The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Improvements sought for Winsted roadways, dams
WINSTED >> State Rep. Jay Case met Tuesday with Winchester Town Manager Dale Martin, Public Works Director Neil Amwake and a few representatives from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to talk infrastructure.
DEEP off icials Arthur Christian and Rob- ert LaFance were escorted around Winchester and shown the state of several roads and dams.
“[We were] going over possible funding for the lake and the dams,” Martin said. “Jay’s interested in seeing if there’s some state money to help address some of the state owned infrastructure such as the dams in Winchester.”
One of the sites visited on Tuesday was Winchester’s Sucker Brook Dam. The road above the dam is deteriorating and the land below it, which is owned by the state, often sees trespassers.
“Some hurting areas here in town, and throughout the Northwest Corner of Connecticut, will see money coming in soon,” Case said. “The funding will bring much- needed improvements to places like Sucker Brook Dam and the Mad
River region.”
Within the next two years the town will notice a change in the improvement in the state of certain crumbling roads.
“The funding will finance these construction designs that will last our town and our state a long time,” Case said in a release. “We will see jobs come to the area, state agen- cies expect about 55 construction-related workers, and we will see taxpayer dollars going to projects that have been in need for a while.”
DEEP will be servicing the Sucker Brook Dam with $497,000 and will put $311,000 towards the Mad River project. While the funding won’t go toward road fixtures on the dam, it will repair erosion damage, flood repair and flood-control issues on the site. “That’s why I’m happy to see these developments come to town,” Case said.
In addition to these two locations, the group also visited Taylor Brook Park where Case addressed his concerns with the parks safety conditions. As a result of Public Act 13-239, $20 million will go towards state and local dam and flood repairs over the course of the next two years. Additionally, $3.27 million will go towards DEEP project across the Northwest Corner if approved during the state’s bonding commission meeting in Hartford which will take place Friday.