The Naugatuck Valley’s history of industry is written into its cities’ nicknames: The Brass City, The Clock City, The Rubber City.
What happens when those industries go away?
Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG) Executive Director Rick Dunne spoke about that history, along with transportation, economic development, and brownfield remediation, on the most recent episode of WNHH’s “The Municipal Voice” program, hosted by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
Those three main topics — transportation, economic development, and the environment — are more connected in the Valley than perhaps anywhere else in the state. For many of the towns, main thoroughfares double as both the primary means into and out of a municipality as well as that municipality’s commercial Main Street.
In Derby, NVCOG is facilitating the 34 Project that will completely renovate the Route 34/Main Street area in town.
While Rt. 34 is a state road, Dunne said regional control is important because “the concern is the state building a highway through downtown.”
The Route 8 Connector is a main interchange for people who live in the surrounding communities, Dunne said, so making it more fluid is essential.
And yet, modeling the project on a highway would eliminate the chance for economic development.
NVCOG had to fight for things like road width to make sure the plan was viable for both town and traveler.
One of Dunne’s hopes is that the Waterbury Branch Line of the Metro North commuter rail system becomes more viable after upgrades to the system come online in the next year or so.
Dunne said the train line can help eliminate some of the congestion on roads like Rt. 34 and Rt. 8. He said there are around 1,000 passengers a day on a train line that only has about six services a day. Adding more trains and implementing a CTFastrack style bus that goes to job centers in places like Shelton can decrease daily congestion.
In Ansonia, Dunne said economic activity has worked wonders when it comes to renovating brownfields of old industry. “Activity attracts activity,” he said. With brownfield reclamation, “there’s always a spinoff effect of economic activity.”
“We don’t create jobs, we need to put the infrastructure in place to allow private investors to prosper,” Dunne said about the role that local government should play in fostering a healthy economy.
He said Connecticut’s motto and should be: “If you build it, they will come.”
