Connecticut lawmakers to reconsider loosening school construction rules after scandal

John Moritz

Connecticut lawmakers will attempt to rescind a recently-enacted change to contracting rules surrounding school construction following pushback from Gov. Ned Lamont, legislative leaders said Monday. 

The governor and lawmakers are currently negotiating the agenda for a two-day session beginning June 26, which they mostly agree will focus on technical fixes to banking regulations and the assessment of local car taxes.Top of Form

Among the items being pushed by Lamont is the repeal of a new law allowing construction managers on state-funded school construction projects to bid and perform work on smaller subcontracts that they are supposed to be overseeing. 

The policy, known as “self-performance” was outlawed by lawmakers and the Lamont administration in 2022, following the revelation of a federal investigation into the state’s former school construction chief, Konstantinos Diamantis. The legislature then reversed course this year by once again allowing self-performance in school construction as the result of a single line added into a massive, $4.4 billion state bonding package. 

The about-face drew condemnation from Lamont, who soon began asking legislative leaders to reinstate the ban.

House Speaker Matt Ritter, D- Hartford, initially resisted such a move, arguing that members of both parties felt that the self-performance policy could save the state money if done with proper oversight. On Monday, however, he told CT Insider that the issue would make the formal agenda, or call, of the session to be announced by Lamont later this week.

The leader of the Senate, President Pro-Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said that his caucus was broadly supportive of the ban on self-performance and would vote to reinstate it.

“Obviously that’s up to the governor, but I would suspect that it would be,” on the call, he added. 

The effort to repeal the ban on self-performance work was championed by state Rep. Jeff Currey, D-East Hartford, the co-chair of the Education Committee who argued that it would help blunt the rising costs of school construction projects. Currey did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. 

A spokeswoman for Lamont, Julia Bergman, said on Monday that the governor’s office was still finalizing its list of items to add to the agenda, but “would be happy to address the school construction fix during the special session.”

In a letter to lawmakers earlier this month, Lamont argued that self-performance work lacks transparency and can lead to both higher costs and self-dealing on the part of construction managers. He signed the bill containing the change, he said, due to the “importance” of the larger bonding package and its funding for capital improvement projects. 

“However, I am of the strong belief that construction managers should not ‘self-perform’ any subcontractor work in school construction projects,” Lamont wrote. “I encourage the Legislature to reinstate the language prohibiting self-performance in municipally administered school construction projects to ensure a competitive and transparent market.”

Diamantis, the school construction official who had originally advocated to allow self-performance work, was arrested in May — about a week after lawmakers voted to pass the bonding bill that included rescinded the ban on the policy — and charged with extorting contractors and demanding bribes in exchange for work on school construction projects. He pleaded not guilty and is currently awaiting trial.

Middletown strikes tentative $3 million deal to buy car detailing plot for parking, plaza project

Cassandra Day

MIDDLETOWN — The city has reached a tentative contract with the owners of an auto detailing business to purchase the land adjacent to the former arcade parking garage for $3 million, a move that will open up the view of and connection to the Connecticut riverfront.

Attention to Detail, at 195 Dekoven Drive, abuts the city-owned property at 60 Dingwall Drive and 222 Main St. The lot will comprise a portion of one side of the Village at Riverside, a block-sized, multilevel housing and retail complex that will include a public square.

The entire parking and plaza project will cost $26.4 million, according to city General Counsel Brig Smith, and is a partnership between the city and Spectra Construction & Development Corp.

Smith explained the elements of the plan at the June 11 Economic Development Commission meeting.

Mayor Ben Florsheim said at the meeting that the acquisition of the plot is "essential" to riverfront redevelopment. Negotiations have been underway for quite some time.

Parking, to make up for spaces lost when the multilevel municipal parking lot was demolished in 2018, is a large component of the plan. It will comprise Phase 1 of the project.

After the sale, the city would lease the site to ATD for a nominal rent of $1. An 18-month lease with ADT will allow the business to find a place to relocate. During that time, the city will start the architectural, engineering and construction work, as well as other activities, Smith said. 

The city, which will place $50,000 in an escrow account, will own the land where the apartment and retail structures will be built.

