Manchester senior center estimate jumps from $19 million to nearly $28 million
MANCHESTER — The estimated cost to convert
a former church into a new senior center has come in higher than
officials expected.
The town’s Board of Directors thought turning the Concordia
Lutheran Church on Pitkin Street, which it bought for $1.5 million, into a new
town facility would be close to $19 million. Now, the town is looking at a
$27.7 million project.
Mayor Jay Moran, when first hearing the price, said he felt
there was a sense of “sticker shock” around the table after listening to a
presentation from an architectural firm that went over three different
options, with the one suggested by the town’s 21st Century Senior Center Task
Force being the most costly.
That plan, though, would fully convert the church into a
facility with adequate space for all of the desired programming needs the town
has as it works to replace its senior center, which is currently
located in a former school building that is over 100 years old.
Chris Wente, a principal with edmSTUDIO, noted some
challenges with the building that have driven the price up.
“One of the biggest challenges for this piece of property
are the multiple levels this building has,” Wente said. “For a senior
center it’s not ideal to have multiple levels you’re dealing with.
There’s multiple entry points. For a senior center, it’s important to control
the different points of entry to know who’s coming and going.”
Because of that, the firm’s design includes the construction
of a second floor addition over the sanctuary space to “get this building to
function as a 21st-century senior center and not just fit the program into the
building.”
“We’re proposing a two-story addition to connect all the
different levels of the building,” Wente said. “What this area does is it
creates a connection to all the levels and it creates a sense of arrival. We’re
going to have two points of entry … to land in the same spot.”
Outside the building, expanded parking would be installed,
with 176 total parking spaces proposed. There would be planters, gardens, bocce
courts and an extensive network of pedestrian sidewalks.
Dennis Schain, a board member who also sat on the
senior center task force, said he was in favor of putting that nearly $28
million number on this November’s referendum vote, which residents would need
to approve.
“This is such a priority and such a great opportunity that
we need to step out and do this,” Schain said. “We’ll have to deal with the
fiscal realities we face as a result. You can’t compare $28 million to zero,
because creating a new senior center was going to cost something no matter what
you do.”
Town Manager Steve Stephanou said once the board approves a
number, they can’t raise that amount, but they could lower it at their
September meeting.
Moran, as the board talked it over, said he was over the
initial sticker shock and noted that if they went with a cheaper option and
needed to add space to the senior center down the line, that construction would
cost more.
“We have to look at what we’re losing when we start cutting
back,” Moran said, noting that saving $3 million might not be worth it if the
end project suffers because of it. “One of the main reasons we’re moving out is
program space.”
Board member Ed Boland, who also sits on the senior center
task force, said he was “definitely” shocked at the price tag. He even tried to
get it lowered to $25 million at the task force meeting. But last week, he
said, he changed his mind, saying he thinks he’d be alright with $28 million.
“It’s definitely needed,” Boland said. “Today’s price, it’s
a lot of money, but tomorrow’s price, it’s a bargain.”
Board members suggested looking at state or federal funds to
help aid the project, which they intend to do.
“We seem to be operating under the assumption that
Manchester is going to be footing the full bill for this,” said Jerald Lentini.
“We’re also talking about a regional draw. This will be used by members of
surrounding communities. This is something that everyone east of the river is
going to be able to use.”
Ultimately, the board settled on the high end with a $30
million spending package, which would include some extra sustainability
efforts. That number can be reduced at the board’s September meeting before
being finalized for the November vote.
After repeated water main breaks, Waterbury confronts '100 years of neglect'
WATERBURY — Since December, Waterbury
has suffered multiple water main breaks, leaving residents and businesses
without water for days.
And officials know that isn’t the last of it.
“Breaks are going to continue to occur in the system,” Mayor
Paul Pernerewski Jr. said. “We haven’t done enough maintenance over the
years. That’s a problem the city has had throughout its history.”
Pernerewksi said the city’s water pipes — some
installed in the 1940s, others in the 1970s and 1980s — are in varying
condition. The same goes for valves that have failed. But he said it’s the lack
of direct work done on those pipes over the last 70 years that is coming back
to hurt residents now.
“Prior administrations in the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and
'90s — in order to keep taxes and costs down — didn’t do enough
maintenance,” he said. “100 years of neglect. You can’t fix it in 10 years.”
In December, a
Thomaston Avenue pipe installed in 1904 failed, creating a sequence of
events that left thousands of residents without water for days. At the end of
July, thousands more were without water when
multiple water main breaks occurred on Tompkins Street.
“We have over 300 miles of underground pipes. Some of it is
old and some of it is newer,” Pernerewski said. “In the case of the '70s pipes,
they’re relatively thin and they’re subject to corrosion. That’s when you have
the catastrophic breaks. We’re hoping to … analyze the pipes and hopefully
identify spots that are weaker and repair them, which is better than waiting
for a catastrophic break.”
