Latest news with #JohnBurt
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Groton plan recommends bicycle, pedestrian improvements
Groton — A long-term bicycle and pedestrian plan is recommending about $42 million in phased improvements for bicycle facilities and sidewalks to help make the community safer for cyclists and pedestrians and better connect areas of the town. Town Manager John Burt said the plan will serve as a guiding document for solicitation of grant funding. The town will also consult the plan when reviewing sidewalk and road work to determine where best to enhance the walkability and bikeability of the area. Parks and Recreation Director Mark Berry told the Town Council during a presentation March 11 that an impetus for updating the town's 2005 bicycle and pedestrian plan was the town's 2022 recreational needs assessment. Residents identified improved community connectivity as one of the highest needs. Rory Jacobson, a community planner with FHI Studio, now IMEG, the consultant, said the purpose of the plan, called the Groton Complete Streets and Trails Plan, is to identify infrastructure the town can install to improve walking and biking throughout town for a variety of users. The plan also includes recommendations to improve connections to parks, open spaces and recreational areas. Groton has a Complete Streets Policy, and the town's Complete Streets Advisory Committee assisted with the development of the plan. Community comments According to the plan, community members said during the community outreach process that they hope the town will improve handicap accessibility, safety along roads, signage to raise awareness of bicyclists, trail wayfinding signs, and connections to trails. Residents also said they want the town to fill gaps in Groton's bicycle and pedestrian network, add facilities along east-west routes to accommodate commuters, encourage bicycling at schools, better maintain road shoulders and sidewalks, create designated facilities for bicyclists, educate drivers about types of bicycle facilities, and improve pedestrian safety. Nicole Detora, a planner with the consulting firm, said the town has few on-road bicycle facilities and multi-use pathways, but a good number of trails that accommodate hikers and mountain bikers. Groton has a fairly extensive sidewalk network, but there are gaps, including some significant ones. Detora said areas along Route 1 lack sidewalks on both sides or one side of the road, while other routes, such as 184 and 117, lack a sidewalk network altogether. She said 2019-23 crash data shows that the western side of town, specifically around Route 12 and the western part of Route 1, have higher crash concentrations. There also are some hot spots in places such as Mystic and along Route 184. She said if there are sidewalk gaps in these areas, it will sometimes force pedestrians onto the roads, so there is a safety concern. Recommendations Francisco Gomes, comprehensive planning manager with the consultant, said the emphasis of the recommendations are for roads and corridors that provide connectivity across town. The recommendations are for a range of facility types, including bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, side paths, multi-use paths, shared roadways and sidewalks. The recommendation for a four-phase comprehensive bicycle facility network would cost $29.4 million. The total cost of sidewalk improvement is estimated to be $12.5 million. Gomes said the recommendation is for that to be done three phases, with the first $3.1 million phase to focus on the Route 1 sidewalk network. The plan includes five concept plans for improvements to corridors: Routes 12 and 1 from Toll Gate Road to Buddington Road; Route 1 from Buddington Road to Noank Ledyard Road; Route 1 from Noank Ledyard Road to the Stonington town line; Route 117 from Route 1 to the Ledyard town line; and Route 215 from South Elm Street to Route 1. The concepts include the planning work the town could use in future grant applications. The study also has concepts for Complete Streets demonstration projects for Bindloss and Depot roads. The plan includes a list of potential grants funding sources the town could apply for. Gomes said a next step is to reach out to the state Department of Transportation. Town Councilors spoke about the importance of accessibility and safety. They discussed the plan, with some expressing surprise over the high cost for improvements, but also said the town could look to make smaller improvements as it does projects, such as repaving. A recommendation to adopt the plan as the guiding document to improve connectivity in Groton is slated to be on the agenda of the Town Council's April 22 Committee of the Whole meeting.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Groton Town's proposed budget calls for a 3.8% increase
Groton — The proposed 2025-26 town and school budget stands at $163.1 million, an increase of approximately $6 million, or 3.8%, over the current budget. The budget will be presented at a public hearing Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Thrive 55+ Active Living Center. Town Manager John Burt said he expects the proposed budget to change significantly as the Town Council and Representative Town Meeting review it. 'I'd like to see the overall budget decreased to limit the impact on our taxpayers,' he added. The proposal, as it currently stands, would increase the tax rate from 23.08 to 24.98 mills, a 1.9-mill increase. The proposal would use $5 million of fund balance, after the town collected higher than anticipated revenues in recent years, to offset the impact on taxes, Burt wrote in a document submitting the proposed budget to the Town Council and RTM. Overall, the proposal calls for a 3% increase for town operations mostly due to employee benefits and raises; a 7.3% increase for education; a 6% increase for outside agencies; a 3.6% increase for political subdivisions such as the city, Groton Long Point and fire districts; a 20% increase for contingency; and a 13.6% decrease for capital and debt services. Burt wrote that another factor impacting the tax rate is that the Oct. 1, 2024, net adjusted taxable grand list increased 0.12% from 2023. Burt wrote that thanks to American Rescue Plan Act funds, the town 'made great strides in funding much of its Parks & Recreational facilities repairs and replacements,' except for high school fields and additional community fields. He said the town's responsibility now is to maintain its infrastructure, so it doesn't deteriorate and need to be replaced sooner. He said the town also needs to 'arrive at a plan for replacing antiquated and in some cases dangerous athletic facilities at its schools, as well as increasing capacity for sporting events with the addition of more facilities.' Burt noted that upcoming challenges include potential federal funding changes, particularly in education; the state's continued attempts to shift costs to towns; continued health care, retirement, fuel and electricity cost increases; and a likely loss in state education funding when Groton Public Schools comes off the Alliance District list in the future. He said the town is anticipating a lot of construction over the next few years, but revenue from Electric Boat construction will be stifled because it is located in a state-designated Enterprise Zone. 'While very welcome news, the revenues cannot be counted on to meet all of the Town's financial goals even when combined with other prospective construction projects,' he wrote. Burt wrote that the town needs to come to a shared vision on how to balance development with effects on neighborhoods and the appropriate amount of open space. He also said that a low tax rate is only one component of prosperity. 'Without suitably maintained parks, libraries, athletic facilities, and other similar services, the Town will suffer and never realize its full potential,' Burt wrote. 'The challenge is how to best accomplish this goal.'
The National
08-03-2025
- Science
- The National
Fish learn how to survive in warming Arabian Gulf
The warming waters of the Arabian Gulf mean fish must adapt to survive – but new research suggests local marine life might be particularly good at it. Scientists at NYU Abu Dhabi found reef fish in the harsh Arabian Gulf conditions had developed a higher "thermal tolerance" than in the milder Gulf of Oman. However, the Arabian Gulf had fewer fish species overall, suggesting those unable to adapt had been lost. Already the world's hottest sea, the Arabian Gulf is expected to become warmer still due to climate change, altering a marine ecosystem that supports tourism and fishing in the UAE. Temperatures approaching 40°C have been recorded in waters off the Emirates, even at depths of six metres. "The increased thermal tolerance observed in fish from the Arabian Gulf suggests an adaptive response to years of extreme temperatures," said Daniel Ripley, one of the leaders of the Mubadala Arabian Centre for Climate and Environmental Sciences research team. "However, the noticeably lower fish diversity in the Arabian Gulf compared to the Gulf of Oman indicates that only certain species can physiologically adjust to temperature changes, meaning fewer species will survive as the climate continues to warm.' Scientists tested one theory that fish might be able to adjust their heart rate or metabolism to survive in warmer waters. However, there was no difference between the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman on that score, suggesting the theory does not hold true for tropical fish. Dubai last year installed 1,000 artificial "reef modules" in its waters to provide food and shelter for marine life, making good on a Dubai Reef project unveiled at the Cop28 climate summit. The reefs are designed to last more than 100 years, providing long-term ecological benefits. 'While some coral reef fish in the Arabian Gulf show slight adaptability to increasing temperatures, many do not,' said biology professor John Burt, a second leader of the research. 'This suggests that as global temperatures rise, fish biodiversity is likely to decline in many ecosystems. Our findings highlight the need to further investigate existing theories of thermal tolerance across different environments to better predict the long-term impacts of climate change.' The study Narrow Margins: Aerobic Performance and Temperature Tolerance of Coral Reef Fishes Facing Extreme Thermal Variability is published in the journal Global Change Biology.
