Former congressional candidate admits to painting doors at state Capitol

Kevin Arnold

New London ― Kevin Blacker, the 2022 Green Party candidate for the 2nd Congressional District, admitted Sunday to painting pink stripes across the front doors of the state Capitol.

Blacker, a Noank resident, told The Day he drove to the Capitol on Friday afternoon to paint the doors. He said he walked up the front walkway, wearing a reflective vest, and painted four pink stripes across the front door “for a number of reasons.”

He said a police officer walked out of the building moments beforehand, saw Blacker, and continued walking to his cruiser. Blacker walked back to his truck and drove home, he said, without a word from the officer.

Blacker said it was his way to draw attention to the corruption and the law-breaking at the state’s port authority, which he said has been “allowed to go unchecked for years.” The reflective vest’s purpose was “to make sure everyone knows what I’m doing,” he said.

“The law doesn’t apply to them, so the law doesn’t matter, so the law doesn’t apply to me,” Blacker said by phone Sunday.

Blacker pointed to the significant cost overruns for the port authority’s State Pier project, the federal investigations surrounding the port authority, State Pier, and Kosta Diamantis, Gov. Lamont’s deputy budget chief and head of a school construction program under FBI scrutiny, as well as the hiring of Andrew Lavigne as manager of the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s clean energy program.

Lavigne previously served as manager of business development and special projects for the port authority. He was fined for violating state ethics rules when he accepted tickets to a playoff hockey game and other gifts, totaling about $1,000, from Seabury Maritime, a company doing business with the port authority.

“I made myself a public presence in this fight,” Blacker said.

WFSB reported early Sunday that authorities are investigating the door-painting incident but did not yet have the identity of the suspect, who had been caught on video.

State police at Troop H in Hartford said Sunday that the investigation was ongoing and they did not yet have a suspect.

Blacker said he received a call on Saturday that the Capitol police were in Noank looking for him, but he was not in town. He said he gave police his phone number and told them he did not have anything to talk about.

This is not the first time Blacker has used pink paint to draw attention to the State Pier project. In 2020, he was charged with first-degree criminal mischief for using pink paint to cover several roadside directional signs on State Pier Road in New London.

The pink was a reference to the famous pink home of Susette Kelo, whose attempt to fight the taking of her home by eminent domain at Fort Trumbull led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Kelo v. City of New London.

Blacker was previously charged with second-degree breach of peace, a misdemeanor, after he stood up and disrupted a port authority meeting in Hartford in February 2020 on the eve of the approval of the redevelopment plan for State Pier. He refused to leave until he was arrested. At the time, Blacker argued the plans for State Pier had been negotiated in secret and the port Authority had broken the law.

“I’m not paying to fix the doors,” Blacker said. “The governor and the bond commission can just tack it on to the next cost overrun.”

State Pier partners should share in added costs

The Day Editorial Board

The public-private partnership to redevelop State Pier in New London needs rebalancing. As things now stand there is plenty of public - meaning taxpayer - investment but it is a light on the private side.

Now the ambitious undertaking, which will convert the pier into a heavy-lift facility that can provide staging, assembly, and delivery services for offshore wind development, faces another price hike. Gov. Ned Lamont should ask the state’s private partners in the project, Orsted and Eversource, to help bring this project to completion by sharing in whatever additional costs remain.

Lamont seems disinclined to pick up the phone and try. Worse yet, when asked by one of our reporters about the matter at a press event, he seemed surprised at the suggestion that the cost is rising yet again.

“I haven’t heard about any additional cost changes, but our ears are alert,” said the governor.

Clearly, those ears are not as alert as they need to be.

We admit that Lamont does not have much to work with if he seeks to tweak the deal. He holds a lousy playing hand. And Lamont’s administration and the Connecticut Port Authority dealt themselves those lousy cards — face up.

But try the governor must.

Three years ago, in negotiating for a project that had already seen price hikes, Connecticut and its wind-power partners reached a deal to share project costs, then estimated at $157 million, roughly 50-50.

Yet Connecticut took on the risk of all future cost increases, while the Orsted-Eversource share was fixed.

The projected costs now stand at $255.5 million, with the state on the hook for about $180 million. The Connecticut Port Authority and its executive director, Ulysses Hammond, have signaled that the price tag will go up yet again, but the authority is not saying by how much. It needs to come clean.

