MIDDLETOWN — Two large parcels of land are being developed in the city for commercial and mixed-use projects that officials say will encourage residents to “eat, live and play in one location.”
Over the last six weeks or so, scores of people driving by Route 66/Washington Street near the Staples plaza have watched the felling of trees and construction crews clearing a 15-acre formerly forested plot that borders Carabetta Apartments on Plaza Drive.
Three commercial buildings will be built on the parcel. On the corner of Plaza Drive and Route 66, a 7,500-square-foot, free-standing structure will be built. Developer Abe Kaoud said he is still in negotiations with a tenant interested in building a restaurant there. A second, 8,500-square-foot O’Reilly Auto Parts store will soon occupy a newly constructed facility next door to the recently opened Mozzicato DePasquale Bakery and Pastry Shop at 762 Washington St., Kaoud said.
Phase three of the project, not yet completed, will be a 20,000-square-foot structure at the rear of the plot, built between Washington Street and Carabetta Apartments. Kaoud said he is in the process of lining up tenants, and hopes to get a retail business to come in. It took a year for Kaoud to gain approval on all aspects of the project, according to Middletown Planning, Conservation & Development Director Joseph Samolis.
Accommodations had to be secured from the Inland Wetlands Commission, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the Army Corps of Engineers, Samolis said.
“Those 15 acres of forest weren’t doing anybody any good surrounded by a four-lane highway and parking lot and apartments in back of it. We want to fill in development in the middle of where there’s already development.
Within that building are two 3,000-square-foot units that could be combined into one 6,000-square-foot commercial space.
The Citizens Bank there was distinguished by a feature that had become somewhat of a local landmark, Samolis said.
“At one point in time, the local community used to call it the solar bank, because it had a solar installation.”
Developer Robert Kempenaar II of Rhode Island plans to build retail or office space and four market-rate apartments on the second floor: two two-bedroom apartments and two one-bedrooms.
“What we’re doing is looking at our corridors — mainly on South Main Street, Washington Street and Newfield Street — that come into our urban core, and how we can better utilize property out there. It continues to bring the types of services the residents in those areas of towns need,” Samolis said.
A little over a half-mile away, the new 89-unit College St. Apartments on College and Broad streets is slated to open in fall, he said. There will be a commercial component on the ground floor of that structure as well. These new “market-rate” apartments, like those on South Main, incorporate the city’s vision for a walkable downtown.
“It allows people not having to jump in their cars to go down a few blocks or a few miles to grab a cup of coffee or go to the bank or to a commercial establishment. It’s all within their neighborhood,” Samolis said.
“We want to make communities where people can easily access the amenities they need without having to jump in a car and traveling out of town. We want people to be able to — as the saying goes — eat, live, play in one location,” Samolis said.
“The urban core and these arteries are being developed to serve populations that radiate from those arteries. Having a mixed-use development with a residential component with commercial does that,” he added.
Ensuring new development in Middletown, in complement with well-established commercial areas that can be easily accessed by public transit, pedestrians and bicyclists is the mission of the city’s Complete Streets Committee, which works with public works and planning and zoning staff.
The city made sure the state engineers who conducted a traffic study in the 211 So. Main St. area did everything possible to increase the safety aspect for pedestrians and bikers nearby, Samolis said.
The Complete Street group works “to facilitate walking and biking connections between neighborhoods, commercial districts, parks, public lands, private institutions and neighboring communities,” according to its plan.
That mission aligns with the city’s when it considers all new development, Samolis said.
“We’re looking for vibrant retail to complement the neighborhood so people don’t have to drive. They can get everything they need hopefully within walking distance.”
Malloy, Stamford officials laud Lione Park enhancements
Ignacio Laguarda
STAMFORD — As local officials butt heads over how best to patrol the city’s parks, improvements were unveiled at Lione Park on Monday that many hope will signal a new day for the area.
For some officials, such as city Rep. Jeff Stella (D-9), the park improvements can go a long way toward improving quality of life on the West Side.
He said Monday was a great day for the neighborhood, which he represents on the board.
“When you give kids the opportunity of learning new experiences and creating a brotherhood with the people in the same neighborhood, it reduces a lot of the tension, it reduces crime, and it brings people together from different cultures,” he said.
The park, located on the city’s West Side, has been a frequent stop for Stamford police for reports of illegal behavior. This April, the park was the target of a raid that netted three arrests and 33 tickets. The infractions included drinking, drug use, public urination, and marijuana dealing, among other violation Rep. Rodney Pratt, who also represents the West Side, applaudedthe Lione Park improvements, but he wants the city to do even more At the top of his list is improving the bathrooms on the site, which he said are not well maintained and should be expanded. Pratt also wants more benches and better sanitation in general with new trash bins.
“They got to finish the job,” he said of the city.Pratt is a strong advocate for adding dedicated police to the city’s parks.For one thing, he said, it’ll stop the raids, which he said can be damaging and abrasive to the community.
“When our parks are such big attractions, do you want SWAT out there or a regular policeman to cruise through with a car, [and] write some tickets?” he said.
Improvements
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the park on Monday to celebrate the improvements, which include a new play structure for kids and new basketball and beach volleyball courts.
The enhancementsare essentially the first phase of a major addition to the adjacent Boys and Girls Club of Stamford, including a 18,000-square-foot teen center. The state contributed more than $1 million to the park improvements, and $4.5 million toward the second phase, which will include the teen center. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy called the improvements an “investment in the future.”
“We make these investments in this area because we understand that urban environments have their own separate set of challenges,” he said.
Pratt said he was grateful to see the state’s involvement, and hopes the improvements can help revitalize a park he said has been neglected. “When you improve the environment, people will adapt to it,” he said. “We’re improving the environment.”
Ansonia trolley tracks from the past head into future
ANSONIA — A piece of the city’s past may become part of its future.
About a hundred feet of cement-encased trolley tracks have been unearthed by J. Iapaluccio Construction company workers during the ongoing $5.2 million rebuild of Wakelee Avenue, which runs from Seymour to Derby passing Nolan Field on the city’s west side.
The tracks have been found between Jackson Street and Westfield Avenue.bBut Mayor David Cassetti believes more will be uncovered as the construction process makes its way to the project’s end at Franklin Street near Nolan field. “These tracks are part of Ansonia’s past,” Cassetti said. “I want to make them part of our future.” So Cassetti would like to see some of the tracks used as T-bars for a sign over the newly completed section of the Riverwalk on Pershing Drive.
Greg Martin, Cassetti’s director of constituent services, said the idea is to construct 10-foot-high flanking support posts and crossbar which would display a suspended entrance sign. The section has been named the DellaVolpe-Cassetti Passway, recognizing former Mayor James Della Volpe and Cassetti, who were instrumental in creating and finishing this section.
Martin said this would require about 34 feet of track.
A second proposal would use the track to spell out ANSONIA in polished block six-foot-tall letters somewhere downtown, maybe near the Maple Street intersection with Main or near Nolan Field. The letters would be constructed under a “Welcome To” wooden sign. A marker outlining the city’s trolley history would be underneath.
Historic rail line
Sheila O’Malley, the city’s economic development director, said the city is considering putting the remaining tracks out to bid and use that money to pay for the signs. “Some trolley and rail museums have expressed interest,” she said.
The uncovered tracks have been taken to JRD Restoration on Derby Avenue, Derby.
There John DelGado said he has gotten about two truckloads.“Some are in pretty bad shape,” he said. “Some are bent, badly rusted, encased in concrete...I’m going to have to hammer off the concrete, grind them down and smooth out the edges.”
However DelGado believes he’ll have enough for the city’s use.
John William Tuohy, the city historian, has done extensive research on the tracks..
“This was the second oldest trolley line in America,” he said.. “At the time transportation to and from the factories was an issue. This was an effective mass transportation system that ran from Seymour to Ansonia through Derby all the way to West Haven near what was Savin Rock—Connecticut’s answer to Coney Island.”
Tuohy said he has seen photos of some of the cars containing Wakelee Avenue in their message line as well as one with Ansonia, Derby, Birmingham imprinted on its side.
‘Rocket ship transportation’
Much of the line’s birth may lie with Charles Van Depoele, a Belgium-born inventor dubbed “The Flemish Edison,” Tuohy said. Van Depoele had several patents on trolley technology which earned him the nickname the “father of commercial street operation.”
Van Depoele arrived in the U.S. in 1845 and built a line in Scranton, Pa., which was admired by the Derby Horse Railway Co., according to Tuohy’s research. He said the Derby firm purchased a motor car and three 12-foot long passenger cars.
They began building a three and a half mile rail line in 1887 which stretched from State Street in Ansonia and ran through Birmingham and ended at Derby landing, where boats would then take passengers across the Naugatuck River, Touhy said.,
He said the electric plant located on the Derby docks would power the 15 horsepower trolleys to a maximum 20 mphThe first run took place on May, 1888, but Tuohy said there was an issue. The passenger cars’ roofs were higher than a tunnel they had to pass under. The roofs had to be lowered, but doing so left very little headroom.
By October 1890, Tuohy said the line was carrying 1,500 passengers each day and could cover the distance in less than 20 minutes.“A lot of people worked in the factories around the clock,” Tuohy said. “For them this was a safe, quick method of getting to and from work.”
Bankruptcies and mergers led to the creation of the Derby Street Railway company headed by Col. Holton Wood, who served in the state legislature.
Tuohy said the first motor car for the line was pulled from a scrap pile in 1912 and redesigned into four-foot scale models, one of which is now on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
The last run ended 11:15 a.m. on June 18, 1937. Tuohy said its 49 years in service made it the oldest line in New England and the second oldest line in the United States.
“The tracks were made here,” Tuohy said. “This was rocket ship transportation back then and Ansonia was on the cutting edge. Beautifying these tracks and reusing them should be part of the city’s renaissance.”
Stop-work orders issued at Groton water treatment plan
Erica Moser
Groton — With the issuance last week of stop-work orders for two subcontractors working on the town's water treatment plant, local representatives of organized labor saw an opportunity to advocate for local jobs and responsible contracting.
Paul Oates, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Labor, confirmed that the department on Thursday issued stop-work orders to the Massachusetts-based Callahan & Montalto Site Construction and to the Texas-based Malden Steel.
On Monday, he said the stop-work order for Callahan & Montalto had been lifted, and that Malden will be replaced with another subcontractor.
The stop-work orders were issued because the companies didn’t have Connecticut workers’ compensation, Oates said. Malden Steel also was not a registered business in the state. The stop-work orders collectively affected 12 employees.
These two companies have been among the subcontractors working on the $54 million renovation of the water treatment plant, located off Poquonnock Road across from South Road. Groton Utilities hired R.H. White Construction Co., which it said was the low bidder, as the general contractor.
R.H. White then hired subcontractors, of which Chief Operating Officer Jim McCarthy said there are approximately six. Oates said that Department of Labor inspectors interviewed five companies while on-site Thursday.
The two stop-work orders won’t impact the cost or timeline of the project, McCarthy said. He noted that the stop-work orders were based on paperwork issues, and that Callahan & Montalto had the wrong certificate.
When stop-work orders are issued, red notices are placed at the construction site, and word can travel fast. On Friday afternoon, several members of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters Local 326 and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 organized a small demonstration near the construction site. They put up a sign reading, “Are lawbreaking contractors working here now?”
Municipalities always talk about wanting the lowest responsible bidder, and “we want a quality contractor who abides by the law and is competitive,” carpenters’ union organizer David Jarvis explained to The Day afterward.
Some of the demonstrators and their supporters also took issue with work being done by out-of-state companies.
“Obviously we would like to see union workers on the job, but if nothing else, Connecticut workers,” said Michael Gates, an organizer for the operating engineers. Gates said he had a man at the demonstration who lives a quarter-mile from the water treatment plant but hasn’t had a job since December.
Keith Brothers, president of the Norwich-New London Building Trades Council, expressed a similar view. He said it’s “disheartening” that members out of work in the area are seeing Massachusetts and Texas license plates when they’re dropping their kids off to school.
“The state of Connecticut gives money to the town and the city of Groton, and they in turn spend it on contractors out of state, which is kind of ridiculous,” Brothers said.
He and Gates want to use the recent stop-work orders as ammunition to try to get project-labor agreements on the upcoming school building projects in Groton.
McCarthy, of R.H. White, responded to Friday’s demonstration by saying, “I think they, as union reps, have the right to recommend that union labor be used on the job. We have subcontractors on the job, some are union and some are open shop, so there’s no discrimination.”
Accommodations had to be secured from the Inland Wetlands Commission, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the Army Corps of Engineers, Samolis said.
“The developer has had to modify the design to have the least impact ecologically on the area. In some ways, it’s going to be a benefit. There was a storm drain eroding soil away from the parcel, delivering it into the Coginchaug River. This development incorporates methodologies to prevent that from happening,” he said.
Middletown Planning and Zoning Commissioner Stephen Devoto acknowledged he’d prefer a development be built in a mixed-use zone surrounded by businesses than in other parts of the city containing large tracts of open space.“Those 15 acres of forest weren’t doing anybody any good surrounded by a four-lane highway and parking lot and apartments in back of it. We want to fill in development in the middle of where there’s already development.
“If I had to choose that between there or Maromas or Saybrook, where there’s much more open space, I’d much rather it go on 66,” Devoto said.
At the south end of town, the former Citizens Bank at 211 S. Main St. was recently razed to make room for a new, 17,574-square-foot facility that will include a coffee shop, Citizens Bank branch, and another business — potentially an urgent care facility, Samolis said. Crews were removing debris Monday morning.Within that building are two 3,000-square-foot units that could be combined into one 6,000-square-foot commercial space.
The Citizens Bank there was distinguished by a feature that had become somewhat of a local landmark, Samolis said.
“At one point in time, the local community used to call it the solar bank, because it had a solar installation.”
Developer Robert Kempenaar II of Rhode Island plans to build retail or office space and four market-rate apartments on the second floor: two two-bedroom apartments and two one-bedrooms.
“What we’re doing is looking at our corridors — mainly on South Main Street, Washington Street and Newfield Street — that come into our urban core, and how we can better utilize property out there. It continues to bring the types of services the residents in those areas of towns need,” Samolis said.
A little over a half-mile away, the new 89-unit College St. Apartments on College and Broad streets is slated to open in fall, he said. There will be a commercial component on the ground floor of that structure as well. These new “market-rate” apartments, like those on South Main, incorporate the city’s vision for a walkable downtown.
“It allows people not having to jump in their cars to go down a few blocks or a few miles to grab a cup of coffee or go to the bank or to a commercial establishment. It’s all within their neighborhood,” Samolis said.
“We want to make communities where people can easily access the amenities they need without having to jump in a car and traveling out of town. We want people to be able to — as the saying goes — eat, live, play in one location,” Samolis said.
“The urban core and these arteries are being developed to serve populations that radiate from those arteries. Having a mixed-use development with a residential component with commercial does that,” he added.
Ensuring new development in Middletown, in complement with well-established commercial areas that can be easily accessed by public transit, pedestrians and bicyclists is the mission of the city’s Complete Streets Committee, which works with public works and planning and zoning staff.
The city made sure the state engineers who conducted a traffic study in the 211 So. Main St. area did everything possible to increase the safety aspect for pedestrians and bikers nearby, Samolis said.
The Complete Street group works “to facilitate walking and biking connections between neighborhoods, commercial districts, parks, public lands, private institutions and neighboring communities,” according to its plan.
That mission aligns with the city’s when it considers all new development, Samolis said.
“We’re looking for vibrant retail to complement the neighborhood so people don’t have to drive. They can get everything they need hopefully within walking distance.”
Malloy, Stamford officials laud Lione Park enhancements
Ignacio Laguarda
STAMFORD — As local officials butt heads over how best to patrol the city’s parks, improvements were unveiled at Lione Park on Monday that many hope will signal a new day for the area.
For some officials, such as city Rep. Jeff Stella (D-9), the park improvements can go a long way toward improving quality of life on the West Side.
He said Monday was a great day for the neighborhood, which he represents on the board.
“When you give kids the opportunity of learning new experiences and creating a brotherhood with the people in the same neighborhood, it reduces a lot of the tension, it reduces crime, and it brings people together from different cultures,” he said.
