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Thank you for your support!
Your support is needed for a press conference with Governor Malloy on the Transportation Funding Lockbox!
Date: WEDNESDAY – JULY 5, 2017
Time: 12:30pm (Please plan to arrive early!)
Place: ConnDOT Garage
140 Pond Lily Avenue
New Haven, Connecticut
A strong showing of support is important! Connecticut needs this Transportation Lockbox, and we have to show support for Governor Malloy as he opposes the House Democrats’ Budget proposal that guts the Special Transportation Fund!
Please bring as many people from your organization as possible. And forward this message to others who support transportation investments in Connecticut!
Preston: Small town on the verge of something big
Preston — This quiet farming town isn't used to such attention.
Calls are coming in from officials in larger cities and towns, and from economic development agencies, asking: “How did you do it?” A top state economic development official frequently advises other towns to follow Preston's example.
Preston is a typical Connecticut small town, with less than 5,000 residents spread over almost 32 square miles. But within its border is a potential development jewel: a 400-acre abandoned mental illness hospital on the banks of the Thames River. Residents agreed to take the property from the state in 2009, and handed its future, and in some ways the fate of the town, to an all-volunteer board.
The group — a retired electrical engineer, a scientist, a furniture store owner, a former teacher and a retired Navy veteran among them — spent eight years obtaining grants and loans for a $26 million cleanup of the property and its dozens of decaying, contaminated buildings and a contaminated tunnel system.
And in April, Preston secured a $200 million to $600 million development plan by Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment.
“We're all volunteers, 10 individuals,” Preston Redevelopment Agency Chairman Sean Nugent told the Norwich Planning Commission in talking about the economic potential of the proposal. “There have been 17 total members. No one is paid. But some of us feel like it's a full-time job at times.”
The town reached an agreement in April with the Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment to build a giant entertainment, recreational, sports and residential resort on the property, which is directly across from the Mohegan Sun Casino, but will contain no gaming components.
“We got to where we are today in part because it was the perfect storm,” Preston First Selectman Robert Congdon said. “We had the property to the point where it was cleaned up enough so a developer would realistically consider developing it, and the unknowns wouldn’t scare them away. Casino gaming is going in Massachusetts, and the tribe needs to diversify. And the governor saw it as an opportunity to create jobs, when jobs were leaving the state.”
Congdon, an ex-officio member of the PRA, credits the agency for its unwavering dedication over the years. The group routinely holds long meetings twice monthly, elbow-deep in bureaucratic and technical documents. Members have participated by phone when major health issues arose or during vacations.
“A lot of hard work, a lot of man hours, a lot of sacrifices by individuals,” Congdon said. “We had the right people at the right time for what the project was, and as people came and went, we still were able with strictly volunteers to help accomplish these amazing hurdles that lay in front of us. That was really uncharted territory for such a small group, and very unheard of to have such an endeavor as developing this type of property in our small town.”
Nugent in turn said the entire effort couldn’t have been done without Congdon’s leadership.
Preston had just an advisory spot on a “very weak” regional advisory board, as member Merrill Gerber put it, when the state closed the sprawling institution in 1996. Gerber, now 78 and a PRA member, has been involved since those days. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
$3.2 Billion Natural Gas Pipeline Put On Hold
Major utility companies backing a proposed $3.2 billion natural gas pipeline project from Massachusetts and Rhode Island into Connecticut have dropped efforts to get federal permit approval for the project because of serious financing issues.
The decision by Eversource and National Grid, two of the largest utilities in New England, to halt the federal permit process for the Access Northeast pipeline follows a series of state actions last year that effectively blocked public financing.
Connecticut energy officials last October canceled the state's plans for any major natural gas pipelines. The action came after court and administrative rulings in Massachusetts and New Hampshire that electricity ratepayers in those states shouldn't be charged to pay for multi-billion-dollar pipeline projects.
Environmental and consumer activists oppose major pipeline projects, saying renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and hydro-power are rapidly increasing and make such massive, costly gas infrastructure projects unnecessary.
Energy industry officials argue that more natural gas is urgently needed in New England to meet rising demands as old oil, gas and nuclear power plants are retired.
In early 2016, a different $3.3 billion gas pipeline project proposed for New England by Kinder Morgan was pulled because of worries about ratepayer financing.Eversource officials issued a statement saying the decision not to move forward with the federal permit process for the Access Northeast project "is a direct result of the lack of consistent energy policy across the region that would allow contracting for natural gas pipeline capacity for New England's electric generators."
Utility officials said they intend to continue lobbying to gain state support for pipeline funding, insisting New England is in serious need of additional pipeline capacity to supply the region's increasing demands for natural gas.
"New England's energy consumers are facing serious and well-documented electric reliability and price challenges," Eversource officials said in their prepared statement. They also pointed out that generating plants are having to rely on back-up coal and oil when natural gas runs short, increasing air pollution emissions.
Enbridge Gas Transmission and Midstream, the pipeline operator and another partner in the Access Northeast project, is also promising to continue working with state and federal agencies to revive the proposal. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUEDOT Announces Infrastructure Grant Program
WASHINGTON - The Department of Transportation (DOT) is announcing the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant program through a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in the Federal Register today. The INFRA program will make approximately $1.5 billion available to projects that are in line with the Administration's principles to help rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure — a priority for this Administration. In addition to providing direct federal funding, the INFRA program aims to increase the total investment by state, local, and private partners.
INFRA advances a pre-existing grant program established in the FAST Act of 2015 and utilizes updated criteria to evaluate projects to align them with national and regional economic vitality goals and to leverage additional non-federal funding. The new program will increase the impact of projects by leveraging capital and allowing innovation in the project delivery and permitting processes, including public-private partnerships.
Additionally, the new program promotes innovative safety solutions that will improve our transportation system. INFRA will also target performance and accountability in project delivery and operations.
“The President and the Department are committed to revitalizing, repairing and rebuilding America's aging infrastructure,” said Secretary Elaine L. Chao. “By ensuring the right incentives, projects selected under this program will be better able to make significant, long-term improvements to America's transportation infrastructure.”
The Department will make awards under the INFRA program to both large and small projects. For a large project, the INFRA grant must be at least $25 million. For a small project, the grant must be at least $5 million. For each fiscal year of INFRA funds, 10 percent of available funds are reserved for small projects.
The INFRA grant program preserves the statutory requirement in the FAST Act to award at least 25 percent of funding for rural projects. The Administration understands that rural needs may well exceed this limit, and the Department will consider rural projects to the greatest extent possible. For rural communities in need of funding for highway and multimodal freight projects with national or regional economic significance, INFRA is an opportunity to apply directly for financial assistance from the federal government. For these communities, DOT will consider an applicant's resource constraints when assessing the leverage criterion. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE