According to popular lore, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince. In the case of Manchester Recycling & Materials, the frogs were the various types of crushing and screening equipment it has owned over the years. The prince? It's Powerscreen equipment.
Manchester Recycling & Materials was originally founded in Manchester, Conn., and recently relocated to Hartford, Conn. The company's motto is “The Greatest Topsoil on Planet Earth” and since 1998 it has been providing top quality organic screened topsoil, stone, mulch and more for Connecticut area contractors and landscapers. It also specializes in recycling construction materials, including concrete, brick and asphalt, either on site or in its yard, depending on the needs of the contractors.
President Michael Maglieri started his career mowing lawns with his father in the 1970s. In 1998, he began investing in crushing and screening equipment.
“We had a yard where we accepted recyclable material and sold topsoil. We've always prided ourselves in creating a high quality product and the result has been a steady growth in business. When we first started out most of our recycling projects were in our yard and we bought some older equipment that we could afford at the time to get started with,” Maglieri said.
As the company's volume grew and the demand for onsite processing grew, Manchester Recycling started purchasing newer and certainly more mobile equipment. Quick setup and teardown, reliability and maneuverability are essential.
“Initially the mobile machines we purchased were fine machines; however, they were designed for low volume. Today we get involved in some significant onsite processing jobs and the demand for a very mobile machine with easy setup and teardown drove us to once again upgrade our fleet.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUEGreenway's gap in Cheshire to close
CHESHIRE — One of the longest remaining gaps in Connecticut's stretch of the East Coast Greenway is closer to being closed. After years of planning and construction, town officials expect to have the 1.5 mile section of trail between Main Street and Jarvis Street open by May. Cheshire resident Beth Weldon is looking forward to taking her kids out on the trail, part of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, an 84-mile byway from New Haven to Massachusetts, this summer.
"I'm excited for it to open," Weldon said Tuesday after coming from the Community Pool with her two children. She anticipates using the trail regularly on weekends and possibly more when school is out. "We'll probably use it mostly for biking." The extension through Cheshire has encountered difficulties, with three sections still unfinished. Cheshire Town Manager Michael A. Milone said the town is responsible for construction from West Main to Jarvis. Construction of two additional sections, north of Jarvis Street to the Southington line, and south of Main to Cornwall Street, is managed by the state. Milone said the Main Street to Jarvis portion will open before summer and the section connecting Cheshire and Southington will likely open later in the fall. The Cornwall section will not be completed until next year. "It's been more complicated," Milone said, referring to the short section of trail south of Main Street. Planning was delayed for over a decade by a land-use lawsuit and wetland considerations posed obstacles to construction. Milone estimated that the cost for the shortest section of the trail would be the most expensive. "The state stepping in was a godsend."
Without the state's assistance, Milone said the project would have taken 10 to 15 years to complete and would have cost the town much more than the $340,000 budgeted for the project. State and federal grants are paying for 90 percent of the trail's construction costs and the town has received additional money for ancillary projects attached to the trail. "We applied for a STEAP, Small Town Economic Assistance Program, grant to do improvements along Main Street to complement the trail," Milone said. A $500,000 grant will be used for a parking lot and restrooms. Another will be used to add a sidewalk on the north side of Main Street. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE