Under pressure to have an approved capital improvement plan (CIP) to present to ratings agencies ahead of a bond refunding next week, and despite early speculation that officials would not complete deliberation this week, the Legislative Council approved Newtown’s five-year CIP following nearly two hours of discussions focusing on road work, Fairfield Hills, and a new community center development.

After indicating to freshman council member Eva Bermudez ­— who had to depart for a previously scheduled commitment — that the vote would likely not happen until a subsequent meeting, Council Chair Mary Ann Jacob learned later in the meeting that rating agencies would be expecting a completed capital plan as part of the town’s prebonding presentations January 12.

The first hour of the session was dominated by Finance Director Robert Tait’s review of last fiscal year’s financial statements and discussions between the council, First Selectman Pat Llodra, and Public Works Director Fred Hurley, who reviewed expenditures to cover winter storm response by his department (see separate story).

That conversation shifted to planned capital spending for major road and bridge projects slated for the coming years.

Mr Hurley told the council that Newtown is one of the only communities in the state that is “in striking distance of claiming it has replaced all its [obsolete] bridges.”

Mrs Llodra explained that a few years ago, she authorized the Public Works Department to transfer spending for bridge projects from its operating budget into the CIP, because the structures long outlast the 20-year bonding cycle that underwrites their replacement.

The first selectman said that for years, while bridge work expended a significant portion of the public works spending plan, the town also tapped that necessarily robust budget to cover shortfalls in other areas, leaving too few dollars to complete planned routine road repairs and maintenance.

That ongoing pattern of shifting funds away from roads put the town’s highway system and its road maintenance budget further and further behind. So the decision was made to break out bridge work and to begin refortifying funding necessary to begin catching up on lagging road maintenance.

That increase in funding is set to begin in the next capital cycle when the CIP allocates $1.5 million for the town’s road program. That spending is scheduled to increase annually until it is back to the $2 million officials believe is the optimal amount needed to adequately maintain and respond to failing local roadways.

 Community Center & Demolition

Officials spent the better part of the next hour reviewing requested CIP allocations for the town’s new, three-phase community center project and planned demolition of several large deteriorating buildings at Fairfield Hills.

Mrs Llodra reviewed how the first phase of the development would involve establishing an aquatic center with at least two swimming pools, as well as a senior center adjacent to the NYA Sports & Fitness center at Fairfield Hills. That first part of what is expected to be a larger recreation and administration complex is being underwritten by $10 million of a $15 million grant to the community from General Electric.

Until the Wednesday night meeting, it was understood that the $5 million balance would underwrite the anticipated $1 million per year operating expense for the first five years of center operation. But Mrs Llodra revealed that through researching operation costs at similar municipal recreations facilities around the state, she expects to stretch that $5 million to underwrite as much as 15 years of facility operating costs.

The first selectman also explained how the final two planned phases of the recreation and senior center complex were still somewhat undefined. She said depending on the outcome of a townwide facilities study, the second phase could morph into either a standalone building housing indoor rec rooms and administrative offices, or a structure that could potentially connect the aquatic and senior complex to the NYA building.

She said if the town eventually decided to invest in acquiring some or all of the NYA and converting it into a Parks and Rec administrated facility, creating the connector would make more sense. Otherwise, the plan would likely be to develop a second administration and recreation building between the NYA and the aquatic/senior complex.

“Phase one needs to be located in proximity to NYA to make connecting possible, but not necessary,” Mrs Llodra said.

Officials then reviewed requested capital spending totaling $3.5 million per year beginning in the next fiscal cycle for building demolition at Fairfield Hills. Mrs Llodra shared her frustration over the inability to plan exactly how, and whether, that $10.5 million over three years would be enough to rid the campus of three of its largest deteriorating buildings.

She said the unknowns of hazardous materials — particularly asbestos — used in the building process make it virtually impossible to predict how much each demolition project would cost. But Mrs Llodra said she is committed to the plan because of the growing public safety hazard and liabilities those buildings present to both users of the campus, and possible economic development investment at Fairfield Hills.

 ‘Dubious Distinction’

During that part of the discussion, Councilman George Ferguson informed his colleagues that Newtown has recently achieved the “dubious distinction” of having the highest mill rate of any community in Fairfield County except Bridgeport. A mill represents one dollar in taxation for every $1,000 in taxable property.

He suggested that instead of committing $10.5 million over three years to demolish buildings at Fairfield Hills, the council should instead drop that spending from the plan and instead apply the savings toward lowering the mill rate.

This prompted Ms Jacob to ask Mr Tait how much the $10.5 million in borrowing would cost. He replied that the debt service on that segment of bonding would amount to about $600,000 annually.

Mr Tait then explained how that proposed expenditure would not add $600,000 to the debt service budget line, because the town would be retiring a measurable amount of its bonding debt in the coming few years as that new debt service expense flowed into the overall declining budget.

Then Ms Jacob decided to poll the 11 remaining council members, while agreeing to begin efforts toward examining lowering the town’s self-imposed debt cap from its current nine percent.

Councilman Paul Lundquist also took issue with the removal of Hawley School renovations from the CIP, suggesting that it telegraphed a growing sentiment particularly from the Board of Finance to begin the move toward closing that school.

However, Mr Lundquist acknowledged that the CIP was just a plan, and each designated expenditure would resurface again for approval by the council in years to come, so the issue would not prevent him from supporting the current capital plan.

In turn, each council member voiced support for the CIP, and was mirrored in the 11–0 vote to endorse it when the motion was called for a final vote just before the meeting adjourned nearly three hours later.