We share the frustration of the business owners who came together Saturday to describe the hardships posed by seemingly unending construction on West Main Street in New Britain.
State Sen. Terry Gerratana listened as entrepreneurs described lost customers and lost business as a result of the bridge reconstruction project that began in January 2015 and isn’t expected to be completed until late spring. Motorists are given a choice: take a voluntary detour that sends them away from these merchants or spend time waiting for a long light to change, allowing them to travel a shared one-lane, blind overpass. Even when they get past that, they have no ways to get into some businesses.
The owners’ concern is two-fold: besides the immediate loss of customer traffic and substantial revenue, they worry that longtime patrons are being led away from these establishments and, with such a long diversion, that they will develop new habits and spend their money at businesses elsewhere.
We understand because, both as customers and commuters, traveling this stretch of Route 372 had become a regular habit for many of us here at the newspaper. Now, especially during peak traffic times, we sometimes find ourselves taking I-72 or Myrtle Street to avoid the area and, in the process, missing favorite merchants, such as Angelo’s and Story Brothers.
We know that advocating for improvements in our infrastructure, as we have done regularly, signals a willingness to put up with temporary disruptions to traffic. But the situation on West Main Street has gone on far too long with, apparently, far too little regard for those affected — both businesses and motorists.
Gerratana has promised to take these concerns to the state Department of Transportation. Whether anything can be done at this late date is unclear, though we urge the state to make an effort to alleviate the situation, but we hope that, at least, it will provide some important lessons. CLICK TITLE TO CONTIUNE
North Branford’s Center School Set for Demo
The clock is winding down on a three-month period required to notify the North Branford public that Center School, built in 1920, will be demolished. The notification period expires February 18. Notice was posted on November 18, 2016, by the town's Building Department. The notification is part of a demolition permit request submitted by the company which won the bid to take down the building, Cherry Hill Construction of Branford.
"The building requires a 90-day notice because it's a historic structure, and that notice has been posted and is visible from the street," said Thomas Cowell, the Town's Building Official.
To date, no one has responded with an offer to either purchase the building (which would have to be moved off the site) or with objections on plans to take it down, Cowell said.
"They can object, but they'd need to show a reason why it can't be taken down," he said.
The demolition of Center School will be combined with taking down the 1979 brick building in front of the school. The brick building at 909 Foxon Road was constructed as the Town Hall and later used as the Community Center. Also included in the parcel is the former Wall Field, which adjoins Center School. The entire town-owned parcel, described as 1599 Foxon Road on the tax rolls, totals 5.95 acres in the heart of North Branford.
The plan to demolish the two empty town buildings is part of the town's plan to create clean slate of property at 1599 Foxon Road that's hoped to attract a town center-friendly developer. The town's 2015 valuation of the entire six-acre parcel (improvements and land) totals $1,347,100 with an assessed value of $943,000. The appraisal for the land alone is set at $459,700 with an assessment value of $321,000. Once the buildings come down, the Town Council would likely engage a professional broker to reassess the property value, said Town Manager Michael Paulhus. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Canterbury residents can weigh in on solar project
It's Canterbury's turn to learn firsthand about a massive solar energy project that will straddle the town line with Brooklyn.
Ranger Solar will present its proposal for a 50 mega-watt solar array to Canterbury residents at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Canterbury Elementary School. It will be the first time residents can ask questions of the developers in a public forum.
"That area of town has had concerns about truck traffic from gravel operations," First Selectman Roy Piper said. "I think for many of the residents near the project this might be seen as an improvement."
Ranger Solar won a bid to provide solar energy as part of a three-state effort reduce the region's reliance on natural gas infrastructure and improve the reliability and affordability of New England's electric system.
CJ Walsh, a project manager with Ranger Solar, said 65 percent of the project is in Brooklyn and 35 percent in Canterbury.
Of the 544 acres involved, about half will be have solar panels. There are also several areas within the boundaries that are off-limits for panels, said Aaron Svedlow, vice president of permitting for Ranger Solar. That includes wetlands, historically significant areas and potential archeological sites.
While much of the project is over the town line, Canterbury contains a larger portion of the approximately 50 properties that have land abutting the site.
Svedlow said Canterbury will also be home to the only portion of the project considered high-security: a transformer that will be housed in a fenced-in, protected building.
The solar panels themselves will be fixed and tilted at about a 30-degree angle facing south; they are to be 10 to 12 feet high in the back and three to four feet high in the front and spaced about 16 to 17 feet apart.
Paul Harris, Ranger Solar's senior vice president and a co-founder of the company, said there is a large wetland area on the south side of the project next to Wauregan Road in Canterbury where there will be no panels. Harris said any potential glare off the panels will not affect those to the south.
Harris said the company mailed notices to every abutter.
"This is how we like to do business," Harris said. "We've used these forums in other communities and they work. We hear things that we might not when just go door-to-door. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
"The whole landscape coming into town has changed," she said. "I've been working in town for the last 20 years and that mill was the first thing you saw."
