New Stamford police station to replace aging ‘dump’
STAMFORD — Capt. Greg Tomlin is one of the few remaining members of the city’s police department who was around when the Bedford Street headquarters was last expanded in the late 1970s.
Victor Cizanckas, who was the chief at the time, told him the facility would take the department into the next century.
“I remember walking around the building in 2005, saying to myself, ‘This place is a dump,’” said Tomlin, who joined the force in 1971 and is the department’s most senior member. “I realized at that point, it was the new century.”
O&G Industries announced last week it has been awarded the contract to build the new 94,000-square-foot, three-story police headquarters at the corner of North and Bedford streets, adjacent to where the 62-year-old headquarters stands now.
The $43 million project is expected to be completed in February 2019 and is designed by Jacunski Humes Architects, which has configured 30 police buildings. Their work includes the 23,000-square-foot addition to the Darien police station in 2012 and Danbury’s 75,000-square-foot department, completed in 2009.
Tomlin began working as a civilian in the Stamford police station in 1963 — just seven years after it was built. While he holds a special connection to the building, he’s also happy to see it go.
Tomlin said he had the dubious honor of his office being located across the hall from the water fountain that contained the worst lead contamination in the building. For years, the city provided bottled water for the building because the lead levels were so high.
Soon after dozens of red asbestos warning signs were posted around the police department in 2014, hundreds of officers filed notices with the state to claim compensation for illnesses caused by the cancer-causing airborne fiber.
Officers at the time said they felt betrayed by the city because of the working conditions. There are still some warning signs posted in the station. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Black Rock sees long-awaited development activity, with more to come
BRIDGEPORT — Just before the holidays, Black Rock residents began to see activity on a corner lot that has been conspicuously vacant for years.
Work crews began replacing windows on the former Black Rock Bank & Trust structure at the corner of Fairfield Avenue and Brewster Street, and laying a foundation for an addition.
Ultimately, it will be converted into 15 market-rate apartments, divided into the existing structure and an addition to be constructed on the empty lot next door, according to Joe Formato, a longtime Black Rock property owner and local real estate agent, who spoke on behalf of the development team T&N Properties, which purchased the city-owned lot in 2013.
The ground floor would have 1,550 square feet of commercial space. “It’s going to be a nice building,” Formato said.
The start of work several weeks ago marked the first time in nearly a decade that activity was seen around the property, which had been empty since the Black Rock Arts Center was forced out in 2009.
The city has struggled to get the property developed, with several proposals failing or withdrawn. The property was ultimately sold for just $300,000, despite an initial asking price of $750,000.
Thomas Gill, the city’s economic development director, said Bridgeport officials renegotiated their agreement with T&N Properties last year to set timelines for progress on the privately funded development.
“They seem to be right on track now,” he said.
With its ground-floor commercial space and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, the project fits with zoning amendments made to Black Rock over the last year to encourage density and pedestrian-oriented development.
The work at the historic landmark is among numerous projects Black Rock residents have been anxiously awaiting, including streetscape improvements in the same area.
That project recently moved forward with the City Council’s approval of a contract with Freeman Cos. for the design and engineering of roadway, sidewalk and other improvements to the intersection at Brewster Street and Fairfield Avenue.
State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, said he expects work to begin in the spring. He said plans for the Bank & Trust building fit well with ideas to improve the area, which serves as a gateway into the city.
One project residents will have to wait to see some progress is the planned pedestrian bridge over Ash Creek, to provide a link to the Fairfield Metro train station.
Stafstrom said the plans require approvals from local, state and federal officials as the bridge, will not only go over a body of water but connect two municipalities.
The construction will be funded by a $3.8 million grant from the state Department of Transportation. Those funds will include improvements to Fox Street in Black Rock to make the area more appealing to pedestrians. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Depot Road in Montville will be closed for Rand Whitney pipeline repairs
Montville — Depot Road in Montville will be closed until mid-January while a local construction firm installs new lining in the pipes that bring water and wastewater into and out of the Rand Whitney Containerboard facility.
