Westport, Fairfield replacing bridge over Sasco Brook
“The bridge is listed in poor condition. Since it may take several years to prepare, design and construct a bridge, the state and towns are being proactive in designing the bridge at this time.”
William Hurley, Fairfield’s engineering manager
FAIRFIELD — Fairfield and Westport are working to replace a bridge over Sasco Brook on the town line.
Officials say there isn’t any danger to the public using the structure, but they are starting the preliminaries to replace it now because the project will take years to complete.
Projected cost is about $3.2 million, with the majority paid for with state and federal grants.
“The bridge is listed in poor condition,” said William Hurley, Fairfield’s engineering manager. “Since it may take several years to prepare, design and construct a bridge, the state and towns are being proactive in designing the bridge at this time.”
He said the goal is to reconstruct the bridge before the rating “ever gets downgraded to serious condition.”
Preliminary design work is already under way on the Old Road #2 bridge, or the Wakeman Lane bridge, as it’s also known.
Hurley said bridge projects usually take 18 to 30 months for the design phase, permits and reviews. This will include at least one public informational meeting and a wetland public hearing in each town, he said.
The utility work and the bid process for the contract will happen in 2023 with construction scheduled for 2024.
The construction itself takes eight to 16 months, depending on the final design and type of structure, which still to be determined, he said.
Under a pilot program, the state is covering 100 percent of the bridge design. The federal government will reimburse 80 percent of the construction costs with Westport and Fairfield each covering 10 percent.
The Town of Westport the lead agency.
“Local and state policy encourages early information to citizens on such projects and encourages people to raise any concerns with municipal officials early in the planning process,” Westport officials said in a news release.
Anyone wanting more information should contact Westport Town Engineer Keith Wilberg at 203-341-1128 or Hurley at 203-256-3015. is is considered
STAMFORD — Stamford Health’s COVID-19 clinic is already doling out between 700 and 900 doses primarily of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine on weekdays. On weekends, that number climbs as high as 1,200, according to Stamford Health officials.
But the shared goal of the hospital, the city and legislature is to continue increasing that capacity and get more shots in arms. That ramping up in distribution will be, in part, supported by federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that would send direct aid to individuals, cities and states.
Sen. Chris Murphy, DConn., was a proponent of the bill, which passed the Senate this weekend and is awaiting approval from the House of Representatives and ratification from President Joseph R. Biden. Both of those approvals could happen this week, Murphy said Tuesday morning, on a tour of Stamford Health’s vaccination clinic, where he was joined by Mayor David Martin, Stamford Health Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Bailey and Chief of Infectious Disease Michael Parry, among other hospital staff.
“Obviously, the issues right now are simply supply,” Murphy said, standing outside of Stamford Hospital’s Wheeler Building, a formerly decommissioned part of the hospital complex that was re-purposed during the pandemic. “We need to produce more vaccine. Stamford has the ability to distribute more. We need to get more into the city and into the state.”
According to Murphy, the bill includes funding for increased vaccine production and distribution, as well as money for existing clinics to expand as more doses become available. The total amount of vaccine in Connecticut, Murphy said, would likely be greatly increased by April. And Parry said the hospital and city, which have partnered in the distribution of the vaccine, are looking to open a second, more capacious facility in Stamford’s South End.
But for now, Parry said the Wheeler Building has served its purpose as a vaccination hub in the city.
Patients enter the building through a tented-off section near the hospital’s Emergency Department. They’re checked-in on the first floor, then go to the second floor, the south side of which is a designated vaccination area, Parry said. After receiving a dose, patients then move to the north side of the building, where they are observed for a brief period and appointments for a second shot are scheduled.
Generally, Parry said, people are in and out within 30 minutes.
“It really is a very logical flow,” Parry said.
The same is true for teachers, for whom the city, hospital and public school district have organized large clinics, the first of which was held over the weekend. Additional educator clinics are scheduled for weekends through the end of the month, in an attempt to get all teachers and school staff at least their first dose of the vaccine by March 31. According to Martin, the city is on pace to hit that target.
