Friday December 20th Bond Commission Agenda

Cheshire breaks ground for north end school and Norton Elementary projects

Christian Metzger

CHESHIRE — The cold drizzle Monday was perfect for the groundbreaking for two elementary school projects — one in the north end of town and the second at Norton Elementary, according to Cheshire Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Solan.

As students and town officials gathered for some ceremonial shoveling at the 44-acre snow-covered parcel at Jarvis Street and Marion Road that will be the new north end school, Solan recalled that in response to the unlikely successful vote for the projects, someone posted on social media that "Hell froze over." The weather on Monday, he said, seemed fitting for the start of the momentous projects. 

Costing $90 million, the north end school will be the largest capital project the town has ever undertaken. The reconstruction and modernization of Norton Elementary at 414 North Brooksvale Road is projected to cost $76 million. 

To be built on farmland, the yet-unnamed north end school will house 700 prekindergarten through sixth-grade students.

With a modern yet rustic barn-like facade meant to harken back to the roots of the land it will occupy, the school will have five classrooms per grade level, art rooms, music rooms, a two-floor library, an amphitheater courtyard, four playscapes for children in different age groups, two soccer fields, and a gymnasium that will be available to the community. 

Norton will have similar facilities to accommodate the district's growing elementary school population. Both schools will be environmentally sustainable and powered by a hybrid geothermal system; officials hope to add solar panels.

Officials anticipate the construction at both schools will be completed by fall 2026.

For most municipalities, one school project is a massive undertaking and expense; it's rare to see two school projects undertaken simultaneously. However, Cheshire has seen a steep increase in elementary school students in recent years, with enrollment at Highland Elementary alone increasing by 200 over five years ago when enrollment bottomed out for the district. 

A contributing factor has been a construction boom that has attracted new families to the area. With 600 additional multifamily units expected to be built over the next year, the student population will continue to swell.

"It's exciting and overwhelming at the same time," Solan said. "The two buildings are really necessary given the population shifts that we've seen, particularly at the elementary grades. We have more than 900 kids at Highland right now, so it's necessary, but it's also a lot to take on at one time." 

Solan added that the school projects were a unique opportunity, working with designers and members of the community to integrate them into the surrounding areas, which is why they settled on heavy greenery and the barn design for the north end school and walking trails that connect with the Farmington Trail over by Norton.
 
Students and members of town organizations involved in the planning over the past two years attended the groundbreaking ceremony. They all took turns shoveling dirt to commemorate the work that has gone into the project so far.

"As an educator by profession, I truly believe it takes a village to raise a child, and I stand before you really incredibly proud to stand here as part of this village of caring and committed individuals, past and present, who share a deep passion for supporting our children's education," said Board of Education Chair Samantha Rosenberg. 

"This new state-of-the-art facility reflects not only the value of this town but also instills in our students an understanding of the importance of community," she said.

A name is expected to be chosen for the north end school in six months.

Once both schools open to the public, Chapman Elementary and Darcey School will be shuttered. There has yet to be a concrete plan for the future of the buildings.

Former New Haven Coliseum gets its first tenants as Square 10 project wraps up first building

Mark Zaretsky

NEW HAVEN —  The first 11 tenants have moved into The Anthem at Square 10, the first building to be nearly completed in a sweeping remake of the downtown commercial site where the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum once stood.

They'll soon be joined by a Melting Pot fondue restaurant, a Common Grounds coffee shop and a relocated Elm City Market, among other amenities.

An outdoor pool, gym and some co-working spaces also are ready, along with the second and third residential floors. Developer LWLP New Haven LLC is working to get the fourth through seventh floors of the $76 million "Phase 1A" building ready to be lived in this winter.

The nearly complete building, development of which was aided by a $999,000 state remediation grant, is the first of several high-rise commercial buildings going up off South Orange Street as part of the project. 

Hill/City Point Alder Carmen Rodriguez, D-6, said the building "is absolutely stitching neighborhoods back together," and the neighborhood is walkable.

Lou Mangini, a staffer for U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, also pointed out that "just a few years ago, no one walked from downtown to Union Station," and now they do.

The five-acre site, which has been a parking lot since the coliseum was imploded on Jan. 20, 2007, is at the city's front door, where vehicles exiting Interstate 95 and Interstate 91 on Route 34 first enter downtown. It eventually will be home to 700 units, with ground floor retail, pool, a health club, a public plaza and many other amenities. 

Phase 1 is a 3.5-acre parcel that will be developed in three sub-phases, which will include housing, public amenities and a "life sciences" medical and lab office building, city officials said.