Undertaking this work as a public-private partnership made sense. It will remain a state facility when completed, making it a state project. Yet the scope is far more ambitious, and costly, than would be necessary if Connecticut were simply upgrading its port, rather than building a facility to support such a challenging technological undertaking as offshore wind. That is why significant private investment, from the companies that will benefit, was in order.

You can hardly blame the Orsted-Eversource partners for seeking to limit their exposure to overruns, given that they do not control construction. Massive public infrastructure undertakings are notorious for going over budget — see Boston’s Big Dig for an extreme example. But the state should have demanded more by requiring their private partners to have some skin in the game if costs continued to escalate.

Now the best the Lamont administration can do is seek an accommodation from Orsted, a Danish multinational power company, and Eversource, a New England energy company, to provide some significant share of these latest cost increases. The governor’s best argument would be that completion of the project could face delays given the controversy, and political opposition, yet another cost increase will generate. Being able to announce that the private partners are kicking in would help Lamont navigate those headwinds.

We would also add that it would be the fair thing to do, for whatever that is worth. These companies expect to benefit mightily from investing in offshore wind and they are taking advantage of federal tax credits intended to encourage expansion of renewable energy.

In May about 60% of State Pier is scheduled to switch from construction site to operations, ready for the arrival of vessels working on Orsted and Eversource’s South Fork Wind project, under development off Long Island. But the good news that operations have begun could well be overshadowed by the ever-rising costs.

Reducing dependence on fossil fuels by developing offshore wind fields is a vital component in the effort to mitigate climate change. It will have the added benefit of providing economic growth and creating good-paying jobs. But seeing the state and port authority botch New London’s part in this endeavor has been a source of ongoing frustration. Holding a press conference to announce the private partners are helping complete the project would ease that frustration at least a little bit.

The Day editorial board meets regularly with political, business and community leaders and convenes weekly to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larrañeta, staff writer Erica Moser, retired executive editor Tim Cotter and retired deputy managing editor Lisa McGinley. However, only the publisher and editorial page editor are responsible for developing the editorial opinions. The board operates independently from the Day newsroom.

A new Westhill High School will cost $301M. Stamford's finance board worries the city can't pay for it.

Ignacio Laguarda, Brianna Gurciullo

STAMFORD — Members of the city's Board of Finance said they were worried about how to pay for a new Westhill High School even with substantial help from the state.

"Are we going to run out of money?" asked board chairman Richard Freedman during a virtual meeting Wednesday. 

The total cash needed to pay for the work in each of the next four fiscal years is high: it's estimated to be $52.66 million in fiscal year 2024-25, $106.8 million the following year and $90.4 million the next, with more payments in future years.

The total project is estimated to cost $301.3 million, of which the state has agreed to pay for 80 percent of eligible expenses.

The final price tag for the city's share is estimated to be between $90 million and $110 million, depending on how much of the project is deemed eligible for state reimbursement.

However, the city will still need to pay for the full project with reserve funds before receiving refunds from the state, an ongoing payment process that will take place throughout the design and construction of the new Westhill school building. Expenses eligible for reimbursement by the state cannot be paid for with bonded money, said Katherine LoBalbo, the recently hired director of school construction.

The tricky part is making sure the city has enough reserve funds at any one time to pay the costs upfront, which is what Freedman said he wanted to see an analysis of. The figures get even more complicated when factoring in other large construction projects happening concurrently, such as a new $86 million Roxbury Elementary School.

"It seems to me like we have enough money to maybe do those two things at the same time, but we're going to be damn close to running out after those two," Freedman said.

LoBalbo said the state would likely reimburse the city once every two months.

"So that is another hurdle we have to map out when we're looking at this cash flow analysis," she said.

The reserve account that the city will use is known as "Fund 57," which was created last year to raise $20 million for school construction projects through an increased tax rate. Mayor Caroline Simmons proposed raising another $20 million in the upcoming fiscal year.

But on the same night that Board of Finance meeting took place, Simmons announced an agreement with the Board of Representatives to reduce that amount to $15 million.

In a letter to the Board of Representatives, Simmons noted that the Board of Finance already cut her proposed operating budget for city government by $6.3 million and cut the Board of Education's budget by $1.25 million. She argued that any further cuts by the Board of Representatives “would negatively impact city services for residents.”

Simmons said in her letter that she and leaders of the Board of Representatives agreed on a $5 million reduction to the school construction reserve in lieu of other cuts. 

“While I would have preferred that the full $20M remain in the budget given the enormity of the work ahead of us to maintain momentum on our Long-Term Facilities Plan, I am confident that we can absorb this reduction and the city will still be able to meet our commitment to our large capital school construction projects,” Simmons said.

Simmons wrote that a deeper cut could spell bad news for a new Westhill.

"Further cuts to this fund would jeopardize the Westhill High School project and the more than $260,000,000 in state aid previously authorized by the Board of Representatives and Board of Finance," she wrote.

A smaller Fund 57 would create even more cash flow challenges, as school officials would have to make payments using money from the fund while replenishing the outgoing money with reimbursements from state refund checks. Making sure there is enough cash in the account for such large payments figures to be a recurring balancing act.

On Wednesday, board officials also questioned some of the assumptions made in the financial documents presented by city and school employees.

For instance, the state's reimbursement rate was estimated to be 75 percent in the presentation instead of 80 percent, under the assumption that some of the expenses the city believes are eligible now will be deemed ineligible by the state.

LoBalbo said she preferred to take a conservative approach to the numbers.

"I'm concerned that if we promise perfect and we don’t hit perfect, will find ourselves in trouble," she said.

Freedman said that "small assumption" of 5 percent less reimbursement would equal about an extra $13 million the city would have to cover.

"A small percentage of a huge number is a huge number," he said.

Further, the project includes a $11 million contingency line item, which was included in the list of expenses ineligible for state funding.

Freedman and fellow board member Dennis Mahoney said most of those expenses would likely be eligible, however.

Again, LoBalbo cautioned the board not to make such assumptions.

"My approach here is so conservative because there are just so many things that are out of our control at this point and that are unknowns," she said.

The construction of the new Westhill is scheduled to begin in July 2025.

One item that is likely to draw some debate is the inclusion of a swimming pool in the plan, at a cost of about $11 million.

Board of Finance member Mary Lou Rinaldi said the board previously discussed the pool, and she said the majority opinion was that it was too expensive to include.

"I thought this board made it clear that a swimming pool was probably not in the cards," she said.

Freedman said the board did in fact talk about it, but never held a vote on the item. He said they would be able to chime in on whether or not to include the pool in the final design later in the process.

Also during the meeting, the Board of Finance voted in favor of a $2.75 million contract with Colliers Project Leaders to provide advisory services throughout the construction process of the new Westhill school.

Beyond Westhill, the city is embarking on a roughly 20-year plan to upgrade all school buildings, including rebuilding some and shuttering others for a total price of $1.5 billion, of which the state is expected to pick up roughly half.

CASSANDRA DAY

MIDDLETOWN — The High Line, a 1.5-mile elevated park full of lush greenery in New York City, could influence the city’s vision of creating a pedestrian walkway that would “float” above Route 9 in Middletown, reconnecting people to Middletown's portion of the Connecticut riverfront.

Middletown Garden Club members, their guests, Mayor Ben Florsheim and other city officials Wednesday visited The High Line, taking in its, in many ways, remarkable and unique landscape design for possible ideas for the 10-year plan for waterfront redevelopment, Return to the Riverbend.

In 2021, Cooper Robertson of New York drew up the master plan that is expected to become a private-public partnership with the city.

The pathway along the now defunct High Line, a 1930s-era rail structure on the west side of Manhattan, is relatively narrow — between 30 and 50 feet in width — flanked by gardens incorporating elements of its original structure into the linear design. 

“It is an innovative reclamation project in an urban area,” according to the garden club.

The project, which cost some $187 million to build, has humble origins.

In 1999, Joshua David and Robert Hammond, who had no experience in planning and development, collaborated with neighbors, officials, artists, local business owners, “and leaders of burgeoning movements in horticulture and landscape architecture to create a free park now celebrated worldwide as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, and ecologically sound public space,” according to club members.

The railway carried freight trains to the city's west side when the area was full of factories and warehouses. Once trains were replaced by trucks, it became “obsolete,” club literature said. “Plants grew between the tracks, giving it a wild and striking beauty.”

Landscape architect Lisa Switkin, who worked on the project, led a tour of the grounds, where a few thousand visitors from around the world visit daily.

