CT Construction Digest Tuesday June 9, 2024
CT contracting watchdogs asked not to talk without director’s OK
Keith M. Phaneuf and Andrew Brown
our state is a good steward of taxpayer dollars. We all deserve to know that [our] hard-earned money is being put to good use, and that means a commitment to clean contracting.”
Daniels: Board members can revise communications policy
Daniels, who was appointed by Lamont as the executive director in December 2022, told The Connecticut Mirror on Monday that the staff of the contracting board created the proposed ethics policy in order to set up some “guardrails” for the board members.
But he repeatedly emphasized that the policy was only a draft and that board members could make changes to the proposal.
“They can make any changes that they see fit,” Daniels said.
The language restricting the communication of board members, he said, was meant to ensure the board was not sharing confidential information that it comes into possession of.
In hindsight, Daniels said the sentence that would block board members from engaging in “any communication” without the permission of the executive director was overly broad.
Daniels said he and the staff had “no intent” to limit communications by the board with members of the media or the public.
The executive director had frustrated some board members earlier this year, according to an April 21 report in the Connecticut Inside Investigator, a project of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy. Daniels unilaterally had canceled board meetings set for March, April and May because Lamont had not yet filled the then-vacant chairman’s post following the departure of East Hartford Mayor Michael Walsh, who had succeeded Fox.
Contracting watchdogs have struggled to survive since its inception
But the board has faced many obstacles to its ability to function throughout its 17-year history. Those struggles include a rocky history with Lamont, who at times has questioned whether some of the board’s functions are redundant.
The linchpin of the landmark “Clean Contracting” system created in 2007 by the Democratic-controlled legislature and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, the standards board was Connecticut’s response to the contracting scandals that drove Gov. John G. Rowland from office amid an impeachment inquiry in July 2004. Rowland later served 10 months in federal prison after admitting he accepted about $100,000 in gifts from state contractors and his staff.
A 14-member panel, appointed by the governor and top lawmakers, would be empowered to review contracts and procurement practices for most government agencies.
Not long after the board’s creation, though, Connecticut fell into the Great Recession, and legislators and Rell siphoned away nearly all resources, leaving the volunteer standards board with no staff to carry out its functions.
An executive director was hired years later, but once the recession had ended, Democrats would take control of the governor’s office — first Dannel P. Malloy, who served from 2011 through 2018, and then Lamont — and show little interest in contracting oversight.
Malloy tried in his first six months to suspend contracting board operations for two years so he could more easily privatize state services and cut operating costs.
Lamont, who also has touted privatization to make government cheaper and more efficient, offered a bill in 2019 to make it easier to launch public-private ventures.
The legislature killed Lamont’s proposal, though, after Luciano called it an “an alarming attempt to return us to the shadowy Rowland years.”
The Lamont administration also tried unsuccessfully to convince legislators two years ago to strip the board’s enforcement powers, arguing that the contracting standards board largely duplicates watchdog efforts already performed by other agencies such as the state auditors of public accounts.
But the auditors have almost no enforcement powers, while the contracting standards board can suspend a procurement process already underway if it concludes an agency isn’t in compliance with state rules.
The standards board also had to battle to secure funding to hire a six-member investigative staff, finally winning those funds in 2022 — 15 years after its creation in statute.
Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Windham, who helped spearhead the push to secure those funds, said advocates have waited too long for a fully functioning watchdog group to see it stalled now by unusual limits on communication in the draft ethics policy.
“I’ve never heard of any board — that has oversight over staff — having a policy where the communications of that board had to be approved by the staff,” she said. “That, in itself, is surprising. But to have this be a potential policy at a government watchdog agency takes that to another level.”
Standards board has bumped heads with Lamont
While the contracting board was fighting for more resources in recent years, it was bumping heads with Lamont on two matters relevant to the administration.
Volunteer board members sacrificed extra time to probe more than $520,000 in “success” fees paid six years ago by the Connecticut Port Authority to a New York-based consultant, Seabury Capital Group, to help with search for an operator for state pier in New London. The pier was converted into the staging point for an off-shore wind-to-energy project backed with state and private funding and strong support from the governor, who was critical of the port authority’s handling of the matter.
