Grand jury subpoena seeks Tolland school records involving Diamantis
In an indication that a federal grand jury is focusing its
attention on specific school building projects, the town of Tolland on Thursday
received a subpoena for records and correspondence with state
officials surrounding the new Birch Grove Primary School project.
The 14-page subpoena seeks records from 2015 to the present
“identifying all Office of School Construction Grants & Review (OSCG&R)
projects in Tolland; all communications with or related to Konstantinos
Diamantis or any other employee of OSCG&R; all documents related to any
OSCG&R project at Birch Grove Primary School.”
[The Kosta Diamantis timeline]
The elementary school was built after the state Department
of Administrative Services granted it emergency status, on Jan. 18, 2018,
because of a report that its foundation was crumbling. The school was
eventually built by D’Amato Construction of Bristol.
The construction manager on the project was Construction
Advocacy Professionals (CAP), which hired Anastasia Diamantis, Kosta Diamantis’
daughter, while receiving two contracts worth a combined $530,000 to oversee
the Birch Grove project.
The grand jury issued a subpoena to the state in October seeking
emails and texts by Diamantis from January 2018 until he left state service
last October. Among the search words that they asked state officials to find
were Construction Advocacy Services, D’Amato Construction and Birch Grove.
Six days later, Tolland school officials attended the first
meeting about the project at DAS offices. Among those in attendance were Edward
D’Amato and Tony D’Amato, who oversaw the construction of the Tolland school.
Diamantis and another member of his team, Robert Celmer, were at the meeting,
as were several Tolland officials.
The existence of the Jan. 24, 2018, meeting was first reported by columnist Kevin Rennie.
The Connecticut Mirror has obtained portions of that meeting
agenda, which was called to discuss the scope of the project and how much of
the cost the state would cover. At that meeting, Diamantis indicated the state
would cover 54% of the project.
The state ended up paying 89% of the $46 million to build
the new school and 100% of the $9 million to install portable classrooms on the
site so classes could be conducted while the old building was demolished and a
new one built in its place.
Among those present at the meeting was Tolland Superintendent
Walter Willett, who has not returned calls from the CT Mirror.
In a statement to The Courant, Willett alleged that local officials in Tolland were
pressured by Diamantis to choose D’Amato Construction and CAP for the school
construction project.
“Representatives of the town and the board felt they had no
real choice as to CAP and D’Amato because Mr. Diamantis routinely emphasized
there would be detrimental effects to the project if Tolland chose contractors
or consultants other than CAP or D’Amato,” he said, according to the statement
provided to The Courant.
Because the project was granted emergency status, the town
did not have to go out to bid for a general contractor or a construction
manager.
The state eventually approved a $46 million project that
increased by $2 million when an issue arose with the soil under where the new
school was to be built. Diamantis eventually told town officials the state
would cover the costs of the soil removal.
Tolland officials hired CAP, based in Plainfield, to first
oversee installation of portable classrooms at the Birch Grove Primary School
on June 20, 2019, according to contracts obtained by the CT Mirror. They were
paid $70,000 for the work.
Then, in July 2019, CAP hired Diamantis’ daughter Anastasia,
documents state.
Weeks later, a contract amendment, giving CAP another
$460,000 worth of work, was signed on Sept. 18, 2019, for the construction of a
new Birch Grove school.
According to statements included in a recent report compiled by former U.S. Attorney
Stanley Twardy Jr., Anastasia Diamantis told investigators that the owner of
CAP “called her out of the blue and offered her the job.”
She described CAP as a Rhode Island-based company. But she
also acknowledged that she did work on school projects in Connecticut for CAP.
Anastasia said “she worked on spreadsheets and did filings for CAP,” according
to the investigation report.
Twardy was hired by the state to probe how Anastasia
Diamantis came to get a job as an executive assistant to Chief State’s Attorney
Richard Colangelo at the same time Colangelo was lobbying her father for pay
raises for himself and other state’s attorney’s.
Twardy was hired after Kosta Diamantis was fired as Deputy
Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management by Gov. Ned Lamont.
Diamantis retired as head of the OSCG&R team rather than
be placed on administrative leave. He has since filed a secret grievance trying
to get his job back.
Colangelo resigned his position last month and Anastasia
Diamantis was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the federal
grand jury probe.
Kevin Rennie: New subpoena issued in Connecticut school construction probe
Kevin Rennie
The federal criminal investigation of the Lamont
administration’s school construction program continues to grow. Investigators
served a subpoena on the Custodian of Records in the town of Tolland on Feb.
22.
The subpoena seeks documents “for the period January 1, 2015
to the present” concerning all school construction projects, “all communications
with or related to Konstantinos Diamantis or any other employee or
representatives of” the school construction grants, and “documents related to
any [school construction grants] project at Birch Grove Primary School.”
Konstantinos Diamantis, a lawyer and former Bristol state
representative, supervised state school construction grants while he with the
Department of Administrative Services and then as deputy secretary of the
Office of Policy and Management and director of the Office of School Construction
and Grants Reviews. He no longer holds the state positions.
The new subpoena subjects investigators are paying
particular attention to are the course the Birch Grove project took in 2019.
Officials confirmed in late 2018 that the concrete used to build the school
contained pyrrhotite, the mineral that causes concrete to deteriorate. The
town’s superintendent of schools, Walter Willett, requested on Jan. 14, 2019
that competitive bidding be waived for the $46 million project. Two days later,
Department of Administrative Services then-Commissioner Melody Currey granted the request.
Six days later, local officials attended a meeting at DAS
with Diamantis and others, including two principals of D’Amato Construction
Co.. Willett told this column writer on Feb. 10 that town officials were
pressured by Diamantis to hire D’Amato and a second company, Construction
Advocacy Professionals. CAP is owned by Antonietta DiBenedetto Roy. She hired
Diamantis’s daughter Anastasia Diamantis at the start of CAP’s involvement on
the Tolland project.
Willett wrote “representatives of the Town and the Board
felt they had no real choice as to CAP and D’Amato because Mr. Diamantis
routinely emphasized there would be detrimental effects to the project if
Tolland chose contractors or consultants other than CAP or D’Amato.” CAP
was paid $530,000 for its work on the project.
Search terms in a previous federal grand jury subpoena served on the
state contain the words “D’Amato” and “Antonietta” and “DiBenedetto Roy”; there
have been no accusations of wrongdoing against either.
The Tolland project included the demolition of the school
being replaced and the leasing and installation of portable classrooms. The
original estimate of the cost of the portable classrooms for the project was $1
million. It increased to $9 million over the two school years they were used.
The state paid the entire amount.
The project also included the discovery of unsuitable soils
during construction. That added $1.8 million to the cost. It was a moment when
some local officials suggested a brief pause in construction to examine where
they were in the project and how to address the increasing costs.
The documents that Tolland provides to investigators will
answer some questions and raise others. Building a school is complicated. Deconstructing
the decisions made at each step of the way may be more complex. In Tolland,
investigators will enjoy the benefits of some excellent record keepers in town government. They will also
be able to review the extensive records of building committee members the
town council appointed to oversee the construction.
Having reviewed many records of the unusual circumstances
surrounding the construction of Birch Grove, I have a sense of its dizzying
number of moving parts. Diamantis, who denies any wrongdoing, would not have
been able to oversee the project alone. Plenty of others DAS (and later the
state budget office) would have participated in the planning, execution and
funding of the school.
After months of questions, no one — not Diamantis, not
Lamont, not anyone at DAS — has explained how or why certain companies were
chosen. It also had to have been unusual that the estimate for the cost of
portable classrooms, a feature of many school construction projects increased
by 900% in a few months. Did anyone question millions more dollars going
out the door than originally expected?
FBI agents on the case possess an enduring advantage, most
people have nothing to hide and will guide them through their piece of the
process. Tolland officials may be relieved to testify under oath about the
duress they say they endured to build a school . It will also present a
teachable moment. Why did no one who saw something say something to other
government officials who could have intervened? With another subpoena issued,
answers may begin to outpace questions.
Explanation Remains Elusive on How D’Amato Construction Got Tolland School Contract.
Kevin Rennie
The compressed timeline on the replacement of the Birch Gove
Primary School continues to include a critical mystery. On January 16, 2019,
Tolland’s superintendent of schools requested that competitive bidding be
waived on the project. Commissioner Melody Currey granted that request two days
later.
Six days after bidding was waived, a planning meeting on the
project was held at DAS. It included four Tolland officials; Brian Kellogg, of
JCJ Architects; Kosta Diamantis and Bob Celmer, both of DAS’s school
construction office; and Ed and Tony D’Amato, of D’Amato Construction. D’Amato
Construction had never built a school and, according to its website, had not
constructed over overseen the construction on the scale of the $46 million
Tolland project. The cost grew as “unsuitable soils” were discovered
on the construction site and the price of portable classrooms skyrocket from $1
million to $9 million.
Tolland officials did not bring D’Amato into the project.
Tolland superintendent Walter Willett claimed earlier this month that Diamanits
threatened the course of the project if Tolland officials did not use D’Amato
and Construction Advocacy Professionals (CAP). CAP is the construction
oversight company that hired Diamantis’s daughter while she worked as a
full-time state employee. It is owned by Antonietta Roy.
The Birch Grove Primary School project appears to be included in the federal criminal investigation of contract steering in the Lamont administration.
CT officials tell towns they won’t honor Diamantis’ promises for school funding
Andrew Brown
Connecticut officials have notified at least two municipalities that the state will not honor financial promises made by Konstantinos Diamantis, who is now at the center of a federal criminal investigation.
Over the past three months, local officials in Farmington
and Hartford received letters from the state’s Office of School Construction
Grants and Review informing them that the anticipated reimbursement rates for
planned school projects were out of line with state rules.
