Stamford neighbors complain South End rock crusher is 'so noisy.' Company says building to muffle sound nearly done.

Veronica Del Valle

STAMFORD — City representatives and residents alike started sounding the alarm on potential rock crushing in the South End more than a decade ago. After endless complaints, multiple court battles, legal agreements, and construction delays, the saga may come to an end.

But despite reassurances from Stamford’s Law Department and the construction processing plant in question, some of the neighbors refuse to declare a final victory against the noise and dust they say plagues the neighborhood.

“They’re dumping. They’re crushing,” city Rep. Elise Coleman, D-3, said at a Public Safety Committee meeting last month. Coleman was referring to A. Vitti Construction, the South End gravel manufacturing plant owned by Antonio Vitti that has faced backlash from the city for more than a decade. “He doesn’t seem to be very busy, but he’s so noisy.”

The city last attempted to stop the friction between the construction company and residents in 2019, when it said A. Vitti Construction was violating zoning regulations that prohibit rock crushing in the neighborhood and took the company to court.

Coleman and her neighbors live adjacent to a swath of land zoned for manufacturing-related uses in the South End, which A. Vitti Construction owns. It’s a relic of the community’s industrial past that abuts the multi-family homes that line Harbor Street and Rugby Street, just north of Kosciuszko Park. And for years, the proximity between residential living and material processing has caused some of the neighbors’ grief.

“When he crushes, you hear the buzzing, but even worse, when he was crushing, you can see the soot flying out the two front doors,” Irene Toigo told The Stamford Advocate. Toigo, who lives on Harbor Street near the company’s space, has been leveling complains about rock crushing activity at the Rugby Street plant for years.

As both a city representative and longtime South End resident, Coleman said she has watched the push and pull between Vitti and the city unfold over the years. It comes up regularly in conversation with her constituents and in her own life.

She recalls sitting outside her home with state Rep. David Michel, D-146, at a picnic table. While the pair talked, she felt dust sprinkle all over her face and onto her lips like a dusting of snow.

“Down here, you can’t even sit in the backyard,” she told The Stamford Advocate.

The 2019 agreement between the city and Vitti’s company codified that A. Vitti Construction cannot crush rocks larger than four inches at his Rugby Street location. However, he can process other materials like gravel and brick. Most importantly, the city and Vitti agreed that he must put up a “fully enclosed building” for his operations that comply with “noise, vibration and dust management, ventilation, vehicular circulation, truck Idling, (and) street cleaning” standards.

Work on the facility started in September 2019, and the courts expected it to conclude by March 2020. A few months later, the pandemic derailed that plan, according to Tom Cassone, the attorney representing owner Antonio Vitti.

“We’ve been fighting this for 15 years,” Coleman told the other Public Safety Committee members. “I don’t know what else you want me to tell them.”

Even though some South End residents like Coleman and Toigo feel rattled, both literally and emotionally, by the work they say is happening on the Vitti lot, Cassone said his client’s structure should be completed and certified by the city soon.

To comply with the agreement with the city, “a ‘hotline’ needs to be set up for neighborhood complaints or inquiries, and signage has to be installed showing the hours of operation and the phone (number),” said the attorney.

“It’s weeks, not months,” Cassone said. “Specifically because there have to be final inspections, some noise and vibration tests must be done, and some signage that has been ordered has to be put up.”

But once the shelter becomes a done deal, Stella wonders how the city plans to keep the problems to a minimum. Even though the city’s enforcement powers will fully kick in once Vitti receives a certificate of occupancy from the city, Stella hesitates before declaring victory.

If a neighbor flags the city with a complaint about rock crushing, it still takes time to send a zoning enforcement officer down to the side, Stella started. By the time someone is in the South End to check out the claims, the representatives thinks it could be too late to take meaningful action.

“We need to have an enforcement team,” he said. “We need to have people — boots on the ground— that could actually go out there and make sure this is compliant and to make sure they’re not rock crushing or violating.”

Senate Republicans make new infrastructure offer; House Democrats urge Biden to dig in

WASHINGTON - In an attempt to salvage stalled negotiations, Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a revised counteroffer for infrastructure spending, outlining roughly $928 billion in a package that's still far short of what the White House has proposed. 

Only about a quarter of the total price tag appears to represent new spending above existing or expected levels under the "road map" put forward by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and her GOP counterparts. But the lawmakers still stressed that their retooled approach "delivers on much" of what President Joe Biden had recommended in earlier talks between the two sides.

The White House took a less rosy view, describing the GOP effort as "constructive" even as press secretary Jen Psaki pointed out that it still lacks enough funding for some of the president's top priorities.

But the new Republican counter-offer at least appeared sufficient enough to keep talks going into next week, Psaki signaled, a critical development given the administration initially viewed Memorial Day as a critical deadline for determining whether to continue negotiating - or to try to forge ahead on its own.

"Senate Republicans continue to negotiate in good faith," Capito said at a news conference unveiling the blueprint.

The Republican plan proposes more than $500 billion for roads, $98 billion for public transit, $46 billion for passenger rail and more than $70 billion for water infrastructure. Republicans recommended additional spending for ports, waterways, airports and broadband connectivity, maintaining their belief that any package should hew to what they describe as traditional infrastructure.

But the plan does not close the other gaps that exist with the White House, where Biden recommended more than $2 trillion in new spending on a wide range of areas, including elder care, parents and families. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on Thursday described the scope of the White House proposal as "socialism camouflaged as infrastructure."

Nor does it address the thornier disputes between the two sides over Biden's plan to finance it through tax increases on corporations, which the GOP vehemently opposes. Instead, Republicans maintained their preference to pay for infrastructure using unused stimulus funds.

Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, R-Pa., one of the lawmakers involved in the talks, said Thursday that they count about $700 billion in still-unspent funds under the last coronavirus relief package. That includes money designated for use between 2022 and 2031 to help state and local governments, bolster coronavirus testing and expand the child tax credit, all major Democratic priorities.

"We believe that repurposing these funds needs to be a really important part of how we fill this gap," Toomey said.

In response, Psaki faulted the plan for its lack of funding, particularly toward replacing lead pipes and providing veterans care. She said the White House also did not support cuts to coronavirus relief funds, adding in a statement it would "imperil pending aid to small businesses, restaurants and rural hospitals using this money to get back on their feet after the crush of the pandemic."

But Psaki said negotiations would continue into next week, as the White House seeks to ensure "there is a clear direction on how to advance much needed jobs legislation when Congress resumes" in early June.

Despite the collegiality, the significant differences separating the White House and Senate Republicans still threaten to upend any hopes of achieving a bipartisan deal, something the president has sought since advancing his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package without any GOP votes. Both sides have barely budged in talks, particularly around what qualifies as infrastructure in the first place.

Fearing a potential impasse, a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Sen. Joe Manchin III, W.Va., have privately huddled in recent days to try to assemble their own bipartisan compromise. They have described their early work product as an alternative to the main talks underway with the White House, though Romney on Thursday said the two sides are not as far apart as they appear.

The White House itself appeared to entertain the idea of additional negotiations on Thursday. "We are also continuing to explore other proposals that we hope will emerge," Psaki said in a statement.

The White House has defended Biden's ambitious vision for rebuilding the U.S. economy and workforce, with senior adviser Mike Donilon reinforcing that message in a memo made public Thursday that listed recent public polling that shows broad support for the president's proposals.

"When Republicans criticize the President's plan to rebuild our economy through long-overdue investments in our country's infrastructure, they're criticizing what their own constituents have been urging for decades," Donilon wrote. "When they attack the President's plan to make the wealthy finally pay their share of taxes, they're attacking the American people's basic sense of fairness."

He added: "The American people - across the political spectrum - are sending a clear message, the question now is whether Congressional Republicans will listen."

As it haggles with the GOP, the White House also faced new political demands from lawmakers from its own party on Thursday. More than 200 House Democrats banded together to issue a new warning as part of the contentious debate over infrastructure spending: Include strong union and labor protections, or possibly risk losing some of their support.

In their letter, House Democrats stressed that Congress must couple any new federal loans, grants or tax benefits to improve the country's infrastructure with a series of policy mandates to help workers. The companies that stand to profit from this potential influx of government aid must make it easy for employees to unionize, pay them prevailing wages, take action to prevent wage theft and train workers through apprenticeship programs for future positions, the lawmakers said.

House Democrats also registered particular concern with the emerging clean-energy industry, which could see billions of dollars in tax benefits and other fresh federal investment under Biden's blueprint, known as the American Jobs Plan. In the lawmakers' estimation, the industry already suffers from some of the worst worker protections across the U.S. economy, which they hope to remedy as part of an infrastructure overhaul.

"Whether it is through grants, loans, state revolving loan funds, bonds, or tax incentives, the primary condition of receiving the taxpayers' money must be compliance with strong labor standards," the Democrats wrote.

Three top party lawmakers - reflecting the full political spectrum among Democratic ranks - organized the effort: Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, leader of the Progressive Caucus; Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy, co-chair of the fiscally minded Blue Dog Coalition; and Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, who chairs a key clean-energy task force with the moderate-leaning New Democrat Coalition.

The letter, sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stopped short of explicitly promising to vote against an infrastructure bill if it did not contain these and other labor-minded provisions. But some of the Democrats involved in its crafting said Thursday they expect that any attempt to ignore their calls to action could lose them some votes, creating new challenges for Pelosi and Biden given the party's slim majority in the House.

"We're signaling very clearly with such an enormous group of Democrats across the ideological spectrum this has to be in the next package, that there's really no option not to have it in there," Jayapal said.

Connecticut, in latest uplift, gets transportation bond upgrade

Connecticut's momentum with the rating agencies continued with Wednesday night’s upgrade from Fitch Ratings to its roughly $7 billion in special tax obligation bonds for transportation infrastructure purposes to AA-minus from A-plus.

The state already had received general obligation upgrades from all four rating agencies in six weeks, including three within two days earlier this month. They marked the first upgrades the state has received since 1990.

"These upgrades are further confirmation of significant improvements in Connecticut’s fiscal standing," state Treasurer Shawn Wooden said. "As a result, we will continue to attract new investors and save taxpayers millions of dollars by securing lower financing cost for critical transportation investments for years to come."

Special tax obligation bonds are secured by a gross lien on pledged revenues and other receipts deposited to the special transportation fund before any other uses.

Fitch said the upgrade reflects that of the state’s issuer default rating on May 14 to AA-minus from A-plus, and the standalone credit quality of the dedicated taxes. Fitch’s rating on the STO bonds remains capped at the state's AA-minus, given Connecticut’s ability to statutorily adjust the rates of pledged taxes and fees and their distribution.

“STO bonds are supported by very strong resiliency and solid debt service coverage,” Fitch said. “The rating considers the state's active management of the special transportation fund. as underlying growth prospects for revenues over time are otherwise slow.”

This credit is exposed to state operations through the state's ability to statutorily adjust both the rates of pledged taxes and fees and their distribution among the state's funds.

Although voters approved a constitutional dedication of revenues in the fund for transportation purposes in 2018, the legislature retains its discretion to adjust rates and/or allocations of pledged revenues before deposits of revenues into the fund.

For example, in the fiscal 2020-2021 biennium, the scheduled phase-in of expanded sales tax deposits to the fund was modified to support the general fund. The state actively manages capital, debt issuance, revenues and expenditures in the fund to identify and address cumulative deficits in the fund over the state's longer-term transportation planning window.

After the GO upgrades, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and S&P Global Ratings rate Connecticut AA and A-plus, respectively. Moody’s Investors Service assigns its Aa3 rating.

Connecticut sold $1 billion of GOs on May 18, after a one-day retail period. That sale included $600 million of bonds to fund new projects, which includes local school construction, economic development, housing, and municipal grants statewide, and roughly $400 million of refunding bonds for lower interest rates for savings.

Retail orders totaled $556.2 million, which according to Wooden marked the second-highest on any state bond sale.

Rating agencies cited structural improvements and the bolstering of the state’s rainy-day account. State officials in April projected a $250 million budget surplus, as opposed to an $880 million deficit it forecast in October.

The state is also in store for $2.6 billion under the federal American Rescue Plan.

“Connecticut has sizable reserves and money from the American Rescue Plan will enable it to make investments during the upcoming fiscal 2022 and 2023 biennium,” said research firm CreditSights. “The infrastructure currently under debate in Washington, D.C., could bring sorely needed new funds for the Nutmeg State's creaky transportation infrastructure.”