Vernon man drove wrong way into I-84 construction zone in East Hartford while drunk, police say

Josh LaBella

EAST HARTFORD — A Vernon man was arrested early Wednesday after allegedly driving the wrong way on Interstate 84 while drunk, and then stopping to chat with highway workers after wrongly entering their work zone, according to police.

Andrey Kamenskiy, 61, is charged with 10 counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, 10 counts of endangering highway workers in a highway work zone, operating under the influence and driving the wrong way on a divided highway, according to Connecticut State Police.

Police said dispatch began getting multiple 911 calls at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday about a driver going in the wrong direction on I-84 in the area of Exit 50 in Hartford. They said the vehicle reportedly was traveling east in the westbound travel lanes and callers described the wrong-way driver to be operating a BMW.

As troopers were responding to that area, police said, Troop H continued to receive multiple 911 calls reporting the BMW was traveling the wrong way in the HOV lane near Exit 58 on I-84 west in East Hartford. They said callers reported the car had entered an active construction zone.

Police said dispatch was called again moments later with a report that the BMW had stopped in the construction zone and the driver was speaking with the workers on-site. They said there were 10 construction crew workers doing a job in various places within the highway construction zone when Kamenskiy's car pulled into it.

Police said a responding trooper observed a stationary blue BMW facing the wrong way within the construction zone, with man standing outside of the car. Once on scene, they said, the investigating trooper approached the man, who provided the trooper with his driver’s license, identifying him as Andrey Kamenskiy.

During the on-scene investigation, police said, troopers determined Kamenskiy was exhibiting signs of impairment. They said Kamenskiy willingly performed field sobriety tests, which he failed, so he was taken into custody.

No injuries were reported and no other vehicles were involved, police said, adding Kamenskiy later was released on a $25,000 bond and scheduled to appear at Superior Court in Manchester Aug. 30.

Manchester reallocates $2.5 million in soon-to-expire ARPA funds, with $1 million to new library

Joseph Villanova

MANCHESTER — Officials will shift some $2.5 million in expiring American Rescue Plan Act funds to projects like the new library and park expansions to avoid having to refund the federal government.

A memo from Budget & Research Officer Brian Wolverton, dated Aug. 1, states that Manchester has spent or encumbered roughly 58 percent of the $25 million in APRA grants that the town has received in the past few years. 

Wolverton said Manchester has until Dec. 31 to spend or encumber the outstanding funds, which could otherwise be subject to recapture by the U.S. Treasury, and town staff identified roughly $2.53 million previously allocated from ARPA that were not anticipated to be spent by the deadline.

Towns like Ellington have found themselves in a similar situation, seeking ways to use unencumbered ARPA funds before the deadline.

Town Manager Steve Stephanou said at a meeting Tuesday night that while Manchester must encumber all of the $25 million from ARPA by the end of the year, the town has until Dec. 31, 2026 to spend it.

Allocated but unused ARPA funds listed in the memo include $850,000 for school repurposing plans, just under $300,000 for a business investment grant program, and $200,000 each for office renovations and land acquisition related to recreational trails.

Stephanou said some of the unused funds were allocated to projects that could not be completed due to logistical issues, or otherwise did not use the entire amount that was allocated.

Town staff proposed a plan to re-purpose the $2.5 million by allocating $1.06 million to construction of the town's new Main Street library, $850,000 to the expansion of Charter Oak Park, $500,000 for work at the Union Pond Dam, and just under $80,000 as contingency, with the remaining $39,000 going towards assistance programs and Senior Center improvements.

Stephanou said the new plan, centered primarily around capital projects, was decided on because Manchester officials know they will be able to encumber and spend the money before the relevant deadlines.

Manchester previously allocated $2.1 million in ARPA funds for the Charter Oak Park West project back in May 2023. The Board of Directors also approved a separate $400,000 grant for the Charter Oak Park West project at the Tuesday meeting, with remaining project costs covered by the town's capital improvements accounts and other ARPA allocations.

A memo for the grant, dated July 19, states that the town recently awarded a contract for the first phase of construction, including the synthetic turf field, utility building, and parking lot, totaling $3.35 million. An $850,000 contract for the second phase of the project, construction of a combination skate park and pump track, was awarded back in January 2024. 

As for the new library, voters approved up to $39 million in bonds for the project at a referendum held in November 2022. While the price tag for the 72,450-square-foot building fronting Main Street has grown to $53.6 million in the years since its approval, Manchester has applied for and secured funding from a variety of sources and officials do not expect to issue the full $39 million in bonds.

The Board of Directors ultimately approved the proposed reallocations at a meeting Tuesday night, but kept some $15,000 previously left unspent for a pilot of a "baby box" program that provided new parents with a variety of relevant supplies and services.

State contracting board mulls removing DEEP’s contracting authority

Mark E Fitch

Members of the State Contracting Standards Board (SCSB) discussed possible enforcement actions against the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) after the department has ignored multiple requests for information related to a statutorily required audit, including removing DEEP’s ability to enter contracts.

The SCSB has been conducting audits on state agencies to ensure their contracting practices meet statutory guidelines – part of the SCSB’s responsibilities under state law – but DEEP has been ducking their requests for information related to five contracts since October of 2023, putting SCSB’s audit behind schedule.

Unlike the Auditors of Public Accounts, which is part of the legislature, the SCSB has actual enforcement abilities, including the ability to removing a state agency’s ability to contract services.

Essentially, the nuclear option, state statute says that with a two-thirds vote by the board, the SCSB may “restrict or terminate the authority of any state contracting agency to enter into any contract or procurement agreement,” if the agency has “failed to comply with statutory contracting and procurement requirements and evidenced a reckless disregard for applicable procedures and policy,” and the restriction is in the state’s best interest.

Longtime board member Sal Luciano said no one really wants to do it but they can if they have to. Luciano suggested a more incremental method of getting DEEP to comply with the audit before moving to restrict the agency’s contracting authority.

“First is the wall of shame. There’s no reason the environmental protection agency is not cooperating with us – they should be,” Luciano said during the SCSB’s August 9 meeting. “Secondly, this is not voluntary. They have to provide us that information. The statute says so and I think it’s important that we send a letter out to them.”

“Lastly, our biggest enforcement we have is the purse strings,” Luciano continued. “We could actually take over purchasing for the agency. Now, I’m sure we don’t want that, but I know the agency doesn’t want that.” 

Since October of 2023, the SCSB staff and chief procurement officer have sent multiple requests to DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes and Chief of Staff Andrew Hoskins, most of which have gone unanswered well past the SCSB’s audit deadline of June 30, 2024.

The SCSB had requested materials related to five contracts between DEEP and private vendors for repair to the Pachaug Dam, consulting, and energy efficiency services. Most of the contracts were not competitively bid, according to contracting report from the Office of Policy and Management.

The SCSB often finds itself at odds with governors and executive branch agencies given their enforcement capabilities, and the board was only recently granted funding for its full contingent of staff by the General Assembly. The Lamont administration in the past has argued the SCSB is duplicative, pointing to the Auditors of Public Accounts, which regularly audits and issues reports on state agencies, but without the ability to enforce any of their findings.

SCSB board members did discuss working with the state auditors on correcting this issue with DEEP, also positing that some state departments may feel that they are being hit twice with audits if simultaneously having to comply with both SCSB and the state auditors’ requests.

Nevertheless, DEEP was the only agency out of eleven that had not provided any information at all to the SCSB.

“Some agencies may be busy. They may think they don’t need to do it right away. Well, they do,” Luciano said. “I would suggest the wall of shame first, a strongly worded letter to them saying they don’t have a choice, they need to comply, and then the last piece of it is to point out 4e-7, which is they can’t even control their own purse strings anymore if they refuse to comply.”

Mid-Year Utility Infrastructure Outlook

The Utility Expo

Spending on infrastructure for power, water, wastewater and telecom will continue to grow through the balance of 2024, driven by the public investment in water and wastewater as well as the energy transition.

In its second-quarter outlook, FMI forecasts spending of $134 billion in the power sector in 2024, up 9 percent over 2023. This sector includes electricity as well as natural gas and oil.

Nationwide, the forecast for electricity demand increased from 2.6 percent to 4.7 percent growth over the next five years, as reflected in 2023 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings.

