Category: Homepage

Public Information Session on Route 8 Plan Scheduled for Jan. 12

Route 8 from Exit 13 in Shelton to Exit 22 in Seymour is set for repaving, new safety features and other improvements. The Connecticut Department of Transportation will hold a virtual public information session on Jan. 12 at 6 p.m., which will include a presentation on the project followed by an opportunity for people to ask questions.

Design work for the $77.3 million project is being done and construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2023. The section of Route 8 that is the focus of this project does not meet current highway standards and the anticipated improvements will address that issue. Plans include repaving the roadway, installing better lighting, repairs to the Route 8 bridge that brings the highway over the Housatonic River, putting in new guiderails and other work. Detour routes will be provided if exit and entrance ramps need to be closed because of the work and people can sign up to receive email alerts on the project’s website.

Naugatuck to Receive State Funding for Redevelopment Project

Gov. Ned Lamont announced on Dec. 20 that the Borough of Naugatuck will receive a $6 million grant to help redevelop a parcel near its downtown green and a planned train station.

The borough and its private partner, Pennrose LLC, will provide infrastructure and site improvements to a large, underutilized parcel located 500 feet from the downtown green and adjacent to the site of the borough’s forthcoming train station. Pennrose and the borough plan to develop the parcel with 180 housing units, 80% of which will be affordable at various income levels. The plans also include 7,320 square feet of commercial space. The total project cost is $17.3 million project and the site, known as Parcel B, is at the corner of Maple Street and Old Firehouse Road.

The grant is among eight that were given out as part of the recently launched Connecticut Communities Challenge Grant program. Naugatuck is a member of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.

Funding for Accessibility Improvements at Waterbury Branch Line Stations is Approved

The Federal Transit Administration has announced that the Connecticut Department of Transportation will receive $29.6 million to make the Waterbury Branch Line railroad stations in Ansonia, Beacon Falls and Seymour fully accessible for passengers with disabilities. The planned improvements to the century-old stations include building high-level rail platforms and installing handrails. Funding for the work is coming through the FTA’s All Stations Accessibility Program.

Poor handicapped accessibility and a lack of high-level boarding platforms have been identified as issues that hinder use of the Waterbury Branch Line. Those and other problems are discussed in a draft report of NVCOG’s Route 8 & Waterbury Branch Line Corridor/Alternative Modes Study.

Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments and Save the Sound Recommended for Funding to Remove Kinneytown Dam

The US Department of Commerce announced on December 14 that the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG), in partnership with Save the Sound, has been recommended for funding for a project intended to lead to the removal of Kinneytown Dam in Seymour, CT. The funding is being made available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Restoring Fish Passage through Barrier Removal grant program. NVCOG requested $15 million from the program earlier this year for a project that would include decommissioning the facility, designing the deconstruction, and ultimately removing the dam and restoring the river.

Kinneytown Dam is a hydroelectric facility on the Naugatuck River consisting of two dams with powerhouses in Seymour and Ansonia, CT. It is currently owned by HydroLand, Inc. The powerhouse in Ansonia has been offline since before 2013, and the powerhouse in Seymour has not produced electricity since 2020.

Since 2019, NVCOG has been working with partners Save the Sound and the Naugatuck River Revival Group (NRRG), collectively as the Naugatuck River Restoration Coalition, to address long standing fish passage and condition issues at Kinneytown Dam. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, Save the Sound and NRRG documented that hundreds of migratory fish were gathering and dying below the dam, unable to access habitat upstream.

“The removal of Kinneytown is the keystone to restoring this river,” says Kevin Zak, President of NRRG. “This funding would go a long way in freeing this river from 200 years of neglect. Reaching this point is a result of extreme dedication, coordination, and hard work from many individuals and organizations both public and private, proving nothing is impossible. The collaboration of Save the Sound, NVCOG, NRRG, NOAA, USFWS, DEEP, local mayors, and the Federal and State Delegations, is a notable example of how to work together for the public good. This is only the beginning; the best is yet to come.”

For years, the facility has been almost a complete barrier to the thousands of migratory fish from Long Island Sound attempting to reach miles of spawning and rearing habitat in the Naugatuck River. A fish ladder constructed in 1999 at the facility has been shown to be ineffective under most conditions. The effectiveness of the fish ladder was further limited due to heavier flows over the dam’s spillway since the powerhouses have gone offline.

