CT Construction Digest Thursday May 6, 2021
Biden ready to sell $2.3T infrastructure plan in Louisiana
Josh Boak AP
President Joe Biden will push the case for his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan in the reliably Republican state of Louisiana — directly challenging GOP lawmakers who say that low taxes for corporations and the wealthy will fuel economic growth.
Biden is leaning into the stagecraft of the presidency on Thursday by choosing to speak in the city of Lake Charles in front of a 70-year-old bridge that is 20 years past its designed lifespan.
Even as he engages with Republicans in Washington, Biden is trying to sell their voters on the idea that higher corporate taxes can provide $115 billion for roads and bridges and hundreds of billions of dollars more to upgrade the electrical grid, make the water system safer, rebuild homes and jump-start the manufacturing of electric vehicles.
A White House official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the speech ahead of delivery, said Biden would pose a basic question to voters about whether tax cuts for big companies and CEOs will make the country stronger than programs designed to bolster the middle class.
Biden hinted at the theme when answering questions from reporters after a Wednesday speech at the White House that also emphasized his separate $1.8 trillion plan for education and children to be funded by higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
“What’s going to grow America more?” Biden said. “What’s going to help you and your security more? The super wealthy having to pay 3.9% less tax or having an entire generation of Americans having associate degrees?”
Biden then began to whisper: “Guess what. It grows the economy. Benefits everybody. Hurts nobody.”
Republican lawmakers have doubled down on low taxes as a core pillar of their ideology and partisan identity. Several GOP senators favor spending $568 billion on infrastructure over five years, a small fraction of what the Democratic president has proposed — a sign of how difficult a deal might be.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said that Republicans would rather finance infrastructure through user fees such as tolls and gasoline taxes, though he declined to specify which fees he would back.
“We’re open to doing a roughly $600 billion package, which deals with what all of us agree is infrastructure and to talk about how to pay for that in any way other than reopening the 2017 tax reform bill,” McConnell said Monday at the University of Louisville.
The Biden administration is banking that its message could play in Louisiana, which last backed a Democratic presidential candidate in 1996. Louisiana has been barraged by 30 extreme weather events over the past decade that caused $50 billion worth of damage. Biden is seeking $50 billion to make infrastructure better able to withstand storms, winds and flooding.
Hurricanes battered Lake Charles, a city of 78,000 residents, twice last year over the course of six weeks. Biden also plans to tour a water plant in New Orleans.
His infrastructure package received support in a newspaper editorial last week by Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter, a Republican, and Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins, a Democrat.
“The unfortunate truth is that our aging infrastructure and local government budgets cannot withstand the strain of increasingly frequent storms,” they wrote. “As mayors of great American cities in the South, we lie awake at night dreading each forecasted storm.”
There is general agreement among Democrats and Republicans in Washington about the need for infrastructure spending. But there are two significant hurdles for Biden's proposal to garner Republican backing.
First, Republican lawmakers would prefer a narrower definition of infrastructure that is concentrated on roads, bridges, airports, transit and broadband rather than renewable energy and access to caregivers. Second, they object to Biden's proposal to pay for his plan by undoing the 2017 tax cuts signed into law by President Donald Trump. Biden is seeking to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.
Neighbors have complained that the work has disrupted their lives and damaged homes.
In a 6-0 vote following a public hearing, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a special-permit modification allowing EB to extend construction hours from the current 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday to 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, according to City Planner Leslie Creane.
EB had sought to extend the hours to 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday.
Creane said EB’s vice president for real estate and facilities, Joe Drake, had suggested the reduction in the hours EB originally requested as “a compromise.” During the hearing, members of the public spoke about the impact the construction has had on their neighborhood, citing the effects of noise and drilling that they said has caused foundations to crack.
“Their testimony was very compelling,” Creane said, referring to the residents who spoke via Zoom during the virtual hearing. She said the commission was grateful for EB’s “willingness to hear and understand what people were saying and that they were willing to revisit some of their decisions.”
An EB spokeswoman, Liz Power, responded to questions prompted by the commission’s action.
“We remain in regular contact with the community on project progress and respond to any concerns with property owners directly,” she wrote in an email. “We have addressed concerns about construction-related damage. Independent inspectors examined the concerns and determined that the damage observed was most likely not caused by our construction.”
Power said the project, the centerpiece of an $850 million expansion, should be completed in 2023.
The commission also voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a special permit EB sought for the design of another shipyard structure — Building 605 — that will house manufacturing spaces, crew support areas and a cafeteria and will serve as an entry to the south yard for EB and Navy personnel.
Glastonbury approves Amazon logistics ‘delivery station’ at former Glastonbury factory
Greg Bordonaro
E-commerce retail giant Amazon has a greenlight to open a new logistics facility in Glastonbury.
