SOUTHINGTON — Workers have started on the foundation for an Aldi supermarket on Queen Street as part of a larger development that may mean the demolition of several nearby buildings.
The grocery store will sit farthest back from the road while a Chipotle Mexican Grill and Chick-fil-A will be built closer to Queen Street.
The property is owned by local developer John Senese. He bought several parcels, including a shuttered Chinese restaurant and a former 7-Eleven, for the plaza. The developer also cleaned up pollution caused by a metal plating company on the site. Senese couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
Senese rezoned nearby homes on Upson Drive for a driveway to his plaza. In the past two weeks, trees and brush have been cleared near homes, according to Pete Benzi, who has rented a house on Upson Drive from Senese since November. Whether or not his home will be demolished is “up in the air,” Benzi said. He was told that the house next door at 4 Upson Drive will be razed. Benzi said workers removed asbestos from the home, a prerequisite to demolition.
He’s glad brush is gone but misses the trees between his house and busy Queen Street.
It’s unclear when the new businesses will open. A sign advertised open positions at the Aldi supermarket, directing people to apply at nearby Aldi locations.
Building Department officials said they haven’t received any demolition permit requests for the properties.
It’s not clear whether the 7-Eleven will also be demolished. Two homes south of the former convenience store, also owned by Senese, appeared vacant Tuesday.
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the development last summer along with the rezoning of several homes. Senese has faced opposition from some residents of the neighborhood sandwiched between stores and restaurants, but a majority of the area’s property owners voted to lift a restrictive covenant that would have prevented the residential properties from being rezoned. Some residents, such as Don Johnson Jr., said the developer’s interest is a good opportunity to sell their 1950s-era homes.
Town Planner Rob Philips said the approval included the consolidation of three properties to two and the demolition of one house for a driveway.
Senese wanted to rezone more residential properties but was denied by the PZC earlier this year. Commission members and Philips said the entire neighborhood might be rezoned business but not piecemeal as was proposed. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
MERIDEN — Construction is expected to begin soon on new taxi lanes at Meriden-Markham Airport.
The new lanes will connect the Evansville Avenue airport’s main runway to an area where 16 new hangars are planned for early next year. A Federal Aviation Administration grant will cover more than 90 percent of the $220,000 cost of the taxi lanes, while the city bonded $1.3 million for the hangars.
“Some of our tenants have been waiting 20 years for a hangar,” said city Purchasing Officer Wilma Petro. “We’re very, very excited about the taxi lane project because we cannot do the hangar project until we do the taxi lanes, so I can’t wait for it to get started and I literally have tenants asking me every day when they are going to get their hangars.”
Petro said it will be the largest expansion project in 50 years at the airport, which was established in 1928. The hangars are planned for a vacant, grassy area north of the airport’s solar panels. -Last week, the City Council authorized City Manager Guy Scaife to finalize the FAA grant application for the taxi lanes. The airport currently has 12 hangars — four box hangars on the north field, six T-hangars on the south field and two large Quonset huts that hold 11 planes.
The 16 new hangars will not be enough to accommodate a waiting list of more than 60 pilots since most of the new hangars will only house one airplane.
“It won’t cover the waiting list, but it is a nice step in the right direction,” airport manager Constance Castillo said.
Work on the taxi lanes could start in four weeks, Petro said. The hangars will likely not be constructed until early next year.
Construction will not interfere with airport activities, Petro said
1. Iowa
The Savanna-Sabula Bridge was dubbed replaced after 84 years in service connecting Sabula, IA with Illinois. Photo: Kevin E. Schmidt/Quad City Times.
2. Pennsylvania
Costs for repairing the fire-damaged Liberty Bridge in Pittsburgh PA were set to $80 million. Photo: Steve Mellon/ Post Gazette
President Trump's Fiscal 2018 Budget Provides an Important First Step in Addressing Infrastructure Needs, Setting Spending Priorities
The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, released the following statement in reaction to the proposed fiscal year 2018 budget released today by the Trump administration:
"While it is tempting to identify specific elements of the President's proposed budget that we like and other elements that cause us concern, the fact is members of Congress will likely continue to exercise their Constitutional responsibility to set the federal budget. Therefore it is better to see this document for what it is, a policy statement designed to provoke significant and productive debate about the best way to address the nation's aging infrastructure while simultaneously suggesting appropriate spending priorities.
"As a policy document, this budget provides an important, and much-needed, first step in identifying the best ways to pay for needed improvements, and expansions, to our aging infrastructure. The President rightly appreciates the need to increase investment levels significantly above current amounts. Moving forward, we plan to work with Congress and the administration to identify the right balance of private and public funds and establish long-term, sustainable funding sources that will allow us to repair and improve infrastructure for decades to come.
