Abigail Brone
CROMWELL — Nearly a year after Hurricane Ida drenched the
state and caused a large sinkhole beneath train tracks and a natural gas pipe
on a golf course, the damage was fixed in time for the course to be ready for
this weekend’s Travelers Championship.
In early September 2021, after heavy rains from Hurricane
Ida, cubic yards of soil washed
away at the 13th hole of the TPC River Highlands golf course in
Cromwell, leaving railroad tracks suspended and a natural gas pipeline exposed.
Three seasons and 10 months later, repairs and cleanup are
complete, state Department of Transportation spokesperson Josh Morgan said
Tuesday.
The cost to repair the sinkhole was $5 million, but the DOT
received notice it was eligible for upwards of 90 percent reimbursement through
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, because the governor declared a state
of emergency in the days after Ida, Morgan said.
The area falls under the purview of DOT because the state
owns that land and leases the spot to River Highlands for the 13th hole, Morgan
said. The work was completed by O&G Industries.
“That spot in particular was right in the state’s
right-of-way, that’s why we were involved and working with the railroad, who is
the freight carrier, and Buckeye Pipeline,” he said.
The railroad left suspended is operated by Providence and
Worcester Railroad Co., and the exposed natural gas pipe is owned by Buckeye
Pipeline, Morgan said.
“Hurricane Ida, that was a significant amount of rainfall.
So what it did was, it blew out the drainage pipes there and washed the whole
section away,” Morgan said. “The rail line was suspended over the sinkhole.
That fuel line was dangling across. Ultimately, that had to get secured,
drained and relocated. The rail line was out of service until the end of last
year while repairs were underway.”
While the Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. was forced
to suspend services in the area until the tracks were properly supported, it
has since reopened the tracks and continued freight services, he said.
The line’s freight trains carry steel and lumber on the
track multiple times a week, but passenger trains do not travel on the tracks,
Morgan said. Providence and Worcester did not respond to a request for comment.
The natural gas pipeline had to be closed off, drained and
attached to a temporary detour pipe for the gas, which sat atop the ground
until the repairs were complete, he said.
“This was a pretty unique situation in terms of
infrastructure. The pipeline had to get drained and relocated while it was
running on top of the golf course, and became active, because that’s pumping
fuel from New Haven” to Bradley Airport in Windsor Locks, Morgan said.
The jet fuel line was moved above ground and a few feet away
from the washout area so it could continue operating because it is imperative
for airport operations, Morgan said.
In correcting the sinkhole, the main concern was gaining
easy access to the area, in a secluded wooded spot. Some of the golf course was
disrupted while bringing in materials and repairing the washout, he said.
The entirety of the project was completed in May. In
November, River Highlands shared on social media that the major infrastructural
repairs were complete on the drainage area, accompanied by a
picture of the new and improved drainage pipes.
“Access was a big thing. How do you get equipment to the
spot where the washout occurred? The temporary road had to be constructed
through the wooded area and when the equipment got on site, had to dig down
before it could be built back up,” Morgan said. “Removing the material and
slowly building it back up, like in tiers, adding 10 to 20 feet and securing it
until it met the top grade. All that was bringing the material in and having it
in place and secured.”
No spots of similar weakness or concern are currently known
to DOT; the sinkhole was a unique situation, he said.
Along with replacing the missing soil, additional drainage
pipes were added and culverts were updated. The overall infrastructure
surrounding the tracks and pipe were improved, Morgan said.
The work to improve the infrastructure and move in new soil
was all completed by the end of last year, he said. This spring, worked needed
to clean up the area and break down the makeshift road erected to transport
machinery and materials.
Torrington City Council approves road reconstruction, paving projects
TORRINGTON — This summer, a number of road resurfacing and
repair projects are scheduled to begin, including work on Prospect
Street, Torringford Road and numerous residential streets around the city.
City Council members approved bids Monday night for the
projects, which were presented by City Engineer Paul Kundzins and assistant
engineer Mark Austin.
All
of the projects, Kundzins said, are funded by the city’s Pavement
Management Program Bond Fund.
One of the projects, for for reconstruction of the Bogue
Road Bridge, off South Main Street, was tabled until the council’s next meeting
in July, after Councilwoman Keri Hoehne questioned the cost-sharing.
Bogue Road is used by heavy trucks and other vehicles and
leads to the Harwinton town line. Under the original agreement that was
approved by referendum in 2018, the town of Harwinton agreed to pay 14 percent
of the project cost of $2,377,351.
“That sounds like a pretty good deal to me,” Hoehne said.
