With Norwalk High School and SoNo School under construction, Common Council authorizes $200M+

Kalleen Rose Ozanic

NORWALK — With construction on schedule at the new Norwalk High School and South Norwalk School, the city’s Common Council authorized hundreds of millions in funding for the high school’s construction.

For the high school, the council approved a supplemental appropriation of $189 million to have the full $239 million project cost authorized. The council also issued $15 million in general obligation bonds as “cash on hand” for the project, according to Chief Financial Officer Jared Schmitt.

The state plans to reimburse the city for 80 percent of the cost of the high school, meaning taxpayers are responsible for $47.8 million, but the city still needed to authorize spending for the full amount. 

“As we’re applying for the reimbursement for the project as it goes along, there may be a lag in time where we don't have the grant from the state,” Schmitt said in the council’s meeting Tuesday. “This ($15 million) is, kind of, gap money.”

Additionally, the council moved $19 million from the South Norwalk School project to the high school.

Council Member At-Large Greg Burnett said the city initially doled out $72 million for the South Norwalk School when the project had a 22 percent state reimbursement rate — now, that rate is 60 percent.

“We’re now able to move those funds to the new Norwalk High School,” Burnett said.

At the site of the new high school, formerly Testa Field, contractors are installing aggregate piling into the soil to “provide support for the foundation,” per Alan Lo, the city’s building and facilities manager.

Aggregate piles are gravel columns installed underground by filling tubes with small rocks, Lo said. At other parts of the high school site, excavation is ongoing, he said.

“(With) such a big building, we can do one thing on one side and do another thing on the other side,” Lo said. “The building is so big.”

In roughly two weeks, Lo said, excavation should be complete and all aggregate piles will be in the ground so contractors can lay a foundation and install footing for the building.

At the site of the incoming South Norwalk School, Lo said excavation is complete and contractors have installed roughly 60 percent of the necessary footings.

“We’ve been progressing very well,” the building and facilities manager said.

In April, the the city was under contract with four of the six properties abutting the site of the South Norwalk School; now, the city owns 32 Oxford St., 36 Oxford St. and 38 Oxford St.

Lo said the city expects to close on 28 Oxford St. in the next two to three weeks.

Continuing from April, the city is in good faith negotiations with the owners of 16 Meadow St. Ext. and a 1.13-acre South Main Rail Corridor parcel.

The South Norwalk School is slated for completion in August 2025 and the new Norwalk High School should welcome its first class two years later.

New schools project in Norwich is $50M over budget

Claire Bessette

Norwich ― The school construction project will cost at least $50 million more than the $385 million approved by voters in 2022, due to increased construction and labor expenses, project officials said.

The School Building Committee recently received the sobering news just as the plans for the first two new schools, the Greeneville and John B. Stanton elementary schools, received planning commission approval on Wednesday.

According to updated estimates provided by Mike Faenz, the city’s owner’s representative from Construction Solutions, Inc., the cost of the four new elementary schools now total $310.8 million.

Adding the final two projects ― the $99 million overhaul of the Teachers’ Memorial Global Studies Middle School and a $25 million renovation to Samuel Huntington School as the new central office and adult education building ― increases the total to $434.9 million.

The total is likely to go higher because updated cost estimates are not yet available for Teachers’ Memorial and Huntington schools.

School Building Committee Chairman and Alderman Mark Bettencourt said project officials learned early on that the cost for the new school on the former Greeneville School site would be higher, because of a rocky, steep-sloped topography.

Inflation and widespread construction cost increases have spiraled beyond expectations for the John M. Moriarty and Uncas schools as well, far exceeding the 8% escalation factor in the original budget.

The projected cost for Moriarty jumped from $64.2 million to $80.6 million, and Uncas from $66.7 million to $81.8 million.

“The City Council is going to have to discuss this at some length on what we’re going to do,” Bettencourt said.

Mayor Peter Nystrom said the council is planning an executive session at the end of Monday’s meeting to discuss the cost overruns.

The city could also ask voters in November to approve the higher costs or alter the project.

