Angela Carella
STAMFORD — A disputed project to fix a historic downtown bridge will move forward; soon no one within city limits may own a homemade gun; and anyone who wants to weigh in on proposed parking-fee hikes will have a chance near the end of the month.
The Board of Representatives decided this Monday night, when members launched into yet another long discussion about the controversial renovation of the 131-year-old West Main Street bridge, which is crumbling into Mill River.
The latest in the two-decade debate over the iron bridge in Mill River Park is that an assessment by a contracted engineering firm concluded that the work will cost about $300,000 more than originally estimated.
The city will have to pay for that; the rest will be covered using a $2 million state grant obtained by the Mill River Collaborative, a nonprofit working with the city to remake the park. The city also will be on the hook for about $250,000 to cover the cost of installing a temporary bridge so residents may traverse Mill River during construction, expected to take 18 months.
Some representatives said the collaborative, which for 10 years has been working on a multimillion-dollar renovation of the park using city, state and federal money plus private donations, should pay the overrun.
Rep. Nina Sherwood, D-8, said she asked Mayor David Martin about it, and he told her he would check with the collaborative.
The collaborative then “sent a letter,” Sherwood told the board. “They do not anticipate paying any more than the original $2 million.”
Rep. Charles Pia, Jr., R-18, said the overrun is 15 percent of the total cost, which is not unusual for such a project, and it should proceed. As it is, city engineers close the bridge during heavy rainstorms because they fear the stone-and-cement supports will give way.
“The reason the estimate grew is that we paid (the engineering firm) to do the research, and they did. And now we are saying thank you but we don’t like the answer so we’re not doing the project?” Pia said.
Rep. Anabel Figueroa, D-8, said she shares concerns about funding and the nature of the project — the collaborative wants to repair the bridge for pedestrians only, in keeping with the character of the park and to preserve the historic elements of the 1888 structure, but some West Side residents and business owners want the bridge to be shored up enough to handle vehicle traffic to better connect their neighborhood to downtown.
It’s time to provide a safe crossing for residents who use it every day, Figueroa said.
“I am afraid that the longer we wait, the more it will cost, and the higher the exposure will be to the city” that someone will be injured on the rickety bridge, Figueroa said.
“Why don’t we just be the board that does this, after all these years?” asked Rep. Bradley Michelson, R-1.
The vote was 23-13 in favor of continuing the project. The next step is to put it out for construction bids. Martin has said he will consult the board if the bids come back higher than expected.
With much less discussion, the board voted 29-3, with two abstentions, to pass an ordinance that will prohibit anyone within city limits from owning, using or selling do-it-yourself guns made from parts that can be ordered online or created out of plastic using a 3-D printer.
Neither the state nor the federal government bans “ghost guns,” so called because they have no serial number and cannot be traced. So, around the country, cities are doing what they can to stem the growing tide of do-it-yourself gun production.
Because cities do not have the authority to impose criminal charges, the ordinance empowers police to seize ghost guns and fine the owner $250 per day of violation. The owner may appeal, but if a hearing officer deems the gun unlawful, police may destroy it.
“This is a no-brainer,” said Rep. Steven Kolenberg, R-16, who holds a pistol permit. “The idea that someone might circumvent the (gun registration) process is cause for concern. This is a very simple thing we can do to make people safer.”
Rep. Eric Morson, D-13, who also holds a pistol permit, was a sponsor of the ordinance. A few cities have passed bans and now the state Legislature is considering one, Morson said.
“It’s a great move for Stamford and I’m glad the state may follow our lead,” he said.
Board members also voted to send to a public hearing three proposed ordinances that would increase parking fees, fines and hours of enforcement.
The ordinances, if passed, will increase on-street meter fees from $1 an hour to $1.25, and enforce meters an extra hour to 8 p.m.
At city lots and the garages on Bell and Bedford streets, motorists would have to pay for parking on Saturdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. At the busy Summer Street garage, the monthly fee for residents would increase from $80 to $90, and non-residents would pay $110 instead of $90.The fee at the Springdale and Glenbrook train station lots would increase from $3 a day to $1 an hour, with a maximum of $6 a day. Monthly permits for Stamford commuters would increase from $45 to $60. For out-of-town commuters, the cost of a monthly permit would rise from $90 to $125.The board’s Transportation Committee will hold the public hearing on parking fees at its next meeting, likely to be set for late this month or early May, said Kolenberg, the chairman.
Toll barriers could derail Lamont’s transportation plan: Getting There
Jim Cameron
Gov. Ned Lamont’s tolling plan is in trouble. I knew it when I recently got a call from Dan Malloy.
The former governor and I know each other going back to his days as mayor of Stamford, but he’s only called me once before (many years ago when he sought my endorsement in his run for a second term as governor).
This time he was calling about my recent column on the Transportation Strategy Board, the panel tasked 18 years ago with prioritizing our state’s transportation needs and how to pay for them.
It wasn’t my fawning over then-TSB Chairman Oz Griebel that prompted Malloy’s recent call. Instead it was my characterization of the “lock box” on the Special Transportation Fund as having, according to one longtime transportation observer, “more back doors than a hot-sheets motel on the Berlin Turnpike.” Those were the source’s words, not mine.
“That comment was not helpful, Jim,” Malloy said, explaining how it could affect their effort to gain support for tolls.
That’s when I knew the plan was in real trouble. Why is he calling me, of all people? Not that there weren’t earlier warning signs that trouble was brewing.
The first was Lamont’s somersaults on tolling from being in favor, then promising trucks-only tolling and finally settling (again) on tolling all vehicles. Voters felt betrayed.
Then Lamont pulled millions in car sales taxes from the STF, potentially bankrupting the transportation fund by 2022.
Those moves gave grassroots No-Tolls groups new-found fertile soil, picketing and tapping into the media’s love of controversy by offering up great photo ops.
Sure, the Republicans helped fan the flames with their so-called “information sessions” in local communities, providing a forum to attack Lamont and tolls while resurrecting their “Prioritize Progress” bonding plan, asking our grandkids to pay for the roads and rails we use today.
Then there were the “no tolls votes” in local communities, non-binding of course, but a clear indication of local sentiment. Even Stamford’s Board of Reps voted against tolls. Polling by Sacred Heart University, though perhaps poorly worded, showed 59 percent of respondents were against tolling.
But wait. Where are the pro-toll voices?
Well, a coalition of Hartford lobbyists did try to organize an expensive campaign to support Lamont’s tolling vision, seeking money from construction companies and consultants who’d make a lot of money if tolls were approved. But a reporter somehow got hold of their pitch book, detailing the campaign, and it now seems dead in the water. Talk about “not helpful.”
Now Lamont is on a Magical Misery Tour, holding press events at every crumbling bridge, viaduct and train platform in the state. Against those backdrops, he pitches the need for billions in funding only achievable, he says, through tolling.
In the last few months, Metro-North has had two major power meltdowns as circuit breakers, transformers and sub-stations have failed, slowing trains and disrupting service. Commuters take such crises in stride knowing full well they’re riding in shiny new railcars on a century-old railroad crumbling beneath them.
But people upstate could care less. It’s not their problem, so why should they pay tolls or support mass transit?
Cynicism abounds that toll revenues would really be spent on transportation and not get diverted. Nobody trusts Hartford.
Tolls, my friends, are in trouble.
YOUR VIEW: Residents deserve to hear the facts on tolls
To The Editor:
I attended the Republican legislators’ presentation on highway tolls at Bristol Central High School. They did a good job of explaining how transportation infrastructure projects are funded in Connecticut, and the audience came away with an appreciation for how many moving parts there are to this multi-billion dollar topic. The Republicans acknowledged that Connecticut will need a lot of highway construction projects over the next 30 years, and they did not dispute the cost of these projects. Nor did they dispute that the state needs to borrow this money – these aren’t “pay as you go” projects.
Where they break with the governor is over how to pay for these highway bonds.
The governor’s plan would have the people who use our highways pay for them. The Republicans want the taxpayers to pay for them.
Under the governor’s plan roughly half of the toll revenue will come from out-of-state motorists. The Republicans want only Connecticut taxpayers to pay for these bonds.
Gov. Lamont recently stated that Connecticut has borrowed way too much money over the years and is putting the state on a “debt diet”.
The Republicans, to their credit, agree with this – but they don’t say which projects they would eliminate to keep infrastructure debt under the bond cap. Dismissing them as “pet projects and political handouts” is not transparent.
At the close of the meeting state Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield said that the 53 toll gantries proposed by Lamont would make CT “the most tolled state” in America. This is so misleading that it borders on being untrue. The number of toll gantries isn’t what determines how much in tolls we will pay – it’s the amount of the toll times the number of gantries that determines it. Saying that this plan will make Connecticut the “most tolled state” is deceptive and dishonest.
Bristol residents deserve the facts about tolls, and not misleading hyperbole.
Craig Minor
Bristol
A/Z Corp. acquired by Maine construction firm
Brian Hallenbeck
North Stonington — A/Z Corp., the homegrown construction-services firm that’s had a hand in dozens of projects throughout the region and beyond, has been acquired by Cianbro, a bigger, Pittsfield, Maine-based firm known for being entirely owned by its employees, the companies announced Tuesday.
