Vernon man drove wrong way into I-84 construction zone in East Hartford while drunk, police say
EAST HARTFORD — A Vernon man was arrested early Wednesday
after allegedly driving the wrong way on Interstate 84 while drunk, and then
stopping to chat with highway workers after wrongly entering their work
zone, according to police.
Andrey Kamenskiy, 61, is charged with 10
counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, 10 counts of endangering
highway workers in a highway work zone, operating under the influence and
driving the wrong way on a divided highway, according to Connecticut State
Police.
Police said dispatch began getting multiple 911 calls at
about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday about a driver going in the wrong direction on I-84
in the area of Exit 50 in
Hartford. They said the vehicle reportedly was traveling east in the
westbound travel lanes and callers described the wrong-way driver to be
operating a BMW.
As troopers were responding to that area, police said, Troop
H continued to receive multiple 911 calls reporting the BMW was traveling the
wrong way in the HOV lane near Exit 58 on I-84 west in East Hartford.
They said callers reported the car had entered an active construction zone.
Police said dispatch was called again moments later with a
report that the BMW had stopped in the construction zone and the driver was
speaking with the workers on-site. They said there were 10 construction crew
workers doing a job in various places within the highway construction zone when
Kamenskiy's car pulled into it.
Police said a responding trooper observed a stationary blue
BMW facing the wrong way within the construction zone, with man standing
outside of the car. Once on scene, they said, the investigating trooper
approached the man, who provided the trooper with his driver’s license,
identifying him as Andrey Kamenskiy.
During the on-scene investigation, police said, troopers
determined Kamenskiy was exhibiting signs of impairment. They said Kamenskiy
willingly performed field sobriety tests, which he failed, so he was taken into
custody.
No injuries were reported and no other vehicles were
involved, police said, adding Kamenskiy later was released on a $25,000 bond
and scheduled to appear at Superior Court in Manchester Aug. 30.
Manchester reallocates $2.5 million in soon-to-expire ARPA funds, with $1 million to new library
MANCHESTER — Officials will shift some $2.5 million in
expiring American
Rescue Plan Act funds to projects like the
new library and park
expansions to avoid having to refund the federal government.
A memo from Budget & Research Officer Brian Wolverton,
dated Aug. 1, states that Manchester has
spent or encumbered roughly 58 percent of the $25 million in APRA grants that
the town has received in the past few years.
Wolverton said Manchester has until Dec. 31 to spend or encumber the outstanding funds, which could otherwise be subject to recapture by the U.S. Treasury, and town staff identified roughly $2.53 million previously allocated from ARPA that were not anticipated to be spent by the deadline.
Towns like Ellington have
found themselves in a similar situation, seeking ways to use
unencumbered ARPA funds before the deadline.
Town Manager Steve Stephanou said at a meeting Tuesday night
that while Manchester must encumber all of the $25 million from ARPA by
the end of the year, the town has until Dec. 31, 2026 to spend it.
Allocated but unused ARPA funds listed in the memo include
$850,000 for school
repurposing plans, just under $300,000 for a business investment grant
program, and $200,000 each for office renovations and land acquisition related
to recreational trails.
Stephanou said some of the unused funds were allocated to
projects that could not be completed due to logistical issues, or
otherwise did not use the entire amount that was allocated.
Town staff proposed a plan to re-purpose the $2.5 million by
allocating $1.06 million to construction of the town's new Main Street library,
$850,000 to the
expansion of Charter Oak Park, $500,000 for work
at the Union Pond Dam, and just under $80,000 as contingency, with the
remaining $39,000 going towards assistance programs and Senior Center
improvements.
Stephanou said the new plan, centered primarily around
capital projects, was decided on because Manchester officials know they will be
able to encumber and spend the money before the relevant deadlines.
Manchester previously allocated $2.1 million in ARPA funds
for the Charter Oak Park West project back in May 2023. The Board of Directors
also approved a separate $400,000 grant for the Charter Oak Park West project
at the Tuesday meeting, with remaining project costs covered by the town's
capital improvements accounts and other ARPA allocations.
A memo for the grant, dated July 19, states that the town
recently awarded a contract for the first phase of construction, including the
synthetic turf field, utility building, and parking lot, totaling $3.35
million. An $850,000 contract for the second phase of the project, construction
of a combination skate park and pump track, was awarded back in January
2024.
As for the new library, voters
approved up to $39 million in bonds for the project at a referendum
held in November 2022. While the price tag for the 72,450-square-foot building
fronting Main Street has grown
to $53.6 million in the years since its approval, Manchester has applied
for and secured
funding from a variety of sources and officials do not expect to issue
the full $39 million in bonds.
The Board of Directors ultimately approved the proposed
reallocations at a meeting Tuesday night, but kept some $15,000 previously left
unspent for a pilot of a "baby box" program that provided new parents
with a variety of relevant supplies and services.
State contracting board mulls removing DEEP’s contracting authority
Mark E Fitch
Members of the State Contracting Standards Board (SCSB)
discussed possible enforcement actions against the Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection (DEEP) after the department has ignored multiple requests for information related to a
statutorily required audit, including removing DEEP’s ability to enter
contracts.
The SCSB has been conducting audits on state agencies to
ensure their contracting practices meet statutory guidelines – part of the
SCSB’s responsibilities under state law – but DEEP has been ducking their
requests for information related to five contracts since October of 2023,
putting SCSB’s audit behind schedule.
Unlike the Auditors of Public Accounts, which is part of the
legislature, the SCSB has actual enforcement abilities, including the ability
to removing a state agency’s ability to contract services.
Essentially, the nuclear option, state
statute says that with a two-thirds vote by the board, the SCSB may
“restrict or terminate the authority of any state contracting agency to enter
into any contract or procurement agreement,” if the agency has “failed to
comply with statutory contracting and procurement requirements and evidenced a
reckless disregard for applicable procedures and policy,” and the restriction
is in the state’s best interest.
Longtime board member Sal Luciano said no one really wants to do it but they can if they have to. Luciano suggested a more incremental method of getting DEEP to comply with the audit before moving to restrict the agency’s contracting authority.
“First is the wall of shame. There’s no reason the
environmental protection agency is not cooperating with us – they should be,”
Luciano said during the SCSB’s August 9 meeting. “Secondly, this is not
voluntary. They have to provide us that information. The statute says so and I
think it’s important that we send a letter out to them.”
“Lastly, our biggest enforcement we have is the purse
strings,” Luciano continued. “We could actually take over purchasing for the
agency. Now, I’m sure we don’t want that, but I know the agency doesn’t want
that.”
Since October of 2023, the SCSB staff and chief procurement
officer have sent multiple requests to DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes and Chief
of Staff Andrew Hoskins, most of which have gone unanswered well past the
SCSB’s audit deadline of June 30, 2024.
The SCSB had requested materials related to five contracts
between DEEP and private vendors for repair to the Pachaug Dam, consulting, and
energy efficiency services. Most of the contracts were not competitively bid,
according to contracting report from the Office of Policy and Management.
The SCSB often finds itself at odds with governors and
executive branch agencies given their enforcement capabilities, and the board
was only recently granted funding for its full contingent of staff by the
General Assembly. The Lamont administration in the past has argued the SCSB is
duplicative, pointing to the Auditors of Public Accounts, which regularly
audits and issues reports on state agencies, but without the ability to enforce
any of their findings.
SCSB board members did discuss working with the state
auditors on correcting this issue with DEEP, also positing that some state
departments may feel that they are being hit twice with audits if
simultaneously having to comply with both SCSB and the state auditors’
requests.
Nevertheless, DEEP was the only agency out of eleven that
had not provided any information at all to the SCSB.
“Some agencies may be busy. They may think they don’t need
to do it right away. Well, they do,” Luciano said. “I would suggest the wall of
shame first, a strongly worded letter to them saying they don’t have a choice,
they need to comply, and then the last piece of it is to point out 4e-7, which
is they can’t even control their own purse strings anymore if they refuse to
comply.”
Mid-Year Utility Infrastructure Outlook
The Utility Expo
Spending on infrastructure for power, water, wastewater and
telecom will continue to grow through the balance of 2024, driven by the public
investment in water and wastewater as well as the energy transition.
In its second-quarter outlook, FMI forecasts spending of
$134 billion in the power sector in 2024, up 9 percent over 2023. This sector
includes electricity as well as natural gas and oil.
Nationwide, the forecast for electricity demand increased
from 2.6 percent to 4.7 percent growth over the next five years, as reflected
in 2023 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings.
"Given the absurdly large power requirements of data
centers, increased market share for electric vehicles and a push to modernize
the U.S. transmission network, this subsegment should remain strong for the
next several years," said Zack Fritz, economist of Associated Builders
& Contractors (ABC).
"A significant driver is building resiliency into the
grid in the face of more extreme weather events," said Daniel Shumate,
managing director of FMI Capital Advisors Inc. Efforts include installation of
stronger poles, covered powerlines and burying miles of powerlines in high
wildfire risk areas.
Alex Carrick, chief economist of ConstructConnect, said that
in addition to spending on grid resilience and electric cars, manufacturing
also is transitioning to electric power.
"Any company with an industrial process that uses heat
is going to try to switch from fossil fuels over to electricity," he said.
"Natural gas is a power source that — despite corporate
pledges to the contrary — will be necessary to meet the increased power demand
of the next decade," said Fritz. "We're also increasingly an LNG
exporter."
He expects moderate increases in natural gas-related
projects as a result of rising demand for exports. However, the tale is
different for oil. According to Fritz, oil-related construction spending has
fallen 91 percent since the all-time high in 2014 and accounted for just 1.4
percent of private-sector power-related construction spending in 2023.
"It's a replacement and service market," said
Schumate of the oil market. "It's keeping up with inflation and not much
else. There is limited new construction."
Water, Wastewater Outlook
FMI forecasts spending of $30 billion in 2024 on water
supply, up 8 percent over 2023. Federal investments are driving spending. The
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocates $50 billion towards safe
drinking water, including $15 billion in grants and loans to identify and
replace lead service lines and an additional $11.7 billion to finance any
drinking water infrastructure priority, including lead service line
identification and replacement.
In February 2024, the EPA announced over $3.2 billion would
be made available through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to expand
access to clean drinking water across the country, bringing the total amount of
funding announced under this category to $8.9 billion.
The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation is
investing $1 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to construct seven
major Rural Water Projects to deliver new supplies of clean drinking water to
rural communities.
Shumate believes that in the wake of some tragic events
surrounding water quality in Flint Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi, the job
of managing water utilities has moved "from keeping the water bill small,
to keeping the water safe." The EPA estimates that the United States needs
$650 billion over the next 20 years to improve safe drinking water
infrastructure.
Sewage and wastewater disposal spending will top $46 billion
in 2024, according to the FMI Forecast, 10 percent higher than in 2023. FMI
said the growth can be attributed to a recent wave of residential and
manufacturing investment, domestic migration, a desire to improve resiliency
and the regulatory environment.
Carrick said he has never seen such a large number of water
and wastewater projects mega projects, topping $1 billion, with higher costs
driving up the cost of projects. For example, the Austin City Council recently
approved contracts to complete design and construct significant enhancements
and expansion of the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is
projected to cost more than $1 billion. In California, a $4 billion large
reservoir
"Construction spending for water and wastewater is
surging," said Fritz. "Spending in the category is up 56 percent
since February 2020. For context, spending in the category increased just 61
percent from the start of 2002 [when the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking it]
to the start of 2020."
Communication Outlook
The need for faster and more reliable networks to
accommodate an increasingly connected world as well as the growing use of
artificial intelligence (AI), will increase communication spending by 5 percent
in 2024, according to FMI's forecast. The Broadband Equity, Access and
Deployment (BEAD) Program, also provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed
internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment and adoption
programs.
Shumate believes telecom is the one sector where funds have
been somewhat delayed in 2024.
"It's the challenge of the federal funds impacting the
market," he said.
Election Impact On the Forecast?
With a November election on the horizon, there's no doubt
utilities and utility contractors are concerned with how the outcome will
impact their plans.
Shumate believes bipartisanship will prevail when it comes
to infrastructure investment.
"There's a new industrialization movement inside of the
U.S. that is emphasizing our infrastructure, the things that impact our ability
to compete with the world," he said. The two points on which both sides
generally agree are not wanting to get beat by China and making sure the U.S.
remains competitive.
Labor's Impact On utility Infrastructure Forecast
"The one thing that limits contractors is people,"
said Shumate, "and that is a long-term structural problem that is not
going to get fixed quickly."
Carrick agrees that labor is a huge challenge in almost
every industry and construction in particular.
"The amount of hiring is not keeping up with
openings," he said.
In summary, the mid-year outlook for utility infrastructure
spending remains very positive for electric power, water and wastewater,
communications, and even natural gas. The biggest potential threat is being
able to access the workforce and technology to get the job done.
For more information, visit theutilityexpo.com.