Long Island Sound Study

Niantic, CT, April 19, 2010 — Today, Congressman Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, joined representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center (NOAA), U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, FishAmerica Foundation, Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE), the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE) at the dedication of the Bride Brook restoration project at Rocky Neck State Park.

Don Strait, executive director of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, said, “Our partners and the state’s Congressional delegation are truly remarkable. Not only do they recognize that the benefits of a strong and healthy Long Island Sound are vitally important to both the environment and the regional economy, they bring a unique passion and level of education to this community that is inspirational. Finishing this one restoration project is an essential part of reviving a much bigger system, but it also demonstrates what can happen when citizens and government unite for a common purpose, a lesson well timed for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.”

“The completion of the Bride Brook restoration project is a great example of the power that partnerships can have. Agencies and organizations, working together, have accomplished a major victory for restoring this critical habitat,” said Jeff Benoit, president and CEO of Restore America’s Estuaries, a national alliance of coastal conservation organizations.

In June 2009, NOAA awarded Save the Sound, a program of CFE, $1.5 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support two marsh restoration projects—the Bride Brook culvert replacement at Rocky Neck and the West River tide gate replacement in New Haven. The NOAA funding, in conjunction with funding already in place from NRCS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, FishAmerica Foundation, CT DEP and RAE, made the Rocky Neck project a reality. Click to read full story > By Jen Matteis
Shore Publishing

11/11/2010 - How do you save money working on two different construction sites? One answer is to work on both of them at once. That's the philosophy behind the simultaneous construction of Madison's new senior center and ambulance facility, undertaken as an effort to save money when the project's bids failed to match its estimates.

"When the bids came back, early June, they were all over the board. Some were below what we thought, some were significantly above, which was a surprise," remarked former first selectman Tom Scarpati, the chairman of the senior center building committee. "Since the package of bids came in well above our $5.515 million budget, we had to regroup and make certain modifications.

"We knew we had to eliminate a third of the months of construction in order to be able to put that money back into the design," he said.

The original plan was to complete the senior center before beginning construction on the ambulance facility. However, despite the fact that construction on the senior center began much later than anticipated, both projects should meet their initial completion date of August 2011. The Depot closed early last month to accommodate work on the ambulance facility at the corner of Route 79 and Old Route 79.

"That will permit us to finish both buildings at the same time and within the original schedule," said Scarpati. Click to read full story >