Bridgeport officials: State under-funding city by millions

Brian Lockhart

BRIDGEPORT — In recent days city officials received good and bad fiscal news as the Connecticut legislative session winds down and state lawmakers and the City Council prepare this week to finalize their respective, 2022-23 budgets.

On the one hand the months-long effort to ensure reimbursement for the beleaguered, $129 million Bassick High School appears to have reached a positive conclusion, with language in the draft state budget covering nearly 79 percent of the total price tag.

But City Hall also learned that $1.8 million Mayor Joe Ganim had counted on in state aid to balance the draft, $605.1 million municipal fiscal plan he forwarded to the council in early April is not going to materialize and the state is preparing to allocate the city millions less than it is providing New Haven and Hartford.

“That’s significant,” said Councilman Scott Burns, a chairman of the council’s budget committee, on Monday.

After Bassick failed to make Connecticut’s school construction priority list in December, local lawmakers, including state reps. Antonio Felipe and Steven Stafstrom succeeded in January in getting Bassick reinstated. That led to the 79 percent reimbursement mentioned in the state budget that members of the General Assembly hope to pass before that body adjourns at midnight Wednesday.

“We’re certainly appreciative of legislative leadership and the governor,” Stafstrom said Monday. “This is a project that is long overdue.”

Constance Vickers, Ganim’s legislative liaison, said, “This is a big ‘thank you’ to our (legislative) delegation. Bassick hasn’t been an easy project.”

In 2019 Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration and the General Assembly agreed to spend $90.8 million on a new Bassick, which at the time was to be built in the same West End neighborhood as the existing, 100-year-old school, but for $115 million.

Due to various changes and delays — including the Ganim administration’s abrupt decision in 2020 to purchase land from the University of Bridgeport in the South End for $6 million and erect a new Bassick there — the price tag has increased to $129 million.

And those substantial alterations to the plan’s scope and costs, along with the fact that little progress on Bassick was made as the state’s two-year deadline for starting work approached, resulted in the Department of Administrative Services last spring recommending Bridgeport reapply for the state money and to be on the school construction priority list.

But when that list was released in December, Bassick was not on it, and local officials scrambled to address that issue.

Under the language in the state budget, Bridgeport must now hold firm to the $129 million cost. The words “not to exceed” were specifically included.

While thankful to the state for support for the new school, Ganim and the council still need more state help to balance the proposed 2022-23 budget.

That document relies on millions of dollars in one-time and hoped-for revenues, including $10 million from Bridgeport’s portion of last year’s federal coronavirus relief package; $4 million from the pending sale of city-owned, Stratford-based Sikorsky Memorial Airport to the Connecticut Airport Authority; and $2.1 million in additional state aid on top of an anticipated $37 million.

Not only is there a big question mark over that $2.1 million, but late last week Ken Flatto and Nestor Nkwo, the city’s finance and budget directors, respectively, alerted the council that a separate $1.8 million the mayor had been counting on fell through.

Specifically that money was to have helped reimburse Bridgeport for local tax breaks provided environmentally-friendly manufacturers. But that piece of state legislation was not passed this session.

According to an analysis by Flatto, while Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest municipality, is expecting to receive $37 million based on existing state aid formulas, Hartford will receive $85 million and New Haven $114 million.

“Look at how stark the contrast is and how underfunded Bridgeport is compared to our sister cities,” Flatto told the budget committee last Thursday. “It’s really unfortunate.”

“It’s absurd,” Burns said Monday.

He said the council’s budget committee was aiming to wrap up its work Wednesday, but added, “That may be optimistic.”

Burns noted the new, $1.8 million hole will make that job more complicated, including efforts to find added dollars for the schools.

Ganim provided an additional $2 million to the school board, which had requested over $8 million more. Schools Superintendent Michael Testani last month told the budget committee he could work with an extra $5 million.

CT lawmakers approve $3M plan to replace Whiting Hospital

John Moritz

House lawmakers on Monday gave final approval to a multi-million dollar plan to begin replacing the beleaguered Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown with a more modern facility.

The bi-partisan effort, which passed by a vote of 147-0, follows years of alleged abuses and inadequate supervision at the maximum-security psychiatric hospital. The effort culminated in the release of a task force report last year, calling for the abolition of the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board, which oversees people committed to Whiting for reasons of mental disease or defect.

Lawmakers chose not to go that far, however, instead settling on legislation that begins the process of planning for the construction of a new facility, reforming the process through which patients are granted temporary leave and reestablishing the hospital’s oversight board.

The “watered-down” bill adopted from the task force’s recommendations passed out of the Senate unanimously last week. Monday’s action sends the bill to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk.

State Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, who chairs the Public Health Committee, said investigations into conditions at the facility determined that residents “were treated not only poorly, but they effectively were abused.”