“Is there a reason why (Harwinton’s share) is so small?”
Bogue Road is the entrance to O&G Industries to the
west. To the east, the road leads to the city’s animal control building, which
is also under construction; the public works yard; and the Water Pollution
Control Authority/sewer plant.
“The main users of the bridge with heavy truck traffic is
the WPCA,” said Public Works Director Ray Drew. “There’s also Supreme
Industries, and O&G. The cost share was established prior to the bidding
for this project.”
He added that the cost share probable had been done in 2017
and included in a 2018 referendum.
“Prior to that, those discussions and establishments would
have taken place, and any communications with Harwinton would have happened at
that time,” he said.
Drew and Kundzins agreed to find the original documentation
on Harwinton’s share of the project and bring it to the next meeting.
According to Drew, the Bogue Road bridge will be replaced
with concrete panels, steel railings and structural modifications. The proposal
also includes drainage improvements and road construction.
The City Council also approved a bid Monday for $1.35
million from PAC Group LLC of Torrington for the Torringford East project, with
includes milling, grading and paving a mile of the roadway. The road will also
receive new concrete curbing, driveway, drainage repairs, new catch basins and
manhole covers. The streets to be improved include Augustyn Court, Belmont
Drive, Breezy Hill Road, Carmody Court, Gaylord Lane, Limestone Drive, Loretta
Road, Rock Creek Lane, and Tunxis Lane and crossing and intersecting streets as
needed, according to Kundzins.
Another project, milling and overlay of various roads, was
awarded to PAC Group for $759,750. This work will include milling and paving,
curbing and driveway aprons, new catch basins and manhole covers on Aetna
Avenue, Litchfield Street, Maple Street, Wyoming Avenue and Zappulla Drive.
Sealcoating, Inc. will replace and restore pavement on a
portion of Albany Street and on Beverly Road, Buena Vista Avenue, Clearview
Avenue, Elmira Avenue and Whitewood Road in an $860,000 project.
As a separate, $535,000 part of the project, PAC Group will
be paving Albany Street, Beverly Road, Buena Vista Avenue, Clearview Avenue,
Davis Street, Elmira Avenue and Whitewood Road.
“We’re going to be doing work all summer,” said Austin.
“We’re in the process now of creating public outreach, contacting neighbors,
and sending press releases to alert the public.
Work on a number of streets off South Main Street, which
were approved earlier this year, have already started, Austin said. The
city is also preparing its sidewalk replacement project for East Main Street,
which is scheduled to start this summer.
Residents can read more about all of these projects on the city’s website, torringtonct.org
Groton approves one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers
Groton — The town is implementing a one-year ban on
applications to the Planning and Zoning Commission for large-scale data
centers, so it can determine how to regulate them.
The commission has discussed the need to
create zoning regulations specific to data centers after
the Town Council recently considered but ultimately rejected, due
to concerns that included the noise impact of data centers, a
municipal host fee agreement with data center developer NE Edge LLC. Last year,
the council also approved an agreement with another developer, Gotspace, for a
potential data center, but Gotspace has not as of yet submitted a specific
application to the commission.
The purpose of the zoning text amendment, approved last week
by the town's Planning and Zoning Commission and which goes into effect July
15, “is to provide adequate time to develop and adopt zoning regulations to
address data centers” over 5,000 square feet in size. The commission
cannot accept any applications for the data centers while the moratorium is in
effect.
The commission also said data centers are no
longer defined as telecommunications facilities under the town’s zoning
regulations. The commission now defines a data center as a "facility that
is developed, acquired, constructed, rehabilitated, renovated, repaired or
operated to house a group of networked computer servers in one physical
location or multiple contiguous locations to centralize the storage,
management, processing and dissemination of data and information pertaining to
a particular business or classification or body of knowledge."
The town’s Assistant Director of Planning and Development
Services Deborah Jones explained at last week’s public hearing that in March
2021, Gov. Ned Lamont signed a law to offer tax incentives to certain data
center developments, and owners and operators of qualified data centers have to
enter into a host municipality fee agreement before beginning a project. Groton
has an agreement with Gotspace Data Partners for land on Route 117 north of
Interstate 95.
She said as part of the negotiations, Groton’s zoning
official was asked to weigh in on what data centers are
considered and he determined they were considered telecommunications
facilities and conditionally allowed in industrial, mixed-use zones.
The Planning and Zoning Commission applied to institute a
temporary moratorium on data centers and revise the definition of a
telecommunication facility, while providing a specific definition of a data
center.
Horsley Witten Group,
which is made up of engineers, scientists and planners and has several offices
throughout the Northeast, has been engaged to start developing data center
regulations and will start talking to the commission about its thoughts on
whether data centers should be allowed at all, Jones said. According to a
contract signed with the town in April, Horsley Witten Group will
provide the services for a $7,000 fee.
Horsley Witten Group will research data center impacts,
including water use, cleaning materials, fuel supply, electronic waste,
fire suppression and packaging disposal, "and deliver a memorandum to
the Town describing our findings, listing potential impacts of concern, and
discussing best practices related to construction and operations,"
according to the contract. The company then will discuss with the commission
and can amend the memorandum and then draft proposed zoning regulations for
review.
Jones said the public comments the town has received were
all in favor of a moratorium on data centers.
Resident Kristen Earls spoke in support of the moratorium,
as did eight other people at last week’s hearing held at the Town Hall
Annex and via Zoom.
“I really appreciate you guys taking the time to develop a
considered position regarding this very complex industrial use with impacts on
neighbors, community health and well-being, air, water, wildlife, energy and
economics,” Earls said.
“When the state legislature passed the fast-tracking
legislation for data centers, they also said they were going to pass
legislation that would provide environmental protections for towns, which they
never did, so you and all the towns in Connecticut are on your own,” said
Elizabeth Raisbeck, co-chair of Groton Conservation Advocates.
“There are many serious public health issues as well as
environmental issues related to data centers, which we have learned about over
the last several months, and because of the complexity of the issues that these
data centers present, it's very important that you have some moratorium and we
strongly support a one-year moratorium because it's going to take you a while
to figure this out,” she added, noting that the commission will need to bring
in a number of experts to speak about issues such as noise and air pollution
from generators.
Jones said the text amendment approved will apply to only
the town, and does not apply to the City of Groton, Noank or Groton Long Point.
Town Manager John Burt said he agreed with the moratorium:
“I agree that it’s important to take their time to make sure there are sound
rules in place to protect any of our residents should a data center request to
locate here in the future,” he told The Day.
In March, the Town Council voted 5-1, with three
abstentions, to stop
pursuing a municipal host fee agreement with NE Edge LLC for a data
center proposed on land between Hazelnut Hill Road and Flanders Road,
south of I-95. The council raised concerns, including about the noise that
data centers emit and the need for more information.
Residents at a previous meeting overwhelmingly had spoken
against the data center proposal and its impacts on noise, the
environment and property values.
The Town Council had signed a
host fee agreement with developer Gotspace Data Partners on April 7, 2021,
which will lapse five years from the date of signing. Jones said Gotspace has
not submitted an application to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a
specific data center proposal and the commission will not process any such
application during the moratorium.
Burt said he has not heard from Gotspace or any other data
center developer.
A representative for Gotspace did not immediately have a
comment.
Dave Altimari
The state has filed a motion to dismiss the grievance filed
by Konstantinos Diamantis, the former deputy secretary of the Office of Policy
and Management still at the center of a federal investigation, that alleges
mistreatment of his former boss Melissa McCaw by high-ranking members of Gov.
Ned Lamont’s administration.
Diamantis was fired from his OPM position in October 2021
after administration officials learned that his daughter, Anastasia, had gotten
a job with Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo’s office while Colangelo
was pressing Diamantis to help secure raises for his staff.
At that same time, state officials revealed the existence of a federal grand
jury probe into the state’s school construction grants overseen by Diamantis in
his dual role as director of the Office of School Construction Grants and
Review. The federal investigation is ongoing.
The 24-page grievance was initially filed in November 2021
on behalf of Diamantis and appealed on Jan. 19 to the state Employee Review
Board.
It specifically named Joshua Geballe and Paul Mounds, two of
Gov. Ned Lamont’s top lieutenants, and alleged mistreatment of McCaw. Geballe
has since left the administration for a job at Yale, and McCaw also resigned as
OPM Secretary to take a job in East Hartford.
Both the grievance and the documents filed to support it
were initially sealed, but the CT Mirror obtained a copy of the complaint. It
was not clear Tuesday if the original complaint was still sealed.
Last week, on the state Department of Administrative
Services website, the state Employee Review Board listed a public hearing for
the Diamantis grievance, scheduled to start June 20.
On Tuesday, OPM released a copy of the motion to dismiss the
case that was filed by Adam Garelick, an attorney for the Office of Labor
Relations, on June 6.
Diamantis’ attorney Zachary Reiland, who filed the initial
grievance, said this week’s hearing was postponed because of the state’s new
motion. He declined to comment on the state’s motion.
