Eversource owes New Canaan $106K past due

Grace Duffield  Eversource owes the Town of New Canaan more than $100,000 for police officers hired to direct traffic at work sites.

The utility owes more than $106,055 past due to New Canaan for police work largely “related to construction projects and most recently the bulk of this construction is related to the Eversource gas work,” according to New Canaan Chief Financial Officer Lunda Asmani.

The total unpaid receivables for the New Canaan Police Department “was at $250,000 now it is a little over $300,00 000 and some of that is sixty days overdue,” Town Councilman Mike Mauro told fellow councilme at a virtual meeting Wednesday, Nov. 18.

“That is a large chunk of money for the town,” he added.

Eversource is responsible the lion’s share of the outstanding receivables.

The company owes New Canaan a total of $204,195 with $68,975 in bills more than 60 days past due; $37,080 that are 30 days past due; $28,374 with less than 30 days, and $69,767 is expected to be paid soon, according to Asmani.

“We are aware of this issue and are working to quickly resolve it,” Eversource Senior Media Relations Specialist Frank Poirot said.

“Our payment process includes a thorough audit of all invoices to confirm hours worked. Unfortunately, sometimes a missing piece of information can delay the processing and payment of an invoice,” Poirot said.

Asmani agreed efforts to get paid can get complicated. “The majority of these invoices are paid from Eversource central office and therefore there is a great deal of coordination that needs to happen among town staff, our Eversource representative, the Eversource field project managers and Eversource corporate finance offices,” he said.

“Not sure why Eversource would allow more than 60 days to pass with such a large outstanding balance. Their performance in the last storm was abysmal and now to be so late in remitting the money to the town adds insult to injury,” Mauro said after the meeting.

“We value the relationships we have with all of the communities we serve and are committed to working with New Canaan community leaders to solve this matter,” Poirot said.

Mauro said Police Chief Leon Krolikowski has asked Asmani to start “increasing the effort to collect.”

“The town does not employ a collection agency to collect from Eversource. We rely on the constant communication and follow up among our various staff. Last fiscal year the town received $1.06 million in extra duty revenue, the majority from Eversource and this year as of today the town has received $0.5 million, a majority from Eversource,” Asmani said.

“As a background, officers who are assigned are expected to be proactive, conduct themselves in a professional manner, perform required traffic control duties and ensure that the work zone is safe and compliant for motorists and workers at all times in accordance to the town code,” Asmani said.

“The Police Department also has $10,000 in false alarm penalty money that is very old and the chief is working with Lunda on that. Something should be done to collect that,” Mauro said.

New Haven jobs training amid thriving construction projects puts us ‘on the right path’, participant says

Mary E O'Leary  NEW HAVEN — Why not match training with the jobs that are still going strong?

In the city, that would be construction work, where building fees are expected to blow past the projected $19 millionthis year, a bright spot in another tough year.

With that as a goal, an 8-person training pilot has been taking classes for six weeks in preconstruction basics, such as blueprint reading, rigging, math skills for construction and financial literacy, as well as visiting union training sites.

They will receive a number of certifications, but the goal is to get a union apprenticeship.

Tasheem Paden, 30, who was laid-off from his customer service job, was looking for something that would lead to a career.

“I wanted a better life for myself and I felt a trade would be suitable for moving forward,” Paden said outside the Hall of Records, where some in-class training is held.

The training is a city partnership with Building Pathways, part of the John J. Driscoll United Labor Agency, New Haven Works and the New Haven Workforce Alliance.

“The drive to be a better person is helping me succeed in the program,” Paden said.

He said he is leaning toward becoming a plumber. Because he was one of the few chosen to participate, Paden said he will make it work

Mayor Justin Elicker said New Haven has some 7,000 individuals who are unemployed, almost 10 percent of the workforce.

“New Haven is still very resilient when it comes to construction,” Elicker said, with 101 College St. approved for a 10-story lab building; the Downtown Crossing infrastructure project; various private housing projects; and construction such as the Q House.

“We need to make sure New Haven residents are building these buildings,” Elicker said. “This is also an opportunity ... for good union jobs,” Elicker said.

He said the plan is to add classes if this one is successful.

Kymbel Branch, manager of career development services at Workforce Alliance, said they provide computers for students who needed them and hot spots, as well as help with parking costs, bus passes and child care — things that would get in the way of their successful completion of the program.

