HARTFORD — A man was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison, with the first six months to be served in home confinement, for falsely certifying the completion of asbestos abatement courses, according to a federal press release.
Guido Cortes-Rodriguez, 65, of West Haven, previously pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the federal government, the release said.
Cortes was a training manager and primary instructor at North Star Center For Human Development, a Hartford organization that offered training courses and certification to individuals working with lead paint and asbestos, the release said.
North Star’s lead and asbestos training courses were subject to regulation under the training provider accreditation requirements of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, which allows states to obtain Environmental Protection Agency authorization to administer and enforce standards, regulations and other requirements of TSCA’s lead and asbestos programs, including approval of training courses, the release said.
Individuals in Connecticut who perform or supervise asbestos abatement activities must be certified by the Department of Public Health. To obtain certification, an individual must successfully complete an approved 40-hour asbestos abatement supervisor initial training course. North Star applied for and received approval from DPH to offer a wide range of lead and asbestos training courses, including asbestos abatement supervisor initial and refresher courses, according to the release.
On Dec. 16, 2015, Cortes sent notice to DPH that an asbestos abatement supervisor initial training course and a 32-hour lead abatement worker initial course would be conducted at North Star’s Hartford facility, the release said.
An undercover FBI agent attempted to take one of the courses using a fictitious identity, seeking a lead abatement worker initial course completion certificate. The agent skipped the first three days of the course, and attempted to attend on Jan. 6, 2016. But the agent learned no course was being conducted at North Star that day nor had any classes been conducted for weeks, the release said.
The agent called Cortes, who agreed to meet him at the North Star facility the following day. Upon meeting with Cortes, the agent indicated he was interested in trying to get work as soon as possible. Cortes then provided the agent with a list of items he would need, including the agent’s name, mailing address, Social Security number, passport-type photos and $1,260, according to the release. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Tweed Airport Authority approves $2.9M for 3rd phase of sound insulation
NEW HAVEN — The Tweed New Haven Airport Authority unanimously approved a $2.56 million contract Wednesday for the third phase of its residential sound insulation program, which will soundproof 54 houses in East Haven and the Morris Cove section of New Haven.
The largely federally funded contract was awarded to Northeast Noise Abatement Corp. of Warwick, R.I.
The authority also unanimously approved a task order for $774,274 in design and construction services for consultant Jones Payne Group Inc. for the sound mitigation program’s upcoming fourth phase.
The two phases are likely to be the two largest groups of houses soundproofed under the program, which began with a Part 150 Noise Compatibility Student in 2011 for the area around Tweed New Haven Regional Airport.
The noise study identified a total of 184 homes in New Haven and East Haven that have outdoor noise levels that might be high enough to qualify for federally funded noise mitigation measures.
Not all of the homeowners have chosen to participate, however.
Construction began with a 10-house pilot project in 2016 and then continued with an additional 12 homes this past summer.
Phase 3 may see some minor construction this winter, but the bulk of it will take place beginning in the spring, said Tweed Airport Manager Diane Jackson.
She expects a total of at least five phases, depending on funding and requirements of the program, before the project is complete.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced an additional $2.96 million grant for the work back in July. The FAA will pay 90 percent of the cost, with the state paying 7.5 percent and the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority paying 2.5 percent.
The program originally targeted 184 homes but 12 either opted out or were ultimately found not to be eligible for the sound insulation program, officials have said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
East Lyme — Costco has dropped its plans to open a big-box store at the Gateway Commons site off Interstate 95's Exit 74, the Gateway developers confirmed Wednesday.
The developers said they now are marketing the site for a new retail tenant.
Newton C. Brainard, vice president of Sikon Development Corp., said Costco informed the developers about a week ago that the retail company made the decision to pull out of the lease for the East Lyme site. He said the company did not provide a specific reason, but he noted that retail in general is in a period of disruption. The store would have brought hundreds of jobs to the region, he said.
