Governor Lamont has announced that improvements to Middletown’s Butternut Street and Park will be funded in the amount of $580,000 through the CT DOT Community Connectivity grants program. Phases 1 and 2 of the project include a sidewalk from West Street to the park and completion of a paved walking trail around Butternut Pond for park users. Phase 3 of the plan (which may not be fully funded by this grant) calls for a realignment of Thomas Street to allow for a larger parking lot, needed because the recently improved park attracts many users.

Middletown’s Complete Streets Committee and the Jonah Center began advocating for this project several years ago, since Butternut Street has no sidewalk even though the park is heavily used. Butternut Street links the Wesleyan campus and West Street. This is a priority area in the city’s Complete Streets Master Plan. The Governor’s Press Release on this and other projects can be found here.

Power plant on River Road now owned by ArcLight Capital Partners. Photo by John Hall, taken from Portland

In our previous newsletter, we reported that last Middletown’s Common Council terminated the tax agreement with NRG (strongly opposed by the Jonah Center and local advocates in a public hearing last April). That tax agreement would have supported a new 375 MW fossil gas turbine generator at a time when the state is trying to wean itself from electricity generated by fossil fuels.

Since that newsletter, we have learned that NRG, in December, closed on its sale of 4.9 gigawatts of generation capacity in New York, New England, and California to ArcLight Capital Partners and its subsidiary, Generation Bridge, for $760 million.

In a press release, ArcLight announced that it does not plan to go head with the 375 MW fossil gas project proposed by NRG 2019. It’s plan, rather, to develop renewable energy and energy storage. The River Road plant in Middletown is an obvious site for a storage facility due to the high voltage transmission line associated with the site and due to the 200 MW of offshore wind currently being developed in Long Island Sound, which will require an updated grid and nearby storage capacity. To read the press release click here: ArcLight Closes Acquisition of 4.9GW Power Generation Portfolio from NRG Energy.

Middletown’s new Swap Shack at 185 Johnson Street (part of the city’s transfer station) is open just in time for Christmas. There are lots of toys and other times for free pick-up. Pictured below are the new building and some of the offerings inside.  For information on what kinds of items can be dropped off, and where larger items like furniture can be donated or dropped off, click here.

In its mission to promote healthy and eco-friendly activities like walking and bicycling, Portland’s Complete Streets Group wants to celebrate those who already engage in these activities and serve as an example for others. Shown here is Jeff Burgess who walks 4 miles on Main Street every day, from Edgewood Road to the Arrigoni Bridge and back, in any weather. He said, “After I retired, I started walking to get in shape. It clears my head and gives me time to think about things or listen to a podcast. The round trip takes me about 1 hour and ten minutes, unless I run into someone along the way and stop for conversation.”

Asked if anything along the way interfered with his enjoyment of walking, he cited broken and uneven sidewalks in some places and property owners who don’t remove snow and ice after storms in the winter. As for any tips he’d offer as encouragement to others to start walking, Jeff said, “Try out Main Street. It’s flat. Take it slow at first and gradually increase your distance. It might be tough to get started, but once you get moving, you’ll enjoy it.”

NRG power plant in Middletown as seen from the Air Line Trail in Portland. Photo by John Hall

The Jonah Center recently learned that the tax agreement between the City of Middletown and Middletown Repowering (the NRG entity that proposed a new 375 MW gas turbine at the plant on River Road) was terminated at the June 7 meeting of Middletown’s Common Council. The issue was not on the meeting agenda, but rather was “taken off the table” during the meeting.  It passed unanimously.

This is good news for those who are concerned about climate change and local air pollution, and for tax payers. (The agreement froze taxes at the 2019 level until the project became operational.) Still, in light of the high level of public engagement in the preceding months, how and why the agreement was terminated without our knowing about it and without a public statement is a bit of a mystery,. Continue reading →

The City of Middletown is now constructing a walking trail to the top of the retired landfill — a project that the Jonah Center has been advocating since 2005. The views from the top are spectacular, and sure to be a magnet for residents of the North End and elsewhere.  We will let our readers know when the trail is open for public access.  Below are some pictures of the site taken 16 years ago, when our project advocacy began.

On November 6, an article on the project appeared in the Middletown Press.

View from the landfill mound south to downtown.

View from the landfill mound looking north over the Floating Meadows (Mattabesset River). Cromwell is in the background.

Aerial view of the landfill mound (center).

On September 8, 2020, the City of Middletown Common Council voted unanimously to pass a Declaration of a Climate Emergency “that threatens the existence of our civilization and the natural world.”  The declaration included bold statements of resolve: to make the declaration the “foundation up which the City of Middletown shall develop future priorities, legislation, policies, plans, budgets, and actions; to end City-generated greenhouse gas emissions by 2030; to establish plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by both the City and the wider community; and to advocate for coordinated climate action at the regional, state, and federal levels.”  The Declaration included recognition that environmental justice is a racial justice issue and that “an equitable transition to a fossil-fuel-free economy requires full community participation.”

Over the past year, we haven’t heard much in terms of follow-through on the Declaration. Continue reading →

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the Town of Portland’s Complete Streets achievements in recent years. This National Roadway Safety award recognizes the town’s sidewalk replacement program, road improvements, digital speed sign installation, bicycle routes, and the Air Line Trail.

The Jonah Center is proud to have played a role in all of these developments — in the formation of the Air Line Trail Steering Committee and the Complete Streets Group in 2014, and by urging the town to take advantage of a state-sponsored road safety audit that qualified the Town for 2 Connecticut DOT Community Connectivity grants.  John Hall and former Jonah Center Board member Bob Herron co-chaired the Sidewalk Committee.  Portland citizens and Town officials have been very supportive and resourceful in support of these initiatives.  Congratulations, Portland.

Shown below at the Award Ceremony are (from left to right): Rosario Rizzo, Air Line Trail  Committee; Lou Pear, Air Line Trail Committee and Selectman; Midge Malicki, Alice Schumacher, and Kathy Herron of the Complete Streets Group; Bob Shea, Public Works Director; Susan Bransfield, First Selectwoman; Jim Tripp, Selectman; and Mary Dickerson, Economic Development Consultant.

By Phil LeMontagne

Years ago our front yard contained a beautiful Crabapple tree and a lovely Red Maple.  Each provided abundant shade, but still allowed enough light through to maintain a healthy green lawn.  We planted a Hosta garden beneath the spreading boughs.

Continue reading →