Crews have now removed more than 52,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and waste left across town by the defunct Raymark Industries, according to Jim DiLorenzo, an environmental engineer with the Environmental Protection Agency. The cleanup is aimed at removing contaminated soil that was polluted with cancer-causing agents such as asbestos, lead and polychlorinated biphenyls – commonly known as PCBs – by Raymark Industries, an automotive parts manufacturer that dumped waste across the town. DiLorenzo said the EPA is now preparing to begin removing about 12,000 cubic yards from the channel and banks of Ferry Creek, a badly polluted watercourse that runs behind Ferry Boulevard. The labor-intensive effort is scheduled to begin in April and is expected take at least nine months to complete. By the time the project is expected to end in late 2024, somewhere between 100,000 to 125,000 cubic yards of toxic soil will have been extracted and consolidated at the former Raybestos Memorial Field on Frog Pond Lane.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/50k-cubic-yards-raymark-waste-removed-stratford-17767294.php

One in every four people hired to work on Bloomfield’s two library construction projects will reside in town thanks to a project labor agreement. Council approved the resolution last year in conjunction with Connecticut State Building Trades, which represents construction workers across the state and is committed to hiring 25 percent Bloomfield residents. The union is actively recruiting labor for the project. The idea is to put local people to work while keeping money in Bloomfield, according to Councilor Kenneth McClary, who along with Mayor Danielle Wong, spearheaded the agreement. The library projects will contract 13 different trades. Joe Toner, executive director at Connecticut State Building Trades, said the union already has about 250 families associated with the union in town. The existing connection to Bloomfield inspired the eventual partnership. Under the project labor agreement, the Connecticut State Building Trades Training Institute will actively recruit Bloomfield residents with expertise in trades ranging from plumbing to elevator technicians to electricians to help complete the Prosser and P. Faith McMahon Wintonbury Library. Construction is expected to start in a few months and last about a year.

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/bloomfield-library-project-jobs-for-residents-17766594.php

Sitting U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh will be formally installed as the next Executive Director of the NHL Players’ Association in the coming days following Tuesday night’s State of the Union address by President Joe Biden, sources tell Daily Faceoff. Walsh was unable to leave his government post until after attending the president’s annual joint-session speech in Congress. Walsh, 55, was presented as the NHLPA search committee’s top choice for the job during an executive board meeting held in Miami last Friday. A formal executive board vote will follow in the coming days, requiring at least 18 ‘yes’ votes among the 32-team player representatives, but that is a formality as Walsh is expected to be unanimously approved. An official announcement of Walsh’s appointment could come before the end of the week. Walsh will become the first Executive Director of the NHLPA without a legal background. The Dorchester, Mass., native dropped out of college and completed his Bachelor of Arts in social science from Boston College in 2009 at the age of 42 by taking night classes. He joined the Laborers’ Union in Boston at age 21, served as the union’s president, was elected the Massachusetts state legislature while also being head of the Boston Building Construction and Trades Council.

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/sources-marty-walsh-will-be-installed-as-next-executive-director-of-nhl-players-association

The city’s much-anticipated campus for 1,400 middle and high school students will be delayed by one year and won’t open for the 2024-25 school year as planned, but at a groundbreaking ceremony at the site educators said they will implement the district’s comprehensive career academy curriculum on time. The ceremony Monday was held at the former headquarters of Cartus Corp. – a 24-acre property overlooking the Danbury Fair mall that was acquired by the city late last year. It plans to renovate the 270,000-square-foot building into badly needed classrooms to ease crowding at Danbury High School. As hard as leaders pushed to meet an opening deadline of August 2024, the city lost valuable time while acquiring the land because it took months for the seller to remove a restrictive clause on part of the property that would not have allowed any use other than a parking lot. At Monday’s ceremony, Walston stressed that the groundbreaking was about more than just marking the start of the $164 million renovation of the office park that voters approved in the summer.

https://www.newstimes.com/news/education/article/danbury-career-academy-curriculum-starts-in-2024-17767392.php

“The bottom line is we’re short $6.5 million,” said Ken Carney, a remodeling company owner who has volunteered to lead the city’s efforts on numerous city building projects. On Monday, the school board voted unanimously to approve the demolition. Carney said the signed contract following that vote constitutes the official start of the project in the state’s eyes. Although the district would be allowed to accept bids for demolition, Carney said the district would not begin demolition until after June 30 as it awaits additional funding from the state. The board’s approval of the demolition design constitutes a complete demolition, which Antinozzi Associates architect Lisa Yates said would cost $1.37 million as a pre-bid estimate.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/west-haven-6-5-million-short-washington-school-17768949.php

With just more than three months remaining until a planned mid-June opening, the $7.8 million Veterans Memorial Pool rebuild will transform the circa-1958 facility into a state-of-the-art swimming complex to rival that of other similarly sized municipalities. Preliminary plans were announced in October 2020. Costs associated with updating the facility rose about 200 percent since the original estimate — from $2.6 million to nearly $8 million. Officials have said the increase was due partly to pandemic-related issues as well as the project’s shift from renovations to a nearly full rebuild. It originally was scheduled to open in time for the 2022 summer season. There were a number of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic that delayed the pool project, she added, acknowledging that both the city and community may have experienced frustration.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/8m-middletown-pool-complex-splash-pad-free-17762728.php

The city’s $385 million school construction project was approved easily by voters in November, but state Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, needed to convince the General Assembly committee in charge of school funding that the project should be on the state’s priority list this spring. As the local School Building Committee is going through the early steps of selecting an owner’s representative program manager, Osten is working to secure state reimbursement for much of the project cost through the current legislative session. Voters were told of the estimated $385 million total project cost, city taxpayers would pay between $97 million and $153 million, depending on the reimbursement rate provided by the state. The General Assembly’s Education Committee will hold a public hearing on the school construction priority list this spring, Osten said. The date has not been set.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230206/state-legislature-to-consider-funding-for-norwichs-385-million-school-project/

The exemption would address the costly snag that recently hit the months-long negotiations between Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration and the Connecticut Airport Authority over the latter’s proposed $10 million purchase of Sikorsky Memorial. A preliminary review by the CAA of potential environmental contamination at the Bridgeport-owned, Stratford-based facility identified issues requiring anywhere from $6 million to $19 million worth of remediation, depending on the findings of future analyses. The CAA’s goal is to develop it into a more economically viable aviation hub, including reviving and adding the long-dormant commercial passenger operation to existing business, charter and private flight services. CAA’s tentative purchase offer of $10 million depends on the results of an ongoing audit to determine how much money Bridgeport has invested in the mostly federally funded Sikorsky over the years.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/bridgeport-sikorsky-exemption-regulation-sale-17756835.php

An applicant has withdrawn its request to change the town’s zoning regulations as part of an overall plan to convert the current Timex world headquarters site into a large “Amazon-like” distribution facility. However, while JSD Partners of Waterbury did not offer an explanation for the pull out, local residents say they expect the applicant will refile once it takes care of “procedural” matters. JSD Partners of Waterbury has been looking to build the 750,000 square-foot distribution center on the Timex campus off Christian and Southford roads, complete with 66 loading bays to accommodate as many as 106 tractor-trailers at a time. A hearing of the Planning and Zoning Commission was canceled Thursday night as a result of the withdrawal.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2023/02/05/plan-for-timex-site-pulled-in-middlebury/

A project to build a new middle school is estimated to cost as much as $21 million more than the amount approved by the town in referendum last June. The project, which was approved for $58.6 million in the referendum, is now estimated to cost nearly $80 million. $17.3 million is in additional construction costs, and $3.8 million is in soft costs. The construction increases include an increase in cost per gross square footage, escalation costs and “trade costs” — steel, HVAC, electrical, windows, roofing and other equipment. If the State of Connecticut approves the project, the town of Cromwell would be responsible for 60 percent of the increase — the state would cover 40 percent would come from the State of Connecticut in the form of a construction reimbursement grant. Committee members discussed whether to take the additional estimate to the town for referendum, or to wait until July, when the committee will receive official bids for the project.

School Construction Costs Leap to by $21 Million in Cromwell