The town’s plan and zoning commission on Tuesday approved Amazon’s plan to open a delivery station in the former Nabisco warehouse at 107 Eastern Blvd., a town official confirmed Wednesday morning.
Amazon will reconfigure the 104,000-square-foot building and expand the parking lot.
Winstanley Enterprises acquired the 12.5 acre property in Sept. 2020 for $4.4 million, according to land records.
Amazon’s delivery stations provide last-mile services that help speed up customer order delivery times.
A synopsis of the operation says packages would arrive at the 24/7 delivery station in Glastonbury via tractor trailer from Amazon fulfillment facilities during the night, and workers at the station would then sort and load them into delivery vans.
There would be approximately 28 Amazon “associates” and 15 managers supporting the Glastonbury operation, and 76 vans departing the facility between 9:50 a.m. and 11:10 a.m. each day.
Amazon has opened numerous delivery stations in Connecticut in recent years in communities including Windsor, Wallingford, Orange, Danbury, Trumbull and Stratford.
Southington voters approve town purchase of golf course development rights
Zachary Vasile
Southington residents on Tuesday approved the town government’s $4.5 million purchase of development rights to the privately-owned Southington Golf Course, a move expected to prevent the construction of a 114-lot subdivision on the property.
According to the town clerk’s office, 2,419 people voted in favor of the buyout, and 719 voted against it.
The town now has authorization to secure the development rights to the nearly 100-acre property, meaning that while the land would continue to be owned by the Calvanese and Kastner families, they would give up the right to build on it or use it for anything other than a golf course or recreational green space. The same would apply to any future owners of the Southington Golf Course.
The land had been approved for a 114-lot subdivision by the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
Residents backing the town’s purchase had argued that new homes would bring new families, inundating and possibly overburdening the public school system with students and negating any boost in local tax revenues. They also cited the need to preserve green spaces in a community that has seen decades of continuous residential and commercial building.
Those opposed deemed the deal a waste of money, asserting that the town was simply paying the golf course’s owners to continue operating their existing business.
The Southington Town Council approved a similar deal five years ago, buying the development rights to Hawk’s Landing Country Club on the north side of town for just under $1 million. Like the Southington Golf Course, Hawk’s Landing had been eyed for possible residential development.
Dunn wanted to combine general government expenditures, including road repaving and public works upgrades, into one question along with public safety improvements.
The tactic of jamming multiple projects into one bill or resolution is common in Hartford and in Washington, D.C., said Town Councilman Jason Stark.
“For you to ask us to ask the voters to vote on things that we weren’t even briefed on, I can’t do that,” Stark said. “I can’t have voters be asked to vote for a bunch of general government things and hide them in education and public safety. I think they should be addressed separately.”
Councilman Domenic Angiolillo joined Stark in demanding three questions instead of two, saying it would be “ridiculous” to not give voters a choice.
“I think it’s a disservice to the voters,” Angiolillo said. “It seems to me the reason you’re doing this is because you want it to pass. My opinion is to let the voters decide.”
Dunn supported a two-question format, saying three questions would “add more risk” a project could be rejected. He says all three projects are needed.
“I want this to pass, you know why, I want it to pass because that’s my job to make sure we build the infrastructure for every single department,” Dunn said.
The council needed eight votes to approve the funding Tuesday. Realizing there weren’t enough votes to pass the questions as proposed, Dunn reluctantly agreed to split the general government projects into a third question. The council is set to discuss Dunn’s revised proposal during a special meeting set for 7 tonight.
The bond package includes the following, along with $155,00 in issuance costs:
Up to $5.74 million for a new ambulance facility, a new roof and HVAC for the police department, a new ladder truck and two tanker trucks for the fire department, a new generator for the police department and a new generator for Tyrrell Middle School.
Up to $3.01 million for renovations to the public works buildings and the senior center, a new wheel loader and skidder for the public works department, new playground equipment at town parks, repairs to Woodtick Pavilion and the reconstruction and repair of roads.
Up to $1.41 million for a new artificial turf and running track at Wolcott High School, a new HVAC chiller at Tyrrell Middle School and repairs to the bleachers at the high school and middle school.
If the Town Council approves the resolution, a referendum will be set for 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 26 at Wolcott High School.
This would be the town’s first bond issuance since 2017, when voters approved borrowing $7 million for firefighter air packs, road repaving and school upgrades during a town meeting.
The town would repay the new bonds over 20 years at an interest rate of about 1%, making now an ideal time to borrow money, Dunn said.Dunn said the bonds wouldn’t increase the town’s debt payments because it’s retiring more debt than it would take on. The town paid $840,000 in debt service this year and would pay about $100,000 less next year if the package is approved.