Sen. Cabrera, Rep. Rochelle Welcome State Funding
for Local Community Organizations and Nonprofits
HARTFORD, CT – Today, state Senator Jorge Cabrera (D-Hamden) and state Representative Kara Rochelle (D-Ansonia, Derby) welcomed $350,000 in state funding over the next two years for local community organizations and nonprofits to support youth development, prevent youth violence and assist fathers in the region. These funds, secured by Sen. Cabrera and authorized under the biennial state budget passed earlier this month, are an important investment in the well-being of the Valley community according to the senator.
“Nonprofits are vital to our communities and I am proud to secure these funds for organizations doing great work across the Valley,” said Sen. Cabrera. “From Valley Save Our Youth providing our young people with safe opportunities to engage with their peers, to TEAM offering many crucial human services people rely on, to Hamden Fixing Fathers, an exciting new nonprofit helping fathers, specializing in supporting dads and keeping families strong and connected, these nonprofits and community organizations will be able to continue to benefit those they serve in ways they have come to expect and appreciate thanks to these additional funds. I am deeply grateful for all these organizations do for our community.”
Rep. Rochelle added these funds will help secure positive futures for the Valley’s next generation.
“This new funding will touch lives and shape futures. Fostering a strong future begins with building up our children and ensuring they have enriching programming and the supports necessary to set them up for success,” said Rep. Rochelle. “TEAM and Valley Save Our Youth both have strong track records of meeting the needs of our residents, families, and children. I am so grateful for all these organizations do for the Valley and to be able to assist them in our common mission to support our children.”
Valley Save Our Youth will receive $75,000 in the 2022 and the 2023 fiscal years for Youth Services Prevention. TEAM, based in Derby, will receive $50,000 in both the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years. Hamden Fixing Fathers will receive $50,000 in both the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years. The 2022 fiscal year starts on July 1, 2021. Throughout the summer and fall, the state will begin releasing funding for these youth development and youth violent prevention programs.
Valley Save Our Youth is a nonprofit organization that provides programs to keep children active and involved in their communities, meanwhile TEAM is a human services agency that seeks to strengthen the Valley community through education, support and empowerment. They provide economically disadvantaged residents with basic needs and case management, employment and training support, elderly services and Meals on Wheels, Early Childhood and Head Start and more. Hamden Fixing Fathers, which will receive a total of $100,000 over the next two years, specializes in helping fathers strengthen their bond with their children and their families while educating them on the importance of their role in their family. They provide programs to assist fathers in breaking through past personal trauma, navigating parenthood and staying involved while co-parenting.
After Busy Legislative Session, Significant New Laws to Go Into Effect July 1
After Busy Legislative Session, Significant New Laws to Go Into Effect July 1
At the tail end of a busy legislative session, a number of significant laws will go into effect in Connecticut on July 1 that will improve the lives of Connecticut residents. State Senator Will Haskell (D-Westport) voted for many of the reforms that go into effect this week.
“Every year, lawmakers consider hundreds of proposals, knowing only some will make it through the process and become law. I’m proud of the work we did in Hartford this year, and I know these new laws will make life just a little bit better for residents of the 26th district,” said Sen. Haskell. “Some are simple updates to safety standards to better protect children and families. Others take steps to address the critical issues of climate change or racial injustice. I’m greatly encouraged that on Thursday, Connecticut will be a slightly better state.”
Among the new laws that will become law July 1:
- Ice cream trucks will be required to be equipped with signal lamps, stop signals, front crossing arms and convex mirrors to better protect children’s safety. The new law requires the use of signal lights and stop signals at least 50 feet before stopping for sales through the point where all customers are off the road and restricts trucks from vending on roads with high speeds, near schools in session or when their view of the road is obstructed. This law is known as “Tristan’s Law” in honor of a Wallingford boy struck and killed by a vehicle after purchasing ice cream from a truck in 2020.
