$20M expansion approved for Torrington school project after vote

LANCE REYNOLDS

TORRINGTON — Torrington Middle/High School will be built the way city residents want after they approved a $20 million expansion in a second referendum Tuesday at City Hall, the lone polling place.

The expansion, which raises the project’s total cost to $179.5 million, passed 828-301. Residents initially approved the grade 7-12 school project at $159.5 million in November 2020.

The latest approval relieves worries from city school officials and building committee members that they’d need to reduce building space while ensuring the school was built as promised and stayed on schedule. Those worries arose from cost escalations in building materials and an influx of students spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am so grateful to the community for believing in our vision and the TMS/THS project, and being a part of that with us,” Superintendent Susan Lubomski said in a phone interview Tuesday night. “This is the future of our children, and they will have this beautiful new building to inherit and all of the great offerings.”

City officials anticipate the additional $20 million to be reimbursed by the state at 85%, which the General Assembly will need to approve in the upcoming legislative session that begins Feb. 9.

City taxpayers face a $26.9 million cost with the 85% reimbursement. If there’s no reimbursement, the cost would be $46.9 million. Both of those costs are less than the $74.6 million voters approved in the first referendum. The state boosted its reimbursement from 62% to 85% last spring after approving school construction grants.

A number of new residents have arrived in the city from the New York area during the pandemic, with city schools feeling an immediate impact. In grades 7-12, 137 more students enrolled.

David Cravanzola, construction manager for city-based O&G Industries, told the building committee in November the cost of steel has risen 120% and aluminum framing 70% during a national supply shortage amid the pandemic.

If Tuesday’s referendum didn’t pass, the city couldn’t have used federal-relief funds to help cover costs because the state has given the initial 85% reimbursement rate, Lubomski said. The referendum has pushed back the anticipated start of construction from this spring to August or September, she said.

The building committee will begin its next phase of planning, which will last for several months. If there are delays in construction, officials would look to move students into the new building in January 2025, Lubomski said. Students can be housed in the existing building at 50 Major Besse Drive because the new building has just a slight overlap, she said.

“We are happy that we spent this extra time,” she said. “It was time well-spent. We have the funding that we need to really plan and move forward as originally intended.”

The Board of Education and building committee had eyed eliminating student lockers and classroom space for automotive and construction technology electives; seventh- and eighth-graders sharing a library media center with high school students; changing to four lunch waves, and reducing lockers for high school athletics and physical education.

Seventh- and eighth-graders will be in a separate wing from high school students, and central office administrators will have space in the new building.

Jeff Putnam, a father of two elementary students, said he was surprised and excited about Tuesday’s voter turnout, a signal he said shows residents believe in the future of Torrington public schools. He spearheaded the project’s political action committee, Vote Yes New School Bright Future, before the November 2020 referendum.

“At the end of the day, the kids are going to get what they deserve, and the town is going to have the education system that we’ve always wanted,” Putnam said Tuesday night “This is something new and exciting for all of these kids, and all of the new kids who’ve joined us. There’s a lot of new opportunities.”

Ignacio Laguarda

STAMFORD — Funding for the construction of a new Westhill High School and a building to house an expanded pre-kindergarten program made it through another step Tuesday morning after a state subcommittee voted to approve them.

Members of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Education Committee unanimously approved the priority list of projects that were seeking financial reimbursement through the state.

Both Stamford projects would be reimbursed 20 percent of the overall cost of the work, but Stamford officials have said that’s not enough, particularly for the Westhill project.

Of the two Stamford projects, the biggest is the reconstruction of Westhill, a project estimated to cost $258 million, according to the state’s Department of Administrative Services. The current 50-year-old structure has had a variety of problems, including water damage from leaky roofs, windows, doorways and the exterior.

The plan is to build a new school on the same site and then demolish the existing building once the new one is complete. The state has agreed to finance $52 million, according to a letter released in December by the education department.

Stamford school officials have discussed using special legislation to acquire more state funding for Westhill, but it is unclear if that will happen. Last month, Stamford Public Schools Superintendent Tamu Lucero said school representatives met with state officials to discuss creating a regional program within Westhill in the hopes of getting considerably more state dollars. The plan would allow students in surrounding communities to enroll in the school’s recently created “Pathway to Career” program, designed to help students entering the workforce.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Doug McCrory, the co-chairperson of the Education Committee, gave an early endorsement of providing more funding for Westhill, and described Pathway to Career as a “great idea” and “great program.”

But he said Stamford isn’t the only municipality seeking more money.

“Everybody and their mother wants a reimbursement rate increased,” he said.

He met with Lucero and state Sen. Patricia Billie Miller, who represents Stamford and Darien, on Monday to discuss the Westhill project and to talk about ways to find more state dollars to pay for it.

“No promises were made,” McCrory said, but he told committee members that supporting a regional program like Pathway to Career could incentive other cities and towns to create regional programs down the road.

The other Stamford project on the priority list is a new pre-school Early Childhood Center slated for 83 Lockwood Ave. That project, which is estimated to cost $52 million, would receive roughly $10 million in state funding. The center would expand pre-school services by hosting about 600 students from birth to age 5.

Beside Westhill, the district also had identified four other schools — Cloonan Middle School, Hart Elementary School, Roxbury Elementary School and Toquam Magnet Elementary School — as buildings that need to be torn down and replaced.

State funding for construction projects is based on a formula tied to a municipality’s wealth. In essence, the poorest municipalities in Connecticut get the highest reimbursement rates while wealthier communities receive a smaller reimbursement percentage.

Stamford’s percentage of reimbursement is 30 percent for general construction and 20 percent for new construction.

While the state has agreed to place both the Westhill and Lockwood projects on its priority list, the funding will ultimately need to be approved by the full General Assembly during the upcoming legislative session.

Stamford officials have repeatedly said they hope Westhill gets the same type of funding recently secured by Norwalk Public Schools for a new high school. That district was able to secure an 80 percent reimbursement rate, well above Norwalk’s normal rate of 23 percent for new construction.

Norwalk got that amount after filing for special legislation emphasizing its regional program, said Konstantinos “Kosta” Diamantis, the former director of the Office of School Construction Grants and Review, in a previous article.

At the time, Diamantis said the state encourages regional programming, which explains why such projects — like the one in Norwalk — get more money.

Planned Amazon distribution center in Naugatuck Valley could bring 1,000 jobs, officials say

Luther Turmelle

A Pennsylvania-based industrial property developer has been selected to turn a 150-acre vacant property that straddles Waterbury and Naugatuck into an Amazon distribution facility that state and local officials say has the potential to create up to 1,000 new jobs if the plan comes to fruition.

The Bluewater Property Group was selected from a request for proposal process launched last July, said Thomas Hyde, chief executive officer of Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corp., which is representing the two communities in the process. The selection of Bluewater Property Group and its involvement with Amazon was announced Tuesday morning at Waterbury City Hall at an event attended by Gov. Ned Lamont.

“This project, if approved, has tremendous upside for Waterbury, Naugatuck, and residents throughout the region,” Lamont said. “This has the potential to create up to a thousand new jobs and go a long way in supporting these communities in their broader revitalization efforts. We are seeing real momentum in our state as more and more companies are choosing to invest and grow here.”

Hyde said the next step in the process is for Bluewater Property Group to perform its due diligence on the property, which the company has up to six months to do. At the same time, he said, Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corp. will be crafting a sales agreement to sell the property.

“Those two things would be going on at the same time,” Hyde said. “Before any deal could be completed, it would have to get the approval of the aldermanic board in Waterbury and the board of burgesses in Naugatuck. If this fall through, we woud go through the process again, but at this point we’re fairly confident this is something that is going to happen.”

Hyde said the size of the distribution center has not yet been determined. But he described it as “a first-mile where they store a lot of products.”

“The products would go from there to what they other centers where they would be loaded on to smaller vehicles for the final mile of delivery,” he said.

Hyde said the location is what attracted Bluewater Property Group and Amazon to the property. The largest portion of the property, 105 acres, is located off of South Main Street in Waterbury with easy access to Route 8, Interstate 84 and near rail service.

Hyde said Bluewater Property Group has developed several distribution facilities for Amazon and has one under construction for the e-commerce giant in Fishkill, N.Y.

Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary said while more work remains to be done in order for the project come to fruition, it “could be an amazing win for our region and the entire state.”

Alexandra Escamilla, head of development for the Blue Water Property Group, said the company is excited at the opportunity to proceed to the next step.”

As of August 2020, Amazon had more than 3 million square feet of distribution space in 10 communities across the state. More recent data was not immediately available Tuesday.

David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac University’s School of Business, said Amazon’s continued growth in Connecticut is a double-edged sword.

“Any time there is an opportunity to create jobs, of course politicians are going to latch onto it,” Cadden said. “But the big issue here is the quality of the jobs and are they really worth it.”

A Manhattan investor wants to build an 8-acre warehouse in a Newtown forest. Here’s what we know.

Rob Ryser

NEWTOWN - A Manhattan-based developer of distribution warehouses has proposed a 345,000-square-foot facility in an environmentally sensitive stretch of woods off Interstate 84 in Hawleyville.

Wharton Industrial’s plans for 112 acres just south of I-84 at Exit 9 call for a warehouse building that would be the size of eight acres, along with 75 truck docks, 50 trailer spaces, and 360 parking spaces.

