New London — With state funding for a $98 million high school construction project in jeopardy, the school district is rushing to get a shovel in the ground and meet a summer deadline to mark the start of a nearly $150 million overhaul of its high school and middle school.
The July 6 state deadline pertains to the start of work at the so-called north campus at New London High School, the first of two projects; the second is a $48 million overhaul at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School.
Because the design of the north campus still is evolving, the district has decided that rehabilitation of the high school track will meet state requirements mandating the start of construction.
The design of the campus remains in flux as the district copes with a state directive to essentially build a high school and middle school instead of two school campuses each housing sixth- through 12th-grade students. The state also apparently has ended the district's goal of creating four magnet schools all open to out-of-district students. A new state directive would instead allow two interdistrict magnet schools, open to students from outside of New London, and two intradistrict schools, open only to New London students.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a contract amendment with Antinozzi Associates, the company designing the new high school, allowing it to gather design costs to repair the track and address drainage issues there.
The approval, however, came with a healthy dose of criticism from some city councilors.
Councilor Martin Olsen said, and others agreed, that Tuesday’s vote appeared to be an emergency measure in which a “no” vote could doom funding for the north campus. He also voiced frustration over the apparent lack of movement of a project whose funding — up to $165 million — was approved by voters in 2014, when the school district still was under state supervision. At an 80 percent reimbursement rate, the city’s cost was expected to be about $33 million.
“To date, the amount of progress — if you can call it that — is minimal at best,” Olsen said. “We have no plans. No bid documents. We’re not ready to go.”
“I’m just very, very, very disappointed we haven’t had any positive movement,” he said.
Olsen said the project also had diverged from what initially was approved by taxpayers.
“The community four years ago was buying in to building a brand new school. We’re not getting a new school. We’re getting two additions. That’s quite different from what was sold to us four years ago,” he said.
The council was poised to vote on authorizing up to $1.1 million for the track project. Councilor Don Venditto, however, amended the motion to include just the $83,000 in fees to conduct the study on costs at the track, which was damaged during a storm in 2015, and $24,750 in preconstruction costs. Total costs will come back to the council for authorization.
While the $98 million school building project is approved by the state at an 80 percent reimbursement rate, the track will be reimbursed at 40 percent, though the drainage work could yet be tied to the construction project and the higher reimbursement rate.
Councilor John Satti, who also is chairman of the School Building Maintenance and Facilities Committee, said he expected the costs associated with the track to be far less than the $1.1 million, which is the worst-case scenario figure. The final cost will determine how much of the $98 million is left to spend on actual construction at the high school, whose final design is now underway but yet to be approved at the state level. Construction at the north campus was supposed to have started last year, but the district obtained a one-year extension because of project delays that included the end of negotiations for a $31 million performing arts campus at the Garde Arts Center downtown, said Diana McNeil, a senior project manager for the Capitol Region Education Council, which is overseeing the project. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Developer envisions medical campus in Oxford's Quarry Walk
John Stearns
Rain last week postponed the groundbreaking for a new 50,000-square-foot medical building in Oxford, part of the 300,000-square-foot Quarry Walk mixed-use development, but didn't dampen the developer's enthusiasm for what's envisioned to be a medical campus among housing, retail, restaurants, walking trails and a town green.
Griffin Health, parent of Derby-based Griffin Hospital, will anchor the three-story building, leasing about 13,000 square feet and offering offering primary care, imaging, diagnostic blood draw, cardiac rehabilitation and physical therapy, according to Kathy Ekstrom, development manager for Seymour-based Haynes Development Co. and Ken Roberts, Griffin's director of communications and public affairs. Valley Orthopedic Specialists will lease about 5,000 square feet.
Ekstrom is talking with dental and pediatric practices for leases, as well, and is open to myriad other providers, including geriatric medicine, pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, optometry, ophthalmology, OB-GYN, mental health, speech pathology and more to serve an Oxford community she said lacks a concentration of medical providers. She said Ekstrom is betting on a public demand for the convenience of various health services under one roof or in neighboring buildings.
"The more services we can provide under one roof, or it might be two roofs … the better," Ekstrom said.
If the new medical building fills, a second two-story building of about 22,000 to 25,000 square feet could be added, she said. The main building, expected to break ground in the next couple weeks, is scheduled for a fall completion.
An urgent care provider plans to take about 4,000 square feet in a separate building, between Verizon Wireless and Five Guys, and open late spring or early summer, according to Ekstrom, who said she was unable to name the provider yet.
Roberts, of Griffin, said the site was appealing for aggregating services where people live in a growing community and in an ideal location off Route 67.
"It's just another touchpoint for us in that area," he said.
The medical building is part of a roughly $80 million Quarry Walk development that's nearly half built and occupied, Ekstrom said. It includes a grocery store, bank, daycare facility, hardware store and other businesses and is approved for 150 residential units. Quarry Walk also hopes to open a YMCA, plans a dog park and more.
At Bristol Legislative Forum, Debate Centers On Tolls
Don Stacom
Even though the closest interstate is more than 2 miles away, Bristol residents can’t afford to think that proposals for Connecticut highway tolls would cost them nothing, Republican legislators said at a forum Wednesday.
Democratic lawmakers countered that tolls would have far more impact on communities in Fairfield County or along the I-91 corridor.
“Let’s not let ourselves be scared or turned away — no one wants tolls that are burdensome or ridiculously high,” Democratic Rep. Mike Demicco of Farmington said at the annual legislative breakfast of the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce.
“The elephant in the room is tolls,” said Republican Rep. William Petit of Plainville, who promised to fight any tolling system that raises driving costs by an average of 10 cents a mile or more. “The majority of people who don’t drive are for tolls.” More than 70 central Connecticut business owners and executives listened as nine state lawmakers discussed a series of issues during the forum at the DoubleTree hotel’s ballroom. Most of the speakers endorsed state spending reforms, regionalization of some municipal services and better training for Connecticut students who want to pursue careers in manufacturing.
But dominating the conversation was whether Connecticut should adopt electronic tolls for its highways. Republicans have opposed the idea for years, declaring it as a disguised tax that’s unnecessary. Democrats largely support some form of tolling, arguing that Connecticut’s transportation funding is drying up — and that other states in the Northeast charge drivers to use their highways.
“You have to raise money in some fashion,” Democratic Rep. Chris Ziogas of Bristol said. “Bristol is probably relatively immune to a lot of toll issues because we sit in the middle of the state and people aren’t commuting long distances to work.”
Republican Sen. Joe Markley of Southington disagreed.
“Anyone who thinks because they live close to Hartford they’re not going to get hit too hard doesn’t know what’s coming,” Markley said, who argued that the state transportation department is looking at tolls for routes 2, 8, 9 and others as well as I-95 and I-84.
“At 20 cents a mile, that’s $1,000 a year for every 10 miles of your commute,” Markley said.“Tolls will be on 95, Merritt Parkway, 91, Route 2, Route 3, Route 8, Route 9, everywhere you go,” House Republican Leader Themis Klarides said. “There are plenty of people in Bristol who work all over the state. And even if you don’t work all over the state, if you want to go out to get a half gallon of milk you’ll probably hit a toll at some point in a 5- or 10-minute period.”
Democrats countered that despite years of opposition, Republicans haven’t put forward a practical alternative that would fully pay for costly and overdue maintenance for Connecticut’s roads and bridges. Markley conceded that he dislikes bonding, but said he sees no better justification for borrowing than the upkeep of the state’s transportation infrastructure.