Early this year, Costco also announced that it would not build a 158,000-square-foot store it had planned in Branford, the Branford Eagle reported.
Brainard expressed disappointment, but said the Gateway developers will continue to push forward with the development of the East Lyme site.
"We did everything we could," he said, noting that the Gateway developers invested nearly $1.7 million for the work involved to bring Costco to the site. "Sometimes it just doesn't work out. It’s the nature of the business."
He said on the positive side, the work that the developers already invested in the site — including designing traffic and infrastructure improvements — means they will be much further along in the process for a new tenant, though additional work still will be needed.
"We immediately have begun to market the site again and have begun to get some interest," he said.
He said the developers are confident they will get a new tenant. But he noted it is a difficult time, as large retailers are not expanding, so the developers will have to work hard. They have plans to pitch the site at a trade show in New York City.
A Costco spokesman, who asked not to be identified, did not specifically comment on the decision. The spokesman said by email that it is a company policy to not comment regarding future Costco warehouses until the retail company is ready to share details about a new location, typically two to three months in advance.
First Selectman Mark Nickerson said Costco had been committed to the site and spent a lot of money during the process of getting approvals for the gas station and planning upgrades, along with the developers, of the on/off ramps and Flanders Road. He said Costco's decision comes at time when retail is suffering a bit nationally, and when Amazon acquired Whole Foods and people are ordering everything online.
"What the town will do is continue to work with the developers in getting this project fully built out," Nickerson said. "We’ll also be working with the state DOT to properly upgrade the bridge over Flanders Road and the four on and off ramps to bring them up to proper standards to account for not only the current traffic, but the traffic that will be increased by the Gateway development." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Radio Broadcast Booth, TV Studio In Design Plans For Hartford's Weaver High School
A radio broadcast booth, a TV studio and four arts studios will be included in the $133 million Weaver High School when it reopens after renovation, according to architectural designs presented to the public this week.
For months, design renderings have offered previews of the new Weaver, a four-story facility with modern, clean lines and generous natural light. At a recent community meeting in north Hartford, planners got into more detail and unveiled specific amenities and floor plans for the 900-student high school that is expected to be ready by August 2019.
Kinsella Magnet High School of Performing Arts, which will enroll up to 400 students from the city and suburbs, will be a key part of the new Weaver and feature a black box theater on the first floor. Current plans also call for two other existing Hartford academies — finance-oriented High School Inc. and Journalism and Media Academy — to be “co-located” at the Granby Street building with 250 students each.
With construction underway, a chief architect for the project said the first floor will also include a WQTQ-FM radio booth, a Weaver mainstay that has been entrenched at the Journalism and Media Academy over the past few years, and a TV studio and control room. On Weaver’s top floor, a specialty lab is planned for High School Inc. that will focus on entrepreneurship and insurance.
Shared spaces on the campus will include chorus and band rooms, a 60-seat lecture hall, a computer-aided drafting lab where students can build models and use a 3-D printer, and potentially the black box theater, said Kemp Morhardt, a principal with S/L/A/M Collaborative, a Glastonbury firm that teamed up with Amenta Emma Architects for the Weaver project.
Carol Birks, the superintendent’s chief of staff, said the school might add career and technical education courses to be eligible for extra state funding.
Among Weaver’s outdoor features are a new scoreboard, an artificial turf field for football, lacrosse, field hockey and soccer, an eight-lane synthetic track surrounding the field, and refurbished home and visitors’ bleachers that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Morhardt said. The project’s third phase involves renovations to the Doc Hurley Field House, where the gymnasium is located. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Route 84 construction workers to hold food drive Saturday in Waterbury
WATERBURY – Workers on the Interstate 84 reconstruction project plan to collect donations of non-perishable food items on Saturday.
The collection is scheduled to take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Texas Roadhouse parking lot at 330 Reidville Drive.
In addition to nonperishable food, people can donate gift cards to local grocery stores. They will be used to purchase perishable food. Glass items will not be accepted.