- College campuses will administer surveys on sexual misconduct on their campuses every other year, and will be barred from disciplining someone for violating drug or alcohol policies if they report or disclose sexual misconduct related to that violation. This student-led effort aims to better understand current levels of sexual assault on campuses and increase students reporting of sexual misconduct.
- To fight climate change, and adapt to its expected changes, municipalities will now be permitted to establish municipal stormwater authorities. The new law also allows the Connecticut Green Bank to develop programs to support green infrastructure, increasing its bond limit from $100 million to $250 million.
- Nursing home patients will now benefit from an expanded patients’ bill of rights, which includes the right for them to treat their living quarters as their own home and empowers them to, among other things, associate and communicate privately and freely (and virtually) with family and loved ones. This is in response to the isolating practices put in place at many nursing homes at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
- Limited-service pregnancy centers, which offer some pregnancy services but do not offer access or referrals to abortions or emergency contraception, will be prohibited from making deceptive statements about the services they provide. Some such centers have received criticism for advertising services they do not actually offer, thereby delaying critical reproductive care for pregnant women.
- To promote mutual understanding and educate students about diverse cultures, all boards of education in Connecticut will include Black and Latino studies in their curriculum.
Sen. Osten Wecomes More Great Budget News for Connecticut
Sen. Osten Wecomes More Great Budget News for Connecticut
HARTFORD – The State of Connecticut will end its fiscal year tomorrow, June 30, with even more money in the bank than was even envisioned just a few weeks ago – meaning Connecticut will be able to put even more money toward paying off its 70-year-old pension debt.
State Senate Cathy Osten (D-Sprague), who is Senate Chair of the budget-making Appropriations Committee, said a new report from the non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) (link below) shows the state’s General Fund surplus has grown to $260.4 million. This surplus has materialized over the past few weeks since the biennial state budget and its revenue projections were adopted by the state legislature on June 9.
OFA Monthly Statement – June, 2021
The increased revenues come from higher than anticipated collections from the Pass-Through Entity Tax, inheritances and estates, real estate conveyance fees (from the increased sale of homes in Connecticut), sales and use taxes (from the increased sale of goods in Connecticut), and corporations (from the increased profits of Connecticut business). All combined, these revenues increased over $434 million from the OFA estimate in May. This robust revenue growth is a clear sign of a strengthening Connecticut economy –a recovery also reflected in last week’s improvements in our state’s unemployment rate and healthy growth in employment.
With the increased budget revenues – combined with the state volatility cap law that diverts certain types of fluctuating revenues into the state Budget Reserve Fund (aka the “Rainy Day Fund”) – Connecticut is now poised to contribute another half a billion dollars (to about $1.5 billion in total) toward the state pension debt that built up over the previous 70 years as a variety of Republican and Democratic state legislatures and governors repeatedly failed to set aside enough money to pay for promised pension benefits.
This one-time payment into our pension funds will translate to an annual payment savings of at least $130 million every year beginning in Fiscal Year 2023.
“This is more great financial news for Connecticut, and it comes at the end of a long string of recent good financial news for the state, from our Rainy Day Fund at historic highs to our state bond rating at its highest level in two decades to state revenues swelling, as this most recent report shows,” Sen. Osten said. “We put our state on a path of fiscal stability a few years ago with commitments to not spending all the revenue that we collect and putting excess funds into paying off our pension debt, so I think we’re wrapping up the 2021 budget in great shape and we’re looking pretty good for 2022 and 2023 as well.”
Altice To Drastically Reduce Internet Upload Speeds In July, Drawing Ire Of State Officials
Altice To Drastically Reduce Internet Upload Speeds In July, Drawing Ire Of State Officials
Senate Majority Leader, Chairs of Energy and Technology Committee Blast Decision To Cut Internet Upload Speeds By Up To 86%
Altice, the primary internet provider for many Connecticut communities, will reduce its Optimum Online broadband internet plans that currently advertise upload speeds of 35 Mbps to speeds ranging from 5 to 20 Mbps on July 12, with no concurrent change in the prices of those plans; however, new customers will be forced to accept lower upload speeds, while existing customers will be forced into the lower speeds should they upgrade, downgrade, or change service.