The company has hired P&H Construction and Septic Service to install a polyethylene and Kevlar lining inside the two pipelines that move treated water into the cardboard recycling plant and wastewater from the plant to the town's treatment center.
The pipe has shown signs of corrosion and has leaked several times in the last few years, P&H managing partner William Pieniadz said Friday. The town signed a 60-year contract in 1992 to treat Rand Whitney wastewater at its treatment plant and then return clean water to the mill.
That contract was the subject of an extended lawsuit that the town settled in 2008 for more than $11 million.
The road has been closed between Route 32 and Pink Row since Jan. 3 and the project will end on about Jan. 18, depending on the weather, Pieniadz said. It is open only for Depot Road residents, he said.
The westbound lane of Maple Avenue also will be closed during construction, except during evenings and weekends, while the project is ongoing.
P&H is installing the new lining in 900 feet of the decades-old pipeline between Maple Ave. to the Depot Road intersection with Route 32. The project was delayed last spring when a regional drought left water levels in Oxoboxo Brook too low for Rand Whitney to use as a backup water source while the main pipelines were being repaired, Pieniadz said.
E. Windsor, Windsor Locks chosen as third casino candidates
Two finalists for a third Connecticut casino emerged late Friday: the proposals from East Windsor and Windsor Locks.
MMCT Venture, the organization led by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes that hopes to open the third casino, said these two proposed projects would advance to the next phase of the site selection process.
As a result, projects that were proposed in East Hartford, Hartford and South Windsor are no longer under consideration, the tribes said. Mohegan Tribal Council Chairman Kevin Brown said that despite these towns not being selected, they will benefit from whichever final project emerges as a regional draw.
In East Windsor, the town is proposing development of an entertainment and gaming venue on 55 acres off I-91 near exits 44 and 45. Showcase Cinema went out of business there, but 40 acres are buildable and the site is zoned commercial.
In Windsor Locks, Sportech had resubmitted its plans for development of its existing OTB campus next to Bradley International Airport. President Ted Taylor has said the Sportech project would provide "a strategic placement that is next to the airport, near the highway, and positioned to compete against MGM," which is coming online in Springfield, Mass., in the fall of 2018.
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council Chairman Rodney Butler said the decisions on finalists were based on a "detailed economic analysis," and that the selected finalists' proposals would "align best with our development models and preserve more jobs and revenue for the state." That economic analysis was not immediately available.
The tribes said they are working with town officials in both municipalities to set up local forums to discuss the issue with the local community. More details about those meetings will be released in the coming weeks.
Connecticut could lose as much as $68.3 million a year in revenue starting in fiscal 2019, once MGM Springfield casino opens, according to an estimate from the state's Office of Fiscal Analysis released in October.
Movement to complete state's trails gaining momentum
Though Gov. Dannel Malloy's overall ratings aren't exactly stratospheric, one group thinks he's doing a fine job: the advocates for multi-use trails.
For more than two decades, most of the new trails built in the state were almost entirely the work of local volunteers who had to overcome indifference, if not obstruction, on the part of the State Department of Transportation. In the past five years, Malloy and his transportation commissioner, James Redeker, have turned that narrative on its head. The state is now including non-motorized trails in its planning efforts and making major investments in them. As a result, more are getting built.
"Malloy gets it," said Bruce Donald, one of the state's leading trails advocates, who heads the Connecticut Greenways Council and also serves as Tri-State Coordinator (CT, NY and NJ) for the East Coast Greenway Alliance. "We are in a different place than we were five years ago."
Thousands of bicyclists, walkers, joggers, cross-country skiers and Rollerbladers, along with business owners along the trails, couldn't be happier. They are seeing progress on, among others:
The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. The trail follows the path of a 19th century canal-turned-rail line, which ran 84 miles from New Haven to Northhampton, Mass. After 25 years of incremental extensions, the 55-mile Connecticut portion is nearing completion. When small sections in Cheshire, Farmington and Southington are finished next year, there will be just one six-mile gap, mostly in Plainville, to finish, and it should be done by 2021, or thereabouts.
