The Eastern Connecticut Housing Opportunities (ECHO) group will pay $125,000 to Engaging Heaven Ministries for the 66 Union St. property, with the sale expected to be finalized on Tuesday, ECHO President Julie Savin said on Wednesday. On Jan. 25, the 173-year-old church’s iconic steeple collapsed, severely damaging the structure and prompting the emergency demolition of most of the building. Savin, whose leased offices at 165 State St. are just two doors down from the former church, recalled the unfolding chaos that day. Savin said her group entered a purchase and sale agreement in April with the Florida-based Engaging Heaven Ministries, which bought the church from the First Congregational Church in 2015 for $250,000 under a monthly mortgage agreement. A forbearance agreement set to be presented Monday to the City Council states that the rubble must be removed by Nov. 1, though Savin has a more ambitious clean-up timeline.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240710/affordable-housing-slated-for-site-of-new-london-church-collapse/

It’s road resurfacing season again, with 46 roads and streets throughout New Haven scheduled to be rebuilt this summer. The work will total $2.8 million in road infrastructure improvements and repairs on a portion of the 237 miles of public roads the city maintains, Mayor Justin Elicker and other city officials said. Workers are urged to take breaks as needed, and stay hydrated, Public Works Director Michael Siciliano said. While the work began in the Hill and West River sections of the city, the roads to be redone this summer are scattered throughout New Haven, officials said. It takes up to three weeks to mill all the streets on the year’s list and six to seven weeks to pave them all, Elicker said. A complete list of New Haven streets to be repaved in 2024 is available on the city’s website.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/new-haven-repave-milling-summer-2024-19562915.php

The first generator components, or “nacelles” for the Revolution Wind offshore wind farm arrived at State Pier in New London early Wednesday. Revolution Wind, a joint project of Eversource and Ørsted that uses State Pier as its turbine-assembly headquarters, announced in May that it had hit the first milestone along the way toward creating clean power for more than 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island. That month, the project began installing its first turbine foundation about 35 miles off the Connecticut coast between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard. The project when fully operational will produce 400 megawatts of offshore wind power in Rhode Island and 304 megawatts in Connecticut. By comparison, the Millstone nuclear power plants in Waterford produce a combined 2,100 megawatts annually.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240710/revolution-wind-generators-arrive-in-new-london/

Since Madison residents approved converting the Academy School building into a community center via referendum in 2022, estimated costs have risen by nearly $4 million. The board is now considering holding a second referendum in early 2025 to validate or reject a budget increase. At a June 24 Board of Selectmen meeting, Colliers International, the consulting firm hired by the town to work on the project, presented a revised estimate of nearly $19.8 million for construction, 24% more than originally expected. Two days later, the selectmen discussed the possibility of calling a second referendum to fill the budget gap on the same day as the November presidential election or in February 2025. Reasons for the budget increase stem from a combination of inflation, unforeseen work such as the need to move the building’s septic system, and a project scope expansion. Should the construction bids for the project exceed the amount authorized in 2022, the town would have to choose between increasing the budget in a second referendum or narrowing the project scope.

Madison Debates Referendum as Community Center Costs Rise by Nearly $4M

Over the next two weeks, crews from the Burns Construction company will restore 18 city roads whose sections were torn up and patched nearly a year ago as part of Eversource utility work. The new paving work will include sections of Broad, Waller, Pleasant, West Coit, Clover, Raymond, Acorn, Konomoc, Dow, Ledyard and Farnsworth streets, along with Connecticut, Lincoln, Oneco and Saltonstall avenues and Waller and Wassimer courts. Just more than half of the project’s $1.1 million price tag will be covered by the energy company as part of an agreement forged three years ago that requires any third-party trench work, including by cable, water or utility companies, to be paid for by the firms that disrupted the roads. The city’s portion of the road repair costs will be covered with part of a $1.8 million capital improvement bond approved in February.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240708/road-repair-agreement-saving-new-london-600k-in-summer-paving-costs/

