Preston — The Board of Finance met for 3½ hours Monday night behind closed doors with town officials and attorneys involved in negotiating the proposed purchase and sales agreement with the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority for the former Norwich Hospital property in town.
The meeting was the first of a series of meetings of town agencies expected to lead to approval of a Property Disposition and Development Agreement for the 393-acre property along Route 12 and across the Thames River from the Mohegan Sun Casino.
“It was a very positive meeting overall,” Board of Finance Chairman Norman Gauthier said late Monday. “Everyone was impressed overall with the proposal. ... There were no red flag issues for the Board of Finance.”
The Board of Finance reviewed financial and property tax components of the draft agreement. Gauthier said the board did not vote to endorse the draft agreement, and will wait for the Preston Redevelopment Agency and Board of Selectmen to hold meetings, expected later this week, to review the 150-page document.
If the redevelopment agency approves the agreement, it would become a public document, and the Board of Selectmen would be asked to schedule public informational meetings, a town meeting and referendum for residents to vote on the proposal.
With Town Hall closed Tuesday for the winter storm, no special meetings could be scheduled for later in the week.
The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority and the Mohegan Tribal Council approved the draft agreement last week, town officials said.
Tribal officials unveiled conceptual plans in January calling for a multitude of indoor and outdoor sports venues and entertainment development, including a 40-acre theme park, indoor water park, synthetic skiing facility, hotels, a sports training complex, large outdoor themed retail store, a marina, riverfront public park, senior housing and time-share units.
Gauthier declined to comment on issues discussed during Monday's meeting, attended by six finance board members, First Selectman Robert Congdon, redevelopment agency Chairman Sean Nugent, agency attorneys Scott Murphy, who negotiated much of the documents with tribal officials, and Bruce Chudwick, and attorney Kari Olson, hired by the Board of Finance to assist in its review of the document.
The memorandum of understanding included a provision that the tribe could not attempt to annex the property as part of its reservation. Any attempt to annex all or part of the property “shall result in the reversion of the property to the town.”
The memorandum called for the MTGA to establish an $11 million letter of credit — $2 million as security to cover the principal in a $2 million state loan the town obtained for environmental cleanup and $9 million as payment to the town if proposed development does not occur.
For each 100 permanent, full-time jobs created, the state would forgive $1 million of the loan, the memorandum stated. The MTGA could subtract $3 million from the line of credit after $200 million worth of development is built, another $3 million at the $300 million development value mark and the final $3 million if the project reaches a $400 million value. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Casino Bills Both Likely To Advance, But Legislature Still Unsure On Direction
Pivotal votes on casino expansion in the state will come Wednesday, but they aren't expected to send any clear message on what direction the legislature should take.
The legislature's public safety and security committee, which oversees gaming, is expected to approve two bills with opposite intentions.
One would allow the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans, which operate the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun respectively, to jointly run the first casino in Connecticut not on a tribal reservation.
The other bill would open up the process to more potential proposals that could be compared with what the tribes are planning for their preferred site in East Windsor. Rep. Joe Verrengia, D-West Hartford and the committee's chairman, said committee members are divided on the issue and passing both of the bills out of the committee will set the stage for more debate in the full House and Senate.
The House and Senate's approval also is required to expand casino gambling as well as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's signature.
The partnership of the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans — MMCT Venture — and the strategy of a third casino is aimed at mounting a defense to the competitive threat of a $950 million casino and entertainment complex now under construction in Springfield.
A third Connecticut casino would, in theory, keep gaming revenue in Connecticut, benefiting the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans. But the idea gained traction with some state legislators as a way to preserve Connecticut jobs that could be lost if the Springfield venue draws away Connecticut customers and stop erosion of slot revenue, which the state gets a portion of every month. This year, state coffers are expected to take in $267 million from the slots.
On Monday, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen sent an eight-page legal opinion to Malloy, highlighting risks of the tribes expanding, echoing similar concerns first raised by Jepsen's office in 2015.
Those concerns led to the legislature creating a two-step process for the tribes' expansion: find a location for a third casino and then come back to the legislature for final approval.
Jepsen said the state could face challenges on constitutional grounds if it backed MMCT because other potential operators were excluded. There also could be risks to the decades-old agreements that guarantee the state a share of slot revenue, in exchange for giving the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans exclusive right to operate casinos on Connecticut.
The loss of slot revenue coming to state coffers is a sensitive issue given the state's budget woes. Concerns have been raised that even the tribes themselves expanding could threaten the exclusivity agreement.
Jepsen also said there were ways to defend against a court challenge, and amendments proposed by the tribes to the slot revenue-sharing agreement might pass muster with the U.S. Department of Interior. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Torrington courthouse not expected to open before May
TORRINGTON >> Every weekday, a crew of electricians, engineers and other state workers arrive at the new courthouse on Field Street to prepare its interior for the day it begins operations. The parking lots are ready, and new plantings have been installed along the roadway. But there is plenty of work to be done before it’s ready for the public and the employees now housed in the state’s vintage stone building on West Street in Litchfield and the Bantam building on Doyle Road.
In fact, it’s not expected to open before May. The Connecticut Judicial Branch took possession of the building earlier this week, according to Rhonda Stearley-Hebert, Project Manager of Communications with the Connecticut Judicial Branch. She said Friday that the date for the courthouse’s inaugural day was not yet certain, and that a series of steps had to take place before the courthouse could open for business. “(T)here is a large punch list of tasks to be completed before the building opens, and it would be too disruptive to have the courthouse open while those tasks are done,” said Stearley-Hebert in an email. The work left to be done, she said, includes weather-stripping doors, adding window coverings, and putting final touches on painting projects. Field Street itself is a sea of potholes and cracked pavement. The courthouse was previously expected to open in January and April, and local and state officials have assessed the progress of the project at various points in the past year. The building on Field Street was previously under the oversight of the Department of Administrative Services, Stearley-Hebert said Friday, and shifted into the possession of the Judicial Branch on Monday.
Moving from regional courthouses into the new space is a significant task, Tom Siconolfi, executive director of administrative services for the Connecticut Judicial branch, said in December 2016. It is important for the courthouse to be functioning correctly once it opens for business, Siconolfi said at the time, to accommodate those who need to come to the court and prevent complications stemming from entering a new location. He also noted that the state expects to occupy the new courthouse for decades to come.“What matters is getting it right,” said Siconolfi. Staff from the existing courts in Bantam, Litchfield, and Torrington will also have to move into the new building before it can begin operating, Stearley-Hebert said. A time where both the new courthouse and the existing ones are open is expected, she said, and the shift is planned to take place in phases over a relatively short period of time.Construction on the $81 million courthouse project began in December 2015. The fates of the Litchfield County Courthouse on West Street in the center of Litchfield, as well as the Bantam Courthouse, a property owned by the town of Litchfield, have not been publicly determined. In Litchfield, officials are still trying to decide what to do with the Bantam Annex, as it is known, where Litchfield has its planning and zoning and park and recreation offices, and where numerous recreation programs are held in an adjacent gym. The U.S. Post Office also has an office next to the entrance to the courthouse building in Bantam. Litchfied could sell the property or continue using it for its own community needs and services. Bantam Borough officials and residents have previously lobbied to keep it for the town.