Financial terms of the deal, which closed Friday, were not disclosed.
As a wholly owned Cianbro subsidiary, A/Z will keep its name, and its 500 employees will join Cianbro’s ESOP, or employee stock ownership plan, said Perry Lorenz, the A/Z president whose father founded A/Z in Ledyard in the late 1960s.
Lorenz said he will stay on as A/Z president and that A/Z’s leadership team will remain intact.
“Our clients won’t see any operational changes whatsoever,” he said. “Our brand is unchanged. That was important to me.”
The 55-year-old Lorenz said the Cianbro acquisition grew out of A/Z’s efforts to update its business plan, a process that began about 18 months ago. Given that neither of Lorenz's two sons had elected to pursue the family business, the need for a succession plan that could secure A/Z employees’ futures topped the agenda.
“I didn’t want to wait until I was in my mid-60s to figure it out,” Lorenz said. “I’d always wanted to become an employee-owned business, so we looked at pathways to do it. ... I’d known Cianbro for most of my career. They were one of my first competitors.”
He said A/Z and Cianbro share “cultural values” and operate in the same vertical markets.
He characterized Cianbro, which has some 4,000 employees, as a national firm, while A/Z is a regional player.
In addition to its headquarters at 46 Norwich-Westerly Road (Route 2) in North Stonington, A/Z has offices in Hartford; Hopkinton, R.I.; Westborough, Mass.; and East Windsor, N.J. In the last few years, A/Z has managed construction of the Earth Tower hotel and the Earth Expo & Convention Center at Mohegan Sun and the Thompson Exhibition Building at Mystic Seaport Museum. Other A/Z clients include Dow Chemical, Electric Boat, Eversource, Foxwoods Resort Casino, Pfizer, Yale New Haven Health, the University of Rhode Island and Wesleyan University.
A/Z has been named the preconstruction and construction manager for the proposed National Coast Guard Museum project in New London.
Founded in 1949, Cianbro is ranked among the top 100 U.S. construction firms by Engineering News-Record, a magazine that covers the industry worldwide. Operating in 41 states, Cianbro serves such construction markets as industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, power and energy, and building. It also invests heavily in workforce development through The Cianbro Institute, a professional growth and education center on the company’s Maine campus.
“Cianbro and A/Z are compatible organizations with very similar philosophies towards people, operating culture, workplace safety, and towards their respective clients,” Andi Vigue, Cianbros' chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We each grew from small family-owned companies with devoted hard-working employees who are experts in their profession.”
Locally, Cianbro has been involved in recent years in renovating the Mystic River drawbridge, the Niantic River railroad bridge and the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, among other projects.
New Haven’s Grand Ave. bridge project to get $12.5 million from state
NEW HAVEN — The State Bond Commission Tuesday approved providing $12.5 million to repair the Grand Avenue Bridge over the Quinnipiac River, according to a release.
Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, and Rep. Al Paolillo, both D-New Haven, said in the release that the bond money coming to the city is among the $190 million in Connecticut transportation infrastructure improvements approved by the commission.
“This transportation project is a critical investment for New Haven,” said Looney. “The Grand Avenue Bridge is an idyllic fixture of the community which will now be refurbished to serve another generation. I want to thank Governor (Ned) Lamont for stepping in and helping the city fund this undertaking.”
Paolillo said the bridge is both a historical landmark and a “vital connection point for commerce and transportation” in the area.
“This $25.5 million transformational project will help set the economic landscape with jobs during construction and after the project is completed. A lot of work has gone into the rehabilitation plans and I thank Sen. Looney, our City Engineer Giovanni Zinn and everyone who has moved this project forward. Residents and businesses will be kept updated on the rehabilitation progress,” Paolillo said, also in the release.
Beginning late this year, the city plans to begin rehabilitation of the bridge, expected to take up to two years, which means the span could be closed for up to two years.The State Bond Commission also approved (according to Looney and Paolillo):$69 million to resurface 442 lane-miles of roadway this summer
$48.9 million for “Fix-it-First,” interstate highway, and state bridge improvements projects
$30 million in town aid road (TAR) grants to cities and towns for local road projects
$21.8 million for various local bridge repairs in 19 different cities and towns
$20 million to upgrade the Cos Cob Bridge in Greenwich, which carries the Metro North Railroad over the Mianus River
$55 million in grants to cities and towns for various municipal projects
$20 million for the Crumbling Foundations Assistance Fund$2.6 million for police body cameras and media storage
$800,000 for improvements to the state Veterans Cemetery in Middletown