Here are some of the projects CT plans to spend $856 million on, if approved
Connecticut officials will meet this week to consider
approval of more than $856 million for projects that range from complex and
costly bridge replacements to installing toilets at state parks.
The decision of whether to fund those capital improvements
is up to the State Bond Commission, a 10-member body chaired by Gov. Ned
Lamont. The commission will hold its final meeting of the current fiscal year
on June 7.
An agenda for
the meeting released on Friday included more than $519 million in general
obligation bond allocations, as well as nearly $337 in special tax obligation
bonds that are mostly used to cover transportation projects such as highway
construction and mass transit, according to Office of Policy and Management
spokesman Chris Collibee.
The decision to borrow money to fund those projects will
also come after Lamont announced
this week that two major credit rating agency's — Fitch and Moody’s —
had raised the state's bonding outlook from stable to positive. Fitch Group is
owned by Hearst.
“In meetings with credit rating agencies last week, they
were impressed with our ability to control our fixed costs," Office of
Policy and Management Secretary Jeffrey Beckham said in a statement.
"While this is positive news, we cannot rest on our laurels, and we must
continue to improve our state’s long-term financial position.”
Some of the projects listed among the 62 items of the Bond
Commission's agenda include the following:
$144.2 million for bus and rail projects, station
improvements along the Waterbury Branch Line and some of the state's share of
the $1
billion Walk Bridge replacement in Norwalk.
$73.6 million for projects funded through the Community
Investment Fund, including the restoration
of a historic diner in Hartford and the development of a 12-acre park
in New London
$30 million for renovations and other improvements
within the state park system, including upgrades to the boardwalk at Rocky
Neck State Park, renovations to the carriage house at Harkness Memorial State
Park and the installation of new vault toilets
$24.5 million for the Department of Transportation's state
bridge program
$15 million to support a program that offers zero-interest
to first-time home buyers to cover down payments and closing costs
$8.1 million to fund roof repairs and other maintenance
projects at seven interdistrict magnet schools
$7 million to repair water damage at Hartford’s Connecticut
Convention Center and for other renovations at East Hartford’s Rentschler Field
$5 million to finance structural repairs and install a
blue-light system at parking garages in downtown Hartford
$3.2 million for dock improvements at the state's two
historic ferry services on the Connecticut River.
$541,332 to purchase body cameras for police departments in
Lebanon, Naugatuck, Stamford, New Britain and Westport
While the commission gets the final word on whether to
authorize each of the bonds, the investments themselves were authorized last
year as part of a two-year,
$7.5 billion bonding package approved by state lawmakers, as well as
previous year's bond packages.
Lawmakers passed a similar measure in May that increased
bond authorizations for the fiscal year beginning July 1 by about $420
million, according
to the CT Mirror.
Middletown leaders want CT DOT to suspend plans to remove Route 9 traffic lights
MIDDLETOWN — City officials sent a strong message to
the state Department of Transportation Thursday,
asking them to halt their $143
million plan to remove two traffic lights on Route 9, spurred on by
significant issues raised by people opposed to the latest design.
In a unanimous vote and without discussion, Common Council
members passed a resolution in light of many "serious questions and
concerns" about
changes to the highway. These include environmental damage, traffic
congestion on local streets, environmental justice concerns, and a lack of
planning for the proposed construction.
DOT Communications Director Josh Morgan said the agency
received the resolution on Friday, and it will be included with other public
comments.
Council President Gene Nocera has acknowledged that local
legislators have no authority over decisions made by the DOT.
For decades, the resolution also said, the DOT hasn't taken
action to mitigate hazards using other methods, such as warning signals, rumble
strips and redesigns.
The city has received 22 letters on the matter, and a number
of people talked during Thursday’s public session, including Diane Gervais,
owner of Amato’s Toy and Hobby on Main Street.
"This project has the power to vastly change our
community and our ability to do business, enjoy our community, and implement
our plans to reconnect with our riverfront,” she said. "We do not want to
become another lost downtown.”
Gervais feels as though the DOT has "circumvented the
community" and downtown businesses by holding "closed-door"
meetings with no forum for public comment, she said. "This is not how
our state should work."
Over the past three months, Morgan said, there have been
several public meetings with formats that “are equitable, inclusive, and meet
the needs of all residents,” he said. “We remain committed to this important
safety improvement project.”
Thirty-five-year resident Thomas Christopher, who was raised
in the Greater New York area, called the traffic lights removal proposal a
“real Robert
Moses solution.”
An urban planner and government official during the mid- to late 20th century,
Moses was "extremely powerful," Christopher said. "He
transformed the cityscape of the five boroughs with highways, parkways and
expressways.
"He always prioritized the convenience of
motorists," Christopher said. "In the process, he trashed enumerable
neighborhoods," in particular the South Bronx, which became a "byword
for urban dysfunction."
At one time, he added, there were "healthy
working-class neighborhoods until Robert Moses plowed the Cross Bronx Expressway right
through."
Ed McKeon, a former councilman who has spoken out
against the DOT plan for some years, said that it’s time to put their proposal
to the test.
"If the plan is as good as the DOT says it is, then it
should be able to withstand the questions and studies and concerns that have
come forward. If it is such a great plan, and is a plan that doesn't have those
faults, then it will survive," he said.
Morgan said Friday that there have been dozens of meetings
over the last decade on improving safety in Middletown, and that the public
supports the traffic lights removal.
A crash occurs at the traffic lights, both north and south,
nearly every other day, with an injury occuring about ever week, he said.
The DOT presented a proposal to remove the lights in 2016,
Morgan said, after hearing from the public. Based on feedback, the project was
revised, and re-presented in 2018, he added. Following that, the DOT
investigated additional alternatives, which led to the present project.
Wesleyan Professor Brian Stewart reminded people that once
the lights are removed, motorists will zip through Middletown at high rates of
speed, likely disturbing nearby residents. That has repercussions for the
city's effort to reconnect Middletown to the riverfront, he added.
Kidcity Founder Jennifer Alexander called the downtown area
"our bank account, and we could be much smarter.”
She shared her vision for what Middletown could be in 15 to
20 years' time on deKoven Drive, for example. The area “should have beautiful
apartments with roof gardens that overlook the river, and you should be able to
cross through the tunnel covered with mosaics, and go down Union Street,"
she said.
Yuri Branzburg talked about equity. "Citizens on a
$50 bicycle ought to have the right to as much of the road as a citizen in a
$50,000 car," he said. "This most basic principle of social justice
should underpin the entire project.
"Public good should outweigh self-interest,” Branzburg
continued. “We're having an opposite effect.”
For more information, visit bit.ly/4bjjhF1
See what Stamford's new Westhill High School could look like: 'Very very in progress first shots'
STAMFORD — It's still unclear what the new $301
million Westhill High School will ultimately look like, but members
of the Board of Education got a sneak peek of one possibility Tuesday
night.
Katherine LoBalbo, the district's director of school
construction, presented preliminary illustrations of one version of the new
school, including images of the cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium, swimming
pool, hallways and various drawings of the building exterior.
But LoBalbo was clear that all of the images presented were
far from the final designs for the school.
“They tend to look finished and polished but these are
really just very very in progress first shots of what these volumes could be,”
she said.
The estimate for the entirety of the work to demolish and
rebuild Stamford's biggest school is
$301.3 million, with the state paying
80 percent of eligible expenses.
However, there are a number of ineligible costs that add up
to tens of millions of dollars, as well as parts of the work that would be
eligible for a "limited" reimbursement, such as the plan
to build or maintain a swimming pool in the school. When those non-eligible
costs are added up, the city's share could be as much as $100 million or so,
according to the city's own cost estimate.
The Westhill project is part of a multi-year, $1.5
billion plan to improve all of the city's schools, which includes
replacing some aging schools with new buildings. The city is expecting to pay
for roughly half of that amount, with the state picking up the rest.
LoBalbo said a team of consultants is finishing up the
schematic design process for Westhill.
“Schematic design is when they really start to put pen to
paper,” she said.
Next, they will work on identifying the project's
"guaranteed maximum price," which she said would be announced in
2025.
“We are still a ways away,” she said.
The new school, under the current plan, would be built just
north of the current Westhill High School, which would remain open as work
progresses. Eventually, the school's gym would be demolished in order to build
a new gym. Then, the rest of the high school would be torn down to make way for
phase two of the gym construction, including a new swimming pool.
The academic part of the new school would take three years
to complete.
The current location of the school would be mostly taken up
by public and visitor parking once the project is complete.
The only structure that will remain is the agri-science
building, which would be connected to the main school under the plan.
Currently, students have to leave the school in order to get to the building.
Norwich Public Utilities sewage treatment project to receive loan from Electric Division
Claire Bessette
Norwich ― When the Norwich Public Utilities Sewer Division
needs ready cash to pay contractor bills on the $200 million sewage treatment upgrade project, it doesn’t
have to go far to obtain a short-term loan.
For the second straight year, the NPU Sewer Division has
received approval for a $15.5 million short-term line of credit from the NPU
Electric Division to help cover costs of the ongoing work to build a new sewage
treatment plant on Hollyhock Island near Norwich Harbor. The Board of Public
Utilities Commissioners, which doubles as the Sewer Authority and oversees all
NPU operations, approved the loan agreement Tuesday.
The loan money will be paid back with the same interest rate
that the Electric Division cash reserves earn on money kept in its M&T Bank
account, currently 5%.
The new line of credit will be available to the Sewer
Division beginning July 1 and must be paid back in full by June 30, 2025.
NPU General Manager Chris LaRose said the loan is necessary
as bills must be paid to contractors working on the massive project sooner than
reimbursement it receives for the work from the state through the Clean Water
Fund. The project has been approved for a $67.6 million Clean Water Fund grant.
But NPU officials said it can take several weeks for the
state to process portions of the grant reimbursement. The Sewer Division
currently has approximately $3.5 million in cash on hand, plus about $8 million
in reserve funds, NPU spokesman Chris Riley said. The Electric Division has
approximately $21 million in cash.
Since November, invoices from contractors have totaled
between $700,000 and $4.5 million per month, Riley said, for a total of $15.6
million spent so far on the sewage treatment plan.
The first loan of $15.5 million from the Electric Division
to the Sewer Division must be paid in full by June 30, LaRose said, per state
regulations that limit the transactions to one year. According to the
resolution approved Tuesday, the Sewer Division owes the Electric Division
$7,679,175 on the loan obtained in 2023. Riley said a state reimbursement check
is expected within the next few weeks, and the Sewer Division will use cash
reserves for part of the payment.
“Without this type of financial arrangement ― which NPU has
entered into multiple times in its history ― we would have raised sewer rates
for our 10,0000 customers to account for the necessary, additional $15.5
million,” Riley wrote in an email explaining the agreement.
Danbury allows rehab hospital to cut back on parking as trees are cleared for project on west side
DANBURY — As workers began clearing trees this week to
make room for a rehabilitation hospital on one of the last construction sites
in the village-size
neighborhood known as the Reserve, the city of Danbury gave a parking
break to the inpatient facility to prevent “a field of empty asphalt.”
“Without this proposed regulation change, Encompass Health would probably
have far too many parking spaces,” said Charles Lichtenauer, an attorney
representing the inpatient facility that is clearing ground at the Reserve for
a new 100,000-square-foot hospital. “Encompass Health would like to avoid a
field of empty asphalt when the property could otherwise be undisturbed.”
During a public hearing
Tuesday, Lichtenauer referred to a thickly wooded 34-acre property
north of the 1.3-million-square-foot office building known as the
Summit and south of two dense condominium developments in the heart of
the Reserve.
On Wednesday, a hard hat crew with chain saws and
tree-clearing tractors was at work at the property on Reserve Road and
Corporate Center Drive, preparing the last of two sites to be developed on the
550-acre former headquarters of Union Carbide.
The city’s Zoning Commission gave its unanimous approval for
Encompass Heath to provide half the patient parking spaces required in its 2021
approval, after agreeing with the hospital’s reasoning that patients undergoing
medical rehabilitation don’t have the same parking needs as outpatients.
“Inpatient facilities require less parking — mainly
because most patients are unable to drive to the facility,” Lichtenauer said.
“Patient-related parking would be for intermittent visitors — family,
friends coming to see somebody who is undergoing physical medical rehab on
site.”
Zoning Commission Chair Theodore Haddad Jr. used the
opportunity of the public hearing to ask about construction of the building,
which will begin with 40 beds and could have as many as 80 beds when it is
complete.
“Your building is going to begin with 40 beds and you hope
to double the size of the building with another 40 beds, or are you going to be
building one big building and only finishing half of it with 40 beds, and then
growing into the other half?” Haddad said. “Which is it?”
Jason Owens, associate director of design and
construction for Encompass Health, said the common area of the building would
be constructed first with variable-size patient wings that would be added
according to market demand.
“Our central chassis handles all the administration,
physical therapy, kitchen and mechanicals, and patient wings come off that
chassis,” Owens said. “The first patient wing will be 40 beds, and we will
subsequently be adding on with additions for — depending on need — a
10-bed addition, a 20-bed addition or a 40-bed addition at one time. We don’t
want to build too many beds that we cannot fill.”
The Encompass Health hospital is one of two remaining
development projects at the Reserve overlooking Danbury’s west side, which
includes 1,980 homes in condominium complexes and apartment buildings, and
260,000 square feet of commercial space.
It was not immediately clear Wednesday when the first phase
of the Encompass hospital would be complete. Encompass declined to comment
through its attorney.
The other development also underway at the Reserve is 113 single-family,
age-restricted homes on 60 acres overlooking Ridgefield, known as Regency
at Rivington.
The Regency development, which is billed by Toll Brothers as “luxury living for
55-plus active adults,” and the Encompass Health rehab hospital are the last
two new construction projects for the Reserve. At the same time, new apartments
are being retrofitted at the Summit. The first 180 of the 360-apartment project
were due
to begin leasing in the spring.
City leaders said they welcomed the rehabilitation hospital.
“I’m just really glad such a facility will be opening here
in Danbury,” Zoning Commission member Jackie Cabrera said after Tuesday’s
unanimous vote. “ A few years ago my dad suffered a really bad accident and he
really needed to be in a facility like that, and I am so glad that we’ll get
one here.”
Zoning Commission member Jennifer O’Neill agreed.
“We have a friend who was hand gliding who lives in the
Fairfield and Bridgeport area, and it was almost impossible for him to find a
facility like this.”