East Hartford OKs major Rentschler development

By Joseph Villanova, Journal Inquire

ast Hartford's Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved two applications on a planned development of a 300-acre site on the former Rentschler field.

Boston-based National Development filed applications for a zone change to facilitate its master plan for the site, which includes two warehouse buildings totaling 2.5 million square feet and two 100,000-square-foot buildings for high-tech manufacturing and research and development.

The master plan divides the site into five parcels. The two larger parcels designated for light industrial logistics, totaling 263 acres, would be used to build the two warehouses.

Ed Marsteiner, managing partner at National Development, said it is in negotiations with “influencer tenants,” household names that would bring credibility to the developer and the town while fueling further development.

Marsteiner added that the company has a deal “essentially done” with a tenant for the planned 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse on the east side of the lot and are confident they will have a lease for the 1.3 million-square-foot building on the west side.

An 18.35-acre parcel, occupied by Cabela’s, is designated for non-specific retail and mixed use developments. A 2.36-acre parcel would be used for a vehicle service and repair facility, now used by Cabela’s for its operations. One 17.58-acre parcel, bordering Cabela’s on the north end of the site, would have the high-tech manufacturing buildings.

Marsteiner said there are no plans to affect the Cabela’s store, but the developer has prepared a contingency plan.

“Cabela’s has been doing well here so there’s, in the foreseeable future, no motivation to get them to move on,” Marsteiner said.

Marsteiner said if Cabela’s were to leave, the developer would plan to build additional phases of high-tech facilities on the site to create a campus.

Paul Vitaliano, director of land development with VHB Connecticut, a firm that helped prepare the master plan, said the proposed development would have 941 passenger-car parking spaces and 1,314 trailer-truck parking spaces, which is subject to change.

Vitaliano said the developer plans to have a sidewalk system on the site, but specifics are still being planned.

“Other means of access and transportation are something we should consider,” Vitaliano said.

Benefits to the town stated in the developer’s presentation include about 2,000 permanent jobs and over $4 million in annual tax revenue to the town after stabilization.

Marsteiner said one aspect of the development he’s excited about is tying the Rentschler Field site into the East Coast Greenway, a near-complete 3,000-mile walking and bike trail from Maine to Florida with a “missing tooth” in the area.

“Every project we do, we try to have some component to it that’s for everyone, and that will also be here for many generations to come,” Marsteiner said.

Marsteiner said a major aspect that potential tenants look for in a site is whether they can find a workforce in the area, and East Hartford presents such an opportunity, with the town’s lower employment rates and programs such as East Hartford CONNects and Goodwin University’s job training.

“It’s hard to find talent and employees today to occupy these buildings,” Marsteiner said.

The developer said at a Town Council meeting Feb. 8 that the positions created by the warehouse development would pay $20 an hour or more and provide a number of benefits, and jobs from the high-tech facilities would be generally much higher.

Orange Intersection Ready; Temple Bridge Next

THOMAS BREEN

Goodbye, flashing lights and detours. Hello, new protected and signalized intersection: Starting next week, a long-in-the-works Orange Street crossroads connecting the Hill and downtown will finally open — and officials will begin pursuing the next step of ​“Downtown Crossing.”

That next step: The city will seek $22 million more in federal aid to help create a new Temple Street bridge and open up still more developable land atop the Rt. 34 corridor.

City Plan Senior Project Planner Donna Hall gave those updates Wednesday morning during the latest regular monthly meeting of the city Development Commission. The virtual meeting took place online via Zoom.

Hall’s presentation focused on the latest with Downtown Crossing. That’s the $50 million-plus, state and federally funded overhaul of the Rt. 34 mini-highway-to-nowhere that city officials have been working on for nearly a decade.

The multi-phase project’s goals have included undoing the neighborhood-demolishing sins of mid-20th Century Urban Renewal; restitching downtown, the Hill and the medical district; and promoting the development of lab and office space, particularly for New Haven’s burgeoning biotech sector.

Back in 2016, Downtown Crossing Phase 1 saw the creation of the College Street bridge and the development of the Alexion building at 100 College St. A new 10-story, 500,000 square-foot bioscience tower at 101 College St. right across the street is also now in construction.

On Wednesday morning, Hall said that Phase 2 — which features a new intersection connecting Orange Street and South Orange Street across MLK Boulevard, South Frontage Road, and the Air Rights Garage Service Drive — will open next week.