"Given the absurdly large power requirements of data centers, increased market share for electric vehicles and a push to modernize the U.S. transmission network, this subsegment should remain strong for the next several years," said Zack Fritz, economist of Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC).

"A significant driver is building resiliency into the grid in the face of more extreme weather events," said Daniel Shumate, managing director of FMI Capital Advisors Inc. Efforts include installation of stronger poles, covered powerlines and burying miles of powerlines in high wildfire risk areas.

Alex Carrick, chief economist of ConstructConnect, said that in addition to spending on grid resilience and electric cars, manufacturing also is transitioning to electric power.

"Any company with an industrial process that uses heat is going to try to switch from fossil fuels over to electricity," he said.

"Natural gas is a power source that — despite corporate pledges to the contrary — will be necessary to meet the increased power demand of the next decade," said Fritz. "We're also increasingly an LNG exporter."

He expects moderate increases in natural gas-related projects as a result of rising demand for exports. However, the tale is different for oil. According to Fritz, oil-related construction spending has fallen 91 percent since the all-time high in 2014 and accounted for just 1.4 percent of private-sector power-related construction spending in 2023.

"It's a replacement and service market," said Schumate of the oil market. "It's keeping up with inflation and not much else. There is limited new construction."

Water, Wastewater Outlook

FMI forecasts spending of $30 billion in 2024 on water supply, up 8 percent over 2023. Federal investments are driving spending. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocates $50 billion towards safe drinking water, including $15 billion in grants and loans to identify and replace lead service lines and an additional $11.7 billion to finance any drinking water infrastructure priority, including lead service line identification and replacement.

In February 2024, the EPA announced over $3.2 billion would be made available through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to expand access to clean drinking water across the country, bringing the total amount of funding announced under this category to $8.9 billion.

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation is investing $1 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to construct seven major Rural Water Projects to deliver new supplies of clean drinking water to rural communities.

Shumate believes that in the wake of some tragic events surrounding water quality in Flint Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi, the job of managing water utilities has moved "from keeping the water bill small, to keeping the water safe." The EPA estimates that the United States needs $650 billion over the next 20 years to improve safe drinking water infrastructure.

Sewage and wastewater disposal spending will top $46 billion in 2024, according to the FMI Forecast, 10 percent higher than in 2023. FMI said the growth can be attributed to a recent wave of residential and manufacturing investment, domestic migration, a desire to improve resiliency and the regulatory environment.

Carrick said he has never seen such a large number of water and wastewater projects mega projects, topping $1 billion, with higher costs driving up the cost of projects. For example, the Austin City Council recently approved contracts to complete design and construct significant enhancements and expansion of the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is projected to cost more than $1 billion. In California, a $4 billion large reservoir

"Construction spending for water and wastewater is surging," said Fritz. "Spending in the category is up 56 percent since February 2020. For context, spending in the category increased just 61 percent from the start of 2002 [when the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking it] to the start of 2020."

Communication Outlook

The need for faster and more reliable networks to accommodate an increasingly connected world as well as the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI), will increase communication spending by 5 percent in 2024, according to FMI's forecast. The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, also provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment and adoption programs.

Shumate believes telecom is the one sector where funds have been somewhat delayed in 2024.

"It's the challenge of the federal funds impacting the market," he said.

Election Impact On the Forecast?

With a November election on the horizon, there's no doubt utilities and utility contractors are concerned with how the outcome will impact their plans.

Shumate believes bipartisanship will prevail when it comes to infrastructure investment.

"There's a new industrialization movement inside of the U.S. that is emphasizing our infrastructure, the things that impact our ability to compete with the world," he said. The two points on which both sides generally agree are not wanting to get beat by China and making sure the U.S. remains competitive.

Labor's Impact On utility Infrastructure Forecast

"The one thing that limits contractors is people," said Shumate, "and that is a long-term structural problem that is not going to get fixed quickly."

Carrick agrees that labor is a huge challenge in almost every industry and construction in particular.

"The amount of hiring is not keeping up with openings," he said.

In summary, the mid-year outlook for utility infrastructure spending remains very positive for electric power, water and wastewater, communications, and even natural gas. The biggest potential threat is being able to access the workforce and technology to get the job done.

For more information, visit theutilityexpo.com.