The park, located on the city’s West Side, has been a frequent stop for Stamford police for reports of illegal behavior. This April, the park was the target of a raid that netted three arrests and 33 tickets. The infractions included drinking, drug use, public urination, and marijuana dealing, among other violation Rep. Rodney Pratt, who also represents the West Side, applaudedthe Lione Park improvements, but he wants the city to do even more At the top of his list is improving the bathrooms on the site, which he said are not well maintained and should be expanded. Pratt also wants more benches and better sanitation in general with new trash bins.
“They got to finish the job,” he said of the city.Pratt is a strong advocate for adding dedicated police to the city’s parks.For one thing, he said, it’ll stop the raids, which he said can be damaging and abrasive to the community.
“When our parks are such big attractions, do you want SWAT out there or a regular policeman to cruise through with a car, [and] write some tickets?” he said.
Improvements
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the park on Monday to celebrate the improvements, which include a new play structure for kids and new basketball and beach volleyball courts.
The enhancementsare essentially the first phase of a major addition to the adjacent Boys and Girls Club of Stamford, including a 18,000-square-foot teen center. The state contributed more than $1 million to the park improvements, and $4.5 million toward the second phase, which will include the teen center. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy called the improvements an “investment in the future.”
“We make these investments in this area because we understand that urban environments have their own separate set of challenges,” he said.
Pratt said he was grateful to see the state’s involvement, and hopes the improvements can help revitalize a park he said has been neglected. “When you improve the environment, people will adapt to it,” he said. “We’re improving the environment.”
Ansonia trolley tracks from the past head into future
ANSONIA — A piece of the city’s past may become part of its future.
About a hundred feet of cement-encased trolley tracks have been unearthed by J. Iapaluccio Construction company workers during the ongoing $5.2 million rebuild of Wakelee Avenue, which runs from Seymour to Derby passing Nolan Field on the city’s west side.
The tracks have been found between Jackson Street and Westfield Avenue.bBut Mayor David Cassetti believes more will be uncovered as the construction process makes its way to the project’s end at Franklin Street near Nolan field. “These tracks are part of Ansonia’s past,” Cassetti said. “I want to make them part of our future.” So Cassetti would like to see some of the tracks used as T-bars for a sign over the newly completed section of the Riverwalk on Pershing Drive.
Greg Martin, Cassetti’s director of constituent services, said the idea is to construct 10-foot-high flanking support posts and crossbar which would display a suspended entrance sign. The section has been named the DellaVolpe-Cassetti Passway, recognizing former Mayor James Della Volpe and Cassetti, who were instrumental in creating and finishing this section.
Martin said this would require about 34 feet of track.
A second proposal would use the track to spell out ANSONIA in polished block six-foot-tall letters somewhere downtown, maybe near the Maple Street intersection with Main or near Nolan Field. The letters would be constructed under a “Welcome To” wooden sign. A marker outlining the city’s trolley history would be underneath.
Historic rail line
Sheila O’Malley, the city’s economic development director, said the city is considering putting the remaining tracks out to bid and use that money to pay for the signs. “Some trolley and rail museums have expressed interest,” she said.
The uncovered tracks have been taken to JRD Restoration on Derby Avenue, Derby.
There John DelGado said he has gotten about two truckloads.“Some are in pretty bad shape,” he said. “Some are bent, badly rusted, encased in concrete...I’m going to have to hammer off the concrete, grind them down and smooth out the edges.”
However DelGado believes he’ll have enough for the city’s use.
John William Tuohy, the city historian, has done extensive research on the tracks..
“This was the second oldest trolley line in America,” he said.. “At the time transportation to and from the factories was an issue. This was an effective mass transportation system that ran from Seymour to Ansonia through Derby all the way to West Haven near what was Savin Rock—Connecticut’s answer to Coney Island.”
Tuohy said he has seen photos of some of the cars containing Wakelee Avenue in their message line as well as one with Ansonia, Derby, Birmingham imprinted on its side.
‘Rocket ship transportation’
Much of the line’s birth may lie with Charles Van Depoele, a Belgium-born inventor dubbed “The Flemish Edison,” Tuohy said. Van Depoele had several patents on trolley technology which earned him the nickname the “father of commercial street operation.”
Van Depoele arrived in the U.S. in 1845 and built a line in Scranton, Pa., which was admired by the Derby Horse Railway Co., according to Tuohy’s research. He said the Derby firm purchased a motor car and three 12-foot long passenger cars.