The decisions have created turmoil in the towns and forced
them to reassess how they will pay for millions of dollars in building costs
they had expected the state to cover, and legislators are looking for a
political fix.
Diamantis, who ran the school grants program for more than
six years and served as deputy secretary of the Office of Policy and
Management, was removed from his government positions on Oct. 29, 2021 — around
the same time that the state was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury.
Since then, Gov. Ned Lamont has appointed new people to
oversee the state’s school building program and instructed them to review
dozens of school construction projects, toward which the state has contributed
hundreds of millions of dollars.
As part of that ongoing review, the state sent letters to
local officials in Farmington and Hartford, informing the municipalities that
the state will not follow through on financial commitments made by Diamantis.
In both cases, the state told local officials that Diamantis
had incorrectly calculated how much money the state would cover for the
construction of school administrative offices.
Noel Petra, who was placed in charge of the school grant
program following Diamantis’ exit, also explained that state law prohibited the
office from setting a higher reimbursement rate for those projects.
“The Office of School Construction Grants and Review
recognizes that the district was previously given different information regarding
a higher reimbursement rate for the Board of Education offices,” Petra
wrote to town officials in Farmington. “Unfortunately, that information was
contrary to statute, and therefore we are not able to justify using it.”
The state’s decision to backtrack on past funding pledges
could be extremely costly for the local governments that are affected.
The state’s decision to cut the reimbursement rate for part
of the Farmington High School project could cost that town $915,000 that it
didn’t budget.
And in Hartford, city officials may need to come up with an
additional $16 million the state promised to cover as part of the Bulkeley High
School project.
Lora Rae Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Department of
Administrative Services, which oversees the school grant program, said
Farmington and Hartford are the only municipalities to receive formal letters
adjusting the reimbursement rates.
But she said the state also clarified the reimbursement
rules for other municipalities that were just getting started with their
procurement process for school projects.
Local backlash
Lamont and a group of high-ranking state officials held a
press conference last week to
emphasize the reforms they are making to the school construction
grants and to highlight their attempts to instill public confidence in a
program that remains the focus of an ongoing investigation.
“We have rebuilt the program already into a much more
transparent and trustworthy program,” Petra told the crowd of reporters who
gathered in the Capitol.
“We’ve met with dozens of the school districts. We’ve met
with dozens of legislators. We’ve met with all of the industry stakeholders,”
he added. “We have worked hand in hand with everyone to identify problems.”
The decision to reduce the state grant funding in Farmington
has already set off a political backlash in that town.
Farmington’s board of education, the town council and the
local school building committee all responded to the letter from the state by
voicing shock and outrage.
Many of those officials said Diamantis made repeated
promises in meetings that the state would cover more than 28 percent of
Farmington’s new school administrative offices.
Yet town officials were informed in December that the state
was only willing to pay for 14 percent of those costs.
“It’s not only disappointing. In some respects, it’s
unacceptable, based on the conversations we had and the work we’ve done,” Meg
Guerrera, the chairwoman of the Farmington High School Building Committee, said
during a public meeting in December. “I don’t think I’m out of line in saying
that. I’m sure we all probably feel that way at this moment.”
Farmington’s elected leaders said they relied on the
reimbursement rates that Diamantis offered as part of their pitch to residents,
who voted in a referendum to fund the new high school and related office space.
“We went out with numbers that were given to us by a
representative of the state, and now we don’t have those numbers,” said
Christine Arnold, a member of Farmington’s Board of Education. “And it’s not a little
bit. It’s a significant amount.”
A written promise
A similar situation has also played out in recent weeks in
Hartford, where city officials could face an even larger funding shortfall.
In that case, Diamantis vowed that the state would cover 95
percent of the $29.5 million for the administrative offices that are part of
Hartford’s Bulkeley High School renovation.
Yet the new leaders at the Office of School Construction
Grants and Review said
in a Feb. 22 letter that the state can only cover 40 percent, or about
$11.8 million, of the overall cost.
Howard Rifkin, Hartford’s Corporation Counsel, sent
a letter back to the state at the beginning of March pushing back
against the state’s decision to slash the reimbursement rate.
In that letter, Rifkin pointed out that Hartford received
written confirmation from Diamantis about the promised reimbursement rate and
approval for the overall cost of the new administrative offices.
“As you know, the city acted in reliance on the
representation of the state official then-in-charge of school construction
reimbursement, as memorialized in the attached commitment letter, that the
project would be eligible for Hartford’s full rate of reimbursement,” Rifkin
wrote.
“The written representation made in this regard by the state
official responsible for overseeing the school construction program was
incredibly significant,” he added.
That’s not the way the state views the situation, however.
In his letters, Petra emphasized that state law prohibits
the Office of School Construction Grants and Review from unilaterally adjusting
reimbursement rates, which are determined through a set funding formula that is
developed by the Connecticut Legislature.
The only way around that, Petra noted, is for the
legislature to pass a bill that adjusts the reimbursement rates for the
projects that are now in question.
A political fixThere is already mounting pressure on
Farmington’s legislative delegation to fix the financial problems.
The state senators and representatives for Farmington were
recently questioned by the town council and the local board of education
members about the state’s decision to slash the reimbursement rate for part of
the school project.
They promised to do what they could to make sure the town
received the money it was promised.
“We hear you loud and clear. We are aware of it.” Rep. Mike
Demicco, D-Farmington, told the town council. “What you were promised is what
we will try to get for you.”
Sen. Derek Slap, D-Farmington, said he was confident he
could get it done.
“We will go to the mat for Farmington,” Slap told the board
of education. “We have a lot of different pressure points we can apply, and we
will use them all.”
Farmington’s lawmakers are also likely to have a powerful
ally on their side as they seek the legislature’s help.
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said he is aware of
the cut to the school reimbursement rates and that Hartford’s six
representatives and two senators are interested in remedying the problem.
“We’re going to look into it,” Ritter said. “The Hartford
delegation will work hard at it.”
Danbury’s career academy is moving locations. How does this change the project?
DANBURY — Plans to move the career academy to the Cartus Corporation property have drastically altered the highly anticipated project.
But the goal remains the same — to alleviate overcrowding in
the middle and high schools, while providing students with new opportunities to
study career fields.
Here’s a look at how the changed location will affect the
project.
What’s changed in the latest plans?
The biggest changes to the project are the cost and the
location, with the city dropping its idea to construct the school within three
pods of the Summit, a 1.2 million-square-foot mixed-use development on the west
side.
Projected as low as $45
million when it was initially conceived in 2020, the school is
expected to cost
$164 million. City Council approved
$99 million for the project last year, but it was announced in late
January that costs had risen to $144.5
million due to COVID-19 and other factors.
The cost has risen again as the location moves. But state
reimbursement is expected to remain around 80 percent for the project.
Purchasing the 30.4 acres of land at 40 Apple Ridge Road
could cost up to $57.2 million, although the mayor hopes that number could drop
after the property is appraised.
“The quality of the product that we’re getting for the
amount of money that we’ll eventually have to put out is justified,” Mayor Dean
Esposito said.
The rest of the money would cover renovation, construction,
furnishing and more of the 270,000-square-foot commercial building, which will
include a dining hall and gymnasium. The Board of Education central office
would also move to the property.
The project would include athletic fields, which was not
possible at the Summit building. Danbury could also potentially secure an
agreement to use abutting fields belonging to the Wooster School.
“We have not been in any negotiation with them at all yet,
but the potential is always there,” Esposito said. “And I think they’ll be a
good neighbor and probably let us utilize some of their services over there.”
Students and staff would have access to far more parking
spaces — 1,600 instead of around 370 at the Summit, officials said.
Initial floor plans for the building were finished only last
week, and include complete floor plans for the four-floor, dual-use middle and
high school.
The middle school would be predominantly located in the
building’s north wing with classrooms on the second and third floors, while the
high school would be in the south wing.
What’s remained the same?
The school should still open on schedule in fall 2024,
although this will “require some hard pushing” to make the deadline due to
material and labor shortages, said Antonio Iadarola, public works director and
city engineer.
“We don’t want to go into the project thinking it’s going to
be delayed, but we certainly will be prepared,” said Superintendent Kevin
Walston during Monday’s press conference.
The number of students expected in the school is roughly the
same, with 360 middle schoolers and 1,100 high schoolers.
The academic programming should also remain the same, with
students at the academy and Danbury High School picking
“pathways” in various career fields. Administrators have been planning to
make these opportunities available to all students, regardless of whether they
attend the career academy.
During the press conference, Walston explained that the new
school building would be focused on STEM careers, including manufacturing. The
building and classroom specifications are expected to align with the needs of
the curriculum being taught, he added.
Why isn’t the school going to be built at the Summit?
Negotiations between the developers and the city broke
down at the end of January. Although the parties talked throughout
February, city officials ultimately worried there would be too many additional
fees at the Summit and wanted more control over the project and school.
A specific sticking point came during the tax abatement
negotiations, at which point Esposito called the Summit’s proposed terms “unacceptable.”
While more costly up front, officials said the Cartus deal
would allow the city to own the full property and building, while opening up
opportunities for future schools to be built at the campus. Added tax revenue
from the Summit will also bolster the cost.
When looking at the two options side by side, “it became
pretty clear of what was the best option for Danbury, its taxpayers and its
students — pursuing the Cartus acquisition,” said Vinny DiGilio, City Council
president.
“This particular piece of property was exactly what we were
looking for, in my mind. It’s a campus for the future,” Esposito said at the
press conference. “I think they [the residents] will agree that this is the
future of Danbury right here.”
DANBURY — When negotiations stalled between city leaders and
Summit developers over the future of the career academy, Mayor Dean Esposito
went back to the drawing board.Top of Form
Bottom of FormHe returned with a proposal that would invest
$207.9 million in local schools, with most going toward the career academy
being built at
a new location.
The proposal calls for buying 30.4 acres of land at the
former Cartus Corp. site for $57.2 million and renovating the building. Total
cost of the career academy proposal is projected at $164 million.
Another $43.9 million would go toward “additional school and
related facilities projects” that are separate from the career academy.
Mayor Dean Esposito announced the new plan to build the
career academy at the Cartus Corp. site on Monday, but costs for the project
were not immediately released. A packet of information given to the City
Council on Wednesday night revealed costs for the plan ahead of a scheduled
Thursday night meeting.
The $57.2 million deal with the private land owners, Melvin
Powers of the Powers Construction Co., includes 24 acres of land at the former
Cartus Corp. headquarters. The family is donating the property driveway and a
6.4-acre parcel, according to a letter of intent.
In 2021, the city assessed the Cartus property at $24.5
million, with the property paying more than $676,000 in taxes, according to the
tax assessor’s office.
City Council members will vote to send the bonds to pay for
the project to a public hearing, and were scheduled to vote on the city’s
intended land purchase at Thursday’s special meeting. Residents will have final
say on the city’s bonding at a referendum.
The career academy was initially estimated to cost the city
around $99
million, which then grew
to $144.5 million in early 2022, and now $164 million. The state is
expected to reimburse roughly 80 percent of the project. State legislators
Monday were confident reimbursement rates would hold, even with new estimates
forthcoming.
Esposito called the Cartus plan a “much better deal.”
“Obviously, it’s a bigger number, but the reality is we’re
getting a lot more for our money,” he said.
“I’m not surprised by the number, the price tag, per se,”
said Vinny DiGilio, City Council president. “I do know it’ll be fully vetted
and confirmed by both sides in independent appraisals.”
Danbury is facing rapid enrollment growth, with more
than 3,700
high school-age students expected to be enrolled in the school
district next academic year. The career academy — projected to open in fall
2024 for about 1,400 middle and high school students — is expected to help with
that.
“I applaud the mayor and his team, obviously City Council,
for recognizing and acknowledging that this investment is necessary to prepare
ourselves, not only for where we are now in terms of enrolment growth in this
district but for any potential enrollment growth that this district may
experience,” Superintendent Kevin Walston said. “I applaud the investment and I
think it’s very forward thinking of our mayor and his team to position us for
this type of growth, for the potential growth that we’re liking to have.”
The property would allow Danbury to build the career
academy. But, the city could also decide to buy two other adjacent buildings
for additional schools. Those potential purchases are not part of this bond.
“But that land is considerable and I think allows for more
potential growth,” Walston said.
Esposito said the $57.2 million for the Cartus land was a
“maximum price” that “can be adjusted, hopefully, down.”
The land needs to be appraised before numbers are finalized,
he said. The mayor had expected final costs to be available as soon as those
appraisals were completed in the next two weeks.
The city has until March 31 to finalize a contract with the
Powers family, the letter of intent to purchase states. Melvin Powers has not
responded to comment.
“Once we get those appraisals, we can talk a more solid
number,” Esposito said Wednesday, adding that the appraisals would help the
city get the best possible price.
In a letter included in Thursday’s agenda, the city’s
finance director, David St. Hilaire, wrote that the city hopes to repurpose
$790,000 from a former
Danbury Airport land acquisition project since the sites were
determined to be ineligible for a federal grant.
Second bond
The council will consider appropriating $43.9 million toward
various facilities projects at the schools. Of that, $8 million will be
transferred from other borrowing packages, including the career academy.
Some of this money can be used toward “the creation and/or
modification of classroom space to accommodate districtwide overcrowding,” but
the ordinance doesn’t specify how much.
These capital projects include upgrades at the high school
to meet accreditation requirements from the New England Association of Schools
& Colleges, or NEASC. The high school would see updates, renovations and
code compliance improvements to science
laboratories, the nurse suite and bathrooms, as well upgrades related to
HVAC equipment and duct evaluation.
“There is some facility like upgrades that NEASC had
requested, and the city has been working to help address for us,” Walston said.
“The strategy was to include them in this effort, so that we can help clear
some of those things up”
Danbury would bring the high school and Hayestown Elementary
School toward compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This includes
the stadium bleachers at Danbury High School and an elevator at Hayestown
Elementary School. The King Street Primary School roof would be repaired and
replaced.
Academy cost
DiGilio said that while the land acquisition is a greater
sum than it would have been to purchase three pods at the Summit, the cost to
refurbish the building will likely be less.
“I think it’s all very similar amounts of money being
spent,” he said.
As of Wednesday, City Council members hadn’t known the final
cost estimates for the project or purchase of the building. But council members
said they expected that everyone would be in favor of sending the project to a
referendum after Thursday’s meeting.
“They’re excellent plans,” DiGilio said Wednesday. “It was
something that when they came up it was unbelievable and seems like it's going
to fit our needs now and well into the future.”
After figures were made public Wednesday night, DiGilio
called it a “great investment, even at a little bit more money than perhaps
anticipated.”
“We’re very fortunate that this was available at this time,”
said Warren Levy, Republican majority leader. “I think it will be in a very
bipartisan way. I believe our delegation to the state is very supportive of it.
I think it will answer a lot of our needs into the future.”
Newly seated at-large council member John Esposito III
didn’t have cost numbers on Wednesday, but expected to learn more at the
Thursday meeting.
Paul Rotello, Democratic minority leader on council, said he
saw an initial purchase price that was “a little too high for my comfort,” but
that the number has been “dropping.” He noted that the purchase price for the
Cartus property could be greater than the cost to buy the pods at the Summit.
However, the city would have needed to pay condo association fees and wouldn’t
have had control over building repairs, which would have driven up the cost for
the Summit.
“We will not be spending any money on association fees,”
Rotello said. “We will not be worrying about not really having control over
building repairs, substantial building repairs that will lead to one-time
assessments.”
He hopes tax revenue from the Summit could pay for the
purchase at Cartus.
Assessment for the Summit is $41.3 million, with taxes
hitting $1.14 million based on the 2021 mill rate of 27.6, according to the
city’s tax assessor.
Initially, the Summit was going to receive a tax abatement
as part of the deal to develop the career academy on its property. However,
since the deal fell through, Esposito said the developer was “going to be taxed
like any other developer in the city.”
“The non-deal at the Summit could pay for the new deal at
Cartus,” Rotello said.
The 80 percent reimbursement the city hopes to receive from
the state is a greater rate than Danbury typically earns. However, Rotello said
he thinks the city should argue for any even greater rate, noting Hartford is
being reimbursed 95 percent for its Bulkeley High School project. Converting an
existing building into a school is less expensive than constructing a new one and
“saves a tremendous amount of money for the state,” he said.
Esposito said Wednesday that he is focused on communicating
with the public about this deal, and to “keep everybody informed, on the same
page to get the best possible results we can get.”
“We bring the information to the voters, educate them on
what we’re planning on doing with the money. And we do what we say,” he said.
“I’m assuming they’re ready, willing, and able to make an
investment in this project.”
CORRECTION: This article was updated to reflect that the
$43.9 million would go toward “additional school and related facilities
projects” that are separate from the career academy.
Greenwich budget vote looms for planned school projects as committee debates scope, cost of the work
GREENWICH — Critical decisions are looming over funding the
design work for planned renovations at Julian Curtiss School and Old Greenwich
School.
The Board of Estimate and Taxation’s Budget Committee, which
is preparing to vote next week on the proposed municipal budget for 2022-23,
raised questions about the price tags on both projects when it met on
Wednesday.
The Board of Education requested $1.5 million for each
school project for architecture and engineering work that will lead to final
design plans. For fiscal year 2023-24, that would bring the estimated
construction costs for renovations
and expansions at Julian Curtiss to $29.7 million and the renovations
at Old Greenwich to $24 million.
Committee member Nisha Arora questioned the $29.7 million
price tag for Julian Curtiss, saying she was not convinced it was “the right
number.”
“I wish we would just sharpen our pencil on the actual cost,
whether it’s renovation or rebuild,” Arora said, saying she believed the work
could be done for less.
“This is a renovation (and expansion) for $30 million and
many would argue you could rebuild an entire school for that amount,” Arora
said. “In my calculation, this is an expansion of 10,000 square feet, and
there’s no math that would ever add up to $30 million. … I’m disappointed no
one is pointing out the actual costs of these projects are not real numbers.”
Arora argued the point with Budget Committee member Leslie
Moriarty, who favors the project as planned.
Moriarty asked whether Arora had looked at all the data behind the dollar amounts for Julian Curtiss, which Arora said she had, and questioned her assertion that the work could be done for less. Moriarty noted that the recent bids for Eastern Greenwich Civic Center came in far above expectations and said no decisions could be made on final costs until the architecture and engineering work was done.
Committee Chair Leslie Tarkington said she also wondered
whether it would be possible to do the proposed work at Old Greenwich, Julian
Curtiss and the soon to be accelerated project for a new
Central Middle School at the same time.
“We have to think about our capacity to do this work,”
Tarkington said.
Committee member Laura Erickson said she believed there was
a “larger discussion” to be had about construction funding but put her support
behind the Julian Curtiss allocation because it had been deferred for two years
and it twice got Board of Education approval for its educational
specifications.
“It is important to go forward on this,” Erickson said.
The committee largely focused its discussion on Julian
Curtiss, but Arora and Moriarty said their views applied to the Old Greenwich
allocation as well.
No decisions were made at Wednesday’s meeting, which was a
“consolidation day“ that served as a Budget Committee workshop, Tarkington
said. Members discussed possible motions in preparation of Monday’s “decision
day.”
On the Budget Committee’s decision day, votes will be taken
on possible cuts, alterations and conditions, where money is approved but
can be spent only after specific requirements are met. The Budget Committee’s
recommended budget will then be sent to the full BET for its vote March 31.
Beyond the school’s proposed capital spending, the Budget
Committee also discussed the funding requests from the Department of Public
Works, including for sidewalks, road work and other public safety improvements
sought by First Selectman Fred Camillo.
In many cases, Tarkington said the DPW had not provided
enough information about the projects, and she said that left her concerned
that too many projects had been proposed.
The Budget Committee discussed $2.8 million for intersection
improvements on Greenwich Avenue; $300,000 for traffic and pedestrian safety
improvements in Byram; $500,000 for Glenville improvements; $500,000 for Old
Greenwich streetscape improvements; $400,000 for sidewalk installation in Cos
Cob; and $750,000 for sidewalk installation on Shore Road in Old Greenwich.
Tarkington said the DPW did not tell the committee how the
projects would be prioritized and implemented.
Moriarty also expressed some concern about the number of
projects. She noted that residents are advocating for the sidewalk and safety
improvements, but “I do want to think through whether we can or should be
implementing all of them simultaneously.”
Tarkington and Erickson are the BET’s liaisons to DPW and
they were expected to meet with DPW Commissioner Amy Siebert on Thursday.
Erickson said that any additional information will be shared with the
committee before Monday’s vote.
The Budget Committee will also vote about whether to
purchase new fire trucks, which Erickson said are overdue .
“If we defer it one year it might end up being a multi-year
deferral,” Erickson said.
It will also decide whether to cut the proposed
$100,000 sought by Camillo to explore options and begin design work on improvements
at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park.
Arora and Moriarty had concerns about the level of spending
requested and whether the town could handle yet another large project .
BRISTOL – The Bristol Arts and Innovation Magnet School
continues to make strides toward its June target to finish construction and
hand off the school to Bristol Public Schools for finishing touches in
preparation for classes this fall season.
“We’re into final finishes within the academic wing,” Project Executive of D’Amato and Downes Joint Venture Frank Tomcak said. “We’ve done the final painting on the third floors, the second floor and the first floor and now we’re into the ground floor, which is the last floor to complete in terms of final finishes for the academic wing.”
The executive said the Memorial Boulevard School project is waiting on final components to show up to finish off spaces such as doors so areas can then be locked.
“From there, we’ll go into cleaning mode and our final punch list that will take us to the end of the project,” Tomcak said.
The executive described a punch list as akin to “odds and ends” tasks that needed finishing, like a touch up to painting in an area or a spot on the floor that needed more attention for cleaning.
“We also have a senior from Bristol Central High School that’s visiting our job site twice a week and comes for a couple hours and we take them around to the job and explain different aspects of the project,” Tomcak said.
The partnership with the school is meant to help steer
students in a career direction of their choosing.
“It’s a race to the finish now to put final touches on this
project and the theater is the big push,” Tomcak said. “While we are into final
finishes in the academic (wing), now the main focus is the theater and getting
that situated to be in the same status as the academic wing.”
Sheetrock and trim is being placed in the theater in preparation for a painter as well as efforts to get flooring and floor base finished. Theater seats are currently in production and will be placed in the theater once other projects have finished in order to keep them free of dust.
During a construction update meeting, project heads and school officials discussed the creation of a new digital sign and clock outside the school created in spirit with other school sign designs in the Bristol Public Schools district. While still in planning stages, the sign could be nearly eight feet tall and 13 feet wide and constructed of brownstone donated by the late Craig Yarde.
“You can’t find brownstone anymore around here. Any time he saw brownstone, he bought it and had it all stacked up,” said John Smith, a member of the Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Magnet School Committee and friend of Yarde, before his death. “He called me and said he wanted to donate brownstone to the city.”
Yarde, who died in January, is often recognized in Bristol for his philanthropic acts as well as his business acumen.
Farmington to vote on 199-unit mixed-use apartment development next week
The Farmington Planning and Zoning Commission is expected to vote Monday on a proposal to construct apartments and commercial space at a site along Farmington Avenue.
According to an application submitted to town officials by
JRF Management LLC and Kaoud Real Estate Development LLC, the partners would
build 199 apartment units and over 54,000 square feet of commercial space in
new and rehabilitated buildings at 1349, 1371, 8218 and 8237 Farmington Ave.
The McCallum industrial building, situated between
Farmington Avenue and the Farmington River, would be converted for residential
and commercial use, eventually joining other residential buildings that would
be put up in the area.
The developers also plan to reconfigure and extend a section
of the Farmington Heritage Canal Trail that runs through the area, crossing
8560 New Britain Ave. and 8794 Sequassen Road. Those two parcels are owned by
the state and Farmington, respectively, and the partners have agreed to assume
design and permitting costs for the work there.