Bettencourt and Board of Education Chairman Mark Kulos warned that the need for the project has not diminished. The city’s seven aging elementary schools and Teachers Memorial Global Studies Middle School are in dire need of repairs and upgrades to meet state building code requirements.

“Stanton is being held together with baling wire and string,” Bettencourt said at the June 18 building committee meeting. “They’re doing classes in hallways. Our best chance to alleviate some of these issues is trying to get the new numbers passed.”

A key selling point for the $385 million referendum was a building assessment study that estimated the cost of needed repairs at $222 million without any state reimbursement for those repairs.

In contrast, the city will receive 80% state reimbursement for the first two new schools and hopes for the same for the next two schools. The application for reimbursement will be submitted this week.

Nystrom said one option would be to go forward with the four new elementary schools and delay work on Teachers’ Memorial and the Huntington School to a future project.

The building committee on June 18 voted to obtain cost estimates for a new Teachers’ Memorial school instead of a renovation. A new school might be less expensive.

There is still time to plan for a referendum in November, Nystrom said. The council would need to draft an ordinance and hold a public hearing before placing the question on the ballot.

But the building committee will not have final costs for the Stanton and Greeneville schools until it receives construction bids in January.

“There is some thought of waiting until we get actual construction bids on the first schools in January,” Bettencourt said. “If we do that, we will miss the opportunity to go to referendum in November. It would stop the project until we went (to referendum) to get new numbers.”

Kulos said project delays would hurt the school operating budget. The new schools include space to accommodate more special education students now bused to expensive out-of-town specialty schools. Those costs are a leading factor in the school budget ending in a projected $4 million deficit this year.

“The superintendent is counting on that for operational budget savings,” Kulos said.

Bettencourt said stopping the project or putting off parts of it would only raise costs and require the city to pay for repairs with no state reimbursement.

“It’s a complicated thing with a lot of moving parts, because of the nature of the thing and the large scope of the project,” Bettencourt said. “There’s a reason we wanted to go that way.”

Updated plan for Gold Star Highway properties calls for 390 apartments, realigned entrance

Kimberly Drelich

Groton ― An updated plan for the town-owned 517 & 529 Gold Star Highway properties, along with adjacent privately-owned parcels, calls for 390 apartments, housed within five, five-story buildings, and amenities that include a clubhouse and pool.

The Town Council at its Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday evening approved the updated concept plan and a one-year extension to the option agreement, which was set to expire in September.

The Town Council is slated to take a final vote on July 2.

The previous concept plan approved by the council envisioned about 300 apartments within four, four-story buildings.

At the town’s request, the new plan also realigns the proposed development’s entrance with a signalized intersection at Gold Star Highway and Toll Gate Road.

New multifamily housing developer

Jon Reiner, the town’s director of planning and development services, said this week that in 2019, the town started working with PJ&A LLC as the preferred developer for the town-owned properties.

He said the properties, which have a lot of ledge and are expensive to develop, were once part of a larger development proposal 10 to 15 years ago that did not come to fruition, and the town had acquired them through foreclosure.

“We’re just eager to get it back on the tax rolls since the town foreclosed on the property in 2015,” said Paige Bronk, the town’s economic and community development manager.

Attorney William R. Sweeney wrote in a May letter to the town that over the last several years, PJ&A has worked with several multifamily developers to design and permit the proposed apartment project.

“Due primarily to exceptional sitework costs as well as other related engineering challenges, these efforts have been unsuccessful to date,” Sweeney wrote.

Recently, PJ&A entered into an agreement with Orr Partners, a Virginia-based developer. Orr Partners has developed about 5,000 multifamily units in the eastern part of the country. Orr Partners has an office in Groton and has overseen the construction of facilities for Electric Boat, according to the letter from Sweeney.

The Town Council at a Committee of the Whole meeting earlier this month approved assigning the option agreement for sale of the town-owned property to Orr Partners, Reiner said.

Reiner and Bronk said two privately owned parcels, which are almost six acres in total and which are adjacent to the 11.75-acre town-owned properties, are part of the redevelopment proposal. The privately-owned properties, the former Shetucket Plumbing site and a parcel adjacent to it, will help align the development entrance with the existing intersection with a signal light.

Market-rate apartments

Sweeney told the Council on Tuesday that the five stories with the additional units are needed to offset the cost of the additional rock removal and the realignment of the entrance.

He said the new concept plan also has a smaller development footprint, and there is a larger buffer between the development and Avalonia Land Conservancy land to the south.

Reiner said the proposal will help get more more housing built, get properties back on the tax rolls and would be a good neighbor for Avalonia.

Sweeney said the apartments will be rented at market rates. He said the rents will probably be a little more than $2,000 for two-bedroom units and a little less for one-bedroom units and studios.

During the review, councilors asked questions and said the project would help with the housing shortage, but asked the developer to consider implementing environmentally friendly features such as solar panels, adding an affordable housing component and building a playground and dog park.

Sweeney said the next step is to prepare plans to submit to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and then to apply for a state traffic permit.

Sweeney said the project will be built in phases over two years and units are currently anticipated to be occupied in the spring of 2028.

Deficiencies in New Milford High School's 'traumatic' roof project to be fixed

Kaitlin Lyle

NEW MILFORD — Work to remediate sections of the New Milford High School roof that were insufficiently repaired is expected to be completed over the summer, starting in July, officials say.

“We had a conference call with the bonding company last week and included all the Board of Education partners,” Mayor Pete Bass said at the Town Council meeting on Monday. “They’re going to deploy all their resources to fix that portion of the roof… They did agree to do the right thing, which is to make the high school roof contractually [finished] like it should have been all along.”

The six-year-long ordeal has included two fires, leaks and the discovery that some panels had been fastened improperly. 

The town and school board have been discussing their options for finalizing repairs on the roof over the last five months — particularly in terms of addressing the fasteners and clips installed on the roof by United Roofing & Sheet Metal, the project’s original contractor. Officials also remedied persistent leaking issues in the roof that were traced back to the roof’s cupola this past spring.

The roof project began about six years ago as a $4.75 million effort to upgrade the aging roof and repair damage from a microburst storm in 2018. Silver Petrucelli & Associates, hired by the town in 2020, recommended replacing the asphalt roof and restoring the flat roof with a standing seam roof.

Work on the roof was delayed after the roof caught fire twice, with the second fire in July 2022 causing damages to the roof and the high school building.

While repairs were completed late last year by Greenwood Industries, a roofing contractor, safety concerns were raised about the fasteners and clips installed by the original company. 

Dean Petrucelli, architect for Silver Petrucelli & Associates, reported to the town’s Municipal Building Committee last May that some of the roof’s panels had been fastened with two screws while other panels had been fastened with only one screw, according to the committee’s meeting minutes. United Roofing had completed part of the project but was fired after the second roof blaze.

The contractor Fuss & O’Neill, hired by the town in September to assess the standing seam metal roof, found single screws at many clips on the roof as well as “sporadic” spacing of the screws, according to an Oct. 10 report from Fuss & O’Neill’s senior project manager Richard Boggs.

Yet Boggs said in his Oct. 10 report that Fuss & O’Neill did not believe the fasteners’ installation posed “an immediate safety risk” to the building’s occupants, and the roof’s deficiencies will “only be significant” in a severe weather event that results in winds speeds in the range of 120 mph.

‘Now’s the time’

Wendy Faulenbach, chairperson of the school board, said at the board’s June 18 meeting the board was notified of plans to work on the roof this summer to bring the roof “to the caliber that was in the scope of the project.Top of Form

“We want that roof to be repaired,” Faulenbach said. “For me personally, this is the time to have it happen when you don’t have students and staff in the building at the capacity that we normally do. I endorse whatever we can to get that project rectified, completed, warranteed, bonded and reimbursed and have it safe… by the scope of the project of which it was designed. Now’s the time.”

Faulenbach said the project’s tentative start date is July 8.

Bass said at the council’s June 18 meeting that Crum & Forster, the bonding company assigned to the roof project, has been assigned to the new project, which he said will entail repairing the affected section of the roof panel by panel. 

He said there will be a clerk that will catalog, document and take pictures of every step in the project — including every screw, panel, pin and clip — and the project is expected to take 100 days to complete. Garland, the manufacturer assigned to the fasteners, will guarantee the roof after repairs are completed, which will allow for reimbursement from the state Department of Education, Bass said.

“There’s been true damage to our community,” Faulenbach on the roof project’s impact. “We’re not talking dollars — we’re talking traumatic to our students and staff.”

Connecticut Senate passes fixes to car tax and school construction issues in special session

Ken Dixon

HARTFORD — The Democratic dominated state Senate, over Republican opposition, on Wednesday approved legislation containing eight separate pieces in an omnibus bill ranging from a lowering of commercial vehicle taxes in some of Connecticut's higher-taxed communities, to prohibiting state employees from subcontracting school construction projects, and expediting the review process for the development of historic buildings.

The three-hour-long Senate session was highlighted by GOP criticism of a provision that would allow for a Connecticut-based water company to purchase Aquarion, as well as a protracted argument over whether an effort to lower taxes on commercial vehicles would include a long-term, five-percent hike on residential vehicle taxes. The GOP lawmakers offered three amendments that were all rejected along party lines.

 The 20-to-9 final vote with seven senators missing occurred at 3:15 p.m. in the first day of the two-day gathering of the General Assembly, which continues with the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Republicans warned that the proposed change in state law to allow the New Haven-based South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority to bid for Aquarion, a division of the Massachusetts-based Eversource, could backfire in higher rates for Aquarion's current 59-town service area. They sharply criticized the possible deal's inclusion in the special legislative session, whose agenda items were brought up under so-called emergency provisions of the General Assembly.

 Democrats said any potential deal creating a new Aquarion Water Authority would first have to be approved by the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.

Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, stressed that because the water company provision was never discussed in the recent regular session of the General Assembly, the issue should not have been part of Wednesday's agenda. "This is something that's going to impact the water rates and the water supply to 700,000 people in the state of Connecticut and we're saying to them that we don't even want a public hearing on this," Harding said. "What does that say to our constituency?"

At about 12:15, Harding started off the session with a scolding of the chamber, calling the overall bill "an aircraft carrier" with so many different pieces. He proposed "dividing the question" and voting separately on the water company part.

The proposal was rejected along party lines 19-to-9 with 8 absent in the chamber, which is dominated by Democrats 24-12.

By 12:40, Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, co-chairman of the tax-writing legislative Finance Committee started the main debate, explaining a portion of the law that is needed, because without action,"significant difficulties" would occur starting Oct. 1 for commercial vehicle owners in 46 towns and cities with tax rates above 32.46 mills, including as many as 11 towns, especially Waterbury, Hartford and Hamden, that would be taxed at higher levels. Vehicle depreciation rates would also be changed.

"Without action today this change would result in significant difficulty for both town assessors and commercial vehicle owners," Fonfara said. "Commercial motor vehicle owners would be assessed as personal property."

"There were underlying mistakes in the bill," said Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, noting lingering problems date back to 2022 legislation. Needleman, who is also the first selectman of his hometown, said a fixed assessment level is important, including the 20-year phase-in eventually reducing car values to $500.

Another portion of the bill would allow local tax officials around the state to study and potentially enact the lowering and even phasing-out of personal property taxes on vehicles, effective in July of 2025.

"If you live in a city and you look at your car and you go to a suburb right next to it, the difference in taxation is very apparent," said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. "It's one that really makes your eyes pop out. There's an unfairness there. If we're telling people we're trying to invest in our cities and our municipalities and our urban areas, but yet it costs more to live there, that is really against the policies we're trying to put forward in this state."

The financial portion of the 137-page bill, at the request of Gov. Ned Lamont, aims to make Connecticut more attractive for bank-to-bank lenders by changing the definition of uninsured banks in the state to "innovation banks." It would also make changes in interest rates on late tax filings of underpayments for insurance companies, dating back to the federal pandemic relief for employee retention.

State Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, whose district includes part of Waterbury, called the change to commercial vehicle taxes appropriate and needed, but the proposed depreciation rate concerns him. "Why are we going to increase the value of everyone's car by 5 percent over the next 20 years?" Sampson said. "I have promised by constituents I would not vote to raise taxes."

