Torrington’s Oliver Wolcott Tech get tips for a future in the trades
TORRINGTON — “Show you’re eager. Get there early. Wear a
suit and tie.”
That was some of the advice from John Daddona, apprentice
coordinator for IUOE Local 478 of Operating Engineers, that he shared with a
group of Oliver Wolcott Tech seniors
Tuesday.
Daddona was just one representative from the many trades
that will open for OWTS graduates next year, and part of this week’s
Connecticut Pre-Apprenticeship High School Training Program, held in shop
classes at the high school.
The event was overseen by the school’s Dean of Students Stephanie
Seitlinger, a former English teacher from Kaynor Technical High School who
joined the school a year ago in December.
“There are 54 kids enrolled in the pre-apprenticeship
program, which uses work-based learning to get them ready for a new career,”
Seitlinger said.
The dean said Torrington’s approved plan to build a new
middle-high school, which was approved in 2020, also will bring job
opportunities to young people who are just entering the fields of construction
and engineering. After receiving public input on using local companies and
employees on the project, the Board of Education agreed to make it part of
their contractor agreements.
During Daddona’s talk, he explained the importance of
knowing basic engineering skills, such as measuring the amount of weight needed
to raise a payload of concrete or dirt, how a crane works, knowing how to
measure and dig a foundation.
“Anyone interested in mechanical engineering will need to
learn this,” he said, using a computer screen on the wall to illustrate the
discussion. “If you want to go into carpentry, you’ll need to know how to
measure, and know your weights and measures. There’s a lot of math in what
you’re doing.”
Local 478 was one of the many trade organizations that will
visit OWTS this week. Students also will hear from electrical, carpenters and
laborers unions. The students also were given hands-on training for work site
or road flagging, and received certification, and education on Call Before You
Dig, work zone safety, harnesses and ladders, and work fall protection and
using fire extinguishers.
The topics, Seitlinger said, show the students practices and
requirements they’ll need when they start looking for employment. Those
studying electrical engineering and repair, for example, will begin as
apprentices and, if they’re successful, could be hired by the same company
teaching them the ropes.
Getting through the job interview, Daddona said, is one of
the biggest steps toward employment. It was an obvious statement, but not all
people follow the tried-and-true rules of making a good impression, he said.
“I hear from a lot of students, ‘I just want to go to work,’
and that’s good, but there are things you have to do,” he said. “Once you pass
a mechanical aptitude test, for example, you’ll be called in for an interview.
You have one chance to make a good first impression. Don’t worry about
overdressing — wear a suit and tie. Be there 15 minutes early, and let (the
employer) know you’re there. That’s a show of respect. Show you’re eager and
you’re ready to work.
“I’ve seen people come in unprepared,” Daddona said. “Don’t
come in with flip-flops, a T-shirt and a coffee.”
Job seekers must turn 18 by June of next year to be eligible
for union apprenticeship programs, he said. “You’ll need your diploma ... a
Connecticut driver’s license and be able to get your CDL; and pass the aptitude
test and a drug test,” he said.
Oliver Wolcott Tech has about 650 students in grades 9-12.
It is one of 17 technical high
schools in the state, which also include Kaynor in Waterbury, Wilcox
in Meriden, Wright in Stamford, Prince in Hartford, Bullard-Havens in
Bridgeport, Goodwin in New Britain, Whitney in Hamden, Grasso Southeastern in
Groton, O’Brien in Ansonia, Abbott in Danbury, Ellis in Danielson, Cheney in
Manchester, Norwich Tech in Norwich, Platt in Milford, Vinal in Middletown and
Windham in Willimantic.
Brookfield architect proposes apartment building in Newtown that will ‘exude high quality’
NEWTOWN - If any single stretch exudes Newtown’s New England
charm and historical architecture it’s the stretch of Main Street that runs
from the iconic
flag pole south past blocks of Colonial and Victorian homes.
So it’s with special attention that Newtown leaders are
weighing a proposal by a Brookfield architect to construct a three-story
building with 27 apartments at South Main Street and Borough Lane.
At a recent review of the blueprints by the town’s Design
Advisory Board, the developer was grilled over details ranging from roof
pitches, color palettes and siding materials to his overall design inspiration.
“The building is right on Main Street,” said board member
Agni Kyprianou at a meeting in late November. “That’s why we are bringing up
these details.”
Board member Peter Cloudas agreed: “There is no other
portion of town that has as much historical and architectural diversity,” he
said.
The developer Robert
Sherwood said he understood and agreed, noting that his designs are
focused on giving the apartment building residential features “so it doesn’t
look like a big box” and varying building materials “so that it doesn’t look
like one big, massive structure.”
“I want the building to exude high quality,” Sherwood said
during a Nov. 22 meeting.