State officials including Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), whose district is primarily served by Altice; State Senator Norm Needleman (D-Essex) and State Representative David Arconti (D-Danbury), Senate and House Chairs of the Energy & Technology Committee; State Senator James Maroney (D-Milford) and State Broadband Policy Coordinator in the Office of Consumer Counsel Burt Cohen today blasted the decision to restrict users’ upload speeds for several reasons, including the increased need for fast, effective Internet service for customers as life goes increasingly digital, for uploads as well as downloads, and that Altice itself announced the decision was not made due to any trouble with its current service but to bring its speeds “in line with other ISPs,” meaning it plans to reduce service quality rather than tout increased speeds as an advantage over other providers.
Compounding the issue: in several regions of Connecticut, Altice is a primary internet provider, for some customers being the only viable internet service available. This move could directly negatively impact those customers. The speed reductions will also impact every internet plan offered by Altice, a sign the company intends to make this reduction in service a future selling point in advertising its more expensive plans.
“Altice’s decision to reduce the upload speeds of its internet service plans is one directly harmful to many customers,” said Sen. Duff. “It’s easy to imagine a family where one member is on a video chat with Grandma, another is having a Zoom with work colleagues on an important project and one of the kids is playing video games online with their friends. This planned reduction in upload speed could easily leave all three of them unable to access the speed and data, forcing the family to upgrade to a more expensive plan or requiring them to choose who gets to be online at one time. All for a future marketing gimmick. When six currently available plans have the same internet upload speed right now, yet in three weeks they will all feature vastly different and reduced service quality, that’s a major sign that this move is consumer-unfriendly and will have serious drawbacks. All this, and the move is not even necessary for them to preserve current services!”
“In the pandemic, as work and school shifted online, internet service became vital for many. That includes through video calls and conferencing, through data connections and information transfers, and other direct lines of digital communication requiring speedy upload abilities,” said Sen. Needleman. “Though the worst impacts of the pandemic have abated, customers still need consistent, reliable internet service. This move may rob them of that. Not only will the ‘Optimum Online’ plan see its upload speeds reduced by a factor of seven, but all internet plans offered by Altice will see similar reductions in quality – making things worse, all of those plans had comparable upload speeds before this change. In the name of a cheap marketing move and to draw customers to more expensive plans, Altice is gutting the resources they currently pay for. This is an awful decision that will harm customers for no good reason beyond corporate greed.”
“At a time when internet access is critical for families, students, professionals, businesses and even healthcare, Altice’s decision to reduce speed, rather than upgrade it, is not a good move,” said Rep. Arconti. “It is disappointing to hear that they are thinking about squeezing customers for more money, instead of improving services.”
“When countless Altice customers have likely spent years on the same internet plan, paying their bills on time with no issues in the past, it’s a direct insult for Altice to in turn slash what those plans offer,” said Sen. Maroney. “It’s unfair and disrespectful to their customers, and it’s the antithesis of competition. Altice’s stated reason for reducing these internet upload speeds is to match the slower speeds currently offered by their competitors. One would think a better marketing plan for Altice would be to advertise that its services are better than the competition, rather than for it to cut its quality of service to trick customers into paying more for worse standards.”
“Altice states that its 86% reduction of upload speed for Optimum Online service when residential consumers are still struggling with the effects of a pandemic is not due to any technical network limitations. If that representation is truthful, Altice appears to be implementing a cynical marketing ploy to force consumers to upgrade to more expensive tiers of Optimum internet service in order to manage working from home, engaging in telehealth appointments, and other essential online services,” said Cohen. “It’s difficult to conceive of a more anti-consumer move during a time when we all need robust internet service, which includes better upload speeds.”
Berlin Legislators Welcome Grant to Assess Property for Potential Redevelopment to Support Economic Growth
Berlin Legislators Welcome Grant to Assess Property for Potential Redevelopment to Support Economic Growth
State Senator Rick Lopes and State Representative Catherine Abercrombie, members of the Berlin legislative delegation, were encouraged by the state’s commitment to grant funding to help assess a property in Berlin for possible redevelopment. Berlin will receive a $86,330 grant to take on additional ground water studies of a property at 303 New Britain Road and for a Remedial Action Plan to allow for redevelopment of the property as an industrial park.
“I want to thank Governor Lamont and the state Department of Economic and Community Development for awarding this great investment to Berlin. This grant will support efforts in the town to study and redevelop properties and will help create new job opportunities and economic growth,” said Sen. Lopes.
“This state funding is welcome news for Berlin’s efforts to clean up and revitalize properties with potential for future economic growth,” Rep. Abercombie said. “I look forward to seeing the progress being made and am grateful to the governor and DECD for prioritizing this project.”
The grant awarded to Berlin comes from the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation Program. More information about the state’s Brownfield Redevelopment Program can found at www.ctbrownfields.gov.
Altice To Drastically Reduce Internet Upload Speeds In July, Drawing Ire Of State Officials
Altice To Drastically Reduce Internet Upload Speeds In July, Drawing Ire Of State Officials
Senate Majority Leader, Chairs of Energy and Technology Committee Blast Decision To Cut Internet Upload Speeds By Up To 86%
Altice, the primary internet provider for many Connecticut communities, will reduce its Optimum Online broadband internet plans that currently advertise upload speeds of 35 Mbps to speeds ranging from 5 to 20 Mbps on July 12, with no concurrent change in the prices of those plans; however, new customers will be forced to accept lower upload speeds, while existing customers will be forced into the lower speeds should they upgrade, downgrade, or change service.
State officials including Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), whose district is primarily served by Altice; State Senator Norm Needleman (D-Essex) and State Representative David Arconti (D-Danbury), Senate and House Chairs of the Energy & Technology Committee; State Senator James Maroney (D-Milford) and State Broadband Policy Coordinator in the Office of Consumer Counsel Burt Cohen today blasted the decision to restrict users’ upload speeds for several reasons, including the increased need for fast, effective Internet service for customers as life goes increasingly digital, for uploads as well as downloads, and that Altice itself announced the decision was not made due to any trouble with its current service but to bring its speeds “in line with other ISPs,” meaning it plans to reduce service quality rather than tout increased speeds as an advantage over other providers.
Compounding the issue: in several regions of Connecticut, Altice is a primary internet provider, for some customers being the only viable internet service available. This move could directly negatively impact those customers. The speed reductions will also impact every internet plan offered by Altice, a sign the company intends to make this reduction in service a future selling point in advertising its more expensive plans.
“Altice’s decision to reduce the upload speeds of its internet service plans is one directly harmful to many customers,” said Sen. Duff. “It’s easy to imagine a family where one member is on a video chat with Grandma, another is having a Zoom with work colleagues on an important project and one of the kids is playing video games online with their friends. This planned reduction in upload speed could easily leave all three of them unable to access the speed and data, forcing the family to upgrade to a more expensive plan or requiring them to choose who gets to be online at one time. All for a future marketing gimmick. When six currently available plans have the same internet upload speed right now, yet in three weeks they will all feature vastly different and reduced service quality, that’s a major sign that this move is consumer-unfriendly and will have serious drawbacks. All this, and the move is not even necessary for them to preserve current services!”