Economic Development Commission members approved the resolution, which will next go to the Planning & Zoning Commission. The Common Council gives the final acceptance.

Taking ownership of the ADT site will have several advantages, Smith said.

"It allows us to do this broader, grander design where we would have a building along the riverfront with all the residential pieces we've been talking about: the plaza and the additional architectural embellishments and highlights, " Smith explained.

He said $3 million is a fair price, considering the property appraisal in 2022 was $2.67 million.

For the plaza and garage, the city will contribute $16.8 million from 21st Century Infrastructure Bond and $6.7 million in federal earmarked funds. The developer will pay $3 million, Smith said.

That will leave the bond balance at $3.1 million, EDC Director Christine Marques said at the meeting. 

Following a parking study, VHB Environmental Director of Connecticut Amy Vaillancourt said the goal is to create between 300 and 500 spaces. "Whether we're two floors or three floors — we're still determining that,” she said.

"There will be a large public plaza where the arcade is right now, and there will be a large underground parking facility there; public plaza on top and residential pieces along either side," Smith explained.

As part of redevelopment, the Center Street Pedestrian Bridge Plaza will carry walkers over Route 9 to Harbor Park and the riverfront. Other components include a Union Street Gateway and Wangunk Memorial, Riverbend Nature Park, Sowheag Wetland Park, and Riverbend Landing.

For more information, visit Return to the Riverbend, Middletown's master plan for redevelopment, at middletownct.gov.

Norwich receives $4 million to clean up Capehart Mill. What's next for the blighted site?

Connor Linskey

The city can finally begin to make plans to remediate the blighted former Capehart Textile Mill, thanks to a $4 million state grant.

The mill, which has been the scene of numerous fires over the years, will be developed into a new riverfront park. In addition, it has been a location for homeless people to take shelter, and drug dealings to take place.

“It is a safety hazard," said Kevin Brown, president and executive director of the Norwich Community Development Corporation. “The roofs have all caved in. There are charred timbers everywhere and the brick is crumbling. And in some cases, the brick is crumbling into the Shetucket River, which makes this a dual hazard. There’s the hazard of an unsafe location on the ground and then there’s the hazard of this old mill crumbling into the water and harming the safe and clean waterway.” 

About the grant

The grant will be used to complete a remedial action plan and asbestos work plan, abatement and demolition of buildings A and B, the skywalk and 5th Street Bridge at the 6.05-acre site.

Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom said the city needs to work out a start date for the action plan. He expects the completion of the riverfront park is a few years away. 

“There’s a lot of steps ahead of us, but the point is we got the initial grant now to begin that whole process,” Nystrom said. 

Gov. Ned Lamont announced the approval of a $4 million grant to remedy the site as part of a series of state grants he had approved. These grants total $26.3 million and will be used to support the remediation and redevelopment of 130 acres of contaminated land throughout Connecticut, consisting of 22 properties located in 17 towns and cities. 

The grants are being released through the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation and Development Program. 

According to Lamont’s office, the projects are expected to create approximately 1,285 jobs and 373 units of housing, including 148 affordable units. Approximately, 58% of the overall funding is being awarded to projects in distressed municipalities.  

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“I would like to thank our friends at the Department of Economic and Community Development for working together in tandem with our administration to focus some of our state’s efforts on really bringing these spaces back to life,” Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said in a press release. “This is a transformative investment that turns otherwise unusable property into a new space blossoming with opportunities for Connecticut businesses and residents.”

Impact of the project 

Nystrom said that the removal of the blighted mill will increase property values in the area. 

“We’re going to clean up the neighborhood by starting this project,” he said. “We’re going to help elevate the value of properties around it."

American Pavement Specialists Paves Way in New England, Beyond

CEG

Promoting the brand American Pavement Specialists has always been a high priority for Bill Stanley, the company's owner. Thirty years ago, when he started the company, the name American Pavement Specialists came about partially as a result of the fact that the "A" in the American Pavement Specialists name would put them at the top of the list of the Paving Category in the Yellow Pages.

But that was 30 years ago, and the Yellow Pages have all but disappeared. In the early 2000s, Stanley saw that the trends had shifted, and it was time to put more emphasis on Web-based marketing.

"My vision was a website that would help customers understand what we offer and what various aspects of their project would look like," he said. "I envisioned a website that would have a ‘Paving' tab and give a video of what paving looks like. The same idea with ‘Milling,' ‘Striping,' and any of the services that we offer.

"Unfortunately, Web development at that time was very expensive and it was difficult to accomplish exactly what I was looking for," he added. "It didn't really have a name at the time, but we were one of the first companies to use social media to promote ourselves. There was no Instagram, Tik Tok or YouTube, but what was out there was a site called Facebook that was wildly popular with young people, and that's where our social media presence started.

"We made up our own Facebook business page account and we started by taking pictures of trucks, primarily because my kids were at an age when they thought trucks were really cool and would get a lot of attention. We then started to put pictures of projects that were completed or in the process of being worked on. In no amount of time at all our Facebook became wildly popular. The best part was it was free.

"Over time we loaded Facebook with pictures and videos of everything we do. If we were quoting a milling job and the customer asked about the milling process or what equipment we use, we could send them straight to Facebook. When Instagram came along, we immediately got involved with project pictures and in no time at all we had 10,000 followers. Instagram, with its heavy emphasis on photographs, turned into an overnight sensation for us. We currently have 143,000 followers on Instagram.

"YouTube has been another big success for us. We just keep feeding it videos of our projects. The YouTube channel has been a big hit within the industry. I am constantly amazed by how many of our fellow contractors and people involved in paving equipment manufacturing are tracking our posts on YouTube."

Stanley's sons have been involved in the business since a very young age, and they take a lot of pride and an active role in the company's Web marketing — they developed the idea of becoming social media influencers within the paving industry. They also developed the phrase "Raised on Blacktop."

The idea was to create a forum that promotes the asphalt and paving industries as well as giving information on how paving contractors can improve their businesses. Once again, it became nearly an overnight sensation, Stanley said.

Today "Raised On Blacktop" has 75,000 Instagram followers as well as several thousand followers on Facebook. In fact, the "Raised on Blacktop" concept has become so popular it now has its own apparel line. There is a daily stream of orders for branded hats, t-shirts and hoodies. In 2023, they had hundreds of thousands in just t-shirt sales. Orders come from across the world, including Paraguay, Australia and Saudi Arabia.

The company is even currently working on a deal to create "Raised on Blacktop" work shoes.

According to Stanley, the Raised on Blacktop theme has become so popular that companies like LeeBoy, Mauldin, John Deere, Bagela, Wirtgen, Trout River Trailers, XBroom Sweepers and Shoulder Master sweepers have released special "Raised on Blacktop" editions of their equipment.

"They pay us to operate their equipment and then promote it on our social media platforms," Stanley said. "As an example, Mauldin released a Raised on Blacktop motor grader that includes the Raised on Blacktop logo prominently displayed on the machine and a number of upgrades to the machine that we worked with Mauldin to develop, including a special lighting package, a more comfortable seat and a special paint job.

"Trout River Trailers worked closely with us to develop an auger truck for an asphalt transfer trailer. It features an 8-foot auger for unloading in specific spots, particularly in hard-to-reach areas, and the auger is completely operated by a remote control to give very precise delivery and allowing your worker to see exactly what is going on. The end result is something that looks a little bit like a hybrid of an asphalt trailer and stone slinger. "Trout River was amazing to work with. We had a concept of what we wanted but did not have the capacity to create it and their engineers worked very closely with us to create a new product to help us specifically meet some of our needs."

XBroom, a sweeper company, also has gotten onboard with a Raised on Blacktop special edition. Like the others, it features the Raised on Blacktop logo and then some added features that aren't included in its standard lineup.

"The LeeBoy special edition model is a LeeBoy 8520 paver, again with the Raised on Blacktop logo and some extra features that we worked with LeeBoy on. For instance, we made a tool carrying kit that holds shovels, rakes, etc. It has a special color scheme, additional LED lighting and strobe lights for visibility. More than 250 machines have been sold thus far.

"This machine is so popular that LeeBoy has them on backorder. LeeBoy was the first company to work with us on special edition machines. We have a great history with LeeBoy; we've done business with them since we opened our doors and I've probably bought 20 LeeBoy machines in the past 25 years. We've stayed very loyal to the LeeBoy brand. They demonstrate a huge commitment to the paving industry, and they are leaders in innovation. Just about every year there are improvements to the machines that were close to perfect to begin with.

"Raised on Blacktop is designed to accomplish that, but also to help encourage a new generation of people coming into this industry and make sure that they are well suited to do excellent work.

"We consider ourselves a premium contractor. We do extremely good work and as a result we get paid a premium price. We are showing other contractors how to achieve getting themselves into this premium contractor position. It is to our advantage at American Pavement Specialists to have as many paving contractors as possible doing premium work. The reason, if everyone is doing premium work, the industry can maintain work at healthier pricing levels because they're not competing with competitors that do inferior work.

"I have been in this business for 45 years, where I started with a pick and a shovel. We have a lot of experiences to share. We are always looking for ways to do a better job and when we find them, we use Raised on Blacktop and its social media presence to share that information.

"We try to instill in all of our followers the importance of giving your employees as good a working environment as you can possibly have, considering the extreme conditions we work in. For instance, we have started ordering our asphalt rollers with a heated and air-conditioned cab. It's critical these days to keep your employees as happy as possible. We don't find ourselves in the polarizing position of not being able to find help.

"Through things like putting cabs on rollers, we make our employees' working environment as pleasant as possible. The machines in our fleet are new or like-new, which is a pleasure for an employee to operate. After every job, we clean and service every piece that's been used so that our employees have good and reliable equipment to go out and work with. American Pavement Specialists has built a brand that people want to work for."

The service and maintenance of the equipment fleet does a lot more than just keep employees happy. The equipment in the fleet is typically worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Keeping machines in peak working order is a part of the company's philosophy that pays off with significantly longer life of the machines, which in turn pays big dividends.

Stanley's heavy emphasis on marketing his company, producing excellent quality work and taking good care of his equipment has all paid off. In Connecticut, Stanley said, he is known as the guy you want doing your job. It's not unusual for potential customers to immediately say, "yes, I've heard about you guys, you do really good work."

American Pavement Specialists is a marketing-driven company, and it does far more than market its website and its social media platforms. For example, at one time it sponsored a car in the NASCAR truck series that was driven by Spencer Boyd. Another aspect of its marketing vision is having every machine in the fleet carefully detailed with the company's logo, and then making sure that every machine looks as shiny and clean as the day it was purchased when it is delivered at the job site, further enhancing American Pavement Specialists' image.

For more information, visit www.americanpavement.com.

Capitalizing On Recycled Asphalt

American Pavement Specialists is one of the leading paving and milling contractors in the state of Connecticut and the company's owner, Bill Stanley, is a well-known media influencer for the asphalt equipment industry. The company recently purchased its third Bagela asphalt recycler, following the purchase of two recycling machines in 2012.

The general purpose of the Bagela is to turn pavement waste (ground millings, etc.) into a hot mix asphalt that can be produced year-round. A significant percentage of the asphalt is used in the off season to repair damaged areas such as potholes.

According to Stanley, "We purchased our first Bagela in 2012 and have worked closely ever since with Greg Harla, our representative with Bagela. If you look at the typical paving contractor in the United States, it's almost always family run. It might be brothers, it might be father and son, but there is always that family connection.

"To a company like ours, relationship and support is everything," he added. "When we started working with Greg, he was a tremendous source of information on how to recycle and turn into cash asphalt that we had previously been unable to find other applications for. But, more than just his knowledge, he also supports our company. Greg has been instrumental in promoting our Raised on Blacktop social media presence and introducing it to other contractors and equipment manufacturers.

"But more than just lip service, he has also come to the table with a special Raised on Asphalt Bagela recycler. That's the kind of support that keeps us coming back to Bagela."

To accommodate the new Bagela recycler, American Pavement Specialists has built a loading area so that the millings can be delivered and stockpiled effortlessly. The machine has been raised off the ground to accommodate better loading with mafia blocks and with a shed enclosure built around the Bagela recycler so that approximately 20 tons of material can be kept dry and the operator is given an opportunity to get out of the weather.

Because most of product being made is for winter road repair, most of the production for the Bagela recycler is done in cold weather. Most of that product is sold to customers, typically municipalities or contractors focusing on municipal work. It's a great market for American Pavement Specialists: cold patch repair has been determined to be ineffective and costly. Filling holes with recycled hot asphalt has become the new normal in winter repair work.

The product also is used by utility contractors who are patching their road cuts. The asphalt plants are typically closed for the winter so if contractors are producing hot recycled asphalt, they can effectively capture that winter market.

The market for the recycling asphalt is not just limited to road repair. If someone is looking for a basic paved pad or yard where the quality of the finish is not critical, the Bagela recycler is producing an affordable alternative to using virgin asphalt, Stanley said.

"We produce a product called Contractors Mix. In fact, the recycling area of American Pavement Specialists yard was produced using recycled asphalt. Another application that has created significant savings is preserving for later use excess virgin asphalt from a project.

"It is not unusual to overestimate the amount of asphalt to be used on a project, which has been a real problem. What do you do with it? Once it cools, it's useless to you and you can't just stockpile hot asphalt and use it the next day. We are stockpiling our excess asphalt, reheating it and running it through the Bagela recycler, and we are able to use the excess product on our next project.

"What's really surprising is how long a pile of hot asphalt will maintain its temperature. A load that is left in our yard at the end of the day will typically hold much of its temperature beneath the surface of the crusted over pile, so it's really not a big jump to get the entire pile back up to the required temperature when you start out the next day. It's just like throwing the asphalt in a microwave and reheating it. It's just as good a product as it was the day before.

"Essentially, I'm taking a 1 percent waste factor and turning this into savings. Which at the end of the year becomes very substantial for APS. An additional benefit is not having to extend your workday into the evening because too much asphalt was delivered for that day's project. If it's a multiple-day project, we would typically end up working into the night to lay the extra load of asphalt, which does not make for a happy employee. Now we can just resend that load back to our yard and heat it back up the next morning. This also helps control unplanned overtime."

The Bagela recycler is a significant revenue enhancer for American Pavement Specialists.

"Wintertime, we typically wouldn't have much else to do besides maintain equipment. The Bagela recycler keeps the crew busy and cashflow coming in, which is good for everybody."

Greg Harla of Bagela mentioned some benefits that he is seeing by doing cross promotion with Raised on Blacktop.

"Bill and his family have used multiple videos of the Bagela at work through their social media platform," he said. "We now have potential customers come to us that don't need an education process because they are already up to speed on what the Bagela does."

"It's an extremely reliable machine," Stanley added from his experience of more than 12 years of using the Bagela product. "It's built with a double jacket concept and the flame never touches the material, so you don't ever have to worry about a burn factor. We've only had one machine failure in the past 12 years, which we repaired, but it was an issue with our own operation of the machine. It was not the fault of the Bagela.

For more information, visit www.bagelausa.com.

Last phase of Aquarion's work on Greenwich Avenue will cause more noisy night work, officials warn

Andy Blye

GREENWICH — Aquarion Water Company expects to wrap up its water main replacement project on Greenwich Avenue this month, but only after another week of noisy night work.

"The contractor will be cutting the trench, milling and then paving," Justin Xenelis, the project manager for Aquarion, said Thursday during the Board of Selectmen meeting. "Those will be loud operations in the night hours."

Aquarion and its contractors have been working to replace 2,000 feet of old mains since February, usually starting at 10 p.m. Xenelis said Aquarion asked the Department of Public Works to adjust their permit and let them do the final phase of noisy work during the day, but Xenelis said that request was denied.

"We do apologize again, this is going to be more night work," he said.

Renee Wallace, communications specialist at DPW, said the department denied the request because doing the work during the day would be too disruptive to parking and the flow of traffic on the Avenue.

Xenelis said the milling and paving is scheduled to start on June 24 and is expected to take less than a week. He said the project should be done by June 28.