STAMFORD — It’s a well-watched construction site.
Neighbors have been eyeballing it almost since work began in November 2014.
Maybe it’s because the 17 acres at Scofieldtown and Rockrimmon roads have been an eyesore for generations — landfill, dilapidated park, recycling center, a place to compost leaves and store road salt — and neighbors are anxious to see the finished product.
City engineers hired AMEC Construction to cap the contaminated landfill, cover it with a membrane then top that with 2 feet of clean soil. About half the site will be a new park and the rest will house a recycling center and road-salt shed.
Neighbors have noted the increasing height of the berm, the rolls of membrane piled at the edges of the work site, and the big red dump trucks that come and go in an endless line.
It’s the ever-busy rock-crushing machines, though, that raise eyebrows the most. Workers continuously load chunks of stone and cement into the crushers, screen the processed material, load it into dump trucks and haul it away.
Some neighbors have written to city and state officials to say something’s fishy. At least one neighbor followed a few of the dump trucks, capturing the trips on video.
A couple of weeks ago, a flier appeared in neighbors’ mailboxes. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Testing the waters: City plans to enter deal with Tilcon to develop new reservoir
NEW BRITAIN — City officials have dusted off a plan to develop a clean-water reservoir on the site of the Tilcon quarry off Black Rock Avenue, almost 10 years after a nearly-identical proposal died at the state Capitol.
In the plan, New Britain leases to Tilcon a 131-acre quarry site that the company will use for mining while creating a new drinking water reserve. The 40-year agreement would ultimately produce a reservoir on 239 acres of watershed property and 327 acres of open space spread out between New Britain and the abutting towns of Plainville and Southington.
Mayor Erin Stewart said on Wednesday she was determined that the reservoir plan would not succumb to the same fate as a 2007 deal that was approved by the legislature but eventually repealed. To combat a carbon-copy campaign of “misinformation and interference of politics” that Stewart said killed the proposal a decade ago, detailed letters were hand-delivered last week to city residents living near the Tilcon site. At a forum hosted by the city at Lincoln School Wednesday night, nearly 60 people showed up to hear additional details of the project and ask questions of city leaders, Tilcon and the water department.
“While we’re trying to get the bill raised in the Public Health Committee, we also want to get feedback from the residents in the process,” said Stewart. “A mistake that was made (in 2007) was that it was started late in the legislative process and it ended up getting tacked on to another bill and some people felt they didn’t have all the proper information.”
Gilbert Bligh, deputy director of the city’s public works department, said the proposal was resurrected because, like in 2007, water levels last year concerned officials as the Shuttle Meadow Reservoir experienced a “reoccurring interval of going in and out of water supply droughts.” He said the development of the quarry site has the potential to add 4.75-billion gallons to the reserves. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Villa Capri closing in July, proposal calls for demolition of building for construction of Cumberland Farms
WALLINGFORD — The Mesite family will be closing its banquet facility, Villa Capri, in July after 56 years of business. The family has been in negotiations with Cumberland Farms, which is proposing to build a gas station and convenience store on the Route 5 property.
Villa Capri will close on July 31, 2016, according to a statement by the family.
“It was a difficult decision for the family to close the Villa Capri, but we have decided to move on to the next chapter in our lives while keeping many fond, wonderful memories,” the statement read. “We have had many offers in the past, but at this time in our lives, our family has decided to entertain an offer so that we can continue to concentrate on running all of our Sonic of CT franchise stores, while building our brand, and our current business investments along with new ventures to come.”
Villa Capri was founded in 1960 by George and Rosalie Mesite and started primarily as a restaurant featuring Italian cuisine. Villa Capri originally opened at 728 N. Colony Road and moved farther north into a larger location at 906 N. Colony Road.
Villa Capri evolved into a banquet facility and a venue to host weddings and other events. The building can accommodate up to 400 guests, according to its website.
Gina Mesite Mueller said the decision to close was hard for the family.
“We refused a lot of offers over the years. It’s (a) heartfelt (decision) for us,” she said. “This was my dad’s legacy. He touched a lot of people with this place. He built a name for himself.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
ISO-NE's 10th annual forward-capacity auction (FCA) wrapped up last week, securing more than 34,000 megawatts worth of commitments for 2019-2020. Preliminary results reported by ISO-NE pegged the total cost of the commitments at approximately $3 billion, down from $4 billion in last year's auction for 2018-2019.
Generators that cleared FCA 10 will receive monthly payments during the delivery year in exchange for their promise to provide power to the grid when called upon.
More than 1,400 megawatts of new power plants cleared the auction.
ISO-NE CEO Gordon van Welie said in a statement that power developers are attracted to the forward capacity market because it places "an appropriate value" on constructing new plants to meet future demand. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Alexion expands to all of 100 College St., so Yale buys 350 George
NEW HAVEN >> Yale University has bought property from Carter Winstanley to provide more laboratory space for its medical school researchers, now that Alexion Pharmaceuticals will occupy every floor of its new headquarters at 100 College St.
The $16.5 million sale is for the office building at 350 George St. that Frontier Communications sold to WE Acquisitions in October, a structure originally used by the Southern New England Telephone Co. Winstanley bought the three-story office building and an adjacent four-story garage for $20 million in October. The sale to Yale took place in mid-November and does not include the 490-space garage.
Bruce Alexander, Yale’s vice president and director of New Haven and state affairs, said that originally, when Winstanley was overseeing the construction of 100 College St., Yale had committed to taking 110,000 square feet in the research lab building.
The building is the first major structure in the Downtown Crossing, where the state and the city plan to reclaim about 12 acres of land that was part of the Route 34 connector, a move that begins to reknit downtown with the Hill neighborhood. As Alexion projected its growing space needs, Alexander said it first asked Yale if it could occupy half of the space the university was counting on at 100 College St. It later requested the rest of the 110,000 square feet. “We wanted to support Alexion’s growth in downtown New Haven,” Alexander said of Yale’s willingness to give up the lease. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Renovation draws 4 bids
WOODBURY — Four companies submitted bids to be the owner's project manager for the Nonnewaug High School renovation project. The Region 14 building committee overseeing the $63.8 million project sent out a request for owner's project manager bids and received the proposals at its regular meeting Tuesday night.
The four companies are Colliers International, Construction Solutions Group, CREC Construction Division and The Morganti Group Inc.
Region 14 Superintendent Anna Cutaia-Leonard said this is where committee members' homework begins as they will study all four proposals.
The firms will each give 30-minute presentations to committee members in executive session at the next building committee meeting on March 1.
Cutaia-Leonard said that after hearing the four proposals, the committee may recommend one firm as its top choice. uilding Committee Chairman George Bauer said the chosen owner's project manager will work on behalf of the school district supervising the project budget and schedule, and will work with local agencies on issues pertaining to land use and wetlands.
The committee is also working to complete the contract with the project architect, after which the architect will begin meeting with educators to confirm their needs, Cutaia-Leonard said.
The committee will also be looking for a project construction manager shortly thereafter, she said.
Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury serves students primarily in the Region 14 towns of Woodbury and Bethlehem.