“In the pandemic, as work and school shifted online, internet service became vital for many. That includes through video calls and conferencing, through data connections and information transfers, and other direct lines of digital communication requiring speedy upload abilities,” said Sen. Needleman. “Though the worst impacts of the pandemic have abated, customers still need consistent, reliable internet service. This move may rob them of that. Not only will the ‘Optimum Online’ plan see its upload speeds reduced by a factor of seven, but all internet plans offered by Altice will see similar reductions in quality – making things worse, all of those plans had comparable upload speeds before this change. In the name of a cheap marketing move and to draw customers to more expensive plans, Altice is gutting the resources they currently pay for. This is an awful decision that will harm customers for no good reason beyond corporate greed.”
“At a time when internet access is critical for families, students, professionals, businesses and even healthcare, Altice’s decision to reduce speed, rather than upgrade it, is not a good move,” said Rep. Arconti. “It is disappointing to hear that they are thinking about squeezing customers for more money, instead of improving services.”
“When countless Altice customers have likely spent years on the same internet plan, paying their bills on time with no issues in the past, it’s a direct insult for Altice to in turn slash what those plans offer,” said Sen. Maroney. “It’s unfair and disrespectful to their customers, and it’s the antithesis of competition. Altice’s stated reason for reducing these internet upload speeds is to match the slower speeds currently offered by their competitors. One would think a better marketing plan for Altice would be to advertise that its services are better than the competition, rather than for it to cut its quality of service to trick customers into paying more for worse standards.”
“Altice states that its 86% reduction of upload speed for Optimum Online service when residential consumers are still struggling with the effects of a pandemic is not due to any technical network limitations. If that representation is truthful, Altice appears to be implementing a cynical marketing ploy to force consumers to upgrade to more expensive tiers of Optimum internet service in order to manage working from home, engaging in telehealth appointments, and other essential online services,” said Cohen. “It’s difficult to conceive of a more anti-consumer move during a time when we all need robust internet service, which includes better upload speeds.”
Altice To Drastically Reduce Internet Upload Speeds In July, Drawing Ire Of State Officials
Altice To Drastically Reduce Internet Upload Speeds In July, Drawing Ire Of State Officials
Senate Majority Leader, Chairs of Energy and Technology Committee Blast Decision To Cut Internet Upload Speeds By Up To 86%
Altice, the primary internet provider for many Connecticut communities, will reduce its Optimum Online broadband internet plans that currently advertise upload speeds of 35 Mbps to speeds ranging from 5 to 20 Mbps on July 12, with no concurrent change in the prices of those plans; however, new customers will be forced to accept lower upload speeds, while existing customers will be forced into the lower speeds should they upgrade, downgrade, or change service.
State officials including Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), whose district is primarily served by Altice; State Senator Norm Needleman (D-Essex) and State Representative David Arconti (D-Danbury), Senate and House Chairs of the Energy & Technology Committee; State Senator James Maroney (D-Milford) and State Broadband Policy Coordinator in the Office of Consumer Counsel Burt Cohen today blasted the decision to restrict users’ upload speeds for several reasons, including the increased need for fast, effective Internet service for customers as life goes increasingly digital, for uploads as well as downloads, and that Altice itself announced the decision was not made due to any trouble with its current service but to bring its speeds “in line with other ISPs,” meaning it plans to reduce service quality rather than tout increased speeds as an advantage over other providers.
Compounding the issue: in several regions of Connecticut, Altice is a primary internet provider, for some customers being the only viable internet service available. This move could directly negatively impact those customers. The speed reductions will also impact every internet plan offered by Altice, a sign the company intends to make this reduction in service a future selling point in advertising its more expensive plans.
“Altice’s decision to reduce the upload speeds of its internet service plans is one directly harmful to many customers,” said Sen. Duff. “It’s easy to imagine a family where one member is on a video chat with Grandma, another is having a Zoom with work colleagues on an important project and one of the kids is playing video games online with their friends. This planned reduction in upload speed could easily leave all three of them unable to access the speed and data, forcing the family to upgrade to a more expensive plan or requiring them to choose who gets to be online at one time. All for a future marketing gimmick. When six currently available plans have the same internet upload speed right now, yet in three weeks they will all feature vastly different and reduced service quality, that’s a major sign that this move is consumer-unfriendly and will have serious drawbacks. All this, and the move is not even necessary for them to preserve current services!”