Diamantis and his lawyer have 30 days to respond to the
state’s motion to dismiss, which will likely now be addressed in September,
Reiland said.
In the motion to dismiss, Garelick argued that the board
should dismiss Diamantis’ grievance without a hearing because the board lacks
jurisdiction to hear his appeal.
Among other things, the motion claims, Diamantis did not
resign in good standing — a requirement for reinstating an employee who
resigned — because he resigned while disciplinary action was pending and did
not give two weeks’ notice, according to the motion.
Further, the motion argues, Diamantis did not meet the
requirements to appeal to the Employee Review Board, which include receiving an
unsatisfactory performance evaluation.
Garelick’s motion states that Diamantis “advances a plethora of wide-ranging
and contradictory accusations against the state.”
It states that Diamantis’ main claim, that Geballe
improperly denied his request to rescind his retirement, doesn’t hold up to
scrutiny.
“The Grievant did not resign in good standing and had no
right to rescind his resignation,” Garelick wrote.
Diamantis has said his removal was the consequence of a
long-simmering power struggle between top Lamont aides and the Office of Policy
and Management, one of the most influential state agencies by tradition and
statutory authority.
Grudges and Zoom calls
Documents obtained by the CT Mirror show that Diamantis’
grievance had already been denied in two other closed sessions, before a DAS
human resources officer and an arbitrator. The Employee Review Board is his
last outlet under his state contract.
In his grievance, Diamantis alleges that Geballe and Mounds
held a grudge against him for speaking out about the way they and other
commissioners treated McCaw. (Geballe’s mother, Shelley Geballe, a lawyer and
professor of public health at Yale, is a founding board member of the nonprofit
Connecticut News Project Inc., operator of CTMirror.org.)
Diamantis describes secretly listening, at McCaw’s request, to Zoom meetings
with other commissioners and state officials so he could “witness the treatment
she was receiving.”
The grievance describes another Zoom meeting among state
commissioners where McCaw addressed an unnamed commissioner’s “abusive and
disrespectful behavior toward the Secretary” and charged it “was rooted in
racial discrimination/animus.”
“The secretary respectfully expressed her discomfort with
the treatment and requested that greater attention be given toward tone and
professionalism in order to avoid making fellow employees uncomfortable,” the
grievance states.
The same day Diamantis was removed from the politically
appointed OPM position, he was suspended with pay from his civil-service job
overseeing school construction grants. Rather than accept the suspension,
Diamantis retired.
But within hours of doing so, he tried to rescind his
retirement. Geballe denied his request, according to the grievance, saying that
Diamantis hadn’t resigned in “good standing.”
The grievance also states that Geballe refused to rescind
the retirement because of Diamantis’ “unprofessional conduct,” specifically
citing two “inappropriate text messages” Diamantis sent on the evening of Oct.
28.
The first, to Mounds, read, “I’m coming / The truth is
coming / Liars will come forward / Racists too.”
Minutes later, he sent a text to Geballe that read: “I hate
liars and racists.”
Kosta’s last day
Diamantis’ initial complaint goes into detail about his last day as a state
employee — Oct. 28, 2021.
Diamantis said he was at the UConn Health Center with his
gravely ill mother when McCaw called and asked him to come to her office. When
he arrived, McCaw informed him that he was immediately terminated from his
appointed position as OPM’s deputy secretary and that he was being placed on
paid administrative leave from his classified position as director of the
Office of School Construction Grants pending an internal investigation.
Diamantis had held the dual positions for nearly two years.
McCaw told him that the misconduct investigation pertained
to his daughter’s hiring as an executive assistant to the Chief State’s
Attorney and that it was an “improper quid pro quo” arrangement, in which the
Chief State’s Attorney would receive approval of a beneficial salary action by
OPM and his daughter would receive the executive assistant position.
Diamantis claims the combination of his mother’s illness,
the accusations made against him and his potential termination left him
distraught and emotionally compromised.
An hour later, he met with OPM’s human resources officer to
discuss which retirement benefits and possible payouts he would be owed
depending on whether he retired or was fired.
At the same time Diamantis was reviewing his retirement
papers, he received a letter from Lamont informing him he was relieved of his
appointment at OPM. Diamantis then signed a letter of resignation and his
retirement papers, according to the complaint.
The grievance said the decision to resign “cannot be
separated from the surrounding circumstances. He was distraught, confused and
overwhelmed by the fact that his 25 years of public service had inexplicably
unraveled in less than two hours.”
Three hours later, Diamantis asked OPM’s human resource
director if he could rescind his resignation and submitted a letter to OPM
officials asking to do so.
The next day, OPM officials asked Diamantis to come to
headquarters and sign more documents, even though he was trying to rescind his
resignation, the grievance states.
But that same day, Geballe denied his request to rescind his
resignation, claiming that under state statutes Diamantis was not an “employee
in good standing” and therefore wouldn’t be rehired.
Geballe also cited Diamantis’ “unprofessional behavior” from
the day before in sending the inappropriate texts to Mounds and himself.
Ambitious Redevelopment of Old Saybrook Riverfront Pitched to Zoning Commissioners
Brendan Crowley
OLD SAYBROOK – A local contractor pitched his ambitious
vision for the Connecticut River waterfront between the I-95 Baldwin Bridge and
the Connecticut River Railroad Bridge to the town’s Zoning Commission on Monday
– including multifamily housing, shops, and a raised boardwalk connecting the
two marinas on Ferry Road.
Cal Caldarella told the commission that he has spent five
years acquiring property on Ferry Road, just south of Interstate 95, and
working through various concepts for uses of the site.
The concept Caldarella presented on Monday was for a
“destination resort,” including marinas, multifamily housing and shops along
the waterfront. The presentation was a “preliminary discussion” without a
formal application. The proposal would require various approvals from local
boards and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“Many people leave here to go to Shelter [Island], to go to
Block [Island], to go to Greenport, wherever they want to be to enjoy all of
the facilities,” Caldarella said. “You want to have those kinds of facilities
here, and we’ve acquired 25 acres to do that.”
The project includes redevelopment of two marinas – Between
the Bridges on the northern end, and South Yard on the southern end – and the
parcel of land across Ferry Road.
John Milone, engineer with SLR Consulting, presented the
outline of the plan for a marina, shops, restaurants and multifamily housing,
complete with a waterfront boardwalk and public access. Milone said the design
wasn’t a plan for development, but a “basis for discussion.”
Milone said the vision drew from the town’s Plan of
Conservation and Development, which describes Ferry Point’s “huge potential for
redevelopment as a vibrant and exciting destination” if it can balance
water-dependent uses and other uses that support them.
Under the proposal, the bulk of the “marine support” uses
would be moved to the South Yard, including rack storage, maintenance, stores
and other “facilities necessary to have a high-quality marine support
facility,” Milone said.
Moving the marine support to the South Yard opens up the
rest of the area for other uses, without having to grapple with boats, cars and
people all sharing the same space, Milone said.
At the Between the Bridges marina, the plan would be to
develop a mix of retail, a restaurant and some multifamily housing, Milone
said. On the parcel across Ferry Road, which is now used for boat storage,
there would be more multifamily housing, Milone suggested.
Milone told members of the Zoning Commission that he did not
know yet how many units of housing they intend to build, but that it would be
“in the range of 100,” and would depend on the capacity of the site to
accommodate sewage.
Milone said that the vision is for about 20 percent of the
units to be built on the river side of Ferry Road.
Milone said there is also a “tremendous” need to repair the
bulkhead at Between the Bridges, and many of the more than 280 slips need to be
dredged to remove silt from the Connecticut River.
Milone said the tidal wetlands between the Between the
Bridges marina and the town dock is “critically important” to bringing the
entire project together and for providing public access that he said is crucial
to the development.
The plan envisions a raised boardwalk that would run along
the waterfront from Between the Bridges, across the tidal wetland, to the town
dock and the South Yard marina. Milone said the project could offer an
opportunity to remove invasive phragmites that
have overgrown that wetland, and plant native plants.
The town dock would remain but, Milone said, with improved
public access mainly by building the boardwalk. He suggested gazebos on the
tidal wetland, and a fishing and crabbing area on a jetty to the south of the
South Yard marina.
He also told the commission that there would be parking
spaces set aside for public parking – so that people other than boaters or
residents could enjoy the area, as well as “transient docks” for any boater to
use, in addition to berths at the town dock.
The properties would require a change in zoning to allow
these kinds of development. Caldarella’s team raised the possibility of
a Coastal Access Special Development District or a Coastal Access Overlay Zone
– both requiring site plans to be approved by the zoning commission.
Much of the project would be within the Connecticut River
Gateway Conservation Zone, and would need to be reviewed by the Gateway
Commission, and there will also need to be approvals by the Department of
Energy and Environmental Protection.
“We really want to work with you folks to put it together,”
Caldarella said. “We’re not coming in and saying, ‘We want this, or we want
that.’ We hope that you will sign off on that concept and zero in on a
mechanism.”