“This is a large project that requires significant land disturbance to accommodate a large building footprint,” said Eric Davison, a wetland consultant who prepared an impact report as part of the application. “Such a project presents significant challenges on … landscape that consists of rolling topography interspersed with an abundance of wetlands.”

The warehouse project will get its first review at a public hearing on Wednesday before Newtown’s Inland Wetlands Commission.

The commission will consider only Wharton’s request to build a driveway over a wetland, and other aspects of the development that relate to the environmentally sensitive site. Wharton will have to go before Newtown’s Planning and Zoning Commission for permission to operate a warehouse and for site plan approval.

The property in question and an adjoining 34-acre property were approved for a wetland permit in 2018, when a developer proposed a 275,000-square-foot medical office building and a 250,000-square foot warehouse building.

That project never got off the ground.

Wharton’s attorney argued that the current proposal is a better fit for the environmentally sensitive site.

“The proposed project is considerably smaller than the previously approved project, and the amount of ... disturbance is less than the previously approved project,” said Thomas Cody, a Hartford attorney representing Wharton. “The project’s proposed building coverage of 7 percent of the property is far less than the maximum building coverage of 35 percent permitted by zoning regulations.”

The warehouse project also calls for an “extensive” storm water management plan, and a sediment and erosion control plan, Cody said.

Wetlands, which the federal Environmental Protection agency liken to natural sponges that trap storm water, are important because they “slow the speed of flood waters” and distribute excess water evenly across the floodplain.

The problem with the wetland on the western portion of the property that Wharton would cross with a driveway is that it’s no longer functioning the way nature built it, the wetlands consultant said.

“The area of proposed wetland impact…has been significantly impacted by uncontrolled runoff and sediment discharge from I-84,” Davison wrote in a report last week. “Given that the direct wetlands impact cannot be avoided, this is an appropriate location for the wetland crossing due to the degraded nature of the wetland, and the resulting low functions that the wetland currently provides.”

That will be up to Newtown’s wetlands commission to decide.

Wharton’s warehouse proposal is the latest in a string of commercial interest in Newtown.

In August, elected leaders agreed in principle to sell a 14-acre property in an industrial zone to a Greenwich developer who proposes to build up to 200 age-restricted apartments.

In July, a Boston developer won the bid to convert two Fairfield Hills buildings into a mix of apartments and commercial use.

Also in July, an Ohio distributer of automotive, electrical and chemical supplies announced it would establish its northeast headquarters in the 140,000-square-foot former Hubbell factory off Route 25.

And in April, a Vermont RV dealer with plans to convert a former Route 25 warehouse site into a $7 million showroom and service center was granted a tax-break package as an incentive.

Grant eyed for S. Colony flood control project in Meriden

Mary Ellen Godin

MERIDEN — City officials hope to secure a federal grant to clean up two parcels on South Colony Street as part of ongoing efforts to control flooding and revitalize downtown.

Properties at 51-53 S. Colony St. and 31-33 S. Colony St. are needed for the city’s flood control efforts and continuing the Linear Trail into downtown, officials said this week. The properties were once home to Church & Morse hardware and Meriden Auction Rooms, which have since been razed. 

They are currently vacant lots covered with concrete rubble.

Engineering firm Fuss & O’Neil estimated it will cost $800,000 to clear the parcels and remove the foundations. If the Environmental Protection Agency approves the grant application, the city will receive $400,000 and match that amount.

“This is part of a much larger project,” said Public Works Director Howard Weissberg. “Anything, that we can address with a grant we’re on it.” 

The grant application was scheduled for discussion by the City Council Finance Committee on Tuesday night and would require final approval from the full council. 

The flood control project is a collection of repairs, realignments and deepening and widening of channels in the downtown area, which has historically flooded after significant rainfall. The first and largest piece was the Meriden Green project, a $14 million effort to convert the former Hub site into a city park. Weissberg and other city officials have said the flood work at the Green and on bridges throughout the city has significantly reduced flooding, but more work remains.

The city also received a $400,000 state grant to do landscape work that will extend the Green to Cedar Street. Tall evergreens have been planted to create a buffer between the new park and apartment complexes Meriden Commons I and II.  The new park will contain a sensory garden in addition to uncovering more of Harbor Brook. 

City officials also recently received a small grant to purchase the former Castle Bank building at 100 Hanover St. to deepen and widen the channel that flows underneath.

The work on South Colony Street and at 100 Hanover St. is expected to help Hanover and Cook Avenue avoid flooding problems like those that occurred last summer, said City Councilor Michael Rohde.    

Longterm plans call for uncovering more of Harbor Brook and deepening the channel to the Amtrak bridge. The project is also tied to the city’s effort to connect its Linear Trail along Hanover Street into the Meriden Green.

“It’s going to create a green space,” Rohde said. “These projects are going to be very visible. People will see the difference.”