BRISTOL — The City Council will hear a presentation by Bristol Hospital on the hospital’s offer to buy a portion of Centre Square at a special meeting Monday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m., in the City Hall Council Chambers.
Mayor Ken Cockayne said there will be public participation at the meeting and then the council will likely make a decision on the offer.
The presentation was originally scheduled for March 8 but was postponed.
The hospital is interested in buying four acres of Centre Square to build physicians’ offices and an ambulatory care center at Main Street and Riverside Avenue, which is part of the 15-acre former mall site located across from City Hall.
When the Bristol Development Authority holds a workshop on the Preliminary Master Plan for Centre Square on Thursday, March 9, the area of the downtown property reserved for Bristol Hospital’s plans will be left blank.
Justin Malley, BDA executive director, said planning consultant Milone & MacBroom is reserving that corner of the site for the hospital project, for which there is no set site plan yet.
Once city works out the deal, the hospital still has to go through the permitting process for development of the property before it can set a groundbreaking date.
In January, the hospital announced it had selected Rendina Healthcare Real Estate, a Jupiter, Fla.-based builder that specializes in healthcare facilities, for the project. Rendina beat out four finalists.
While waiting for the city to agree to the sale, Rendina has been meeting with hospital officials “to get a clearer picture on the design parameters and requirements,” said Steve Barry, Rendina executive vice president for Business Development & Leasing. “We want to better understand the way their physicians work and prepare for the process.”
Rendina will handle everything, from the building to landscaping, Barry added. Construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months.
“We’re working with the city on approvals. Our preferred timeline is to be breaking ground this year, before the ground freezes next year,” Barry has said. “But we can’t finish the process until we start it.”The area was the site of the old Bristol Centre Mall, which the city bought in 2005 and tore down in 2008 to clear the way for new development. The property was known as Depot Square until it was renamed last June by the Bristol Development Authority Board. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hanover Pond restored in Meriden; testing of hydroelectric technology underway
MERIDEN — Six months after it was drawn down to allow for construction of a hydroelectric generator, Hanover Pond has been restored.
The pond was lowered in September so workers could construct an Archimedes screw generator at the dam. The screw was installed in late December and is undergoing testing, said Chris Conover, spokesman for Massachusetts-based New England Hydropower.
“We’re going through the final phases of testing and approval to generate,” he said. With construction complete, the company began refilling the pond around March 1. Refilling can be unpredictable due to weather, Conover said, but “in this case, we actually were able to do it in a pretty controlled fashion. “The pond is running naturally” as of Monday, he added.
While work is on schedule, it’s unclear when New England Hydropower will start generating electricity. Conover said the company is “running through the barrage of tests” and couldn’t provide an estimate.
The technology was invented over 2,000 years ago by ancient Greek scientist Archimedes and has been used in Europe for the past decade. Conover said Meriden is the first city in the United States to use the technology. Electricity will be generated when water at the top of the dam is sent through the screw, causing it to rotate at about 30 revolutions a minute.
The 20-ton, 35-foot-long steel screw, lifted by crane into the pond in December, will generate about 900,000 kilowatts of electricity annually and could save the city $20,000 a year.
The electricity will be fed into the Eversource Energy power grid. The city would then buy the electricity back with vouchers. Over the next 20 years, the property taxes are expected to total $110,000. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The Board of Selectmen approved purchase agreements at its Thursday, March 2 meeting that impact the occupation of the Pratt & Whitney site and the preservation of open space.
The board oversaw public discussion and then voted unanimously to approve the purchase of a small portion of Valley Service Road for $1 from Rabina Properties, which will allow the town to complete a roadway extension that connects Valley Service Road to Washington Avenue at the Pratt & Whitney site. The extension will allow trucks to leave the site via Valley Service Road and access I-91 without traveling on Washington Avenue.The state has provided $1.6 million in funding and the town set aside $600,000 through a bond in 2008 after it passed a resolution approving the extension of Valley Service Road.
Town engineer Jonathan Bodwell, who displayed maps of the road extension at the March 2 selectmen’s meeting, said the $2.2 million in funds from the state grant and the bond will be enough to complete the extension A design for the extension will be completed by March 31. Permits for the project may take 26 months to be acquired and construction will take nine months.
The job should be completed after the sale of the Pratt & Whitney site, which is pending, takes place. First selectman Mike Freda has said a decision by the end user and Rabina Properties will occur later this month.
Construction on the first of two roundabouts along Hebron Avenue will start in a few weeks.
Crews will mobilize by mid-March and begin construction of the roundabout at the intersection of Hebron Avenue and New London Turnpike, a $1.5 million project intended to ease traffic congestion. Originally scheduled to begin last summer, the project was delayed so the town could acquire easements, utilities could be relocated and special order granite curbing could be ordered.
A second roundabout at the intersection of Hebron Avenue and House Street will be constructed later in the summer. That roundabout will cost $1.6 million and be paid for with a state grant.
"It's going to be an interesting construction season in the Hebron Avenue corridor," said Daniel A. Pennington, director of physical services/town engineer. "It's obviously a lot of activity, but I think it is achievable during a single construction season...I think having completion in one season is better than dragging it out over several construction seasons.Crews from Eversource have been relocating wires and poles throughout the winter. By the middle of the month, construction crews will begin widening the corners of the intersection. The traffic signal will be removed and barrels, signs and flashing lights will be installed simulating the movement of the traffic circle so motorists can get used to the traffic flow."The roundabout traffic flow will be started very early in the process," Pennington said. "We will then close off one approach at a time and put in the curbing, splitter islands, landscaping and crosswalks. It's a reasonable way to go about it to expedite construction in the area that's closed."
Pennington said there will be detours in effect for thru-traffic at each closure, but access to local driveways and businesses will remain open. Councilman William T. Finn said the town needs to be proactive so merchants have as much information as possible.
"It is important for this project to move as seamlessly as it possibly can," he said. Pennington said there will be an on-site construction supervisor at the roundabout daily and the town will make personal visits to merchants during the closure periods to explain the time frames.
"We totally understand this is how folks make their living," Pennington said. "It's very important and we need to do everything we can to minimize impacts." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Connecticut study finds natural gas leaks higher than reported; state questions methodology of report
A new study from the Connecticut chapter of the Sierra Club has representatives of the environmental group sparring with one of the state’s natural gas utilities and state regulators over the adequacy of leak detection programs.
The study commissioned by the state’s Sierra Club chapter found that in Hartford alone, natural gas pipelines leak approximately 43,000 cubic feet per day, or 313 metric tons per year. That’s enough natural gas to power about 214 U.S. households annually, according to officials with the organization.The study used precise measuring devices and was performed by a Southborough, Massachusetts-based company, Gas Safety Inc., said Martha Klein, a spokeswoman for Sierra Club of Connecticut. Robert Ackley, Gas Safety’s founder, said the results the company found in Hartford “are similar to what we’ve been finding all over the United States.”“The rate of natural gas leakage from pipelines is much higher than what the industry claims and what the regulators estimate,” Ackley said in a statement. “These companies could and should do more to prevent and repair leaks, but they don’t.” But Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, challenged Ackley’s claims. Regulation of the natural gas industry in Connecticut is done by PURA.
“PURA has one of the most effective leak detection programs in the nation,” Schain said. “We have some questions and concerns about the methodology of the report.” Natural gas utilities are required by law to keep records of all leaks and report them to PURA, according to Schain. The types of natural gas leaks are broken down into three categories, he said. “A Grade 1 release of natural gas has to be reported and addressed immediately,” Schain said. “There is a very specific timetable for how quickly Grade 2 leaks are reported and remediated as well. We have a good handle on the situation.”A Grade 3 leak is one that is non-hazardous at the time of detection and can be reasonably expected to remain non-hazardous.Gale Ridge, a scientist and researcher who took part in the Gas Safety study, disagrees with Schain.“In a one month period, we found about 700 leaks in Hartford,” Ridge said. “Over a one year period covering the same area, PURA reported 139 leaks. Even recognizing that some of the leaks we found are known to PURA, that’s about a five-fold difference.”Natural gas users in Hartford and surrounding communities are served by Connecticut Natural Gas, which is a subsidiary of New Haven-based Avangrid. Michael West, an Avangrid spokesman, said Connecticut Natural Gas “has a robust system in place” for detecting natural gas leaks and for taking steps to make sure that they don’t occur at all.“We do a lot of leak protection programs and our response rates and times are better than utilities than other states besides Connecticut,” West said. “We’ve made great progress in replacing older cast iron and steel pipes with plastic piping that isn’t as susceptible to leaks.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE