CT House adopts $51B budget with big middle-class tax cut
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $51.1
billion biennial budget early Tuesday morning that features a broad-based state
income tax cut and dramatically boosts funding to local school districts.
The package, which passed 139-12 with strong bipartisan
support following a nearly three-hour debate that began late Monday, now heads
to the Senate, which also is expected to approve the budget before the regular
2023 legislative session adjourns at midnight Wednesday.
The two-year plan spends more on higher education and social
services. But opinions were mixed about whether that would be sufficient to
avert layoffs and service cutbacks in either field or whether it would provide
enough to end an ongoing strike at group homes for the disabled.
The budget appropriates $25.1 billion for the fiscal
year that begins July 1 and $26 billion in 2024-25, narrowly falling under the
spending cap in each year.
It does not move hundreds of millions of dollars in tax
receipts outside the cap system — as majority Democrats in the legislature
sought to do before they were stymied by Gov. Ned Lamont and Republican
lawmakers. But it does carry hundreds of millions of dollars from this fiscal
year’s projected $2.95 billion surplus into the first year of the new biennium.
Bottom of Form
Because those surplus dollars technically were appropriated
this fiscal year, they won’t count against the spending cap in the coming
biennium.
The plan also directs Lamont to find more than $316 million
in savings once the budget is in force. Traditionally, governors have met these
directives by limiting hiring — a prospect likely to spark opposition from
labor unions and from others who contend state agencies already are badly
understaffed.
“This budget will deliver the largest personal income tax
cut in the state’s history,” said Lamont, whose administration negotiated the
two-year plan with legislative leaders. “This is not a temporary tax cut — it
is designed to be sustainable for years to come. At the beginning of the
legislative session, I promised that this budget would build growth and
opportunity for all of Connecticut, and this agreement does just that.”
“We think there’s lot of good things in there,” House
Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said of the overall budget, which negotiators
for the legislature and Lamont administration finished crafting this past
weekend.
“Look, do I wish we could spend a couple of hundred million
dollars more? Yes, I do. I think that’s where our caucus was,” Ritter said.
But he quickly added that would have forced a much larger
effort to work around the spending cap and praised Democrats for compromising
on this issue to ensure support from Lamont, other fiscally moderate Democrats
and the GOP.
“We’re very lucky to have a caucus that is that mature,
responsible about governance, and not willing to just say, ‘if you don’t give
me the one thing I want, I’m walking away,’” Ritter said.
A broad-based CT income tax cut for the middle class
Neither the governor nor legislators were willing to walk
away from the idea of providing the first income tax rate reduction since the
mid-1990s.
Lawmakers from both parties have been calling for a major
rate cut since before the session began in January given the huge surpluses
Connecticut has amassed. Last fiscal year closed $4.3 billion in the black, the
largest surplus in state history and equal to nearly one-fifth of the entire
General Fund. This year’s nearly $3 billion cushion would be the second-largest.
The budget specifically would reduce the two-lowest marginal
rates on the income tax. The 3% rate imposed on the first $10,000 earned by
singles and the first $20,000 by couples would drop to 2%. The 5% rate imposed
on the next $40,000 earned by singles and the next $80,000 by couples would
drop to 4.5%.
But that relief is aimed chiefly at Connecticut’s middle
class. The budget would begin to phase out the tax cut for singles earning more
than $105,000 per year and for couples topping $210,000.
The rate changes are expected to save many middle-class
households $300 to $500 per year in the 2024 tax year, for which returns are
filed in the spring of 2025.
The new budget also will include Lamont’s proposal to
bolster the income tax credit for Connecticut’s working poor from 30.5% of the
federal Earned Income Tax Credit to 40%. This is expected to provide, on average,
about $210 more annually for more than 200,000 households that generally earn
less than $60,000. Unlike other income tax cuts, this EITC enhancement would
take effect in the 2023 tax year, meaning eligible filers could benefit with
returns filed next spring.
A third form of income tax relief in the package involves
expanding an existing exemption for certain pension and annuity earnings.
Currently, those benefits are exempt for single filers whose
overall adjusted gross income is less than $75,000 and for couples whose AGI is
less than $100,000. The budget gradually reduces those exemptions for singles
making between $75,000 and $100,000, and for couples earning between $100,000
and $150,000.
According to the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal
Analysis, all of the income tax-cutting measures combined will save taxpayers
more than $460 million per year.
“This budget returns hundreds of dollars [annually] to
individuals, families, retirees, workers throughout the state of Connecticut,”
said Rep. Maria Horn, D-Salisbury, co-chairwoman of the Finance, Revenue and
Bonding Committee. “It’s an excellent budget.
“It’s a delight to be able to stand and talk about this
budget,” said Rep. Holly Cheeseman of East Lyme, ranking House Republican on
the finance committee. “This does provide real tax relief for our families.”
And though Republicans believe the legislature should have
been more aggressive in offering tax relief, Cheeseman said, both she and Horn
said it’s a sustainable proposal that lawmakers likely won’t have to repeal in
a year or two if new fiscal challenges arise.
“We're very pleased that a lot of the tax initiatives that
House Republicans wanted … are still in this budget,” House Minority Leader
Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said during a press conference Monday
morning. “It's recognizing the middle class needs relief.”
“This budget is attempting to carry us forward,” Candelora
said during the House debate, adding that the plan enjoyed strong bipartisan
support because it respected the spending cap and other budgetary controls that
have produced big surpluses in recent years.
Forty-one of the House chamber's 53 Republicans joined with
all 86 Democrats voting all Tuesday morning to approve the plan.
But not all Republicans supported the budget.
Nonpartisan analysts project the package increases spending
3.8% in the first fiscal year and 3.5% in the second. And that doesn’t include
the about $340 million from the current fiscal year’s surplus that would be
carried forward into the new biennium, rather than used to pay down state debt.
Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, R-Wolcott, one of 12 Republicans
to cast an opposition vote, said the spending increase simply is too large to
support, even given the tax cuts.
“At the end of the day, the numbers don’t lie,” she said.
The new budget also freezes the state’s diesel fuel tax for
the 2023-24 fiscal year at 49.2 cents per gallon. Currently, the diesel rate is
set annually on July 1 based on a formula that relies heavily on diesel fuel
prices over the prior year.
Last July, surging inflation and diesel prices led to a 9
cents-per-gallon hike in the tax.
No child tax credit for families or relief for businesses
One tax-cutting proposal that drew strong support from
progressives in the legislature and from several policy groups failed to make
it into the budget.
This involves a child tax credit aimed specifically at
helping low- and middle-income families with kids.
Comptroller Sean Scanlon has spearheaded this effort,
pitching a credit against the state income tax equal to $600 per child, up to a
maximum of $1,800 per household.
But Lamont, other moderate Democrats and Republicans said
Connecticut needed to offer a more broad-based cut to assist more households.
The income tax-cutting plan that was adopted is expected to benefit roughly 1
million filers.
“The lack of a state child tax credit in the budget not only
negatively impacts Connecticut families who are struggling to make ends meet —
it hinders our progress to creating a more equitable, sustainable Connecticut,”
wrote the CT Nonprofit Child Tax Credit Coalition. This group of 30 local
organizations advocating for the credit includes Connecticut Voices for
Children and the Connecticut chapter of the United Way.
Businesses also came up short in the new budget.
Lamont had hoped to reduce a state tax on about 120,000
small and mid-sized businesses that don’t pay the corporation tax, collectively
saving them $60 million annually.
Not only was this proposal left out of the budget, but a 10%
surcharge on the corporation tax that was supposed to expire this year was
retained and continued through 2025.
“The absence of small business tax relief in the budget is
absolutely baffling and, given the current uncertainty and challenges that
those smaller firms face, extremely disappointing,” said Chris DiPentima,
president of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, who called the
proposed relief for small and mid-sized businesses “critical” to help firms
recover from the pandemic.
"That's real money small employers could be using to
invest in workforce development and growing their businesses,” he added. “Those
small firms are the heart and soul of our economy and deserve better.”
The corporation tax surcharge has been scheduled to be
phased out, and then retained, on numerous occasions over the past two decades.
And DiPentima said the latest extension “does little to improve perceptions
about Connecticut's business climate and the state's economic priorities.”
More aid for local school districts
One of the biggest winners in the new budget are local
school districts.
A program enacted in 2017 has the Education Cost Sharing
grant gradually increasing annually through 2027, and Lamont had planned to
maintain that schedule, adding close to $140 million to local schools over the
coming biennium.
But many Democrats argued the 2017 schedule was too modest,
that state government could afford to do more and that the coronavirus pandemic
and high inflation in 2022 has left many local districts financially hurting.
Advocates also claimed many communities are struggling with a shortage of
teachers and paraprofessionals.
The new budget includes Lamont’s increase and adds another
$160 million for local districts over the biennium. In addition, $25 million is
included in each of the next two years to bolster special education.
Subira Gordon, executive director of ConnCAN — a New
Haven-based policy group advocating for improvement in public education — said
the budget will “move us one step closer to providing Connecticut children with
an equitable education. This investment sends a message to families across the
state that policymakers are investing in education for future generations.”
And Lucy Nolan, policy director for End Hunger CT!, praised
legislators for including $16 million in the new budget to shore up school meal
programs for students in need.
But Nolan also expressed concern about language in the
budget requiring families to apply for support, saying it would “negatively
impact the goal of equal treatment of all kids in the cafeteria, and we will
continue to advocate for the least complicated access.”
The budget also includes a $45 million increase in
non-education municipal aid and adds $1.8 million to help towns fund early
voting.
Public colleges and universities may be headed for a crisis
While education at the K-12 level fares well in the new
budget, higher education is in a very different situation.
The legislature has given public colleges and universities
hundreds of millions of assistance in recent years from two limited sources:
state budget surpluses and emergency federal pandemic grants.
Lamont and Republicans have been pushing hard this year for
state colleges and universities to curtail spending, arguing these institutions
should have prepared better to live without this emergency aid. They
also note that enrollment has been shrinking, particularly at the
community colleges and regional state universities.
The new budget would provide state universities and
community colleges with about $630 million next fiscal year, coming from a
block grant supplemented by more than $200 million in pandemic grants and
surplus dollars. That effectively matches the $620 million the system received
this fiscal year.
But in 2024-25, the regional universities and community
colleges would be expected to get by with about $115 million less than they
received in 2023-24.
Similarly, the University of Connecticut and its
Farmington-based health center would receive about $20 million to $30 million
less than the level needed to maintain current services in the first year of
the new biennium. But the funding gap in the second year would exceed $100
million.
Both UConn and the state university system have warned that
this extent of cost-cutting likely would force tuition hikes as well as faculty
layoffs and larger class sizes.
Rep. Greg Haddad, D-Mansfield, whose district includes
UConn’s main campus in Storrs, said public universities and colleges not only
have been placed under financial stress by inflation and the pandemic but also
by having to cover significant pay hikes Lamont negotiated last year with most
state employee unions.
Haddad said state officials also have long known college and
university systems needed to use the temporary funds they received from the
state in recent years to fund ongoing expenses, like wages and benefits.
And while he supports the overall state budget, no one
should be surprised, Haddad said, that higher education will be in fiscal
trouble without more, recurring state funding in the near future.
“It’s like we found the potholes in the road and filled them
with snow,” he said. “And spring is coming.”
The budget also expands the state’s debt-free community
college program to include previously enrolled students returning to college
after a break.
Nonprofits get a boost, but much less than they sought
The community-based nonprofits that deliver the bulk of
state-sponsored social services also were unhappy with the new budget, despite
getting a funding increase.
The package includes $53 million to provide a 2.5% rate
increase in the first year of the new biennium for most nonprofits. It then
maintains this funding hike in the second year.
The industry, however, was asking for much more — a 9% bump
starting July 1 and then a 7% hike on top of that in July 2024.
The CT Community Nonprofit Alliance estimates that minimal
or no state funding hikes for the past two decades have forced many agencies to
cut staff and shrink programs.
The alliance said the industry has lost about $480 million
in annual payments from the state since 2007, once adjustments for inflation
are made.
The package also includes another $50 million in each year
of the biennium to enhance compensation for group home workers serving
Connecticut residents with developmental disabilities.
About 1,700 members of the state’s largest health care
workers union, New England Health Care Employees Union SEIU 1199NE, went on
strike May 24 at group homes run by six nonprofit agencies for the state —
facilities that serve about 1,500 clients.
Most of its group home workers currently earn $17 to $18 per
hour, according to the union, which wants “a pathway to $25/hour minimum
wage.”
A union spokesman said SEIU 1199 was analyzing the budget
and didn’t say whether the organization believed the funding increases would be
sufficient to end the strike.
But union President Rob Baril said members are committed to
making significant progress on wages and benefits.
“We’ve started a movement for racial and economic justice for
long-term care workers, and expanding services to save lives,” Baril said. “Why
are we even here? Why do we have to do this? Why are we fighting for group home
workers and nursing home workers and home care workers? We’re fighting to make
sure that publicly funded workers with our tax dollars are provided with a wage
that keeps people from being evicted, from living in their cars, from carrying
thousands of dollars in medical debt.”
House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford,
challenged legislators to keep perspective.
Recalling the decade of the 2010s, which featured several
budget deficits, two major tax hikes and several cuts to core programs, Rojas
said the new plan is far removed from that.
“We really are in a really good, healthy place,” he said.
But while touting the plans new investments in education,
social services, health care and housing, Rojas noted the striking health care
workers continue to protest daily outside the Capitol and that many believe
core programs still need more resources.
“So we know that the need continues,” he added.
Big savings targets could force Lamont to shrink staffing
further
Another element of the new budget also has raised concerns
with labor, and it stems from legislators’ struggles to live within the
spending cap.
This mechanism tries to keep spending growth in line with
inflation or the increase in household income.
But what has happened, historically, is that a few cost
drivers — employee wages and benefits, as well as required contributions to
public sector pensions — grow faster than personal income and inflation.
Everything else, like social services, health care and aid to towns, is lucky
if it stays flat year over year.
Factor in the recent economic damage caused by the pandemic
and by surging inflation, and too many core programs need a dramatic infusion
of cash at once.
One way legislators found to move around that cap is to
carry forward a significant portion of this year’s surplus into the new budget.
In this case, they are moving almost $340 million from this fiscal year’s $2.95
billion surplus into the new biennium.
Another way to get around the cap is to artificially lower
the bottom line by building savings targets into the budget plan. The new
budget assumes the governor will lower General Fund spending by $134 million
next fiscal year and by $183 million in 2024-25 by finding savings along the
way.
Lamont’s predecessor, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, routinely
received aggressive savings targets from legislators during his tenure, which
ran from 2011 through 2018. And the state’s Executive Branch workforce dropped
by 10% during this time.
The workforce also took a big hit in early 2022 when more
than 4,400 veteran workers retired between Jan. 1 and June 30, leaving before
new restrictions on retirement benefits took effect.
The net result, union leaders and many legislators say, are
state agencies that are dangerously understaffed and overly reliant on
overtime.
“Instead of working to address the staffing crisis and
passing a moral budget, Gov. Lamont would rather use state service vacancies to
‘balance’ the budget at the expense of Connecticut residents that rely on
public services,” said Drew Stoner, spokeswoman for the State Employees
Bargaining Agent Coalition, an organization that includes all major state employee
unions excluding the state police. “This budgetary tactic is not meant to be
used in a time of budget surplus and is just one of the many ways the proposed
budget harms working families and fails to meet the needs of today.”
But while some find it hard to live with the spending cap,
that mechanism, coupled with other budgetary controls and savings measures
enacted in 2017 and renewed unanimously by lawmakers in February, made possible
the tax relief and new investments under consideration Monday, said Office of
Policy and Management Secretary Jeffrey Beckham, Lamont’s budget
director.
“Gov.r Lamont has been clear about what he wanted to see in
this budget — sustainable and broad-based tax cuts, adherence to the fiscal
guardrails and sustainability in the out-years,” Beckham said. “This budget
accomplishes those goals, providing predictability and stability for essential
services in future years.”
More funding for child care, medical debt erasure and other
health care initiatives
The new budget also provides additional funding for several
child and health care initiatives.
It includes $67.5 million in total across two years to fund
an 11% rate increase for licensed child care providers and a 6% increase for
unlicensed providers in the state’s Care4Kids system.
Legislators endorsed Lamont’s proposal to use state funds to
help erase medical debt among low-income Connecticut households but scaled the
plan back significantly.
The governor’s plan involves working with one of the
nonprofit organizations that have been negotiating with hospitals to purchase
medical debt at extreme discounts. Those charities then cancel the debt.
Lamont proposed committing $20 million, which he estimated
could be leveraged to wipe out as much as $2 billion in medical debt. The budget
instead includes $6.5 million, which legislators said still could help
eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in medical debt.
About $17 million in grants would be provided in
total to two of the state’s most financially distressed hospitals: Day Kimball
in Putnam and Bristol Hospital.
Another $32 million would support one-time grants to
federally qualified health centers, which are the primary source of health
services for many residents in Connecticut’s urban centers.
Medicaid coverage through the HUSKY program would be
expanded for undocumented children, raising the age limit from 12 to 15 with an
additional $3 million in funding in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Income eligibility for HUSKY C — which provides Medicaid
coverage to people who are age 65 or older, blind or living with a disability —
would increase from 143% of the Temporary Family Assistance cash benefit to
105% of the Federal Poverty Level. Currently, 143% of the TFA monthly benefit
is $700 for an individual and $946 for a two-person family while 105% of the
FPL is $1,276 per month for an individual and $1,725 for a two-person family.
The budget also funds an evaluation of Medicaid rates to
focus on barriers to health care access and other inequities.
And it adds one position in the Department of Public Health
to study infant deaths and to recommend ways to improve health disparities involving
maternal care.
New investments in housing and transportation
The bulk of Lamont’s major proposals to expand affordable
and other housing development statewide will likely be funded with financing
through the biennial bond package, which legislators are expected to adopt
before they adjourn at midnight Wednesday.
The administration, which has been negotiating the bond
package with legislative leaders, says it will include more than $800 million
in capital support for housing development and financial assistance.
But to complement that financing, the budget includes $3
million to help find solutions to homelessness and fund other housing support
services, $5 million for homeless shelters and more than $12 million for other
housing initiatives.
The new budget expands transit services but not by as much
as some transportation advocates had hoped. It includes $18.5 million to expand
bus service and otherwise support workforce transportation.
Rail commuter ridership has been down significantly since
the pandemic, and the budget increases subsidies in anticipation of some
additional riders.
The Shoreline East service, which connects New London and
New Haven, currently is at 30% of pre-pandemic capacity. The new budget assumes
capacity will reach 44% over the next two fiscal years.
And the Metro-North line, which links New Haven and other
shoreline communities in south central and southwestern Connecticut with New
York City, is at 86% of pre-pandemic capacity. The new budget assumes ridership
will rise to 100%.
Other components of the new budget include:
More than $22 million for various gun violence prevention
and reduction programs, including $5 million for housing vouchers for
populations at risk of gun violence.
$12 million for juvenile review boards to assess at-risk
youth and to connect them to support services, and nearly $26 million in
additional funds over the biennial for other youth violence prevention
programming.
$1.2 million to continue allowing no-charge inmate calls and
messages.
$35 million to support wage increases for and to enhance
recruitment of state police troopers.
Yonkers Contracting to Perform Bridge Slide On I-95 in Connecticut
Interstate 95 continues to be one of the most important
transportation corridors in the country, extending from south Florida to
northern Maine. Transportation planners and contractors in Connecticut are
shoring up a section of this vital roadway in Norwalk. The cost of the project
is expected to be $104 million. The venture began in the summer of 2022 and is
expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
The goal of the job is to improve safety on this busy
thoroughfare. Yonkers Contracting plans to use an innovative procedure that
will save time and improve safety by executing a "bridge slide." The
contractor and its team will build the I-95 bridge over Saugatuck Avenue in
Westport, then slide the enormous structure into place in late summer.
The two major concerns for the project are motorist safety
and congestion.
"Our road teams will be reconstructing the center
median and right shoulders along with resurfacing the main highway and ramps at
interchanges 16 and 17," said Josh Morgan, spokesperson of Connecticut
Department of Transportation. "The new median will be consistent with
other stretches of I-95 to provide a six-foot wide capped concrete barrier
section.
"The project builders will increase shoulder widths where possible, making it safer for disabled vehicles," Morgan added. "The workers will also replace drainage structures and set up new highway illumination. The construction team will install new guide rail and reflective markings for increased visibility of pavement in wet conditions."
In addition to the innovative construction on the I-95
bridge over Saugatuck Avenue, the construction team will carry out repairs on
bridges over Franklin Street and the Saugatuck River. For this part of the
project, workers will replace expansion joints and install new standpipes on
the bridges.
The contractors will be taking on other
infrastructure-related tasks.
"The construction team will be expanding Hendricks
Avenue Park and Ride commuter lot, will improve the stormwater quality
treatment, handle utility relocation and extend the Yankee Doodle Trail,"
Morgan said.
The trail runs along the Norwalk River and connects pedestrians
and cyclists with North and South Norwalk. The trail had been closed for nearly
three years during bridge construction.
Work on the trail was just one "green" aspect of
the project.
"We wanted to improve the environmental quality of this
area," Morgan said. "This included the creation of a wetland,
detention basin and sedimentation pond. We will also install hydrodynamic
separators to improve the quality of the flow draining into the Norwalk River.
The team will remove invasive vegetation species and perform substantial
landscaping throughout the I-95 project."
In addition, workers will be planting vegetation on the
riverbank to hold the earth in place during heavy rainstorms.
The work on the I-95 project will require large amounts of
material, including:
130,000 tons of polymer-modified asphalt,
36,000 cu. yds. of concrete,
2,100 cu. yds. of concrete pavement repairs,
2,500 cu. yds. of rock excavation,
25,000 cu. yds. of earth excavation, and
11,000 cu. yds. of channel excavation.
The project required an American Augers Quick Tran Boring
Machine to drill, then to jack a 42-in. pipe under a ramp and bridge adjacent
to I-95. In addition, the team leaned heavily on a regular array of equipment
including cranes, dozers, excavators and paving equipment. The heavy equipment
used was primarily company-owned Caterpillar machines.
One of the highlights of the project promises to be the
bridge slide, scheduled for late summer. The newly constructed I-95 bridge over
Saugatuck Avenue consists of northbound and southbound bridges. They will be
built parallel to I-95 and moved into place after the current bridge is
demolished. The slides are planned to take place on separate weekends.
A steel rail system with rollers will slide into place and then jack the bridge into final position.
Fred Cardillo, senior project manager of Yonkers
Contracting, described the process as the Accelerate Bridge Construction
technique.
"This novel process is quite different from the
traditional way of bridge construction," he said. "The traffic is
very heavy on I-95. It would cause a lot of congestion to divert traffic and
squeeze it down a couple of lanes at a time while we do construction on a new
bridge."
The plan calls for traffic to be diverted onto a southbound
bridge, then closed for the northbound bridge. The northbound section would
then be demolished.
"The existing abutments and piers would be left intact
at an elevation below the new bridge," Cardillo said. "The new bridge
would then be rolled into place then jacked onto the new abutments. Once the
paving is complete, traffic would be returned to the northbound lanes."
The demolition of the remainder of the abutments would be
completed after the new bridge is in place.
This monumental effort would have immediate payoff.
"This approach would minimize the impact to I-95,"
Cardillo said. "Instead of inconvenience for months, the inconvenience
would last only two weekends. Of course, motorists would be informed well in
advance of the procedure."
Like most major construction projects, the I-95 project in
Norwalk and Westport has battled labor shortages and supply chain constraints.
Cardillo believes the payoff will be well worth it.
"The interstate should have less congestion, of
course," he said. "But also, the full shoulders will lessen the
impact to traffic of crashes and disabled vehicles." CEG
Milford looks to end boat-grounding problems with $5.6 million harbor dredging project
Nick Sambides
MILFORD — Milford Harbor will be dredged at a few key points
this fall to keep its boats from grounding in shallows as part of a project
likely to cost about $5.6 million and funded almost entirely by the federal
Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal.
The US Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to go out to bid
on the project with a goal of dredging the Federal Channel and Federal
Anchorage sections of the harbor in October, said Justin Rosen, the city’s
chief of staff.
“It has not gone out to bid yet through the Army Corps, so
we don't know what the entire project will cost. It's my assumption that the
city could be responsible for as much as $600,000 of the project,” Rosen said.
Deeper-draft boats occasionally ground in those two
sections, which have not been dredged of the silt and other elements that
naturally accrue in the harbor since 1988. The grounding usually occurs when
the tides change, Rosen said.
The federal $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs
Act in 2022, which President Joe Biden signed into law in Nov. 15, 2021, will
fund about $5 million of the project, which will likely be the majority of the
cost, Rosen said. Then-Mayor Ben Blake announced that the city had been awarded
the grant during
a press conference at the harbor in February.
The work will include the removal and replacement of the
harbor's mooring tackle, which includes the removal and replacement of 63 Helix
anchors and 140 Seaflex downlines to facilitate dredging of the Federal
Channel and Federal Anchorage.
The act has among its goals the rebuilding of US roads,
bridges and rails; expanded access to clean drinking water and high-speed
Internet; and to invest in community projects and communities “that have too
often been left behind,” according to a
White House Fact Sheet on the act.
“The legislation will help ease inflationary pressures and
strengthen supply chains by making long overdue improvements for our nation’s
ports, airports, rail, and roads,” the sheet states. “It will drive the
creation of good-paying union jobs and grow the economy sustainably and
equitably so that everyone gets ahead for decades to come."
It and the president’s Build Back Framework are expected to
add an average 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years, according to
the facts sheet.
The harbor is one of the city’s economic motors. It is home
to three commercial marinas: Milford Yacht Club; city-owned Lisman
Landing; the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries
Service Connecticut Aquaculture Lab; and approximately 100 private docks.
The harbor has among its ships or boats 11 government owned vessels. They
include homeland security vessels, two fire boats and two police boats that
serve the central Connecticut region; and a city rescue/dive team, Rosen
said.
The harbor features about 250 dry summer storage spaces,
1,313 recreational docks and 19 commercial vessels. The city issues 500
boat-ramp stickers annually, and the regular flow of seasonal transient
visitors helps downtown businesses, Rosen said.
The work will cut the harbor’s season short by a week or so.
Construction Jobs Picture Looks Bright, But Where Are the Workers?
LUCY PERRY
Construction employment is on an upward path and that's both
good and bad. By extension, if jobs increase, so does the need for workers. And
that's the continued challenge for the industry: contractors are beating the
bushes for skilled labor to meet their labor needs.
The AGC reports that as the construction sector was adding
15,000 jobs in April, the industry jobless rate was falling to a record low.
"The number of unfulfilled construction positions is
close to a monthly high," said the association.
As a whole the industry likely would have added even more to
its rolls if contractors could find more qualified workers.
"Contractors can't find, reach, hire and train workers
fast enough to keep pace with demand," said Stephen E. Sandherr,
association CEO. "The pool of qualified, available labor is the smallest
the industry has ever seen for the month of April."
How Numbers Shake Out
Construction employment rose from April 2022 to April 2023
in 42 states and the District of Columbia. While the numbers declined in seven
states, they held their own in Hawaii. This from an AGC's break-down of BLS
statistics:
Texas added 28,000 jobs; New York, 13,400; Indiana, 11,200;
and Florida 8,600. At 5,500 new jobs, Arkansas marked the largest increase by
percentage, 9.8 percent. Rhode Island followed at 7.6 percent. California
logged the highest number of jobs lost, at 5,100; Connecticut lost 1,900 jobs;
and West Virginia dropped 1,200 jobs, minus 3.7 percent).
West Virginia had the largest percentage loss at 3.7
percent, according to the AGC analysis. Connecticut and Alaska lost 2.5
percent, or 400 jobs.
For the month of April 2023, construction employment
increased in 24 states and D.C. Hiring declined in 26 states. Washington added
the most jobs over the month, at 4,300; Illinois added 2,700; Wisconsin, 2,600;
and California, 2,100.
The largest percentage gain occurred in South Dakota, at 2.7
percent. Wisconsin, Washington and Arkansas saw a 1.8 percent gain, with 1,100
new jobs.
Dropping 8,500 jobs, Texas lost the most in April; New York lost 4,000. Alaska had the largest percentage loss for the month at 4.2 percent and 700 jobs.
AGC tracked two construction labor reports, one of which
noted total construction starts in current dollars fell 4 percent from March to
April. That number is 7 percent year-to-date, according to Dodge Construction
Network.
Nonbuilding starts increased 16 percent year-to-date.
Utility/gas plants are up 37 percent; miscellaneous nonbuilding starts, 36
percent.
Environmental public works projects are up 10 percent; and
highway and bridge starts, 9 percent.
AGC analyzed a ConstructConnect report, which found that the
value of construction starts in current dollars decreased 5.7 percent
year-to-date.
Civil starts jumped 27 percent, seeing increases for all
segments including roads, at 25 percent; and water/sewage, 23 percent.
Power and miscellaneous civil projects increased by 40
percent; bridges, 1.3 percent; dams/marine, 102 percent; and airports, 89
percent.
Picture Looks Bright and Bleak
In tracking the construction jobless rate over the past
year, the AGC found a decline from 4.6 percent in April 2022 to 4.1 percent in
2023. Interesting in itself, that represents the lowest April rate in the
23-year history of the data.
At the end of March, the association noted, openings totaled
355,000, just shy of the all-time high for March of 359,000.
The construction sector shed 9,000 jobs that month, the
first decrease since January 2022. This happened even as the sector's
unemployment rate fell and total number of job openings in the sector hit a
near-record high, according to AGC.
Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory
employees in construction jumped by 6.7 percent over the year to $33.94 per
hour.
"Despite a small dip in headcount, construction firms
continued to post a high level of job openings and raised pay more than other
industries," said Ken Simonson, AGC's chief economist.
Those are two signs contractors still want to hire more
workers, he said. "But the pool of unemployed, experienced jobseekers
keeps shrinking."
Construction employment in March totaled 7,888,000, a dip of
9,000 or 0.1 percent from the record high in February. It was the first
decrease in 14 months.
Nonresidential firms shed 1,800 employees in March.
Employment at residential building and specialty trade contractors slipped by
7,000 or 0.2 percent.
The AGC reported the unemployment rate among jobseekers with
construction experienced declined from 6.0 percent in March 2022 to 5.6
percent. That figure represents the second-lowest March rate in the 23-year
history of the data.
"Exposing students and other future workers to
construction will signal that it should be among the career paths worth
considering," said Sandherr.
Construction firms in April provided a wage
"premium" of nearly 19 percent compared with all private-sector
production employees.
The industry is struggling to recruit workers while the
federal government spends money to encourage students to go to college. These
grads are encouraged to work in service sector professions for every dollar the
government invests in career and technical education.
The AGC urged public officials to boost funding for
construction education and training, and to explore short-term measures to
address severe labor shortages.
"Federal officials are making massive investments in
infrastructure while their funding policies discourage future workers from
considering construction," Sandherr said. "They don't seem to want
our citizens to work in construction even while they block people from other
countries from lawfully entering the profession."
In March, AGC reported that many member firms need more
workers but struggle to find enough qualified hires. The association called on
the feds to boost investments in construction training and education programs
to close the five-to-one gap.
