Date: Fri 01-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Booth-Library-Baumer-lawsuit

Full Text:

Neighbor Seeks To Delay Start Of Library Project

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Main Street resident Edwin Baumer wants the Danbury Superior Court to a issue

a temporary injunction to halt the $4.1 million Cyrenius H. Booth Library

expansion/renovation project until his two lawsuits involving the project are

heard.

Mr Baumer's lawyer, Randall Carrie of Bridgewater, has submitted an

application for a temporary restraining order to halt any issuance of permits

by the town's building department or any "excavation, construction, demolition

or improvement" planned as part of the project approved by voters at a

November 15 referendum.

Mr Carrie's clients, Edwin and Jean Baumer, who live next door to the library,

claim the Borough Zoning Commission acted illegally when it voted to allow

construction of the 22,000-square foot addition. The Baumers claim that the

addition and the planned parking lot for 80 cars will decrease the value of

their 1823 wood frame house by about 20 percent.

Their attorney said it could take anywhere from three to six weeks before

Superior Court Judge Sandra Leheny will act on the application for the

restraining order. The two lawsuits were placed on the court calendar in mid

September and the court has 120 days from that point to act on them. Mr Baumer

said a request by the borough and library attorneys to dismiss the lawsuits on

procedural grounds may create an even longer delay.

"If the motion to dismiss hadn't been filed, the lawsuits may have been heard

by now," he said.

Mr Baumer made several new allegations this week, among them that the library

Board of Trustees had switched from Attorney Robert Hall, who was representing

them "pro bono" (without charge) to Attorney William Denlinger, whose fees

could "amount to $100,000." But Janet Woycik, library director, said Attorney

Denlinger also is doing the work without charge.

Mr Baumer questioned whether the board was telling the entire truth when it

said that in order to get a State Library Commission construction grant of

$350,000, it had to build such a large addition.

"Ridgefield is doing a 1,200-square-foot addition (increasing its library to

26,000 square feet) for $400,000 and the state is paying one third of it," he

said. Mrs Woycik pointed out that once the addition is made to the Booth

library there will be 27,000 square feet of usable public and staff space.

Much of the rest must be dedicated to the storage and display of the

historical collection of library founder Mary Elizabeth Hawley under the terms

of her will.

The Ridgefield Library also has had several additions in recent years, Mrs

Woycik said, while the Booth Library has only added restrooms and an elevator

since the 12,000-square foot building was constructed in 1932. To qualify for

the grant the library must meet the state requirements that the library meet

the needs of the town now and for the next 25 years, she said.

In the application for a restraining order, Attorney Carriera charged that the

library project will violate the standards set forth in the Borough zoning

regulations by promoting congestion in the streets, compromising light and air

to the plaintiff, overcrowding the land, and failing to serve the value of

such buildings as the Baumer's house.

If the library project is allowed to proceed, the Baumers "will have no

adequate remedy at law to rectify the situation," Mr Carriera said. "I admire

Mr Baumer, for a man of his age - 78 - to have undertaken this fight. He's had

some cheap shots taken against him. (The library proponents) have an intent to

get this project done come hell or high water."