Mohegan Sun is planning to open a new, $80 million conference center next summer to cater to convention and meeting business.
The Expo Center expansion has been authorized and is slated to open in the summer of 2018 -- "just in time for the Barrett-Jackson Northeast 2018" car collector auction, leaders of the Mohegan Sun and the Mohegan tribe said in an announcement.
The Mohegan tribe plans to unveil the expansion at a Thursday press conference.
The total size of the expansion, including the 131,000-square-foot Expo Center, will be 240,000 gross square feet, Mohegan Sun said.
The proposed center would be located in a vacant area next to the casino's Winter Garage and link to the garage and the Earth casino and tower, a spokesman said, confirming a published report.
Super Load Hauling Power Plant Components Moves Through Farmington Valley On Way To Oxford
The second of six massive components for a power plant being built in Oxford passed through Simsbury, Avon and Canton Monday night.
And again residents turned out to watch the heavy-hauling vehicle moving at a maximum 5 mph carry the combustion turbine from the area of the former Wagner Ford on Hopmeadow Street through Avon and Canton to the former Waring plant along Route 44 in New Hartford.
Monday night's move was the second leg of the trip from Windsor Locks to Oxford. State police are escorting the vehicle moving the turbine, which is 23 feet wide and 192 feet long. A contractor from New Jersey is moving the turbine.
Because the load is so big, the move temporarily blocks roadways and forces closures. It is being moved at night to limit disruptions to traffic. The vehicle and its load are too heavy for some of the highway bridges in place, said Dave Hiscox, who oversees the state Department of Transportation's oversize and overweight permit office. A temporary bridge was needed to carry the load across a bridge on Route 10 near the Ensign Bickford complex.
There are 10 bridges along the route to Oxford that require installation of the temporary bridge, Hiscox said.
The turbine and the five other components that will make the trip from Windsor Locks to Oxford arrived in Connecticut by rail. It was expected to take about six days to truck each component to the power plant construction site.
Another 26 large pieces of the plant were brought into the port of New Haven on barges, then trucked to Oxford, Hiscox said.
The six moving from Windsor Locks could not move over the same route. "These are bigger and heavier," Hiscox said.
The components will become part of the natural-gas fueled CPV Towantic Energy Center power plant in Oxford. The builder says that when the plant goes online it will generate enough electricity to power 750,000 homes. It is expected to begin operating in mid-2018.South Windsor Voters Overwhelmingly Approve $70 Million Plan For New Elementary Schools
Voters, by a 3-1 margin Tuesday, approved a plan to build two new elementary schools in town.
According to unofficial tallies, the vote was 3,082-895 to appropriate $70 million to replace the Philip R. Smith and Eli Terry elementary schools. The town, with a school population of 4,230 students, has five elementary schools. The town will pay a net cost of $47 million, with the state reimbursing the town $23 million of the construction costs.
Daria Plummer, chairwoman of the Support South Windsor Schools steering committee, celebrated the win saying "this is what community is all about."
"This is the community — in these difficult times — that sought sanity and reason in this plan and they came out. ... It is everyone who hosted a lawn sign ... it all began with a reasonable plan. We did this for the children. We did this for the town. We did this for the community."
The plans call for the construction of two new elementary schools, including a 66,586-square-foot building built on the Eli Terry Elementary School campus and a 58,243-square-foot facility built on the Philip R. Smith campus. Officials note the proposed schools will feature "expanded classroom technology, designs intended to increase school safety and security and modern mechanical systems including more efficient heating and cooling systems." They also note the schools will comply with all building and fire codes, as well as the ADA accessibility requirements.
"I couldn't be more proud of the community," Superintendent Kate Carter said, "that doesn't just cherish, but supports public education. ... I'm so proud to live in a community that values public education. That is willing to invest even when there are plenty of noises and discussions happening around us that could have set us back." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUEArchitects chosen for Derby athletic complex
DERBY>> A pair of architects have scored the task of giving the school district’s athletic complex a major-league facelift.
Two separate committees working on the project — the Athletic Complex Building Committee and the Field House and Baseball Field Building Committee — both recently voted to bring the two architect firms onboard.The Athletic Complex Building Committee selected a New Britain firm, Kaestle Boos Associates Inc., which designed the minor league stadium that formerly housed the New Britain Rock Cats and the current home of the Bees. The firm, in business for more than 50 years, is the designer behind many statewide renovation projects, including the Palace Theater in Waterbury, Naugatuck High School and its athletic complex, Greenwich Academy’s athletic field and West Hartford Veterans Memorial.