Lawmakers and advocates began the most recent round of investigations following the revelation that staff were filmed “kicking, hitting and taunting” resident William Shehadi, a man deemed to have a mental health illness committed to the facility for the death of his father. That incident resulted in disciplinary actions against 35 staff members, 10 of whom were eventually arrested. The Shehadi family later settled a lawsuit against the state for $2.5 million.

“This was a horrible chapter in the state of Connecticut, and made it clear that significant action needed to take place,” Steinberg said.

Concerns about Whiting Forensic Hospital, however, date back even further.

Several lawmakers on Monday pointed to lingering fears regarding a 1989 incident in which a 9-year-old girl from Wallingford, Jessica Short, was killed while shopping with her mother on Main Street in Middletown by a man who was released from the hospital on a day pass.

An earlier version of the legislation would have allowed staff at Whiting and the nearby Connecticut Valley Hospital to approve the temporary releases for residents without applying to the Psychiatric Security Review Board for approval, before lawmakers objected and removed the provision in the Senate.

“That language was unacceptable to the victims’ families,” said state Rep. Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford. “They did not want to see a repeat of the incident in Middletown that caused a little girl to lose her life.”

The amended bill also included provisions requiring the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to establish a working group to evaluate the PSRB, and report its findings to lawmakers in 2024.

The agency was also tasked with developing the plans for a new facility at Whiting. In March, the State Bond Commission approved $500,000 toward the development of such a plan, with the total cost expected to eventually reach $3 million.

In its notes on the agenda item, the bond commission noted the existing hospital facility is more than 50 years old and is already in need of repairs to its heating and cooling system, roof, sprinkler system and other essential building functions.

An interim report on plans for the new building is due to be completed by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and sent to lawmakers by Jan. 1, 2023.

Westport getting $11M for Post Road intersection upgrades

Katrina Koerting

WESTPORT — Stop signs, cross walks and sidewalks are all things downtown residents would like to see as a way to make the roads and intersections a bit safer for pedestrians, motorists and cyclists.

The town is getting a little help in making some of those intersections safer in the form of about $11 million from the state to improve the intersections of Bulkley Avenue, Roseville Road and the intersection by Fresh Market on the Post Road, First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker announced at the District 9 traffic meeting.

“We understand the corridor is a very big problem,” Tooker said. “It’s a really big deal that we’re able to fix all three intersections.”

She said she didn’t have the exact details of the work at the meeting and there would be a formal announcement in about a week.

Myrtle Avenue and Post Road was another problem intersection discussed, with one resident asking the green turning arrow light be made three to five seconds longer to help clear out more cars — something that had been tried before with some success.

Residents said downtown presents some unique challenges compared to other parts of Westport, especially with the high number of state roads that limit what the town can do. Navigation apps will also direct people through downtown if Interstate 95 is backed up, adding even more traffic to the area, according to comments from the traffic meeting.

One resident suggested restricting left turns from the Sherwood Island connector onto Greens Farms Road during certain hours to prevent the 95 overflow.

“We get lots of backups on the Post Road when there’s heavy traffic on 95,” said Kristin Schneeman, a District 9 RTM member.

NorthPoint Development pursuing 750,000-square-foot distribution center in Windsor

Michael Puffer

Missouri-based NorthPoint Development is pressing forward with a speculative effort to build a nearly 750,000-square-foot distribution center inside Windsor’s Great Pond Village mixed-use development.

NorthPoint was originally slated to team up with Great Pond master developer Winstanley Enterprises to build a massive distribution hub for pet products giant Chewy. After Chewy backed away from the deal earlier this year, NorthPoint decided to press ahead independently and build a distribution center on a speculative basis.

Hartford Business Journal was the first to report that news last month. 

Construction will begin in June and is anticipated to wrap up in April 2023, according to JLL, an international real estate services firm brokering the distribution center.

NorthPoint’s plans for the roughly 93-acre building site will begin review by Windsor’s Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission Tuesday.

Those plans include a 749,549-square-foot, one-story, distribution center with docking facilities on two sides, a 339-space parking lot, 145 trailer parking spots, lighting, landscaping and stormwater treatment areas, according to the project application.

Impacts to flora and fauna will be compensated by conservation of nearly 305 acres of woodland, stream corridor, wetlands and ponds built into the Great Pond Village development, which sits along Day Hill Road in Windsor. The larger 653-acre development is being pursued by ABB Combustion Engineering and Winstanley under a plan negotiated with the town.

A 75-year ground lease with a future right to purchase is anticipated to begin in June, according to Matthew Watkins, spokesperson for Winstanley.

James Panczykowski, senior managing director with JLL’s Northeast industrial region, will head leasing efforts on the property.

“With unrivaled access to both the New York and New England markets, two of the densest markets in the northeast, Windsor, Connecticut, is an ideal and proven logistics hub,” Panczykowski said, according to a JLL release. “This high-quality, mission-critical facility will provide powerful solutions to companies seeking a space with access to nearly 50 million consumers within a five-hour drive.”