For several years now, the buildings that made up the former University of Connecticut campus in West Hartford have stood vacant — and dilapidated by time — as new uses for the expansive property have been considered time and again by the site’s various owners. Now, with the portion of that property that served as the school’s parking lot already receiving the green light for developers to build 322 new homes, the western portion of the former college campus, where the same developers want to build hundreds more homes plus space for commercial uses, will be the subject of a wetlands hearing July 17. It’s the first hurdle for the development, named Heritage Park, as the site rests on and around a complex wetlands network. The most recent plans submitted to the town have developers seeking to build 211 housing units on the site. Those homes would be split between 93 apartments, 28 townhouses, and 90 assisted-living units. In total, between both portions of the property, the development would add 533 total homes in West Hartford, by far the biggest housing development to be proposed over the last decade.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/westhartford/article/west-hartford-ct-uconn-campus-housing-wetlands-19548880.php

A new Hillcrest Middle School took another step toward fruition after the Town Council authorized the distribution of future bonds for the project during a recent meeting. The project will go to a referendum in November, as required for projects that exceed $15 million. The cost to the town is now projected to be $81.7 million, a reduction of about $27.8 million drop from the original $109.5 million projection. The state reimbursement rate was expected to be 24.29 percent, but Wyszynski said the state approved a 44 percent reimbursement rate instead, saving the town almost $27.8 million. “We should thank Rep. Sarah Keitt for her hard work in Hartford to help us get that 44 percent rate,” said council Democrat Kevin Shively.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/trumbull-town-council-hillcrest-middle-school-19553350.php

Improvements and adjustments to Norwalk’s Calf Pasture Beach Road are slated to begin after Labor Day. Part of the road leading residents to Norwalk’s Calf Pasture Beach is on the Gardella family’s property, who issued a deed agreement with the city in 1922. Now, a century later, both the park and Gardella’s marine businesses are thriving community staples in East Norwalk. After seven years of discussion, the city and the Gardellas came to an agreement last fall to add three connections from the road to the Gardella property and reconfigured the exit lane to help facilitate traffic flow in and out of the beach. If the Gardellas wanted to improve their property in the next six years, they would be required to gain approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission, which approved the easement plan. As a part of the Marine Commercial Zone, the Gardellas’ property must have a water dependent use like the marina that is currently there. The Public Works Committee moved forward with a contract with FGB Construction Company, which also worked on the skate park for the city, to the full Common Council.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/improvements-norwalk-calf-pasture-beach-gardella-19560716.php

As Canton nears completion on constructing of a firehouse in the Collinsville section, voters recently decided to finalize the old firehouse’s demolition. Destroying the old firehouse has been planned since 2021, when residents approved the Canton Volunteer Fire and EMS Department’s new firehouse and associated construction in a referendum, which included razing the old facility located at 50 River Road next door to where it will be built. With a project cost at $5,400,000, the approximate cost of this new debt to a taxpayer owning a median assessed house in Canton ($255,100 assessment) would be $85.41 for the first year, decreasing slightly annually thereafter over the 20 year life of the bond, according to the town. In November 2021, the new firehouse vote was passed by residents by 2,061 to 834.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/farmingtonvalley/article/canton-firehouse-collinsville-project-19560772.php

The replacement of two bridges on Interstate 95 in West Haven is slated to begin later this summer, officials said. Connecticut Department of Transportation officials held a meeting in West Haven City Hall late last month to discuss plans to replace Bridges 161 and 162, which carry the highway over First Avenue and Metro North railroad tracks near Interchange 43. The department announced this week that the design phase is in progress and construction is slated to begin soon after. The construction is expected to last three years, until 2027. Bridge 162 has been considered structurally deficient for years, with officials estimating in 2021 that the bridge could be replaced by 2025; officials today have added two years to the estimated time of completion.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/west-haven-i-95-bridges-replacement-19560993.php