WESTPORT — Plans to construct sewer lines for Joann Circle, Acorn Lane and Clover Road, at a cost of nearly $900,000, are raising concerns among homeowners on those streets.
The project will affect 39 properties, with an estimated cost of $22,738.21 assessed per unit. Once the sewer system is completed, the residents have the option of paying their assessed share of the cost over a 19-year period. If they want to hook up to the sewers, they have to hire their own contractor to make the connection and dispose of their septic tanks.
Public Works Director Steve Edwards told the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday the annual sewer fee could range from $300 to $700, based on a household’s water use.
Jack Mail, who lives on Joann Circle, told the selectmen he is concerned that construction work might overlap with the start of the new school year and its impact on neighborhood traffic.
"I’m a little disturbed at what’s going on here because I called a couple of weeks ago and I was told that the construction would start a lot earlier," Mail said. "There are many logistical problems here that I see. First of all, the traffic, you have a lot of school buses coming down Joann Circle going to the middle school and Staples." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
FedEx breaks ground on new Middletown hub slated for 2018 opening
MIDDLETOWN >> Months after FedEx Ground announced plans to build a new distribution hub in Middletown, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and city officials gathered Thursday to celebrate the project’s groundbreaking.
The new 525,000-square-foot package-sorting facility will be located at the former Aetna campus at 1000 Middle St., which has remained vacant for the past five years.
In 2010, Aetna closed its doors in Middletown, started moving its employees out and demolished the buildings during the following years. But for the 30 years that the health insurance company operated out of Middletown, Mayor Daniel Drew said the corporation created a level of activity that was unmatched. Since then, the city has been searching for a company that could restore those job opportunities.
“The property has been vacant since 2011. It created a sort of hole in our local budget,” Drew said. “(FedEx Ground will) provide a vitality to this part of the city that it has been lacking since 2011.”
FedEx Ground purchased the site for $18 million in March, and is expected to spend $220 million on construction costs.
In addition to the establishment of the Middletown hub, the company plans on opening three other U.S. facilities in Florida, New Jersey and California this year. Once the city’s facility is completed, it will be the second hub in the greater Hartford area. According to Alex Kapinos, FedEx Ground manager of the northeast region, through this new state-of-the-art facility the company will be able to continue to provide service not only in the Hartford area but along the East Coast.
The establishment of FedEx Ground’s Middletown distribution hub is part of a major nationwide expansion which includes 516 distribution centers. Just this fiscal year, FedEx Ground invested $1.6 billion in the company’s network expansion. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Developer’s vision for downtown Wallingford apartment complex wins PZC approval
WALLINGFORD — Plans for a downtown apartment complex near the new train station, approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission Monday night, complement the town’s Transit-Oriented Development Plan, officials say. The complex will include two newly-constructed apartment buildings and an addition on a third existing building, adding just fewer than 200 apartments within walking distance to the train station and retailers.
The project is helmed by Branford-based development company JFA Management and will merge three properties – 53 Parker St., 75 Parker St. and 367 Washington St. – into one cohesive complex with 313 apartments spread across two new buildings and an addition to a third already existing on site.
Representatives from JFA Management could not be reached for comment regarding the project Tuesday.
JFA Management has entered into a contract to purchase 75 Parker St. from Davenport Associates. According to the town assessor’s office, the parcel is 2.33 acres and has a market value of $1,172,300. The adjacent property, 367 Washington St., is 2.70 acres and with a market value of $955,900. Planned for the properties are two new three-story apartment buildings with a total of 136 apartments between them. The Parker Place apartment complex at 53 Parker Street sits on 4.08 acres and has a market value of $6,657,800. That site already contains 120 apartments, and plans call for construction of an addition with 57 new apartments. The plan will add 193 apartments, which will be a mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.
The final vision for the plan will merge all three properties into a unified complex with three apartment buildings and a clubhouse. Plans show landscaped areas and tree islands sprinkled throughout the development’s vast parking lot. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
WALLINGFORD — Work on the town’s new train station is progressing, with a walkway spanning the tracks starting to take shape.
