City committee backs up to $2.29 million DEEP grant for curbside food‑scrap program; port camera award small
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Summary
The City Services & Environmental Policy Committee recommended that the Board of Alders authorize the mayor to apply for and accept up to $2,289,980 in state grant funding to start curbside food‑scrap collection. The committee also reported a much smaller award for port camera maintenance and advanced a transportation transformation resolution.
The City Services & Environmental Policy Committee told the Board of Alders it would favorably recommend that the city apply for and accept up to $2,289,980 from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to implement a curbside food‑scrap diversion program.
Committee members described a program in which residents would place food scraps in a distinct, colored bag that would be collected with regular household trash and sorted at the transfer station for processing into biogas and soil amendments. The committee said wide adoption could reduce waste‑disposal costs by “hundreds of thousands” of dollars, as presented to the aldermen.
Committee members also reported a separate, smaller award related to port security cameras. Officials said the city applied for roughly $2.3 million but received about $120,000 to help replace and maintain cameras at the port; the committee recommended support for that funding. The committee additionally recommended a transportation transformation resolution developed in collaboration with the New Haven Climate Movement, urging the city to pursue safety, equity and sustainability goals in transportation policy.
All three items were presented by a member of the City Services & Environmental Policy Committee for consideration by the full Board of Alders. The committee noted it met Oct. 16, 2025, to review the items and urged colleagues to vote in favor when the items come before the full body.
If the full Board approves the DEEP grant application and any subsequent grant acceptance, the program would require additional implementation steps at the municipal level (procurement for bags/collection logistics, transfer‑station processing contracts, and resident outreach). The committee did not provide an implementation timeline or identify the department that would administer the program during the Board presentation.
The committee speaker also did not provide a breakdown of expected annual operating costs, only an estimate of potential disposal‑cost savings. The port camera award amount and the DEEP grant maximum were stated during the committee report; details such as the precise scope of camera replacements and the final grant contract language would be determined if and when the city accepts funding.
