SOUTHINGTON – A proposed expansion to Tilcon’s Plainville quarrying operation could add 75 acres to Southington’s open space holdings.
Under the deal, which requires approval from the General Assembly, Tilcon would preserve 275 acres of company-owned land as open space in exchange for permission to quarry on land included in the Shuttle Meadow Reservoir watershed. The land is located in Plainville but owned by New Britain.
Southington stands to gain 75 acres of open space and Plainville 157. New Britain will get both open space acres as well as lease payments from Tilcon for the use of its land.
The company owns about 75 acres in Southington adjacent to and west of the Crescent Lake property.
Town officials and state legislators were supportive of the deal, which was introduced to the General Assembly as Senate Bill 300. It’s before the public health committee and must be voted on by March 23.
State Rep. David Zoni, a Democrat representing Southington, said town officials had no objections to the plan. A few people at the March 7 public hearing in Hartford spoke about the environmental impact of the plan but Zoni said there wasn’t any strong opposition.
“It seems like a win-win for the town,” he said. “I didn’t find anything objectionable about it.”
State Rep. Joe Aresimowicz, Democratic majority leader representing Southington and Berlin, said he hasn’t taken a public position on the plan since it’s still before the public health committee. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The Transportation Committee voted to send the joint resolution to the House of Representatives for consideration. The amendment said the General Assembly will direct the resources of the fund solely for transportation purposes, including the payment of debt service on obligations of the state incurred for transportation purposes.
"This is the definition of a structural budgetary change, and it will protect transportation dollars," Malloy said in a statement.
The special transportation fund lockbox amendment, if it passes the legislature, will be voted on by voters in the November 2018 statewide elections.
Kinder Morgan wins federal approval for CT pipeline
Kinder Morgan has won a key federal approval of its proposed 13-mile natural gas pipeline expansion, part of which will touch Hartford County.
FERC issued a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the $86 million project on March 11 to Kinder Morgan subsidiary Tennessee Pipeline Co.
FERC, which has authority over interstate gas pipelines, approved three proposed "loops," which will touch Connecticut, Western Massachusetts and Albany County, New York.
Tennessee Pipeline already has agreements to sell the gas to Avangrid's Connecticut Natural Gas Corp. and Southern Connecticut Gas Co. and Eversource's Yankee Gas. In all, they would receive approximately 72,000 dekatherms of gas per day from the project.
Various concerns were raised by opponents, including Mass Audubon, citizen groups and others.
FERC shot down arguments about the proposed pipeline's potential impact on carbon emissions, Tennessee Pipeline's financial security and pipeline maintenance capabilities. FERC said some worries, such as those about fracking and national energy policy, were beyond its jurisdictional reach.
In Massachusetts, where 26 acres of Otis State Forest would be impacted by the expansion, there's opposition from some lawmakers and residents, and the matter may be challenged in federal court, according to MassLive.
Meanwhile, Kinder Morgan said in an announcement that it intends to complete construction by fall, soon enough for the gas to flow by 2016-2017 winter heating season.
Glastonbury’s Gemma to begin N.C. construction
Glastonbury's Gemma Power Systems said it has received the go-ahead to begin engineering, procurement and construction work on a natural gas-fired power plant in North Carolina.
Gemma first announced the contract with NTE Energy for the 475-megawatt plant last year.
Gemma also has a contract with NTE for a second plant of the same size, located in Ohio.
Both projects are slated for completion in 2018.
DOT: $330 Million I-84 Waterbury Job Beating Schedule
WATERBURY — The $330 million widening of I-84 in Waterbury is nearly a year ahead of schedule, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced on Tuesday, and he used the occasion to advance his campaign for a "lockbox" to protect transportation funding.
Drivers can expect that by mid-2019, a longtime bottleneck on the highway will be widened to three lanes in both directions, he said.
At a press conference surrounded by cranes and dump trucks, Malloy said the I-84 work shows Connecticut can keep major construction projects within budget and on or ahead of schedule.
He said it's also a symbol of why the transportation network needs massive, long-term investment after decades of neglect, and insisted the lockbox is an essential starting point. The General Assembly's transportation committee endorsed the lockbox proposal Monday, but many Republican lawmakers warned they will vote "no" if it reaches a full Senate or House vote without improvements.
Malloy blasted Republican critics of the current version of the lockbox proposal, dismissing their objections as "political games." But later he said he wouldn't rule out revising the proposal if that would attract enough GOP support to pass the measure.
"I'd never say never. I'm not saying no," Malloy responded when asked if he'd negotiate ways to strengthen the lockbox proposal with Republican and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly.
But the governor stressed that he's not willing to add so many new terms that it erodes Democratic support. He called on Republican legislators to let taxpayers vote the proposal up or down in November.
"I say 'Allow your fellow citizens to decide if they want it,' " Malloy said. "Why don't you allow it on the ballot?" CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Malloy: I-84 work 10 months ahead of schedule
WATERBURY — The Interstate 84 reconstruction project is 10 months ahead of schedule and "basically" on budget, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday The work to widen a 2.7-mile stretch of I-84 between Washington Street and Pierpont Road began last March. It was scheduled to be finished by June 2020, with monetary incentives for the contractors to finish most of work by 2019.
As of Tuesday, Malloy said the project is on track to be finished by summer 2019. "This is the result of the dedication of more than 250 people hard at work on this project, and to those workers I want to say thank you," Malloy said. Also, Malloy said the warmer-than-usual weather has allowed construction to continue during the winter. The primary contractors on the project are Empire Paving of North Haven and Yonkers Contracting of New York. About half of the $300 million project cost is funded by state money. Malloy, standing on a podium on the future I-84 alignment just west of Harpers Ferry Road, also made a pitch for a transportation lockbox that would ensure state money reserved for transportation is used for that purpose. "While we can celebrate the work that's been done, we need to look forward to the work that needs to be done in the state of Connecticut," Malloy said. He encouraged people to support a constitutional amendment that would create a transportation lockbox, which he said would allow Connecticut to "catch up with and surpass" other states.
"We all know that past administrations ignored the transportation problems of this state, while neighboring states invested mightily in transportation," Malloy said. "That's one of the differences between our state's economic recovery and other states' economic recoveries. We failed to make the investments necessary to allow our economy to grow, and we failed to make those investments over a 40 year period." Malloy cited statistics that say the average working Connecticut resident spends 42 hours a year stuck in traffic — "not because of accidents or because work is being done, but because we didn't keep pace with a number of cars using the system," Malloy said. That equates to $4 billion to $5 billion in lost productivity a year, he said. Along with the Waterbury project, Malloy said the widening of I-84 from Waterbury to Danbury should be a priority, along with adding a lane along Interstate 95 from Stonington to Greenwich, replacing the Mixmaster in Waterbury and rebuilding the Hartford viaduct. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE