Kimberly Drelich
Groton — The state has approved the final plans for the new consolidated middle school, allowing the town to go out to bid for the project.
Superintendent Michael Graner said his reaction to the approval was "unbridled joy."
"We have been working towards this for five years now," he said. "It started with the idea we wanted to try to develop a middle school that would meet the needs of children on both sides of town and that ultimately gave rise to the vision of Groton 2020 to build a consolidated middle school."
The town now has permission to bid out the estimated $86.09 million middle school project, which will receive 47.5 percent reimbursement from the state, Graner said.
In 2016, residents had approved at referendum $184.5 million for the Groton 2020 plan for the consolidated middle school and two elementary schools.
Graner said the town cleared a long series of obstacles over the course of planning for the Groton 2020 plan, and he's delighted so many people supported the projects.
During the planning process, officials petitioned the state for one of the construction projects — the elementary school at the Carl C. Cutler Middle School site — to be designated as a diversity school to address racial imbalance. That project is slated to get 80 percent reimbursement from the state, he said.
The town also worked for two years with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to remove conservation restrictions from the former Merritt Farm property and instead place them on other properties, so the town could build the middle school on the Merritt Farm property adjacent to Fitch High School.
Then in December, the Groton 2020 plan had to head back to referendum for a change in which the town could build two new elementary schools, rather than convert the middle schools into elementary schools. With the approval, architects have resumed their work and are continuing to design the two elementary schools, Graner said.
Last week, school officials submitted the final plans and cost estimates for the middle school to the state Department of Administrative Services' Office of School Construction Grants and Review, Graner said.
"It was really a meticulous, thorough review," Graner said. "They were asking everything, from engineering aspects to permission to use the Merritt property."
Graner said with the state's commitment to fund the project and authorization to go out to bid, the town plans to advertise the project this week. The Permanent School Building Committee then will hire a construction firm, and construction on the approximately 155,000-square-foot building is expected to begin by late March, with an anticipated completion date of June 2020.
According to a presentation of the design plans last month, the middle school will feature a makerspace and engineering labs for science, technology, engineering and math; art, graphic arts and audio/video production space; a black-box theater; and a movement studio, fitness room and gymnasium. Outside, there are plans for a full-size athletic field, smaller field and softball field.
Bridgeport’s East Side train station plans halted
Jordan Grice
Plans for a new East Side train station in Bridgeport have been derailed.
In a letter to the Council on Environmental Quality, the state Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that it was tabling the long-awaited project which would have produced the third Bridgeport rail station between Seaview Avenue and Pembroke Street.CTDOT has since determined that it is not in a financial position to undertake the proposed project, and has decided to defer the project in CTDOT's Capital Plan 2019-2023” the letter read, confirming that the state ultimately could not afford to make the project happen in the next few years.The price tag to build the Barnum Avenue Railroad Station was around $300 million, a spike from its original estimate of $48 million. The increase was required, in part, to accommodate Metro North and Amtrak trains.
There are two train stations in the state that have access to both Metro-North and Amtrak trains —Stamford and New Haven. The proposed Bridgeport station would have been the third and a mid-way point for a local and express railway service.
Proponents of the new train station were surprised to hear the DOT opted out of the project.“To be honest, I feel blindsided by this,” said State Rep. Christopher Rosario, D-Bridgeport, who said he had been talking with Gov. Ned Lamont and Lieutenant Gov. Susan Bysiewicz about the potentially new station.
“As of 48 hours ago, we were planning on doing a visit of the site, so that’s kind of surprising that the Department of Transportation decided to move so quickly on that, considering the current commissioner championing rails and this project make a lot of sense for Fairfield County,” Rosario added.
An email sent to Hearst Connecticut Media from Rosario said that the Bridgeport Delegation is seeking a meeting with Lamont and the DOT Commissioner.
The project was first announced by former Governor Dannel P. Malloy in 2014, to many in the CTDOT’s surprise. It had sparked interest in then-Mayor Bill Finch’s administration and local business leaders and carried over into the second Ganim era, as an economic driver that would lure new development to the East Side.
Despite the DOT’s decision to table the project, Bridgeport officials said they have no intention of letting it fall by the wayside.
“It’s critical to the long-term future and the economic sustainability of the city,” said Lynn Haig, director of Bridgeport planning and zoning. “We can grow significantly more with the train station than we can without one.”
Though developers haven’t rallied to contribute to that cause, the potential for a new station has been a marketing chip to attract interested parties, Haig said.
On multiple occasions, officials have talked about the importance of adding the Barnum Station to spruce up the East Side and East End development.
“We’re exploring every source,” Haig said. “That doesn’t mean that the DOT may never contribute money towards it, but we are looking to bring additional revenue to the table so it’s not such a large contribution that the state has to make in the end.”
There are no plans to scale down the project, she added.
From a regional perspective, development of the Barnum Avenue Railroad Station was a plus, according to Matt Fulda, Executive Director of the state Metro Council of Governments.
“We think this is an important project for the city of Bridgeport and for the region in terms of access of the train station at a different level and some development around the train station that doesn’t exist currently,” he said.
Gov. Lamont’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Carrington architects win bidding for Wendell Cross project in Waterbury
MICHAEL GAGNE
WATERBURY – The architecture firm that designed the Carrington Elementary School building, completed in 2013, is a committee’s top choice to lead Wendell Cross Elementary School’s redesign from a traditional elementary school building to a pre-K-to-8 school.
Farmington-based firm Friar Architecture, Inc. is the one a selection committee chose from six bidders vying for the project, City Finance Director Michael LeBlanc wrote in a letter dated Jan. 22.
LeBlanc’s letter outlined three different options for the project – each with a different cost.
Design costs for the first option, addition and renovations to the existing Wendell Cross building, would be $1,237,114. Demolition and new construction, the second option, would cost $1,376,418. The third option, which calls for demolition and new construction with 10 additional classrooms, would cost $1,394,018. The city had received approval from the state Department of Administrative Services to receive a 78.6 percent state reimbursement on a project that would renovate and expand the existing Wendell Cross structure at an expected total cost of $46.2 million.
One of the stipulations for receiving that state reimbursement is that ground must be broken on the project by this October.
Officials have floated a possible change in scope for the Wendell Cross project, citing a need for additional classroom space to have the full capacity to serve the number of students who live within the Wendell Cross neighborhood. Whether a change in the project’s scope would impact the city’s reimbursement from the state hasn’t been answered.
A 10-member selection committee that included four Board of Education members chose Friar Architecture from a pool of six bids after the city advertised a request for proposals last November.
The selection committee identified two finalists from the responses. Those finalists were asked to return for second interviews and to provide concept drawings and project cost estimates for three different project scopes. The committee voted unanimously for Friar, LeBlanc wrote.
Representatives from Friar Architecture, along with city and school officials, are expected to be available to field questions from the Board of Education tonight when the board convenes at Waterbury Arts Magnet School.
Representatives are also expected to attend the Board of Aldermen’s Feb. 11 meeting.
The Carrington project, on which Friar Architecture had worked, was finished in 2013. That project cost a total of $37 million, according to previous Republican-American reports.
Mayor Neil M. O’Leary said the selection of Friar Architecture “seems to make sense,” describing the Carrington project as having been as complicated as the Wendell Cross project in the works, as it also involved demolition and construction.
Board of Education member Jason Van Stone also spoke favorably about selecting the firm, saying, “Friar has done good work for us in the past.”