The Honorable Christopher J. Dodd
United States Senate
448 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Dodd:

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) urges you to lead the effort to secure sufficient funding to assist Connecticut towns and cities in bringing levees up to federal safety standards.

The Army Corps of Engineers has reconsidered previous determinations about the condition of levees in Hartford, East Hartford, Torrington and Waterbury. Previously determined safe, the levees are now deemed in need of immediate repair.

Repairing the levees will be very costly to affected municipalities. As mentioned in a September 10, 2007 editorial in The Hartford Courant, repairs will cost East Hartford alone approximately $7 million.

It is appropriate and reasonable that the federal government pay the lion’s share of repair costs – especially since the Corps’ reassessment is what’s causing additional, hefty municipal expenditures, and the fact that the levees have a regional impact beyond the host communities.

If CCM can be of assistance to you in this endeavor, please contact me or Ron Thomas, CCM’s Manager of State and Federal Relations, at (203) 498-3000.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

James J. Finley, Jr.
Executive Director and CEO

cc: Mayor Ryan Bingham
Mayor Melody Currey
Mayor Michael Jarjura
Mayor Eddie Perez