Attorney General William Tong on Tuesday announced his office had closed a whistleblower investigation into the Connecticut Port Authority and determined there was nothing illegal about the $523,000 “success fee” paid to a contractor, Seabury Capital, whose co-founder was a former port authority board member. “Our investigation did not substantiate the whistleblower’s allegations of impropriety regarding ‘success fees,’ but it did substantiate allegations of unethical behavior, as well as develop evidence of multiple alleged violations of both the Code of Ethics for Public Officials and the Code of Ethics for Lobbyists,” Tong said in a statement. Tong, in a statement, said the success fees paid to Seabury, which were criticized as a potentially illegal “finder’s fee” by the State Contracting Standards Board, were in fact payments contained in an agreement between the port authority and Seabury. The $523,000 success fee was part of a $700,000 payment to Seabury in 2020 for the work the company performed.

https://www.theday.com/state/20240208/attorney-general-connecticut-port-authority-success-fee-to-contractor-is-legal/

Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA), said 2023 was a year of continued recovery for air travel in general, and at the state’s largest hub, Bradley International Airport. “We ​captured ​back ​a ​lot ​of ​our ​pre-pandemic ​traffic,” he said. ​“But ​if ​you ​look ​at ​where ​we’re ​at ​right ​now, ​on ​any ​given ​day ​we’re ​still ​about ​5% ​to ​7% ​​below ​where ​we ​were ​pre-pandemic, and ​a ​good ​portion ​of ​that ​is ​related ​to ​this ​business ​travel component.” Overall passenger traffic at Bradley Airport, from January 2023 through November 2023, was up 8.1% from 2022, but 7% behind pre-pandemic 2019, according to CAA data.Private jet use had seen a steady rise in the decade before the pandemic. In the last three years, that increase has been more dramatic. By some accounts, overall private jet use in the U.S. has increased by 20% over 2019 levels. Gollan said more company executives began to realize the convenience of private aviation during the pandemic.

$30M Bradley Airport hangar project aims to capitalize on increased corporate jet use, despite business travel’s slow recovery

The reconstruction of the bustling West Hartford Center is looming. Sidewalks are narrow and hazardous, trees need to be replaced, and the existing pedestrian infrastructure is outdated and at times unsafe. The West Hartford Center Infrastructure Master Plan was first revealed a year ago, with plans to elevate the popular dining and shopping destination to a higher level by replacing and enhancing sidewalks, crosswalks, and other infrastructure. On Wednesday morning, the town showed off potential design options, ranging from keeping the status quo but still replacing sidewalks and trees while enhancing pedestrians safety, to fuller transformations that include a shift in parking from angled to parallel that would leave more space for wider sidewalks, permanent expanded outdoor dining, and even buffered sidewalk-level bike lanes.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/westhartford/article/west-hartford-ct-lasalle-farmington-town-center-18651447.php

Under the city’s Below Market Rate program, developers must offer at least 10 percent of units in a project at reduced rents. In lieu of that, they may seek approval to contribute the value of those units to the affordable housing fund instead. Carmel Partners was asking the board to approve the cash offset which would have added nearly $13 million to the fund. But this time board members instead wanted a portion of the required 49 reduced-rent units to be included in the Clinton Avenue project, because board members felt it was the ideal location for below market rate apartments and would allow low- and moderate-income residents to live within walking distance of transportation, jobs, shopping and Mill River Park. It was weird, Bosak said Tuesday. Developers usually work with the Zoning Board in such instances, he said. In this instance, he said, the board was seeking a compromise with the developer. “I was absolutely surprised by the withdrawal,” Bosak said. “I wanted to get some units on site because the city has such a need for affordable housing. I recognize the nonprofits do this type of development very well, but I didn’t want to wait for that.”