The majority of the former Powdrell & Alexander Mill building on Maple Street was razed this month to make way for an incoming housing complex. Only one of the building's towers was left standing on Thursday, jutting up from piles of brick, twisted metal and wooden beams.
The Institute, which is working in partnership with United Services Inc., is responsible for funding the ongoing soil remediation at the site once the $2 million in town money runs out, as well as for construction of the apartments.
For decades the mill produced textiles and employed local workers, until plant operations moved south more than 70 years ago. Portions of the building were transformed into retail space until 2009 when town officials declared the property unsafe and closed the building.
A plan by a New York developer to turn the mill into an senior housing facility and retail space fizzled and the mill sat vacant until the Institute stepped in with plans to construct a 35,000-square-foot, 32-apartment, mixed-use affordable housing complex on the 4.1-acre property. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Transportation funding debate still centered on 'lockbox'
For more than a year now, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has told the legislature that the ball is in its court when it comes to transportation.
Though a gubernatorial panel laid out $42 billion in options — including tolls and gasoline tax increases — to fund long-term transportation initiatives, Malloy would not press for them until lawmakers backed a constitutional "lockbox" amendment to safeguard those revenues.
While the governor has released no transportation-related details from his next two-year budget plan, the administration has shown no signs of backing away from its lockbox demand.
Meanwhile, transportation advocates are increasingly fearful that Malloy's vision for a major, 30-year transportation rebuilding program is vanishing.
"Governor Malloy is committed to transforming our transportation system so that our infrastructure can help foster economic growth and attract businesses to the state," Malloy spokesman Chris McClure said. "…I remain confident that the legislature, and ultimately Connecticut voters, will pass a constitutional lockbox."
Malloy came forward two years ago with a plan to spend $100 billion over 30 years to transform Connecticut's aging, clogged highway and rail networks into a modern, efficient system.
That $100 billion involved a combination of state borrowing and matching federal grants, and includes both existing funding levels and proposed new investments over three decades.
The key to making all of that happen is to appropriate sufficient resources within the budget's Special Transportation Fund (STF), and particularly its debt service line item that covers the principal and interest on transportation-related borrowing.
To cover the first five years of that program — 2016 through 2020 — Malloy proposed replacing an older system of sharing General Fund resources with the STF with a more generous plan to shift sales tax receipts into transportation.
And while McClure said that five-year ramp-up is making "substantial progress in replacing or rehabilitating outdated and over-used roads, bridges, and tunnels," there is mounting evidence it isn't sufficient to do the job through 2020.
Nonpartisan analysts warned last year that the STF was projected to run $46 million in deficit beginning with the 2018-19 fiscal year — Year 4 of the 30-year program.
Now it looks like it won't even make it through its second year in balance.
Legislators decided last May to cut this fiscal year's sales tax transfer by $50 million to help close a major deficit in the General Fund.
The governor's budget staff estimated last month that the STF would finish this fiscal year $17.1 million in deficit.
And while the fund has a $142 million reserve, which could cover deficits for a few years, transportation advocates insist the program needs more resources now. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Construction Employment Declines in 110 out of 358 Metro Areas as Businesses Urge President Trump to Deliver on Infrastructure Promise
"There are two main reasons so few areas added construction jobs last year—they couldn't find enough new workers to hire or they couldn't find enough work to require new hiring," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. "In some markets, the solution is more workforce development measures, while other markets need new demand for construction before firms will begin adding jobs. In particular, spending on critical transportation, sewage and water infrastructure declined last year."
The largest job losses from December 2015 to December 2016 were in Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas (-11,200 jobs, -5 percent), followed by Orange-Rockland-Westchester, N.Y. (-5,500 jobs, -12 percent); and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif. (-5,200 jobs, -4 percent). The largest percentage declines for the past year were in Kankakee, Ill. (-15 percent, -200 jobs); Casper, Wyo. (-13 percent, -400 jobs) and Wichita, Kansas (-13 percent, -2,100 jobs).
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colo. (10,400 jobs, 11 percent) added the most construction jobs during the past year, followed by Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla. (9,700 jobs, 15 percent); Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nev. (8,700 jobs, 16 percent) and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. (8,700 jobs, 13 percent). The largest percentage gains occurred in Boise City, Idaho (18 percent, 3,400 jobs), followed by El Centro, Calif. (17 percent, 500 jobs); Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford. The number of metro areas with year-over-year job increases—183, or 51 percent—was the lowest since September 2012, the economist noted.
Among major infrastructure categories, public spending fell 18 percent over the year for sewage and waste disposal systems; 5.3 percent for transportation facilities such as transit, airports and passenger rail; and 0.9 percent for water supply. Highway and street construction posted a modest increase of 1.5 percent.Association officials said the new metro construction employment data comes out as hundreds of employers from across the country are urging President Trump to deliver on his promise to invest in rebuilding the nation's aging infrastructure. In particularly, the firms noted that aging and congested transportation networks are affecting their bottom line and undermining their ability to add jobs. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE