Wind wins

I'm going to be. This is WSHA's After All Things, with daily news and culture from around Long Island Sound. The first offshore wind project to supply power to Connecticut is almost ready to go. New Haven will give 2,000 kids free or extremely affordable after school care this year. Forecasters say there may be fewer big hurricanes than expected this fall. And a trip to the Adirondacks, where a landslide closed a popular trail for more than a year. Those stories and more are ahead. I'm Molly Ingram, in for Sabrina Garone. The first offshore wind project to supply power to Connecticut is almost ready to go. WSHU's Davis-Dunovan reports on the latest from Revolution Wind. Revolution Wind is 95% done and should be complete this year. That's what the CEO of the project's parent company Orsted told investors this week, according to the Hartford Business Journal. Revolution Wind is based out of New London's state pier, with its 65 offshore turbines stationed off the coast of Rhode Island. It went online in a limited capacity earlier this year and started sending some power to the grid, but when it's fully operational, it should power more than 300,000 houses across New England. The Trump administration tried hard to shut down Revolution Wind. Twice they ordered a halt to the project, but developers fought back and judges allowed work to continue. Davis-Donovan, WSHU News. New Haven will give 2,000 kids free or extremely affordable after school care this year. The New Haven After School Initiative is for kids in pre-K through eighth grade. Every day, up to 100 kids at each of the city's elementary and middle schools will get an extra few hours of learning and sports. Madeline Negroen is superintendent of schools. This initiative not only supports our students by providing an enrichment opportunity, but it also provides a vital service to our working families in our community by ensuring that our students are in safe spaces after school hours. The program will be free for low-income families and costs $25 otherwise. Registration for the new program is first-come, first-served, and opens on Monday. As the Northeast heads into peak Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters say there may be even fewer big storms this year than expected. Barbara Moran explains. The National Weather Service now predicts up to two major hurricanes this year. That's one fewer than predicted earlier. Forecasters say that's because the Pacific Ocean warming phenomenon known as El Nino is getting stronger and affecting global weather.

El Nino creates more wind shear over the Atlantic Ocean. That rips storms apart as they form. Michelle Leroux is a meteorologist at the National Climate Prediction Center. El Nino does help suppress the Atlantic hurricane season. We've seen that so far. And so at least at this point, it does look like the numbers are shaking out as they were respected. Hurricane season continues through the end of November. For the New England News Collaborative, I'm Barbara Moran. A popular trail in the Adirondacks has been closed for more than a year after heavy rain triggered a massive landslide. State and volunteer crews have been working this summer to clean up and rebuild the trail through Avalanche Pass. That story is coming up. Every writer has one, the story you can't stop thinking about, the memory that keeps resurfacing, the question that never quite goes away. Will WSHU and the Westport Writers Workshop invite Connecticut writers to take part in Connecticut Voices, a new storytelling collaboration? The theme is, what haunts you? Start writing, revising, or fine-tuning your story now. Submissions open September 1st. The winning writer will receive a cash prize and a chance to tell their original story on WSHU. Learn more at W. shu.org.

A popular trail in the Adirondacks has been closed for more than a year after heavy rain triggered a massive landslide. State and volunteer crews have been working this summer to clean up and rebuild the trail through Avalanche Pass. That story is coming up. Nassau County gave over a million dollars in contracts to the son of one of County Executive Bruce Blakeman's advisors, according to a Newsday report. The lawyer also unsuccessfully ran for a spot on the county legislature last year. Afterwards, the county gave him four contracts to represent them in court. A judge rejected a teacher's union's request to delay the opening of a West Hempstead charter school. The union objected to the school's plan to use an alternate spot during renovations. The judge said it would have disrupted the lives of parents and children. The Connecticut Department of Transportation approved New Britain's plan to put in traffic cameras. It came on the same day Governor Ned Lamont called for cities and towns to hold off on the controversial cameras. New Britain's cameras are meant to catch speeders and people who run red lights. A popular trail in the Adirondacks has been closed for more than a year after heavy rain triggered a massive landslide. State and volunteer crews have been working this summer to clean up and rebuild the trail through Avalanche Pass. Michelle McCall is a trail leader with the Adirondack 46ers. Last month, she and dozens of volunteers helped rebuild a section of the avalanche pass trail. McCall spoke with reporter Emily Russell about the impact of the landslide and the work. that's been done to reopen the Avalanche Pass Trail. Had there been no work done at all, I would describe it as it was like a bomb head hit. So you look up the hill and it's a slab of clear rock. And then in the valley or the part leading to Avalanche Lake was just filled with all kinds of rock debris, trees, tree roots, water in strange places. Like I said, it's like a bomb had gone off. So you helped coordinate a trail work weekend up there for the Adirondack 46ers. What kind of physical work was the crew doing? Well, luckily, there have been other crews up there, and there was a wonderful bridge going over a big bog that was quite deep, you know, five, six feet deep. So luckily, that part was already done. So once we arrived, there were multiple jobs. Lumber had been flown in. So we did a lot of moving of lumber to the places they were going to use it to build. We actually did some of the building of, they call it, bog bridging over.

either muddy areas or over areas that would dip down. They would put it on there. We did a tremendous amount of breaking of rocks. So what you do is take a small sledge or a big sledge hammer and other people were delivering the rocks and then people were breaking the rocks up. And then we had a crew carrying the shards of rocks to the various locations. The idea is you build up. the trail or you build up any of the bog bridging that you're building, you want to put rocks under to stabilize it and to keep it from just sinking in the mud. The other primary huge job that we did besides the bog bridging and the breaking of the rocks, we were digging a really long drainage ditch. Because as you can imagine, when all of the trees and debris and dirt and rocks, when they dumped. into this area now there's no clear way for the water to drain. So there was one drain that had already been dug and then we were digging another one so that the water can come down through there. What was it like coordinating volunteers for a project like this? Well, that was actually one of the biggest challenges because, as you can imagine, we had to divide up into multiple small groups to be working in different areas and just keep everyone busy and everybody is really anxious to contribute. So making sure that everybody has a job to do, that took a lot of coordinating. And we have a lot of experience. So we relied on not only trailmasters, but our experienced lead workers to. help with that so we could keep everyone going. The other challenge was it was incredibly hot and we were working in a very sunny area so we were making sure everybody was staying hydrated, that we were rotating the jobs and making sure everybody, you know, could rotate around. Why is it important for the Adironic 46ers to volunteer and be part of repairing this trail? Well, we really like to give back and we have a lot of knowledge in this group. And the reality is, you know, from the DEC to any other organization, they don't always have the people power. So they have the knowledge and their leadership is fantastic. So we can provide that power, that energy, that enthusiasm to do the work under the guidance of the DEC and Tate Connor. Avalanche Pass is, of course, a very popular trail year-round. So I wonder what you'd want folks to know about the work that had to go into building this backup, you know, when people are back on the trail, say this fall or winter. I guess just enjoy. What is there? Try to stay on the trails instead of making them wider, you know, follow the trails as is. And if you see somebody out working on the trails, say thank you. And my experience is people do that. It's been really, really nice when people walk by and say, hey, who are you? And we let them know. And they say, thank you so much for doing the work. You know, it really makes you feel appreciated. But I think just be aware of where these.

walkways and where these nice trails have come from. That was reporter Emily Russell speaking with Adirondack 46ers volunteer Michelle McCall, who helped rebuild a section of the Avalanche Pass Trail after a massive landslide. For the latest from around Long Island Sound, listen on the radio online with our free app and, of course, right here on the After All Things podcast every weekday evening. I'm Molly Ingram, in for Sabrina Garon. I hope you have a great weekend.