Cathy Osten

Sen. Osten Welcomes $7.5 Million in State Bonding for Rham, Franklin And Lisbon

State Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) today thanked the State Bond Commission for approving a combined $7.5 million in public infrastructure projects at RHAM High School and in the towns of Franklin and Lisbon.

The bonding includes $2 million to purchase of a backup electrical generator to be installed at RHAM High School in Hebron, thereby allowing the 256,000-square foot facility to be used as a regional emergency shelter during adverse weather events and other catastrophes. Sen. Osten had submitted a bill last month in the Appropriations Committee seeking the funding.

Other Eastern Connecticut bonding projects include $5 million to extend public sewer lines in Franklin approximately one-half mile from Route 32 at Murphy Road to Baltic Road. Another $500,000 will be spent to install sidewalks at the Strawberry Fields residential area located off Route 169.

“Hebron has libraries and churches and town offices that can provide temporary shelter for people in certain circumstances, but it’s not optimal and it’s not for the kind of long-term need that we would find with a blizzard or a hurricane. The high school is safe, modern, centrally located, and all it needs is a generator to turn it into a regional emergency shelter,” Sen Osten said. “The other investments for Franklin and Lisbon are the type of financial attention that the state should always be paying to the small towns that are home to hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents who pay their taxes and raise their families and run their businesses and who can and should benefit from the state investment of our limited bonding dollars.”