The contracting board wrapped an investigation two years ago earlier concluding those fees were eerily similar to the “finder’s fees” scandal that sent a former state Treasurer Paul Silvester to prison in 2001. The General Assembly banned “finder’s fees” after Silvester admitted he had accepted kickbacks in exchange for steering investment of state-controlled pension funds.
The board also has the power to review Connecticut’s school construction office, which landed at the center of contracting scandal in recent years.
That scandal exploded earlier this year when Konstantinos Diamantis, the former director of the school construction office, was indicted for allegedly steering construction contracts to specific companies and then extorting those companies for bribes.
Kosta Diamantis, awaiting trial, seeks OK to go to Greece
Andrew Brown and Dave Altimari
Konstantinos Diamantis, the former state deputy budget director who was indicted on federal corruption charges in May, has asked a federal judge to allow him to travel to Greece for a month-long family vacation.
But federal prosecutors are now contesting that request, arguing that Diamantis — who is facing 22 counts for extortion, bribery and lying to federal investigators — could abscond by claiming Greek citizenship during his trip with his four daughters, three grandchildren and other extended family.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted that Diamantis’ parents were reportedly Greek citizens and it pointed out that, under Greece’s laws, his parents’ status could give Diamantis the opportunity to claim citizenship himself.
If that were to happen, the federal prosecutors argued that Greece may not be required to extradite Diamantis to the United States for his pending trial in February.
“During his proposed month in Greece, Diamantis would have ample opportunity to claim Greek citizenship and seek to avoid or at least delay extradition back to the United States,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Francis wrote.
Diamantis’ defense attorney, Norm Pattis, argued in a written motion that his client was not a flight risk and emphasized that Diamantis had known for roughly two years that he was under federal investigation.
“Mr. Diamantis has known for years that the government was investigating him and has had ample opportunity to flee, if that was his intention,” Pattis wrote. “He is eager to defend the case on the merits.”
Records provided to federal prosecutors show Diamantis booked the flight to Greece with his family in February, months before he was indicted for allegedly extorting several construction contractors that worked on local school projects in Connecticut.
But the U.S. Attorney’s office pointed out that Diamantis’ travel plans were not brought up in court during his arraignment in May, when a federal judge set the conditions of his release on a $500,000 bond.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Farrish asked Diamantis at that time if he understood each condition that was being placed on him, but Diamantis never mentioned anything about the planned trip to Greece.
The federal prosecutors also argued that Diamantis has already ignored several of the terms of his release.
Court records show Diamantis failed to dispose of several firearms that he owned by the deadline set by the court. And Diamantis initially said that he could not locate his passport, which he was also ordered to turn over to probation officers.
That changed once Diamantis formally notified prosecutors that he wanted to travel to Greece.
At that point, the U.S. Attorney’s office pointed out that international travel would be impossible without the travel documents, but “within hours,” they said, Diamantis found the missing passport.
“Diamantis has failed to establish a track record that could give the court confidence in approving a month-long pre-trial international trip,” Francis wrote. “Diamantis has been under probation’s supervision for less than two months. In that short time, he has failed to demonstrate that he takes the court’s orders, or probation’s supervision, seriously.”
Pattis explained in his motion that Diamantis intended to lead the family trip and that without him, the entire family vacation would likely be ruined.
“It will be a homecoming of sorts for the extended group as the trip is focused on the village from which Mr. Diamantis’ ancestors were born and raised,” Pattis wrote. “Mr. Diamantis is expected to serve largely as a guide on the trip and the trip will likely be cancelled for all involved if he is unable to participate.”
But federal prosecutors argue that is hardly a valid reason for him to leave the country.
“While visiting relatives may be enjoyable and personally meaningful, that is not a compelling reason for an extended trip to a foreign country where Diamantis has family ties and the potential to significantly delay trial.”
In a sharply worded three-page response to the government’s brief asking the judge to deny Diamantis’s trip to Greece, Pattis reiterated that Diamantis could have run away anytime over the past three years. And to address the U>S. Attorney’s fears that he will abscond, Diamantis would agree to a series of calls with probation officials while travelling.
“The Government contends it cannot monitor Mr. Diamantis’ whereabouts while he travels with his children, grandchildren and elderly relatives, as though this caravan were expected to be on the run from Interpol,” Pattis wrote.
“There may be no love lost between the defendant and those charged with prosecuting him,” he added. “But this descent into pettiness neither promotes respect for the law nor sheds a favorable light on the Justice Department.”
State to replace two West Haven I-95 bridges at Interchange 43
WEST HAVEN — The replacement of two bridges on Interstate 95 in West Haven is slated to begin later this summer, officials said.
Connecticut Department of Transportation officials held a meeting in West Haven City Hall late last month to discuss plans to replace Bridges 161 and 162, which carry the highway over First Avenue and Metro North railroad tracks near Interchange 43. The department announced this week that the design phase is in progress and construction is slated to begin soon after. The construction is expected to last three years, until 2027.
Steven Harlacker, a principal with design engineering firm H&H, said at the June meeting that the two bridges were constructed in the 1950s and standards have changed since then. Among the planned upgrades to the bridges, he said, will be making the entrance ramps onto the northbound and southbound lanes near Interchange 43 longer to give motorists more time to merge to increase traffic safety and reduce congestion. The upgrades will also increase shoulder width and include improvements to stormwater management, he said.
According to the CTDOT, the I-95 Interchange 43 northbound entrance ramp will be closed beginning in the spring of 2025 and will remain closed for about 27 months, during which there will be a detour to the Interchange 44 northbound entrance ramp.
Harlacker said that during construction, access to the underpass on First Avenue may be restricted during off-peak times to single-lane, alternating traffic.
Bridge 162 has been considered structurally deficient for years, with officials estimating in 2021 that the bridge could be replaced by 2025; officials today have added two years to the estimated time of completion.
$5.4 million new firehouse in Canton nearing completion, old facility to be demolished
CANTON — As Canton nears completion on constructing of a firehouse in the Collinsville section, voters recently decided to finalize the old firehouse's demolition.
Destroying the old firehouse has been planned since 2021, when residents approved the Canton Volunteer Fire and EMS Department's new firehouse and associated construction in a referendum, which included razing the old facility located at 50 River Road next door to where it will be built.
But recently, some residents had expressed that they now wanted to save the old fire station, which was built in 1971, for storage space. In May, the Board of Selectmen received a petition with over 200 signatures in support of a study for repurposing it.
The question of whether the town should seek funding for that study was the subject of a June 27 special town meeting, which gave residents the chance to decide if the town should work towards completing a feasibility study and cost estimate for repurposing the existing Collinsville Fire Station, or demolish it as planned.
Voters said no by a 52-37 vote, paving the way for the planned demolition to move forward as soon as this summer, according to town officials.
And as for the brand new fire station, construction is well underway, with an estimated completion in August, said Community Development Coordinator Lisa Ozaki. New drone pictures of the construction site posted on the department's Facebook show the structure and paving nearly finished.
With a project cost at $5,400,000, the approximate cost of this new debt to a taxpayer owning a median assessed house in Canton ($255,100 assessment) would be $85.41 for the first year, decreasing slightly annually thereafter over the 20 year life of the bond, according to the town.
In November 2021, the new firehouse vote was passed by residents by 2,061 to 834.
The town has long recognized that the old Collinsville Fire Station was inadequate in addressing the needs of the department, as it did not have the necessary space for fire apparatus, equipment or staffing, a town committee established in 2015 had found.
It had changed very little since it was originally constructed in 1971 despite the department growing in members and vehicles, with only two full bays and two short bays, and a total square footage measuring 9,483 square feet. And the old building's limited and unusable storage space affects call readiness, according to a town presentation on the new firehouse project.