Donations will benefit the St. Vincent DePaul Mission’s soup kitchen and food bank.
The state Department of Transportation’s mascots will be there – Slow Down Sam (a human dressed as a construction cone), Darryl the Barrel Dog (a construction barrel shaped like a dog) and Work Zone Wally (a blow-up doll shaped like a human cone).
There will also be a payloader and a winged snow-plow for children to explore.
Sierra Club of CT calls for suspension of Comprehensive Energy Strategy
Below is a press release submitted by The Sierra Club of Connecticut.
The Sierra Club of Connecticut, along with leading consumer, energy and environmental advocates, is demanding the State of Connecticut suspend and potentially redesign its planned Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CES). The CES is the roadmap for the State’s energy market going forward. The State’s recently released plan calls for an increase in the use of natural gas for electricity generation while severely limiting consumer energy choice and the deployment of distributed renewable energy like rooftop solar.
The CES plan was largely predicated on the argument by the electric utilities that undersupply of natural gas has been hurting the State’s ability to meet its energy needs and is driving up electricity costs.
However, an explosive new research paper on alleged gas-market manipulation by utilities in New England calls those assumptions into question. The white paper, from economists at three universities and funded by the Environmental Defense Fund, determined that Eversource and Avangrid/UI withheld gas from pipelines which cost customers in Connecticut and Massachusetts an additional $3.6 billion over a three-year period ending 2016.
In the past several weeks, investigations have been initiated at the state and federal level regarding allegations that Eversource and Avangrid have been involved in “systematic withholding of pipeline capacity.” Withholding pipeline capacity creates false shortages of energy at key moments, driving up electricity pricing. Eversource and Avangrid are unique in that they are both electric utilities and gas companies, with a monopoly on electric and gas distribution in Connecticut. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority of Connecticut (PURA) and the Office of Consumer Counsel launched an investigation into the possibility of “market power abuse” by the utilities last month.
The Connecticut Sierra Club is calling for PURA to determine if the CES was predicated on faulty, if not fabricated, data as it relates to natural gas supply for current and future electricity generation; the massive expansion of gas pipelines throughout the state; and assumptions about electricity pricing in Connecticut going forward. George Jepsen, the State Attorney General assured Connecticut Sierra Club that his office will monitor the findings of the PURA investigation before deciding whether to investigate.
Martha Klein of Connecticut Sierra Club issued the following statement: “The report’s findings suggest that Connecticut is not experiencing a natural gas shortage — but rather an artificial constraint of gas supply — creating the appearance of pipelines at capacity. This has reportedly inflated Connecticut residents’ utility costs over the past three years, while simultaneously creating the justification for the unnecessary and expensive natural gas expansion reflected in the CES. We believe any attempt to implement the State’s planned energy strategy should be suspended until we see the result of PURA’s investigation. If the findings of this research are confirmed, then the companies involved may have not only manipulated past electricity markets, but have had a front row seat in drafting the future of Connecticut’s energy supply going forward.”
“Even before the market study revealed potential manipulation of the region’s natural gas and pipeline markets, we have argued there was no need for an expensive gas expansion. Studies confirm Connecticut’s declining need for natural gas and the current underutilization of pipelines, making the expansion underway on the Kinder Morgan and Enbridge/Algonquin pipelines wasteful. Future pipeline expansion will cost New England consumers $6.6 billion, and Connecticut electric ratepayers will be taxed $85 million or more to pay for a pipeline they don’t need,” said Klein. “Now would be a good time for Connecticut to rethink its energy strategy, challenge its overwhelming dependence on natural gas, and open the market up to competition and choice for consumers. We are looking to the state to rethink natural gas, and increase access to distributed renewable energy like rooftop solar. We’ve put all our eggs in one basket for too long. It’s time to open our energy sector to innovation.”
The developers said they now are marketing the site for a new retail tenant.
