Groton – The Town Council is expected on Tuesday to send the proposed school construction plan to a referendum in November.
The town is seeking $141 million from the state to build one new middle school and two new elementary schools to deal with aging buildings and address a persistent racial imbalance problem that has forced Groton to repeatedly uproot students.
If the state agrees, the construction projects would cost Groton taxpayers $55 million, with the state picking up about 72 percent of the total cost of $195.6 million.
“I personally have done a whole 180 on the whole school building project,” said Karen Morton, a newly-elected Republican town councilor who formerly opposed building new schools. “I mean, if we can pull that off and the state approves that, that is a no-brainer.”
Groton would be able to build three new schools for what it would cost to refurbish the old ones, she said. The council will consider whether to authorize drafting a bond ordinance - the first step in the referendum process - during its committee of the whole meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Town Hall Annex. Councilors, including its four newly-elected members, heard details of the plan last week from the School Facilities Initiative Task Force.
Energy company looks to build in Killingly
KILLINGLY — A Florida-based energy company is looking to build a 550-megawatt natural gas center in Killingly, a project officials said will require hundreds of construction workers, lead to the creation of more than two dozen permanent jobs and have the potential to bring in millions in tax revenue NTE Energy proposes to invest $500 million to construct a combined-cycle, natural gas power plant on Lake Road in Dayville near the town’s industrial park. Project developers said the air-cooled plant has the potential to develop and sell enough electricity to the grid to power 550,000 homes The town’s role in the proposal is limited because the project would be built on private land, Town Manager Sean Hendricks said. “The property would have to be re-zoned for commercial/industrial use, but that’s something that was previously planned for that land per the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development,” he said. “And if the project gets approved, the town would see annual tax revenue in the multi-million amount, similar to what we get from the Lake Road Generating plant. A preliminary project schedule calls for making air quality permit and siting council applications to the state in the spring, with construction to begin in the summer of 2017. If the plan is approved, commercial operations would start in 2020. Elsie Bisset, the town’s economic development coordinator, said the projected 2 ½-year construction phase would require between 250-350 workers. “We had something similar when the Lake Road plant was built,” she said. “The workers ate at our restaurants, stayed in our hotels and even rented houses in the area – all of which means local revenue.” The plant is expected to employee 25-30 full-time employees once it’s up and running. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Transportation focuses on engineering innovation
Q&A talks about the challenges of urban infrastructure development with Carrie Rocha, associate vice president, Connecticut office leader of engineering-consulting firm HNTB Corp.
Q: Talk about improving I-84 through Hartford has been gathering steam as of late. What are going to be some of the engineering challenges if and when this project gets the green light?
A: There are many challenges to improving or replacing highways that run through major urban areas such as I-84 through Hartford. Engineers typically consider many alternatives and go through a lengthy process to determine those that meet project goals and improve safety and efficiency of travel along the highway as well as improving connections.
One major challenge is how to stage or phase construction to minimize impacts to the traveling public and allow access to neighborhoods, businesses and other destinations. Other challenges encountered on these projects include limited space for construction activities, the presence of pre-existing infrastructure such as above- and below-ground utilities, environmental and subsurface conditions, preservation of historic features and multi-modal connections.
Q: In the old days, i.e. currently, the tendency is to keep highways partially open while doing the work. But with I-84 there seems to be a sense of tearing it down and then building the new highway. What approach is going to work best and why? CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Massachusetts attorney general picks up fight against natural gas pipeline that would serve Connecticut
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has signaled that her office plans to confront Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Co. in court over access to Otis State Forest in Sandisfield to construct its new natural gas pipeline spur serving three utilities in Connecticut.
Kinder Morgan filed suit in Berkshire Superior Court last week seeking an injunction to allow immediate tree-cutting to begin along the nearly four-mile pipeline loop that cuts through state-protected land in Sandisfield. The court filing listed the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Department of Conservation and Recreation and its commissioner, Leo P. Roy, among the defendants.
Healey’s office confirmed that it will represent the state and the DCR and will file in opposition ahead of a court hearing on the case. “Our state Constitution protects conservation land across Massachusetts, including Otis State Forest,” Healey stated in an email message to The Berkshire Eagle. “Any company with plans to build on or re-purpose state-protected land has an obligation to fully comply with the requirements set forth in our Constitution.” Article 97, an amendment to the constitution, shields state-designated land from development. The state acquired as conservation land the woodlands including Spectacle Pond Farm for $5.2 million in 2007.
Kinder Morgan is seeking the court injunction because federal environmental guidelines limit tree-clearing to a period between Oct. 31 and March 31 through the provisions of the Endangered Species Act. The company’s construction schedule aims to put the pipeline into service next winter to supply the Connecticut utility companies with additional natural gas. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
NEW HAVEN >> The first two buildings at the 47-year-old Church Street South housing complex were being demolished Monday, a harbinger of things to come. Standard Demolition was hired by the property owners, Northland Investment Corp., to take down the laundry building and a separate daycare center. City Building Official Jim Turcio said both ancillary buildings on the site have not been in use for a long time. The laundry building was completely demolished by the end of Monday, with workers expected back Tuesday to complete the job on the daycare center.
The buildings were coming down with little fanfare with few people stopping to watch the demolition, which was on the Union Avenue side across from the train station.
The demolition company first removed all the material that had been left behind inside the two structures, separating the wood and other items so the concrete block can be put to another use.
Turcio said he does not have a schedule of when the apartment units themselves will start coming down.
The 301 units at Church Street South eventually all will be razed as the tenants in the deteriorated complex continue to move out. Serious mold and structural problems caused many of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development subsidized apartments to be condemned by Turcio and the Livable City Initiative, with 58 families sent to hotels since the summer.CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE