HARTFORD — The Hartford Stadium Authority is terminating its contract with the developers of Dunkin' Donuts Park, Mayor Luke Bronin on Monday afternoon announced.
The move to terminate Centerplan Cos. and DoNo Hartford LLC could become the latest roadblock to completing work on the $63 million minor league baseball stadium under construction north of downtown.
Bronin said city has taken many steps to avoid getting to this point.
City officials received email from DoNo and Centerplan on Friday saying they estimated it would take 60 days or more until facility is building code compliant."At that point we simply lost confidence," Bronin said Monday."
The developers have missed two deadlines so far for "substantial completion" of the 6,000-seat minor league baseball stadium that would allow the team to move in and prepare for playing home games. The latest deadline was May 17 and work still is not finished.
Bronin announced his intention two weeks ago to call on the insurance company acting as the project's surety — the entity responsible for guaranteeing the stadium's completion — to pull the performance bond.
That move, the developers have said, will cause work on the stadium to halt while the surety, Arch Insurance, investigates the claim against them. Jason Rudnick, president with Centerplan and a principal in Do No Hartford, has said work could be halted for six months or more if the city terminates them from the project.
Bronin has insisted that the developers could and should continue working on the stadium while Arch Insurance investigates the city's claim that they have breached their contract to complete the ballpark on time and on budget.
State budget woes derail transportation funds
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s $100 billion vision to improve Metro-North railroad service, reduce congestion on overcrowded highways and rebuild aging bridges is already colliding with the reality of balancing the state budget.
As lawmakers recently scrambled to close a nearly $1 billion deficit for the 2017 fiscal year, Malloy agreed to divert $50 million in promised sales tax revenue from transportation projects.
The cutback may have helped avoid higher taxes and close the state’s spending gap, but it’s raising questions about the governor’s ability — and commitment — to pull the state’s overburdened infrastructure into the modern era.
“I would have preferred that the governor held out longer with regards to his transportation initiative,” said Jim Gildea, chairman of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council and a Derby resident.
“Sadly, it seems that until we focus on long-term solutions, our economy will continue to struggle and we may continue to see transportation funding reduced,” Gildea said.
A $2.8 billion, five-year “ramp up” program was announced to get improvements rolling, and begin the years-long process of planning major road and rail projects.
Devon Puglia, Malloy’s spokesman, said the compromise that reduced Malloy’s proposed transportation funding will not jeopardize the governor’s long-term vision. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Cromwell set to begin $5.67 million roads, facilities repair projects
CROMWELL >> The town is about to embark on an ambitious menu of infrastructure and facilities repair projects. Key among the projects will be the long-delayed — and, officials say, badly needed road repairs and drainage installation in the Raymond Place neighborhood.
That project, estimated to cost $4 million, is at the heart of a $5.67 million bond package town officials expect to take to market either late this summer or early in the fall.
The 2016 Capital Projects bond package has won approval from both the Town Council and the Board of Finance.
It will be presented to residents at a special town meeting Wednesday at 6:45 p.m., Mayor Enzo Faienza announced. The meeting will be held in Room 224 in Town Hall just prior to the Town Council meeting. The bond package also includes funds to cover the acquisition and conversion of streetlights throughout town, a project first proposed by former Town Manager Jonathan B. Sistare.
The town will buy a total of 1,216 streetlights from Eversource and then convert them to more energy-efficient LEDs. The anticipated purchase price is $380,705, according to data supplied by Director of Finance Marianne Sylvester.
Buying the fixtures and shifting to LED bulbs will yield a double savings, Town Manager Anthony J. Salvatore said. The town will save on both the cost of electricity but also on the “rent” it currently pays Eversource, he said.
Sylvester estimated the annual savings in the first five years of $35,000 to $45,000 a year.
The town will hire a company to manage the switchover, a process that, according to Sylvester, is expected to take from six to eight months. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State grant to settle Portland’s contested Main Street paving
PORTLAND >> The town will use a portion of a state grant to pay the state to pave the disputed mini-parking lots along a portion of Main Street.
The Board of Selectmen voted 5-2 on Wednesday to allocate $50,000 from a $90,840 grant for municipal projects to pay the town’s share of the repavement costs. The selectmen had earlier balked at paying $75,000 to repave the cutouts along the east side of first three blocks of Main Street north of the intersection with Marlborough Street/Route 66. However, the state flatly refused to pave the cutouts. A review of town records determined the town had paved the cutouts in 1981, establishing a precedent for the town’s responsibility for taking care of them.
Last month, Connecticut Natural Gas, which will be extending a gas main further up Main Street, agreed to pay $25,000 to cover a portion of repaving the cutouts. In the wake of that announcement, the selectmen asked town officials to look for any unused funds — such as those for snow removal — that could be redirected to cover the remaining $50,000. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Developer considering multi-family housing for former William Seely School property
Groton – The developer under contract to buy the former William Seely School property is considering a multi-family housing development for young professionals and possibly a hotel for the 15-acre school site.
Mark Mancuso, a partner with Waltham, Mass.-based Kincora Development LLC, cited a market analysis of Groton and recent announcement by Electric Boat to add thousands of jobs as two key reasons for residential development.
“We think there could well be a need and a market demand for more housing in Groton,” he said.
Electric Boat expects to expand its workforce by 3,900 over the next 14 years, due to work on the Virginia-class submarine and Ohio-class replacement programs. This year alone, the company plans to hire 1,600 employees in Connecticut and Rhode Island, including 800 in Groton.
While Kincora is known locally for commercial developments including the Waterford Commons shopping center, Mancuso said he does not believe that's the best choice for the school site.
He cited a market analysis done earlier this year which found many young professionals are choosing to live outside of town. Nearly 80 percent of Groton’s workforce commutes from outside Groton, according to the report by New York-based consultant Camoin Associates. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Naugatuck looks to upgrade wastewater treatment plant
NAUGATUCK — Borough officials are planning to bond up to $5 million to start the first phase of federally mandated upgrades to its sewage treatment facility.
The money will go toward repairing the incinerator at the plant and will help Naugatuck begin to come into compliance with federal guidelines to abate pollutants at the facility off Cherry Street Extension.
The Board of Mayor and Burgesses will discuss the plan during its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall. The bonding package will not be voted upon, but the board will discuss whether to move forward with upgrades, which ultimately will need $5 million in funding for the first of many phases.
The decision on whether to bond money will not go to the public at a referendum, said Mayor N. Warren "Pete" Hess.
"Because this is a federal mandate, it doesn't need to go to the public," Hess said, adding that it will be brought to burgesses for a vote at a later date.
Two years ago, the public shot down a $12 million proposal at referendum for money intended for the project. Overall, the mandated upgrades will cost about $86 million, according to estimates from Department of Public Works Director Jim Stewart, an engineer who oversees plant operations for the borough.
The $5 million in upgrades being discussed Tuesday should help bring Naugatuck into compliance with the federal Clean Air Act, he said.
"This is not going to be a long-term solution, but it is a good start," he said.
The upgrades were supposed to have started by March or the incinerator could have been shut down by the Environmental Protection Agency. The private company that operates the plant under a profit-sharing agreement with Naugatuck, Veolia Water North America, ended up shutting down the plant on its own for fear of being out of compliance with a federal mandate. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Nighttime lane closures in I-84 begin next week
WATERBURY — The first nighttime lane and highway closures of the year for the Interstate 84 widening project begins next weekend. The closures are expected to last 11 day and are necessary for work on the new Hamilton Avenue bridge. Next Sunday at 9:30 p.m., the right lane of I-84 westbound will be closed while workers install the first of four segments of steel girders for the bridge. The remaining segments will also require highway and lane closures. In total, there will be four segments, each with five rows of girders that will be connected to create a strong support for the bridge deck. "Each span of girders will be spliced together to create one continuous girder," said Christopher Zukowski, state Department of Transportation project engineer.
The work on segment one is expected to take two or three nights. The lane will reopen at 6 a.m. daily until the work is complete, and crews will move on to segment two. For segment one, a crane situated off the highway, near the Hamilton Avenue commuter lot, will place the girders into position.
The crane will lift them over the right lane, which must be closed to keep motorists safe.
\"We can't fly steel over live traffic," Zukowski said. After that, the highway will be closed in both directions to install steel girders for segment two, as the crane will be situated in the middle of the roadway.
From June 14 to 19 (except Friday and Saturday), traffic will follow a detour off the highway, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., while girders for segment two are installed. Traffic will be diverted off I-84 at Exit 23 in the eastbound direction and reenter the highway using the on-ramp from Hamilton Avenue. Headed westbound, traffic will follow a detour at Exit 23 and will take Hamilton Avenue to Union Street, where it will reenter the highway using the Exit 22 on-ramp. Motorists will be guided through the detour route by construction signs, with assistance from state and local police. While the third segment of the new bridge is installed from June 20 to 22, only I-84 eastbound will be closed from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. The fourth segment will be installed offline, without any impact to highway traffic. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE