The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Florsheim reports on first 100 days
City in midst of budget season, determining effects of bridge construction
MIDDLETOWN — Just past 100 days in office, Mayor Ben Florsheim is continuing to craft his first city budget, carefully reviewing expenditures and revenues line by line with department heads as the April 1 deadline looms.
A simultaneous priority is updating nearby residents and business owners about impending construction on the Arrigoni
Bridge, which carries Route 66 over the Connecticut River into Portland. That work is slated to begin any day.
The $43 million bridge rehabilitation project includes adding more turn lanes for motorists coming from Route 9 and traveling left onto Main Street or right over the Connecticut River via Route 66 into Portland.
Construction on the 72-year-old structure is expected to take close to two years, during which motorists will experience lane closures, speed restrictions and travel disruptions.
“It’s been a little bit of a rocky road in terms of getting info from [the state Department of Transportation], and making sure the city and stat are on the same page when it comes to time frames, nature of the construction and other things,” said
Florsheim, who has informal meetings with the state coming up soon.
There will be a single lane in each direction over the bridge while work is underway.
“That is going to be very significant. It’ll impact people’s commutes, their day-to-day lives. We also need to know the impact long-term when work is done,” the mayor said.
The public will be able to weigh in on the issue March 10 at Macdonough Elementary School on Spring Street.
The big change in the St. John Square project is the DOT drew up a plan with the assumption Rapallo Avenue (the only city road in the intersection) would go from twoway travel to one, and traffic would travel the opposite one way from Green and Ferry streets.
Presently, Green and Ferry allow only one-way traffic coming from Main Street.
“The spirit of that is a good thing,” Florsheim said. The DOT wants to fix the intersection of Rapallo Avenue, Main (a state road) and Grand streets so the left-turn traffic signal on both Rapallo and Grand aren’t on the same cycle as they are now, potentially causing a dangerous situation.
“It turns out, they drew this up without getting approval from the city for making that change,” Florsheim said. Neither City Hall nor the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce was aware of the revision, he said, so it will be an educational meeting for all.
“The project doesn’t get up to Spring Street (where Macdonough is), but we are concerned, and it’s shared by residents, about the general impact of this on Macdonough,” Florsheim said.
“In many ways, the changes they’re trying to make ostensibly are to try and make it smoother to travel down Main Street, but we need make sure we have the infrastructure in place, and be in communication, so it’s handled in a safe way for residents and businesses,” he added.
Conditions for pedestrians crossing from O’Rourke’s Diner to other streets in the North End can be dangerous, especially during rush-hour traffic.
“It can’t just be a traffic flow question, it also has to be a neighborhood question. It’s one thing to talk about that in terms of preparing for construction, and being ready to deal with lane closures and temporary things of that nature. It’s very much a different thing to talk about what are the infrastructure changes going to look like,” Florsheim said.
The budget
Meanwhile, the mayor has about a month to review spending proposals from department heads. He asked directors to come up with a relatively flat budget, and to draft another one imagining a 5 percent reduction.
Florsheim is not requiring spending cuts — but does want his managers to break down what’s absolutely necessary, as well as create a “wish list” for future spending if there were more money. The latter would be “longterm, proactive things,” he said.
“If it’s possible to do this based on priority, we’ll try to make that happen, but I wanted to give people a sense of, ‘Look, this is not necessarily going to happen this year, but we have to start thinking long-term about our departmental needs and budgeting citywide, based on what we know about how the department interact with each other,’” Florsheim said.
Smaller offices would need to take great effort to reduce spending by even 5 percent, Florsheim said, calling it “like running out of ink, because so much of most these department budgets are salaries and staff, and run really quite lean for the most part.”
The good news is Middletown’s grand list is solid.
“We need to think about what investments we can make without having too much of an impact on the rate taxpayers are paying, which is going to save money down the line,” Florsheim said, pointing to favorable increases in the number of taxable properties.
There have been several new equipment and business property purchases made by some of the bigger employers in town. Eversource has added new infrastructure, and the FedEx hub on Middle Street (still enjoying a five-year, 80 percent tax abatement) has purchased many delivery trucks.
“Real estate is still doing well, but it’s not a huge component in terms of year-over-year growth, but it’s been consistently strong compared to some of our neighbors,” the mayor said.
Florsheim expects to release his spending proposal by the end of March. The city charter requires him to present it to the Common Council by April 1.