'Floating’ linear park

There are over 350 species of plants and trees scattered throughout, which are maintained by the Friends of the High Line and other volunteers.

“The species we selected were very tolerant, but it’s pretty robust,” the architect said, in consideration of the climate and city life. 

Over the years, the majority of greenery and trees that cropped up were invasive species that lived amid clusters of native grasses, Switkin said. “It’s a really rigorous environment.”

At the time, there were a variety of “microclimates,” such as a grove of native trees “that were trying to catch the light, or there would be areas that were wet or dry. You would get all these different things growing that were particular to the spot,” she said.

Barry Diller and wife Diane von Furstenberg, among The High Line’s earliest supporters, have donated some $20 million to the project over the years. It was executed in three stages, with initial construction beginning in 2009.

Design elements

“Because it was a train track, you would get these exotic species that were distributed seeds from trains. They’re all adaptive species, but some are adapted to this environment,” she said.

“The path meanders to views and vistas and other (areas) that are made to feel very natural, but it’s quite a curated experience in many ways, in terms of how you’re moving through,” Switkin said.

Designers wanted to not only have the gardens change from season to season but week to week, Switkin said. “We wanted to create these elongated transitions from grassland to woodland, etc.”

Public art is a large component of The High Line, including "Windy” by Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani, a black “tornado” funnel that spins, as well as the newest work, “Old Tree,” an eye-catching 25-foot-tall sculpture of a fluorescent pink tree created by Pamela Rosenkranz at 10th Avenue and West 30th Street.

Little Island

The Middletown group also visited Little Island, a man-made public space over the Hudson River with a base of concrete, funnel-looking support structures upon which sits a park on various levels. There are hills, lush grass, and other plantings mixed with pieces of art, as well as seating areas.

The Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation donated more than $260 million to create Little Island, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The city’s vision

Municipal Historian Deborah Shapiro last traveled to The High Line a decade ago. “The plantings are so marvelous, and they have [some] that open up at different times, so there will always be something blooming,” she said. The atmosphere, she added, “brings out the best in people.”

When plants were chosen for Harbor Park years back, Shapiro said, species were selected for their ability to withstand the New England weather. Designers also took into consideration the times when the river floods, Shapiro said.

“The river up to Middletown still has some salt water in it from the tide coming up from the Sound,” she said.

Another important component will be its accessibility, the mayor said, pointing to how easy it is to cross the highway near Little Island. “I’m downtown, I’m on Main Street: Oh, look, I’m at the riverfront,” he said.

Past garden club president Laney Bank envisions “very interesting” pollinator species and the bridge being wide enough to also allow people to walk their bicycles to the river.

“Another takeaway is how much of a difference it makes to have this natural environment on a relatively small scale,” the mayor said. “We’re in midtown Manhattan. Up on The High Line, it’s still crowded and still feels like New York. … I wasn’t thinking about that there was a lot of horn honking and traffic going by and smog coming up below us."

“It’s been designed in such a way that, instead, I’m looking at flowers and trees,” Florsheim said. 

In Middletown, there would be a staircase to bring visitors to the riverfront, and Union Street would provide street-level access, Florsheim said. “The sort of ‘High Line’ would be off Riverview Plaza (on Main Street), extending from the walkway behind there,” or at the parking arcade, between the courthouse and Washington Street.

Banks said she'd like to see The High Line's "mesh railings, amazingly strong, and sustainable wood, those kinds of features, not just a simple concrete bridge," with “contemporary landscape architecture features that this has; use of the land in the right way.”

“The biggest variable that this brings to the front of my mind is The High Line [used] existing infrastructure and adaptive reuse, and we are going to need to build something new — us and the state working together,” the mayor said. “We don’t know how much real estate we’ll have to work with.”

Florsheim also talked about the casual nature of the High Line and his vision for what Middletown’s version could be. “The goal is that we want it to be a place that you just end up, maybe without intending to.”

For information on The High Line, go to thehighline.org. The master plan may be viewed at middletownct.gov.

This nuclear waste has been sitting in CT for 50 years. Could it finally be removed? 

John Moritz

For over half a century, Connecticut’s Millstone Nuclear Power Plant has played host to the spent uranium fuel used to power its three reactors. According to federal regulators, it will be at least another decade until that radioactive fuel has anywhere else to go. 

Earlier this week, the Department of Energy released its newest roadmap toward developing a temporary solution for storing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel — a process the agency now says will take between 10 and 15 years to complete.