“We look at the individual and see what is it going to take in order to keep them stable,” Branch said.

Chris Cozzi, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of New Haven, said there are 14 trades with apprenticeship programs that last between 4 and 5 years. He said this training program is modeled after the Construction Workforce Initiative the city used to run.

“You can give someone a construction job, but without further training they don’t establish the necessary skills to take them to the next level,” Cozzi said.

He said there are four construction projects at Yale University that have project labor agreements in which it is required to hire a minimum of 20 percent New Haven residents, which also applies to apprenticeship slots. Two projects are starting up, including renovation work at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, while two others already are well along.

The training program, which started with 10 individuals, costs $7,000 for each member of the class, which is split between the city and the Workforce Alliance headed by William Villano.

Cozzi said they try to create relationships with developers to make sure union contractors are bidding those jobs.

He said his group will work with Workforce Alliance and Lil Snyder at the city’s Small Contractor Development program to try to fill the gap between the time the current class graduates and the apprenticeship programs open up to get them some experience and earn some money.

“We will try to place everyone,” Cozzi said, but there are no guarantees. “There is a lot of disruption in the industry,” he said, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Projects have gotten stopped.

He said construction is not easy work as it proceeds in all kinds of weather and there are no sick days. Cozzi said people were expected to plow ahead despite minor illnesses. Now with COVID-19, they have to send them home.

Paden was optimistic about his chances of succeeding. “This program puts you a step forward because you gain a few points” with the various certifications, he said. “We have good recommendations from those running the programs. They are leading us on the right path.”

Brookfield moving forward with $1.7 million project that aims to reduce water saltiness

BROOKFIELD — The town’s Board of Finance has green-lighted funds for the Candlewood Lake water line’s installation, but some details about who’s paying what are still to be determined.

The board has OK’d a cost of up to $1,699,750 for the water line, which is expected to stretch from Nabby Road to Huckleberry Hill Elementary School, according to minutes. Per the board’s decision, making a call on how assessments — that is, how much property owners contribute to the overall capital cost of the line — will pan out for the project will be up to the Board of Selectmen with finance board input.

The project involves 29 homes and the Huckleberry Hill Elementary School property, where a new school is planned. It’s in an area where some residents have had problems with salty wells, an issue that some of them have attributed to the use of salt solutions to treat roads during inclement weather. The town said early on that was uncertain.

Of 12 sites that had already been tested, five of them had contaminant “levels of chlorides and sodium” that exceeded acceptable thresholds, according to a presentation from a Nov. 4 Board of Finance hearing. More test results are expected for other properties in the days to come.

“If we decide to move forward with assessments on the properties, then the Board of Selectmen has to meet again and call for another public hearing, run by the Board of Selectmen where people can come give us comment. And that has to be at least 20 days after we announce it,” first selectman Steve Dunn said in an interview Nov. 12.

“The next step is to get the water tests back, share those results with the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, and then the Board of Selectmen will probably call a public hearing at our normal Board of Selectmen meeting in December,” Dunn added.

Regulations in place necessitate if one of the properties were assessed, they’d all need to be assessed, according to Dunn in a Nov. 11 Board of Finance meeting. Not all residents think that would be a fair route to take, especially if their water isn’t having issues.

“You assess no one, or you assess all,” he said.

The payment for possible assessments is generally calculated using four criteria related to someone’s property, two of which are frontage and the area of their property. Town code includes information about how assessments function, such as details about payment timeframes.

As town economic development manager Greg Dembowski noted in an interview, there’s also a provision that “gives the Board of Selectmen the authority to determine a fair and equitable assessment.” And given that the project extends to the school property — which has “levels of rising sodium and chloride levels” — that would benefit from the project, that adds a “unique” aspect, Dembowski said.

“For that reason, there’s a lot more thought that has to go into what’s an equitable and fair assessment, given the dynamics of this particular project,” he said.

One possibility Dunn mentioned in that Board of Finance meeting would be to have the town fork up money for the water line, with residents just paying to connect to the line if they choose to do so. Finance board members were hesitant to make all residents pay for the line if they didn’t want it, but some were also concerned about possible implications for future projects of having the town take up the cost.

The town is also trying to coordinate the water line project with the insertion of a gas line, which officials would ideally like to happen around the same time frame to make the process more efficient and limit disturbance to traffic, Dembowski said in an interview.