The new station at 51 River Road will have five full bays, additional storage areas and private sleeping quarters for overnight EMS shifts, and the single-level building will be 14,080 square feet. It will house equipment and staff of the Canton Volunteer Fire and EMS Department, which has nearly 50 members in total.
The department has two other stations in Canton, but combining the River Road equipment and staff with another one was not feasible either, as it would not meet the necessary response time for certain suburban and rural areas in town, according to the presentation.
Norwalk's Calf Pasture Beach Road improvements to begin after Labor Day
NORWALK — Improvements and adjustments to Norwalk’s Calf Pasture Beach Road are slated to begin after Labor Day.
“We need to reconstruct part of the Calf Pasture Beach (Road) to make it up to the city standards in case, eventually, that becomes a public road,” explained Vanessa Valadares, chief of operations and public works, during a recent committee meeting.
Part of the road leading residents to Norwalk’s Calf Pasture Beach is on the Gardella family’s property, who issued a deed agreement with the city in 1922. Now, a century later, both the park and Gardella’s marine businesses are thriving community staples in East Norwalk.
The Gardellas approached the city to clarify the agreement and discuss the easement rights in order to have better access to their property from the road. The family owns four parcels on the northern and western portions of the peninsula.
After seven years of discussion, the city and the Gardellas came to an agreement last fall to add three connections from the road to the Gardella property and reconfigured the exit lane to help facilitate traffic flow in and out of the beach.
As part of the agreement, the city signed a time-limited restrictive covenant which limits Norwalk from making any improvements that would inhibit the ability for construction for six years. This includes adding sidewalks, bike paths, landscaping, and utility development on the Gardella side of the road; however, the city is still able to improve sidewalks on its side of the property.
To finish some of the work that was started with the city’s construction of the new skate park, new sidewalks will be added along with the road improvements this fall, Valadares said.
“Last year when we did a skate park… we didn’t have enough funds to finish part of the sidewalks that surround the park and then some seat walls,” Valadares said.
If the Gardellas wanted to improve their property in the next six years, they would be required to gain approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission, which approved the easement plan. As a part of the Marine Commercial Zone, the Gardellas' property must have a water dependent use like the marina that is currently there.
The Public Works Committee moved forward with a contract with FGB Construction Company, which also worked on the skate park for the city, to the full Common Council.
Under the agreement, the Gardellas paid the city $460,000, and $100,000 of that amount will be used for construction.
Altogether, the cost of the project is about $1 million for FGB to realign the road and add the sidewalks and seat walls by the skate park.
While work will begin after Labor Day, construction will stop during the Norwalk Boat Show.
Trumbull's plans to build a new Hillcrest Middle School will go to a vote in November
TRUMBULL — A new Hillcrest Middle School took another step toward fruition after the Town Council authorized the distribution of future bonds for the project during a recent meeting.
The project will go to a referendum in November, as required for projects that exceed $15 million.
But first, Council Chairman Carl Massaro asked Jeff Wyszynski, principal at Hartford-based Tecton Architects, to explain the Board of Finance's approved $142.3 million figure for the authorization even though the total projected cost of construction for the project is $140.9 million.
Wyszynski showed a detailed breakdown of the cost. Finance Director Maria Pires later explained in an email that the higher authorization included an additional 1 percent to cover additional financing costs.
The cost to the town is now projected to be $81.7 million, a reduction of about $27.8 million drop from the original $109.5 million projection.
Wyszynski said the town's total cost of the project dropped after Rep. Sarah Keitt secured a higher school construction state reimbursement rate through the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee.
"It essentially drops the cost to Trumbull by about $30 million and that’s because special legislation was approved," Wyszynski said.
The state reimbursement rate was expected to be 24.29 percent, but Wyszynski said the state approved a 44 percent reimbursement rate instead, saving the town almost $27.8 million.
“We should thank Rep. Sarah Keitt for her hard work in Hartford to help us get that 44 percent rate,” said council Democrat Kevin Shively.
Former West Hartford UConn campus, the potential site of hundreds of homes, set for wetlands hearing
WEST HARTFORD — For several years now, the buildings that made up the former University of Connecticut campus in West Hartford have stood vacant — and dilapidated by time — as new uses for the expansive property have been considered time and again by the site's various owners.
Now, with the portion of that property that served as the school's parking lot already receiving the green light for developers to build 322 new homes, the western portion of the former college campus, where the same developers want to build hundreds more homes plus space for commercial uses, will be the subject of a wetlands hearing July 17.
It's the first hurdle for the development, named Heritage Park, as the site rests on and around a complex wetlands network. A similar process was held for the now-approved eastern portion of the campus, when residents unsuccessfully tried to intervene and halt via a petition in December.
In May filings, though, the developers contend that "the overall wetlands functionality is low" because the site has existed as a college campus for so long.
"No new building or parking construction is proposed within a wetland except for the filling of a small, isolated wetland pocket of low-or-no functionality identified at the corner of building #5," reads the filing letter submitted to the town in May. "Development of the site as a university campus has significantly impacted the ecological integrity of its wetlands resources. The overall wetlands functionality is low."
Still, it will be up to the town's five-member Inland Wetlands and Watercourse Agency members to determine whether the construction would have negative impacts on the site. Should they approve, following approvals to grant a zoning change from single-family homes to multifamily homes would then need to be given by the Town Council.
The most recent plans submitted to the town have developers seeking to build 211 housing units on the site. Those homes would be split between 93 apartments, 28 townhouses, and 90 assisted-living units. In total, between both portions of the property, the development would add 533 total homes in West Hartford, by far the biggest housing development to be proposed over the last decade.
Developers are also still planning to include retail and commercial uses on the western portion of the property, eyeing spaces for at least a spa, a restaurant, a cafe, and a grocery store.
Recent filings to the town's Design Review Advisory Committee shows an updated look at how developers plan to integrate residential and commercial spaces together. The plans also pitch several different orientations for the several buildings.
Those filings also indicate some changes developers have made to their plans since January, including reducing "direct wetland impacts through trail modifications" and increasing "wetland buffer enhancement areas." The documents also note that they've reduced the size and height of the townhouses while also providing more screening of the parking areas.
Right now, the wetlands portion of the plan will be discussed at a special meeting on July 17 at 6 p.m., according to the minute's of the town's Planning and Zoning and Inland Wetlands and Watercourse Agency June 24 meeting. Meetings are often subject to change should either party ask for more time.
Road repair agreement saving New London $600K in summer paving costs
John Penney
New London ― Over the next two weeks, crews from the Burns Construction company will restore 18 city roads whose sections were torn up and patched nearly a year ago as part of Eversource utility work.
The new paving work will include sections of Broad, Waller, Pleasant, West Coit, Clover, Raymond, Acorn, Konomoc, Dow, Ledyard and Farnsworth streets, along with Connecticut, Lincoln, Oneco and Saltonstall avenues and Waller and Wassimer courts.
An ordinance approved years ago will save the city nearly $600,000 in paving and milling costs related to a summer road restoration project that began on Monday.
Just more than half of the project’s $1.1 million price tag will be covered by the energy company as part of an agreement forged three years ago that requires any third-party trench work, including by cable, water or utility companies, to be paid for by the firms that disrupted the roads.
Mayor Michael Passero said the impetus behind the ordinance was the habit of gas and cable companies of digging trenches to install new infrastructure and simply adding lower-quality patches to the affected roadway.
“And this would happen on roads and streets that we’d previously milled and paved, taking years of life off those roads,” Passero said. “We’d have divots from gas lines and fiber optic cable installation that ran the length of a road, patches that didn’t hold up.”
The ordinance requires a company to either conduct a curb-to-center-line permanent repair of a disturbed road, or pay the cost of the city contracting out the work.
Several “half-road” sections will be newly milled and paved as part of the ongoing summer work, though portions of some roads will get a complete, “curb-to-curb" overhaul, Director of Public Works Brian Sear said.