Newton C. Brainard, vice president of Sikon Development Corp., said Costco informed the developers about a week ago that the retail company made the decision to pull out of the lease for the East Lyme site. He said the company did not provide a specific reason, but he noted that retail in general is in a period of disruption. The store would have brought hundreds of jobs to the region, he said.
Early this year, Costco also announced that it would not build a 158,000-square-foot store it had planned in Branford, the Branford Eagle reported.
Brainard expressed disappointment, but said the Gateway developers will continue to push forward with the development of the East Lyme site.
"We did everything we could," he said, noting that the Gateway developers invested nearly $1.7 million for the work involved to bring Costco to the site. "Sometimes it just doesn't work out. It’s the nature of the business."
He said on the positive side, the work that the developers already invested in the site — including designing traffic and infrastructure improvements — means they will be much further along in the process for a new tenant, though additional work still will be needed.
"We immediately have begun to market the site again and have begun to get some interest," he said.
He said the developers are confident they will get a new tenant. But he noted it is a difficult time, as large retailers are not expanding, so the developers will have to work hard. They have plans to pitch the site at a trade show in New York City.
A Costco spokesman, who asked not to be identified, did not specifically comment on the decision. The spokesman said by email that it is a company policy to not comment regarding future Costco warehouses until the retail company is ready to share details about a new location, typically two to three months in advance.
First Selectman Mark Nickerson said Costco had been committed to the site and spent a lot of money during the process of getting approvals for the gas station and planning upgrades, along with the developers, of the on/off ramps and Flanders Road. He said Costco's decision comes at time when retail is suffering a bit nationally, and when Amazon acquired Whole Foods and people are ordering everything online.
"What the town will do is continue to work with the developers in getting this project fully built out," Nickerson said. "We’ll also be working with the state DOT to properly upgrade the bridge over Flanders Road and the four on and off ramps to bring them up to proper standards to account for not only the current traffic, but the traffic that will be increased by the Gateway development." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Radio Broadcast Booth, TV Studio In Design Plans For Hartford's Weaver High School
A radio broadcast booth, a TV studio and four arts studios will be included in the $133 million Weaver High School when it reopens after renovation, according to architectural designs presented to the public this week.
For months, design renderings have offered previews of the new Weaver, a four-story facility with modern, clean lines and generous natural light. At a recent community meeting in north Hartford, planners got into more detail and unveiled specific amenities and floor plans for the 900-student high school that is expected to be ready by August 2019.
Kinsella Magnet High School of Performing Arts, which will enroll up to 400 students from the city and suburbs, will be a key part of the new Weaver and feature a black box theater on the first floor. Current plans also call for two other existing Hartford academies — finance-oriented High School Inc. and Journalism and Media Academy — to be “co-located” at the Granby Street building with 250 students each.
With construction underway, a chief architect for the project said the first floor will also include a WQTQ-FM radio booth, a Weaver mainstay that has been entrenched at the Journalism and Media Academy over the past few years, and a TV studio and control room. On Weaver’s top floor, a specialty lab is planned for High School Inc. that will focus on entrepreneurship and insurance.
Shared spaces on the campus will include chorus and band rooms, a 60-seat lecture hall, a computer-aided drafting lab where students can build models and use a 3-D printer, and potentially the black box theater, said Kemp Morhardt, a principal with S/L/A/M Collaborative, a Glastonbury firm that teamed up with Amenta Emma Architects for the Weaver project.
Carol Birks, the superintendent’s chief of staff, said the school might add career and technical education courses to be eligible for extra state funding.
Among Weaver’s outdoor features are a new scoreboard, an artificial turf field for football, lacrosse, field hockey and soccer, an eight-lane synthetic track surrounding the field, and refurbished home and visitors’ bleachers that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Morhardt said. The project’s third phase involves renovations to the Doc Hurley Field House, where the gymnasium is located. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Route 84 construction workers to hold food drive Saturday in Waterbury
WATERBURY – Workers on the Interstate 84 reconstruction project plan to collect donations of non-perishable food items on Saturday.
The collection is scheduled to take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Texas Roadhouse parking lot at 330 Reidville Drive.
