Ansonia plans to shell out cash for new police station
ANSONIA — Money will be coming in, but also going out, if the city proceeds with its plans to sell two downtown buildings and buy another.
Before anything happens, though, the public will get a chance to address those plans during a public hearing before the Board of Aldermen on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
The aldermen themselves are not expected to discuss the matters or vote on them until their May 9 meeting, at the earliest
For now, the city is seeking public input on its plan to use between $3 and $4 million of a $12 million, 40-year loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to buy the former Farrel corporate headquarters at 65 Main St. from Shaw Venture Growth, of Greenwich and New York. That building encompasses 85,000 square feet on two open floors. It also has two elevators and a two-floor parking garage.
If the purchase goes through, the city plans to move the Ansonia’s senior citizen center from downtown to the first floor and relocate the police department from the century-old Larkin School on Elm Street to the second floor.
Corporation Counsel John P. Marini said the first floor also might accommodate some municipal offices.
A quicker alternative
The city obtained the federal loan as part of its plan to demolish the crime-ridden Riverside Apartments on Olson Drive and build a state-of-the-art police headquarter there. However, because that land fronts the Naugatuck River, flood plain issues had to be addressed and planning had to be done.
“I couldn’t wait three to four years for that,” Mayor David Cassetti said. “We can get this rehab done in about six months.”
Marini said the cost of building a new police station would be much more than that of refurbishing the Farrel building. Among the items cut from the budget of the new building would have been the police firing range, which is now tentatively earmarked for a secluded section of the Farrel garage.
The Farrel building has been vacant for several months. Farrel Pomini moved its remaining 100 employees from the site in September to new corporate headquarters in the Fountain Lake Industrial park.
The proposed sale does not include the building’s outside parking lot. Marini said that’s because the lot “will be essential” to Shaw Venture Growth’s plan to turn the adjacent Farrel Process Lab, which they own at 501 East Main Street, into apartments and retail. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Connecticut, New Haven region face major transportation challenges, fixes seen as economic driver
When it comes to people and goods getting from place to place, Connecticut is in a jam. Traffic is backed up for hours, especially in Fairfield County and in Hartford. Roads and bridges are in dire need of repair. The New Haven regional airport has limited service because its runway is too short. And the state is in such desperate financial straits that tolls — last seen in Connecticut in 1986 — could return to the interstates. To state Transportation Commissioner James Redeker, there are two major issues facing the state’s businesses and workers. “The first is congestion, from a business point of view, [which] causes higher operating costs and lower productivity,” he said. “By the same token, it’s hard to attract people … just from a quality-of-life perspective.”
“In general, transportation is high on the list of things that businesses are looking for,” said Anthony Rescigno, president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce. For smaller companies, particularly, “it’s a lot of money: the cost of doing business, the cost of transportation to get people from point A to point B.” Eric Gjede, counsel for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, said the group’s surveys show “the No. 1 transportation issue is congestion, particularly, obviously, on the I-95 corridor and the I-84 corridor in Hartford. “We find that gives us the most trouble in getting to meetings on time, it limits your customer base … it impacts employees’ ability to get to work, makes it difficult to ship products,” he said Gjede called for keeping the state’s highways and bridges in good repair. “No matter what, if you’re trying to move products in the state … the last few miles you still need trucks and vehicles to move that and you need good roads for that,” he said.
Cost to businessConnecticut’s roads are a problem for business because “everything that gets moved is by truck in the state,” so they face a choice of increased time spent shipping during the day or paying extra for second-shift drivers to truck goods during non-rush hours, Redeker said. For employees, “It’s not attractive to relocate and take a job in the state where commuting times are so long,” he said. That’s why the state wants to add “more capacity for trains and more expanded service area for buses.” The ideal would be for “every household in an urbanized area” to be “within half a mile of a bus.”
According to the state’s “Let’s Go CT!” plan, a $100.3 billion, 30-year blueprint issued in February 2015, “Each year, drivers spend up to one work week just sitting in traffic, costing nearly $1.6 billion in lost time and fuel, and $2.6 billion in higher operating costs, fuel, and accidents caused by deficient, congested roads and bridges.” Locally, Rescigno praised the new Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in New Haven, which “is actually working better than anybody actually thought. On the other hand, “West Haven is a particular issue right now because of the work that they’re doing” replacing the Interstate 95 bridge over the West River.According to John Antonucci, supervising engineer with the state Department of Transportation, “traffic tends to slow down” on that stretch because of “minimal shoulders” while the center portion of the bridge is being built. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Mohegans’ development plan could benefit Norwich and beyond
Norwich — At her home in Honolulu, Mary Martill Whitworth read an online newspaper article last summer about the pending deal between Preston and the Mohegan tribe for the former Norwich Hospital property and decided to jump on a bandwagon not yet created to make sure her former hometown benefits from the development.
