Road to Recovery: Rebuilding CT's infrastructure CLICK FOR VIDEO
CONNECTICUT, USA — Connecticut's infrastructure is in need
of a makeover. Ask residents, and they say the state's highways and roads mean
traffic headaches.
"95. 95 is terrible. I used to work down in Stamford
and going there was a nightmare every day," said Greg Laflamme of
Middletown.
Drivers describe the roads as having cracks, rough surfaces,
and potholes.
"At this point, it's kind of a joke when I drive there
I'm like swerving because I like to know exactly where they all are so I'm kind
of like weaving in and out," said Madeline McGrail of Newington.
It could be costing you a lot too. According to TRIP, a national transportation
research non-profit, the average Connecticut driver spends about $711 a year on
vehicle operating costs, because of the state's road conditions.
"Wasting gasoline, idling your engine, sitting in
traffic. And wear and tear on your vehicle," said Garret Eucalitto, Deputy
Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
When it comes to CT bridges, TRIP says 248 bridges are
considered structurally deficient. Due to some much-needed improvements on rail
lines, trains are moving slower than decades ago.
In fact, a recent White House report gave Connecticut's
infrastructure a grade of C-.
"62% of Connecticut's major roads are in poor to
mediocre condition, and 62% of Connecticut's bridges were built before 1969
with a 50-year lifespan. So, we're in pretty rough shape," said Don
Shubert, president of the CT Construction Industries Association.
The DOT has some projects lined up to fix many of these
issues, and the key to making them happen sooner rather than later could come
in the form of President Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure package.
"Without that, all we'd be able to do is just patch
things and keep things going with a state of good repair keeping it a baseline
standard of safety but with these additional funds that might be coming forward
with the American Jobs Plan we can not only fix it, we can fix it better and
fix it for the future," said Eucalitto.
FOX61 got an exclusive look at the plans, which include
rebuilding crumbling infrastructure to reduce backups on major highways like
I-84 in Danbury or I-95 in Fairfield County.
"If we can extend some of the exit lanes and kind of
reduce some of that back up where people are trying to exit or get on-ramp onto
the highway, it makes it safer, it reduces crashes," said Eucalitto.
That safety aspect may be the most important. According to
the DOT, 2020 was the deadliest year in decades on Connecticut roads. The DOT
looking to not only make the roads safer for drivers but everyone around them
too.
"Installing crosswalks, high visibility crosswalks
including countdown heads," said Eucalitto. "Having better lighting,
and installing bike lanes where there's a lot of bike traffic as well," he
said.
Perhaps the biggest theme among the projects, updating the
state's infrastructure as a whole.
"As we replace our infrastructure that's falling apart,
we're going to replace it with more modern systems," said Shubert.
Part of modernizing the state's infrastructure is making our
streets smarter. Replacing outdated traffic signals with new ones, with
technology that allows them to not only communicate with newer cars but also
with each other, so you don't have to be stuck in a red light any longer than
you have to. It is starting on the Berlin Turnpike.
"If there's really light traffic, they're going to talk
to one another up and down the entire Berlin Turnpike and adjust their timing
patterns based on the traffic levels," said Eucalitto.
While federal aid would help make it all possible, state
lawmakers say we can't just depend on that money, and the time to act on a
state level is now.
"Our Special Transportation Fund is rapidly approaching
insolvency. We desperately need more dollars in order to bring our
infrastructure into the 21st Century," said State Sen. Will Haskell,
co-chair of the transportation committee.
"I would like to see anything that comes out be worked
on a bipartisan basis that will result in the least amount of cost for
Connecticut residents," said State Rep. Devin Carney, ranking member of
the transportation committee.
Making the improvements now would have a lasting impact down
the road.
"Build for the next 100 years. This is our opportunity
to do that," said Eucalitto.
Ansonia rock crushing business could move if zone change approved
Eddy Martinez
ANSONIA — Residents battling a rock crushing facility on
Riverside Drive say the city and facility want to change zoning regulations in
an attempt to retroactively allow the business to crush rocks.
City officials disagree, saying Burns Construction Inc. is
legally running its facility but wants to change the regulations to allow it to
move its rock crushing to another part of its property, away from neighbors.
“This is the correct process. We're very happy that Burns
stepped forward to do this,” said City Attorney John Marini.
Burns Construction Inc., the owner of the property, is
represented by attorney Barry Knott who is planning on filing for a zoning text
amendment either by the end of May or the beginning of June, according to
Knott.
Neighbors and the city disagree on what the amendment will
do.
Marini said the application will allow the city to implement
more restrictions on the legally operating facility and take residents’
concerns into account.
Resident Brian Perkins, who has been a vocal critic of the
business, disputed Marini’s explanation.
“If they claim it's legal and it's deemed legal, there
should be no reason to amend anything,” he said.
Perkins grew up in Ansonia and returned in January after
serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. He said he was aware of the rock crushing
facility but recently got involved in opposing it after speaking to neighbors
of the property.
Neighbors have argued against the property’s current use for
more than a year, claiming that rock crushing on the Riverside Drive site was
found to be in violation of zoning laws as far back as 2002. On Oct. 2, 2002,
the city’s then-zoning code enforcement officer ordered Complete Construction,
which used the site, to discontinue such work, they said.
Complete Construction has since gone out of business
and sold
the site to Burns Construction in 2019. The site is near the vacant Ansonia
Copper and Brass complex.
Burns was given a permit to operate in February 2020. The
property is industrially zoned and is operating as a contractor’s yard. Rock
crushing is a permitted use, the company said.
The neighbors said that the permit issued in February 2020
was illegal. In October 2020 they were prepared to complain about the noise,
fumes and dust from the business at a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting
but were told they had the wrong place — complaints should be made in Superior
Court.
So the neighbors, who had formed the Westwood Association to
fight the property’s use, hired Milford attorney Kevin Curseaden to
do so. He filed a complaint in Superior Court in November 2020 asking that
the neighbors be allowed to make a formal complaint before the zoning board.
The court set a Dec. 8 hearing date but rescheduled the case
at least twice. “The court essentially froze the legal proceedings until the
fall to give Burns Construction time to do this,” Marini said.
As part of the fight against Burns, Perkins created a change.org petition
titled “Tell Ansonia’s Zoning Enforcement Officer to Uphold the Law and Stop
Illegal Rock Crushing” which, as of May 14, has drawn 135 signatures.
He’s taken to social media and posted a video that
criticizes the rock crushing facility as well as the city’s response to
complaints. The video, released on May 9, includes a recording of the noise at
the facility. He has also written a letter criticizing the city government that
was published by local media.
Leonard Marazzi, who lives near Burns Construction,
characterized the amendment as an attempt to placate the residents without
telling residents what changes will be made.
Curseaden said that he’s not sure what exactly the text
amendment will allow, but said the city is favoring the company, despite
stating they want to work with the residents.
“They say they're trying to work through it amicably and
they hear the people's concerns, but really what happened was they illegally
issued a permit for this use,” he said.
The city has maintained that Burns is legally using the
property.
Barry Knott, attorney for Burns Construction Inc., said the
amendment would let Burns change the location of the rock crushing operation
within the company’s property. This would satisfy all sides, he said.
“Fortunately, the site is so big at 46 acres that we have
ample room to segregate the rock crushing facility from neighboring properties.
I'm in the process of preparing that regulation,” he said.
Knott said that the concerns over the legality of the rock
crushing stem from a misunderstanding of zoning regulations. The zoning
amendment is a way for all sides to come to a resolution without going to
court, he said.
Knott said that he’s been a zoning attorney for 46 years and
has always faced some form of opposition, so knew he was going to get pushback.
“I'm not surprised about the petition, and I'm not
particularly concerned about it,” he said.
Wage theft' rampant in Stamford construction business, carpenters' union claims
Veronica Del Valle
STAMFORD — Members of the state carpenter’s union, carrying
banners and passing out flyers to passersby, Monday urged legislators and
Stamford officials to “stop wage theft,” to “stand up to tax fraud” and to take
a closer look at the city’s booming construction economy.
A dozen members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners rallied in front of the Stamford Government Center — in company with a
giant inflatable pig and a fat cat holding a worker in a neck grip — to
publicize what they said were deliberate ploys of some contractors to underpay
their taxes by misclassifying their workers.
Stamford, they said, is among the worst offenders.
“Part of that is because of Stamford’s growth,” said Miguel
Fuentes, a member of the union’s local chapter. “But part of that is because it
has been accepted as a business practice.”
The carpenters’ union has made what it describes as
construction industry tax fraud into one of its cornerstone issues. Local
chapters across
the country have protested to ask for greater government accountability
on certain construction practices. But the union says it thinks Stamford — a
city that often touts its growth — should hold a magnifying glass to itself in
particular.
They point to data that show that nearly half of Department
of Labor violations in the state since January were for Stamford worksites.
Connecticut enforces labor laws in part by issuing Stop Work
Orders, also called SWOs. If the department finds that workplaces, like
construction sites, violate labor laws, it can force the employer to stop business
operations entirely.
About half of all SWOs issued by the state Department of
Labor from 2021’s first months were for Stamford worksites, according to
Department of Labor spokeswoman Juliet Manalan. The state gave out 41 SWOs
during the first quarter of the year, and 21 of those sites are in the city.
A request for comment from the mayor’s office was not
returned as of press time.
The Department of Labor can serve a business a SWO for
misrepresenting employees or providing false information to insurance
companies, among other reasons.
Sometimes, businesses fail to secure workers’ compensation
insurance or count workers as independent contractors rather than employees. Or
companies pay workers under the table to understate the number of employees on
their payrolls, according to the Department of Labor website.
Some employment and labor laws do not apply to independent
contractors, which loops them out of certain legal protections typically given
to workers.
“If you’re told what to do and how to do it, you’re an
employee, and you should get a W-2,” said Matthew Capece from the national
Brotherhood of Carpenters. “Construction employers with employees tell them
what to do and how to do it. But to save money on their labor costs, they treat
them as independent contractors and pay them off the books.”
He pointed to the Internal Revenue Service’s attempted to
charge FedEx $319 million in back taxes in 2007 for misclassifying its more
than 13,000 drivers as independent contractors.
“All those costs that should have been paid but were not are
piled onto the legitimate employers, the good construction employers that are
paying everyone as they should,” Capece said. “Their costs go up, and they lose
work to the people who break the law. That’s how you have the growth of these
illegal practices taking over construction markets.”
By Caprece’s estimates, 20 percent of the construction
workforce is either inappropriately classified or outside of the payroll.
Companies do not have to pay employment taxes for independent contractors, and
the workers aren’t eligible for overtime pay, hence the union’s “wage theft”
slogan, he said.
A 2020
study completed by economists at Allegheny College, Michigan State University,
and Harvard University estimated that the federal government loses
$1.83 billion in income tax through construction worker misclassifications.
Workers lost another $946 million in overtime pay.
Ernest Pagan, a member of the North Atlantic States Regional
Council of Carpenters, said he is most concerned about what wage theft means
for local workers. Misclassifying workers means they earn less money, money
that some families depend on to survive, he said.
“In a lot of situations, this is the ladder to the middle
class,” Pagan said.