“I think everyone was impressed with their experience, past projects and their understanding of the scope of our project,” said City Treasurer/Committee Chairman Keith McLiverty. Kaestle Boos will serve as project manager, overseeing the design and construction of an artificial turf football field, multi-purpose field and 8-lane rubberized track at the Leo F. Ryan Sports Complex on Chatfield Street. Derby received $2.9 million in funding from the state Bond Commission for the project. A second architect, Peter de Bretteville of Hamden, was selected by the Field House and Baseball Field Committee to design and oversee construction of another major component of the overall athletic complex makeover, though it’s being treated as a separate project. A new baseball field and state-of-the-art field house is being privately funded thanks to a more than $2 million donation from Joan Payden, founder, CEO and president of Los Angeles-based international investment firm Payden & Rygel. Payden made the donation in memory of her father, J.R. Payden, a Derby High School class of 1915 valedictorian who played baseball here, graduated from Yale University and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps Aviation Division and became a fighter pilot for the Royal Flying Corps in England. Payden hand-picked de Bretteville, who has more than 40 years’ experience and has designed renovations ranging from the historic Stonington library to Athens College in Greece, to design the baseball field/fieldhouse project. The existing high school baseball field, which is not regulation size, has to be relocated in order to make way for the artificial turf field and track. The field currently is located next to the football field at the Ryan Complex and is slated to be relocated to where the existing girls’ softball field is. The softball field is slated to move nearby to either the high school campus on Nutmeg Avenue near the existing Little League field or near the new artificial turf field. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Aldermen pick contractor for DPW facility in Waterbury
WATERBURY – Aldermen, on Monday, agreed to hire KBE Building Corp. to build the city a public works facility.
But city officials won’t sign a contract for at least 30 days, to pass the deadline for a referendum that might see voters strip funding away from the project.
The project has drawn a subdued sort of controversy after the administration of Mayor Neil M. O’Leary was forced to request a nearly 50 percent increase to the $60.4 million budget approved in 2010 for construction of a DPW facility, along with redevelopment of the Waterbury Industrial Commons. The five Republicans on the 15-member board balked at the increase, and so a compromise of an additional $25 million was reached.
Former Alderman Lawrence V. De Pillo, speaking to the board Monday, recommended an audit of the funds already expended. He also urged members to allow residents to decide on the funding increase through a referendum. In 2014, De Pillo helped lead a drive that collected enough signatures to challenge a $49.6 million school construction project at the polls. O’Leary pulled the plug on that project, in the city’s East End, before it came to a vote.
De Pillo, on Tuesday, said he wouldn’t instigate a referendum, but he would help if approached by concerned residents. So far, De Pillo said, nobody has approached him. Only a handful of individuals attended aldermanic meetings to express concern in the run-up to Monday’s vote.
De Pillo had hard words for the administration that pushed for an increase and Republicans who he felt were too accommodating.
“I really thought the minority (Republicans) should have insisted on a referendum or forensic audit,” De Pillo said. “If they didn’t, shame on them. They went ahead and voted for this increase. They never got an audit of what happened to the $60 million.”
Administration officials had previously explained the increase to aldermen, blaming unexpected environmental challenges, rising construction costs and decisions to expand both the scope of the new DPW facility and renovations to the Waterbury Industrial Commons site.
Board of Aldermen President Paul K. Pernerewski Jr., on Monday, said the board shouldn’t have been surprised by some of the increases. Members had approved contracts for the expanded work. Pernerewski also expressed disappointment with the amenities that were cut.
Minority Leader Steven R. Giacomi, on Tuesday said it hadn’t been made clear to board members those contracts would increase overall costs.
“Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. can cry his alligator tears all he wants, but we are not the ones who blew through the money,” Giacomi said. “This project should have been built a long time ago. Once again the Republicans have to be the adults in the room.”
Giacomi said he plans to insist on the formation of an aldermanic building committee to keep better informed about the status of the linked building projects, and perhaps other big-ticket building efforts.
Alderman Stephanie Cummings, another Republican, said she viewed Monday’s outcome as a good compromise.
“We really did our due diligence in figuring out what the city needed by way of the Department of Public Works and what the taxpayers can afford,” Cummings said.
Cummings also plugged a building committee as a way to ensure the board doesn’t get blind-sided again.
Some of the original $60.4 million remains unspent. The contract approved for KBE Monday sets a “guaranteed maximum price” of $30.4 million,” with an additional $1.7 contingency fund held by the city.