ANSONIA —The long awaited revamping of Wakelee Avenue is finally coming, as Eversource starts digging up the street to lay new plastic gas pipeline.
“This is a $1.6 million investment,” said Mitch Gross, an Eversource spokesperson.
Their work on Wakelee will be similar to the digging and laying of at least 1,500 of new plastic gas lines that dogged businesses and drivers on Main Street since mid-May.
“I was expecting only a few weeks but its been two months now,” said Hasan Koch, who owns Kaptan’s Pizza located in the former Vonete’s spot across from City Hall. “No one ever said they were going to close the whole street down.”
As a result, Koch said he lost at least $6,000 in business since May.
“I have seven or eight older customers who always parked in front,” he said. “With the street closed they don’t want to park down below (on West Main Street) and have to walk up.”
But Mayor David Cassetti said its all for the best.
“Sometime after Labor Day the state will be paving Main Street and we’re hoping to secure funding to build a bike and pedestrian path,” the mayor said. “We also intend to redo the sidewalks. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Route 8/25 bridge demolition, traffic shift begins
BRIDGEPORT - With a new traffic shift in place, the demolition of two, northbound Route 8/25 bridges got underway in Saturday.
It’s the second stage of a $35 million project that is replacing four 44-year-old bridges over Lindley Street and Capitol Avenue. Like last month when two southbound bridges were demolished and replaced with prefabricated bridges, the work will be the same, but on the northbound side of the highway.
The “Stage 2 Crossover Plan,” consisting of lane closures, lane shifts, lane realignments and other traffic pattern modifications started around 7 a.m. Saturday.
The configuration will remain in effect continuously until the morning of July 30. During this 14-day period, the number of lanes on Route 8 will be reduced to three lanes northbound and two lanes southbound between Exit 3 and Exit 5, with Route 8/25 northbound shifted onto southbound portion of the highway.
Shortly after 7 a.m., a line of demolition trucks begin demolition of the Lindley Street bridge. The machines pounded and ripped away the asphalt and concrete. Workers sprayed water on the debris to keep the powdery material from spreading through the air.
The speed limit in the contruction zone is 45 mph. There is a heavy State Police presence in the area to enforce the speed limit. Fines in a construction zone are doubled.
Live cams of Route 8/25
After six-year probe, Meriden company pleads guilty to one count of filing false tax return
MERIDEN — Carabetta Companies-owned SRC Construction pleaded guilty Friday to one count of filing a false tax return following a six-year investigation in which company offices were raided and scores of documents were seized.
SRC has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine, as well as all back taxes, interest and penalties, according to a statement from the U.S. Justice Department. The company faces up to $500,000 in fines at sentencing.
Justice Department spokesman Tom Carson said no individuals have been charged in the case and none are expected to be charged.
A lawyer for SRC said the single count amounted to the government trying to save face rather than walking away from a lengthy investigation, adding that the company agreed to plead guilty “rather than expend additional resources.”
A real estate development and construction firm, SRC employed an internal accounting department that managed the general ledger, journal entries and bank accounts for the company, according to the Justice Department statement. At least one person employed by SRC oversaw and coordinated business and financial matters for the company’s owner. That person and others reviewed company payments made to employees and vendors and also instructed how the items were to be expensed. The employee, who authorities did not identify, directed that invoices be paid out of company funds, including several expenses that were knowingly not deductible business expenses. The person, who provided the company’s outside accountants information to prepare audited financial statements and tax returns, also provided accountants several non-deductible expenses knowing they were not business related.
In February 2006, the company made and subscribed a false corporate tax return that overstated expenses for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2005, the statement continued. The company did not report corporate income totaling almost $300,000, resulting in a tax loss of about $110,000. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
HARTFORD — A potentially final blow has been delivered to business owners and residents who hoped that the state would someday build a pedestrian bridge over the CTfastrak busway and railroad tracks at the Flower Street crossing, which was permanently closed amid controversy in late 2013.
