State officials have offered a grant worth up to $1.6 million for the city to create traffic and pedestrian upgrades to Foxon Boulevard. City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said in an April letter to Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker Myers announcing the funds that the corridor has “safety needs” that can be addressed by the grant. The city will be responsible for the design and construction of the improvements by August 2025, after which state crews will repave the road, according to Zinn. The city and state will also enter an agreement as to the maintenance of the medians, including energy costs, damage repairs and landscaping. In an unrelated project, the city has plans to install red light cameras at the intersection of Foxon and Quinnipiac, which is also expected for 2025.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/new-haven-foxon-blvd-safety-upgrades-state-funds-19496337.php

The revitalization of Norwalk’s Wall Street area has been a community goal since a flood in 1955 devastated the area. Now the city is undertaking $25 million in grant-funded projects to revive it. So far, Norwalk has been allocated $18 million in state and federal grants to redesign the streets, expand the sidewalks, add more street trees, improve lighting, and raise crosswalks. Phase 1 will break ground on Aug. 5 on Wall Street between Main Street and Brook Street. This stretch of Wall Street revitalization will be paid for with a $2.4 million grant from the state. About $2 million was used for a contract with Waters Construction, based in Bridgeport. The rest of the funds will be used by the city for other preparation work, Travers explained.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/norwalk-wall-street-revitalization-development-19459433.php

The city is receiving $9 million in state bond funds, including more than $6.4 million from the state Community Investment Fund, that will aid two redevelopment projects in South Norwalk. A total of $3.4 million is allocated to the redevelopment of Meadow Gardens. Under the authority of the Norwalk Housing Authority and in partnership with Sound Communities, the 54 units at 45 Meadow St. will be redeveloped into 55 new units and a community center. The State Bond Commission approved the bonds on Friday in the special meeting, in which over $519 million in general obligations allocations were approved statewide, as well as nearly $337 million in special tax obligation bonds that are mostly used to cover transportation projects such as highway construction and mass transit, according to Office of Policy and Management spokesman Chris Collibee. Another $3 million is going toward the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency’s project to improve the streetscapes in South Norwalk, with a focus on pedestrian mobility.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/norwalk-secures-9-m-state-funds-redevelopment-19492923.php

The first two new elementary schools in a $385 million school construction project received their first local permit approvals Thursday, with plans showing how the two schools would be situated on their properties. The Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission approved wetlands applications for the proposed new Greeneville and John B. Stanton elementary schools. Both sites posed challenges and involved disturbances of small amounts of wetlands, project engineers told the commission. The two schools should be put out to bid by the end of the year. The proposed new Greeneville School would occupy the site of the former Greeneville School on Golden Street and other adjacent city property on Boswell Avenue, the site complicated by both wetlands and ledge. The project would require filling about 4,500 square feet of wetlands, with the creation of 3,000 square feet of new wetlands as mitigation. Stormwater runoff from the buildings and parking lots would be collected, treated and allowed to seep into existing wetlands and city drains at a slow pace to avoid erosion, engineers said.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240608/two-proposed-norwich-elementary-schools-receive-wetlands-approvals/

The commission approved $2 million for Montville to build a new animal control facility to replace the current one at 225 Maple Ave., which for years has failed to meet state Department of Agriculture regulations. The new shelter, which will be built in the same location, at the town’s public works department, is expected to provide safer and more humane conditions to both animals and staff, and serve residents of Montville, Bozrah, and Salem, along with the Mohegan Tribal Nation. Proposals for an expanded child care facility in Groton, waterfront improvements in Norwich, and an urban art project at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London are receiving funding under the Community Investment Fund. Over the next few months, NCDC will seek estimates and renderings for the proposals and elicit public comment on the ideas. The commission approved $1.6 million in state funding for New London’s Lyman Allyn Art Museum that will help fund a 12-acre “urban art park” project.

https://www.theday.com/state/20240607/state-bond-commission-approves-funding-for-montville-animal-shelter-groton-childcare-facility-stat/

