In This Issue:
From Paddi's Desk
CT Agency Corner
Municipal Roundup
From Inside The Golden Dome
This Day in CT History
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All things are local…
While the Capitol is still as quiet as a church mouse, lions are roaring across the state as municipal elections heat up and local communities begin to speak out about a variety of emotional issues.
Today West Hartford lifted its mask mandate due to a local drop in positivity rates, and other communities are fiercely debating similar changes. When this action hit the news, I was in the Farmington Valley catching up with some folks in Simsbury, and while I was in line waiting to order coffee I overheard at least three different groups of people discussing West Hartford’s decision. All three groups were asking, “Why isn’t Simsbury doing the same…when is Simsbury going to do the same?" And pointing out how odd it was that if you go into one store on the south side of a traffic light you don’t have to wear a mask but if you’re just north of the traffic light you have to wear a mask. One person even brought up that if they shop in a retail store in West Hartford, no mask is required, but in the same store in Simsbury you have to mask up.
To a tee, they all said they were headed to West Hartford on their next shopping trip and restaurant visit as long as Simsbury continues to have a mask requirement. Interesting huh? I guess it’s true, people will always vote with their feet.
Now that Connecticut has been touted as one of the states with the highest vaccination rates, should we lean into the argument that vaccinations work? And encourage those unvaccinated and in states lagging behind that there are incentives to get vaccinated? Should we continue to promote the public health benefits of seeking the booster shot now that the CDC approved the use of all three major providers?
The greatest challenge is when the effect of being fully vaccinated starts to wane, many will not revisit their healthcare providers and keep up their protections. If this should happen, we're right back where we started, two years later. Yikes.
So without debating the merits of masking or no masking, I kind of lean to the side of looking at each town as a bubble/pod. For those who have returned to work with mandatory vaccinations and/or weekly testing, the pods should stay pretty much protected, so the way to get us back to life as it was before is to let the local leader review their positivity and vaccination rates, and then make the local decision for retail, restaurants and entertainment venues.
On another topic, the Connecticut Senate Republicans have been hitting the road, airwaves and your doorstep lately. Last week we covered the pro-community, anti-crime initiatives of the Senate Republican Caucus and now we're hearing and seeing their advocacy across the state. Recently on a Southeastern Connecticut radio station, Senate leaders described their concern over the “hidden public health crisis,” outlined their initiative and provided the statistics for an increase in personally targeted crimes, as well as their solution. Many Democrats poo-pooed the recommendation and focused on the inequalities of the criminal justice system and their desire to right the wrongs of the past.
So what's the solution? And will the legislature as a whole recognize the rampant increase in carjacking and thefts and the decline of residents feeling safe in their own homes and communities? It's going to be interesting since one side sees this as a serious challenge to the quality of life and the other sees it as a historical system of inequities that needs to be reversed. Let's hope sooner than later all parties find a path to collaboration and address the rapid growth of insecurity many residents are feeling.
And finally, speaking of local—West Haven has been in the news and not in a favorable manner. While I can only react to what's been in the papers, it a fact that soon-to-be-former State Representative Michael Dimassa (D-West Haven) has been arrested by the FBI, accused of stealing federal COVID-19 monies while serving as an administrative assistant to the West Haven City Council. He has resigned from that position and will officially resign from his legislative seat today.
The issue came about during a heated race for West Haven Mayor—a race that seems to always have local officials in the news. Years back a sitting West Haven Mayor was all over the news for some really insensitive comments he made about residents in his town, as well as some other bad decisions. Just as a change in leadership was bringing some pride back to the community, this hits the front pages. It's amazing how people elected for PUBLIC office feel that they can act so selfishly rather than put the dreams and needs of those who elected them to good use. Ugh!
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Solar Shortcomings in Connecticut Outlined by Report
A report issued by the state this month outlines the difficulties in Connecticut developing solar projects on open property such as brownfields, carports and canopies. The Office of Legislative Research issued a report citing the barriers for these projects to proliferate and the options moving forward on the policy level.
Here are some of the findings and recommendations for making projects happen in Connecticut:
(1) Maintain and expand existing brownfield programs or reduce program fees associated with renewable energy projects
(2) Maintain and increase mapping activities for brownfields and create or expand existing state and federal inventories of potential sites
(3) Exempt solar projects on brownfields, carports, and canopies from recently enacted labor requirements
(4) Maintain or increase bid preferences in renewable energy procurements and tariff programs
(5) Revisit eligibility requirements for existing solar programs
(6) Use resources associated with electric vehicle deployment to encourage solar carports on electric vehicle charging stations
(7) Further discourage projects on farmlands, forests, and other undeveloped land
(8) Additional policies that may emerge from DEEP’s current stakeholder engagement process on Sustainable, Transparent, and Efficient Practices (STEPs) for Solar Development.
The state has tried to provide an incentive to municipalities to develop brownfields - The Office of Brownfield Remediation and Development provides grants to municipalities and related entities to assist with brownfield redevelopment projects through the Municipal Brownfield Grant Program where final applications were due yesterday.
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Investing in CT Communities
Governor Lamont and Department and Community Development (DECD) Commissioner David Lehman announced a new $750 million 5 year investment into communities in CT. Within that investment will be two competitive grant programs that intend to create jobs, strengthen the ‘livability and vibrancy of Connecticut towns and cities. It is also encouraging public-private partnerships to accelerate economic growth.
The first grant program is called the Innovation Corridor Program, which will be administered by DECD and will select two or more transformational, place-making proposals for major urban areas or regional economic centers. These projects will be designed to create at least 15,000 new jobs in data science, advanced manufacturing, insurance technology or other high-growth industries. DECD will grant up to $100 million in total over 5 years.
Grant application and information can be found here .
The second program is called the Connecticut Communities Challenge Program which will also be administered by DECD. This grant will allocate 50% of the dollars to distressed communities and for projects that will include elements of: transit oriented development, major hub/downtown development of existing property, essential infrastructure for future development, housing support, public space improvements and mobility improvements like pedestrian, ADA and bicycle infrastructure. Grant sizes are between $1 and $10 million per project. Total allocation for the state for this grant will be $100 million over 5 years.
Grant application and more information can be found here
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The Great COVID Conspiracy
This week, the talk of the town has been centered around Representative Michael DiMassa's arrest by FBI agents on charges of wire fraud. Since the legislature is a part time job in Connecticut, many representatives have other jobs. Up until this week, DiMassa worked as an Administrative Assistant to the West Haven City Council. According to the affidavit submitted by federal investigators, DiMassa allegedly used interstate wires to fraudulently pay over $600,000 in consulting fees to Compass Investment Group LLC (a company that DiMassa created in January of this year) from West Haven's COVID-19 Grant Department. This money amounted to nearly half of all funds given to West Haven from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan. To make matters worse, it was discovered that DiMassa allegedly used those funds to gamble at Mohegan Sun. The embattled representative submitted his resignation for both his representative seat, and his position as an administrative assistant for West Haven.
This fiasco comes at a time where corruption news has been in the headlines quite often in Connecticut. Earlier this year, Senator Dennis Bradley was arrested on wire fraud charges relating to alleged fraud committed during his 2018 campaign for state senate. Republican leaders voiced their concern with potential misuse of COVID funds elsewhere in the state, and have called for a public hearing on the distribution of public COVID relief funds.
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October 22, 1822: A Poor Yankee Peddler from Harwinton Becomes a Railroad Tycoon
Collis Potter Huntington was born today in 1822, the sixth of nine children born to William and Elizabeth Huntington of Harwinton, Connecticut. The Huntington family, owners of a farm in a section of Harwinton fittingly known as “Poverty Hollow,” constantly struggled to make ends meet, forcing Collis to set off on his own as a teenager as an itinerant seller of wares — the archetypal 19th century Yankee peddler.
In his early twenties, Collis opened a highly successful hardware store in upstate New York with his brother Solon — the first concrete example of Collis’ sharp business acumen that would help lift him out of poverty and into the history books. Within a few years, he netted enough profit to travel westward to California and make a substantial fortune selling supplies to the thousands of gold prospectors who were pouring into the territory. Through his connections as an active member of California’s Republican party and as an active investor, he became one of four men who co-founded the Central Pacific Railroad Company in the early 1860s. The Central Pacific Railroad quickly became one of the most successful rail lines in the United States (and arguably still is, as one of the rail lines that eventually became the Union Pacific Railroad) and served as the western spur of the Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869.
Huntington quickly expanded his transportation empire, moving back to the East Coast in order to effectively lobby in Washington D.C. and New York on behalf of the Central Pacific Railroad and was directly involved in the founding of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Virginia — the largest privately-owned shipyard in the United States.
At the time of his death in 1900, Huntington was one of the wealthiest and most influential railroad tycoons in the country. Yet he never forgot his hardscrabble Connecticut roots: Later in life, during a visit to his former hometown of Harwinton, Huntington remarked, “As often as I have returned to these my native hills have I been made glad that this was the place where I was born, and that I was born poor, for I think that was the reason, at least in part, of such success in life as I have been able to achieve.” A classic rags-to-riches story, and a prime example of Yankee ingenuity hard at work, was born from humble beginnings today in Connecticut history.
The full article from the CT Humanities Council can be found here.
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Sullivan & LeShane, Inc.
www.ctlobby.com | (860) 560-0000
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