Developer Abruptly Withdraws, as Zoning Seeks Mix of Affordable Units in Downtown Stamford

Gales Ferry Intermodal LLC has withdrawn its application to create a quarry operation at Mount Decatur, and a Thursday public hearing on the proposal that drew a phalanx of criticism over the past few months has been canceled. An attorney for Cashman Dredging & Marine Contracting Co. of Quincy, Mass., the parent company of Gales Ferry Intermodal, filed a notice Tuesday with the town informing the Planning & Zoning Commission of its decision. No explanation was offered, nor was there any indication whether the application might be amended and resubmitted. Over the course of three public hearings during the past several weeks, the quarry proposal has been criticized for its possible effect on the neighborhood, including worries over the health effects of silica dust being released to the atmosphere, as well as concerns about blasting, increased truck traffic, loss of bird habitat and the degradation of Mount Decatur, which is the site of a historic War of 1812-era fort.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240207/ledyard-quarry-proposal-withdrawn-by-gales-ferry-intermodal/

Gov. Ned Lamont stayed well within Connecticut’s fiscal guardrails Wednesday, recommending a $26.1 billion budget that erases $500 million in bonded debt and invests in child care and education while largely holding the line in most other places. The spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1 increases base aid for public colleges and universities but reduces overall support despite warnings that it would leave higher education institutions in deficit and forced to trim staff and programs. But while Lamont repeatedly urged lawmakers recently to embrace Connecticut’s spending cap and other programs that have secured big surpluses, his own plan relies on a commonly used end run around the guardrails.

Lamont keeps CT budget within fiscal guardrails, pays down $500M in debt

Aquarion Water Company and its proxies will begin a major water main replacement project on Greenwich Avenue next week, which is expected to last months. Xenelis said they hope to begin the work on Monday night, assuming the weather is favorable. The work will happen from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., on the Sunday through Friday of each week. Aquarion has a three month permit to do the work, Xenelis said, and the clock starts once work begins. Xenelis said, each night, crews will dig up the road, install new sections of the water main and then backfill the hole, put a plate down and pave over it. Crews will then sweep the street and reopen the road to traffic by 10 a.m. Xenelis said the town plans to resurface Greenwich Avenue, so town officials asked the company if they wanted to replace any of its underground infrastructure before they repave the roads.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/aquarion-greeenwich-greenwich-avenue-18650802.php

Gov. Ned Lamont will unveil a $26.1 billion budget Wednesday for the next fiscal year that features few new initiatives and a plan to dramatically reduce Connecticut’s bonded debt using rapidly accumulating reserves from its transportation program, according to sources familiar with the plan. Connecticut budgets in biennial cycles, and the plan Lamont will present to the General Assembly on Wednesday represents adjustments to the second year of the biennium, the fiscal year that begins this July. The governor, a fiscal moderate, has been warning legislators for months to prepare for a lean plan, even though the next budget is expected to finish considerably in the black. Budget controls enacted in 2017 and renewed last February, including spending and borrowing caps and two other savings programs, leave little legal flexibility. But Lamont’s proposal also hinges on repurposing more than $50 million in unspent federal COVID-relief grants, which provide great fiscal flexibility because they can be spent outside of the cap system. But the shifting of these American Rescue Plan Act funds is expected to spark many questions from legislators, specifically: How much money have state agencies that received federal grants left unspent?

Lamont’s $26.1B budget plan takes a big bite out of bonded debt

Current designs for the new Norton school show a two-story building with an open central courtyard, a media center and rooms for music, art and teacher planning. The lower level includes a section with a gym, cafeteria, nurse’s office and administrative offices. The school was given a “Woods and Trails” theme through discussions with stakeholder groups. Depending on the numbers, the Next Generation School Committee might have to find reductions, like it did when estimates for the first round of designs came back $10 million over budget for each of the two new schools planned, the new Norton and an as-of-yet unnamed elementary school in the north end of town. The projects are also going through the local review process. The Inland Watercourse and Wetlands Commission meeting on Tuesday was scheduled to include a public hearing portion, as the new Norton site — located at 414 North Brooksvale Road — is near several homes.

https://www.nhregister.com/recordjournal/article/cheshire-norton-school-construction-project-18649177.php?src=nhrhpdesecp

The town’s environmental review board has taken the extra step of ordering a local builder to pay for an independent review of his wetland engineering plans to cluster 117 homes near Taunton Pond after a crowd of residents railed against the project. D’Amico and a majority of the residents who raised concerns about the development degrading water quality, exacerbating flooding and ruining animal habitats called on the town’s wetlands commission during a January public hearing to require a third-party peer review of the builder’s plans for the 136-acre site. During the public hearing, Trudell’s lead engineer seemed to balk at the idea of paying for an engineering peer review before Newtown had given its own environmental review. The five members of Newtown’s wetlands commission agreed, voting to require Trudell to pay for the independent review, and voting to keep the public hearing open until results of the review are complete.

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/newtown-study-critics-pan-taunton-pond-117-homes-18645264.php?src=nthpdesecp