Now, advocates want this major impediment to the fish passage on the Naugatuck River gone. Dams all along the river have been removed and a fish bypass channel was installed upstream from Kinneytown at Tingue Dam in Seymour—but those upstream habitat restoration efforts have remained inaccessible by the passage restrictions at Kinneytown. Once it is removed, fish species like blueback herring, alewife and American shad will have full access to the length of the Naugatuck River to Thomaston.

“We have a unique opportunity to take down a dam that has only served to impede the Naugatuck River’s ability to flourish. Removing the obstruction will make an invaluable contribution to the river’s health, making it an asset for the region and the entire state of Connecticut.” said Waterbury Mayor Neil M. O’Leary and Chairman of the NVCOG.

NVCOG developed the proposed project in partnership with Save the Sound, and the nonprofit will be a subrecipient of funds through NVCOG. Save the Sound’s ecological restoration team brings decades of dam removal and habitat restoration experience to the project, and Regional Director of Ecological Restoration, Laura Wildman, played a leading role in all the upstream dam removals in the 1990s.

“The Naugatuck River, which once flowed different colors each day, is getting significant attention from the federal government,” says Wildman. “This is exciting for me because my involvement in this river started over two decades ago, when I was a project engineer focused on removing five upstream dams. Being able to finally address the first barrier on the system with Save the Sound feels very fitting and fulfilling. Our entire organization, particularly our legal team, has been tirelessly advocating for
successful fish passage at Kinneytown Dam for years. This funding ensures that this once industrial sewer will return to the life-supporting, swiftly flowing river that initially cascaded down the Naugatuck Valley.”

NVCOG and Save the Sound will be negotiating the award and project scope with NOAA. Final approval is subject to funding availability as well as final review and approval by both NOAA Grants Management Division and Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Law Division. No application is “awarded” until it has been signed by the official Grants Officer.

In addition to restored fish passage that will draw anglers to the valley, the project will also reduce flood risk upstream and downstream of the dam and establish new recreational river access. Restoring sediment flow will also benefit coastal areas downstream.

NVCOG Communities Receive State Funds to Redevelop Blighted Properties

Five NVCOG cities and towns have been awarded $5.480 million in grants from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (CTDECD) that will pay for cleaning up sites in those communities so they can be redeveloped and put back to good use.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced those grants on Monday, and they are part of an overall package totaling $24.6 in grants to assess and remediate 41 blighted parcels in 16 communities. The grants to the NVCOG members are:

Ansonia: A $990,000 grant for the abatement and remediation of the 2.84-acre former Farrel Corporation building located at 501 East Main Street and 65 Main Street. The adaptive re-use project by the property owner, Shaw Growth Venture, Inc., as per their redevelopment agreement with the City of Ansonia, envisions redevelopment of the existing buildings with a mix of approximately 200 affordable mixed-income residential and 20,000 square feet of commercial space.
Cheshire: A $925,000 grant for remediation and abatement of Building #1 of the 3.02-acre, former Ball and Socket Manufacturing Co. property located at 493 West Main Street to ready the building for redevelopment.
Derby: A $650,000 grant to remediate the 0.73-acre property located at 67-71 Minerva Street by the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank, Inc. Plans by the developer, Cedar Village Minerva Square, LLC, are to demolish the building and construct a four-story, 90-unit mixed-income apartment building with ground-level parking.
Torrington: A $1,500,000 grant for the abatement and demolition of the former Hotchkiss & Sons Saw Mill buildings (3.55-acre site located at 199-237 Water Street and 229-239 Church Street) to enable redevelopment by Pay Dirt, LLC. Of the five existing buildings at the site, it is anticipated that three buildings will be demolished and two will be preserved to remediate and redevelop.
Waterbury: A $2,000,000 grant to complete investigation and the cleanup of 777 South Main Street and 359 Mill Street (total of 3.25 acres) located in the Mad River Redevelopment Corridor. Remediation will help expand the existing food hub and include construction of approximately 50 raised community garden beds, an outdoor kitchen, a beekeeping area, native plant landscaping, and a market and retail cafe.

