The sorry state of American infrastructure is once again our focus. This time the peg is the Oroville Dam in California. It is the U.S.’s tallest dam, and it is in trouble. An emergency spillway was damaged, causing evacuation of 188,000 Californians.
State and federal officials ignored the warnings of environmental groups who for more than a decade have been asking them to reinforce the dam’s spillway.
How did we get to this sorry state? The short answer is partisan politics, informed by bad ideology and a focus on little more than the next election.
Does anything reflect the state of American short-termism more than the slow, inevitable decay and eventual failure of key components of our transportation, electrical, water and sanitation systems? These are the most basic services government provides. The inability to do what so many other developed nations do so much better is why I have called each of the past 10 Congresses "the worst ever."
Both political parties are to blame — but rather than engage in the classic false equivalency debate, let’s consider how each has contributed to the current dismal state of affairs. I am not so much looking to cynically assess blame as I am to optimistically find the silver lining in this dark structural cloud.
Let’s go back a few years to 2009, when the new Barack Obama administration got Congress to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package meant to blunt the recession touched off by the financial crisis. This $800 billion program was mostly about the very short term, and not about long-term investment.
About a third of the stimulus package — $288 billion dollars — was a combination of temporary tax cuts and other incentives designed to spur spending. Another $155 billion was for health-care, $100 billion went to education and $82 billion was for aid to low-income workers and the unemployed.
What was left for infrastructure? A measly $105 billion, or about 13 percent of the total. Worse still, most of these projects were of the shovel-ready variety.
This was a terrible error by Obama. As Columbia University professor of economics Jeffrey Sachs repeatedly has observed, America has an infrastructure investment crisis; the focus on short-term fixes has set us up for long-term failure.
Shovel-ready — what we can throw money at today — is the exact opposite of long-term strategic planning. That would involve thinking about how to improve our electrical grid, modernize the deteriorating U.S. transportation system and upgrade the water and sewer networks critical to public health. New York City, for example, relies on a system of tunnels and aqueducts to supply drinking water to more than 10 million people. Parts of that system are more than a century old.
It’s been pretty well established in the economic literature that improved public infrastructure contributes to private sector productivity. It has been estimated that by 2025, shortfalls in infrastructure investment will subtract as much as $3.9 trillion from U.S. gross domestic product. Traffic jams alone cost the U.S. tens of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The council has agreed to accept an offer from Stephen Motto to locate the town hall/police station on a 5.4-acre parcel of land in the Edgewater Hill mixed-use development. In presenting his proposal to the council, Motto said he envisions a building of at least two stories and encompassing 32,000 to 40,000 square feet. The current town hall complex contains approximately 14,000 sq. ft. The police operate of a meager 2,900-square-foot section of the basement. The building committee members are: Kurt Comisky; Jeff Foran; Fred Galvin; Glenn Gollenberg; Stephen Karney; Cliff Libby; Ray Moore; George Pfaffenbach; and Rebecca Sawyer.
Gollenberg is the architect for the school renovation project, which is speeding towards a conclusion. Karney is a member of the School Building Committee that is overseeing the high school project. Moore, the husband of former town council chairwoman Barbara Moore, has worked as a facilities manager, while Sawyer is a project manager The council interviewed six other applicants who were not named to the committee. They are: Cynthia Abraham; Angela Crane; Adam Dawidowicz: Shawn Kelly; Pamela Rinaldi and John Roche. The committee will hold its initial meeting next Thursday, Maniscalco said on Friday. During that meeting, the committee is expected to elect a chairman and vice chairman, review the project schedule, review the request for proposals for a project architect and review the scope of work for the owner’s project manager, Maniscalco said. In exchange for giving the town the land on which the town hall will sit, Motto proposed — and the council agreed — to have him serve as OPM. He will be paid approximately $400,000 of the estimated $15 million construction cost. Motto had also proposed he choose both the architect and the contractor, but the council rejected that idea. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Preston, Mohegans will miss targeted negotiation deadline
Preston — The Sunday deadline for reaching a purchase and sale agreement between the town and the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority will not be met, town and tribal officials said, but the parties will meet Monday to review what both say are only "technical" issues that remain unresolved.
For the past two weeks, Preston town officials have said the proposed roughly 150-page Property Disposition and Development Agreement has been in the final stages of negotiations. The document is in the hands of attorneys for both parties, and First Selectman Robert Congdon said Thursday he still anticipates receiving a final agreement soon from tribal officials.
Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the Mohegan tribe, said Friday that tribal leaders will meet Monday with Congdon and Preston Redevelopment Agency Chairman Sean Nugent to discuss the technical issues raised by the attorneys for both parties. He said he did not expect a final agreement to be ready following the Monday meeting, but said it should be shortly thereafter.
Neither Congdon nor Bunnell would disclose what technical issues were being discussed.