The water line project plans to have access to a low-interest loan via the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund “and 25% forgiveness of construction costs,” according to the Nov. 4 Board of Finance hearing presentation.

Dembowski said that backing “is available to anybody along the main who has water sodium chloride levels that are above the threshold level set by the Department of Public Health or who have increasing levels of those products of sodium and chloride that might be nearly approaching that threshold.”

“So, it’d be very advantageous to them that if they allowed us to make this connection … the loan will pay for the full installation all the way into their home with a 25 percent forgiveness,” he said.

Officials aim to complete the project “before the asphalt plants close for the winter of 2021,” Dembowski said.

Connecticut Leaders Hoping For Influx of Transportation Funding From Biden Administration

Hugh McQuaid  Gov. Ned Lamont’s unsuccessful push to toll state highways was an unpopular answer to a persistent problem: Connecticut’s transportation fund is drying up. And with no political appetite to revisit tolls, hopes rest on a federal Band-Aid.

As Connecticut’s roads, bridges, and highways continue to age and demand repair and replacement, the state faces a dilemma. Its Special Transportation Fund, which pays for infrastructure projects and the operation of the Transportation Department, is supported by fuel taxes, which diminish as vehicles become more efficient. 

“We have a funding mechanism that is failing,” said Norman Garrick, a professor at the University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering. “As more people switch to electric cars, as inflation eats away at the rate at which we tax gas, we’re going to have to start to make hard decisions about what we’re going to do because that pile of money is going to be worth less and less.”

Garrick pointed to tolls as a possible solution. But the professor also acknowledged that Connecticut residents find this solution extremely controversial.

It was controversial in the legislature as well. The Lamont administration lobbied hard to pass some form of a tolls bill during the last two legislative sessions, but the issue proved deeply unpopular. Ultimately, neither Democrat-controlled chamber of the legislature even called the issue for a vote.

Immediately after this month’s election, the governor was asked whether he had given up on tolls. He indicated he had no plans to pursue them again when the legislature comes back into session in January. Lamont said he would put “other alternatives” on the table for lawmakers to consider.

“What I haven’t given up on is the fact that we have a transportation fund that’s slowly going bankrupt, the fact that California and others are calling for 100% electric cars over the next 10-15 years. We know we’re going to have to change the way we fund transportation,” Lamont said. “Let’s face it, my solution wasn’t very popular with Republicans or Democrats but nor did they have a solution of their own.”

Some transportation advocates have called on Connecticut to participate in an initiative that raises gas prices to fund investments in cleaner transportation. In January, Lamont declined to endorse the proposal, which is called the Transportation and Climate Initiative, but this week the Governor’s Council on Climate Change again raised the issue in a report on strategies for mitigating climate change.

Asked about it Thursday, the governor hedged, saying the legislature should be thinking about the proposal, but he did not endorse it.

“It’s something a lot of the regional governors are thinking about and one of the ideas I think the legislature ought to be thinking about,” he said. “Look, I’m sympathetic to realistic ways that we can fix our transportation system because it’s key to our economic future. That’s one of several options the legislature’s got to consider.”

Without a systemic solution, Lamont said that the state would likely look to borrow money to cover some of the cost of supporting the fund. The governor said he does not “love the idea” but with interest rates at historic lows, it makes sense.

“This is the time to be making long-term investments, so borrowing will be part of our strategy,” he said.

The administration is also hoping for aid from President-elect Joe Biden, of whom Lamont was an early supporter. Earlier this month, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said she expected to see an influx of federal funding from the Biden administration to support transportation upkeep, similar to money the state received from the Recovery Act following President Barack Obama’s election.

On Thursday, Lamont said he believed Biden would be able to get legislation passed.

“My strong feeling is, when it comes to infrastructure, there’ll be some bipartisan support. President-elect Biden has a way of being able to work across the aisle and hopefully get something done. Nobody can just say ‘No,’” the governor said.

One of Connecticut’s most visible infrastructure problems is the raised section of Interstate 84 that runs through downtown Hartford. Advocates have long eyed the viaduct for total replacement. Many say the aging stretch of highway, built in 1965, has had a negative impact on the Hartford community and economy.

“That was one of the many projects that helped to spiral down the economy of the city because it divided the city,” Garrick said. “It’s changed the relationship of the downtown to its neighborhoods. It’s encouraged people to drive through and into the city rather than walking.”