It was dedicated nearly 18 years after the implosion, which came in a billowing cloud of dust. The new building includes 16,000 square feet of retail space, 25,000 square feet of public open space, a public plaza and 200 residential units — including 40 affordable units.

Phase 1B calls for construction of a 650-space parking garage and an additional 75 to 100 apartments, 20 percent of which will be affordable units, officials said. The new housing will partially wrap around the garage structure. 

It's part of the broader Downtown Crossing project, which aims to reconnect downtown New Haven to nearby neighborhoods, such as the Hill, City Point, Long Wharf and Wooster Square.

LWLP, a consortium made up of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, the Fieber Group and KDP, showed off its progress Monday in a dedication and preview event. It included a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the parts of the building that are ready.

Spinnaker Executive Vice President of Development Frank Caico said he and his staff spent two years talking to people in order to come up with a "very inclusive and collaborative" project.

"I'm proud to say that we've exceeded the development requirements," he said, adding throughout construction, there have been "very few issues, if any, that I'm aware of."

Caico said the first residents moved in on Oct. 28 and 30 apartments have been leased so far. Market rate apartments begin at $1,900 for studios, $2,625 for one-bedrooms and $3,300 for two-bedrooms.

The building's commercial spaces, at this point, are "essentially 100 percent leased," Caico said, although a final retail space is still being finalized and has yet to be announced.

The building's tenants so far include a number of medical students and people who work at Yale, said Property Manager Brian Alves, who grew up in Springfield, Mass., lives in Stratford and said he saw Huey Lewis and the News, Aerosmith and monster truck rallies at the coliseum back in the day.

Elm City Market, Common Grounds and the Melting Pot all are expected to open during the second quarter of 2025, Alves said.

He said he expects the seventh floor to be done by Dec. 20, the sixth to be done in early January and the fifth to be complete by the end of January.

The first building will offer 200 of the 500 new housing units in the overall complex, said Mayor Justin Elicker.

Elicker, who has made "inclusive growth" the centerpiece of his development agenda, said the Anthem at Square 10 development is just one example of how "New Haven is just hopping."

Over the past five years, New Haven has added 2,000 new or renovated housing units, with 3,500 more in the pipeline, he said.

The 40 affordable units in the first building include 20 for households at 50 percent to 60 percent of the area median income, or AMI, and 20 units for households at 61 percent to 100 percent of the AMI.

"We want to make sure that we grow inclusively," Elicker said.

He said he is looking forward to completing the next two buildings, in phases 1B and 1C. The latter is being developed by Ancora L&G, based in Durham, N.C. Ancora specializes in building high-quality medical, laboratory environments "in academic centers of distinction," the city has said.

City Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli called the project, launched in 2022, "the very start of a new transformational neighborhood here in New Haven."

State Department of Economic Development Deputy Commissioner Matt Pugliese joked about his frequent visits to New Haven to announce to new projects.

"There's so many different investments," Pugliese said.

CT CONSTRUCTION DIGEST MONDAY DECEMBER 16, 2024

New Norwalk High and South Norwalk School take shape, with construction on schedule: 'Very exciting'

Kalleen Rose Ozanic

NORWALK — Construction is on schedule at the sites of the new Norwalk High School and South Norwalk School, although it's not certain if the latter will have solar panels or open in fall 2025 as expected.

The new Norwalk High School project has a longer construction timeline than the South Norwalk School. Site grading and the foundation is complete at the site of the new high school, said Alan Lo, Norwalk building and facilities manager. The foundation for the school’s swimming pool is being tested to ensure it is watertight, he said. 

The new Norwalk High School is slated to welcome students in fall 2027, with the new sports complex atop the bones of the old school to be completed by August 2028, Lo said. The school’s tennis courts will come soon after in the fall of 2028, he said. In the meantime, "many" athletic programs have been displaced during construction, according to an FAQ page for the project.

The district has busing plans to bring student athletes to other sports spaces during the construction, Norwalk Public Schools Media Relations Specialist Emily Morgan said this year.

At the South Norwalk School construction site, the building is framed out and interior partitions and masonry are being installed, Lo said.

“It’s very exciting,” the building and facilities manager said. Lo said he can't confirm until April that the school's construction will have come far enough along to welcome students on time.

"I know we are scheduled to open (on time), assuming that everything (continues) to go smoothly," Lo said.