Terrio has been the property manager for the site, which includes both office and industrial space, for 31 years, long enough to have worked for all four previous landlords. A quick tour of the complex in mid-May, however, demonstrated that things are different this time, with Terrio expressing his satisfaction with the newest owners: Bradford Wainman of Glastonbury-based commercial real estate investment firm Hollister & Moore LLC and Steven Inglese of the New Haven Group.The duo bought the site, which was appraised at $43.2 million, for just $9 million last year. Not only are they following through with over $1 million in renovations, they also have applied to the town of Windsor for a special use permit to add two 150,000-square-foot flex warehouse/manufacturing buildings on the property. The new owners said they are making the investment to renovate certain areas of the property because they see its potential. Both Inglese and Wainman say it’s the common areas, and some uncommon features, that make this complex unique.

After bargain acquisition, owners breathing new life into long-neglected Windsor industrial/office complex; major warehouse expansion planned

Moody’s Ratings has downgraded Aquarion Water Co.’s credit rating one notch, placing it into a higher-risk category. In late May, Moody’s lowered the water utility’s credit rating from A3 to Baa1, noting its low overall business risk, with a weakening financial profile. The credit rating agency said that Aquarion’s rating change reflected increased risk from “adverse regulatory or political decisions,” following the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority’s decision to reduce Aquarion’s revenue and lower its return on equity last year. Bridgeport-based Aquarion and other Connecticut utilities have said PURA’s crackdown on rate increases threatens their ability to attract capital and will ultimately lead to increased costs for consumers.

Moody’s downgrades water utility’s credit rating, citing weakening finances, debt

From April to December 2023, DOT officials piloted a work zone camera program at three different sites, issuing 24,900 warning citations for speeding. With the threat of a $75 fine for repeat offenses, most drivers complied with speed limits, officials said, resulting in fewer than 750 second-offense violations. The DOT, led by Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, lobbied lawmakers during the 2024 legislative short session for more money for cameras and other transportation initiatives. That lobbying paid off as the state Legislature approved a bill that, among other things, allocates about $3 million for cameras; increases the number of work zones with cameras from three to 15 sites; mandates warnings and then caps fines at $75 for each offense; automatically fines drivers traveling 85 miles per hour; and lowers the threshold for fines in work zones from 15 mph above the speed limit to 10 miles above the speed limit. Morgan said the expanded program probably won’t start until early 2025 in order to secure vendors and contracts.

DOT Aims to Curb Work Zone Speeding with Expanded Camera Program

The Framingham system consists of a giant underground loop filled with water and antifreeze, similar to the way gas is delivered to several houses in a neighborhood. Water in the loop absorbs heat from underground, which remains at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit all year. Households have their own heat pump units that provide heating and air conditioning, installed by the utility. These take heat from the loop, spike the temperature further, and release that heat as warm air into the homes. For air conditioning, heat is extracted from the home or business and released into the Earth or transported to the next home. Framingham beat out other communities that applied to Eversource to become pilot sites. The city 20 minutes west of Boston is surrounded by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plus firms like Thermo Fisher Scientific, Pfizer and Novartis. Eric Mauchan said the proximity of so much advanced technology and a state law requiring that greenhouse gas emissions ramp down to zero by 2050 helped make the community receptive. Nikki Bruno, vice president for clean technologies for Eversource, also cited the state’s emissions law as a reason for the pilot. It was also “an opportunity from a decarbonization standpoint,” she said, because Eversource has its own net zero goal.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/06/03/climate-solution-massachusetts-framingham-heating-cooling

The Residences at Bowfield Green mixed-use development in downtown Windsor is set to take shape as town officials and members of the development team broke ground on the project Monday. The development by Sachdev Real Estate Development Group and property owner Dr. Mohan Sachdev, priced at more than $20 million, will feature a residential and retail complex on two vacant sites at 109-125 Poquonock Ave., a former car dealership brownfield site that was remediated. Officials have said Bowfield Green with its 7,000 square feet of first-floor retail space and 77 market-rate apartments above, is a key component to transforming the downtown Windsor area into a transit-oriented development. Another mixed-use redevelopment project, the Founder’s Square, is set to go vertical this week, town officials said.

Mixed-use apartment project breaks ground in Windsor