Ramon Esponda is the city’s new water superintendent
and has been in the position for just six weeks. He replaced Bradley Malay, the
former water superintendent who was arrested and charged with forgery after
police said he intentionally lied on his application. Malay has pleaded
not guilty.
“The big issue here is delayed maintenance,” Esponda said,
describing it as “mining the asset."
"You’re living off the asset until it fails and that’s
really a horrible thing to do," he said.
Esponda, who previously worked for the city of New Britain,
said Waterbury’s system is “extremely high pressure” because of the hills and
valleys water needs to travel through.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Esponda said. “You
need a lot of valves, you need high pressure piping and connections. Those
things are expensive.”
Esponda and the mayor both know more water main breaks will
happen. The hope, Esponda said, is to stock the city with enough parts —
and in all the right sizes — to be ready for quicker fixes. Esponda said
water service would have been returned faster during the event a few weeks ago
if they didn’t need to wait for the delivery of parts.
“In order to be prepared for the next main break, we need to
build up our inventory of parts,” Esponda said. “If we had these parts in
place, we would have been up and running in 24 hours. But we had to wait three
days for the parts to get here.”
Pernerewski said the city had already been working at
upgrades before December’s water main break with around $32 million worth of
targeted repairs, including upgrading the high service pumps and mixers at the
water treatment plant, installing new lining on Thomaston Avenue pipes and
installing new pumps in parts of the city.
The mayor had included a suggested
water rate hike in his proposed budget this year to help pay for
future work. The Board of Aldermen approved raising the water usage rate from
$2.65 to $3.50 per centum cubic feet, but
rejected increasing the quarterly basic service charge for residents to $24,
keeping it at $12. The Board did raise that service charge rate for large
commercial uses, increasing it from $12 to $120.
“Part of it will be funded through the rates,” Pernerewski
said. “We do have the lowest water rates … even with the increase. Those we’ll
probably need to keep looking at. We tried to raise all the fees for the
meters. We have to be more realistic about the costs to fix this.”
The mayor said the city will be talking with federal and
state partners to find funding for more upgrades.
In the meantime, though, he said the city remains ready for
any future water main breaks that might again leave residents and businesses
without water — particularly in the winter when the ground freezing and
thawing can stress infrastructure.
“We’re going to minimize it as much as we can,” Pernerewski
said. “It’s going to remain a very old system. Even a brand new system is
going to have these problems.”
In December, the city said they spent $230,000 on bottled
water to distribute to residents. A few weeks ago the city was able to bring
potable water to residents and provide water for residents to simply flush
their toilets.
But had the system been working the right way and the right
parts were on standby, the mayor said, the city would have been able to keep
more residents with water during those breaks.
“We’re going to look to stockpiling some parts in the city,”
Pernerewski said. “If we had this valve … that would allow us to maintain water
on the west side of town. We would have been able to keep them with water. We
have lots of quantity of water. The system is designed, if everything is
working, we can shut off an area and there’ll be a small area without water.
But we’d be able to keep large areas flowing with water.”
Esponda said that preparedness is what will keep more people
with water the next time the city suffers a break.
“If we make proactive decisions, we can minimize the effect
on people,” Esponda said. “We have to stop being reactive. We have to be
proactive.”
New Haven landmark Sports Haven, visible to 140k drivers each day, could come down this week
NEW HAVEN — Sports
Haven, the vacant landmark former video off-track-betting parlor in
the Long
Wharf section known for its highly visible giant murals of racing
horses, is expected to come down this week and demolition could begin as soon
as Tuesday morning, officials said Monday.
The property owner and its demolition contractor, J & J
Demolition, could have a demolition permit in hand as soon as Tuesday, city
Building Official Robert Dillon said Monday. It will be up to them when they
begin taking the building down, Dillon said.
Demolition of the building at 600 Long Wharf Drive — which
is seen by about 140,000 vehicles per day passing by on Interstate 95 —
is coming
about a month later than the previous estimate by city
officials.
Several employees of a hazardous materials abatement company
were still on the property Monday morning, working to get the property ready
for demolition. A supervisor and an employee of the demolition company both
said demolition could begin sometime this week.
this summer, the building underwent an environmental
assessment, Dillon has said. Part of that assessment was to determine whether
the building had any asbestos-laden tiles, he said.
The process leading up to demolition began in February
when a
liability company affiliated with Queens, N.Y.-based Criterion Development
submitted an application to the city. Demolition plans were approved,
with demolition to begin after a cooling-off period that ended on May 27.
Criterion hasn't specified what it plans to do with the
property. Sports Haven closed
at the end of November 2025 after being purchased by Criterion in
March 2021.
Criterion development manager Brian Alcorn did not
immediately respond to a request for information about the company's plans for
the property.
Mayor Justin Elicker said he's also waiting to find out.
"We don't know, either," Elicker
said. "In general, I don't think a sports betting operation is the
best use for New Haven."
"We're here to support" any future use that is
compatible with the city's goals, Elicker said.
The Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan for the Long Wharf
section calls for a mixed use of residential and large format commercial uses,
city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli has said.
One example of large format commercial use might be a
grocery store or other large format retail store, Piscitelli has said.
But as recently as 2019, environmental studies identified
Long Wharf as facing
a significant flooding threat over the next several decades as result
of climate change and storm surges from New Haven Harbor.
Norwich to put $55M police station to Nov. 3 vote
Daniel Drainville
Norwich — Members of the City Council on Monday night voted
to add a question to the Nov. 3 ballot asking residents to approve $55 million
to renovate the former Chelsea Groton Bank building at 300 Main St. into a new
police station.
Last year, the police department offered public tours of the
current 47-year-old police station at 70 Thames St. The tours showcased the
building's insufficient storage and interview space, lack of changing rooms for
female officers and numerous other problems, including mold and water from a
leaky roof that threatens computer equipment.
Police officials have repeatedly boasted how the former bank
building at 300 Main St. would provide much more space, including more
interview rooms, and locker rooms for the department's female officers. The
department currently has 73 officers — while the current station was built to
accommodate only 51.
Over the years, the city has made several attempts to build
a new police station, but those proposals were rejected at referendum or
earlier.
The only council member to speak prior to the vote Monday
was Mayor Swarnjit Singh.
“This need is not new. It existed for decades. And prices
keep going up. From $33 million to $44 million to $55 million. And they’re not
coming down. I do construction for a living so I do know," Singh said.
"And I feel like it fits the overall vision of creating better public
safety for our people. And as we are growing downtown, this has become a need
as well.”
Singh pointed out numerous housing projects that have been
added downtown, and the potential for more in the future, as evidence that the
need for the police station there is growing.
"We as a council can only make the decision of whether
to put it forward to referendum or not," he said. "But I think this
is the time to bring the downtown back to the light, make it safer, make it
more inviting, and move our city forward."
Alderman Peter Mystrom made a motion to push the referendum
to the 2027 election, but that effort was defeated 5-2. The motion to set the
referendum for Nov. 3 was approved 6-1 with Nystrom in opposition.
Nystrom said he did not think residents would approve the
project.
"I don’t think the city has done enough public
relations to promote this bond," he said.
The council's vote was preceded by a public hearing that
lasted about an hour, during which residents spoke for and against putting the
question to referendum.
Opponents' concerns centered mainly on the cost for the
project.
Speaker Rob Dempsky was among several speakers questioning
why there were not more options being presented to the public. He said the
options on the table are either approve the police station for $55 million or
nothing at all, and asked why the city couldn't save money by putting a
substation in the downtown bank building.
"We're being given a false choice," he said,
encouraging the council to slow down and take some time to discuss options.
Speaker Jason Guidone, a Hebron resident and candidate for
the 19th state Senate District seat, said that perhaps it would be better to
build a substation downtown, or explore multiple substations in strategic
locations around the city.
One of the people to speak in favor of the resolution was
Chuck Tyree, a police chaplain for the Norwich and Waterford police
departments. He urged council members and the public to "vigorously
support" the police station project as a vital need for public safety in
the city.
"Norwich police department needs your immediate
support," he said. "Imagine moving all of our sitting government in
city hall here. All of our divisions, offices and officers, and flags, to the
first floor basement of this meeting. I would love to see us try this. And then
try and efficiently administer and govern our citizens crammed in half the
space you need to do your work. That's the current situation in the Norwich
police headquarters."
Tyree echoed much of what was said in an informational
presentation by Lt. Nicholas Rankin that had preceded the meeting.
Tyree pointed out that the building is "falling
apart," with constant failures in heat, air conditioning and plumbing, and
a leaking roof. The dispatch center is in a room with a water-damaged ceiling,
and equipment is cooled with "Walmart fans," Tyree said.
All of that makes attracting quality police officers
difficult, he added.
"We have an opportunity now to take a first step to
meaningfully address that need by actually supporting our officers," he
said. "So, I recommend to you that you please put a new police station on
the ballot in November."
Susan Topping said she thought it was "brilliant"
to have the police station building downtown, a sentiment shared by a few other
speakers.
Other speakers referenced the good work of the police, that
the cost to build a station in the future would likely increase, and that the
former bank building was a good location.