“Phase 2 is now substantially complete, and the intersection is slated to open on Monday,” Hall told the commissioners. ​“All detours that have been frustrating the traveling public will be removed at that time, as well.”

The city has been working on Phase 2 since at least 2017. Construction began in the early summer of 2019. The Elicker Administration hosted a celebratory press conference about the then-in-construction new Orange Street intersection in September 2020. And Hall led a walking tour of the still-in-construction intersection for city development commissioners in October 2021.

“We had some supply chain issues” and some electrical connectivity issues that made it so that the Orange Street intersection couldn’t open last fall, Hall told the Independent after Wednesday morning meeting. 

Some of the supply chain-delayed products included pedestrian push button brackets that the city wound up needing to get specially fabricated. ​“You need to have all design components related to safety completed in order to declare substantial completion,” Hall said. ​“It’s got to be safe for all users” before this phase of the project could be declared done.

“All of those issues have been resolved,” she said, clearing the way for Monday’s planned intersection opening.

What exactly will that look like?

As an interim condition over the past few months, Hall said, the city has had flashing traffic signals in the Orange Street intersection, allowing for through-traffic coming off the highway to continue unimpeded heading west towards Church Street or turning north onto Orange Street.

Come 9 a.m. on Monday, she said, ​“there is going to be a signal where you reach Orange Street getting off of the Connector.” 

Vehicles heading north on South Orange Street behind the police station will also be able to get onto the highway again via that route, and will no longer have to take a detour across the recently reopened section of Columbus Avenue to get over to Church Street South and South Frontage Road before making their way onto the highway.

The turning on of the traffic signals on Monday will enable cyclists and pedestrians to take advantage of the first bike-protected intersection in the state, with landscaped islands separating bike lanes from vehicle travel lanes and pedestrian crossings. New bike lanes are also already in place at sidewalk level on South Frontage Road, and pointing towards Water Street and Union Avenue.

Pedestrians will need to make the trip across the new Orange Street intersection in two phases. After pressing a pedestrian crossing button and getting the signal, they’ll have to cross four lanes to an island in the middle of the intersection. Then they’ll have to press another button and wait for another signal before crossing the one-lane service drive and another four lanes to get all the way across the intersection.

Up Next: $22M Quest For Temple Crossing

Also during Wednesday morning’s Development Commission meeting, Hall spoke about the Temple Street connection work that is slated to take place as part of Downtown Crossing’s Phase 3 and 4.

Phase 3 work has already begun, and all of the funding for that is already in place, Hall said. That work included raising South Frontage Road by seven feet and the construction a bridge abutment on the south side of the planned new intersection to allow for the building of a new Temple Street crossing.

“Now we are working on MLK and doing some intersection improvements at Temple Street that will enable safe pedestrian crossing to the new development site at 101 College St.” That work should take roughly four months to complete, and should be done by the end of the summer, she said.

Phase 3, she continued, is all about ​“teeing up the connection” for a bridge to be built across Temple Street as part of Phase 4.

In particular, Phase 4 will include the raising of MLK Boulevard to allow for Temple Street to cross the Rt. 34 corridor ​“in an ADA compliant way”; coordination with United Illuminating around accommodating the ​“significant utilities” that currently exist on that stretch of the future intersection, including UI distribution and transmission lines; constructing an abutment on the northern side of the intersection to support a future Temple Street bridge; the construction of the Temple Street bridge itself; and the construction of certain modifications to the Temple Street Garage to allow for the new crossing for cars, buses, pedestrians, and bicycles alike.

It will also open up a new developable parcel of land, known as Parcel B, atop the Rt. 34 corridor between Church Street and Temple Street.

“This corridor is all about the future of New Haven and where we’re going,” Hall said. ​“We’re reclaiming all this land, which has really not been an asset for us in terms of urban design,” and — without displacing any existing business or residents — constructing new transportation connections and ​“building out this biotech corridor.”

In order to make all of that Phase 4 work possible, Hall said, the city is applying for a federal RAISE grant in the amount of $22 million. That application is due tomorrow, and the city expects to hear back from the federal government by the end of August on whether or not New Haven will be awarded that money.

“Hopefully we will get this RAISE application funded,” she told the commissioners. ​“It will allow us to complete this vision of the Temple Street connection, which will not only connect” downtown, the Hill, and the medical district, but which will also serve as an ​“important relief valve for traffic and congestion” in this part of the city.