In addition to nonperishable food, people can donate gift cards to local grocery stores. They will be used to purchase perishable food. Glass items will not be accepted.
Donations will benefit the St. Vincent DePaul Mission’s soup kitchen and food bank.
The state Department of Transportation’s mascots will be there – Slow Down Sam (a human dressed as a construction cone), Darryl the Barrel Dog (a construction barrel shaped like a dog) and Work Zone Wally (a blow-up doll shaped like a human cone).
There will also be a payloader and a winged snow-plow for children to explore.
Sierra Club of CT calls for suspension of Comprehensive Energy Strategy
Below is a press release submitted by The Sierra Club of Connecticut.
The Sierra Club of Connecticut, along with leading consumer, energy and environmental advocates, is demanding the State of Connecticut suspend and potentially redesign its planned Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CES). The CES is the roadmap for the State’s energy market going forward. The State’s recently released plan calls for an increase in the use of natural gas for electricity generation while severely limiting consumer energy choice and the deployment of distributed renewable energy like rooftop solar.
The CES plan was largely predicated on the argument by the electric utilities that undersupply of natural gas has been hurting the State’s ability to meet its energy needs and is driving up electricity costs.
However, an explosive new research paper on alleged gas-market manipulation by utilities in New England calls those assumptions into question. The white paper, from economists at three universities and funded by the Environmental Defense Fund, determined that Eversource and Avangrid/UI withheld gas from pipelines which cost customers in Connecticut and Massachusetts an additional $3.6 billion over a three-year period ending 2016.
In the past several weeks, investigations have been initiated at the state and federal level regarding allegations that Eversource and Avangrid have been involved in “systematic withholding of pipeline capacity.” Withholding pipeline capacity creates false shortages of energy at key moments, driving up electricity pricing. Eversource and Avangrid are unique in that they are both electric utilities and gas companies, with a monopoly on electric and gas distribution in Connecticut. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority of Connecticut (PURA) and the Office of Consumer Counsel launched an investigation into the possibility of “market power abuse” by the utilities last month.
The Connecticut Sierra Club is calling for PURA to determine if the CES was predicated on faulty, if not fabricated, data as it relates to natural gas supply for current and future electricity generation; the massive expansion of gas pipelines throughout the state; and assumptions about electricity pricing in Connecticut going forward. George Jepsen, the State Attorney General assured Connecticut Sierra Club that his office will monitor the findings of the PURA investigation before deciding whether to investigate.
Martha Klein of Connecticut Sierra Club issued the following statement: “The report’s findings suggest that Connecticut is not experiencing a natural gas shortage — but rather an artificial constraint of gas supply — creating the appearance of pipelines at capacity. This has reportedly inflated Connecticut residents’ utility costs over the past three years, while simultaneously creating the justification for the unnecessary and expensive natural gas expansion reflected in the CES. We believe any attempt to implement the State’s planned energy strategy should be suspended until we see the result of PURA’s investigation. If the findings of this research are confirmed, then the companies involved may have not only manipulated past electricity markets, but have had a front row seat in drafting the future of Connecticut’s energy supply going forward.”
“Even before the market study revealed potential manipulation of the region’s natural gas and pipeline markets, we have argued there was no need for an expensive gas expansion. Studies confirm Connecticut’s declining need for natural gas and the current underutilization of pipelines, making the expansion underway on the Kinder Morgan and Enbridge/Algonquin pipelines wasteful. Future pipeline expansion will cost New England consumers $6.6 billion, and Connecticut electric ratepayers will be taxed $85 million or more to pay for a pipeline they don’t need,” said Klein. “Now would be a good time for Connecticut to rethink its energy strategy, challenge its overwhelming dependence on natural gas, and open the market up to competition and choice for consumers. We are looking to the state to rethink natural gas, and increase access to distributed renewable energy like rooftop solar. We’ve put all our eggs in one basket for too long. It’s time to open our energy sector to innovation.”