“In the pandemic, as work and school shifted online, internet service became vital for many. That includes through video calls and conferencing, through data connections and information transfers, and other direct lines of digital communication requiring speedy upload abilities,” said Sen. Needleman. “Though the worst impacts of the pandemic have abated, customers still need consistent, reliable internet service. This move may rob them of that. Not only will the ‘Optimum Online’ plan see its upload speeds reduced by a factor of seven, but all internet plans offered by Altice will see similar reductions in quality – making things worse, all of those plans had comparable upload speeds before this change. In the name of a cheap marketing move and to draw customers to more expensive plans, Altice is gutting the resources they currently pay for. This is an awful decision that will harm customers for no good reason beyond corporate greed.”
“At a time when internet access is critical for families, students, professionals, businesses and even healthcare, Altice’s decision to reduce speed, rather than upgrade it, is not a good move,” said Rep. Arconti. “It is disappointing to hear that they are thinking about squeezing customers for more money, instead of improving services.”
“When countless Altice customers have likely spent years on the same internet plan, paying their bills on time with no issues in the past, it’s a direct insult for Altice to in turn slash what those plans offer,” said Sen. Maroney. “It’s unfair and disrespectful to their customers, and it’s the antithesis of competition. Altice’s stated reason for reducing these internet upload speeds is to match the slower speeds currently offered by their competitors. One would think a better marketing plan for Altice would be to advertise that its services are better than the competition, rather than for it to cut its quality of service to trick customers into paying more for worse standards.”
“Altice states that its 86% reduction of upload speed for Optimum Online service when residential consumers are still struggling with the effects of a pandemic is not due to any technical network limitations. If that representation is truthful, Altice appears to be implementing a cynical marketing ploy to force consumers to upgrade to more expensive tiers of Optimum internet service in order to manage working from home, engaging in telehealth appointments, and other essential online services,” said Cohen. “It’s difficult to conceive of a more anti-consumer move during a time when we all need robust internet service, which includes better upload speeds.”
Sen. Osten, Democrats Fight To Protect Tax Credits For Affordable Housing In Southeastern Connecticut
Sen. Osten, Democrats Fight To Protect Tax Credits For Affordable Housing In Southeastern Connecticut
A coalition of Democratic state legislators from eastern Connecticut have won a one-month delay and review of a proposed change by the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority to its new rules governing how the state distributes millions of dollars in tax credits for affordable housing development – a rules change that Democrats say could hurt eastern Connecticut.
The 10 Democratic legislators, led by state Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague), wrote the CHFA Board of Directors on Thursday and successfully lobbied for a delay in the implementation of CHFA’s new rules for determining the so-called ‘opportunity score’ for a particular town or region.
The CHFA has long emphasized opportunity score when deciding what affordable housing projects will receive state tax credits, thereby lowering the cost for builders. Cities and towns are graded according to the degree of ‘opportunity’ in the surrounding community, usually defined as a town’s school rating, its poverty rate, its proximity to community colleges, and its jobs-to-population ratio. A high opportunity score is desirable, and a low opportunity score makes it virtually impossible to receive state grants for affordable housing construction.
Under the proposed new CHFA scoring system, only 1% of the regions in Tolland, Windham and New London Counties qualify as “high” opportunity areas, compared to a 20% statewide average.
“We believe this rule change would adversely affect the ability of any such projects to move forward in Eastern Connecticut. This adjustment would significantly change how a project’s ‘opportunity score’ is calculated and this could put the funding of many projects in jeopardy making it nearly impossible to develop affordable housing,” the eastern Connecticut Democratic delegation wrote. “We respectfully request that you postpone the implementation of this rule change and at a minimum grandfather in previously submitted projects. We ask that we be given time to evaluate the true impact of this change so Eastern Connecticut is not put at a significant disadvantage where this funding is concerned.”