Nevertheless, the South Norwalk School's roof is being installed soon, he said last Tuesday. But whether solar panels will actually go on that roof is unclear. Last summer, officials had hoped the school could be entirely solar-powered. If the school ends up having solar panels on the roof, they will actually provide a maximum of 30 percent of the school’s peak energy usage, Lo said.

He spoke to the city’s Land Use and Building Management Committee and the Facilities committee of the school board this month about how the intended partnership with South Norwalk Electric and Water to implement ground mounted and rooftop solar panels wasn't feasible. SNEW and Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative, of which the utility company is a member, found energy savings from the solar project wouldn't break even on the costs of a 20-year power purchasing agreement, according to Lo and a memo provided to the committees.

In a power purchasing agreement, a “third-party developer installs, owns, and operates an energy system on a customer’s property,” according to Better Buildings of the United States Department of Energy.

Because the school is located within SNEW’s “electric service boundaries,” the memo states, Lo said that a power purchase agreement cannot work without the utility company. 

The city purchasing panels and hiring a contractor is the only way to install them on the school's roof, Lo said. If leftover funds are available after the South Norwalk School construction is completed, the city could use it to buy solar panels and engage a contractor to install them, Lo said. He estimated this would cost $800,000.

Should the cost of the panels and contractor exceed any potential leftover funds by the school’s completion, a capital request could be made to further fund the solar project.

Those possibilities hinge on financial calculations Lo said he would complete by September 2025 to determine if the city funding the solar project is financially feasible.

Despite the uncertainty, Lo said that the city has a “commitment” to rooftop solar and looks to use the option wherever possible. He pointed out completed solar panel projects at Jefferson Marine Science Elementary School, Ponus Ridge STEAM Academy, Naramake Elementary School, and a solar project at Cranbury Elementary School that he said would be completed in the spring. 

Regardless, any solar would not be installed at South Norwalk until spring 2026 after it’s clear the school’s roof is stable, without leaks, and ready for installation, Lo said.

Brookfield awarded $1.5 million toward sewer installation at almost 100 homes

Sandra Diamond Fox

BROOKFIELD — The town recently received a grant that will go toward helping install sewer systems for nearly 100 homes while also protecting the Long Island Sound.

The $1.5 million grant, awarded through the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, will go to the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority for construction of a sewer extension in the Dean and Pocono Road area, said Alison Kennedy, operations manager of the Brookfield Water Pollution Control Authority.

“We have some properties along that road whose septic systems are not doing well,” Brookfield First Selectman Steve Dunn said. “They’re all working but some are on their last legs.”

Kennedy said the extension will serve 91 residential homes and possibly the Town Hall campus. A complete design of the project is anticipated by July 2025.

She said by replacing the septic systems with sewer, the town will be eliminating a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus from entering the Housatonic Watershed, in addition to any E. coli contamination of surface water.

“All of these nutrients going into the Still River in the Housatonic Watershed eventually feed the Long Island Sound,” she said. “So the reduction of nutrients would help the Long Island Sound be a healthier environment.”

The $1.5 million is the maximum award of the grant, and the town’s match for the grant is $750,000, to total $2.25 million, Kennedy added.

The Long Island Sound Futures Fund said the project will reduce 34 pounds of nitrogen, 24 pounds of phosphorus, and the potential risks to public health and wildlife habitats due to water quality issues.

Dunn said he’s very pleased with the grant award.

“This has been under consideration for a few years now. We’re very thankful that we got a grant,” he said.

“Overall, this really helps to build a sewer system along the Still River Greenway to protect the Still River and make it much more affordable for the residents,” he added.

The Long Island Futures Fund project grant has been awarded through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, in partnership with the Long Island Sound Study and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Thirty-one new grants totaling $12.5 million were awarded, according to its website.

The Futures Fund "supports efforts to address sewage pollution by providing grants which test innovative approaches to conservation, deliver transformative projects and support people and communities who value the sound and take a direct role in its future," according to its website.

'Two different sewer alternatives'

The town is in the final design phase of the project, Kennedy said.

“Our engineers are bringing the final design two different sewer alternatives —  one would be a full gravity system and one would be a low pressure system,” said Kennedy.

She said the town will decide which of those systems it will choose. She added much of that will be dependent on costs as well.

Depending on which system is used, the cost will be between $3.4 million and $6.7 million, Dunn said.

He said typically, sewer extension costs are bonded over the course of over 20 years.

“And if there’s a cost per household of $20,000 — that’s $1,000 per year,” he said. “So any grants we can get really, really help to lower the cost for the residents.”

Kennedy said the town will continue to take additional grants and funding to help pay for the project.

Last year, Brookfield was awarded $300,000 from the Long Island Sound Futures Fund to help the town fund the final design phase, she said.

Stamford reopens two bridges but three others need more work to fix their structural deficiencies

Tyler Fedor

STAMFORD — Two of Stamford's five ailing bridges have reopened: West Glen Drive bridge and Lakeside Drive bridge in Stamford are back in service after being closed over the summer and fall. 

Both bridges were rated "poor" by the Connecticut Department of Transportation and both were closed in the spring for repairs. The CTDOT has 11 rankings for bridge conditions ranging from "failed" at one end to "excellent" at the other.

The "poor" rating is defined as as a bridge with "widespread moderate or isolated major defects; strength and/or performance of the component is affected." 

Stamford taxpayers were not on the hook for repairs to either the West Glen Drive or Lakeside Drive bridges. Eighty percent of the $3.9 million used to replace the Lakeside Drive bridge came from federal funds with the remainder from state funds. The bridge was built in 1936, rebuilt in 1993 and was closed as of April 1 for the most recent upgrade. It opened to traffic Dec. 9.

The West Glen Drive bridge, which was built in 1964, cost $2.1 million to replace and was 80 percent funded by federal funds with the rest covered by state funds. It closed around June 17 and reopened to traffic Dec. 6.

Meanwhile, work is ongoing on other bridges in Stamford. 

The Hunting Ridge Road Bridge, just up the street from LaRocca’s Country Market in North Stamford, is still planned to be opened by June 2025, according to the city’s website as of Dec. 10. 

The goal is to replace the bridge, which was built around 1940, with a structure that can withstand “pressures, velocities, impact and uplift forces from a 100-year flood,” according to the city’s website. 

The state will cover 45 percent of the $3.1 million it will take to replace the bridge, which was rated in “poor” condition by CTDOT. 

The goal to withstand heavy flooding came after an August downpour experts described as a 100-year storm dumped three months worth of rain on southwest Connecticut in just a few hours. That same storm killed two people; more than two dozen streets were washed out or damaged. 

Officials say the bridge on Cedar Heights Road that has been delayed multiple times is aiming to be replaced by the end of April.

The bridge is closed to traffic. A detour takes cars along High Ridge Road and Wire Mill Road. 

The most recent delay of several that have affected the project came after the city discovered the bridge, rated in “serious” condition by CTDOT, was rebuilt too low. Tony Vitti, president of A. Vitti Excavators, which is handling the bridge construction project, said his company will pay to fix the height discrepancy. 

A "serious" grade is defined as a bridge with "major defects; strength and/or performance of the component is seriously affected." A bridge with this grade also calls for "more frequent monitoring, load restrictions and/or corrective actions."  

The original goal was to complete the project by Nov. 30, 2023. Vitti Excavators committed to working during the 2023 winter to get the job done by May 31, 2024. That date was pushed back to June 30. 

The completion date was then pushed back to the end of November after the company submitted documents on handling the flow of the Rippowam River, demolition of the original bridge and supporting utility lines to an inspection firm before moving from one stage of construction to the next. 

The documents went through multiple rounds of reviews that resulted in more delays. 

The Cedar Heights Road bridge is also a detour for a project to replace the Wire Mill Road bridge, so a delay in the Cedar Heights project could delay the Wire Mill Road project. 

The Wire Mill Road bridge replacement must be finished by 2025 or risk losing some or all of the nearly $2 million in federal funds that back the project, City Engineer Lou Casolo previously told The Stamford Advocate.  

AFL-CIO urges activist to resign over opposition to Amazon project on Waterbury-Naugatuck line

 LIVI STANFORD

WATERBURY – The executive board of the state’s AFL-CIO is asking Steve Schrag, a volunteer with the Naugatuck Valley Project, to voluntarily resign from the state’s AFL-CIO Health & Safety Committee because of his vocal opposition to a planned Amazon distribution center on the Waterbury-Naugatuck line.

“Due to your opposition, you endangered the approval of this project, which would provide 1 million work hours for members of the Connecticut Building Trades,” the board wrote in a letter to Schrag on Tuesday. “This project has the potential to create thousands of good paying jobs with strong benefits for Connecticut workers.”

The letter includes a notice for Schrag to cease and desist, halting all actions “opposing projects that would benefit the hardworking members of the Connecticut State Building and Construction Trades Council.”

Ed Hawthorne, president of the AFL-CIO, said he wholeheartedly stood behind the contents of the letter and in full support and solidarity with “the hardworking men and women of the building trades.

“This is an internal matter that will be addressed through the democratic processes of the labor movement,” he said. “I will make no further comment on our internal procedures.”

Waterbury, Naugatuck and Bluewater, the developer of the Amazon facility, entered into an agreement on May 17, 2022, for the new distribution center. The facility would cover 650,000 square feet and stand four-and-a-half stories high, including a two-story parking garage.

Schrag said he was disappointed and confused by the AFL-CIO letter and that he was seeking the appeals process regarding the issue.

But he remained vocal in his opposition to the Amazon project.

“I refuse to let corporations bargain with our health and whether it is health and safety in the workplace or my neighbors there is no negotiating with bargaining with our health,” he said.

He said the project’s location is the last bit of green space Waterbury has left, adding that the project will result in the removal of thousands of trees.

He suggested moving the facility to a more suitable location.

“It would create the same number of jobs and have it right near the highway,” he said. “Why don’t we clean up our brownfields before we tear up our greenfields?”

Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. said the site on which the planned facility will be built is in an industrial park.

“It was always designated to be a property that was to be developed,” he said, adding that the city has extensive greenspaces including Washington Park, Bunker Hill Park among others that people can enjoy.

He added that the development of the property will bring in 1,000 jobs and millions of money in tax revenue.

He said there is no other parcel of property in the city available to accomodate a facility that large.

Naugatuck seeks additional $3M grant to advance Industrial Park 3 development

 ANDREAS YILMA 

NAUGATUCK – The borough will seek additional state grant funding in combination with town funds to further develop Industrial Park 3.

The state awarded the borough a $3 million Community Investment Fund grant last year to advance the industrial park project – specifically the construction of infrastructure for the property at 280 Elm St.

The borough is applying for another $3 million CIF grant to complete the road network for phase two of the subdivision of the 86.5-acre parcel.

Lanxess Corp., a successor to Uniroyal, owned the site until it sold most of the land to the borough three years ago for $1 in a remediated condition with brownfield protection for all future purchasers.

Lanxess retained about 9 acres for its two buildings. The Lanxess site is accessed by a driveway with an easement over the borough’s property that has been subdivided after land use approval.

“Our entire effort in this project is designed to finish, get the site back on the tax rolls and take a nonproducing piece of property and turn into once again one of our better producing properties in the entire borough,” said Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess, the project manager at a Dec. 3 public information hearing at Town Hall.

Lanxess has spent $20 to $30 million for remediation, while the borough’s obligation is to cap the site, manage the soils and develop the property under a stewardship permit, Hess said.

This is one of the borough’s top priority projects to get the grand list back in shape where “Naugatuck has a significant amount of skin in the game” as it’s putting up a $7 million match for phase one and two combined which will come from local Tax Incremental Financing, Hess said.

The town has already spent an additional $1 million of town funds for the design and engineering of the subdivision, Hess added.

A lumber company has already begun to expand in the phase one of the industrial park with the construction of two buildings. International Supply has $8 million in lumber that it will store on site, where they will build warehousing and some assembly areas, Hess said.

“We’re working with labor unions and trade unions to allow our high school students and other members of the community to get jobs and to get paid while they are learning the trades and we have a great partnership with our labor unions,” Hess said. “We’re really trying to create some better jobs not just for our residents who are here now but for people who want to come to Naugatuck and want to move into our new residential project which is downtown.”

This project is alignment with the Gov. Ned Lamont’s economic action plan created a few years ago. Conservative estimates show job creation rates of about 600 jobs for phase one and two. If the borough were to receive another $3 million for phase two, for a total of $6 million, that would come out to a $10,000 state investment per job created. The state has historically spent more than that, Goeway added.

The Board of Mayor and Burgesses approved a contract for Industrial Park III – Phase I site work and utilities with Guerrera Construction Co. of Oxford for $5.8 million.

Hess said the bid will be awarded to Guerrera, but Torrington-based O&G Industries is the borough’s construction manager and will issue the bids and be responsible for managing the job. The contract will be signed after approval from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

The construction of the new road network on the upper portion of the industrial park will consist of new utilities. The borough has already completed some storm-water drainage repairs through Cherry Street. The will help that street and Hunters Mountain Road divert water through the industrial park to the Naugatuck River, Hess said.

“This is going to be a job creator and a significant job creator for the Naugatuck Valley region because we’re on the train line,” Goeway said. “It’s not just going to be for Naugatuck residents, it’s going to be for valley residents as a whole and Naugatuck specifically is really special because we have the workforce that’s ready to train, is capable of learning and is ready to fill these open positions that will come.”