Winchester Redo Could
Mean Neighborhood Jobs

Newhallville and Dixwell people who graduate from an upcoming environmental remediation training program have a good shot at snagging jobs on a major development project in their neighborhood.

So developer Carter Winstanley informed neighbors at Tuesday night’s community management team meeting. Fifteen slots are at stake.

Winstanley, Forest City Enterprises and the Science Park Development Corporation are spending $40 million to renovate the old rifle factory at Winchester Avenue and Munson Street and turning it into new offices (including a new home for the Higher One company) and eventually new apartments and stores.

Principals from all three entities sat through Tuesday night’s almost-two-hour meeting (which included contested elections) for a chance to describe the latest developments. (Click here and here for previous stories about the project.)

Forest City’s Abe Naparstek said he expects construction to begin this winter on the mixed-use project. ​“We’ll be adhering to the local and minority hiring requirements of 25 percent” of workers on the site, plus 6.9 percent females, he said.

Lil Snyder, who works for the city’s economic development office, laid out the specifics of the training program, whose 15 slots are funded with about $120,000 in federal stimulus money. The money is being funneled through the Regional Workforce Alliance to the Contractors Alliance, which works to find jobs and training for, in this case, residents of Newhallville and Dixwell.

Four weeks of classes, starting Dec. 7, will be followed by four weeks of on-the-job training. While participants are not promised jobs upon completion of their training, that’s just the time that such trained workers workers will be needed on the Winchester project. She said the project will transform the old factory.

“At one time they employed 30,000 people, and it’s been vacant for the last ten years,” she said. ​“So this is a wonderful opportunity to bring back to the community what they had long ago and participate in cleaning up their environment as well as also looking into a new career.”

People were happy to hear about the job opportunities, but there was a murmur of agreement when Lateefah Williams said, ​“We need more than 15 jobs.” Snyder said it’s possible that Gateway Community College, which is running the training, could train a second class if enough qualified applicants are found.

She said 35 of 281 brownfields sites in Connecticut are in New Haven, which provides a great opportunity for remediation jobs.

“Every single building we have purchased in the last 20 years needed some kind of remediation, so these are incredibly valuable skills, and there are not that many trained people now,” Carter Winstanley added.

Walter Esdaile, project manager for the Contractors Alliance, said 75 people have already applied. He said he’s confident at least 15 will be qualified.