Hall said that the state has already committed around $1.6 million towards Downtown Crossing Phase 4. She said the city will also have to contribute some money towards the local matching portion of the RAISE grant, if it is funded by the feds.

She said that, if the application is funded, construction on Phase 4 should begin in 2025 and should be complete by 2026.

All of this work, including creating new developable parcels of land, will mean ​“new jobs, new taxes, and taking something that was this edge, this hole, this barrier in the city, and not just creating connections, but optimizing the use of the land so that we’re achieving a normalized street grid and having it feel like an amenity,” Hall said.

Will the parcel that’s going to be opened for development touch ​“all four corners of existing streets” at South Frontage, Temple, Church, and MLK? Development Commissioner David Valentino asked. 

“Yes, that is the plan,” Hall replied. ​“The access drives will continue under the new building [at Parcel B] the same way they do under 101 College St. and [the still-in-construction] 101 College St. The building will have street frontage on all four sides.”

“It’s amazing how expensive it is to rebuild the city after the so-called redevelopment” that took place decades ago, Development Commission Chair Anthony Sagnella said. But, he added, this is all ​“very exciting,” and thanked Hall for her presentation and for her work. 

Biden to require US-made steel, iron for infrastructure

JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is taking a key step to ensuring that federal dollars will support U.S. manufacturing — issuing requirements for how projects funded by the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package source their construction material.

The guidance being issued Monday requires that the material purchased — whether it's for a bridge, a highway, a water pipe or broadband internet — be produced within the U.S., according to administration officials. However, the rules also set up a process to waive those requirements in case there are not enough domestic producers or the material costs too much, with the goal of issuing fewer waivers over time as U.S. manufacturing capacity increases.

“There are going to be additional opportunities for good jobs in the manufacturing sector," said Celeste Drake, director of Made in America at the White House Office of Management and Budget. "And as we’re looking at boosting American content, that means big corporations are going to create opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises in the U.S. as supply chains are partially re-shored to try to meet the content standards.”

President Joe Biden has made such guidance a cornerstone for judging his record ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The Democratic president says that he can leverage federal spending to create more U.S. factory jobs and reduce the reliance on China and other nations with geopolitical interests that diverge from America's.

As Biden faces inflation at a 40-year high, he is betting that more domestic production will ultimately reduce price pressures, a response to Republican attacks that his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package initially triggered higher prices.

“From Day One, every action I’ve taken to rebuild our economy has been guided by one principle: Made in America,” Biden said Thursday in Greensboro, North Carolina. “It takes a federal government that doesn’t just give lip service to buying American but actually takes action.”

Biden said that the roughly $700 billion the government devotes annually to procuring goods is supposed to prioritize U.S. suppliers but the regulations going back to the 1930s have either been watered down or applied in ways that masked the use of foreign imports.

The administration could not say what percentage of construction material for existing infrastructure projects is U.S. made, even though the federal government is already spending $350 billion on construction this year. The new guidelines would enable government officials to know how many dollars go to U.S. workers and factories.

Tucked into the bipartisan infrastructure package that became law last November was a requirement that starting on May 14 “none of the funds" allocated to federal agencies for projects may be spent "unless all of the iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in the project are produced in the United States.” That's according to the 17-page guidance being issued Monday.

The guidance includes three standards for these requirements to be waived: if the purchase “would be inconsistent with the public interest”; if the materials needed are not produced “in sufficient and reasonably available quantities or of a satisfactory quality"; or if the U.S. materials increase a project's cost by more than 25%.

American manufacturers are about 170,000 jobs short of the 12.8 million factory jobs held in 2019, as manufacturing jobs began to decline before the pandemic began. But the U.S. has 6.9 million fewer manufacturing jobs compared with the 1979 peak, a loss caused by outsourcing and automation.

Getting more industrial jobs will likely mean adding more factories and assembly lines — as manufacturers are operating at a 78.7% capacity, which the Federal Reserve notes is above the historical average.

Emails show more involvement of Kosta Diamantis in daughter’s job search

Dave Altimari, Andrew Brown and Katy Golvala, The Connecticut Mirror

Konstantinos Diamantis, the former state official under federal investigation, showed a special interest in his daughter’s quest for state employment on a number of occasions in early 2020, according to documents released Friday.

