Matt Pilon
An 11-field outdoor fastpitch softball facility that would be the largest in the Northeast is under construction and on pace for an April 2019 opening, officials said.
Fastpitch Nation Park, located at 1001 Day Hill Road, is being developed by David Rocha, who also owns an indoor fastpitch facility in Bloomfield, the similarly named Fastpitch Nation.
The Hartford Business Journal first reported Rocha's plans for the park in July. Rocha said the facility will help meet fast-growing demand for fastpitch facilities and bring competitors and their friends and families into Connecticut for tournaments.
"We expect more than 35,000 people to visit our new ball park in its first year of operation – that includes more than 1,350 teams competing in over 3,200 games," Rocha said in a statement Thursday. "Fastpitch Nation Park can accommodate this growth and make for a more enjoyable sports experience for the young athletes, their families and friends, and officials."
The Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau said that events at the park are expected to result in $8 million in spending during its first year in operation, generating over $500,000 in tax revenue.
Rocha plans the new park's first tournament to take place in late April.
The facility will focus mainly on youth girls' fastpitch, which Rocha says is one one of the fastest-growing sports in the country.
Besides the fields, which will have red Alabama shale infields, the site will have a 3,200-square-foot building for retail, storage and restrooms, LED scoreboards, covered dugouts and other amenities. Rocha also plans to stream games online.
Rocha holds the title of Fastpitch State Director for New England for the United States Specialty Sports Association. USSSA said in a statement that it plans to partner with Rocha to host regional and national events in Windsor.
Rocha is leasing 22 acres of the Day Hill Road parcel, which is owned by Mark Greenberg. The other part of the property contains office and retail space.
Developer To Be Sought for Area Around The Bushnell In Hartford
Kenneth R. Gosselin
Proposals will be sought early next year for redeveloping parking lots near the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, part of a yearslong push to create a neighborhood of residences, shops and businesses and extend downtown south beyond Bushnell Park.
Michael W. Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, said Thursday the CRDA will seek out proposals as construction of a parking garage gets underway on the site of the now-demolished state medical laboratory building on Clinton Street. Construction of homes and other buildings could still be two or three years in the future. “We are looking at [home] ownership as the model,” Freimuth said, during a panel discussion at The Bushnell. “We think there is a market there, we think there is a need to transition the residential population that we have brought downtown who want to own and who might want a larger home. The downtown should really have some of that product.”After the panel, Freimuth said it is possible that there would be a stronger mix of commercial uses than initially thought. For instance, along Capitol Avenue, structures of four to six stories could be used for government, college or medical uses.
“Not necessarily office space like an Aetna taking a suite, more collegiate or innovation, something related to medical or government,” Freimuth said.
Hartford Hospital, for instance, is less than a mile away to the south.
“I’m not convinced yet what it needs to be,” Freimuth said. “I think Capitol [Avenue] wants to be something more than it is.”
Redevelopment of the area — now being called “Bushnell South” — has been talked about for decades. But the vision has recently gotten a boost from the $205 million, taxpayer-funded renovation of the State Office Building across Capitol from The Bushnell. The massive renovation is expected to be completed late next year.
The renovation also includes the construction of a $34 million, 1,065-space parking garage at the corner of Washington and Buckingham streets, expected to be finished later this year.
A landscaped plaza with walkways also will be created to the east of the State Office Building, extending walkable “green space” south of Bushnell Park.
A critical piece of the area’s redevelopment puzzle is going forward early next year, however: the construction of a parking garage on the site of the now-demolished state medical laboratory on Clinton Street.
A parking garage of up to 500 spaces is the first step in creating “district parking” that would be shared by state office workers, future residents of the area and patrons of The Bushnell. The $16 million project recently won approval from the State Bond Commission. Construction is expected to take about year.
State officials say the two garages are needed to accommodate the large number of state workers in the area. A larger garage was considered for Washington and Buckingham streets but it was too imposing on the urban landscape.
The garages make it possible to redevelop the parking lots, at least those that are state-owned and are coming under the control of CRDA.
But significant expanses of parking remain under the control of West Hartford-based Simon Konover Co. and various partners, complicating any overall development vision. Konover has said it is open to proposals for those lots but, so far, nothing has emerged.
Konover is trying to sell the nearby 55 Elm St. — now the offices of the attorney general and other constitutional officers. Those offices will move to the State Office Building when its renovation is complete. No deal for 55 Elm has been announced. Freimuth said smaller parking structures may be needed if there are more commercial uses along Capitol Avenue. But like Clinton Street, buildings would be wrapped around the garages to hide them from the street, he said.
Freimuth said there has been some discussion about renaming Clinton Street as South Ann Uccello Street and another nearby street, West Street, as South Trumbull Street to make a connection to downtown.
“Basically this is to bring home that they are downtown streets, that they in effect are connecting to Ann and Trumbull streets on the other side of the park,” Freimuth said.
Agency: Gas lines safe; State utility regulators questioned in wake of Massachusetts disaster
State energy regulators offered assurances this week that they have safeguards to prevent the kind of disaster seen in northern Massachusetts last month, where natural gas fires and explosions killed one person and forced thousands from their homes — even as some in the industry said they’re worried that the state is under-reporting leaking lines and not doing enough to fix them.
At a meeting Wednesday of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in New Britain, Chairwoman Katie Dykes responded to a letter from two state legislators asking for a comprehensive overview of the state’s energy infrastructure by calling Connecticut’s pipeline leak-detection program one of the most “robust” in the country.
PURA teams carry out roughly 450 field inspections a year, Dykes said, to review design, operations, and maintenance of the pipeline system and to test emergency preparedness to ensure compliance with safety standards.
PURA will review its procedures once investigators determine what led to the widespread pipeline failures in Massachusetts, Dykes said.
“We take these responsibilities very seriously,” Dykes said of her agency. “And we’re carefully keeping an eye on what’s happening in Massachusetts.”
Not all industry figures agree, however, that regulators are doing everything in their power to address leaking pipes.
Christian Herb, president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, said PURA doesn’t require leaks to be repaired in a timely fashion, even if utilities are technically complying with the state’s requirement to report fuel line ruptures.
Herb also cited a 2016 study commissioned by the Sierra Club that detected 716 methane leaks in Hartford over the course of a month. Methane is the chief component of natural gas. The study’s authors estimated that roughly 0.86 metric tons of methane leaked per day during that time period, the equivalent of 313 metric tons per year.
State energy regulators have disputed the methodology behind the Sierra Club report.
“The destruction caused by leaking natural gas that resulted in the loss of life and property in Massachusetts last month is a warning that PURA should heed,” Herb said. “This wakeup call and how PURA responds to it may prevent future tragedy.”
Last month’s explosions in the Merrimack Valley communities of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, Massachusetts, prompted safety-related inquiries from state officials and responses to anxious customers from area power companies, including Eversource Energy, which put out a statement the following day explaining that the Berlin-based utility’s system is not connected to the network of Columbia Gas, which supplied natural gas to the affected cities and towns.
On Monday, state Reps. Matthew Lesser, D-Middletown, and Christopher Rosario, D-Bridgeport, released a letter addressed to Dykes and PURA citing both the Massachusetts explosions and a 2010 blast at a Middletown power station that killed six people as evidence that natural gas safety “requires renewed focus.”
“What happened in Massachusetts can happen in Connecticut,” Lesser and Rosario wrote.
The representatives have asked for a detailed evaluation of the state’s natural gas networks to determine how many miles of lines are “leak prone” and called on regulators to study pipeline inspection staffing levels, report on gas utilities’ compliance with state and federal safety rules, examine emergency response measures, and explore the safety of renewable energy sources in contrast to fossil fuels.
The utility spent $50 million in 2017 to replace 29 miles of pipeline and expects to replace around 20 miles of gas mains this year, company officials said.
If new regulations emerge in the wake of the Massachusetts gas leaks, Modifica added, Eversource would bring its systems and procedures into compliance as quickly as possible.
A 2017 audit by PURA found that Eversource, Southern Connecticut Gas Co., and the Norwich Department of Public Utilities were complying with rules governing the proper pressurization of natural gas, which authorities believe to be a factor in the Massachusetts explosions. The regulatory body did, however, levy a $1.5 million fine against Connecticut Natural Gas this year for pressure-related violations.
Regulators said the company had been using higher-than-safe pressures in pipelines not designed for such loads and delayed implementing corrective measures since becoming aware of the problem in 2011.
At the time, PURA called the citation “the most significant pipeline safety penalty ever issued” and said it was “fortunate” that no serious accidents occurred as a result of CNG’s improper installations.
A spokesman for the company that owns CNG, Orange-based Avangrid Inc., told the Journal Inquirer in February that the company had cooperated fully with the state’s investigation and fixed the issues identified by regulators.
Oxford selectmen hire O&G Industries as construction manager for new $44.9 million middle school
BILL BITTAR
OXFORD – O&G Industries has been hired as the construction manager for the new $44.9 million middle school to be built on Great Oak Road.
The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to hire the Torrington firm for an amount not to exceed $661,500 at its meeting Wednesday.
“We agonized over this with the list the building committee gave us,” First Selectman George R. Temple said. “It was a very difficult decision, but I’m confident we made the right choice. I called O&G today and will try to get them to take a little less.”
Temple and Selectman Scott Flaherty visited a number of schools around the state to see contractor’s work and the first selectman said they were impressed with O&G’s projects. “They’re a well reputed firm in the state of Connecticut,” Temple said.
Six bids for construction manager were narrowed down to a short list of four finalists, including O&G, who bid $661,500, Newfield Construction Group $555,000, FIP Construction $600,000 and Downes Construction $702,330.
“It was a tough choice,” Selectman Jeffrey J. Haney Sr. said. “All four were qualified.”
The other two bidders were A. Prete Construction Co., which bid to do the work for $1,017,500 and Bond Brothers Inc. for $1,201,098.
Temple said a commissioning agent is the last professional the town needs to hire for the project, adding he wants to do it soon. Before the town accepts the new building, the commissioning agent will go over the punch list to ensure everything was done correctly.
The Hartford firm Tecton Architects will design the middle school and Construction Solutions Group of West Hartford is the owner’s representative.
In November, residents overwhelmingly approved the project as a referendum question on election day by 2,449 votes to 858.
The school will replace the aging Oxford Center School on Route 67 and share the same campus with Quaker Farms Elementary School and Great Oak Middle School, which will revert to an elementary school.
Great Oak Middle School Principal Anthony T. Hibbert will be principal of the new grades 6 to 8 school. Great Oak School will house grades 3 to 5 and Quaker Farms School, grades K to 2.
Temple said the target date to hold classes in the new middle school is the fall of 2020.
“Our intention is to be on time and under budget,” he said. “I think we can achieve that. Right now we’re on time, despite what some who have not talked to me or the building committee chairman say. We’ll hold people’s feet to the fire. It will get done and it will get done right.”
Oxford selectmen hire O&G Industries as construction manager for new $44.9 million middle school
BILL BITTAR
OXFORD – O&G Industries has been hired as the construction manager for the new $44.9 million middle school to be built on Great Oak Road.
The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to hire the Torrington firm for an amount not to exceed $661,500 at its meeting Wednesday.
“We agonized over this with the list the building committee gave us,” First Selectman George R. Temple said. “It was a very difficult decision, but I’m confident we made the right choice. I called O&G today and will try to get them to take a little less.”
Temple and Selectman Scott Flaherty visited a number of schools around the state to see contractor’s work and the first selectman said they were impressed with O&G’s projects. “They’re a well reputed firm in the state of Connecticut,” Temple said.
Six bids for construction manager were narrowed down to a short list of four finalists, including O&G, who bid $661,500, Newfield Construction Group $555,000, FIP Construction $600,000 and Downes Construction $702,330.
“It was a tough choice,” Selectman Jeffrey J. Haney Sr. said. “All four were qualified.”
Temple said a commissioning agent is the last professional the town needs to hire for the project, adding he wants to do it soon. Before the town accepts the new building, the commissioning agent will go over the punch list to ensure everything was done correctly.
The Hartford firm Tecton Architects will design the middle school and Construction Solutions Group of West Hartford is the owner’s representative.
In November, residents overwhelmingly approved the project as a referendum question on election day by 2,449 votes to 858.
The school will replace the aging Oxford Center School on Route 67 and share the same campus with Quaker Farms Elementary School and Great Oak Middle School, which will revert to an elementary school.
Great Oak Middle School Principal Anthony T. Hibbert will be principal of the new grades 6 to 8 school. Great Oak School will house grades 3 to 5 and Quaker Farms School, grades K to 2.
Temple said the target date to hold classes in the new middle school is the fall of 2020.
“Our intention is to be on time and under budget,” he said. “I think we can achieve that. Right now we’re on time, despite what some who have not talked to me or the building committee chairman say. We’ll hold people’s feet to the fire. It will get done and it will get done right.”