Country Club Road Water Main Application to be Heard at Inland Wetlands

The Inland Wetlands and Watercourse Agency will hold a public hearing tonight for an application to install a water main under Country Club Road. The water main would link two separate water mains, one which ends at Moody School, and another which goes along Middle Street and ends at the State Public Safety Building adjacent to exit 21 on I91. Bond funding for this project was approved in a referendum in 2008.

Country Club Road crosses Fall Brook just west of Smith Park, thus the project requires a wetlands permit to proceed. The Inland Wetlands Agency voted at their May meeting to hold a public hearing at their June 2nd meeting for this permit application.

The application was not heard at the June 2nd meeting because the required signs announcing the public hearing were not posted, and the registered letters to adjoining property owners were not mailed. These actions are the responsibility of the applicant, in this case the Department of Water and Sewer.

Water and Sewer has awarded a contract for the work to the New Britain office of the Maguire Group. Guy Russo, director of Water and Sewer, told me in an interview that the Maguire Group was responsible for the public noticing. When I asked Engineer Mark Kopchak of the Maguire Group about Russo's remarks, he declined to comment. Joe Fazzino, the Water and Sewer Department engineer in charge of the project, did not return a phone call on Tuesday. However, an official in the Planning Department told me that signs are typically posted by the city department, not by the hired contractor.