For eastern Connecticut, the news is a welcome step in what has been a long and politically-fraught effort to find a more permanent location for disposing of spent nuclear fuel, according to U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D- Conn., who has been involved with Congress’ efforts to break the impasse. 

“Let’s face it, we were just spinning our wheels with Yucca Mountain,” Courtney said Friday, referring to the proposed long-term storage location in Nevada that has stalled in the face of overwhelming local opposition.

“In the meantime over 70 communities, at great expense and really at great risk are really just having this material pile up,” the congressman added.

Without any purpose-built facilities to handle spent nuclear waste, operators of U.S. nuclear power plants have been forced to store their spent fuel rods on site in giant pools or in dry concrete casks.

The federal government’s current efforts, as outlined in the DOE's new timeline, focus on identifying one or more communities that are willing to volunteer to host an interim storage facility that will offload fuel rods from existing sites, and hold that fuel until a permanent storage site is eventually identified and built.

By involving local officials early in the site-selection process, federal officials are hoping to avoid the kind of stalemate that has occurred at Yucca Mountain.

“Prioritizing constructive, community-based input around consent-based solutions has shaped our roadmap for advancing our nation’s spent nuclear fuel management,” Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff said in a statement Tuesday. “This process deepens our commitment to transparency and equity and moves us closer to our clean energy future

Over the next two or three years, the agency said it plans to embark on a campaign to inform communities about what hosting a nuclear storage facility would entail, as well as what federal funding would be available, before soliciting a call for volunteers. Officials will then take several more years to assess those bids, before negotiating and signing agreements with the selected locations. 

Permitting and construction would then take another three to four years, according to the DOE timeline, before the facilities are ready to begin operation.

In addition to Millstone, Courtney’s district is also home to a repository of spent nuclear fuel at the site of the former Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Haddam, which was decommissioned in 1996.

Together, the two sites housed 2,441 metric tons of spent uranium as of 2021, the last year for which statistics were available from the Nuclear Energy Institute. 

Neither of the plants were intended to serve as long-term storage facilities for spent fuel, and local officials have long complained that their locations near water leave them — and nearby residents — vulnerable to the risk of an accident caused by flooding or hurricanes. 

Waterford’s first selectman, Robert Brule, could not be reached for comment about the report on Friday. 

In a letter written last year to the DOE, Brule said that the town would support the continued storage of spent fuel at Millstone “for as long as is necessary to maintain plant operations,” but that would not consider accepting spent fuel from other locations. 

Courtney told CT Insider on Friday that he would be “dumb-founded” if any locations in New England were considered as a possible interim storage site, due to the region’s geology and proximity to water.

Even without an identified solution in place for the issue of storing spent fuel, officials in Connecticut have already begun to weigh a potential expansion of nuclear power to meet the state’s clean energy goals. 

Last year, Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation to partially lift the state’s decades-old moratorium on the expansion of nuclear power. The law would allow additional reactors to be built at Millstone, which currently supplied 40 percent of the state’s electricity through its two operational reactors. (The plant’s third, and original reactor closed in the 1990s). 

Environmentalists, meanwhile, have criticized the approach, arguing it would be costlier and more hazardous than developing other forms of carbon-free electricity, such as wind and solar. Millstone's owner, Virginia-based Dominion Energy, has yet to announce any plans for building additional reactors on the site.

Bridgeport's building chief: Remington was 'imminent danger'

Brian Lockhart

BRIDGEPORT — If the city had not earlier this month begun tearing down parts of the blighted Remington Arms plant along Barnum Avenue, the crumbling East Side edifice, ruined by neglect, vandals, multiple fires and the elements, would have soon fallen in on its own, possibly injuring passersby.

That was the conclusion of Arben Kica. As head of the city's building department, Kica, following an inspection of the long-abandoned property's interconnected structures last winter, issued a Jan. 9 emergency demolition order to the economic development department for a large section of the former factory complex.

Kica cited significant degradation of the roofs, walls, masonry and flooring of the handful of linked buildings at Barnum Avenue and Helen Street.

"The degree of failure ... is such that there is imminent danger of collapse," Kica wrote, emphasizing that could "threaten the safety and well-being of people on the public way and on the street." He ordered "the immediate demolition of all hazardous elements."