The documents, obtained Friday by The Connecticut Mirror through a Freedom of Information Act request, were compiled in response to a federal subpoena issued in October.

Many of the documents had been part of the independent investigation into the matter commissioned by Gov. Ned Lamont and conducted by Stanley Twardy of the Day Pitney law firm.

But others provide new insights into the extent to which Diamantis advocated on behalf of his daughter Anastasia.

The Twardy report established that Diamantis had entangled himself in Anastasia’s job search. It reported that he pressured an official with the state Department of Administrative Services to hire Anastasia for a human resources position in November 2018, and that in June 2020 he had forwarded an email to Anastasia about a job within the Division of Criminal Justice — which he had initially received from former Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo. Colangelo hired Anastasia Diamantis days later for a different position in his office. Colangelo, who was accused of pressuring Diamantis to help secure raises for his staff, resigned in early February.

But those weren’t the only instances when Kosta Diamantis involved himself in Anastasia’s employment efforts, the documents show.

Two state jobs

On Jan. 4, 2020, Anastasia Diamantis forwarded an email to her father she’d received from a state human resources official regarding a job at the state Department of Education. The email stated that a staff assistant position Anastasia had applied for was being canceled and would be reposted with different job responsibilities in the future.

She forwarded the email to her father two days later with no comment, the records show. A few minutes later, Kosta Diamantis forwarded the email to his boss, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw, with no comment.

“She sent it to me on my personal email just to let me know what had happened, and I forwarded it to my state email so that I could print it out at work and have a record of it,” Diamantis said. “The only reason that personal email ended up in my state email is because I don’t have a printer at home and wanted to print it.”

Just about a month later, on Feb. 6, 2020, Diamantis learned that the newly created Office of Workforce Competitiveness needed an executive assistant, a job that paid as much as $135,000.

Diamantis forwarded the job description to the governor’s chief of staff, Paul Mounds, and asked “Is (this) something for Anastasia?”

Mounds responded by telling Diamantis that whoever got the position would eventually report to the state Office of Policy and Management, the agency he helped lead: “I am agnostic about the who for this position. With that said, this ES position is current in DECD and is called for to be moved (to) OPM in the upcoming budget adjustments.”

“I was just being inquisitive about a job opening and wondering if perhaps my daughter would be qualified for it,” Diamantis said Saturday. “I was just asking a question to see what the answer might be.”

Other involvements

The documents also raise questions about a second job Anastasia Diamantis got in July 2020 at a company called Consumer Advocacy Protection, or CAP, a company that was the construction manager on the Birch Grove Primary School project in Tolland. Kosta Diamantis, who was the director of the state Office of School Construction Grants & Review within OPM at the time, oversaw the state financing for the project.

Included in thousands of subpoenaed documents related to the school construction grant program was this promotional flyer for CAP, which lists Anastasia Diamantis as a “project engineer/assistant.”

Anastasia Diamantis was hired by CAP in July 2020, after the company received a $70,000 contract to oversee construction of portable classrooms at the school. Weeks after Anastasia was hired, the company received a $460,000 contract amendment to oversee construction of a new school at the site.

Kosta Diamantis denied he had any role in his daughter getting hired, but in an email sent July 2, he copied his daughter when discussing the project with CAP’s owner Antonietta Roy. It is unclear whether Anastasia was employed with CAP on that date. According to the Twardy report, she began her employment sometime in July.

The email dealt with questions from Tolland officials about the first phase of the school project — the installation of modular classrooms for students to use during construction.

‘Hint hint’

The documents also show that Diamantis had an email exchange with Rep. Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford and the House majority leader, in July 2020. Rojas begins by thanking Diamantis and McCaw for their “support on many of my colleagues requests for bonding.” He goes on to raise questions about projects in Newington and South Windsor, and after a few exchanges, appears to conclude with “Sounds like a plan.”

Diamantis responded to that email with one line: “On an aside I hope my daughter gets a good room at trinity. Hint hint.” Diamantis was apparently referring to one of his other daughters, not Anastasia.

Rojas is the chief of staff to the president at Trinity College in Hartford.

Rojas responded: “Hmmmmm. Lets see if the states ensure that we can provide as safe and health(y) an experience as possible :)”

Diamantis responded: “Perfecto.”

“Whenever I saw Jason, he’d ask me how my daughter was doing in school, because he knew she went to Trinity and I knew he worked there,” Diamantis said Saturday. “We talked about the school all of the time.”

Rojas said Saturday that he remembers the exchange and that he took it as a “tongue-in-cheek comment and not serious.”

“It was very light-hearted, and that is how I took it,” Rojas said. “Obviously, given the circumstances now, it may not look so good, but I didn’t take it seriously. I couldn’t have helped him anyway. Dorm rooms are assigned by a lottery that I have nothing to do with.”

More documents to come

Lamont’s attorney, Nora Dannehy, said the documents released to the CT Mirror on Friday — well over 6,000 PDF files — were only a portion of what was turned over to the federal authorities last year and that the rest will be released once they are vetted “for privilege and other exemptions under the Freedom of Information laws.”

The Connecticut Mirror requested the subpoenaed documents in early February, shortly after the existence of the federal investigation was revealed. They include thousands of pages of bid documents, meeting minutes and emails.

The documents show that Kosta Diamantis was not a prolific emailer, often responding to long missives from others with responses of just a few words.

A federal grand jury issued the subpoena to the state Department of Administrative Services for all emails, text messages and attachments involving Diamantis and a broad range of construction projects on Oct. 20, 2021.

Eight days later, he was removed as the state’s second-highest budget official at the Office of Policy and Management and placed on administrative leave as the director of OSCG&R. Rather than accept the leave of absence, Diamantis chose to retire.

The subpoena to DAS on Oct. 20 specifically sought records from state contracts for school renovations, hazardous abatement disposal and the new State Pier in New London, along with emails and text messages involving, among others, Anastasia Diamantis and CAP, where she worked part time.

Federal authorities later sent a second request with more than 50 search terms for the state to search among Diamantis’ emails and text messages.

The “search” list includes names of several contractors, including D’Amato Construction, which got a no-bid job for the Tolland school, as well as several other school projects. The search list also included the words “wedding,” “gift” and “FBI.”

Many of the emails released Friday focused on the Birch Grove Primary School project in Tolland, which has been a key part of the federal investigation.

Tolland Superintendent of Schools Walter Willett has since alleged that local officials in Tolland were pressured by Diamantis to choose D’Amato Construction for the school construction project. Other school officials have made similar claims.

Tweed airport growth could mean more state funds for East Haven, but Carfora says it’s not enough

Mark Zaretsky

Expansion of Tweed New Haven Regional Airport — and specifically the construction of a new, 74,000-square-foot, carbon-neutral terminal with 4-6 departure gates on the East Haven side of the airport — could more than double the payments the town gets from the state, officials say.

That would increase the town’s revenue by about $500,000 per year, said Sean Scanlon, executive director of the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority.

East Haven currently collects $462,000 a year under the state Payments in Lieu of Taxes program for tax-exempt property in town, Mayor Joe Carfora said in his recent State of the Town address.

In the same speech, Carfora said he was not prepared to support airport expansion because “the burdens to East Haven that this terminal will bring ... are monumental and they far outweigh any direct, limited economic benefit that East Haven will gain.”

Carfora said at the time that “there is no tax revenue for East Haven, but the burdens are vast, with potentially irreparable impacts.”

While a new terminal would provide no additional real estate taxes, Tweed officials estimate a new terminal would increase PILOT payments to the town considerably, Scanlon said.

“The $500,000 figure was our estimate,” said Scanlon, also a Democratic state representative who represents Guilford and Branford’s 98th District.

“Obviously, we’re still doing the environmental assessment. We’re still in a very early phase. We haven’t even designed the terminal,” Scanlon said. “These are really just rough estimates at this point because nothing has been determined.”

But a possible PILOT increase isn’t enough to satisfy Carfora.

“We have been told that estimates indicate that there could be as much as a $500,000 increase in our PILOT funding should a terminal be moved to East Haven. My understanding is that New Haven provided that number to Sean Scanlon who shared it with us,” Carfora said.

“While we have not been provided the methodology used to create this PILOT impact number, I have no reason to believe that we are being provided an inaccurate figure,” he said. But, “I think that we can all agree that any decision regarding an East Haven side terminal is not simply a financial analysis.”

Nevertheless, “any proposed financial benefit package — PILOT, other state or federal subsidy, or private payments — that provides a number like this to East Haven is woefully insufficient to offset the immense burdens that East Haven residents will bear,” Carfora said.

