A Newhall meeting saw neighbors, Hamden town officials, and project consultants come together to define the path forward in the decades-long struggle to address their crumbling home foundations and effect the demolition of a long-abandoned middle school. The meeting, held last Thursday at Breakt hrough Church, was organized by the Hamden Newhall Neighborhood Association (HNNA), a group formed in early 2024 with a mission to fight for funds sufficient to repair the crumbling homes caused by years of New Haven manufacturers dumping industrial waste—and a cleanup effort that didn’t leave the job done. A lot has changed recently. After a year that saw HNNA leaders and their allies waiting until the wee hours to share their testimony at legislative council meetings, holding community meetings under blizzard conditions, and hosting sidewalk tours for state legislators, the group rode their unofficial guiding principle—“it ends with us”—to a budget of approximately $18 million in federal, state, and local funding to repair their foundations. Hamden mayor Adam Sendroff, addressing the audience. “I’m in,” he said. Credit: Lisa Reisman photo There’s also a new mayor, Adam Sendroff, who proclaimed his commitment to seeing the projects through—“not just getting them started, but making sure they’re done right,” he told the roughly 60 neighbors and members of the legislative council, as well as representatives from the engineering consulting firm Haley Aldrich, 7 Summits Construction Company, and BL Companies. Carol Hazen, Grants and Capital Projects Director and project manager of the Newhall Foundations Repair Fund Project, put it plainly: “We want you to leave tonight with a clear picture of what to expect for both projects,” Hazen told the Newhall residents, referring to the foundation repair and the middle school demolition. Tina Jennings-Harriott, HNNA president. Credit: Lisa Reisman photo HNNA president Tina Jennings-Harriott had a similar message. “We’re trying to give you enough information to empower you to know what’s happening and to know who to contact if you have questions,” she said. “Then you can educate your neighbors about it too.” The plans, shared by the project consultants, are as follows. Of the 305 properties in the consent boundary area, 75 are eligible for remediation, and 23 are part of the first round of repairs. The next step is to put the plans out for bid. Then work will begin. There will be safeguards in place for air quality and dust, noise, pests, vibrations, after-hours security, and removal of hazardous materials, among other measures for environmental impacts. Regarding the middle-school demolition, the plans are 95 percent complete. After those plans are out for bid, there will be removal of hazardous materials from the buildings, upon which that project will start. The demo project will run concurrently with the foundations repair project. Then, with Jennings-Harriott facilitating, came questions from community members. “The school has been abandoned for 25-plus years,” one asked. “What will it take to have a project completed in a timely manner?” Tim Barry (with microphone), project manager with 7 Summits Construction, with Sam Haydock, licensed environmental professional with BL Companies. Credit: Lisa Reisman photo “We are on that path,” said Sam Haydock, a licensed environmental professional with BL Companies. “The intent is to go out and select a contractor. The funding is in place. So, barring some unforeseen issues, we see the project moving forward this year.” There were questions about the possibility of transforming the middle school into condos (none; too far gone); about noise monitoring for drilling and jack-hammering in homes (will be in full compliance with OSHA regulations); about the role of community members in decision-making around the two projects. “The oversight committee will include resident representatives from the neighborhood to make sure your voices are part of this process at every stage,” said Hazen; the residents on the oversight committee have already been elected, according to Jennings-Harriott. “The committee will meet monthly to review invoices, consider any problems that come up, any decisions that have to be made.” Someone else asked who would vet the contractors. The last time contractors were in her house, she had a window issue that needed to be addressed. Wastefill contaminating her land had caused the foundations to shift, and her windows with it. “There was cheap workmanship, they did half the job,” she said. “The new window wasn’t functional.” Seven Summits’ project manager Tim Barry cited the specific requirements for contractors on the bid documents. “They need to have the appropriate state licenses, they need to be able to represent that they have no instances of not completing work under contract, and no OSHA violations.” He discussed the strict quality control included in the plans and specifications for the project, as well as his background as a carpenter. “If the work is not meeting specifications, that work will be stopped,” he said. “If it has to be replaced, it will be replaced.” To a question about why the town of Hamden, and by extension the taxpayers, have to cover the repair costs — Sendroff clarified that state and federal funds were also supporting the projects — councilwoman Rhonda Caldwell, whose district includes Newhall, spoke up. “The building’s been sitting there for 25 years,” said Caldwell, who’s been outspoken about the red-lining on which the Newhall community was built. “The foundations have been crumbling for 50. People are suffering. This is all way past due. We can talk all day about where the money’s coming from, but let’s just keep working to make it happen.” After the meeting, HNNA member Danielle Campbell, a fourth-generation Hamden resident whose home was built on contaminated land, sounded a similar refrain. “We appreciate all this for sure, but we’ll start to believe [when] there’s a definitive start date.” The post Foundation Repairs, Ex-Middle School Demolition Draw Near appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less