"After receiving cost estimates in the millions of dollars, as well as negative feedback from the City and other stakeholders regarding the only designs of bridges over Flower Street that would meet ADA accessibility requirements, the Department of Transportation has decided not to move forward with this project," DOT spokesman Judd Everhart said Thursday.
With that decision, the DOT backs away from compliance with an order issued in recent years by one of its own administrative hearing officers, who agreed with local citizens and business owners that the pedestrian bridge was needed to compensate for the loss of the ground-level crossing.
Asked about that Friday, Everhart said: "We are working to determine the best way to reopen the hearing on this issue and have the order modified."
The busway's recent construction alongside the Amtrak line led the DOT to close the longtime railroad crossing to all traffic — vehicles, walkers and bicyclists — based on its finding that bus and train traffic now makes it too dangerous. Dead ends were created in both directions on what had been a key north-south link between Farmington and Capitol avenues — in neighborhoods that have struggled with hard economic times. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State and local capital spending in Connecticut and the other five New England states has been well below the national average since 2000, according to a new report issued by the public policy arm of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
And while the New England Public Policy Center report issued last week did not establish any single defining cause for this trend, it noted growing public concerns about state government debt has stymied investment in a region that needs more of it.
“There is some evidence that capital investment policy in many of the six (New England) states has been dominated by concern about the level of state government debt,” wrote the reports’ authors, Michigan State University economics professor Ronald Fisher and New England center policy analyst Riley Sullivan. “To the extent that attaining low debt levels has been the focus of policy attention and debt and capital investment are considered jointly, attempts to lower state government debt may have contributed to lower investment in public capital.”
The “investment” the report writes about involves: municipal school construction; building and other projects at public colleges and universities; highway, bridge and rail infrastructure improvements; renovations to state and municipal buildings; and even dam restoration and other environmental work.
Because of the relatively small size of the New England region, these types of capital investment have a positive “spillover” effect that boosts the economy beyond the state where the spending occurrs, the report states.
But according to U.S. Census data, capital spending by state and local governments in New England averaged less than $800 per person between 2000 and 2012. Connecticut fared better than the New England average at $913, but below the national average of nearly $1,100.
Connecticut appears to lag the national average even more when factoring in this state’s considerable earning power. National spending on capital projects reflected 2.7 percent of average personal income between 2000 and 2012. Connecticut’s spending represented just a 1.6 percent share of personal income. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Wendell Cross foe objects
WATERBURY — A $46.3 million renovation and expansion of Wendell Cross Elementary School has all the local approvals needed and an application has been made for state funding assistance.
That didn't stop Board of Education member John E. Theriault from, as he described it, "beating a dead horse" during Thursday's Board of Education meeting, as members voted on the formation of a committee to oversee planning and construction. Theriault repeated previously made contentions that the expansion is too costly, and doesn't really address perceived overcrowding issues at Chase and Generali elementary schools in the East End. He also warned the project could uncork asbestos and PCB contamination, resulting in huge surprise cost increases.
"I keep saying the same thing over and over trying to get some cognitive dissidence," Theriault said. He stressed he actually has no problem with the proposed membership of the committee, which was the focus of the vote. Five other board members outvoted Theriault to from a building committee five members of the board's standing School Building Committee — including Theriault — along with two members of the Board of Education to be named later by Board President Paul K. Pernerewski Jr.; a Wendell Cross parent picked by Principal Joseph N. Amato; an East Mountain neighborhood resident and Amato.