The agreement led to the city and Eversource coordinating their road-repair schedules to ensure utility work is completed ahead of any paving.
“That prevents us from fixing a street and Eversource coming in and digging trenches that would have to fixed again later,” Sear said. “And the agreement stipulates Eversource can’t come back and dig up a street for five years after it’s been paved.”
The final paving work is typically done up to a year after utility installation to allow the infrastructure to properly settle. That means sometimes holding off on paving a road that needs attention.
“For example, Amity Street is in rough shape, but if we know Eversource is going to out there in a year, we’ll wait until that job’s done before re-paving it,” Sear said. “We’ll also work with Eversource to determine which roads will require full milling and paving and figure out how much it’ll cost.”
The city’s portion of the road repair costs will be covered with part of a $1.8 million capital improvement bond approved in February.
Madison Debates Referendum as Community Center Costs Rise by Nearly $4M
Francisco Uranga
MADISON — Since Madison residents approved converting the Academy School building into a community center via referendum in 2022, estimated costs have risen by nearly $4 million. The board is now considering holding a second referendum in early 2025 to validate or reject a budget increase.
At a June 24 Board of Selectmen meeting, Colliers International, the consulting firm hired by the town to work on the project, presented a revised estimate of nearly $19.8 million for construction, 24% more than originally expected. Two days later, the selectmen discussed the possibility of calling a second referendum to fill the budget gap on the same day as the November presidential election or in February 2025.
The board ultimately decided to wait for construction bids expected in September, effectively ruling out a referendum for this year, according to Madison First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons.
“The BOS decided, basically through inaction, to wait for the construction bids to come back this fall before finalizing any plans for a referendum,” Lyons told CT Examiner. “If we had wanted to put this on the November 2024 ballot, we would have had to make a decision prematurely. We want solid numbers at this stage rather than estimates.”
Reasons for the budget increase stem from a combination of inflation, unforeseen work such as the need to move the building’s septic system, and a project scope expansion. The town will not seek more debt to meet the higher costs, but instead cover them with grants. Madison has already been awarded an additional $4 million in grants; however, it must seek explicit authorization from residents for the change due to how the 2022 referendum was worded.
Built in 1921, the Academy School operated until 2004, after which the school board vacated it and handed it over to the town in 2011. Following years of deliberation and the pandemic, town officials held a referendum approving the appropriation of $15.9 million for the community center project and authorizing bonds up to the same amount, with the intention of seeking grants to reduce the total borrowing required.
The original project included a gymnasium, commercial kitchen, theater, additional parking lots, and office space for the town’s Youth and Family Services and Beach and Recreation departments. The work included improvements to the heating and air conditioning systems, roof and window repairs, removal of lead paint and asbestos, as well as geothermal systems and photovoltaic cells.
Despite the project committee dropping the geothermal system after the referendum, the revised budget still includes it, along with the costs for relocating the septic system and additional spending on upgrading the gymnasium and recital spaces. Marc Sklenka, managing director of Southern New England at Colliers, shared these updates during the meeting, where he presented the revised estimate.
Should the construction bids for the project exceed the amount authorized in 2022, the town would have to choose between increasing the budget in a second referendum or narrowing the project scope.
Bruce Wilson, Madison’s minority Republican selectman, told CT Examiner that he would encourage residents to vote for expanding the budget in a referendum. Reducing the scope would be a bad decision, he argued, because it would leave the project unfinished. The remaining work would have to be done later, according to Wilson, but paid for out of the general budget rather than financed with long-term bonds, resulting in a greater burden on taxpayers.
Wilson criticized the selectmen’s inaction to call for a referendum in November noting that off-cycle voting has a lower turnout. Turnout for the 2022 referendum was about 35%, while Madison’s turnout during the last presidential election exceeded 85%.
Wilson said it would be a mistake to repeat the conditions of the first referendum.
“That didn’t leave a good feeling about the project for some people who never liked the project, whether they voted or didn’t vote,” he said. “They feel it’s unfair.”