CHESHIRE – Town officials and developers of an arts center are hoping Cheshire receives a state grant for public parking on or near West Main Street.
Jerry Sitko, the town’s economic development coordinator, said the town applied in April for a $500,000 state grant for the purchase of land and the construction of a municipal parking lot. More people are using the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail and additional parking is needed, he said.
The trail intersects with West Main Street at a specially-designed pedestrian crosswalk.A stretch north of West Main Street is under construction by the state. Sitko said the state plans to add 10 parking spaces as part of the project.
“No doubt we’ll need more,” he said.
Jeffrey Guimond, a developer of the Ball & Socket Arts Center on West Main Street, said he and other developers asked the town for municipal parking nearby to accommodate visitors to the area. There are already people parking on the factory property to use the trail, according to Guimo He said municipal parking is good for the West Main Street area and will encourage people to park in one place and walk between shops and destinations. The alternative is for each establishment to have its own parking, which Guimond said lends itself to overbuilding of lots.
“The town has recognized that every business in that area has potential parking issues, especially when the trail is up and running,” he said.
If the town gets the grant, Sitko said the lot would be open to the public and could be used by patrons of nearby businesses and the art center. While the trail is driving the need for parking, he said it’ll be a benefit to West Main Street as a whole.
There is no property chosen for the potential lot. While there are properties available in the area, Sitko said, the town hasn’t yet approached any sellers.
Sitko has gotten no word yet from the state about the grant.
Events have been taking place at the arts center although the buildings themselves can’t yet be used. The first phase of development includes renovating the long building near the main factory structure. Guimond said developers are working to raise $2 million in support for that phase, which will qualify them for a $750,000 grant.
Guimond said later CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
With a new entrance from the outdoor seating area along Hillside Road and a full-service Starbucks café, the 45,000-square-foot UConn Bookstore will also feature a public seating area of 3,000 square feet on the second floor, overlooking Gampel Pavilion and the future site of the new Student Recreation Center.
Len Oser, general manager of The UConn Bookstores, says the changes aim to make the bookstore a meeting place for students, faculty, alumni and visitors. The work costs $3 million and is being paid for by Barnes & Noble, he said.
"We want this to be a much more exciting and engaging social hub," says Oser.
The first floor will have a more open look, with the removal of the glass wall near the entrance at the corner of Hillside Road and Jim Calhoun Way, and provide more seating at the new Starbucks café. An Apple Store, with computer purchase and repair services, and UConn branded clothing and gifts, will be located on the first floor
The public space on the second floor will be available for events and activities of up to 100 people, or partitioned for use by smaller group.
Bloomfield Human Services Building Project Expected To Be Over Budget
After months of debate last spring and summer, a town council group chose a human services building project, with a $22.3 million price tag, over renovating the Prosser Library, which would have cost $20.2 million.
At the time, detractors of the human services project said that it had been reverse-engineered in order to bring the price down and make it more palatable for voters to approve at referendum. They also argued that the price would not hold up to a more thorough, less hurried architectural review.
Those opponents may have a point as the latest estimates put the project several million dollars over budget, even with value engineering recommendations.
An update by Moser Pilon Nelson Architects and presented to the town council Monday shows that the total cost of the project is estimated at $28.2 million, without value engineering.
Moser Pilson Nelson, which was not the architect on the original estimate, identified $2.3 million in value engineering and other reductions, that leaves the project $3.58 million over budget and with unanswered questions about how to address the gap.
Council member Leon Rivers, who led the group supporting the human services building, said Tuesday that he believes that the project can still be done, even if the town needs to come up with more money or reduce or delay certain parts of it. "We are deeply involved with the new firm and they are confident they can maintain the integrity but reduce some programs," Rivers said.
Architect Dave Symonds said Tuesday that by making the use of space more efficient they were able to reduce the square footage of the building by 1,250 feet and save $325,000. They also removed some exterior stone panels for $460,000 in savings and eliminated build-out elements in the courtyard for $220,000.
Rivers said that he could see a scenario in which some parts of the project are delayed, such as work on two ball fields, as well as funding some of the costs from the town's undesignated fund balance.
A supplemental referendum, however, is not be something Rivers would favor because it could fail and hurt public support for the project."I don't think [supplemental referendum] is a high priority," he said.
As for the argument that the numbers used were purposely kept low, Rivers said those were the numbers given by the former architects.
Resident David Mann, who attended the informational session Monday said that a building project being over budget before work has CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Eversource begins first phase of gas line project in Wallingford
Work on a multi-phase project that will improve the reliability of Eversource Energy’s natural gas customers in Wallingford got started Monday.
Eversource will spend $14 million this year on the first phase of a 17-mile-long project that ultimately will link existing gas mains in Wallingford and Middletown. The project also will allow Eversource to add service in Durham, where the company currently does not provide natural gas service, and expand availability of service in Middlefield, said Mitch Gross, a company spokesman.“We’re in the process of building redundancies adding equipment into the system for reliability purposes,” Gross said of the primary goal of the project,The first phase of the project involves installation of 5.6 miles of line from Wallingford east along Route 68 to the Durham line, he said. Work on that phase is expected to be completed by the end of November.
During the second phase, scheduled to begin next spring, crews will install about eight miles of line from Middletown south along Route 17 to the intersection with Route 68 in Durham, Gross said. The final phase of the project, which will begin in spring 2019, will complete the link-up of the two natural gas pipelines, Gross said. Bill Akley, president of gas operations at Eversource, said company officials will be “working closely with town officials throughout the project to minimize any traffic disruptions in the community.” Crews are working in town Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Drivers may experience delays due to alternating, one-way traffic in the construction zones.Eversource has several other projects that will link different sections of its distribution network, One similar project is going on in Danbury while another link is being installed from Plainfield to Franklin in eastern Connecticut.The resiliency projects are in addition to Eversource’s ongoing expansion of its natural gas distribution system and replacement program of its older gas pipelines. Eversource provides natural gas to 229,000 customers in 72 communities in Connecticut. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Transportation Construction Coalition Releases Statement About Graves-Norton Highway Trust Fund Letter
The Transportation Construction Coalition commends the 253 bipartisan members of the House of Representatives who joined together to advocate for a long-term solution to the Highway Trust Fund's structural revenue deficit.
119 Republicans and 134 Democrats — a majority of each party's membership in the chamber — signed a June 12 letter, led by House Highways & Transit Subcommittee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Ranking Member Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-D.C.), to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) calling for a trust fund fix as part of legislation to reform the U.S. tax code.
Since 2008, more than $140 billion in general fund transfers and budget gimmicks have been needed to preserve federal surface transportation investments. The trust fund's permanent revenue shortfall continues to grow. In fact, the $70 billion transferred into the trust fund as part of the 2015 surface transportation program law will be liquidated in FY 2020. Waiting until that point to address the trust fund's revenue shortfall would result in a nearly $18 billion average annual shortfall between existing revenue and the amount needed to prevent cuts in highway and public transportation spending.
The Graves Norton letter noted: “Over the past 30 years, all Highway Trust Fund (HTF) revenue enhancements have been included in larger tax and deficit reduction packages. Any HTF solution should entail a long-term, dedicated, user-based revenue stream that can support the transportation infrastructure investment supported by President Trump and members of Congress.”
The letter makes crystal clear that members of both parties are seeking a break from the budget gimmicks and general fund transfers of the past. It also is a welcome contrast to the Trump administration's budget proposal to ignore the Highway Trust Fund's fiscal situation and arbitrarily constrain spending — an approach that would result in $100 billion in highway and public transportation investment cuts through FY 2027.