There are few things the Blogster likes better than covering the quarterly meetings of the Capitol Preservation and Restoration Commission.
Few people ever attend the meetings of the commission, who get briefed on a variety of topics and whose biggest claim to fame over the last year was placing The Genius of Connecticut statue in the Capitol rotunda instead of a warehouse.
So this month, this is what we learned:
- The signage at the Capitol Avenue entrance of the Capitol, proclaiming the million-dollar “Green Capitols” project replacing traditional sidewalks with permeable pavement and a variety of other work, is wrong.
While the sign says it’s funded in half by a “state grant” and half by a “state loan,” Eric Connery, the Capitol facilities director, said in reality, half the money was federal Clean Water Act funds and half is a matching grant from the Metropolitan District Commission, the Hartford area water and sewage district. “I’m not sure why they’re calling DEP funds a loan, but there is no requirement to pay the money back,” Connery said.
- The limited redigging of the driveway will be refilled by 20 inches of crushed stone and four inches of permeable asphalt.
- The first day’s work has to be totally redone, because it was more than 95 degrees, with 20 mph winds, creating hydration issues for the mix, which will now have to be torn up and replaced. “They learned a lot and the rest of it looks much better,” said Jay Drew, facilities project manager.
- There will be no more annual plantings of tulips in the flower beds near the south portico. Connery said the plantings budget has been cut by a third, so perennials will be planted in the future. Connery predicted that a few tulips may come up anyway as vestigial volunteers.
- The new “green” sidewalks, which will have two-year warrantees, are going to result in experimenting during snow storms, although non-salt “ice melt” can be used. No sand is allowed because it can get in the cracks that are supposed to whisk away water from storm sewers. Drew said the sidewalks will be able to handle 400 gallons of water in one square foot, without puddling. There is an end-of-the-project demonstration of 5,000 gallons of water that will be dumped.