Bridgeport gained control of the property from developer Sal DiNardo in the mid-2010s following a foreclosure fight over back taxes. A subsidiary of DuPont, the last industrial user, in 2000 agreed to assume responsibility for cleaning up any underground soil and water contamination after the city removed the buildings.

Toward that end, the City Council set aside $5 million in early 2020 and Bridgeport's state legislative delegation secured an additional $10 million for Remington in late 2021.

It took much of last year for Bridgeport to gain access to the state aid. By late fall/early winter Mayor Joe Ganim's administration was preparing to move ahead with the normal demolition process, which first includes removing hazardous construction materials before a tear down because it is typically costlier to instead sift through the debris.

But first Kica was called in to make sure the structures were safe for that preparation work to proceed. They were not.

“It had been a while since these buildings were looked at and buildings that are exposed like they were, where the backs were off and parts of the roof were off and so forth, have a tendency to continue to deteriorate," Thomas Gill, Ganim's economic development chief, said last week. "As a result, this time when we asked them (the building department) to go out and look, it was Arben's opinion things had deteriorated to the point where we were concerned there could be a collapse."

That resulted in the Jan. 9 emergency demolition order. And even then, it took over three months for the project to begin. By mid-February, other building department documents show, Manafort Brothers Inc. of New Britain had been hired for the job, with an estimated start of early to mid-March. 

Kica issued Manafort's permit April 13, the day before Ganim, Gill and other officials held a press conference celebrating the start of the demolition.

"This has been a blight issue to the East Side for a number of years," Ganim, running for re-election, said at the time before hopping on a piece of heavy equipment for a photo opportunity as the machinery took a bite out of the old factory.

State Rep. Chris Rosario, Bridgeport City Council President Aidee Nieves and Councilwoman Maria Valle all represent that neighborhood and were also present for that April 14 event. All three afterward said they had been unaware of the January emergency demolition order but were not surprised. They have long been pressuring City Hall to start clearing out Remington not only because it is a massive eyesore, but for fear of a collapse.

"People would call me  — residents  — and say, 'You know, this does not look good. When is this gonna change?'" Valle recalled. "Anybody driving through there or walking, (it) was a threat to the safety of the people."

"Constituents were telling us bricks were falling with the weather. A brick fell here, a brick was falling here. It was just like, 'We’ve got to get this done,'" Nieves said.

Rosario, who played a key roll in securing the $10 million in state aid in 2021, said he and some of his legislative colleagues from Bridgeport met earlier this year with the Ganim administration "and really pressed them" over how long it can take the city to get going on projects like Remington.

"We thought it wasn't fair we acquired these dollars and they were just sort of sitting there," Rosario said.

Remington was not only a public safety hazard, but posed a potential political hazard for Ganim. On the morning of the mayor's April 14 press conference, one of his rival candidates, Democrat John Gomes, lamented the delayed demolition there in a video posted on social media, calling the property's revival another "empty promise."

"I stand here before another landmark in the City of Bridgeport, Remington Arms," stated Gomes outside of the Barnum Avenue site. "Every election cycle is filled with promises of economic development and the impact it will have on the East Side of town." 

According to Gill, the remaining structures along Barnum Avenue not included in Kica's emergency order should be put out to bid and removed through the normal process by year's end.

"It's not gonna be a long pause before we start," he said. “Then, once all those buildings are down, it’s a case of pushing Dupont to come in and honor the agreement that’s there relative to the site (underground environmental) cleanup.”

The factory's historic tower, however, will be left standing. City officials between 2021 and early 2022 completed a $3 million fortification of that highly visible and recognizable part of the complex's architecture to ensure the tower alone can eventually be renovated and incorporated into any future modern construction. 

Gill said it was too soon to say how long it will be before any soil contamination is dealt with and the property ready for the city to seek redevelopment proposals.

For Rosario and many others it is a big relief to finally see Remington disappearing from Bridgeport's landscape.

"That's been a long-standing eyesore (and) not the type of site you want to see when you walk out of your home or in your backyard," he said. "I'm glad they got on top of it and look forward to not only seeing the rest come down, but to continue to work in getting additional dollars to remediate and develop that land.

"It's literally an open canvas," Rosario said. "You can do lots of stuff over there."

Shelton approves 129-unit apartment complex on Canal Street

Brian Gioiele

SHELTON — A local developer is helping take the next step in Canal Street’s redevelopment. 

The Planning and Zoning Commission, at its meeting Wednesday, approved Cedar Village at The Locks, Don Stanziale, Jr.’s plan to develop a four-story building at 287 Canal St., known as the Ascom Hasler site. Cedar Village is planned to have 129 apartments and 1,745 square feet of retail space.

Stanziale must return with final detailed development plans once he receives approvals from the state traffic authority, city engineer and fire marshal,and completes layout and architectural designs. 

"We’ve been working on this a long time. It is going to be a nice project,” said Stanziale, owner of Midland Development & Contracting, who also Cedar Village at Carroll’s on Howe Avenue.  

The commission called on Stanziale to set aside 10 percent of the units, 13 total, as affordable under state statute 8-30g. 

The commission recently approved its proposed affordable housing plan, which the commissioners have stated is a guideline for integrating affordable housing into proposed rental unit developments.  

The Board of Aldermen must also approve the plan before it takes effect. The aldermen are scheduled to hold a public hearing on the plan next month, after which a vote could be held. 

According to the plan, projects with more than 100 units would need 18 percent to be affordable, split evenly between 80 percent and 60 percent of the area median income.   

In seeking to set aside only 10 percent, Stanziale told the commissioners he would construct the Riverwalk and create a seating area for people to enjoy looking over the Shelton canal locks and the Housatonic River. The new building would have views of the river. 

The construction would include the walkway, lighting and fencing along the entire frontage of the Housatonic River, plus the Canal Locks, a distance of more than 500 feet. Work would include any necessary retaining walls and a switch-back ramp system providing access from the Canal Street public sidewalk down to the Riverwalk. 

“Other riverfront developments have simply provided a prepared easement for the future construction of the Riverwalk by the City of Shelton,” the resolution states. 

Commissioners had voiced concerns about the amount of parking proposed. In the plans, Stanziale had proposed 187 spaces, but he has since reached an agreement with John Watts — owner of the former Ascom Hasler site — to purchase the land across the street for at least 24 additional spots.  

“This would be for visitors of the apartments or people visiting the locks,” Stanziale said.  

An alternative place for extra parking, he added, would be the left side of the building over the lower parking area adjacent to the locks.  

The proposed building will include 40 studios, 77 one-bedrooms and 12 two-bedroom units, and the top floor would feature three outside deck areas, one which will be covered, to allow for viewing of the river.   

This site has environmental issues, like most of the old industrial sites along Canal Street. During a previous Shelton Economic Development Corp. meeting, SEDC President Paul Grimmer said most of the issues reside inside the building, such as lead and asbestos contamination.

$36M rehab hospital on Danbury's west side approved by CT: 'Beds of this type are extremely limited'

Kendra Baker

DANBURY — Construction on the first physical rehabilitation hospital in the Danbury area is expected to begin after gaining a key state approval. 

Encompass Health Corporation, whose plans to build a $36 million 100,000-square-foot facility on Danbury’s west side were approved by zoning officials in May 2021, has been waiting for state approval of the Certificate of Need application it filed in August 2020.

A certificate of need is required for health care providers looking to “make major changes to the health care landscape,” according to the state Office of Health Strategy.

With its certificate granted last week, construction on Encompass Health’s new rehabilitation hospital near the intersection of Reserve Road and Winding Ridge Way can at last commence.

State Rep. Patrick Callahan, R-New Fairfield, said he doesn’t know why the state approval process took so long, but he’s happy the certificate of need was finally granted.

“I’m pleased that after two years, Encompass has been approved by the state to build this inpatient hospital so families can be near their loved ones during the rehabilitation process,” he said. “Beds of this type are extremely limited, and these services will aid in recovery from physical and neurological injuries.”

The 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital will serve people who have suffered strokes, heart attacks, and neurological ailments by providing physical rehabilitation, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

In addition to private patient rooms, the facility will feature a therapy gym, dining room, pharmacy and therapy courtyard. 

“This rehabilitation hospital will fulfill an important need in the Greater Danbury area community, bringing specialized care for neurological disorders and physical injuries to the city’s westside,” state Rep. Rachel Chaleski, R-Danbury, said in a statement.

The facility will become part of Encompass Health’s national network of rehabilitation hospitals and be the company’s first rehab hospital in the state of Connecticut.

Representatives with Encompass Health could not be reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon.