Danbury left with bill for bridge replacements
DANBURY -- Don't you just hate it when a friend asks you to dinner and leaves you with the tab?
That was the situation that city officials found themselves in this week when they were left with a $1.3 million bill for bridge replacements the state had promised to pay for.
Funding for the bridges, which have already been replaced, was cut as part of a $1.2 billion deficit mitigation plan the General Assembly passed last week.
Mayor Mark Boughton said he understands the state might have to eliminate money for future projects, but these bridges were completed last year.
"We've been waiting for months for our reimbursement from the state," Boughton said. "These are bridges the state wanted us to replace. The problem now is that we have these bridges finished, but we don't have the money."
Other towns in the region were also affected when the legislature cut the $28 million bridge replacement program.
Redding was supposed to receive money to repair a bridge on Station Road over Umpawaug Pond Brook. Sherman officials were expecting money for a bridge replacement project that's under way on Old Greenwoods Road.
State Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, who voted against the deficit mitigation plan, said he was told Wednesday, before the plan passed, that the funding would be there. Thursday morning he discovered it was gone.
"I've had discussions with the state Department of Transportation, and they are working diligently on this," he said. "It seems like they will work with the governor's office and the legislature to try and fix what happened."
McLachlan said he will continue to monitor the situation until Danbury gets the money it is owed.
State Department of Transportation officials could not be reached for comment.
Contact Dirk Perrefort
or at (203) 731-3358.۩