The Air Line State Park Trail. With a new section opening in Thompson, only one small gap remains in what will be a 50-mile trail that goes through 11 towns in Eastern Connecticut. It follows the route of a 19th century railroad called the Air Line for its smooth, flat ride between Boston and New York.
The Naugatuck River Greenway. Work has begun on this planned 44-mile trail which follows the Naugatuck River from Torrington to Derby. When completed it will link 11 towns. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Letter to the Editor: Awe and pride for new Pear Harbor bridge
If you are considering nominees for significant achievements of 2016 then certainly the completion of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge System has to be a prime candidate.The bridge with its approaches, is an eloquent tribute to the outstanding skill and ingenuity of the American engineers who designed it, the craftsmen who built it and the people who managed its construction. With its sweeping, elegant curves and elevation changes, and its stately double stay suspension bridge, not only is it serving its intended purpose of relieving traffic, which had become a daily disaster, but it is a monument with great aesthetic beauty as well.
I’ve had the pleasure of watching with awe its progress during its construction — the soil engineers who located and drove thousands of piles on which the supports would rest since virtually no movement can be allowed; the pouring, in place, of the support pylons, almost every one of which have a different camber, height and width, located with such precision that the giant steel girders with pre-drilled bolt holes which arrived at night could simply dropped into place, and, finally, the planners who built it such a way that traffic on one of the most heavily travelled interstate highway intersections in the Northeast was not much worse than it had before construction started.What an achievement!This structure will be here long after most of us are gone and most users will soon accept it as just another part of our highway system. But every time I drive over it I will see it as a monument to American genius and know-how and always feel a sense of enormous pride.
Ralph Prete
West Haven
Construction Employment Dips in December but Rising Hourly Earnings, Contractor Optimism Suggest Hiring Pause Is Due to Worker Shortage
Construction employment slipped by 3,000 jobs in December, while average hourly earnings accelerated, according to an analysis of new government data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials noted that recent construction spending numbers and their own survey of members suggest demand for construction remains strong, suggesting that the lack of hiring may be due to a shortage of available workers.
"This report presents mixed signals about the state of the construction industry," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. "Although a dip in employment might normally be a sign of declining demand, in this case the industry is raising wages and taking other steps to attract and retain workers. Construction spending in November hit a 10-year high, with one-month and year-over-year increases in all major segments. Looking ahead, contractors say they expect more work in every category in 2017 than in 2016."
Construction employment totaled 6,699,000 in December, a decrease of 3,000 from November but an increase of 102,000 or 1.5 percent from a year ago. Average hourly earnings in construction increased 3.0 percent over the past year to $28.42 per hour. Earnings have been rising in recent months at the fastest annual rate since 2009, which Simonson said is evidence that contractors are still eager to expand their headcounts.
Residential construction—comprising residential building and specialty trade contractors—added 9,800 jobs in December and 102,500, or 3.0 percent, compared to a year ago. Nonresidential construction (building, specialty trades, and heavy and civil engineering construction) employment shrank by 13,400 employees in December and was virtually flat (-400 employees, 0.0 percent) over the year.
These numbers contrast with Census Bureau data on construction spending in November that were released on Wednesday, Simonson observed. Those figures showed that overall spending increased 0.9 percent for the month and 4.1 percent over 12 months. Total residential spending was up 1.0 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively, while total nonresidential spending climbed 0.8 percent from October and 4.9 percent from November 2015.
Association officials noted that both the recent spending data and a survey of members that they plan to release on January 10 point to continued construction activity and an eagerness by contractors to hire—if they can find qualified workers. The association urged lawmakers and government officials to expand and fund employment and training programs to equip students and workers with the skills needed to become productive construction employees. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE