Stamford Mayor Asks Senators For Transportation, Mill River Project
By Justin Hill
WASHINGTON, March 05–Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy asked Connecticut’s Senators yesterday for more federal money to secure land for the Mill River Corridor Project and to build the Urban Transitway Dock Street Connector and other transportation projects.
The mayor met first with Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd in a 45-minute discussion of Stamford’s needs.
“We talked about funding for land acquisition of the Mill River Corridor,” Malloy said in an interview after the meeting. “We talked about transportation dollars that might become available [and] housing dollars that might become available. We’re down here working on our budget, our federal budget priorities for Stamford, where the federal government might be helpful to us.”
The mayor met with Democratic Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman about an hour later.
Malloy also asked Dodd for $32.25 million in federal funds for Phases I and II of the Dock Street Connector and $4.6 million for construction of a high-speed ferry landing at Atlantic Street and Washington Boulevard.
“We had a good discussion on Stamford’s needs,” Dodd said in a statement, “and while obviously there are budget restraints and these are never easy fights, I intend to do everything I can to help him and the community on these requests.”
Malloy said Dodd, whom he credited with putting the Dock Street Connector and Mill River project in the budget three years ago, was “very supportive” and “responsive” during the meeting.
The mayor also talked to Dodd about President George W. Bush’s proposal to ax half of a community’s funds from the Housing and Urban Development Department’s budget if the town’s median income is double the national median income. Stamford is not on a list of towns affected by this proposal, which is based on income data from the 1990 census, according to Robert Duncan, deputy director of HUD’s office of block grants. But it could lose those funds when the proposal takes into account income data from the 2000 census.
“We have to be concerned about that as a threat,” the mayor said. “We’re going to keep a close eye on thatá. We would have a great concern about that.”
Stamford could lose more than $1.5 million in funds. In fiscal year 2002, the city received $1.2 million in HUD’s community development block grants and $506,000 in HUD funds for affordable housing. Income data from the 2000 census are due out next year, Duncan said.
Malloy also requested $124 million in federal money for reconstruction of railroad underpasses in the I-95/Rail Center area-Atlantic Street, Elm Street and Post Road/Rte. 1-and a section of East Main Street as well as $500,000 for a feasibility study for the new Post Road Train Station on the New Canaan Line at the intersection of Rte. 1 and I-95. He also asked for legislative authorization of the new station.
Published in The Hour, in Norwalk, Conn.