"We also look forward to working with Congress and the administration to identify the best way to set broader federal spending priorities. We need to make sure federal officials prioritize spending in a way that continues to promote robust economic growth and begins to produce well-educated, well-trained workers for every sector of our economy.
"While it is easy to criticize specific elements of this or any other proposed budget, the President should be commended for doing what too few other politicians have been willing to do: make it clear that we need to make tough choices about future spending priorities, be willing to rethink long-held programmatic assumptions, significantly increase funding for America's infrastructure and find new ways to leverage private-sector resources to supplement federal investments." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUEFarmington Council Sends New High School To Referendum
A proposal to build a new, $135-million Farmington High School will go before voters in a town referendum on June 15, the town council voted late Tuesday night.
The vote came after about four hours of discussion and public input from more than 30 people, a third of whom opposed the project. Like the one dissenting vote, council member Jon Landry, opponents called the plan fiscally irresponsible and poorly timed, arguing that taxes will already be increasing as the town pays to upgrade its water treatment facility, and they noted there is no guarantee that the state will chip in $25 million – the amount the town hopes to receive by way of a school construction reimbursement grant.
But most residents, and six of the seven town council members, said they either support the construction or want to place the plan in the hands of residents, who will now vote on whether to authorize the town to borrow a total of $184 million, including interest, over 20 years to build the new school.
"As a Farmington homeowner, this is a very good move for me and for all of you," Jessica Lister said. "Schools are central to our identity as a town and we are in danger of losing that keystone to our identity if we continue to allow our high school to slip."
The proposed project was steered by a town building committee to address a slew of problems at the aging school, including lack of wheelchair accessibility to some areas.
Students and parents alike described the issues Tuesday as embarrassing and irreconcilable with the quality of the school's curriculum, teachers and standards: Classrooms that swing from sweltering to freezing cold, outdated technology, walls with mold and ceilings with leaks.Elise Dudley, a sophomore, said she had an asthma attack during an English exam from the mold in one room. During a history exam, the power went out, nearly compromising the laptops students needed to finish their test. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State Senate passes casino bill favoring Mashantuckets, Mohegans
The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes won the first half of their home-court fight with MGM Resorts International over the rights to gaming expansion in Connecticut as the Senate voted 24-12 early Wednesday for a bill authorizing the tribes to jointly develop the state’s first casino off tribal lands.
The bill that now goes to an uncertain fate in the House of Representatives would allow the tribes to build a casino off I-91 in East Windsor in an effort to blunt the loss of gambling dollars to Massachusetts once MGM opens a gambling resort under construction in Springfield.
“We did what we had to do. We stood up for Connecticut workers,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said shortly before the final vote at 12:35 a.m.
The Senate unexpectedly took up the bill shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday, a day when MGM intensified its opposition, buying $400,000 in television time to air a commercial saying the state would be forgoing millions of dollars in license fees and other revenue if it cut a no-bid deal with the owners of the tribal casinos.
The tribes would pay no licensing fee under the bill approved Wednesday, only an annual tax equal to 25 percent of gross revenues from table games and slots. The first $4.5 million in slots revenue would be set aside for annual grants of $750,000 to each of six communities: Hartford, East Hartford, Ellington, Enfield, South Windsor and Windsor Locks.
East Windsor would be paid a one-time $8 million development fee, plus property taxes.
Uri Clinton, a senior vice president and legal counsel of MGM Resorts, said his company will press its case in the House, where Democrats have suggested they are seeking $100 million from casino expansion, that Connecticut can do better.
“I think in the middle of a budget crisis, the Senate just took a step to give away a privileged license worth over $100 million,” Clinton said in an interview following the vote. “I think there are people who are very smart in the House who understand the budget crisis. I think as it becomes part of the budget debate, additional options might show up.”
Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford, dismissed the $750,000 grant as a token payment to a distressed capital city that is considering bankruptcy. He equated the money with giving his constituents a few fish, not the ability to catch them. Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, also opposed passage.
Watching from the gallery was Marc DiBella, the city’s Democratic chairman and one of the lobbyists hired by MMCT, the joint venture of the tribes.
With an eye on tapping the lucrative New York City market, MGM is pushing a bill that would create an open competition for the right to develop a casino resort in lower Fairfield County, a measure opposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy as a threat to a revenue-sharing deal worth about $260 million annually.
In return for the exclusive rights to gaming in Connecticut, the tribes now pay the state 25 percent of the gross slots revenue generated at their Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan Sun casinos, generating $7 billion for the state since 1993. From a high of $430 million in 2007, the slots revenue has dropped each year in the face of growing competition in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE