Plans Approved For New Sidewalks, Peck School Renovations

Two major construction projects for which Hamden has received grants can now advance to bidding stages thanks to a vote Monday night: renovations on the Alice Peck School and the installation of sidewalks on several southern Hamden streets.

Both items passed the Hamden Legislative Council unanimously, neither of them generating much discussion. Yet both are relatively large-scale construction projects that will have lasting impacts on Hamden’s education and pedestrian infrastructure.

Alice Peck Renovations

As Hamden prepares for long-awaited renovations on the Alice Peck School, it needs someone who will act as a liaison between the town and its contractors in order to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

The council approved an agreement between the town and Construction Solutions Group, LLC, which will act as the owner’s construction representative for the renovations of Alice Peck. The representative will serve as an ​“added set of eyes,” said Hamden Purchasing Agent Phil Goodwin.

Owner’s construction representatives help property owners in construction projects by making sure that they have hired the best contractors, that architectural plans are sound, and that the construction process is executed properly, said Goodwin. They are usually used in smaller-scale capital projects. The Alice Peck renovation is a relatively small project, costing around $6 million. Unlike Alice Peck, the reconstruction of the West Woods School, another planned construction project in the town, will require a construction manager-at-risk, as it will cost somewhere in the order of $26 – 32 million.

“Because this is a small budget, it’s really important that we stay on budget,” said At-large Rep. Lauren Garrett, who serves as chair of the council’s Education Committee. The owner’s construction rep. will help the town complete the project without spending too much more than anticipated.

Goodwin explained that the town recently issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) to solicit information from potential owner’s construction reps. about their qualifications so the town could choose one. The School Building Committee selected Construction Solutions Group. The choice simply needed the council’s approval, which the ouncil granted Monday evening.

The Alice Peck renovation plans have been in the works for a few years. About four years ago, Hamden’s State House Rep. Mike D’Agostino secured $2.5 million from the state to pay for a plan to fix the ceiling.

In addition to fixing the roof, the town also aimed to rethink the school’s programming. The state liked the town’s plans and added both infrastructural elements and encouraging the town to create a broader plan for the function of the school in the district.

The state kicked in extra money, bringing the project total to around $6 million. Schools Superintendent Jody Goeler said that of that $6 million, about 80 percent will come from the state.

Alice Peck currently has pre‑K classrooms for both special needs students and students without special needs. When the town first began the process of planning for the renovations, said Garrett, it envisioned the school as a home for students with autism.

The district has since assessed its needs and decided that the school should rather focus on students with social-emotional issues.

Goeler told the Independent that recently, the district has seen more and more young children with anxiety, who ​“can’t manage the demands of the school day.” He said he thought that the trend might be due in part to the pressures that Hamden families now face, but that it is also the result of changes in the way the district thinks about anxiety and student mental health. Rather than viewing the behavior caused by anxiety as something to address through discipline, he said, the district has come to understand that disruptive behavior is often the result of mental health issues.

Alice Peck, once its renovation is complete, will be dedicated to Hamden’s youngest students who struggle socially and emotionally. By working with families and offering resources to students as early as possible, said Goeler, the district will be better able to get students who struggle on track and back into classrooms with their peers.

Students will get the special help that they need at Alice Peck, but the proximity of the school to other schools in the district will allow students to slowly integrate into classrooms at those other schools. Goeler explained that a student might be able to spend an hour at his or her neighborhood elementary for a week as a way of preparing for fulltime enrollment there.

The state, Goeler said, hopes that Alice Peck will serve as a model for what other towns could do. He said that Hamden is one of the ​“few districts developing a program specifically to address the needs of these children.”

The school will also offer an opportunity for regionalization, said Goeler. Though it will primarily serve students from Hamden, extra seats will be open to students from surrounding towns, which will pay tuition to send their students there.

“Hamden Loves Sidewalks”

In 2017, Hamden won a grant from the federal government to install sidewalks on four streets on its southern end. The grant will cover 80 percent of the $2.8 million that the project is estimated to cost, while the town will provide the rest.

In April 2018, the Legislative Council approved bonding for the $2.8 million, most of which will be reimbursed after the fact by the Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant Program.

On Monday, the Legislative Council approved the payment scheme of the design process.

Studies from 2012 and 2014 determined that certain parts of town need more sidewalks. As town Engineer Mark Austin put it, ​“Hamden loves sidewalks.” The studies showed that four streets in particular needed them: Augur Street, Benham Street, Davis Street, and Treadwell Street.

Austin explained that Augur Street already has sidewalks in some places, but not in others. Benham Street needs sidewalks to connect schools, to apartment buildings and Dixwell Avenue. Sidewalks on Davis Street will provide better pedestrian access to East Rock Park. Sidewalks on Treadwell Street, which is one of the town’s main East-West connectors, will make neighborhoods on either side of Hamden more accessible to each other and to the Farmington Canal Trail.

Now that the council has approved the payment arrangement, the town can go ahead and find a designer. The town anticipates that the design process will cost a total of $520,000. Of that, the grant will cover $416,000, while the town will be responsible for the remaining $104,000. Once the designing is complete, the town will pay the designer using the bond money it issued last year. The town will then receive the grant money as reimbursement, which will come from the state, though the money originated at the federal level.

Once the design process is complete, the town will have to go through the whole process again for the actual construction, first approving the payment scheme as it did Monday evening and then finding a contractor to complete the work.

In all, the town will install 18,200 feet of sidewalk. It aims for the work to be completed in 2020.

Austin explained that this grant is separate from the ongoing work of repairing Hamden’s existing sidewalks. He said that the town has between $12 and 15 million in sidewalk repairs ahead, and that work is always ongoing.