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PLAINVILLE — The club is small but it's growing, and members believe that will continue.

In this case the club is towns in Connecticut that are piloting or committed to four-day workweeks for municipal employees.

Plainville started its pilot program on Monday and will decide in February whether to make the switch to longer days with Town Hall closed on the weekend and Fridays permanent.

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"It's about retention and recruitment and the concept of a work-life balance," Plainville Town Manager Michael Paulhus said Monday.

Paulhus said the town will take the time between now and February to gather input from residents and employees to see if they should make adjustments and the move permanent.

In Vernon the town began its pilot program a year ago and doesn't have a date set for declaring the change permanent, as it implements tweaks that town officials believe will make the move better for residents and employees.

But Town Administrator Michael Purcaro is very happy with the results for both sides of the equation so far, as residents have extended hours during the day to visit most town departments, and the town has a leg up on attracting and retaining quality workers.

Purcaro said that what works for one department might not work for another, so the town is taking its time to try and get it right for everyone involved.

"This is an opportunity to to make adjustments and make sure it works for the residents. It has to be organic so that it can evolve," Purcaro said, adding that residents should rest assured that no one is getting paid to work fewer hours.

But the issue of work-life balance in a "fiercely competitive" job market is also at play, and Purcaro believes other towns will have to follow suit or risk losing employees.

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"When one town does this others have to consider it automatically," he said. Neighboring Ellington has already implemented a pilot program.

For Purcaro, that's because for the first time in American workforce history five generations of people — from Boomers to Millennials — are in the work force and while they have differing needs, they all agree on one thing: quality of work-life balance.

"That's why municipalities need to be creative in hiring," he said.

Tolland initially made the switch to a four-day, 40-hour workweek in 2009 to save on energy costs and increase access for residents before- and after-work. But Town Manager Brian Foley agreed that it gives them an edge, too.

"It's also become a competitive advantage in hiring quality candidates, as many more towns are offering the 40 hour, four day week," he said. "Most candidates find that desirable."

Plans are also in the works for a possible pilot program in Simsbury, where departments are now collecting data on the number of visits. Interim Town Manager Lee Erdmann said that the data collection will continue until February.

But not everyone is on board yet.

In Hebron, Town Manager Andrew Tierney said there are no plans for any changes.

"We're a pretty busy town so we're open five days a week," Tierney said. "I don't think we're going to consider going to four days a week."

TOLLAND — Alex Backus had to sweat out the first game of his second tenure as Tolland football coach Thursday, and not just because of the warm and humid weather.

In a one-possession game, Backus' defense came up with three red zone stops in the fourth quarter with Nate Howe knocking away a pass on an untimed play to end it as Tolland held on to defeat Plainville 22-16 in a season-opening CCC Tier IV game.

"I enjoyed it all the way," Backus said with a smile. "But I told the team afterwards that we need wins like this to show that we are battle tested. You can't be a frontrunner. When things don't go your way you can't crumble.

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"There will be games that will go back and forth and you have to build that internal grit to come out on top. You build trust and confidence in those tough situations where the next time they come around you know, 'We've got this.' "

Eamon Sheehan had a pair of interceptions for Tolland and his deflection in the end zone stopped a Plainville scoring bid. Jack Fearney was another defensive standout.

The Eagles gave up 302 total yards but didn't break when they needed to stay together.

"The game's on the line and you have to make a stop," Sheehan said. "There's no option but to make a play. If you don't make it, you lose.

"You have to have that toughness inside of you. You become a new person when you're out there. You try harder than you ever thought you could."

Tolland scored first following Sheehan's first interception as Ryan Caminiti connected with Howe on a 40-yard strike with 2:26 gone. Plainville took a lead in the second quarter on Dom Abarno's 24-yard pass to Peter Bocompani and Marcus Kiley's conversion run. Caminiti's seven-yard screen pass to AJ Cady put the Eagles back in front and Matt Tybor's conversion sneak made it 14-8. It stayed that way until Kyle VanDeventer capped a 67-yard drive on the first possession of the third quarter with a 23-yard burst with Cady's conversion making it 22-8.

The Blue Devils got back within eight with 3:22 left in the third quarter on Kiley's nine-yard touchdown run. The rest of the way, Plainville knocked on the door only to see Tolland turn it away.

"Defense is the heart of our team," Backus said. "We're going to do what we do on offense. There's a learning curve on offense, but the defense has been in place for almost a decade. We ran this system when I was the head coach (2016-17), when Scott Cady was head coach (2018-19), and a little bit when Mitch Egazarian was head coach (2020-22). So they're ready to go in these situations."

Kiley was stopped two yards short of a first down at the Tolland 5 on the first play of the fourth quarter. The Eagles were able to get out to midfield but a holding penalty stalled the drive. Joe Vasquez's 61-yard punt return gave the Blue Devils the ball at the Tolland 9. On fourth-and-goal from the 5, Sheehan stepped in front of a Plainville receiver to knock the ball away and give Tolland the ball back with 6:22 left.

But the Eagles went nowhere and a blocked punt went out of the end zone to make it 22-16 with 4:28 to go. Plainville got the ball back and converted a fourth-and-11 and a third-and-nine to get to the Tolland 30. Two sacks of quarterback Abarno and an incompletion brought up fourth-and-23 with 16 seconds remaining. Somehow, Abarno found Vasquez for 25 yards and a first down at the 18 with six seconds to go. The clock stopped on the first down and then restarted and ran out. But after a discussion between the officials Plainville was given one more play. Howe knocked away Abarno's try to end it and deny the Blue Devils a chance at their first win since 2021.

"Hats off to Tolland, they capitalized when they needed to," Plainville coach Tim Shea said. "But this is the most mistakes I've seen my team make in 14 years as a head coach. It's very frustrating. There were a lot of times we were our own worst enemy. We tried to turn it on late but you can't do that.

"It's a new year and the kids have to want it, they have to do it. We'll prepare for next week and E.O. Smith and we'll get it done."

Kiley rushed for 120 yards on 25 carries for Plainville. Abarno was 11-for-23 passing for 169 yards with the two interceptions. Vasques had six catches for 96 yards and Bocompani had four catches for 68 yards.

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VanDeventer finished with 100 yards on the ground on 20 carries while Caminiti was 8-for-15 for 108 yards and two interceptions. Cady had a team-high three catches.

Tolland takes on Platt at Falcon Field in Meriden Sept. 15.

"This is big because we showed we can compete and we can win," Sheehan said. "We showed we can deal with tough situations and get through them."

Player of the Game

Eamon Sheehan, Tolland: Had a pair of interceptions for Tolland and his deflection in the end zone stopped a Plainville scoring bid.

Quotable

"The game's on the line and you have to make a stop," Sheehan said. "There's no option but to make a play. If you don't make it, you lose." -- Sheehan

Tolland 22, Plainville 16

The Plainville location off Interstate 84 is relatively close to Farmington, Southington, Bristol and New Britain.

Patch Staff

|Updated Fri, Jan 26, 2024 at 5:02 pm ET

PLAINVILLE, CT — A prominent shopping plaza in Plainville will have a major hole filled in the form of an international grocery chain coming to town.

That's because an Aldi supermarket is planned for the Connecticut Commons plaza at 282 New Britain Ave., Plainville. There are currently 31 Aldi's in Connecticut.

The store was announced earlier this month by the real estate broker involved with the deal, Fairfield-based True Commercial Real Estate LLC.

True said the deal was finalized by representatives Tyler Lyman and Jason Wuchiski for the store, which is expected to be 21,070 square feet.

In a statement, Lyman said the location is perfect for the area, given its proximity to a major highway in the area.

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“Connecticut Commons is a regional center, drawing customers from a large territory due to its proximity to I-84," Lyman said.

"The one glaring missing piece was the fact that there was no grocer in the project. We made that use a priority and are excited to add ALDI to the tenant mix.”

The Plainville location off I-84 is surrounded by Farmington, Southington, Bristol and New Britain.

ALDI was represented by Tim McNamara & Kevin Daly of Cushman & Wakefield, while Tyler Lyman and Jason Wuchiski represented the landlord — Site Centers.

True has brokered 13 deals with Site Centers, according to True officials.

The site has been vacant since 2019, when an A.C. Moore crafts retailer shuttered.

The project now goes before town land-use boards for final approval before the store can be built and open.