The letter was signed by Democratic state Senators Osten, Norm Needleman and Mae Flexer, and by Democratic state Representatives Christine Conley, Brian Smith, Emmett Riley, Kevin Ryan, Anthony Nolan, Joe de la Cruz, and Susan Johnson.
“There’s no doubt about the need for more affordable housing in Connecticut, and there’s no doubt that our construction industry needs the jobs. What there is doubt about is the logic and the reasoning behind CHFA’s decision to change horses in midstream and make it more difficult for people and builders in eastern Connecticut to get their foot in the door of an affordable place to live,” Sen. Osten said. “My hope is that over the next month, eastern Connecticut legislators and CHFA officials can meet and come to a new understanding about not only the definition of opportunity, but about the basic need for more affordable housing all across the state.”
Senator Needleman Joins Connecticut Land Conversation Council as East Haddam Land Trust, Historical Society Win Key Award
Senator Needleman Joins Connecticut Land Conversation Council as East Haddam Land Trust, Historical Society Win Key Award
EAST HADDAM – Today, State Senator Norm Needleman (D-Essex) joined the Connecticut Land Conservation Council, Governor Ned Lamont and Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz at the Hidden Valley Farm Preserve in East Haddam for the Council’s 2021 awards for excellence in land conservation. The CLCC’s “Excellence in Conservation Organization Award” was presented to the East Haddam Land Trust and East Haddam Historical Society for their work in developing mini-documentaries and a museum exhibit on Land Trust preserves, helping increase awareness and promote conservation of land.
“I’d like to thank the Conservation Council for their efforts and extend my congratulations to the Land Trust and Historical Society for their incredible work,” said Sen. Needleman. “Developing a documentary series and developing this new exhibit will help spread awareness and inform the public about the many advantages of land preservation, especially given the history and the ambiance of these beautiful land preserves. I hope their work can be used as a template in other communities to further ensure we all know the importance of land preservation and appreciate the natural beauties of land in our state. I’d also like to congratulate the Greenwich Land Trust and Bolton’s Gwen Marrion for the recognition they received today.”
The East Haddam Land Trust and Historical Society teamed up to create a museum exhibit and series of mini-documentaries created by a local historian, educating the public on three preserves holding stone dams, turbines, waterworks and other artifacts still standing from the town’s old mills, as well as the history of the Land Trust itself. The exhibit features a map of East Haddam preserves and waterways and photographs, also hosting an interactive monitor displaying the films. The efforts join to show the thousands of connected acres in East Haddam under conservation and the many acres remaining to be conserved, as well as to encourage further conservation efforts in the future not only in East Haddam but statewide.
The Greenwich Land Trust and Bolton resident Gwen Marrion also received conservation awards from the Council Friday for working to preserve open spaces and undeveloped land.
Senator Needleman Encouraged by State Grant Funding to Assess Blighted Property in Colchester
Senator Needleman Encouraged by State Grant Funding to Assess Blighted Property in Colchester
Today, State Senator Norm Needleman (D-Essex) was encouraged to see the state commit grant funding to a Colchester property, helping assess the Brown’s Mill property on Comstock Bridge Road with the purpose of seeing if it would be suitable as a recreation site. As part of $19 million in state grants awarded by Governor Ned Lamont’s administration for blighted property assessment and remediation, the Colchester site will receive $27,500 for the assessment.
“I’d like to thank Governor Lamont and his administration for making this important investment in our community,” said Sen. Needleman. “It’s fitting that at the beginning of summer, local officials will have the potential ability to pursue a new recreation area, potentially a fishing access point to the Salmon River. This assessment will potentially bring local residents a new opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and nature. I’m looking forward to seeing its results.”