This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Public Works Director Tiger Mann about plans to restore New Canaan’s roads to the excellent condition they’d been in prior to the natural gas line installation.
This installment of 0684-Radi0 is sponsored by Nazareth Housing, a community-based not-for-profit committed to housing stability and economic mobility among vulnerable families and individuals in NYC. Please support the 4th New Canaan Benefit for Nazareth Housing, to be held at Waveny House from 6:30 to 11 p.m. on May 31st.
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The Eversource road work is a major problem.
Earlier in the week I asked the Selectman what type of hearing or Democrat and Citizen input there was before the project was OK’d?
I’m interested to know what type of pre-construction input there was on the Eversource road work?
Local residents have had to deal with continual road blockages, rough conditions of the already substandard roads as well after construction. There is widespread upset over this.
Were local citizens given a voice with potentially stopping or limiting the scope of this town-wide construction? What benefit do residents of the town get as compensation for the work being done? Many people don’t use natural gas. There are serious controversies about the process of Fracking which frees up natural gas. I don’t have to cite articles against Fracking as they are all over the Media.
How long is this construction going on? Will Eversource be paying for re-paving all roads where the work was done?
His response:
Dear Tom,
Tiger Mann will be happy to talk to you about the Eversource expansion plan at a convenient time. He will be in later this morning.
The conversion to natural gas will provide substantial savings to New Canaan taxpayers in the decades to come as the Schools and Town buildings are converted to gas from fuel oil. The CFO of the Schools indicates that the 3 Farm Road schools (NCHS, Saxe and South) are already experiencing about 43% savings from prior fuel oil costs since being converted to gas last October 1. This will produce hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings annually to taxpayers for just these three schools.
We will also be installing gas-powered electric generation facilities at the town’s Waste Water Treatment Plant and at NCHS and Saxe that will save additional hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in electricity costs. Further annual taxpayer savings will come from converting Town Hall and other Town-owned buildings to natural gas for heating and hot water.
Eversource has expanded gas into Wilton and Darien in the last 4 years, and those towns are very pleased with their budget savings.
Natural gas is cleaner by far than burning fuel oil and there is an abundance of natural gas in the United States for the next 100 years. We are now even exporting liquefied natural gas to China and other countries.
Finally, the State of Connecticut has an Energy Strategy that mandates that Eversource expand the use of natural gas through 2022 because CT is far behind Massachusetts and New Jersey in natural gas availability for homeheating.
Tiger will be glad to explain to you Eversource’s obligations to restore our roads. Where a road has no homes remaining to hook up to natural gas, we can accelerate the full restoration of a road. For example, Eversource reimbursed the Town $100,000 last November to restore Farm Road between South Avenue and Old Stamford Road.
Let me know if you’d like to meet to discuss the Eversource expansion further.
I hope they alert the Memorial Day Marches to ‘watch their steps going down Main St.