Repairs to the commercial fishing pier in Stonington and building a new child care center in Groton for Thames Valley Council for Community Action, are both set to receive federal funding after the U.S. House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill last week.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, had funding for nine of his community project requests, also known as earmarks or pork barrel spending, included in last week’s House appropriations bill.

The House still has more appropriations bills to approve, which could contain Courtney’s other funding requests.

“We worked side-by-side with local leaders in town governments and the nonprofit sector to secure funding for these local projects, and today marks a big step forward in making it final,” Courtney said in a statement last week. “The appropriations package we voted to advance … includes funding specifically for projects that many of our towns and community partners otherwise couldn’t afford—from improved childcare services, to expanded affordable housing opportunities, to infrastructure upgrades that will support our fishing industry on the shoreline.”

Although the bill still needs to be passed by the Senate and signed by the president, Stonington First Selectwoman Danielle Chesebrough and TVCCA Executive Director Deb Monahan were elated with the prospect of the funding.

Early childhood center in Groton

The bill passed by the House includes $3 million to replace the outdated modular buildings at the TVCCA’s childcare center in Groton. Monahan said the money will go towards creating “a brand-new, state-of-the-art early childhood center in Groton.”

“Currently, and for the last 50 years, the TVCCA has had a phenomenal relationship with the town of Groton, and they have always provided modular units for our early childhood programs,” Monahan said. “Those modular units have reached their end of life. We’re still providing childcare in them and we are still using them, but we have set out to raise the resources to replace those modular units with a brand-new, state-of-the- art early childhood center for that town and for the people that live in that community and work in that community.”

Monahan said TVCCA hopes to be able to serve more than the 85 children it does now.

“We’d like to reach more people in the community because we know childcare is in demand,” Monahan said. “What’s really important is the Groton community. The children deserve a new facility, so the TVCCA is embarking on that.”

While the $3 million doesn’t cover the entire cost of replacing the buildings, Monahan is confident news of the federal earmark will help the effort to raise the additional funds.

Monahan said It will probably take a couple of years before the new facility is complete. She added the timeline is dependent on how fast the TVCCA can leverage the resources needed for construction.

Stonington Town Dock repairs

Another one of the earmarks calls for $900,000 in funding to begin major maintenance and upgrades to the north pier of the Town Dock, which is home to the state’s last commercial fishing fleet.

“There’s major maintenance needed around the pilings and some of the framing,” said First Selectwoman Danielle Chesebrough. “Repair and replacement is needed for a lot of the north pier.”

Chesebrough said town had previously received almost $2 million to improve safety and other dock infrastructure.

“We’ve been looking for money to help with repairs since before I was in office,” she said.

Chesebrough said the town also has a $4 million estimate to fix the south pier of the Town Dock.

“That’s one where we’re not gonna be able to have funding to do that for quite some time without some larger federal grant program rolling out,” she said.

The possibility of the funding is a welcome sign for the town’s commercial fishermen, who have had their struggles in recent years. While they have weathered declining catches and increased restrictions on how much fish they can land, the state’s last commercial fleet now faces new challenges that threatens its future.

These include the difficulty of luring young people into a grueling but potentially lucrative occupation and the leasing of vast areas of their fishing grounds to offshore wind energy companies that plan to erect hundreds of massive turbines.

“We’re all still, probably them more than me, being cautious about being too excited until it’s completely done,” Chesebrough said about the approval of the funding. “They’ve had some really challenging times over the years, so I don’t think they want to rely on this until it’s officially done.”

Courtney had a slate of earmarks approved in the 2022 budget, signed into law in March, as well. The practice of using federal funds for local initiatives chosen by Congress members came back in last year’s budget after a 10-year hiatus.

In 2011, after it was widely known that certain members of Congress were using earmarks for personal gain or to help their friends, the practice was banned. But in part because of Connecticut's U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, this sort of federal spending has returned, now with a lot more rules governing the process.

s.spinella@theday.com