As part of the CTrail Hartford Line, which will extend from New Haven to Springfield, a new train station is being built on the corner of Parker and North Cherry streets. Work has been ongoing for several months. There are now two steel towers in the center of the lot, with a steel walkway connecting them. The towers will hold an elevator shaft and staircase. The pedestrian bridge crosses the elevated platform. A 221-space parking lot is also in the works.
The railway will be double tracked, meaning an additional track must be added in Wallingford and along much of the corridor. A portion of North Plains Highway will be closed to traffic starting Friday and through the weekend due to construction work related to the addition of a new track.
Starting at 8 p.m. Friday and ending at 4 p.m. Monday, North Plains Highway will be closed at the railroad crossing due to construction, according to the state Department of Transportation. The work includes installing a panel for a second railroad track set as part of the CTrail Hartford Line. Crews will also be conducting drainage and utility work, as well as milling and paving. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The Preston Redevelopment Agency met behind closed doors Tuesday and Wednesday nights to finalize a 15-page Memorandum of Understanding with the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority that would give the tribe 180 days to put together its master development plan to present to Preston voters at a special town meeting.
PRA Chairman Sean Nugent told the Board of Selectmen Thursday that the agency has been fielding inquiries about the property, marketed as Preston Riverwalk, from three interested entities.
“I'll have to call the other two tonight,” he said.
Voters also have to approve the MOU, and the Board of Selectmen voted Thursday to forward the MOU to voters at a town meeting May 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Preston Veterans' Memorial School.
The agreement calls for the town to turn over ownership of the property to the tribe for $1, but would guarantee that the town receive at least $11 million, plus up to $600,000 in legal and professional services to review all plans and documents, and full value of property taxes on the property.
“The project shall be a high-quality, integrated mixed-use project,” the MOU stated, “suitable for the unique nature of the site and is contemplated to consist of entertainment, recreation, hotel, retail (including, without limitation, lifestyle center, restaurants, convenience), business, time share, senior housing, and similar and related uses, all to be determined and described in the (purchase and sale agreement) … and in conformance with the town's planning, zoning and other land use regulations.”
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Canton School Officials Plan Construction Projects
CANTON — The board of education will ask the town for funding to finish putting a new roof on Cherry Brook Primary School in summer 2017.
Most of the roof was replaced last summer. The board of education voted recently to move forward with the rest of the work. The next step is asking the board of selectmen for the money and final approval would be up to residents at a town meeting.
Superintendent Kevin Case told the board it would cost $382,155 to replace the remaining portion of the roof at Cherry Brook. He said $128,372 is left over from when the first section of the roof was done and the state could contribute $151,000. Case said that means the town's share would be no more than $125,000.
School officials also hope they can install new windows at Canton High School and Canton Middle School, which are in the same building, in 2017. That was supposed to have been done this summer but there is not enough money to do it now.The existing windows are aging, in poor condition and are not energy efficient. Officials allocated $600,000 to replace the windows but the one bid the town received last month for the work came to $823,000. Case said the plan now is to seek new bids in the fall. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Fifth southbound lane of New Haven’s Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge to open Friday
NEW HAVEN >> By 6 a.m. Friday, all five lanes of southbound Interstate 95 on the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge are scheduled to open to traffic.
That means drivers traveling through New Haven from the east will have three through lanes crossing the bridge (up from two), while those exiting to Interstate 91 or Route 34 will have still have dedicated exit lanes, according to Vladislav Kaminsky, project engineer for the state Department of Transportation.
However, for the next few nights, traffic may be slowed down as road crews complete milling and paving to smooth out all the lanes.
“There will be some backup,” Kaminsky said, though he expects the slowdowns to be minimal.
“For now we will open as is,” he said. This next step in the construction of the bridge will be followed in July by the opening of all five northbound lanes, Kaminsky said.
The new bridge is the signature project of the New Haven Harbor Crossing Improvement Program. Construction began in 2009 to replace the first Q bridge. Veterans from the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor joined the governor and other officials at the grand opening of the northbound side on June 22, 2012. The southbound bridge was completed in July 2015. It was built by a joint venture of Walsh Construction Co./PCL.