The issue is under consideration at the Department of Transportation. Late last year, the department backed away from its leading plan to lower the highway, which was expected to cost between $4.3 and $5.3 billion. It is now conducting a more wide-ranging study of the viaduct and how it relates broadly to highway congestion in the Hartford and East Hartford area.

In June, the department concluded $60 million in repairs to the viaduct. These temporary fixes are expected to help extend its lifetime through 2040. The repairs reduce the urgency of replacing the aging infrastructure while the agency conducts its study, which is expected to be completed in late 2022.

“The department is looking at a broader, more holistic view at mobility in the region, not just limited to the viaduct – in a new study we are referring to as the Greater Hartford Mobility Study,” DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said in an email.

Some residents are pushing for dramatic changes. U.S. Rep. John Larson has long been an advocate of an ambitious project to reroute the highway through a proposed tunnel. But regardless of whether the project ultimately includes a tunnel, Larson said it must position Hartford as an easily accessible hub between New York and Boston.

“There’s a grand opportunity here to make Hartford about an hour’s trip from New York or Boston by train and to set us up as a hub of commerce,” Larson said. “It’s time to move on to a vision of the future that’s intermodal, links us to the airport, which will only help commerce and business activity as well as making sure that rail is incorporated into this.”

Like the governor, Larson is betting on federal dollars to make these infrastructure goals a reality. At the moment, control of the U.S. Senate remains unresolved pending the results of two January runoff elections in Georgia. Whichever way those elections go, Larson said he is hopeful Congress can pass transportation or major infrastructure legislation.

“We have a very strong case for why this needs federal funding and the urgency attached to it,” he said. “I think it’s going to happen sooner rather than later because I think President [elect] Biden recognizes that in order to put the country back to work and fulfill some of these promises, they have to deliver on an infrastructure bill.”

In the long run, Garrick said Connecticut needs to arrive at a sustainable funding solution for its infrastructure obligations and begin to plan its land-use goals rather than reacting to immediate problems. He said residents and policymakers should try to draw connections between transportation infrastructure and systemic problems like climate change and racial justice.

“That’s what bothers me about the future for us. We just don’t really make connections or think about long term planning,” he said. “The only way is if we start to make those connections and start to make plans for the future.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Coverage of the 2020 Multimodal and Transit Summit, as well as a follow-up series on related transportation issues, is being partially underwritten by the Transport Hartford Academy at the Center for Latino Progress.

Underwriting is funding for journalism that will be reported and produced independently, without prior review by the funder before publication.

Biden Bump for Infrastructure Imperiled by Trump Election Fight 

Keith Laing  (Bloomberg) -- Union leaders and transportation advocates have looked to President-elect Joe Biden and his former Senate colleague Mitch McConnell for possible action next year on a major infrastructure package.

Yet, as President Donald Trump and allies including McConnell refuse to recognize Biden as the election winner, hopes are fading for an early bipartisan breakthrough on a significant infusion of funding for bridges, highways and airports.

Trump himself had pressed earlier in his tenure to advance an infrastructure deal, something that had eluded Washington policy makers for years, yet the effort fell short as he and Democratic leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi parted ways over how to pay for it.

Under his $2 trillion Build Back Better proposal for reviving the U.S. economy, Biden envisions investing in schools, water systems, municipal transit and universal broadband. Moving that through Congress, though, would require extensive cooperation with Republicans, especially Majority Leader McConnell -- who since May has spurned a comparably sized pandemic relief package pushed by Pelosi.

“McConnell wasn’t too excited about doing an infrastructure package with Trump, so I am not sure why he would be suddenly excited to work on an infrastructure package with Biden,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and partner of the Washington-based EFB Advocacy lobbying firm. “So, I am bit skeptical.”

With a one-year extension of highway funding to expire next year, union leaders and transportation advocates still see reason for hope. They’re looking to the prospect that McConnell and Biden -- who served seven terms in the U.S. Senate -- could rediscover the bipartisan mojo that they used to seal deals during Obama administration.

Biden highlighted infrastructure in an economic summit Nov. 16 with business and union leaders via teleconference.

“We can also modernize infrastructure, roads, bridges, ports. 1.5 million new affordable housing units,” he said. “High-speed broadband, we talked about, for every American household, which is more important than ever for remote learning, remote working, telemedicine in the 21st century. Building a digital infrastructure to help businesses, health-care workers, first responders and students.”

