Llodra Details EOC Costs And Uses, Addressing IPN Chairman’s Questions

By John Voket

Following questions about the true cost of Newtown’s newly activated Emergency Operations Center by the chairman of the local Independent Party of Newtown, First Selectman Pat Llodra responded issuing a report detailing the sources of funding for the project.

She also revealed that the new facility at Fairfield Hills is serving the local school district and municipal offices by providing an adjacent hub for phone and fiber optic infrastructure, as well as a location for redundant IT services.

After IPN Chairman Bruce Walczak circulated comments on a social networking site questioning the true cost of the project, he was referred to information from Newtown’s Emergency Management Director William Halstead that appeared in The Bee May 27.

In that report, Mr Halstead, who also is the town fire marshal and Sandy Hook fire chief, estimated that converting the building for use as the EOC cost approximately $343,000, of which about $310,500 came in the form of state and federal grants.

After reviewing that information, Mr Walczak was skeptical. “How in the world is he estimating that, did the Department of Public Works spend any time and money on it? I wonder if the town kept a detailed accounting of the cost as the first selectman promised or are we again just estimating.”

Mr Walczak pointed out that state and federal grants are still taxpayer money, and he questioned whether the Newtown Public Building & Site Commission (PB&S) was involved monitoring the project.

After considering those questions and crunching the numbers, Mrs Llodra determined the actual project cost was slightly less than Mr Halstead’s estimate. She told The Bee that the total cost for the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was $383,800, with $346,699 coming from a combination of grants.

She said $37,101 worth of labor was in-kind, with the Public Works Department providing $34,101 worth of labor for trenching conduit and gas lines, along with the labor and materials to finish an access drive way to the EOC. The Parks and Recreation Department provided $3,000 in additional labor for trenching the conduit and gas line, Mrs Llodra reported.

“The project was not referred to PB&S,” Mrs Llodra said. “Bill Halstead and [former school district facilities director] Dom Posca managed the project.”

The first selectman also noted that the town’s IT department took advantage of the opportunity to access and use a portion of the rehabbed chiller building. That nickname refers to the structure’s former use to house cooling equipment for two large residential buildings at the former state psychiatric hospital.

“They installed fiber optic and phone system hubs in the EOC building so that the facility could serve town and Board of Education functions, not related to Emergency Communications,” Mrs Llodra said.

“In addition, the building houses the fiber hub for both the town and the Board of Education and directly services the municipal office building,” she added. “And, we are also using the EOC as a data redundancy and disaster recovery site for the town’s data and phone infrastructure.”

Mr Halstead said he expects that most emergencies that would be handled at the EOC would be weather-related. The magnitude of an emergency would determine the number of people who would staff the EOC, with the most serious situations requiring up to ten people to be stationed there, he said.

Besides the radio room, the facility includes a video conferencing room where EOC staffers could conduct video conferences with state officials and other towns’ officials. The EOC also has a computer-equipped meeting room with map displays and organizational charts. A kitchen also is available.

The town’s backup computer equipment is kept at the EOC. In the event that the town’s primary computer equipment fails in an emergency, the backup gear would be pressed into service to keep the government functioning.