Stamford schools to get more state aid, including $200M for new Westhill High: ‘A game changer’

Ignacio Laguarda, Brianna Gurciullo

STAMFORD — Finding funding for a new Westhill High School seemed far from a sure thing a few months ago, but recently passed state legislation comes with a boatload of money to help the cause.

And that’s not the only good news for city and school officials.

Among the long list of provisions in a recently passed state budget bill is another item that sets the reimbursement rate from the state for new school construction in Stamford at 60 percent, much higher than the 20 percent rate currently in place.

The new framework will provide much more funding for the city’s ambitious master plan to construct or expand four schools, including a potential new K-8 school in south Stamford, and make improvements to many others. The estimated cost to implement the full plan is more than $500 million over 12 years.

“It is something that will definitely be a game changer,” said Board of Education president Jackie Heftman, about the 60 percent rate. “We will be able to move forward on projects that were either not going to happen, or take years and years and years.”

In a separate section of the recently-passed budgetary bill, the reimbursement rate for a new Westhill High School was set at 80 percent. The cost of construction is estimated at $258 million, according to figures from the state’s Department of Administrative Services. At the 80 percent rate, Stamford would receive a contribution of roughly $206 million.

That’s a far cry from the 20 percent rate the state had agreed to pay late last year, which would have covered $51.6 million of the work.

Heftman said the assumption that the city would receive a reimbursement rate of 80 percent or more for Westhill was viewed as a long shot, but “something we absolutely had to do.”

She said Superintendent Tamu Lucero and state Sen. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford, were instrumental in getting the state legislature to agree to fund the high school project at a higher number and said both should be “incredibly congratulated” for the achievement.

Getting more state dollars for school projects is something Mayor Caroline Simmons campaigned on. A former member of the Stamford legislative delegation as a state representative, Simmons has advocated for increasing state aid for Stamford school projects.

Back in March, she said Stamford’s delegation was working on special legislation to get Westhill’s reimbursement rate as high as 95 percent.

“So we’re very hopeful that we can get that, and we’re going to be advocating strongly this session — we already have been, but continuing to advocate for that funding,” she said, in March.

At the same time, she said officials were pushing for bumping up Stamford’s rate.

“Instead of having to go up every year to advocate for that increase to 80 percent funding, we’re hoping to change the formula this session to get Stamford higher than that 20 percent reimbursement because we have so many needs,” she said, at the start of the legislative session. “We’re now the second-largest city. We have significant needs at our schools. And so we’re going to work to change that formula permanently this session.”

State funding for construction projects is based on a formula which is 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.

Before the aforementioned budget provisions were signed by Gov. Ned Lamont late last week, Stamford’s percentage of reimbursement was set at 30 percent for general construction and 20 percent for new construction. The state’s formula is set up to offer 10 percentage points less funding for all cities and towns for new construction, as opposed to renovation projects.

By comparison, in Bridgeport, which has one of the highest poverty rates in Connecticut, the state pays for 79 percent of general construction and 69 percent of new buildings.

The current 50-year-old Westhill High School 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.

Stamford school officials had discussed using special legislation to acquire more state funding for Westhill, using a blueprint that worked for Norwalk Public Schools for a new high school. Norwalk school officials were able to get 80 percent funding, well above the city’s normal rate of 23 percent for new construction.

But Norwalk representatives got that amount after filing for special legislation emphasizing the school’s regional program.

That’s the same route Stamford officials took with Westhill, when Lucero met with state representatives to discuss opening up enrollment for the district’s planned “Pathway to Career” program, designed to help students entering the workforce.

The plan worked, as the language approved in the state’s budget specifically states the Westhill project will be funded at 80 percent if the career program is established and “enrolls students from, and shares services with, surrounding towns to reduce racial isolation in the community.”

During the same session in which the Westhill project was submitted to the state, Stamford administrators also sought state funding for a preschool program to be housed at 83 Lockwood Ave. for a cost of roughly $51 million. The state agreed to pay for 20 percent of the work, but that project has since been withdrawn.

Waterbury aldermen OK agreement to allow study of Amazon site

HANNA SNYDER GAMBIN

WATERBURY – The Board of Aldermen on Monday approved the purchase and sale agreement that will allow Bluewater Property Group to officially begin a due-diligence phase on 157 acres in the city and Naugatuck to determine if plans to build an Amazon distribution facility are feasible.

Before the vote, a hearing yielded comments from two speakers, who wondered what the effect of studying and developing the site would have on neighbors and the nearby environment, as well as why empty or already developed sites such as Brass Mill Center weren’t considered instead of building on one of the last untouched tracts in the city.

Waterbury Development Corp. Director Thomas Hyde said Monday’s approval “does not move the project forward – it still needs a significant amount of state and local reviews,” and both towns will hold several hearings and public meetings with neighbors to address issues including traffic, wildlife and blasting.

Sharon Samoska said she’s concerned work to determine if the site is feasible, such as blasting rocky ledge, could damage nearby infrastructure such as water, sewer or gas pipes, as well as homes, leaving homeowners with repair costs.

Mike Barry said he grew up near the site, building forts and camping in the woods. That property, he said, represents some of the last woods in the area. Around the city, he sees abandoned or empty industrial sites, where buildings were blasted, leaving empty lots that become dumping grounds for trash.

Samoska also was concerned about the effects on wetlands, the increase of trucks and traffic, and asked why the mall wasn’t an option for this project.

Hyde said he couldn’t speak to why Bluewater didn’t look to purchase the mall, but said that site is much closer to residential sites than the potential Amazon facility, and the mall is not zoned for industrial.

Hyde noted the city has been taking on abandoned brownfields and remediating them for development with millions of dollars in federal grants. The 17-acre Anamet site the city took on in 2015-16 is now going out to bid for development proposals. Developers are hesitant to take on brownfields, Hyde said, and getting those sites project-ready for building takes a long time.

Bluewater building on the Naugatuck-Waterbury site can get jobs and tax revenue going much faster, he said.

As part of the agreement, Bluewater must work with state Department of Transportation on traffic studies and win DOT approval on project plans, Hyde said.

The property group also has to conduct environmental studies and measure the effect on wetlands and wildlife. Lighting studies will ensure no lights spill over into neighboring property, Hyde said.

The agreement calls for the costs of all these studies to fall on Bluewater.

Approval of the agreement “gives Bluewater the ability to go out and spend millions of dollars needed to understand this site, understand the feasibility and ultimately build,” Hyde said.

He said previous projects failed because there was no good way to access the site from Waterbury without going through residential neighborhoods. Waterbury and Naugatuck teamed up to buy a small parcel that now gives access through Naugatuck Industrial Park, which has an entrance across from the exit and on-ramps for Route 8.

Now that the agreement is approved, the next six months are strictly for feasibility studies, followed by up to a year of construction feasibility studies before Bluewater closes on the property.JUMP][saxodummynewline]