Fonfara said towns would receive less revenue. "If towns are receiving less revenue, car owners are paying less in taxes," Fonfara said. 

Sampson said he was worried about average private vehicle owners paying more over time and he introduced an amendment aimed at making car taxes lower. Fonfara opposed the amendment, which was defeated along party lines.

"Characterizing this as a tax increase is just incorrect," Needleman said during the debate on the amendment. "With a little bit of luck we will never hear about this again."

Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich said that raising the depreciation level for new cars from the current 80 percent to 85, as detailed in the bill, clearly raises taxes for owners. "The affordability of Connecticut is a stressor on Connecticut families," said Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford. "The Connecticut family is struggling each day, living paycheck to paycheck."

"What we're simply doing doing today is changing the tax rate from 80 percent to 85 percent," Harding said. "Eighty five is more than 80, period. You can try to do fuzzy math all you want."

"Assessments don't determine taxes," said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, "mill rates determine taxes." He said that there was a "spike" in used car values at the height of the pandemic because of supply chain problems. "Whether it's 80 or 85, the decision is still in the hands of the municipality to decide what its rate will bill. In addition to that, we are reminding municipalities in this bill, where the authority in some cases may not be clear, that they do in fact have the option of creating a differential car tax, as long as the car tax is lower than the tax on real and commercial property."

Amid decarbonization efforts, New England’s energy demand expected to increase 23% over next decade

Skyler Frazer

New England’s energy demand is expected to increase 23% over the next decade, the head of the region’s largest power generator association said at an annual energy conference earlier this month, and stakeholders in the region should focus on energy reliability and affordability as decarbonization efforts continue.

New England Power Generators Association President Dan Dolan, during the Connecticut Business & Industry Association’s 2024 Energy & Environment Conference, gave an overview of the region’s power generation outlook, and what Northeast states need to do in the coming years as the country continues to hone in on renewable and clean energy alternatives.

He said there’s “incredible economic opportunity” in the energy sector, and investments must be made to meet the region’s future needs.

“Demand is coming — we see a really consistent rise over time,” Dolan said of energy usage over the next 10 years, which will be driven by the accelerating electrification of heating systems and transportation. “Energy efficiency is great, but we’re going to need to produce a whole lot more.”

Grid outlook

New England is responsible for 2.8% of all carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S., Dolan said, and much of the region’s energy policy is driven by decarbonization. Most of those emissions are from commercial and retail heating and transportation, he said, and “opportunistic electrification” in the transportation and heating industries can help the region continue its focus on renewable energy.

However, that will also drive up energy demand. To meet those needs, decarbonization must be a multifaceted effort, he said. While alternative energy options like solar and wind have had a lot of time in the spotlight recently, Dolan emphasized the need to continue to support existing clean energy sources like hydro and nuclear as decarbonization efforts grow over the next several years.

“We need every ounce of the clean energy that is on the planning board right now and that we expect to continue to be financed and developed, but we also need to preserve nearly all of the assets that serve as the backbone of the system,” Dolan said.

In 2023, 49% of the region’s energy supply came from natural gas, 20% nuclear, 8% hydro, 10% renewables (such as wind and solar), and 13% net imports, according to new data from ISO New England.

Notably absent from that list are coal and oil, which combined for less than 0.5% of megawatt hours in the region in 2023.

“That is a dramatic shift over the last 15 to 20 years that has created remarkable emissions benefits for the region,” Dolan said.

At the CBIA event, ISO New England’s Lead State Policy Advisor for External Affairs Kerry Schlichting gave an overview of the region’s future expected power grid breakdown. According to projections from ISO New England, the total electricity production breakdown in 2040 will be: 56% renewables; 13% nuclear; 12% natural gas; 3% hydro; and 16% imports. No electricity is expected to come from coal or oil by then, she said.

Dolan said ultimately, decarbonization needs to be a national effort, but states like Connecticut, and New England as a region, can help lead.

“I remain hugely optimistic that we are going to find our way through this, but getting to those three legs of the stool — reliability, affordability and decarbonization — we can do two out of three of those pretty directly and easily. The real challenge is doing all three at once,” Dolan said.