Hartford Business Journal

28 Hartford Business Journal • November 11, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY EDITOR'S TAKE UConn in Storrs, Jackson Lab in Farmington were mistakes? Maybe T he state's multibillion-dollar investment in UConn's Storrs campus in recent decades has been a mistake. Most, or at least significant portions of Connecticut's flagship university should have been moved down state instead. Locating Jackson Laboratory's ge- nomics research center in Farming- ton was wrong-minded and didn't fully leverage taxpayers' dollars. The state's four public universities should be consol- idated into one or two schools on one or two campuses near major employ- ment centers. Do I have your attention yet? Those actu- ally aren't my hot takes. They were insights re- cently shared by Matthew Nemer- son during an economic-develop- ment panel discussion held at the Hartford Public Library and hosted (ironically) by UConn. Nemerson, the former CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council and economic-development director in New Haven, has never been shy about voicing his opinions. In fact, that's gotten him in trouble a few times during his career (i.e. his city of New Haven-tenure didn't end all that well). But he wasn't simply trying to generate headlines. His point was that the state hasn't always thought strategically about how and where it invests money to fully capitalize on economic-develop- ment assets and opportunities. Nemerson's a strong believer that the center of U.S. economic ac- tivity will reside in 12 to 18 metro- plexes and that Connecticut, with its mix of small cities and many suburbs, isn't in a position to com- pete. It's hard to argue that point. We need to choose one or two cities in the state, Nemerson says, and amalgamate a critical mass of universities, companies and residential units that will attract top global talent and allow us to be more competitive with our chief rivals — Boston and New York City. Competing with those economic behemoths isn't out of reach because they have become too crowded and expensive. Connecticut can do things cheaper and with more agility and less congestion than they can. But we have to think more stra- tegically and make tough political decisions to get there. Nemerson's insights are timely — the Lamont administration is currently work- ing on the state's new economic- development plan. They may want to give this column a read. "We were designed to fight the wrong war," Nemerson said of Con- necticut being a suburban state that was popular with New Yorkers and others fleeing higher-tax juris- dictions during the 1970s and 80s. "The war has changed. We need to figure out how we are going to compete with two huge armies." A Yalie himself, Nemerson, who now works for Shelton tech firm Budderfly, said Connecticut should place its bet on the I-95, Amtrak corridor and make New Haven the center of the state's universe. He wants a grand alliance between Yale and the University of Connecti- cut, with UConn moving some of its key schools (including engineering) to New Haven to be near Yale, similar to how Cambridge has Harvard and MIT and Rutgers has aligned with Princeton to make New Brunswick, New Jersey, a competitive research center (he noted that Bristol-Myers Squibb left Connecticut to expand its Garden State presence). "We are kidding ourselves when we think we can have two research OTHER VOICES How MDC is finding the next generation of water professionals By Scott Jellison T he Metropolitan District (MDC) faces a similar challenge that other water and wastewater utilities all across the country are currently facing: an aging workforce. With nearly 50 percent of the MDC's workforce eligible to retire in the next five years, we needed to implement additional workforce-development initiatives to prepare the organization for succession-planning efforts. Four years ago, we recognized that public interest in water and waste- water jobs (and utilities in general) is often low because public under- standing of the variety of the careers offered by the industry is equally low. In order to raise awareness and increase overall understanding of what we do, the MDC partnered with high schools in the towns we serve and developed a curriculum for a unique internship called the "Learn and Earn" program. The Learn and Earn program is a four-week paid summer internship that introduces 10 to 12 high school students from member towns to potential careers at the MDC. The students are exposed to the cross sections of our business, including distribution-system operations, water and wastewater plant operations, water-quality analysis, engi- neering, custom- er service, safety and GIS. In the first two weeks, students participate in tours, hear presentations by MDC staff and outside instructors, and conduct activities such as testing water samples and creating filters. In the following two weeks, Greg Bordonaro, Editor Scott Jellison

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