Aldi is based in Essen, Germany, and has made significant gains in recent years in the U.S. and Connecticut.

The store offers off-brand and brand grocery items at significant discounts and is popular for people on a budget.

For more information on True Commercial Real Estate LLC out of Fairfield, click on this link.

For more information on Aldi, click on this link.

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Three years after a new warehouse for Stop & Shop supermarkets prompted the closure of another in Connecticut, the grocery giant is absorbing a delay in its newest refrigerated facility ramping up to full operation outside Hartford, which will be among the most advanced in the grocery industry.

Warehouse operator Americold confirmed this week it has begun operations at a massive new distribution center in Plainville which will be used by ADUSA Supply Chain. ADUSA's parent company Ahold Delhaize owns Stop & Shop, as well as four other major chains in Hannaford, The Giant Co., Giant and Food Lion.

Last week, however, Americold executives said they do not expect the Plainville warehouse to hit full throughput until the back half of 2025, as they work to iron out unspecified technical hiccups with the automated facility and another in Lancaster, Pa. Combined, the two facilities will distribute to 750 Ahold Delhaize stores in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

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"The work being done inside these facilities is individual, case-pick selection, which is being completed by our automation systems," said Rob Chambers, Americold president, speaking last Thursday on a conference call. "This is a high level of complexity which is taking some additional time to achieve our desired service level."

More time is needed as well to properly integrate the new warehouse into the operations of ADUSA, Chambers added, without delving into details. Americold did not offer further details in response to CT Insider queries on the Plainville facility.

An ADUSA spokesperson responded Wednesday morning, describing the facility as still "in development" in an email to CT Insider.

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"ADUSA Distribution uses a combination of self-distributed and third-party warehouses to serve Stop & Shop stores in the Connecticut market," stated ADUSA spokesperson Dewaters. "When appropriate, the Plainville site will be added to the distribution network, bringing increased capacity. Where needed, there will be a seamless transition of services between warehouses, and we do not expect any disruption to service levels for Stop & Shop."

Americold has reported investing $325 million in development capital across the two facilities, and that ADUSA has committed to using the warehouses for an initial term of 20 years. Americold assigned a $155 million value to the Plainville warehouse in a 2023 filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, with the state of Connecticut approving $4.5 million in tax credits associated with the project under a pair of incentive programs.

Robotic 'waterfalls'

Located a few miles north of Interstate 84, the Plainville location is the first newly constructed warehouse in New England announced by Americold since 2018. The company opened a facility that year in Middleborough, Mass., designed to flash freeze nearly 40,000 tons of cranberries at a time that end up in Ocean Spray Craisins.

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The Americold building in Plainville stands 130 feet tall and spans more than 230,000 square feet, powered by fuel cells from Bloom Energy that produce electricity through a chemical process rather than drawing on the grid.

The facility has more than 30,000 pallet slots on two levels according to Primus, a Georgia company which helped design some of the sophisticated automation systems inside. Those include robotics that grab orders and steer them through "waterfall" and conveyor systems, and ultimately onto trailers for delivery to retail stores.

Dewaters did not address any specific impact on other warehouses used by Stop & Shop for perishable products, stating only that the company expects the new facility to add inventory capacity.

After ADUSA opened a modern new distribution center for non-perishable goods in Manchester in 2021, C&S Wholesale Grocers closed one in Suffield that had supplied area Stop & Shop supermarkets. While that came at a cost of 175 C&S jobs, Ahold Delhaize projected at the time that the new Manchester warehouse would support about 500 jobs.

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C&S sold the Suffield property the following year for $45 million to a warehouse real estate investment firm that has big distribution centers throughout the Northeast.

C&S has another major warehouse adjacent to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, and a refrigerated warehouse about 45 minutes north of there in Westfield, Mass. A C&S spokesperson could not be reached immediately on whether it anticipates any impact of the new Americold facility on its South Windsor or Westfield facilities, or any others in the Northeast.

Last summer, Stop & Shop listed more than two-dozen Connecticut supermarkets from Greenwich to New Haven that were impacted by a C&S recall of chilled salad dressings and other products, blamed on a refrigeration system in which temperatures had exceeded minimum levels. Dozens more stores in New York and New Jersey were also affected by the recall.

The Plainville facility arrives as Ahold Delhaize continues to overhaul its Stop & Shop footprint, from retail stores to online sales and back-end distribution. Stop & Shop is the largest supermarket operator in Connecticut, averaging nearly 1,200 shoppers daily in December at each of its nearly 90 supermarkets in Connecticut, according to a CT Insider review of Placer.ai data based on mobile phone movements.

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In its annual results for 2023 reported earlier this month, an Ahold Delhaize executive said the company has as one major priority "a more deliberate and holistic reset of Stop & Shop" as it continues store renovations.

In January, Stop & Shop closed a store in Bridgeport which is being replaced by a Food Bazaar, while relocating another in Waterbury to a different plaza. Stop & Shop shuttered a store in Greenwich last year, one of multiple closures last year including stores in New York City and Highland Park, N.J.

In December, Ahold Delhaize sold to Getir its FreshDirect delivery service that offers service in lower Fairfield County, including a massive distribution facility in New York City. Ahold Delhaize acquired FreshDirect in 2021.

And Ahold Delhaize closed a fulfillment center last year in Jersey City, N.J., shifting order fulfillment to supermarkets and external partners. In an open letter issued Wednesday, Ahold Delhaize CEO Frans Muller said the company is shifting to "less asset-intense" operating models that offer the promise of boosting same-day delivery capabilities.

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"In the U.S., the completion of the self-distribution network is putting our brands fully in control of their own operations, so they can keep costs down and partner more closely with suppliers to improve product availability and freshness," Muller stated in a letter accompanying the company's annual report.

At the same time, supermarkets nationally have been reserving extra pallet space at Americold warehouses, as they work to be better positioned for any spikes in shopper demand four years after the COVID-19 pandemic. Just 16 percent of Americold's pallet slots are available today, a record low.

CEO George Chappelle Jr. told investment analysts last week that the company expects "throughput" in its warehouses to shrink in the first six months of this year as consumers limit spending and packaged food customers work through inventories, before rebounding in the back half of the year.

"We’re clearly stealing market share across the network," Chappelle said. "We do believe that when throughput comes back, we’ll see a lot of demand."

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Includes prior reporting by Richard Chumney and Brian Lockhart.

[Vitals]

[They're Here]

[Reason to Cheer]

All those guys above played last year; three of them are three-year starters. Lots of experience.

[Reason to Fear]

Even so, the Blue Devils still have a small senior class and are particularly young up front.

[The Bottom Line]

Plainville made the CIAC Class S playoffs in 2019 and won the school’s first playoff game. It was the last team out in Class M in 2021. Last year... well, with a slew of new players in the mix, not so much.

The good news is that slew of new players, many of them underclassmen, did get experience in that winless 2022, and a big group of 2023 freshmen joins them. The Blue Devils expect to be better up front and more competitive throughout as they rebuild some of the depth that helped them succeed in past seasons.

Three-year starter Joe Vasquez was a coaches’ Class SS/S all-state defensive back last season, part of an experienced secondary; he was also a stellar return man in 2022. Plainville could rotate up to six defensive linemen and are also deep at linebacker.

Vasquez will also lead a receivers corps that will include a few juniors, including Peter Bocompani, and a sophomore, plus a junior tight end, Jacob Boucher. Quarterback Dom Abarno started seven games last year when M.J. Bakaysa was injured. The Blue Devils will use three running backs in different situations, including senior Marcus Kiley.

Shane McCormick and Bobby Wright are three-year starters on the offensive line. A couple of juniors and a sophomore should also see playing time along with senior Matt Michaud.

Sophomore Chris Rollo will handle the kicking.

The Blue Devils’ first three games are on the road, including a Connecticut High School Football Alliance game at Bethel in Week 3. Then their next five are home games. They’ll wrap up at Farmington on Thanksgiving morning.

[2023 Schedule]

** Division game * Conference game @ CT HS Alliance

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Michael Fornabaio is a sports reporter with Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Born in the Bronx and raised at the New Haven Coliseum (but really in Orange), Fornabaio has been with the Connecticut Post since 1997. He has covered high school sports for pretty much that whole time, though he also covered the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers daily for 17 years. In his occasional free time, you can usually find him watching more baseball or hockey and complaining about the delay-of-game rule.