US Service Group Acquires Walker Crane & Rigging of Plainville, Conn.
US Service Group (USSG), a New York based industrial
services company, has acquired Walker Crane & Rigging Corp. of
Plainville, Conn.
Established in 1883, Walker is one of the premier crane,
rigging and transportation operations in Connecticut providing rigging and
logistics solutions to a diverse client base throughout the United States.
Walker operates out of a 130,000 sq. ft. facility located approximately 30
minutes southwest of Hartford, Conn.
With the acquisition of Walker, USSG continues its strategy
of building an industry leading national rigging, machinery moving and
warehousing business. Along with ABLE Rigging Contractors and Transcope
Services, USSG now consists of three separate operating businesses focused on
providing rigging and machinery moving services to a diverse customer base
including many Fortune 500 and top construction companies in the United States.
A number of other companies are in discussions about becoming part of USSG.
"Acquiring Walker strengthen's USSG's presence in the
New England region and expands our network of rigging and logistics services
into this attractive market," said Steve Laganas, USSG founder and CEO.
"We are very pleased that Walker is now part of USSG.
With Walker's history and stellar reputation, our plan is to see USSG continue
to grow and prosper as we add equipment, services and additional high quality
employees to the team."
About Walker Crane & Rigging Corp.
Established in 1883, Walker Crane & Rigging Corp.
provides crane, rigging and machinery moving, along with warehousing and heavy
hauling services. It specializes in transportation throughout North America.
Specific services include: plant relocation and in-plant rigging, steel
fabrication and millwright service, export and domestic skidding and crating,
transformer installation and removal, modular building construction services
and set crews, local and long-distance trucking and heavy hauling, industrial
storage and warehousing with 15 and 30-ton overhead bridge cranes.
About Transcope Services
Begun in 1964, Transcope Services is a fully licensed ICC
carrier specializing in transportation, warehousing, logistics, distribution
and consulting. Transcope serves primarily the elevator, escalator and moving
walks industry. It partners with industry leading domestic and international
elevator and escalator companies on projects throughout the New York, New
Jersey metro area. Transcope receives elevator and escalator equipment from
manufacturers in its clean, climate-controlled warehouse for storage and timely
delivery to customer job sites.
About ABLE Rigging Contractors
ABLE Rigging Contractors has been a trusted provider of
rigging services for more than two decades, specializing in industrial rigging,
tower crane and derrick services, construction, machinery moving and
warehousing.
South Windsor close to adopting year-long moratorium on new warehouse proposals
South Windsor’s Planning and Zoning Commission is poised to
adopt a year-long moratorium on new warehouse and distribution centers in
response to resident concerns following a development boom of just over a
decade.
Several commission members voiced support at a Tuesday night
meeting for a moratorium proposed by resident Kathy Kerrigan. Members delayed
action, however, after an attorney representing an unspecified landowner raised
concerns the measure had not been publicly available long enough for its adoption
to be legal.
Instead, the commission continued the public hearing until
April 5, allowing enough time to ensure a moratorium could not be challenged on
that basis.
Developers have added seven large scale warehouses and
distribution centers in South Windsor over the past 11 years, according to
Kerrigan. These have a combined floor area of 2.2 million square feet and
occupy lots totaling 283.3 acres, she said.
Kerrigan and her supporters argued Tuesday night this has
yielded dubious job and tax returns while causing environmental health
concerns, traffic congestion and noise pollution and other negative impacts.
They argued a year-long pause on the acceptance of applications for new
facilities will allow South Windsor time to adopt strong regulations, giving
the town more control and a greater arsenal of protections for quality-of-life.
“Our P&Z commissioners are up against developers who
know how to navigate our zoning regulations to push ahead with projects, even
when those projects may very well cause damage to the human beings working in
them and living near them,” Kerrigan said.
Several letters of support from residents were read into the
records. Several more residents appeared at the hearing to speak in favor of
its adoption.
South Windsor Director of Planning Michele M. Lipe said a
moratorium would be supported by South Windsor’s Plan of Conservation and
Development. That plan calls for the town to attract development “consistent
with the character and scale of its surroundings and with a strategy to
maintain current business zones with updates,” she noted.
Commission member Stephen Wagner said current regulations
aren’t sufficient to control noise or enforce traffic restrictions.
Those commission members who voiced opinions appeared
inclined toward the moratorium.
Commission member Alan Cavagnaro said a moratorium “makes
sense” and would give staff “breathing room” to analyze possible changes to
local regulation.
Paul Bernstein, an alternate who sat-in for an absent
member, also voiced support for a moratorium.
Evan Seeman, an attorney specializing in land-use for the
firm of Robinson+Cole, was the one voice at Tuesday’s hearing to challenge
adoption. Seeman stressed his objection was procedural. He did not argue the
merits of a moratorium.
Seeman said town staff had been unable to supply him with a
copy of the proposal last Thursday. Zone text amendments must be available to
the public for 10 days prior to a public hearing, he noted.
“Until then and until it’s made available in the town
clerk’s office 10 days before the hearing, there is nothing that the commission
can do unfortunately,” said Seeman, who said he represents “a party with an
interest in property in town.”
Lipe said she understands the text has been available online
for weeks. Even so, Seeman’s objection prompted her to advocate a short delay
in the vote.
The board called a 10-minute recess to reach out to the town
attorney. Members then agreed to continue the hearing until April 5.
Tuesday’s meeting comes just a week after the Planning and
Zoning Commission adopted a moratorium on applications for new housing
developments, including single-family subdivisions of more than three lots or
special exemption permits for residential dwellings of any number of units.
The former St. Thomas Aquinas High School in New Britain is
being demolished to make way for the potential construction of 11 single-family
homes, city officials said.
The $2 million demolition is being performed by Wiese
Construction and is expected to be completed by the end of April. The building,
which sits on 2.2 acres at 74 Kelsey St., is owned by the city of New Britain
and city leaders say their goal is to have single family homes built on the
site and occupied by 2023.
A homebuilder has not yet been selected for the project,
city officials said.
Mayor Erin Stewart said the building, which was last
occupied from 1955 to 1999 as a high school, has been a blighted nuisance for
the city for decades.
“The evolution of the former St. Thomas Aquinas sight is a
landmark example of the block-by-block transformation we are seeing throughout
the city,” said Stewart, who is serving in her ninth year as mayor. “We are
turning what was once a dangerous blighted eyesore into a site for beautiful
single family homes that will provide opportunities for first time homebuyers
to move into our great city.”
The property, city officials said, contains hazardous
materials, including PCBs and asbestos, which are being separated into piles
for disposal out of state.
After demolition is completed, the project will move into
the design, site preparation and construction phases. The city hopes
construction will begin in June and July.
The total cost of the project is still to be determined,
city leaders said. The project will be paid via city funds; U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development HOME funds; and funds from the federal American
Rescue Plan Act.
Preston residents continue to object to proposed RV park
Preston — Speakers and the audience became testy at
times Tuesday night, as residents continued to urge the Planning and Zoning
Commission to reject permits for a controversial proposed RV park on 65 acres
of land owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation at the junction of
Routes 2 and 164 and abutting Avery Pond.
Maryland-based Blue Water Development Corp. has proposed the
RV park and campground resort under the name Blue Camp CT LLC, on three parcels
owned by the tribe. The project has been revised several times in response to
concerns from residents and the town’s consulting engineers and now is
estimated to cost $18.5 million.
Tempers flared at times during Tuesday’s two-hour second public
hearing session. The PZC's first hearing
session Feb. 23 lasted over three hours.
Many of the roughly 40 people in attendance shouted
objections when project attorney Harry Heller told the commission he wanted to
correct the record “when factual matters that are patently wrong are being
presented.” Heller read a letter from the Preston Plains Water Co. countering
concerns about water quality and sufficient supply by residential customers of
the water system.
The letter stated no water from two community wells on Lynn
Drive that serve residents would be used for the project, which would receive
water directly from the Mashantucket Pequot water treatment plant. The plant
has sufficient capacity to supply the proposed project, as well as to continue
to provide emergency water to Preston if necessary.
Heller also countered residents’ claims that the proposed
project would not benefit the town’s tax base. He estimated that, based on the
town’s grand list, the Blue Water project, even downscaled, would be assessed
at about $13 million and become the town’s second-highest taxpayer.
Residents submitted newspaper articles from other states
that reported property values of surrounding homes declined “even with just the
threat” of an RV park nearby, one resident said. Preston residents said any new
tax revenue would be offset by declines in nearby property values.
Former First Selectman Robert Congdon heard boos and shouted
comments from a few residents when he told the commission that it had to adhere
to its zoning regulations. If the project met those requirements, the
commission would have to approve it. He made a similar statement at a recent
inland wetlands hearing.
Several residents accused Congdon of stating he supported
the project. Congdon said the developer came to his office three years ago and
asked for his support, and he said he told the developer he would neither
support nor oppose the project but said it would have to meet town zoning
regulations.
“You try living near it,” one person shouted.
“Go back to Utopia, Bob,” another said, referring to the
discredited, failed proposal to develop a giant recreational theme park at the
former Norwich Hospital property in the early 2000s.
The PZC public hearing will continue at the commission’s
April 26 meeting at 7 p.m. at Preston Plains Middle School. The Inland Wetlands
and Watercourses Commission closed
its public hearing March 15 and will review the project at its April
19 meeting.
Despite multiple revisions that downsized the project,
residents at Tuesday’s second PZC public hearing session remained dissatisfied.
Residents in nearby neighborhoods and elsewhere in town said the project is
still too big, would be too disruptive, has inadequate traffic plans and would
lower property values in surrounding neighborhoods.
The proposed RV park originally called for 304 campsites, a
T-shaped dock in Avery Pond, an elevated boardwalk leading to tent camping
sites along the pond, three bathhouses, paved roads and parking areas and
several other amenities. Over the past several weeks, Blue Water has downsized
the project to 280 campsites, eliminated the dock, boardwalk, tent sites along the
pond and one bathhouse. All roadways and parking areas will be gravel-based,
except at the main entrance and welcome center area.
Lynn Drive resident Susan Hotchkiss, who has obtained
intervenor status in both the PZC and wetlands permit processes, said the smoke
from 280 fires would be bad enough. She said she hears noise from Foxwoods
Resort Casino events across Route 2 now. Lynn Drive runs along the western
shore of Avery Pond, while the RV park is proposed southeast of the pond.
“I’m sitting up here thinking, 'What am I going to be
breathing from these campfires?’” resident Sean Tate of Overlook Drive said,
adding concerns about traffic, noise and neighborhood disruptions. Overlook
Drive runs parallel and to the west of Route 164.
HARTFORD — As the debate over the future of Hartford-Brainard Airport ramps up,
the Hartford City Council is urging the state to launch a study of the
century-old airfield for contamination from the city’s industrial past.
“Before we start endeavoring to make plans to start to
develop and things of that nature, let’s take a step back to really understand
what lies beneath,” Democrat TJ Clarke II, the council’s majority leader, said.
“Then let’s go from there.”
Clarke and Councilwoman Shirley Surgeon, a Democrat,
co-sponsored the resolution calling for the study. The resolution has been
approved by the full city council.
“I didn’t want to get saddled, as a city resident, not
knowing what sort of environmental issue that’s out there,” Surgeon said. “I
didn’t know what the amount would be, so that would be nice to know that in
advance.”
The future of the state-owned airport, whether it should be
expanded or closed and redeveloped, has been debated for decades, heating up
again last summer.
The city council already has backed a non-binding resolution
calling for the decommissioning the airport in the city’s South Meadows and
future redevelopment. Last fall, the council formed a committee to look into
redevelopment options.
The airport is overseen by the Connecticut Airport Authority,
so the state would have to initiate — and likely pay for — any environmental
study on the 200-acre airfield.
Concerns about soil contamination under the airport surfaced
publicly last week, raised by Mike McGarry, chairman of the Greater Hartford Flood Control Commission, and others.
McGarry, a former city councilman, said he is concerned
about coal tar, a by-product of coal gasification plants that existed in
virtually every American city at the turn of the last century.
Those plants provided residents with the comforts of heat
and light, but left coal tar contamination behind.
McGarry and others argue disturbing the coal tar so close to
the Connecticut River could cause as-yet unknown effects on the surrounding
environment.
Opponents of closing the airport are lining up in force,
forming the Hartford-Brainard Airport Association. The association and other
supporters of the airport argue the city should use Brainard as an amenity to
attract new businesses to relocate to Hartford.
Improvements should be made that would, among other things,
allow larger aircraft to fly in and out of the South Meadows airport, they
argue.
The association is girding for a fight, vowing to hire
lawyers and lobbyists to forcefully make its case.
High-profile critics of Brainard, including Hartford Mayor
Luke Bronin and state Sen. John W. Fonfara, D-Hartford, say the 200-acre
airfield is at the enviable intersection of two interstate highways and with
frontage on the riverfront.
Brainard would be better targeted for a mixed-use
development, including housing, entertainment venues, shops and a marina, that
would draw visitors and new residents into the city and provide a much-needed
boost to city tax coffers, they say.
Bronin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fonfara declined to comment.
The CAA has said it has no plans to close the airport. But
there may be other other avenues, including through the state legislature.
The Metropolitan
District Commission, the regional water and sewer authority, spearheaded an
airport redevelopment proposal in 2006. The proposal called for nearly 7
million square feet of commercial and manufacturing space, stores, apartments,
a marina, a rebuilt trash-to-energy plant, an expansion of its nearby
wastewater treatment plant and a river park.
The MDC plan was headed up by William DiBella, a former
Democratic state Senate majority leader who remains the MDC’s chairman.
No other conceptual plans for the area exist besides the
2006 vision advanced by the MDC.
A 2016 legislative report concluded the airport should remain
open. The report recommended further investment in Brainard, rather than
redevelopment.
Redevelopment, the report said, would be too costly, require
large public subsidies and take at least two decades. Others have said
contamination in the area, which includes the soon-to-be closed trash burning
plant would be too costly.
The report has been dismissed by Fonfara and others who
favor redevelopment.