Beyond PILOT

Carfora previously has talked about the need to create an “enterprise zone” with financial incentives for businesses in areas affected by the airport.

Avports, the Goldman Sachs-owned company that has operated Tweed for the Airport Authority for more than 22 years, has proposed spending up to $5 million on a package of “community benefits” for areas bordering the airport. But the shape those community benefits might take has yet to be defined.

“We’re in the process of working with the mayor to determine what it is that he would like to see in terms of community benefits for his city, and we are talking to him and will continue talking with him,” said Scanlon.

“As things go forward ... from rough estimates to plans, I think we’ll be in a better position to finalize an agreement,” he said.

So what does East Haven get from a expansion at Tweed in addition to additional traffic, noise and additional planes flying overhead?

“What they get in addition to easily-accessible air service ... is what we are working with the mayor to define,” Scanlon said. “Whether it’s traffic” measures or “whether it’s noise mitigation” are details still being worked out.

With regard to accessible air service, passengers from East Haven “are in the top three in the state who have purchased tickets so far,” Scanlon said. He would not say which other two communities had the most ticket purchases so far.

Currently, “East Haven does collect a small amount of taxes from private buildings at Tweed. Specifically, the town does assess, and thus tax, the privately owned buildings that sit on airport property located in East Haven,” said Carfora. “Since these buildings are located on airport land, we can only tax the actual structure but not the land upon which the structure sits, because the land itself is exempt from municipal taxation due to state law.”

There also are “some small private buildings, hangers and structures that East Haven is allowed to assess, and for which we collect roughly $150,000 in real estate taxes,” he said.

Among the taxable parts of Tweed are the buildings and equipment used by Robinson Aviation, which operates the General Aviation side of Tweed, located on the East Haven side of the airport.

“The exempt land parcels on which these private buildings sit, as well as the other exempt airport land located in East Haven that do not contain structures (i.e., the portions of the runways that are in East Haven), are part of the current compensation calculations for our PILOT funding — which has been, and continues to be, a total of $462,000,” Carfora said.

Of the total amount of PILOT funds East Haven collects each year for tax-exempt property townwide, “roughly $270,000 is attributable to Tweed exempt property,” he said.

“But I’d like everyone to fully understand the tax situation with this new terminal situation,” Carfora said. “The proposed $70 million East Haven terminal will not be taxable” and “East Haven will not be allowed to treat it like the small, privately-owned buildings that we currently tax” because the new $70 million terminal “will also be exempt from taxes.”

“So, in this instance both the $70 million terminal building ... and the land will be exempt from taxes,” he said.

New Haven currently collects $540,056 in PILOT funds on airport property with a total assessed value of $56.15 million, said city spokesman Len Speiller.

It also receives an estimated $11,815 in personal property tax for $276,370 in personal property at Tweed, Speiller said.

In addition, the city and the region are benefiting from job growth at Tweed, including more than 100 new employees hired by Avelo Airlines to support its flights from Tweed. Avelo has said it plans eventually to employ more than 200 people at Tweed.

“Over time, the project is expected to create or support 11,000 jobs throughout the Greater New Haven region, including $70 million in construction work, which will support local businesses,” Speiller said.

In addition, what had been New Haven’s $325,000 annual subsidy to Tweed “is cycling down to $0 in FY24,” he said. “In addition, Avports will replace the city as capital sponsor for major projects, a key aspect of the public/private partnership.”

Tweed’s longer-term plans call for a broader partnership under which Avports will invest an initial $70 million, and up to $100 million, to extend Tweed’s runway from 5,600 feet to 6,635 feet and build the new terminal on the East Haven side of the airport. A new entrance would be constructed off Proto Drive in East Haven.

East Haven has nothing to say about runway extension, but both the terminal and a new entrance would require the approval of town boards.

Tweed already has expanded commercial service in recent months, all using the existing terminals on the New Haven side of the airport, which is owned by New Haven and located in both New Haven and East Haven.

Avelo Airlines began flying out of Tweed on Nov. 6, 2021, making it Avelo’s East Coast base. It has quickly gone from an initial four destinations in Florida to six — Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, West Palm Beach and Sarasota/Bradenton.

It will add four more destinations on May 5 — Nashville, Tenn.; Savannah, Ga.-Hilton Head, S.C.; Charleston, S.C.; and Myrtle Beach, S.C. — and then add Chicago’s Midway International Airport, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Raleigh-Durham International Airport on May 26.

Torrington begins site work on new animal control facility

Emily M. Olson

TORRINGTON — Site work has begun on the city’s new animal control facility, which will dwarf the present building at the front of the property on Bogue Road.

On Wednesday, a small crew of workers were digging ditches, clearing soil and measuring areas of the site. Any vegetation on the property is gone, and the site, while hilly, is completely cleared, with a small gravel driveway area for vehicles to come in and out of the site.

The older building, built in the 1940s and sitting on the edge of the city’s 29-acre public works yard, has been deemed unsuitable for the necessary care and housing for a variety of animals the facility receives, with outdoor kennels, a tiny office and several other small spaces inside.

The $2.7 million project for the new center was approved by the City Council in February. Brunoli Construction was hired to build the center.

According to Mayor Elinor Carbone, Police Chief William Baldwin and Public Works Director Ray Drew, replacing the aging building has been in the concept or design phase for at least 12 years. In 2017, the project cost was estimated at about $1 million, and in 2018, voters approved that $1 million in a referendum. But the cost of the project increased, and Torrington was unable to find the extra funds.

Today, the cost of the project, because of increased prices for concrete and steel, is nearly $3 million, according to Drew and Carbone.

When the facility committee put the project out for bid again in May 2021, the lowest bid they received was $2.707 million.

In early 2021, Carbone applied for a Community Project Funding Grant for $1.5 million and was told by U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5, that the project was selected to receive it.

Because the city was told it was getting the grant, Carbone then moved $750,000 from the city’s capital budget to the facility’s budget. That, combined with the anticipated grant and the $1 million voters approved in 2017, gave the city the funds to build the new facility, she said.

If Torrington doesn’t receive the community project grant, she said, it can use American Rescue Plan Act funding.

According to Baldwin, the $2.707 million bidder, Brunoli & Sons, is willing to stick with that amount.

The chief said the old building has failed a number of inspections with the state, and it is only a matter of time before the state shuts it down.

“We’re mandated by state statutes; we keep receiving inspections from the state canine officer and we’ve failed over and over since 2006,” the chief said recently. “It’s because the state recognizes that we’re trying to do something, that they haven’t shut us down. It’s time to move and make this happen for our community.”

The animal shelter was established to give towns in and around Torrington a place to keep lost or wandering animals. Under the regional agreement, Torrington provides full-time animal control officers seven days a week, with shifts running from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.

Centre Square's Parcel Three among last areas to be slated for development

Dean Wright

BRISTOL – Centre Square’s Parcel Three stands among the last areas to be slated for development.

“We all know here, and we’ve talked about it at length, there are huge logistical issues downtown now,” said Mayor Jeff Caggiano. “We’re going to put up $5.2 million parking lot down there which is great to accommodate that but we do have the one parcel left that will be tied up with transition for the next probably two years.”

The mayor said the city may want to consider putting out a request for proposals of development for Parcel Three. Currently, Parcel Three will be utilized as a staging area for construction in City Hall.

“Obviously Parcel Three will not be ready for construction soon but there is momentum, so we don’t want to completely stop what we’re doing from a development perspective,” said Economic and Community Development Director Justin Malley. “There’s also the thought that even in six months, that property theoretically could be more valuable than it is today just by the activity and construction around the site.”

Malley said the board should take a moment and consider that a piece of property was being surrounded by development as well as a potential city green just south of it and a nearby parking structure.

“We may not have always had that luxury on Centre Square,” said Malley of potential for proposed projects. “But now that we’ve got some real activity and construction . . . let’s for a minute think we have something here.”

Among proposed ARPA projects coming to Bristol, city officials said that a roughly $5.2 million parking garage would potentially be situated northeast of the bend in Hope Street, set behind anticipated By Carrier development. By Carrier’s apartments and retail space is set to be built along North Main Street, just north of its intersection with Hope Street. The Wheeler Health structure will be north of Parcel Three and just south of the same intersection. The proposed green space would sit just south of Parcel Three at the corner of Riverside Avenue and North Main Street.

Parcel Three is a little over an acre and the proposed green space is also around an acre.

Separate from this development, the city is also looking to place another parking garage west of the Bristol Police Station.

Caggiano said as spaces fill, parking will soon be tighter, but the creation of parking garages and the tentative agreement from area businesses to share parking for downtown events will bode well for Bristol’s future.