proposed. That plan called for Oxford to receive $52.8 million. However, Temple renegotiated with the company and the two sides made minor changes to the proposal, which still calls for Oxford to receive $112 million payment in lieu of taxes. "We wanted the whole town to have a say, not just a room full of people, which was packed by the opponents, to have a say," he said.
CPV plans to pay Oxford $7 million in up front costs before construction and bring $5.3 million to the grand list annually, according to documents on the town's website.
CPV's $1 billion project has been approved by the Connecticut Siting Council, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Oxford resident Herman Schuler, the town's former economic development director, says the money will "secure Oxford's financial future, support Oxford's long-standing development strategy, fund future tax reductions and put money in our pocket."
In a letter he wrote that was published in this past Sunday Republican, Schuler states that a no vote will not stop the power plant from being built, which the company also says is true.
"Simply put, a 'yes' vote adds $112.3 million to town revenues," he states. "A 'no' vote leaves things as they are, providing only $56.5 million to finance tax reductions and worthy new projects, like the new town library and proposed elementary school."
Eversource hosted the two-hour open house Wednesday to explain the project to residents in the three towns affected. Residents were able to talk with Eversource officials at four interactive kiosks, as well as see maps of the proposed routes and the project's municipal filings.
The company plans to build the transmission line through Newington, West Hartford and Hartford, with the majority in West Hartford. The line will run between the Newington substation and the southwest Hartford substation, near New Park Avenue.
The 115-kilovolt line aims to increase power reliability and "build redundancy" into Eversource's system, adding another path for the electric current to flow, Eversource spokesman Frank Poirot said. All improvements will be made underneath the street or underground, with nothing visible aboveground except for manhole covers, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Building of senior housing begins in Seymour
SEYMOUR — Construction started Monday on a downtown senior housing complex.
The project to build 26 apartments in a five-story building at 38 Columbus St. is funded through a $4.7 million Competitive Housing Assistance for Multifamily Properties grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The building will be above an existing parking lot next to the senior apartments in the former Eckhardt Furniture Building at 16 Bank St., according to Joseph Migani, senior architect at O'Riordan Migani Architects. He built those 12 senior units above four retail locations as the first phase of the project in 2008.
The new Columbus Street building will include a community room for seniors to gather and socialize, Migani said. Under the zoning ordinance, the project should have had one parking space per unit, but the commission waved that requirement and allowed the proposal to include four spaces on public parking lots within 300 feet of the site. Migani said a predevelopment loan of $250,000 paid for a survey, test borings, marketing analysis, permit drawings and specifications, allowing him to apply for the CHAMP grant. Although he didn't get any money from the federal homeland bank board as he had originally hoped, Migani said CHAMP made up the difference when it awarded the grant in April 2014. "The wheels of progress grind slowly," Migani said. He said he couldn't have gotten funding from market rate bank financing because the below market rents wouldn't pay for it.
With the state funding, the state will dictate rents on the project for 30 years. The maximum rent for a one-bedroom apartment, set by the department of Housing and Urban Development, is currently about $813 for a single person, Migani said. "It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it's a good public policy initiative," Migani said. "We're in this for generations, managing this state funded project." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Oxford voters get another chance to speak out on power plant tax deal
OXFORD — Hundreds of residents who voted down a tax stabilization plan for the CPV Towantic Energy center at a town meeting in September will have another say on the proposal next month.
This time, all registered voters can make their voices heard at a daylong referendum on Feb. 8 at Quaker Farms School. "I think the results are going to be different," First Selectman George R. Temple said. On Sept. 3, more than 500 people packed the auditorium at Oxford High School and voted 331-192 against approving the plan during the contentious meeting. Many of those who voted 'no' did so because they believed it would send a strong signal to CPV that taxpayers didn't want the company's proposed 785 megawatt power plant, at any cost. Temple says that is the wrong way to look at the tax proposal. "The opponents thought they would just go away," Temple said. "They are not going away." Following the meeting, Temple said Oxford would have to revert to a tax plan approved in 1999 when a previous version of the power plant was proposed. That plan called for Oxford to receive $52.8 million. However, Temple renegotiated with the company and the two sides made minor changes to the proposal, which still calls for Oxford to receive $112 million payment in lieu of taxes. "We wanted the whole town to have a say, not just a room full of people, which was packed by the opponents, to have a say," he said.
CPV plans to pay Oxford $7 million in up front costs before construction and bring $5.3 million to the grand list annually, according to documents on the town's website.
CPV's $1 billion project has been approved by the Connecticut Siting Council, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Oxford resident Herman Schuler, the town's former economic development director, says the money will "secure Oxford's financial future, support Oxford's long-standing development strategy, fund future tax reductions and put money in our pocket."
In a letter he wrote that was published in this past Sunday Republican, Schuler states that a no vote will not stop the power plant from being built, which the company also says is true.
"Simply put, a 'yes' vote adds $112.3 million to town revenues," he states. "A 'no' vote leaves things as they are, providing only $56.5 million to finance tax reductions and worthy new projects, like the new town library and proposed elementary school."