Following a Board of Finance recommendation and referral of the town’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), the Legislative Council began what is expected to be a nearly two-month process of finalizing it during a virtual meeting December 16.

Council Chairman Paul Lundquist pointed to a document issued by Town Finance Director Robert Tait detailing the final adjustments made to the CIP before the finance board unanimously approved it. That dovetailed into outgoing Finance Board Chair Sandy Roussas’ presentation of the CIP to the council on December 2.

“At a high level, most of the revisions and changes there were project costs attributed to the Hawley ventilation HVAC project, which now totals $8 million over three years,” he said. “This project, along with a few others, need[s] to be approved at a public referendum.”

Lundquist said the council will drill into vetting that project at a subsequent meeting, “since it really helped drive so many of the other changes the Board of Finance had to contend with in getting us the CIP.”

Despite the changes, Lundquist said the CIP is “solid and in good shape,” and that it still keeps within the debt schedule and under the town’s debt cap for bonding. He noted that over the five years of the proposed CIP, debt ranges from 7.7 to 8.1 percent.

“I think that’s pretty solid footing,” he said.

Council member Chris Smith kicked off the questioning, asking to view further details about the Hawley project, saying it still appeared the project costs were undefined.

Lundquist agreed, adding that the Public Building and Site Commission and school board representatives will be on track to respond in the coming weeks. First Selectman Dan Rosenthal reminded the council that because of the need for better spending parameters, the Hawley project may not be ready in time for voters to weigh in on in the April 2021 budget referendum.

“November [2021] may be better timing for that,” the first selectman said. “There is going to be more discussion on this when the numbers become more firm, and we have to start doing appropriations.”

Councilman Ryan Knapp said it appeared finance board members seemed caught off guard by “11th hour stuff,” saying the architect had just updated information on November 20.

“This is now in Year 1, and I’m not sure the Board of Finance had a lot of awareness that this [project cost] was going to essentially double,” Knapp said.

Investigate School Closing

Smith said he was trying to track changes as the Hawley plan developed, and would be interested in further input from the finance board.

Council member Cathy Reiss asked whether it was time to investigate a school closure. But Lundquist said that discussion had already occurred, and any re-introduction of it would not be tied to the council’s current task of eventually approving the latest CIP.

Council Vice-Chair Judit DeStefano said the conversations have occurred, and officials have spent years considering alternatives for Hawley School.

“I think we’re past that,” she said.

Knapp countered that it is the council’s responsibility to put a project out to voters that has the best potential to pass, and that the best previous estimated cost had doubled. He said with the replacement of the Sandy Hook School costing $40 million, it was concerning to see an HVAC project in the Hawley facility estimate now exceeding $8 million.

Councilman Dan Honan asked to be sure a PBSC member was on hand for the Hawley discussion. Colleague Phil Carroll said the idea of a $3 to $4 million project came on the heels of a proposed “ductless splits” air conditioning system that was only estimated to cost under $600,000.

“This is disgusting,” Carroll said of the now $8 million project estimate. “Every time we get a project from the Board of Ed, the cost keeps going up.”

Councilman Dan Wiedemann said the school board should revisit possibly closing the school because even after an $8 million HVAC renovation, the facility itself would still be out of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“We’re going to have other issues coming up simply due to the age of the building,” he said, adding that spending $8 million now is “throwing good money after bad.”

Turning attention to the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial, Reiss asked whether there would be a report to the council on that project.

Rosenthal said various parties tied to the project are in the final stages of refining the design and budget, and it should be ready for review by sometime in January. If the council agrees to move it forward, Rosenthal said he would like to see the appropriation request on the April 2021 referendum ballot.

Library Requests Re-Ordered

Smith said he also wants to hear from Booth Library officials of what appeared to be project cost fluctuations. The first selectman said since some already allocated CIP funds were not yet spent from a previous year, it justified moving some requests around.

Rosenthal noted that the finance board added a small amount to a request that included parking lot paving, but otherwise over the next five years, library bonding requests remain static.

“I didn’t okay any more spending in the CIP relative to them,” he said. “I just moved some money around until they got finished with a couple of things relative to past years.”

Reiss also asked about remediation and demolition costs tied to an abandoned industrial site on 28A Glen Road. Rosenthal responded that some grants had been secured to do some remediation, but the facility will eventually need to be demolished — and that expense would need to be bonded.

The meeting concluded touching on the issue of the emergency dispatch center relocating to the new police headquarters facility, and its relation to already approved bonding in the CIP. Officials also briefly discussed the pending demolition of the former Hook & Ladder fire station as part of parking lot renovations in the Edmond Town Hall parking lot.

Regarding the anticipated high price tag in out years for the demolition and remediation of buildings at Fairfield Hills in the CIP, the first selectman said he would have more clarity on that in a year or so.