They began building a three and a half mile rail line in 1887 which stretched from State Street in Ansonia and ran through Birmingham and ended at Derby landing, where boats would then take passengers across the Naugatuck River, Touhy said.,
He said the electric plant located on the Derby docks would power the 15 horsepower trolleys to a maximum 20 mphThe first run took place on May, 1888, but Tuohy said there was an issue. The passenger cars’ roofs were higher than a tunnel they had to pass under. The roofs had to be lowered, but doing so left very little headroom.
By October 1890, Tuohy said the line was carrying 1,500 passengers each day and could cover the distance in less than 20 minutes.“A lot of people worked in the factories around the clock,” Tuohy said. “For them this was a safe, quick method of getting to and from work.”
Bankruptcies and mergers led to the creation of the Derby Street Railway company headed by Col. Holton Wood, who served in the state legislature.
Tuohy said the first motor car for the line was pulled from a scrap pile in 1912 and redesigned into four-foot scale models, one of which is now on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
The last run ended 11:15 a.m. on June 18, 1937. Tuohy said its 49 years in service made it the oldest line in New England and the second oldest line in the United States.
“The tracks were made here,” Tuohy said. “This was rocket ship transportation back then and Ansonia was on the cutting edge. Beautifying these tracks and reusing them should be part of the city’s renaissance.”
Stop-work orders issued at Groton water treatment plan
Erica Moser
Groton — With the issuance last week of stop-work orders for two subcontractors working on the town's water treatment plant, local representatives of organized labor saw an opportunity to advocate for local jobs and responsible contracting.
Paul Oates, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Labor, confirmed that the department on Thursday issued stop-work orders to the Massachusetts-based Callahan & Montalto Site Construction and to the Texas-based Malden Steel.
On Monday, he said the stop-work order for Callahan & Montalto had been lifted, and that Malden will be replaced with another subcontractor.
The stop-work orders were issued because the companies didn’t have Connecticut workers’ compensation, Oates said. Malden Steel also was not a registered business in the state. The stop-work orders collectively affected 12 employees.
These two companies have been among the subcontractors working on the $54 million renovation of the water treatment plant, located off Poquonnock Road across from South Road. Groton Utilities hired R.H. White Construction Co., which it said was the low bidder, as the general contractor.
R.H. White then hired subcontractors, of which Chief Operating Officer Jim McCarthy said there are approximately six. Oates said that Department of Labor inspectors interviewed five companies while on-site Thursday.
The two stop-work orders won’t impact the cost or timeline of the project, McCarthy said. He noted that the stop-work orders were based on paperwork issues, and that Callahan & Montalto had the wrong certificate.
When stop-work orders are issued, red notices are placed at the construction site, and word can travel fast. On Friday afternoon, several members of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters Local 326 and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 organized a small demonstration near the construction site. They put up a sign reading, “Are lawbreaking contractors working here now?”
Municipalities always talk about wanting the lowest responsible bidder, and “we want a quality contractor who abides by the law and is competitive,” carpenters’ union organizer David Jarvis explained to The Day afterward.
Some of the demonstrators and their supporters also took issue with work being done by out-of-state companies.
“Obviously we would like to see union workers on the job, but if nothing else, Connecticut workers,” said Michael Gates, an organizer for the operating engineers. Gates said he had a man at the demonstration who lives a quarter-mile from the water treatment plant but hasn’t had a job since December.
Keith Brothers, president of the Norwich-New London Building Trades Council, expressed a similar view. He said it’s “disheartening” that members out of work in the area are seeing Massachusetts and Texas license plates when they’re dropping their kids off to school.
“The state of Connecticut gives money to the town and the city of Groton, and they in turn spend it on contractors out of state, which is kind of ridiculous,” Brothers said.
He and Gates want to use the recent stop-work orders as ammunition to try to get project-labor agreements on the upcoming school building projects in Groton.
McCarthy, of R.H. White, responded to Friday’s demonstration by saying, “I think they, as union reps, have the right to recommend that union labor be used on the job. We have subcontractors on the job, some are union and some are open shop, so there’s no discrimination.”