John Amport

Let me answer the second part of the question first. In the future, like the last two years, I too would act immediately to respond in a timely fashion to warnings regarding dangerously crumbling infrastructure. Much of the inconvenience that has been experienced could have been avoided if the Town had taken advantage of the State's offer of a temporary bridge back in 2004 when it first said the bridge was unsafe and recommended closure. The fact is that timely proper planning, situations like this can be held to a minimum. If you start the planning and analysis well in advance of it becoming a safety crisis, downtime can be limited to the actual construction time. We need to keep in mind that the length of time associated with construction is, to some degree, a function of what State or Federal program the Town chooses for reimbursement. For example, the Federal specifications are "higher" and therefore more expensive and likely have a longer construction cycle and hopefully longer useful life.

With regard to the current project, it is at a stage where actual implementation decisions are ready to be made. There is a public information session scheduled for November 15th at KES at 7:30PM where the Town's engineering company and the State's representatives with present the plan's status and where they think the project is going. The ongoing management of the project needs active involvement of the 1st Selectman and the Board of Selectmen so as to minimize the elapsed time as the project goes through the final design, permitting, DEP and construction phases. I will be looking for any means to improve the "critical path" to completion by seeking any opportunities to parallel process different aspects of the project. Say what you will regarding my running mate, you know you can count on him (and me) to push the project every day.