"Everybody is committed and enthusiastic that we will get through the technical issues remaining," Bunnell said. "We are meeting on Monday to do that. Everyone involved is very enthusiastic."
Tribal leaders unveiled plans for the entire 393-acre property on Jan. 17 that call for a 40-acre theme park, indoor water park, synthetic ski slope, large sports training complex, a major chain outdoor-theme retail store, hotels, senior housing and timeshare units and a marina on the Thames River, with possible water shuttle to the Mohegan Sun across the river. The plans also include a public park near the river.
The state Bond Commission on Feb. 1 approved a $10 million grant to Preston to complete the environmental cleanup of the property.
But the delay in completing the agreement meant that the Board of Selectmen could not hold a special meeting this week to schedule dates for a town meeting and referendum vote on the project, pushing those dates into March.
Congdon said missing Sunday's deadline means only that the period of exclusive negotiations with the tribe will end. Once that deadline passes, Congdon said the town would be “obligated” to contact other parties who have expressed interest in the property. Town officials have not talked to any other parties during the exclusive negotiation period with the tribe, which started last May.
Nugent said he knows of only one other party who has contacted the town regarding the former Norwich Hospital property, and "I informed them we are in negotiations with the tribe." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Brooklyn sending school roof projects to town meeting
BROOKLYN —Brooklyn's boards of finance and selectmen are sending a $5 million project to replace roofs on both schools to town meeting.
The Board of Selectmen called a town meeting for March 7. With the elementary school roof in dire condition, residents are being asked to consider the request now because of concern that the level of state reimbursement might drop as soon as the next budget year
"I think they've done their due diligence, and really I think that's their job," First Selectman Rick Ives said. "The combinations of the Board of Education and the people they hired plus the administration has moved this along, admittedly, quickly but this will also get it in front of the school construction committee."
The town must approve the project before the state will consider its funding. Brooklyn currently gets 72.8 percent reimbursement from the state for any roof replacement project that is more than 20 years old.
"We know the reimbursement rate is not going to go up," Board of Education Chairman Aimee Genna said. "It may not go down, but it's definitely not going up."
Board of Finance Chairman Jeff Otto said, given the state's finances, it's reasonable to believe the level of support for school construction projects could decrease.
The Board of Education has hired PM Resources as its project manager and Hibbard & Rosa as its architects after reviewing proposals from seven architects.
The elementary school roof is 53,000 square feet and would be a metal roof with an expected lifespan of 40 years, said Roger LaFleur of PM Resources. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Tax revenue: At the meeting, postponed from January, the council will discuss a tax stabilization agreement with NTE that would provide the town with approximately $90 million over 22 years, potentially making the company the town's largest taxpayer. The agreement is contingent on the Connecticut Siting Council giving permit approval for the project. The Siting Council, which recently finished the evidentiary portion of its proceedings, is expected to make a decision in the spring.
Benefit agreement: The council will also discuss a proposed Community Environmental Benefits agreement that tentatively calls for NTE to provide the town with $4.5 million in "cash," Town Manager Sean Hendricks said. The money, which must be spent on items that can be tied to the environment, could be used to upgrade local parks, pay for repairs at the community center and be used for student scholarships as well as water quality testing at local lakes. The agreement will also include land easements that would benefit the town, Hendricks said.
In DoNo's shadow, Hartford's other developments take off
Almost unnoticed amid Hartford's booming conversions of older office buildings into housing and commercial space and construction of a ballpark and UConn campus, is another wave of development that has been underway in the city's northern section for more than a year.
Along the approximately 2 ½-mile strip, stretching from downtown's northern edge along Market Street/Rev. R. A. Moody Overpass/Weston Street, parallel to I-91, to the North Meadows, several commercial projects worth millions are either done or nearing completion, while plans for more Downtown North (DoNo) development are underway.
According to city planners, Hartford's updated zoning rules aim to promote development along this stretch to eventually include apartments, hotels and beds and breakfasts, bars and restaurants, and retail.
Candlewood Suites Hartford Downtown, an 81-room, high-rise hotel on Market Street, opposite the taller, roomier Radisson Hartford — both standing in the shadow of Dunkin' Donuts Park — is almost finished and could be open in time for the April 13 opening day game of the Hartford Yard Goats.
Further down Weston, New Country BMW is under way on a $5 million expansion of its new-car showroom and related facilities. Directly across the road is a $3 million New Country Mini showroom that opened in 2014.
On the same side of the road but two blocks away, the former Baronet Coffee property has been sold, realty brokers, business neighbors and city officials say, to make way by mid-2018 for a Land Rover dealership run by Avon's Mitchell Auto Group.
Opposite the main U.S. Postal Service regional office on Weston, Hartford Toyota some months back relocated from its former showroom-service quarters fronting Weston Street, to a much larger facility fronting on Service Road and the southbound side of I-91.