The announcement from Lamont’s office has the full details on the grants that were announced on Monday.

Regional Brownfields Partnership Showcases Redevelopment at Annual Meeting

Polluted and often abandoned properties known as brownfield sites are a blight on many Connecticut communities. Bringing these critical properties back to life requires the ongoing collaboration of municipalities, state and federal agencies, and the private sector through the Regional Brownfields Partnership (RBP). At its November 30, 2022 annual meeting, the 24-town RBP recognized the accomplishments of the past year and also the enormous opportunities for large scale redevelopment that can contribute to future financial and environmental sustainability for member communities. RBP Chairwoman Sheila O’Malley, who serves as Ansonia’s Economic Development Director, observed, “The meeting defined the critical need for partners to turn these sites that were once considered hopeless into true economic generators.”

At the conference, Christine O’Neill, an environmental planner at the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG), highlighted milestones from this year’s activities such as ribbon-cuttings at the Franklin Avenue apartments in Torrington and the Bank Street Park in Waterbury, the NVision 2022 environmental justice panel discussion, and earning a $3.9 million grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). NVCOG’s brownfields manager Ricardo Rodriguez noted that over $1 million from this grant went to the remediation of the former Beaton & Corbin factory site in Southington where a private developer has now invested $1.5 million to construct medical office space.

Several representatives of member communities shared their success stories in reutilizing former brownfields sites. One success story includes the recent conversion of a former manufacturing site in Berlin into a development that, according to developer Anthony Valenti of the Newport Realty Group, will have nearly 100,000 square feet once completed and will form a new center for the community. Steele Center @ Farmington Avenue will mix stores, offices and 70 apartments that will allow people to live and work near the train station in Berlin. The development will consist of five buildings. The first, finished in the fall, has 16 apartments as well as space for up to four businesses. Trio Health Care, the Hop Haus Gastropub and an attorney’s office will take occupancy during the winter. Christopher Edge, Berlin’s Economic Development Director, said 13 of the apartments are rented and they too will be occupied this winter.

Christal Preszler, Newtown’s Deputy Director of Economic and Community Development, showcased the cleanup and redevelopment of the former Fairfield Hills state hospital campus to create a new municipal center along with office space and a brewery.

To learn more about the Regional Brownfields Partnership, please visit https://nvcogct.gov/who-we-are/commissions-committees/regional-brownfields-partnership/ .

NVCOG Publishes Naugatuck River Greenway Trail Design and Management Guide

NVCOG has published the NRG Trail Design and Management Guide, which sets standards for the construction and upkeep of new sections as they are built. The 34-page guide is free and can be downloaded from NVCOG’s website at https://nvcogct.gov/what-we-do/naugatuck-river-greenway/.

The NRG Trail is a non-motorized, multi-use trail. When it’s finished, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to ride or walk the length of the river without going onto local roads or encountering motor vehicles. The trail will go for 44 miles along the Naugatuck River through 11 communities: Litchfield, Harwinton, Thomaston, Watertown, Waterbury, Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Seymour, Ansonia, and Derby.

Several sections of the trail are done and being used. NVCOG is working with stakeholders to get more parts of the trail constructed. NVCOG developed the design and management guide with guidance from the Naugatuck Rover Greenway Steering Committee to help this process along.

In the guide, readers will find useful information on design standards for trails, how to make a trail accessible to all users, signage and wayfinding, lighting and how to measure use of a trail.

Municipalities that build a trail are responsible for its upkeep. The guide tells how to control vegetation along a trail, keeping it clean, keeping it clear in the winter and how to calculate maintenance costs. Appendices cover style guides for street furniture and amenities along with information on Connecticut’s e-bike laws.

For more information about the NRG Trail and the guide, contact NVCOG Senior Regional Planner Aaron Budris, at abudris@nvcogct.gov.

NEWS RELEASE: DEEP Announces Nearly 5 Million in Sustainable Materials Management Grant Awards

Click here to access the press release from the state website.

