An informal poll of Legislative Council members concerning a $500,000 HVAC project in the Community Center’s pool area tied at 6-6, meaning the fate of the project is up in the air and a proposed referral to the Public Buildings & Site Commission will not happen until the council gives it approval.

At the January 3 council meeting, during its deliberations on the Capital Improvement Plan, which has already been approved by the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance, Community Center Director Matt Ariniello and Community Center Commission Chairman Kinga Walsh detailed the project, which has not previously been in the CIP but they are requesting be added to year one.

Ariniello told councilmen that in response to a number of technical problems with their aquatics center, including the 50 ton HVAC unit that heats and cools the pool area shutting down due to water condensation, they had an engineering firm look at the system. The engineering firm determined that the 50 ton HVAC unit was not sufficient to meet the needs of the aquatics center. There were two plans — a $1.2 million plan that would replace the current unit with a 100 ton unit and require the Community Center be shut down while work is being done, like what occurred with Hawley School when it was having HVAC work done, or a $500,000 project to add a second 50 ton unit to assist the current 50 ton unit.

The center has been “plagued” by issues resulting from value engineering of the project to bring it under budget, said Walsh.

Ariniello said the center has been working with the Health Department to make sure the area is safe for swimmers and employees.

With a shut down and subsequent loss of revenue deemed undesirable, especially as the center has a mandate to not require the town provide it with yearly line item funding, like the C.H. Booth Library receives, the Community Center decided to go with the $500,000 plan for the second unit. Members of the Community Center Commission felt that the cost should have been covered during construction and that the town should bear the cost. The Community Center is a town-owned building.

Some councilmen asked why the Community Center did not want to use its own $5 million fund balance. Walsh explained that the fund balance was given to the center by General Electric — which gifted the center to the town — to cover operating expenses. The center already spent $50,000 of that fund on engineering to discover the problem, and it is trying to keep as much of the money as possible to cover future hypothetical years when membership and other program fees are not covering its operating budget, so that it doesn’t have to go to the town for money.

“Our operational budget is $1.7 million per year,” said Walsh. “We don’t want to put that on the taxpayer.”

At the Board of Selectmen meeting the previous day, Ariniello and Walsh asked for the “professionals” of the PBSC with their “huge knowledge base” to “reassure” the Community Center Commission.

“It’s all the small details that they know about and would be able to manage,” said Walsh. “We want to make sure the experts check everything so we don’t have to second guess and go back and do things again.”

Ariniello said there was a “lot of engineering work to do” and concerns about whether the roof can support a second 50 ton unit, whether the unit should be placed on the Senior Center, and other issues.

Selectman Michelle Embree Ku expressed concern about the “hurry” on the project, noting that it was being placed on year one of the CIP despite the fact that it was the first time it had come before the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, or Legislative Council. She asked the selectmen to table the issue until the Legislative Council voted on the CIP. She did not see why the project was “urgent” and needed to be approved at the January 2 meeting.

First Selectman Jeff Capeci agreed, saying that his board did not want to “force the hand” of the council by preapproving something. He suggested that he “take the temperature” of councilmen at the January 3 Legislative Council meeting to see what their opinion on the pool HVAC project was, and then the selectmen could possibly pass something at its January 16 meeting.

However, the informal poll to “take the temperature” of the council resulted in a tie vote, which means the fate of the project, and whether it will be included in the final CIP, is still up in the air.

The council is expected to make its final decisions on the CIP at its Wednesday, January 17, meeting.

Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.