"One of the biggest obstacles to hiring is the federal
government's enormous campaign to urge students to pursue office-based service
sector jobs," Sandherr said.
Those types of professions, in particular, require expensive
four-year college degrees, he said.
"If the feds spent half as much encouraging students to
pursue high-paying careers in fields like construction, our industry would have
more workers and young adults would have less college debt."
A state-by-state analysis of BLS data released the ABC found
that in March of this year, 31 states had lower construction jobless rates than
March 2019 (pre-pandemic).
Over the same four-year period, 18 states had higher rates
and Utah's rate was the same.
"High interest rates are creating headwinds for
nonresidential construction projects," said Bernard Markstein, Markstein
Advisors.
President and chief economist of the firm, Markstein
conducted the analysis for the association.
"Until recently, construction employment continued to
grow as builders worked on their backlog of projects," he said. "The
March construction employment numbers were the first indication that employment
growth in construction may be turning negative."
The increase of funds flowing from the federal
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to states and localities will partially
offset the downward pressure in the residential sector. That, in turn, will
provide opportunities for some unemployed workers and companies, said
Markstein. The challenge remains in connecting the two groups.
"The construction industry must recruit hundreds of
thousands of qualified, skilled professionals each year," said Michael
Bellaman, association president. "Filling these roles with skilled craft
professionals is vital to America's economy and infrastructure rebuilding
initiatives."
This increased demand adds to the current level of
above-average job openings. The association's model notes projected
retirements, shifts to other industries and other anticipated separations are
part of the computations.
The construction industry averaged more than 390,000 job
openings per month in 2022. That's the highest level on record, and the
industry unemployment rate of 4.6 percent in 2022 was the second lowest on
record, according to ABC data.
That figure is higher than only the 4.5 percent unemployment
rate observed in 2019.
National payroll construction employment was 231,000 higher
in December 2022 than in December 2021.
"Despite sharp increases in interest rates over the
past year, the shortage will not disappear in the near future," said
Anirban Basu, ABC chief economist. "Contractors continue to experience
substantial demand from a growing number of mega-projects associated with chip
manufacturing plants, clean energy facilities and infrastructure."
Basu said too few younger workers are entering the skilled
trades, which makes it not only a construction labor shortage but also a skills
shortage.
"With nearly one in four construction workers older
than 55, retirements will continue to whittle away at the construction
workforce," he added. "Many of these older construction workers are
also the most productive, refining their skills over time."
The number of construction laborers, the most entry-level
occupational title, has accounted for nearly four out of every 10 new
construction workers since 2012. Meanwhile, said Basu, the number of skilled
workers has grown at a much slower pace or, in the case of certain occupations
like carpenter, declined.
Next year, the association said, the industry will need to
bring in more than 342,000 new workers on top of normal hiring to meet industry
demand. That's presuming that construction spending growth slows significantly
next year, according to AGC.
"To fill these important roles, ABC is working hard to
recruit, educate and upskill the construction workforce," said Bellaman.
CEG
Two workers injured in New Haven building collapse still in hospital, mayor says
NEW HAVEN — Two of the eight workers injured when a building under construction partially collapsed are still in the hospital, officials say.
On Monday, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said both of the
men still in the hospital are in stable condition. He said the site of the
Lafayette Street building is fenced off and secured after it
collapsed on Friday.
Elicker said the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration is investigating the incident, in which workers were pouring 4
million pounds of concrete when the building collapsed. He said the city has
also reviewed its own processes in the building department to ensure that the
appropriate permits and inspections were done.
"There are our own inspections, but also in this type
of project, we require the developer to hire a third party inspection company
to conduct inspections as well," he said. "We're reviewing that to
make sure that all inspections were done properly."
Elicker said the city has not uncovered anything in that
review that is out of the ordinary, nor do they know the cause of the accident
yet.
"We're very much hoping for the full recovery of
everyone who was injured," he said.
Previously, city officials have said the workers had poured
about three-quarters of 4.2 million pounds of concrete on a second-floor slab
when the floor collapsed into the first floor and basement, trapping several
workers. They said the amount of work they completed had an accumulated weight
of about 3.2 million pounds.
Officials said it took about 45 minutes for the fire
department to rescue six workers trapped and injured from the collapsed
concrete and reinforcement metal bars. A Connecticut State Police K-9 followed
up with a search of the debris to make sure no one had been left behind, they
said.
In addition to the OSHA investigation, officials said the
police department is conducting its own probe.
RMS Companies owns the building and is developing the
project, while Yale University owns the land, city officials said. Company
founder and CEO Randy Salvatore said in a statement issued Saturday that the
safety of his construction crews was their "top priority."
"Our thoughts are focused on a full recovery for those
who were injured, and we greatly appreciate the heroic work of the first
responders," Salvatore said. "We will continue to work with our
safety team and all of the appropriate government agencies to fully investigate
the incident.”
The building is one of several that RMS is working on or has
completed in the New Haven area, according to the company's website. Billed as
112 luxury apartments at City Crossing, the building at 188 Lafayette St. that
collapsed was to be seven stories high with a two-story underground garage area
and a one-story above-ground garage, city officials said.
Step By Step, Rescuers Dodged Danger To Save A Life In Partial Building Collapse
PAUL BASS
Capt. Ryan Almeida looked down into a 30-foot hole
where a concrete deck had collapsed and a construction worker was now
buried in rubble. He and his crew had to figure out a way to pull the man
out. Fast.
It wasn’t going to be simple.
Almeida and the New Haven Fire Department rescue company he
oversees faced that challenge on Friday afternoon after
an apartment building under construction on Lafayette Street partially
collapsed.
They moved fast, but carefully, amid danger to themselves to
save the life of a laborer for an Orange-based company called Seven
Concrete while helping to build the sixth new apartment complex rising on
a former Urban Renewal-leveled asphalt stretch of the Hill neighborhood.
(Eight workers in all were hospitalized. As of Monday morning, six of the eight
workers had been released, according to Yale New Haven spokesperson Mark
D’Antonio. Two workers remained hospitalized and listed in fair condition. One
of them, who sustained the most severe injuries, is a 24-year-old worker
named Juan Solano; it could not be confirmed at the time of publication of this
article that he was the same worker whom the NHFD rescued from
the rubble.)
“It was the most impressive rescue I’ve ever seen on my
21 years on this job,” said Assistant Fire Chief Daniel Coughlin.
“Think about what they did: The person fell 30 feet in
the wet concrete. They dug him out by hand with hand shovels. They set up
a rigging system to haul him out of that hole. They attached it to Truck
1, the aerial ladder, and set up a hauling system. The hauling system
pulled him up. Then the Truck 1 driver painstakingly moved that aerial
ladder without jerking it” and brought the construction worker, unconscious but
alive, out to Lafayette Street and into an ambulance to the hospital, where his
condition has improved from critical to fair.
Three days later, Almeida on Monday walked the Independent
through each step of that rescue in an interview.
Almeida was riding in the front of the department’s rescue
truck and firefighter Jason Rivera was behind the wheel when the call came in
Friday at 12:38 p.m. about a partial building collapse. They were headed
back to the Whitney Avenue station from the Ella Grasso Boulevard fire training
facility, where Almeida, who oversees the rescue company, had conducted
a practice rescue of a firefighter stuck up on a high ladder.
They didn’t know much about the call they were responding to
as Rivera steered toward the partial collapse at 188 Lafayette St., in the
heart of the “Hill-to-Downtown” redevelopment area where builder Randy
Salvatore has been erecting a mini-city of medical district-marketed
apartment complexes under the banner of “City Crossing.” This latest
building is slated to rise
seven-stories with 112 apartments.
Almeida’s crew arrived within minutes. They grabbed metal
cutting saws and hand lights.
“We didn’t know what we were going into,” but they knew it
would be dark.
Seven Concrete workers directed Almeida to a portable
ladder rising to an upper deck they were pouring.
Almeida began climbing that ladder when other workers
yelled, “It’s not up there! It’s not up there!”
He did a glimpse of the giant hole that formed from the
collapse in the interior of the building, with rebar overhanging
into it.
Another construction worker directed Almeida’s crew to an
entrance to the below-ground deck where people were trapped.
Almeida and Rivera climbed another construction ladder down
followed by fellow firefighters Nathaniel Peragallo, James Kiley, and Jason
Lyman. On the first subterranean level, they learned they needed to descend
another tier to reach the trapped workers.
Watching every step, they wove their way past wood shoring and screw jacks, adjustable temporary columns for extra support while concrete hardens.
“I looked down into the collapse and saw seven, eight, nine
workers working with a metal cutting saw and shovels attempting to dig out
someone that was trapped in the wet concrete,” Almeida said.
The firefighters would need to take the risk of entering
themselves: “This is wet concrete. You had a worker buried faced
down. We obviously know you can’t survive face down in concrete.”
But they couldn’t safely climb the ten feet into the
collapse area: “There was no possible way for us to climb down without
pulling rebar on top of us.”
So the firefighters went down a different ladder to the
lower level. Wading through knee-high wet concrete, they climbed over wood
shorting and chunks of concrete to reach the trapped worker.
Adrenaline helped: “Everybody was extremely calm, cool
under pressure.”
The firefighters took over from the construction workers in
removing the trapped man. Kiley and Peragallo used hand shovels, then, when
they got closer to man’s face, their bare hands to remove him from
the rubble.
Meanwhile, Almeida scanned the area. He kept in
communication with colleagues to determine what else might collapse, and who
else might be missing. “We didn’t want somebody else to get trapped. We
didn’t want more things to fall down. We had concrete that was in the
hardening process.”
Other workers were injured, but none others trapped. Almeida
sent firefighter Lyman back up to assess the conditions of injured workers on
the upper level and report back to Battalion Chief Joseph Hilbert, who had
assumed command of the full operation.
Which Way Out?
The next challenge: How will everyone else get out of the
bottom level?
“I’m taking a quick look around. I can see that
there’s other shoring that is compromised. I can see that there are screw
jacks on the other floors that are racked to the side or missing. We probably
have 25 feet of rebar that went down with the collapse that’s still
hanging over us. My main concern was if that rebar wasn’t properly tied
together, it could come down on us at any time. I’m looking for ties on the
rebar to see if it’s tied together. I can see some loose pieces.”
Almeida realized it would take too long and be too
precarious to try to carry the man back out over the ladders on which the
firefighters had climbed down. They would need an aerial rope rescue.
The department’s assistant drillmaster, Eric Riggot, was on
scene and oversaw preparations for the rope rescue: It involved setting up
a “three-to-one mechanical advantage” twin-tension rope system high up
into the air on a truck ladder, then down into the hole.
Back two stories below ground, Kiley and Peragallo finished
digging out the construction worker, who was unconscious. They checked his
breathing, looked for signs of bleeding. They gave him
supplemental oxygen.
Keith Kerr, a firefighter paramedic, came to the scene
with a monitor and medical bags. Other firefighters brought a Stokes
basket, a hardened backed with attachments for ropes.
Almeida moved the construction workers and the firefighters
up an incline to a point with no overhead obstructions or
precarious rebar.
The ropes came down into the hole. The crew placed and
secured worker in the basket and attached it to the ropes. Then Peragallo was
attached to the rope system alongside the basket to ride up as well.
Almeida sent the signal, and the haul began, lifting worker and Peragallo high into the air above the changing New Haven skyline and back down onto the street, where an ambulance crew was ready to take over.
The firefighters still in the sub-basement gathered their
equipment, did a last check for any remaining victims, then climbed back
up wooden ladders to the street.
The rescue was over: Dozens of firefighters had succeeded in
rescuing eight people in all.
The work was just beginning. They would remain on scene
until 7 p.m. Almeida’s crew, Hilbert, and the city’s building inspector
returned with state police cadaver dogs and then a structural engineer to
search again and secure the area from further collapse.
The biggest job had concluded: Saving a life.
Almeida was asked how they feels.
“We’re doing our job. This is why train hard every day,” he
responded. “I ask a lot from the members that work for me. They
perform strongly for me every single day.”
Middletown homeowners turn up in droves to oppose truck terminal in densely populated area
MIDDLETOWN — Amid strong opposition from the public, members
of the city’s Planning and
Zoning Commission continued a public hearing regarding a special
exception request to construct an 8,100-square-foot trucking terminal with 10
loading docks in a densely populated, residential area near Interstate 91.
The applicant, Manjit Sandhu, who owns HHA Trucking in
Wallingford, according to attorney Diane Lord, representing Sandhu, is seeking
a code variance for six acres in the Timber Ridge Road interstate transit zone.
The building would be 25 feet tall.
Some 30 Middletown residents and those who live near the
area, located near the eastern portion of Berlin, either spoke against or
expressed concerns about the proposal during the May 24 hearing that lasted
more than two-and-a-half hours. Five others emailed their opposition to the Land Use
Department.
The plan calls for eight small, and two large, overhead bays and a 42-space
parking lot to accommodate tractor-trailers and employees, Land Use Director
Marek Kozikowski said Thursday. It would be built on wooded land, a portion of
which would need to be cleared,
Neither the commission nor Kozikowski know what
products the business hauls and ships, he said. However, members don’t
necessarily need to know or regulate that aspect when it comes to the zoning
amendment request. “It would make no difference if it were golf balls or
computer monitors,” Kozikowski said.
The facility would take in large amounts of freight,
according to those involved in the project, then load it onto tractor-trailers
for disbursement.
The plan is to move the HHA Trucking Wallingford office and
Meriden terminal to the site, Lord, who works for Willinger, Willinger and
Bucci of Shelton, said during her presentation.
The company owns 15 trucks and employs 13 drivers, she told
commissioners. The plan is to have 13 drivers arrive in the morning, load up
their trucks and leave the site, then return in the evening, park their trucks
and go home, she said.
The project received approval at the May 3 Inland Wetlands
& Watercourses Agency meeting.
Bryan Panico, an engineer and surveyor with
Harry E. Cole & Son of Plantsville, presented the site plans,
explaining that HHA Trucking would maximize parking spaces so vehicles would
not be scattered around the property.
He said the building, parking, trucking and circulation fits
within the zoning requirements, and the company would maintain the 60-foot buffer
to the residential zone. There are other businesses on Timber Ridge and nearby
Middle Street that use tractor-trailers, he added.
Loading and unloading would take place inside the
building, Panico added.
Lord said drivers would arrive between 7 and 8 a.m. and load
their trucks, leave, and return between 5 and 6 p.m. They would not be
permitted to go through the neighborhood, she added.
Panico told commissioners there would be a required 60-foot
buffer between the business and homes, and the building would be an additional
60 feet from the buffer zone. The trucks would be standard 53-foot
vehicles.
Former mayor Domenique Thornton, who has lived on
Timber Ridge for 30 years, read a letter to commissioners strongly opposing the
terminal. Her home is a half-mile from the proposed site.
“I do not believe the applicant has made their case,” she
said Thursday.
Thornton was concerned about safety, particularly for
walkers, elderly people, those who work nearby, schoolchildren, buses, cyclists
and parents with children. In addition, she said, 15 babies have been born on
the street in the last year, and are often carried in strollers.
“Everyone is against it,” she said of residents, who have
been meeting regularly to discuss the issue.
The site has a stream and woods, Thornton said, and the
property abuts power lines. In addition, there is a business on Ken Dooley
Drive that uses tractor-trailers to transport items. Already, they have some
trouble navigating the sharp turn onto Timber Ridge, she added.
Thornton believes the terminal is a clear violation
of Middletown’s zoning codes, which recognizes certain uses and features
that, “because of the unique characteristics, cannot be distinctly classified
or regulated in a particular zone or zones without consideration in each case
of the impact of such uses and features will have upon neighboring uses and the
surrounding area compared with the public need for them in particular
locations,” she told commissioners.
“I was always pro-business as mayor,” she said Thursday.
“You can’t be pro-jobs unless you’re pro-business.”
Many residents showed up to the PZC meeting to express
their opposition to the plan, talking about how the environment, wildlife and
air quality may be affected, as well as property values.
There is no information to back up residents' opinions who
say values will depreciate, Lord said.
Resident Kevin Smith said he was worried about an increase
in noise levels, exhaust fumes, as well as oil and diesel drippings; while
Anthony Elder was concerned about light pollution.
There is a day care facility nearby on Bradley Street,
Sandra Renkiewicz pointed out, and the surrounding roads are not built for
tractor-trailers.
Sarah Meister, who told commissioners that trash
already is strewn along the sides of Timber Ridge Road, said she believes the
brook would become contaminated.
Joseph Reikowicz said that he believed diesel fuel
fumes would contribute to respiratory illnesses in children.
The issue will be taken up during the next
Planning and Zoning Commission meeting scheduled for June 21. For
information, visit middletownct.gov.
Plainfield Amazon distribution center still not open - here's when it might open
The long-awaited Amazon distribution center in Plainfield
won’t open this year, but town officials said they’ve been assured it will
start operations at some point, perhaps in 2024.
The so-called “last mile” facility on Lathrop Road was
initially set to begin receiving and delivering packages in May 2022, but a
series of delays attributed
to a sluggish economy exacerbated by the global pandemic has kept the
202,000-square-foot building unoccupied.
Town Planner Mary Ann Chinetti on Monday said she spoke with
Amazon economic development principals on Friday on where the opening process
sits.
“I was told they are not coming in 2023, but are looking at
a 2024 opening,” she said. “They said they were still fully committed to coming
into Plainfield.”
Next update expected in August
Chinetti said she expects to get another opening update in
August after a summer meeting during which Amazon officials
are scheduled to conduct an overview discussion of the company’s various
distribution and warehouse projects.
Chinetti noted exterior work at the Plainfield site is
complete, but the interior - or “guts” - build-out tasks, such as the addition
of conveyer belts and other equipment installation, still need to happen.
She said lingering supply chain issues due to the COVID-19
pandemic and related economic challenges are largely to blame for the
delays.
18 months behind schedule:Why the Plainfield Amazon distribution center isn't open
Once the Plainfield fulfillment center goes live, workers
will sort received packages dropped off from tractor-trailers before sending
them out to customers via a fleet of third-party contractors trained by
Amazon.
Company representatives previously said roughly 300 to
400 drivers are expected to work at the Plainfield site and arrive in waves of
160 vehicles during the morning hours and depart in vans. During a typical
10-hour shift, the drivers will deliver within a 45-minute delivery area.
Another 100 Amazon associates are expected to work inside the
warehouse.
The facility site on Monday was unoccupied, though green
lights periodically blinked near large metal roll-up doors flanking cavernous
blue-trimmed receiving and delivery ports not far from hundreds of freshly
painted parking spaces.
The facility project, led by the Exeter Property Group, a
Pennsylvania-based real estate investment and development firm, received a
certificate of occupancy in September and has paid between $350,000 and
$400,000 in building permit fees.
Town of Plainfield still collecting taxes on empty building
First Selectman Kevin Cunningham said the anticipated hiring
figures haven’t changed and the town expects to continue getting
regular tax payments even as facility sits empty.
“We will get twice-yearly tax payments of about $205,000 a
year as we wait for an opening,” he said. “And if for some reason Amazon does
decide not to move in, that property can still be leased to another business
willing to come in.”
Cunningham said he’s aware of rumors floating throughout
town that Amazon might simply pull out of the project.
“Those kinds of conversations happen anytime you have a big
building sitting in town unused,” he said.
Amazon last month hosted a ceremony attended
with state officials marking the opening of a multi-story, 3.8
million-square-foot “fulfillment center” in Windsor touted as the largest such
facility in New England.
History of the site
The Lathrop Road location was once home to the
Connecticut Yankee Greyhound, a dog-racing park that opened in 1976, rapidly
becoming one of the most profitable tracks in the nation by attracting gamblers
from across the state and beyond. Competition from the region’s two Native
American-owned casinos in the 1990s, however, proved too much for the
park.
The racetrack shuttered in May 2005 and the property
was bought the next year for $7.5 million by the BVS company, a subsidiary
of the Fairfield-based Starwood
Ceruzzi firm. Winstanley Enterprises, a Concord, Massachusetts,
investment and development company that serves as landlord for several
office spaces and warehouses in New England, bought the track in
November 2017 from BVS Plainfield Investors LLC for $3.37 million.
The Exeter group paid $7 million for the property in July
2021.
EPA announces $8.8M for CT brownfield cleanup efforts
Local, state and federal officials gathered in Waterbury
Monday morning to celebrate $8.8 million in brownfield cleanup funds for
Connecticut.
Between the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress has authorized EPA to distribute
more than $100 billion to “make our air clean, our water clean and to provide
the economic development catalyst that’s so important in these kinds of cities
and towns all across the country,” Region 1 EPA Administrator David W. Cash
said Monday morning.
Cash spoke at a podium on the grounds of the long-shuttered
and decaying Waterbury Companies brass-working site. A wing of this site caught
fire and partially collapsed into the Mad River about a week prior,
highlighting one of the dangers posed by Waterbury’s abundant brownfields.
During Monday’s press conference, an excavator pulled fallen bricks and other
debris from the river.
Waterbury is pushing hard to cross properties off its list
of brownfields. The 12-year-administration of Mayor Neil O’Leary has succeeded
in pulling in tens-of-millions of dollars in state and federal cleanup grants.
“Never would I have imagined I would be in the midst of a
beehive of activity in the South End,” said State Rep. Geraldo Reyes, D-75th
District. Reyes grew up in Waterbury’s South End and still lives in the area.
O’Leary and others have said the South End has been long neglected, but several
large-scale cleanups are underway there at present.
Waterbury was one of the big winners Monday, receiving a big
novelty check made out for $1 million. Paired with $2 million granted by the
Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development earlier this year,
the EPA funding is expected to be enough to finish cleanup on nearby sites
surrounding the Brass City Harvest Food Hub, according to city officials.
That nonprofit provides food to low-income families. Its
recently completed food hub acts as a sanitization center for area farmers, a
market and a distribution center. Waterbury plans to help build out a retail
market building and greenhouses on currently contaminated properties around the
food hub. The cleanup is a necessary first step.
Speakers emphasized the need for continued investment in
communities burdened by brownfields, in order to create opportunities. Several
also focused on the magnitude of brownfields investment being pushed by
lawmakers and President Biden.
“To quote President Biden on occasion: ‘This is a big
frigging deal,’” quipped U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Other recipients include:
The Connecticut Metropolitan Council of Governments received
$500,000 for brownfields assessment in Bridgeport and surrounding communities.
East Hampton received $500,000 for brownfields assessment,
focused on its village center.
Killingly received $800,000 for brownfields assessment and
cleanup in its “enterprise corridor zone.”
New London received $1 million for a brownfields revolving
loan fund.
The Norwalk Redevelopment Agency received $2 million for
brownfields cleanup, focused on a Webster Street lot.
The Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments -- which represents 19 municipalities, including Waterbury, Bristol and others – received $3 million for its brownfield revolving loan fund.
East Hartford seeks to demolish aging 156,790-square-foot retail plaza
East Hartford’s administration is seeking to demolish the
long-languishing Silver Lane shopping plaza in order to create a blank slate
that will appeal to developers.
The Town Council agreed May 15 to allow demolition of a
dingy 107,148-square-foot retail building at the 22-acre Silver Lane Plaza.
Now, East Hartford Director of Development Eileen Buckheit
is asking the council to sign off on demolition of the two other buildings on
the site — a 31,080-square-foot retail building erected in 1965 and an
18,562-square-foot retail building completed in 1963. This request is on the
agenda for the council’s meeting on Tuesday.
Essentially, the buildings are functionally obsolete and
would prove more costly to maintain than they are worth, according to documents
shared with the council. Officials would prefer to create a blank slate for
redevelopment that would better complement nearby developments in a bid to
revive the long-declining Silver Lane retail corridor.
Massachusetts-based National Development is building two
logistics buildings, totaling 2.5 million square feet, for use by Lowes Home
Improvement and Wayfair at Rentschler Field. Developers Avner Krohn and Brian
Zelman are moving to secure a development of at least 300, and as many as 402,
apartments on a 25-acre, town-owned property off Silver Lane.
“It is in the best interests of the town to provide a clean
and empty site to attract new development and capitalize on the momentum of the
area,” Buckheit wrote in a memo to Mayor Michael Walsh, which was shared with
the council.
The presentation shared with the council estimates a roughly
$10 million demolition cost for all buildings on the site, a figure that
includes the $4.53 million acquisition cost, as well as legal and other
administrative costs.
Town officials anticipate issuing bid documents for the
demolition job before the end of July.
Development near Hartford ballpark thrown major curve. Will lengthy delay hurt project’s momentum?
HARTFORD — An isolated corner of downtown Hartford that
struggled for decades to be known for more than its dusty parking lots appeared
finally to have something going for it: a popular minor league ballpark and
brisk leasing of the first of as many as 1,000 apartments.
But a
court ruling last week dealt the city a major blow for the North Crossing project,
setting back more redevelopment around Dunkin’ Park for
at least a year — and probably longer.
The city and the original developer, who was fired from the project on city-owned land, must first battle in court over the termination and who has the right to develop the rest of the land around the ballpark. A trial is expected in April, 2024.
“This litigation from the original developer threatens to
throw a giant wrench into the process,” said Andrew Walsh, a former lecturer in
urban history at Trinity College,
specializing in Hartford’s economic development.
Hartford has struggled with large projects before and skepticism whether big plans would even turn into reality.
The city’s Front Street restaurant
and entertainment district near the convention center suffered through a decade
of delays, three developers, lawsuits and sitting empty for two years before it
started to gain traction.
“People read something like this, and they say, ‘oh no,’ ”
Walsh said. “That’s the soul-killing part of this.”
Some argue the setback for North Crossing is only temporary
— and should not be overblown or interpreted that all development is coming to
a halt in Hartford.
“It’s great when these things happen without a hiccup, but
there is often a hiccup,” David Griggs, chief executive of the MetroHartford Alliance, the region’s
chamber of commerce, said. “So I don’t want us to look at this as a systemic problem
with either the way the city is operating or the way our development of our
city and region is moving forward.”
Griggs said, “The question isn’t if the development will get
going again, but when.”
The $200 million-plus North Crossing project does represent
a new phase in redevelopment in the downtown area and the push to regain energy
behind revitalization that suffered a setback in the pandemic.
Building entirely new blocks, like North Crossing, is a move
beyond housing conversions in vacant or struggling office buildings in the last
decade.
The apartments planned for around the ballpark — built from
the ground up — had the potential to be the most potent validation yet that
there was sustained demand for more housing in the center of the city.
Griggs points out that the fact there is a court fight over
the land — and who has the right to develop it — “in some regard tells us how
valuable this land is.”
‘A little bit harder to restart’
The construction delay also is coming at a time when
conversion of existing office buildings for housing and other uses may again
come to the forefront, in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Major employers in downtown Hartford have plans to downsize
office leases as more of their workers have moved to home offices for some or
all of the work week. That is raising concerns about what to do with the excess
space.
Michael W. Freimuth, executive director of the
quasi-public Capital Region Development
Authority, said the current high construction costs and borrowing rates
following Covid might have delayed construction a bit anyway.
“But, you have on the other side of the ledger that says, yeah but the attention was focused on new construction a year ago,” Freimuth said. “It’s increasing being focused on conversion of existing stock and that’s going to suck up some energy.”
Over the past decade, CRDA has invested tens of millions of
dollars in state taxpayer-backed loans in redevelopment projects, many of them
for housing. The public funds sought to attract more private investments.
The second phase of North Crossing “was already at the
launching gate, so it was going to get out of it,” Freimuth said. “And now,
it’s going to be a little bit harder to restart it because we’re going to have
to take our resources and focus on the buildings that are empty right now,
thanks to Covid.”
A constellation of projects
While a major project, North Crossing is just one of a
constellation of more
than two dozen notable developments throughout the city.
One, the Arrowhead Gateway redevelopment is just a five minute walk to the north from Main and Trumbull streets where the next phase of North Crossing is planned. The $18 million project includes the conversion of three historic buildings and the construction of a new one. The apartments will be mixed-income and could be completed in 2024.
Between North Crossing and Arrowhead is the Semilla Cafe + Studio coffee shop where co-owner Elijah Hilliman said the delay is clearly disappointing.
Hilliman had seen a bit of a bump in customers from the
first phase of apartments and he was hoping for more as North Crossing unfolded
in the coming years.
“It’s definitely a step back,” Hilliman said. “But do we
just not do anything now? Do businesses just say, ‘I’m not going to open
because this one thing?’ We still have to keep on going.”
Hilliman said he hopes entrepreneurs like himself elsewhere
in the city, such as the Pratt Street corridor, continue to invest and open
their businesses.
“Their space and ideas and visions matter to the overall
thread of Hartford,” Hilliman said.
Years of litigation
The North Crossing area was once a vibrant section of Main
Street until it was torn apart from downtown by the construction of I-84 in the
1960s. The stretch suffered a slow, gradual decline.
The rise of the suburban office park in the 1970s led the
city to designate the land as a kind of urban office park. Two data processing
centers also were built, and the 13-acre campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s graduate
center opened. But the effort didn’t spark the sought-after economic
development that was originally envisioned.
Not until decades later, when ground was broken in 2015 for
what would become Dunkin’ Park, did a viable redevelopment appear to be in the
making.
North Crossing and Arrowhead Gateway are seen as critical to
reconnecting downtown to the city’s neighborhoods to north, repairing some of
the damage done by the interstate highway construction.
The original developers — Centerplan Construction Co. and
DoNo Hartford LLC — were hired by former Hartford Mayor Pedro E. Segarra. But
the project turned controversial under his successor, current Mayor Luke
Bronin, whose administration alleged missed deadlines, cost overruns and shoddy
workmanship. The developer was fired and the 6,100-seat stadium was completed
by another contractor, and the Yard Goats played their first season on the
road.
Centerplan and DoNo Hartford were later fired from the
mixed-use redevelopment around the ballpark before it started.
The developers filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. In
2019, a Superior Court jury in Hartford sided with the city. Soon after, the
city successfully argued that restrictions on the land around the stadium be
lifted, allowing the city to bring in a new developer.
Randy Salvatore, of Stamford-based RMS Cos., was hired and
completed the first 270 apartments in 2022. The rentals are now 95% leased.
Another twist
But in another twist, Centerplan and DoNo Hartford appealed
the jury verdict and, last year, the
State Supreme Court ordered a new trial. The justices said one key
issue in the dispute — who had control over the stadium designs — needed to be
fully explored by a jury.
Centerplan and DoNo Hartford also sought
to regain control over the land around the ballpark. That was the
argument that led to last week’s ruling that any decision would have to wait
until after the second trial.
Salvatore said last week he is committed to Hartford for the
“long haul” and is embarking on other projects in the city. Those include the
conversion of the top floors of the Hilton Hartford hotel into apartments.
There also is speculation that he might be interested in acquiring and
developing former Rensselaer campus near North Crossing, which is for sale.
Salvatore has declined to comment.
Louis R. Pepe, an attorney for Centerplan and DoNo Hartford,
said last week the city was well aware of the risks of moving ahead while there
was an appeal pending. His clients competed for the right to develop the
ballpark and the land around it “and they are just as willing, ready and able
to develop them today as they were then,” Pepe said.
Bronin, who is not running for reelection in November, said
he believes the city will emerge victorious in the second trial.