The area is part of the “Midpoint Development District,” set
up by the town to encourage the redevelopment of underused or vacant commercial
land in a manner conducive to maintaining the surrounding wetlands.
Representatives for JRF and Kaoud have said their plan conforms to the town’s
goals.
“Utilizing private and public connections along the abutting
Farmington River via extension of the public Farmington Heritage Canal Trail
across the Site, the desired outcome is the creation of a live, work, shop and
play community without total dependency on the automobile, as envisioned for
the [Midpoint Development District] in the [Farmington Plan of Conservation and
Development],” the application states.
The proposal has already received approval from Farmington’s
Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commission.
Operators of MIRA’s Hartford facility say plant could burn trash until 2023
Patrick
Skahill | Connecticut Public
A state-owned garbage incinerator was supposed to close by
July. But now that a potential deal with a private company to transform the
site into a transfer station appears dead, leadership at the Materials
Innovation and Recycling Authority has approved a budget allowing the burn
plant to operate for one more year.
Tom Kirk, president and CEO of MIRA, said the budget
authorization “doesn’t mean we’ll run it a full 12 months. But it does mean we
would continue to run it for some period of time.”
How long, exactly, remains unclear.
“A July 1 date where we, essentially, turn the lights off …
was probably never an absolute,” Kirk said. “I, personally, always expected
we’d be a few weeks, maybe even a couple months past that date in the best of
possible worlds.”
But for MIRA right now, the best of possible worlds is a
long way off.
The quasi-public’s Hartford site, which annually burns
hundreds of thousands of tons of garbage from nearly 50 towns, has been plagued
with staffing shortages and mechanical failures in recent years.
Hartford has signaled its intent to stop sending trash to MIRA, and
other towns are considering opting out of their contracts.
But the agency still needs to honor contractual obligations
with dozens of towns to manage trash through 2027. And if the plant suddenly
closes due to a catastrophic failure similar to one that happened in 2018, thousands of tons of
garbage will suddenly have nowhere to go.
One solution MIRA has floated for months has been turning
its Hartford burn site into a transfer station. The plan was pitched like this:
starting July 1, the incinerator turns off and the site becomes a temporary
staging ground for trash.
But Kirk said the agency was “struggling” with a request for
proposals to do that in Hartford due to supply chain issues. He said
discussions with a private vendor, Murphy Road Recycling, to manage and
transfer waste coming into MIRA’s Hartford facility, “have not moved forward
following original outreach last month,” adding he was “not optimistic” about
finalizing a contract.
In a statement, Murphy Road Recycling said it “offered a
comprehensive proposal” to accept MIRA’s waste at the company’s nearby Hartford
facility.
The company said it also “proposed to dispose of MSW
[municipal solid waste] delivered to MIRA’s Watertown and Torrington transfer
stations using at least 90,000 tons of nearby waste-to-energy capacity. Our
understanding is that MIRA will not be moving forward with our proposal at this
time.”
The shifting timelines at MIRA have caused confusion among
some state leaders.
Deputy Speaker Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, raised the
issue last week with Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Commissioner Katie Dykes during a public hearing.
“We were discussing this yesterday in the Energy and
Technology Committee, and there was some confusion over whether MIRA will close
July 1 of this year, or July 1 of next year,” Mushinsky said. “I’m not sure
everybody in the public or the General Assembly is aware of the looming
deadline.”
Dykes told members of the environment committee that she
wasn’t in a position to comment on the closure date.
“I think that’s a question that the MIRA board or MIRA
leadership would be best positioned to respond to,” Dykes told Mushinsky. “We
don’t sit on that board.”
Kirk said by email Monday that “there is not a formal
closure date established by resolution.”
What’s next for MIRA?
Eventually, everyone agrees, the MIRA plant will close. But
right now, Dykes, lawmakers, and even MIRA’s Tom Kirk aren’t sure exactly when
or how.
“If we’re able to pull this all together … sometime shortly
after July 1, we would suspend combustion operations and move everything out by
truck or train,” Kirk said. “We’re just not certain when that exact date’s
going to be.”
But if the deal with Murphy Road Recycling falls apart, Kirk
said by email that the agency has “a few ideas” for what’s next, but “nothing
so much as a determined plan at this point.”
“The intent remains to find a means to transfer the waste
out of state,” Kirk said. If the Hartford facility is unable to manage all
incoming waste through transfers, Kirk said, “the plant will continue to manage
waste through [the] trash to energy process.”
In the meantime, Kirk said MIRA is considering issuing
another request for proposals to run a transfer operation at the Hartford site.
He said the agency is also looking at legislative remedies, moving the Hartford
waste to MIRA’s other transfer stations, “and possibly some additional concepts
yet to be fleshed out.”
But he cautioned that the clock is ticking.
“From an efficiency standpoint, a cost standpoint, a
reliability standpoint, the plant continues to struggle,” Kirk said. “To
anticipate operating another full year like that is a big ask.”