NEWINGTON
Town Crier
Repair & rebuild Friday, May 17, 2013
State awards $2M grant to clean up long-blighted National Welding sight By ERICA SCHMITT STAFF WRITER
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made a trip to the future CTFastrak station on Cedar Street Monday to announce a $2 million grant to demolish and remediate an adjacent blighted brownfield property. He was joined by state and town officials who are eager to clean up the polluted former National Welding site to enhance Volume 53, No. 20
Free
its transit-oriented development potential. “We’ve been working on this for a while, so to get this grant is a great thing for our community; we’re very pleased,” said state Rep. Sandy Nafis, D-Newington. National Welding closed in 1994 when Nafis served on the Town Council, and the contaminated property became town land that was too costly to clean up. But with its close proximity to the Busway, the property recently gained the state’s attention. “The town has invested in it to try to move the process along, but with the state investment it’s going to really accelerate the process,” Nafis explained. The brownfield property is
Erica Schmitt | Staff
Above, listening to DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith from left, Gov. Dannel Malloy, Newington Mayor Steve Woods, State Rep. Sandy Nafis, Sen. Paul Doyle, Town Manager John Salomone and DOT Transit Administrator Mike Sanders. Below, officials tour the National Welding site, which will be demolished. Officials hope whatever new structure takes its place can utilize the sight’s proximity to the future Cedar Street CTFastrak station.
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