Most Americans favor additional investment in public works. A February 2020 poll conducted by The Pew Charitable Trusts showed that 68% of U.S. residents support an increase in federal infrastructure spending. The poll was conducted before the coronavirus pandemic damaged the U.S. economy, however.

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“Infrastructure is an issue where President-elect Joe Biden and Senator Mitch McConnell can find some common ground,” said Larry Willis, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department. “They should be able to do that.”

After serving together in the Senate for nearly three decades, Biden was frequently the Obama administration’s emissary to Capitol Hill when the former president needed to cut deals with McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. The question now is whether bipartisanship is still possible, especially if, as expected, Republicans maintain control of the Senate after a pair of runoff elections in Georgia.

The prospect so far doesn’t seem promising. Biden hasn’t even had a congratulatory call from his former Senate colleague, incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said in an interview with CNN’s “Situation Room” on Thursday. But Klain said Biden has talked to other Republican members of Congress, even as most of them refuse to congratulate him publicly.

“They’ve known each other for 30 years,” Klain said. “When the time is right for them to talk, they will not need an introductory coffee or get-to-know you session, that’s for sure.”

Biden’s transition team and McConnell’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the prospects for cooperation on infrastructure spending.

U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat who chairs the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, expressed optimism that Biden will push hard to keep his campaign commitment to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, even if McConnell is initially recalcitrant.

“The President-elect has made it clear he is ready to work with Congress to deliver results for all Americans with bold investments in infrastructure that help everyone, from large metro areas dealing with unreliable transit and soon to be jam-packed highways, to rural communities that suffer from bridges in poor condition and deteriorating roads,” DeFazio said in a statement.

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Washington has been mostly spinning its wheels on infrastructure spending under President Donald Trump.

A five-year, $305 billion transportation funding law was set to expire in 2020 but was extended until next year. The House passed a five-year, $494 billion surface transportation bill in July, but the measure has not been approved by the Senate.

Early in his term, Trump proposed a $1 trillion replacement -- funded mostly by private investment -- but the plan has been stuck in neutral.

Trump’s proposal called for federal spending of $200 billion over 10 years that administration officials said can be used to “incentivize” as much as $800 billion in private, state and local spending on infrastructure. At the plan’s core was the assumption that private companies would enter into “public-private” partnerships with local and state governments.

Biden, a supporter of rail projects, has been closely associated with Amtrak -- he used to take it back and forth from Washington to his home in Delaware so often he earned the nickname “Amtrak Joe.” He promises on his transition website that his administration will “mobilize American ingenuity to build a modern infrastructure and an equitable, clean energy future.”

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If it comes to pass, it would be a far cry from repeated declarations of “infrastructure week” by the Trump White House that were quickly subsumed by unrelated events.

“We have to get past the point where infrastructure week is a running joke,” Willis said. “It’s one of the backbones of our economy and it employs thousands of our members with good paying jobs.”

A cash infusion would appease state governments that have seen gas tax revenues plummet as Americans cut back on traveling in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Highway Trust Fund’s balance has fallen 56.5% so far this year, according to the Federal Highway Administration. The highway fund, which is used to distribute money to states, is supported by the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax.

“It’s one of the few areas Republicans and Democrats should still be able to come together and agree on,” Jim Tymon, chief operating officer and director of policy and management for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said during a post-election transportation policy forum organized by his group.

Window for Compromise

The federal government usually spends about $50 billion per year on roads nationwide, but the federal gas tax only brings in $34 billion. The gas tax has not been raised since 1993, and there was little appetite in Washington for increasing it even before the pandemic led to an economic slowdown.

Congress has turned to other areas of the federal budget in recent years to close the infrastructure funding gap, most recently transferring $70 billion to help cover five years’ worth of transportation spending that will now run out in 2021.

John Porcari, a former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation in the Obama administration whoadvised the Biden campaign, said during the AASHTO event that he thinks there are “real prospects for a bipartisan, broad infrastructure package” in the early days of Biden’s administration.

But the window for a bipartisan infrastructure compromise “is probably pretty short,” said Adrian Hemond, a Democratic strategist with the bipartisan Grassroots Midwest consulting firm in Michigan.

“The first six months of the Biden administration are the best chance to get any legislation of consequence done,” he said. “There’s an incentive for every incumbent facing a potentially competitive election in 2022 to have an accomplishment or two that they can run on back home.”