Parks Commissioners Want CIP Funds Reinstated For Renovations

By John Voket

The Legislative Council was forced to make its first New Year’s resolution during the last meeting of 2008. The council was slated to discuss and possibly act on the town’s proposed Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) at its meeting December 17, but was unable to do so because Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze could not be there to make a presentation or answer questions.

As a result, council members will have at least two weeks to study the proposed CIP documentation that was circulated, as well as consider a plea from Parks & Recreation commissioners who appeared at the council meeting to restore some capital funding that was cut by the finance board one week earlier.

During deliberations December 8, the Board of Finance voted to cut $350,000 of the $700,000 allocated next year to complete interior renovations to its maintenance facility.

Parks & Recreation Commission Chairman Ed Marks told the council that the $700,000 that was requested and scheduled for allocation was urgently needed to bring the facility, located at the corner of Trades Lane and Wasserman Way, up to code. Mr Marks, who was joined by department head Amy Mangold and commissioner Patrick Barczak, said department employees, who are forced to eat and take breaks in the same room where equipment and vehicles are left running, deserve to have an appropriately ventilated space separate from the work area.

“There were things we tried to do internally to make it as comfortable as possible, including installing lights and heating units,” Mr Marks said. “But imagine if you and your family had to eat all your meals in the garage with the car running. That’s what it’s like in there right now.”

Mr Marks also noted that the existing single bathroom facility is only accessible in the building’s basement via a single, narrow and steep set of stairs, and that appropriate bath and shower facilities must be created for both the men and women on the department’s workforce.

The parks commissioner said the original parks maintenance building at Treadwell Park was built for a staff of three, and that since that workforce has quadrupled, the department took advantage of the larger and more centralized facility that was offered about five years ago on the Fairfield Hills campus.

That facility formerly housed the state hospital’s fire department, and is outfitted with a loading dock, several garage bays and enough room to keep most vehicles and mechanical equipment stored indoors. Unfortunately, the space is woefully lacking in personnel comforts.

But Mr Marks had hoped that planned interior renovations would not only enhance space for personnel, but provide a workshop where staff could make signs and perform other projects to save the expense of outsourcing certain work.

The bottom line, however, is the building was accepted with the understanding it had to be brought up to code within a reasonable amount of time, and once the project became imminent on the CIP, parks commissioners and staff expected the work to be funded.

But earlier in the month, the project funding was halved, along with more that $2.5 million in other capital projects scheduled over the coming five years, because of anticipated shortfalls in town revenues, and a general bleak outlook on the near future economy.

The 15 percent overall reduction to the CIP schedule also included the outright removal of $800,000 proposed for a police building redesign in the 2014 fiscal year; scaling back the proposed town recreation and senior center construction proposal by $1 million in 2010; cutting $200,000 from a half-million dollar park playscape replacement; and another half-million dollars from the Hawley School heating and air system improvement proposal in 2011.

While the council appeared to be generally receptive to the parks commissioner’s request, council Finance Committee Chairman Joseph DiCandido warned that the modest cut already made in the CIP by the finance board was minimal considering the town’s added commitment to labor contracts and debt service.

“If you take the CIP, plus the 5.5 percent increase [to cover interest and contracts], you’re looking at a two mill increase in taxes,” Mr DiCandido said. “You’ve got revenues going down, costs going up, and no return from revenues spent on pay raises. Have public services become better as a result of pay increases?”

Council member Po Murray said she agreed with Mr DiCandido, saying that with better long-term strategic planning, the scope and urgency of projects like the park department’s maintenance building would be more clearly defined and justified. Fellow council members Jan Brooks and Gary Davis both concurred that a reactivation of the recently formed long-term strategic planning committee should be fast-tracked by the Board of Selectmen.