First, Sherwood will need approvals from the town’s land use
board.
A public hearing about Sherwood’s proposal is scheduled for
Thursday before Newtown’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
Plans call for a three-story building, 39 feet high, that
along with parking would cover 70 percent of a 1.6-acre residential lot.
Sherwood would demolish the home, the detached garage and the collapsed barn on
the property and screen the new building with “heavy landscape buffering.”
Among the proposed design elements are angled roof pitches,
a cupola and “a mix of hardy plank, vertical plank and some shake (siding) to
break up the look.”
Five of the 27 apartments will be affordable units, Sherwood
said.
Among the approvals Sherwood seeks is a new zone “to permit
the adaptive reuse of existing underutilized properties along South Main Street
and promote businesses that support the character of Newtown.”
The property in question, which is across the street from
the former Amaral
Motors dealership, is the last residential lot before a string of
commercial uses going south, including a fabric store, a strip mall, a
restaurant and a Walgreens Pharmacy.
As such, the developer is tasked with creating a
transitional design from residential to commercial, review board members said.
“The adjacent buildings like the strip mall, Walgreens and
the service center across the street all kind of bring down the architecture in
the area, which gives (you) some wiggle room,” Cloudas said at the November meeting.
Judge dismisses complaint over permit at State Pier in New London
New Britain — A Superior Court judge on Wednesday
dismissed an appeal by a former State Pier tenant seeking to overturn
the state’s decision to issue a permit for work at the pier in New London.
Judge John Louis Cordani ruled that DRVN Enterprises Inc., a
road salt business that had operated at State Pier until earlier this year,
lacks standing to appeal a decision by the state Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection to issue a permit to the Connecticut Port Authority
for dredging in the Thames River and other work needed to complete the pier
project.
DRVN's lease was terminated earlier this year, prior to
the start of the $235.5 million project to transform and modernize State
Pier into an offshore wind hub. DRVN argued in its complaint that the loss
of the use of the pier to import salt has severely impacted its business.
John Casey, the attorney for the Connecticut Port Authority,
at a hearing on Monday had compared DRVN’s argument to that of a
former tenant at a shopping mall with an expired lease who had moved out
but was trying to dictate mall renovations to the owner.
Judge Cordani, in his decision, agreed that DRVN had
conflated issues of its lease and the issuance of the state permit.
“DRVN, as of February 28, 2021, has no ongoing right to use,
possess or control any portion of the pier, and has no right to any particular
relationship with the Port Authority. As of February 28, 2021, DRVN’s interest
in the pier is no different than any member of the public in general, which is
no specific interest,” Cordani wrote in his decision.
Cordani said DRVN’s desire to continue to use the pier,
absent some legal right, was insufficient to establish standing in the case.
DRVN, he said, had not directly challenged the termination of its right to use
the pier.
DRVN attorney Keith Anthony did not respond to a request for
comment on the decision. He has argued that DEEP’s decision to issue a permit
“failed to give adequate protection to DRVN and other water dependent users.”
The company also had argued that DEEP had failed to address adverse impacts of
the pier renovations on “all interested parties, including DRVN, and failed to
address the efforts to mitigate those adverse impacts and conduct a balancing
test of all competing interests.”
DRVN has operated at State Pier since 2014, the year it
signed a contract with former port operator Logistec USA Inc. In 2019–20, DRVN
said in court documents it imported and distributed 198,000 tons of salt,
employed 14 full-time employees and had revenues totaling about $13 million.
Gateway New London LLC took over operation of State Pier in
2019 and gave DRVN until this February to vacate the pier while the Connecticut
Port Authority moved ahead with renovation plans, a project funded by the state
and wind partners Ørsted and Eversource. DRVN claims its revenues, as a result
of the loss of use of State Pier, have dropped to $4.5 million for 2021–22, it
now has only five full-time employees and is projected to distribute just
60,000 tons of salt.
The Connecticut Port Authority, which still awaits a federal
permit to be able to complete the work at State Pier, issued a statement in
response to Wednesday’s dismissal.
“The Authority is pleased that the judge’s ruling concurred
with our longstanding position that DRVN, as a prior customer of the facility,
lacks standing to oppose the Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection's permit for the project,” the statement reads in part. “The project
will re-make State Pier as a modern, heavy-lift capable terminal as has been
planned for decades. These improvements, paired with our agreement with our
partners Orsted and Eversource, enable the burgeoning offshore wind industry to
establish a base of operations in New London, resulting in significant economic
development opportunities for the region.”
Noank resident Kevin Blacker, an opponent of the work at
State Pier, said that prior to the ruling he filed a complaint against Judge
Cordani with the Judicial Review Council.
His complaint provides a list of potential conflicts of
interest, including the fact that Cordani, prior to becoming a judge, was
a partner with Carmody, Torrance, Sandak & Hennessey, which represents
Eversource, one of the partners funding the development at State Pier.
Blacker also mentions the fact that John Cordani Jr. is a
partner with Robinson + Cole, the firm used by the Connecticut Port Authority,
and that State Attorney General William Tong introduced the resolution to
confirm Cordani as a judge. The attorney general’s office is representing DEEP
in the case.
Spinnaker eyes February start to major Harford office-to-apartment conversion project
Spinnaker Real Estate Partners could begin physical work
transforming a massive former state office building at 55 Elm St. in Hartford
by February.
Spinnaker co-partner Matthew Edvardsen said demolition and
abatement work in the building could begin in the next 30 to 45 days.
The Norwalk-based developer purchased the century-old,
200,000-square-foot office building in Jan. 2020 for $6.8 million. It also
purchased a trio of nearby parking lots at 71 Elm St., 94 Hudson St. and
108-110 Capitol Ave.
The company plans to put 160 apartments in the historic
office building and build multifamily buildings in adjacent parking lots.
Spinnaker currently has applications before Hartford’s
Planning and Zoning Commission, seeking to create a “campus overlay” of the
parcel and subdivide parking associated with the 55 Elm St. building.
This will split the “more complex” financial and ownership
of the initial historic rehabilitation phase, better enabling future
construction of new buildings planned for adjacent parking lots, Edvardsen
said.
“It’s just keeping that hopefully separate ownership and
making sure the complexities of a historic tax credit structuring of the 55 Elm
deal doesn’t complicate the ability to go vertical on the rest of the parking
lots,” Edvardsen said.
The State Historic Preservation Office has approved
Spinnaker’s rehabilitation plan for 55 Elm St., as well as an overall
development concept for addition of nearby buildings.
The state office maintains purview to review designs for new
construction, ensuring the new buildings do not distract from the historic
significance of 55 Elm St., Edvardsen said.
The Planning & Zoning Commission introduced Spinnaker’s
request last week. Edvardsen said he is hoping to see it approved in January.
The developer already has city land-use approvals for 55 Elm
St. but wanted to secure the subdivision to avoid complications with
construction of new buildings on the lots, Edvardsen said.
“It’s been a long process putting all the pieces together,
but I think we are finally there and hopefully in the next couple of months we
see some progress and close all the financing and pull the building permit,”
Edvardsen said.
37 apartments proposed on Oakland Street in Manchester
Skyler Frazer
Developers are expected to present detailed site plans for a
projected 37-unit housing complex on Oakland Street in Manchester at the town's
next Planning and Zoning Commission after requesting extensions this month.
Trivik Builders LLC proposes a six-building, 37-unit housing
community at 321 Oakland St. and 27 Lillian Drive with associated parking and
entrance drive, a fenced-in play area, and water quality and detention basins,
per plans submitted to the town.
According to information from Wentworth Civil Engineers LLC,
the multiple parcels would be combined into one, 4.17-acre site on the east
side of Oakland Street. There are two vacant single-family homes that will be
removed.
The project is designed as an apartment rental development
under single ownership and management.
The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously voted Nov. 15
that the proposed activity at the site would not have a significant impact on
the wetlands in the area so it wouldn’t require a public hearing.
David Laiuppa, environmental planner and wetland agent for
the town, said there are no direct, temporary, or permanent impacts to the
wetland as part of the project.
He said 0.25 acres of the upland review area would
be affected by the construction of a water detention basin.
“I think it’s pretty straightforward what is happening
where,” Laiuppa said. “There’s nothing directly impacting the wetland itself.”
Last year, the commission approved the zone change from a
“Residence A” zone to a “Planned Residential Development” zone and an
accompanying preliminary site development plan from developers.
While the commission determined the project wouldn’t have a
significant effect on wetlands, Trivik Builders requested and was unanimously
granted an extension to apply for an inland wetlands permit, a detailed site
development plan, and an erosion and sedimentation control plan.
The extension allows them to present at the next Planning
and Zoning Commission meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13.
Also on the horizon for the commission are a series of
proposed regulation amendments related to legal cannabis businesses.
One proposed change would revise the zoning regulations to
add definitions for “Cannabis establishment” and other related terms.
Another amendment would add cannabis retailer, dispensary
facility, hybrid retailer, cultivator, and micro-cultivator as special
exception uses in the Comprehensive Urban Development zone.
Cannabis cultivator or micro-cultivator are proposed to be
added as a special exception use in the industrial zone, and cannabis retailer,
dispensary facility, or hybrid retailer are proposed to be added as a special
exception use in the general business zone.
The town’s Economic Development Commission discussed some of
the potential regulation amendments with town staff in November.