Herbst, Malloy Guest at This Morning's Chamber Breakfast

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and incoming Unversity of Connecticut President Susan Herbst are guests at this morning's Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting. 

The higher education community is very excited for Susan to take over as the president of our state’s flagship university. 

She brings with her a wealth of experience and results. As executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer for the University System of Georgia, she oversees all academic programs for Georgia’s 35 public colleges and universities. The University System of Georgia has more than 300,000 students, more than 40,000 faculty and staff, and a budget of over $6 billion.

The Crowne Plaza will be packed and Brad Davis of WDRC-AM will broadcast live from 5:30-9 p.m.

Last week, we had a double session of Arrigoni Bridge Committee and Emergency Management Subcommittee.  If this project is not managed properly, it is going to be a nightmare for the entire central Connecticut region. 

In the first meeting, the entire Arrigoni Bridge Committee continued to encourage the department of transportation to think outside of the box and keep three lanes open during the construction phase as opposed to two. We continued to push this issue with DOT representatives last week, and State Reps. Joe Serra, D-Middletown, Christie Carpino, R-Cromwell, and State Sen. Paul Doyle, D-9th, were all vocal at the meeting to advocate for this request, along with Deputy Middletown Mayor Joe Bibisi, Portland First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield and East Haddam First Selectman Mark Walter.

Aside from the concerns of lane closures, a key concern of the committee is the ability of DOT to notify motorists well in advance of issues on the bridge as well as projected travel times to cross the bridge, going in both directions between Portland and Middletown. The DOT is working on an independent web page outside of its home page so there is a dedicated page to the bridge’s construction and information. 

Our committee suggested the idea of linking information provided on DOT’s website to Twitter, so motorists can receive DOT tweets anywhere and at any time.  This is a work in progress. 

Late last, Lennie Leibenhaut hosted the groundbreaking of Centerpoint Connecticut’s new, “green” office building complex in Middletown on Industrial Park Road. Lennie and his Centerpoint team broke ground on a 12,500-square-foot building, the first of a seven-building complex in Middletown.

Centerpoint Connecticut is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver-certified project consisting of seven two-story buildings designed to efficiently use resources — energy, water and materials — while reducing impacts on the environment. The recognized standard for green building performance in the United States is the LEED Green Building Rating System.

Also last week, Matt Fraulino and I visited The Way Back Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation in Durham and were impressed by their commitment to helping those with drug and alcohol problems. The day after, there was a chamber board meeting hosted by Herb Clark at the Griswold Inn in Essex. 

I had the opportunity to visit Bob Byrne, a longtime friend and mentor, with Albert Hamrah at Hartford Hospital. Our prayers and best wishes go out to Bob for a speedy recovery — he is a truly outstanding community leader.

For information on Chamber events, contact Matt Fraulino at matthew@middlesexchamber.com or (860) 347-6924.

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