Mayor Stewart is $6M Short: Where is the money for the Allen St. Project? What is your plan?

This updated record is being shared regarding the status of our neighborhood’s storm-sewer-sanitary system and the City and State responses.

Dear Mayor Stewart:

Over the past 7 years, my wife Sharon and I have stepped up to shine a bright light on the Allen St. Infrastructure Problem. Our fact based narrative noted below (click on the links) with video interviews, photos, etc. details the failed efforts by our city officials over the past 30 years to upgrade the Allen St. Storm-Sewer System. This includes 12 years on your watch.

In 2018, we reached out to you regarding the Allen St. Problem. You and your allies went silent after we sent you our lingering questions. Our due diligence since 2023 has uncovered the facts.

We have been proactive with the assistance of Majority Leader McNamara, making the required effort to appeal to your good senses. Alderman McNamara understands the peril our neighborhoods, blocks and properties are in. It seems that you do not understand… If you did, after 12 years in office you would have prioritized, fully funded and constructed the Allen St. Project.

We have debunked all of your talking points. There is no more time for deflections, delays and distractions. We are told by your allies that criticizing you is misguided. As a reminder… We were invited by YOU to voice our concerns regarding your priorities and your fiscal behavior. Our criticisms are fact based, as we have detailed for you in all of our narratives.

You wrote to us: “You are not kind to me and you will never be”. It’s difficult to be kind and joyful while our neighborhoods, blocks and properties are flooding. We are the victims; not you. Your lack of empathy is concerning. If our roles were reversed, you’d be petitioning us for relief from the hazardous conditions we are being forced to live with. You have the authority and the responsibility to correct these hazardous conditions.

Why are you reluctant to step up and fully fund and construct the Allen St. Project? Why have you singled out all of us in the Allen St. Neighborhoods to suffer through these ongoing hazardous conditions? Our tenacious campaign to upgrade the Allen St Systems is due to decades of neglect and mismanagement by our City Officials regarding the Allen St. Flooding, Sanitary Back-ups and Breaks.

Your allies sat in our living room repeating their mantra, “We have no money for the Allen St. Project”. Meanwhile, you received hundreds of millions of earmark free dollars from our State and Federal Partners. The Allen St. Project was conveniently lost in the fiscal shuffle while you prioritized other higher profile projects. Bottomline, no one was advocating for this critical project until we stepped up with Alderman McNamara.

You now claim you have a $25M unassigned balance in the General Fund. Mayor Stewart, you are only $6M short for the Allen St. Project. After 12 years, here is another opportunity for you to finally correct the Allen St. Problem.

You wrote memos, but never stepped up with the required determination to complete the job. As YOU have noted: “The ALLEN ST. PROJECT IS OUR MOST PRESSING NEED and ALLEN ST. IS A DEFINITE HAZARD!” As we have noted, you continue to fail all of the taxpayers in New Britain. Meanwhile, the flooding, infiltration, cross connections and sanitary issues continue.

In 2023 Weston-Sampson engineers declared, “The Allen St. Project must be a priority because the infrastructure is at crisis levels”. To date, you have refused to Prioritize, Fully Fund and Construct the Allen St. Project.

The cause and effect is undeniable. Our Taxpayers deserve better than this; Our QUALITY OF LIFE continues to suffer, our safety continues to be in harm’s way and 50+ properties and structures are all at risk. Why do you continue to ignore the critical nature of the Allen St. Problem when you have the resources to construct the Allen St. Project now?

Our questions go unanswered as we carefully monitor each weather forecast hoping that the next storm will miss us. Our emergency bags are packed, ready to go should we need to evacuate! You have the power to correct the problem. Why are you choosing to ignore all of us in the Allen St. Neighborhoods?

Thank you.

Frank and Sharon Chase
Independent Voices Trying To Save Our Neighborhoods, Blocks and Properties