CT Municipalities to Begin Food Scrap Collection Pilot Programs to Significantly Reduce Disposal Tonnage, Save on Waste Tipping Fees

(HARTFORD)-The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is pleased to announce the first round of grant awards for the Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Grant program.The SMM grant program supports the development of food scrap collection and unit-based pricing pilot programs, the type of waste diversion efforts recommended by the Connecticut Coalition for Sustainable Materials Management (CCSMM),a coalition of over 100 municipalities across the state working on ways to reduce waste and increase reuse and recycling.Fifteen municipalities and three regional groups have been notified of the Department’s intent to award funds for their pilots.

Many of the SMM grant applicants modeled their pilots off a successful pilot program the City of Meriden launched earlier this year with DEEP SMART grant program funding.The Meriden pilot was a 4-month, 1,000-household test to prove the feasibility of co-collection of food and household waste and the ease-of use for residents; the pilot diverted over 13 tons of food scraps from the waste stream. Meriden households used two special bags during their pilot, one bag for food scraps and another bag for trash, both bags were collected from the same bin, a process called co-collection. The bags were separated by type, and the food scrap bags were transported to Quantum Biopower in Southington, where the organic waste was transformed into renewable energy (biogas). The Meriden project received broad interest from residents, including those not part of the pilot.

According to Connecticut’s most recent waste characterization study, 41% of what residents throw away is organic material—e.g., food scraps, and yard waste—that can be composted, converted to energy through anaerobic digestion or processed into animal feed.Food scraps alone represent 22% of residential trash. Food scraps are one of the heavier materials regularly thrown away at the residential level and removing them from the waste stream reduces the costs of disposal as municipalities pay by weight.

“We are excited to support our municipal partners implementing innovative waste diversion practices that can reduce their waste management costs and the environmental impact of waste management in Connecticut and beyond,” said DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes. “The municipalities piloting these programs will lead the state in modernizing our waste management practices, a key to solving the state’s waste disposal crisis. I’m grateful to Governor Lamont and the Connecticut General Assembly for authorizing funding for this unprecedented investment in sustainable waste solutions.”

“The Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Grant program will help municipalities and regions operationalize several initiatives that were developed by the Connecticut Coalition for Sustainable Materials Management,”Laura Francis,Deputy Director of theSouth Central Regional Council of Governments and former Co-Chair of CCSMM. “The level of participation in this grant program is remarkable and demonstrates the commitment that our communities and COGs have to finding solutions to the current waste crisis. I thank Commissioner Dykes and her team for the partnership we have developed between all levels of government. Together we can make a difference.”

“On behalf of the HRRA communities receiving the grant (Bethel, Kent and Newtown) I’m thrilled and grateful we now have funding to create and implement waste reduction programs that are truly impactful,” said Jennifer Heaton-Jones, Executive Director of the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority. “I’m eager to show the rest of the region and the State of Connecticut that these innovative programs that promote Unit Based Pricing and Food Waste diversion can offset disposal tonnage and cost. The grants are an incentive for municipalities to try programs that otherwise wouldn’t be possible, while at the same time encourage residents to rethink and reconsider their disposal habits. The goal is to empower residents to change their disposal habits through the experience of cost savings using Unit Based Pricing and Food Waste Recycling.”

The funding for this program was proposed by Gov. Lamont in his budget and approved by the State Legislature. This is the largest investment that the state has made to date in cost-effective, sustainable alternatives to waste disposal, in order to incentivize municipalities and regional entities to implement programs that will achieve greater system reliability, environmental sustainability, and fiscal predictability.

“As Senate Chair of the Environment Committee, we have spent the past several years working to address the growing solid waste disposal crisis in Connecticut,”State Senator Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, said. “With DEEP’s and the Governor’s partnership, the legislature was able to pass funding to pilot creative solutions to sustainable materials management. The idea behind these programs is trash reduction and diversion which will ultimately lead to taxpayer savings and a more positive environmental impact. I am thrilled by the prospect of these projects leading to real, sustainable solutions and will look forward to their success.”

State Representative Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, said, “These grants are a great step in the right direction for towns and the state as we seek to divert more organic waste to address the current waste crisis. Diverting food waste instead of throwing it in the trash benefits the environment, our town budgets, and our state’s economy.” Rep. Gresko is the co-chairman of the legislature’s Environment Committee.

Connecticut relies heavily on aging disposal infrastructure through which the majority of solid waste is incinerated to generate energy. The pilot programs are designed to reduce the amount of trash in these communities and reduce reliance on this infrastructure or out of-state-landfills.With the July closure of the Hartford Resource Recovery Facility owned by the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA), up to 30% of the state’s solid waste will now be shipped to out-of-state landfills.The pilot projects will help meet Connecticut’s goals to reduce waste and increase reuse, recycling and composting, while also creating stable, predictable, environmentally sound and self-sufficient waste disposal options.

Grants have been approved by DEEP for the following towns: Ansonia, Bethany, Deep River, Guilford, Madison, Meriden, Middletown, Newtown, Seymour, Stonington, Rocky Hill, West Hartford, West Haven, Woodbridge, and Woodbury. Regional support for the municipalities running these SMM pilots will be provided by COGs or Regional Waste Authorities, those groups providing support include South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG), Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG) and Housatonic Resources Regional Authority (HRRA).

Several leaders in municipalities awarded SMM grants shared their excitement about what these grants mean for their municipality:

“We have put together what I think is a pilot that can build upon a lot of the successes that the City of Middletown has had with food waste diversion and make it easy and simple for our consumers and our residents here in the sanitation district,” Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said. “My strong expectation is that we are going to be successful with this pilot just as we have been with so many programs in our recycling office here in Middletown. I think that the groundwork that we’re going to lay here in our sanitation district will hopefully prove a model for the rest of the city and the rest of the state.”

“Rocky Hill is excited to offer its residents a simple alternative to disposing their trash and by the opportunity to change the course of what we throw away and how we divert our food scraps,” Rocky Hill Mayor Lisa Marotta said.

“I am thrilled to have Guilford residents participate in this co-collection pilot program,” Guilford First Selectman Matt Hoey said. “Although this is only one small step toward a solution to the potential waste crisis here in Connecticut, my hope is that this program draws attention to more sustainable food waste practices and highlights their beneficial impacts on the environment and the community as a whole.”

“Thanks to the efforts of many at DEEP, working in partnership with our municipal team in Stonington, we have the opportunity to show all residents in CT what can be possible when you combine pay-as-you-throw with curbside composting. This will be a win for the environment and for taxpayers,” Danielle Chesebrough, Stonington First Selectman, said.

NVCOG Releases Request for Proposals and Request for Qualifications

NVCOG has issued a Request for Qualifications and a Request for Proposals on the State Department of Administrative Services e-Procurement web portal.

NVCOG intends to select qualified environmental firms to prepare Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III environmental assessments, remedial action plans, hazardous building material assessments, cleanup planning, and cleanup oversight, as well as provide related services on an on-call basis. The teams must provide expertise in implementing U.S. EPA and CT DECD funded environmental assessment projects and demonstrate familiarity with Connecticut liability relief and cleanup programs.

The deadline for submissions is October 14, 2022, at 2 pm.

Additionally, NVCOG is requesting proposals for the administration and coordination of a Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Day Program to be operated by a licensed hazardous waste management firm. The Program will serve 15 of the 19 member municipalities of the NVCOG. Only those towns who are signatories to the service contract will participate in the Program. NVCOG is issuing this Request for Proposal to select a Contractor to operate the Program from February 2023 through February 2026, with two consecutive one-year renewals, if approved by NVCOG.

The deadline for questions is October 10, 2022. The deadline for submissions is November 11, 2022, at noon.

You can find both Requests on our Vendor Page, and separately on the Department of Administrative Services portal. Click for the RFQ for LEPs and RFP for Household Hazardous Waste.

MTP Survey – Share your thoughts on transportation in the Naugatuck Valley

The Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG), in partnership with the Connecticut Metropolitan Council of Governments (MetroCOG) invite you to share your thoughts on transportation in the Naugatuck Valley and Greater Bridgeport regions. This survey will help us identify the priorities of residents and visitors to our communities, the way we travel now and how travel may change in the future. The feedback we receive is crucial to ensure we include the needs and wishes of the community in the update of each region’s Metropolitan Transportation Plans (MTP), which documents our long-term transportation visions.

The link to the English survey can be found here. En Español aquí. The survey will be open until November 1, 2022.

Visit the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) webpage for more information.