“I love Norwich and have been sad to see the decline,” Whitworth said last week. “I want to be part of the renaissance. There’s no reason Norwich can’t be like our sisters at the shoreline. We have a beautiful harbor and waterfront.”
Whitworth, a Norwich native and 31-year U.S. Army veteran, contacted Norwich Community Development Corp. President Robert Mills. She walked with him through the depressed downtown district and stopped in front of the former Harry’s Market at 88-90 Main St. with a retail storefront and two apartments upstairs.
On Jan. 23, Whitworth bought the building for $35,000 and plans a complete renovation worth about $150,000 using downtown revitalization matching grants and loans to help foot the bill. The building dates to the late 18th century prior to a 19th-century renovation, City Historian Dale Plummer said.
Whitworth plans to lease the store to her son and his wife, Christopher and Sarah Hamman, who will bring their custom embroidery business, Thread and Ink Studios, to Norwich. It will feature custom products for the tourism industry and a gift shop, Whitworth said. The couple will live upstairs, and Whitworth plans to buy a retirement home nearby.
“Everyone (in Norwich) has the same dismal outlook on Norwich, but I don’t,” Whitworth said. “I have a very bright outlook. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the Mohegan tribe will do with that property.”
The former Norwich Hospital property is split between Preston and Norwich. Preston approved an agreement April 18 to sell 388 acres of the property to the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority for a major resort complex. Proposals include a marina, theme park, indoor water park, sports complex, large sports store, three hotels, senior housing, time share units, a public park, shops and restaurants.
Construction is expected to start in late 2019 and take about five years to complete.
Colchester developer Mark Fields purchased the nearly 50 acres of abutting hospital property in Norwich from the state in October 2015 for $300,000. He has met with Norwich city officials to discuss ideas for the property, but has not submitted plans.
Norwich and Preston officials, regional economic development leaders and business entrepreneurs say now is the time for Norwich and surrounding towns to prepare to take advantage of the project.
“This is an opportunity,” Preston First Selectman Robert Congdon put it bluntly. “Don’t blow it.”
He said Norwich could attract thousands of tourists and family vacationers coming to the Mohegan destination, especially if downtown is lined with the shops, restaurants and niche businesses that tourists seek out.
“A whole different demographic is coming to the region,” he said. “Norwich could easily be a Westerly. They’ve got the bones to do great things. That’s what they should be spending their energy on, instead of redoing the Derbygate investigation over and over again,” referring to an ongoing ethics controversy involving five city officials who attended a lavish expenses-paid trip to the Kentucky Derby last May. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Middletown Building Committee Pursuing New Middle School Rather Than Renovation
The building committee studying options for a new middle school favors a new building on Hunting Hill Avenue rather than renovating the existing Woodrow Wilson Middle School.
At a meeting Thursday night, architect TSKP Studio presented options for a new building and for renovation that range in cost from $81.4 million to $88.3 million. With state reimbursement, the projects would have a total estimated cost to the city of between $39.8 million and $41.5 million.
The architect's concept for the new school would put a new three-story building of about 150,000 square feet in front of the current school. Parking and the main entrance would be on the back side of the building. The committee estimates about 900 students will attend in the first few years after the school opens.
Building a new facility is the more expensive option overall, but because of the way state reimbursements are calculated on renovation projects, the difference in final cost to city taxpayers isn't as significant Local officials are in agreement that Woodrow Wilson Middle School is outdated, inefficient and has a layout that doesn't meet educational needs of students. Additions over the years on the mostly one-story building have created a sprawling maze of a campus, and the architect said the size of its footprint limits how it can be renovated.
"We need a facility that meets the needs of our students now and in the future," said Councilman Eugene Nocera, a member of the building committee. "It's very difficult to do that with the current facilities."
State officials have visited Woodrow Wilson Middle School multiple times, and after a tour Thursday building committee members said they had the impression the state also views new construction as the best option. Renovation would take an estimated 36 months because of the need to use the building during construction, while building a new facility would take about 26 months.
The committee is planning to submit a concept to the state for review by June 30, then seek council approval to add a referendum question to fund the project to the November election ballot. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Report: 44 Connecticut work-related deaths in 2015
HARTFORD >> Union leaders are drawing attention to a recent report showing 2015 marked the largest number of deaths from work-related injuries since 2010. The Connecticut Department of Labor says 44 people in the state lost their lives from work-related injuries, an increase from 35 in 2014. The figure is also higher than the state’s annual average of 39 work-related deaths.
Members of the Connecticut AFL-CIO Health & Safety Committee, elected officials and labor and management representatives highlighted the report during a Workers Memorial Day ceremony on Friday. Union officials are seeking state legislation this session that provides workers compensation coverage to police officers and firefighters suffering from PTSD.Ninety-three percent of Connecticut’s work-related deaths occurred in the private sector. The highest rate — 12.9 percent — was in the construction industry.