The board also: Approved a partnership with Southern Connecticut State University to provide special training to a group of 15 to 22 teachers from the district, and, potentially, surrounding towns. The program would lead to certification as a reading specialist, reading consultant or related disciplines. Officials agreed to allow evening use of district buildings and equipment. The district also agreed to allow the training program to offer diagnosis and intervention to city students struggling with reading problems. There is no cost for the district, which has engaged in a similar agreement in the past, according to Personnel Director Robert Brenker. Approved an agreement that continues to allow StayWell Health Care space in the Crosby High School-Wallace Middle School complex for use as a health and dental clinic. Approved a $210,000 contract extension with SNE Building Systems to remotely monitor climate control systems at seven district schools. The extension will begin Aug. 1 and run through July 31, 2019. Approved a three-year, $3.2 million contract, with Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center of Greater Waterbury to provide a behavior analyst and up to 18 behavior therapists to work with students with disabilities. Approved a three-year contract of up to $480,000 with Summit Support Services to provide a behavior analyst.
And while the New England Public Policy Center report issued last week did not establish any single defining cause for this trend, it noted growing public concerns about state government debt has stymied investment in a region that needs more of it.
“There is some evidence that capital investment policy in many of the six (New England) states has been dominated by concern about the level of state government debt,” wrote the reports’ authors, Michigan State University economics professor Ronald Fisher and New England center policy analyst Riley Sullivan. “To the extent that attaining low debt levels has been the focus of policy attention and debt and capital investment are considered jointly, attempts to lower state government debt may have contributed to lower investment in public capital.”
The “investment” the report writes about involves: municipal school construction; building and other projects at public colleges and universities; highway, bridge and rail infrastructure improvements; renovations to state and municipal buildings; and even dam restoration and other environmental work.
Because of the relatively small size of the New England region, these types of capital investment have a positive “spillover” effect that boosts the economy beyond the state where the spending occurrs, the report states.
But according to U.S. Census data, capital spending by state and local governments in New England averaged less than $800 per person between 2000 and 2012. Connecticut fared better than the New England average at $913, but below the national average of nearly $1,100.
Connecticut appears to lag the national average even more when factoring in this state’s considerable earning power. National spending on capital projects reflected 2.7 percent of average personal income between 2000 and 2012. Connecticut’s spending represented just a 1.6 percent share of personal income. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Wendell Cross foe objects
WATERBURY — A $46.3 million renovation and expansion of Wendell Cross Elementary School has all the local approvals needed and an application has been made for state funding assistance.
That didn't stop Board of Education member John E. Theriault from, as he described it, "beating a dead horse" during Thursday's Board of Education meeting, as members voted on the formation of a committee to oversee planning and construction. Theriault repeated previously made contentions that the expansion is too costly, and doesn't really address perceived overcrowding issues at Chase and Generali elementary schools in the East End. He also warned the project could uncork asbestos and PCB contamination, resulting in huge surprise cost increases.
"I keep saying the same thing over and over trying to get some cognitive dissidence," Theriault said. He stressed he actually has no problem with the proposed membership of the committee, which was the focus of the vote. Five other board members outvoted Theriault to from a building committee five members of the board's standing School Building Committee — including Theriault — along with two members of the Board of Education to be named later by Board President Paul K. Pernerewski Jr.; a Wendell Cross parent picked by Principal Joseph N. Amato; an East Mountain neighborhood resident and Amato.
The board also: Approved a partnership with Southern Connecticut State University to provide special training to a group of 15 to 22 teachers from the district, and, potentially, surrounding towns. The program would lead to certification as a reading specialist, reading consultant or related disciplines. Officials agreed to allow evening use of district buildings and equipment. The district also agreed to allow the training program to offer diagnosis and intervention to city students struggling with reading problems. There is no cost for the district, which has engaged in a similar agreement in the past, according to Personnel Director Robert Brenker. Approved an agreement that continues to allow StayWell Health Care space in the Crosby High School-Wallace Middle School complex for use as a health and dental clinic. Approved a $210,000 contract extension with SNE Building Systems to remotely monitor climate control systems at seven district schools. The extension will begin Aug. 1 and run through July 31, 2019. Approved a three-year, $3.2 million contract, with Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center of Greater Waterbury to provide a behavior analyst and up to 18 behavior therapists to work with students with disabilities. Approved a three-year contract of up to $480,000 with Summit Support Services to provide a behavior analyst.