Initiatives and organizations driving impacts in eight Connecticut communities - Bridgeport, New Britain, Manchester, Norwich, Rockville, Simsbury, Waterbury, and Windsor Locks – have earned recognition from the Connecticut Main Street Center (CMSC) and will be receiving Awards of Excellence from the state's leading downtown resource.
Read MoreAs the economic ramifications of the ever-expanding shutdown of daily life across the state and across the country due to the spreading COVID-19 pandemic accelerate, public officials are increasingly discussing how to assist families, small businesses and major industries recover. Now, another sector of the economy, museums of all types (including history museums, art museums, zoos, aquaria, gardens, science centers, and historic sites) are reaching out for financial help.
Read MoreBradley Airport drew about 7 million passengers in 2019, ahead of the 6.7 million in 2018 by more than 2%. This week, new retail and restaurants were announced, as improvements in ground transportation, connections to distant points across the region, and even new bathrooms and an elevator are on the drawing board.
Read MoreWhat goes up must come down – and in some instances, down and out. That appears to be the situation regarding hotel occupancy in Connecticut during the past year. some coming, some going, and overall numbers barely above even.
Read MoreNearly 44 million working Americans report having seven or more paid vacation days left to use this year, and a commonly cited reason is work guilt, according to the 2019 Priceline Work-Life Balance Report
Read MoreWhat’s new in Connecticut? ConnTours - a mobile-friendly guide to unique and interesting places that make up the Connecticut landscape, according to officials at Connecticut Humanities, which recently launched the new app.
Read MoreThe nation’s two newest Literary Landmarks, both in Connecticut, will be announced at ceremonies on October 16. The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center have been selected to be designees for recognition. The announcement will be made by the Connecticut Center for the Book, CT Humanities and Hartford Public Library.
Read MoreLegislative testimony says highway “rest areas are more than a public convenience” - they also “provide a public safety benefit.” Whether the state’s closed rest facilities will re-open is uncertain, as the fate, timing and impact of legislative proposals suggest change may not be imminent.
Read MoreA public hearing this month on a proposal to “eliminate the restriction on the length of Runway 2-20 at Tweed-New Haven Airport, was, in some ways, deju vu all over again, as advocates for ramping up flights in and out of Tweed came to the State Capitol to urge action. A decade ago, in 2009, supporters of the regional airport came to the Capitol seeking state funds to fuel growth. This year, the focus is on runway expansion to do the same. The common thread: economic development.
“To realize the region’s full potential as a destination, the airport must improve its infrastructure to support an expanded schedule of flights to additional destinations,” said Ginny Kozlowsi, then president and CEO of the Greater New Haven Convention & visitors Bureau, in 2009.
This month, she was back at the Capitol, as executive director of REX Development: “The retention and recruitment of businesses are essential for the economic success of Connecticut. With the limited flights currently available at Tweed new Haven Regional Airport, it is difficult for companies in Southern Connecticut to access current clients, attract talent and secure more business.”
In testimony this month, Garrett Sheehan, the president and CEO of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that “The ability to bring people to New Haven and efficiently travel to other locations would greatly improve if Tweed New Haven Airport had additional flights and destinations. It is our expectation that expanding the runway from 5600 feet to 6600 feet, within the airport’s existing footprint, will open the door for new commercial service at Tweed.”
Sheehan noted that today “business is conducted on a global scale. The New Haven region is home to thriving manufacturers, biotech companies, tech startups, and other important businesses. These companies have employees that travel regularly and customers and suppliers who need to visit.”
He named the local organizations and businesses supporting what he described as “a better Tweed”: Avangrid, Alexion, Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Arvinas, ASSA ABLOY, Biorez, CA White, CT Bio, CT Tourism Coalition, DISTRICT New Haven, Ferguson & McGuire Insurance, Fitstyle by Shana, Marcum, My Language Link, New Haven Manufacturing Association, Prometheus Research, Radiall USA, Inc., Regional Water Authority, Technolutions, The Outtrim Group, Ulbrich Stainless Steels and Special Metals, and Yale New Haven Health.
One of them, ASSA ABLOY, testified ten years ago, when vice president Jack Dwyer stated: “A clear function of business travel efficiency is proximity to an airport…and having Tweed as a viable alternative is viewed by our management team and owners as being a factor in our ongoing and future success.”
In its testimony this month, Yale New Haven Health senior vice president Vin Petrini, chief policy and communications officer, pointed out that “Yale New Haven Health is currently the largest private employer in Connecticut with more than 25,000 employees located in nearly every town, city and legislative district in the State. We also have the distinction of being the State’s largest taxpayer having paid more than $300 million in provider taxes last year alone.”
Petrini said “Tweed represents the second most underserved region in the nation,” stating that action on the legislation would unleash a “key linchpin in the economic future of the region and the state of Connecticut.”
Ryan Duques, chairman of Madison’s Economic Development Commission, a tech startup managing partner and the former publisher of 15 Connecticut newspapers, and told lawmakers that “Tweed is vital to the economic sustainability of south-central Connecticut,” adding that “it is our expectation that this change will open the door for new commercial service at Tweed with additional destinations and flights.”
The words of former Southern Connecticut State University president Cheryl Norton a decade ago could easily have been said this month: “a robust regional airport would provide another travel option to our crowded roadways and trains.”
https://youtu.be/M1i8brlb16I
Aimed at small to medium-sized cultural organizations seeking funding for “collaborative projects which demonstrate a clear vision of how individual sites and organizations can effectively tie together local, regional or statewide cultural assets,” the Good to Great grant program was created in 2014 during the administration of former Governor Dannel Malloy to “go beyond basic facilities repair or expansion to support projects that tell the stories of our cultural and historic sites in engaging, meaningful and relevant ways.”
The final round of grants – unless the program is renewed by the Lamont administration – were announced less than three weeks prior to the change in gubernatorial leadership. The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) announced $3,051,971 in grants to 12 nonprofit organizations through the program in late December.
The grants may be used for capital projects that address the rehabilitation and/or adaptive re-use of existing facilities that will transform the visitor experience, site work associated with rehabilitation projects or additions, rehabilitation of historic landscapes, or protection and/or interpretation of archaeological sites. Other appropriate uses include artists’ fees, conservator fees, construction costs, ADA accessibility, evaluation services and documentation and exhibit scripts, fabrication and installation to complement capital improvement.
The grants range between $50,000 and $150,000 and require a 25 percent cash match; grantees will have two years from date of grant contract to complete the funded project. Applicants for the state grant must be a Connecticut 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(13) organization that owns, operates and/or sponsors a cultural venue or historic site in Connecticut with an average annual income of $500,000 or less.
The just under-the-wire recipients:
The grant award recipients constituted the final announcement of 2018 by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Nineteen days later, Gov. Lamont took the oath of office. He is expected to announce the department's new leadership and management structure in the coming days.
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