In order to keep up with demand — especially since March 1, when educators and residents over age 55 became eligible — Bailey said the hospital had hired more than 200 people to staff the clinic, which operates seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Murphy was visiting to thank the hospital staff that enabled the clinic to function, as well as to discuss the American Rescue Plan Act, which he said would have a direct impact of Connecticut and Stamford residents.
The plan would extend the Paycheck Protection Program Loan, potentially helping hundreds of small businesses in Stamford, Murphy said. It would enable low-income families with kids to qualify for an extended child-tax credit and would expand unemployment benefit programs. Stamford Schools will receive millions from the bill to aid in reopening. And, it includes an additional $1,400 rescue check for individuals making under $75,000 a year, which Murphy said could start being distributed in the next two weeks.
“The economic assistance in this bill is especially important in a high-cost part of the country like Fairfield County,” Murphy said.
In total, Stamford is expected to receive just shy of $50 million in aid from the legislation — a crucially important boost for the city, Martin said.
“I believe that the city of Stamford’s economic recovery will be very strong in large part to the American Rescue Plan,” Martin said. “Not only the aid but the certainty of the aid which is now coming to fruition. And yes, it’s helping with a lot of people at the low end of the economic spectrum, but it’s also helping with the schools and the city and how we’ve struggled through this pandemic, both from the health side as well as from an economic side.”
STRATFORD — A federal windfall of tens of millions of dollars is headed to town, but how taxpayers will benefit remains up in the air.
Mayor Laura Hoydick, who has until Friday to present her budget proposal, said Tuesday she’s among those still in the dark.
“We’re happy to get back to you as we learn more about what the American Rescue Act will mean to Stratford,” the mayor said in an email about 10 a.m. “As I type, I’m on a call now to learn how (we) will be able to use the grant funding.”
A total of roughly $47.2 million in coronavirus-related stimulus funds from the federal government will be coming to Stratford, according to a report Tuesday from Hearst Connecticut Media’s Dan Haar.
That’s about $908 for every resident in town — and makes Stratford the 18th highest recipient of stimulus funds among the state’s 169 municipalities in terms of total dollars.
But it’s not like town officials will be getting a giant $47 million check to use at their whim. Much of the money is earmarked for the Board of Education, whose members have been warned repeatedly by school officials it can’t be used to plug budget gaps.
That prompts the question of how exactly it will be spent.
The mayor and her staff have until the end of the week to start figuring it out, since the town charter gives a March 12 deadline to present a budget proposal for next year.
The mayor said during the Town Council’s monthly meeting Monday that the budget proposal “is nearly concluded” and would be delivered by Friday.
She didn’t elaborate — and none of the council members asked any follow-ups about the spending plan.
They did take a step toward resolving the question of what to do with money left over from last year’s Board of Education budget, which the school board asked for back before the end of the last fiscal year.
The council on Monday voted unanimously to create an education reserve fund for annual contributions of up to 2 percent
of the school district’s budget to be put toward “non-recurring expenses such as capital, technology and/or unanticipated special education expenditure funding needs.”
Council Chairman Chris Pia, R-1, said the resolution passed Monday “provides further transparency to the residents of Stratford and will be beneficial to future town councils and administrations.”
Greg Cann, D-5, noted that the town has yet to publish its annual comprehensive financial report from last year — or a highly anticipated audit of school board procedures that has been circulating among officials for weeks but not yet made public.
The annual audit was due by Dec. 30 and state law mandates towns seek extensions from the Office of Policy and Management if they can’t meet the deadline. Tuesday marked 69 days since Dec. 30.
The Connecticut Post sent an email and left a phone message Tuesday with an OPM spokesman asking for an update.
“The mayor’s budget proposal is due 3/12, and apparently it will be published without recognizing results from the mandated and long overdue audit of town and BOE business operations,” Cann said.
“This audit is (an) opportunity to identify improvements in how the town manages its affairs. The town has been relying on long-term borrowing and increased donations from the state of Connecticut to fund its annual operational expenses, (and) neither is sustainable,” he said.