Anchoring Weston Street's northernmost stretch is the 40-year-old Hartford Correctional Center, with four dormitory buildings and a staff of around 377, according to the state Corrections Department website.
This end of the Market/Weston street corridor is zoned industrial, where it is home to a storage yard for towed-wrecked vehicles, and waste-processing services, city planners say.
On the northbound side of I-91, at the junction of Jennings and Liebert roads, Pride Convenience Stores has begun framing the main building for its truck-stop/rest area. The site will offer fuel, fast foods and amenities, including lockers and showers for motorists.
"The Candlewood Suites is my favorite building in Hartford. Why?'' asked Sean M. Fitzpatrick, Hartford's director of development services, which includes economic development. "It was built entirely with private money.'' CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Malloy: Choice is modernize or close aging XL Center
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday that a $250 million plan to overhaul the aging XL Center in downtown Hartford to keep University of Connecticut teams as tenants is a blueprint to modernize a 1970s arena that has reached the end of its useful life, not a long-shot bid to bring NHL hockey back to Connecticut.
"This is not a wing and a prayer with respect to NHL hockey," Malloy said. "This is a long process, a thought-out process and one that we think leads to the logical conclusion that either we close this facility in the not-too-distant future, or we rebuild it. Because I'm certainly not going to propose that we spend $750 million to $1 billion on a new facility."
Malloy said publicity about the invitation he and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin extended to the New York Islanders to consider the XL Center, which he says they made after reading about the team's interest in a new venue, has led to inquiries from an ownership group now trying to acquire an NHL franchise.
"As a result of sending that letter, getting as much publicity as it got, we have been contacted by a group that would very much like to explore" the state's plans for modernizing the XL Center, Malloy said.
But Malloy said the NHL flirtation, while welcome and worth pursuing, has wrongly cast the years of planning and feasibility studies by the Capital Region Development Authority, which now runs the arena built by the city of Hartford, as driven by a courtship to bring an NHL team to the former home of the Hartford Whalers.
"A lot has been made, and I think has confused people that we need to spend money on this facility in the hope and prayer that we'll get an NHL team," Malloy said.
Arena executives took Malloy and reporters on a tour of the arena, pointing out a pipe that ruptured the previous night during a UConn basketball game, a freight elevator that broke four years ago, an unreliable air-conditioning system that keeps away summer concerts and a leaky refrigeration system that struggles to maintain ice for hockey.
"If we're going to keep this facility open, and by the way I would advocate that the capital city needs a facility like this, the general area needs a facility like this, then we're going to have to spend money on it, or we're going to have to replace it in total," Malloy said.
The cost of replacement starts at $750 million, while a design firm hired by the Capital Regional Development Authority has prepared a $250 million plan that Malloy wants the state to fund that could transform the arena with new mechanical systems, larger concourses and modern amenities, including revenue-producing luxury boxes.
Malloy made news with a letter sent on impulse to the owners of the New York Islanders offering the XL Center as a home to an NHL franchise looking for an alternative to their temporary home at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn. Publicity over the letter has prompted an unnamed group trying to acquire an NHL franchise to inquire about the XL modernization plans. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Old Whalen Jr. High to be turned into apartments in Hamden
HAMDEN >> The state will contribute more than a half-million dollars toward the redevelopment of the former Michael J. Whalen Jr. High School into apartments and a community center.
Hamden will receive $600,000 grant through the state’s Brownfield Revitalization Program that will be used to demolish a portion of the former school located in the town’s HIghwood neighborhood and the removal of possibly contaminated debris.
The school was constructed in 1956 on the site of a former dump made up of industrial waste from New Haven manufacturers, including the former Remington Arms plant. When the town looked into expanding the school in 2000, the history of dumping in the neighborhood came to light, and instead the decision was made to build a new school on the former Meadowbrook Golf Course rather than try to remediate and expand the old school.Since then, the entire neighborhood has undergone a massive cleanup project that entailed removing the contaminated soil and replacing it with clean soil. The last phase of that project is the reuse of the middle school. Mutual Housing Association, the same organization that redeveloped nearby Highland Square on Dixwell Avenue, will construct a mix of market-rate and affordable housing units on the site, and will preserve the school’s gymnasium to be used as a community center.
As part of the project, a portion of the old school will be demolished, to which the grant money will be used, said state Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Hamden. “The old Middle School has been vacant for too long,” D’Agostino said. “This grant will allow the town to move forward with the economic development of southern Hamden, benefiting the entire neighborhood and the town as a whole.”The grant was awarded to the Hamden Economic Development Corporation, which has orchestrated the Newhall remediation project for decades. “I want to thank Gov. Malloy for this grant and ensuring that Hamden will receive a portion of the $6.9 million allocated for his statewide remediation and brownfield clean-up program,” D’Agostino said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE