Selectmen Stunned By $23 Million Rec Center Proposal

By John Voket

Following a low-key annual town meeting and 20 minutes of routine selectmen’s meeting business, Parks and Recreation officials jolted the three local community leaders to attention Monday evening by proposing a radical change to plans for replacing the Dickinson Park pool.

Near the end of a 20-minute presentation, Parks and Rec Committee Chairman Lawrence Haskel revealed a proposal for a $19–$23 million recreation center in place of a new $3–$5 million swimming pool selectmen were apparently expecting.

Mr Haskel’s presentation was preceded by the announcement that Newtown Health District officials ordered the Dickinson Park facility to close permanently at the end of this season because of rapidly deteriorating health and safety conditions, District Director Donna Culbert told The Bee. The full range of health and safety concerns, as well as numerous issues of conformity with Americans With Disabilities Act guidelines, recently came to light following a thorough evaluation of the facility and surrounding area by consultants.

Those consultants were originally charged with producing a feasibility study for possible pool renovation or replacement. In that report, consultants noted environmental concerns, particularly the pool’s location in a flood plain with direct proximity to Deep Brook, a Class A trout stream, as one of the primary motivations for their suggestions to replace the facility sooner rather than later.

The consultant also noted the parking and picnic areas as well as the snack bar lack convenient and safe access for those with disabilities who may be visiting the park.

Those advisors said costs to recirculate a natural water flow through the current pool configuration by current environmental and health standards could cost the town more than $400,000 annually.

Ms Culbert noted that the lack of appropriate circulating water was appropriate justification for her department’s action to close the bathing area.

“Up to now, we were under the impression that a lot more water was being circulated through the area,” Ms Culbert said. “But the current situation is way too far from state health standards for us to keep it open in its present condition any longer.”

While it seemed the news about the Dickinson pool closing was an additional motivator for the Parks and Rec officials to push for a replacement pool facility, Mr Haskel said his commission’s plans for a recreation center have been a fixture on long-term municipal Plans of Development for more than 20 years.

“I think it’s time this town seriously consider investing in a recreation center incorporating a new 50-meter pool,” Mr Haskel told selectmen. “Instead of putting four or five million toward a new outdoor pool that would only be open for two or three months, I’d rather see the five million put towards a new recreation center, possibly on the grounds of Fairfield Hills.”

In the earlier part of his presentation, Mr Haskel pointed out that the original Dickinson Park facility was opened in 1950, with the asphalt bottom installed in 1970. He estimated at its height of seasonal use, the facility hosted up to 300–400 users per day.

“We still sell more than 1,000 pool passes annually,” he said, pointing out that the “zero-entry” feature at Dickinson was often preferred by parents and younger children, as well as creating a more pondlike environment than the more recently constructed conventional pool facility at Treadwell Park.

Mr Haskel reminded selectmen that more than $121,000 was raised through pool pass sales in recent years, enough to cover all operating costs for both pools while achieving a slight balance of revenue for the Parks and Rec Department.

He said expanding the department’s vision to incorporate a new indoor pool facility within or adjacent to a full-scale recreation center was a concept whose time had arrived. Mr Haskel noted that there was currently no central, year-round facility where all members of the community could join together for social and recreational opportunities.

“It’s very difficult to grow up in this town if you’re a child,” he said. “People are too spread out. I used to be able to drive my bike anywhere, but today a lot of children don’t have a lot of activities they can do together besides what they can do in their own home.”

Selectman William Brimmer agreed that attempting to renovate the Dickinson facility to reestablish an alternative use pool/pond incorporating new ADA and health department compliant features “makes no sense.” But he felt that parks officials needed a raft of numerical data to justify their request for such a significant project.

“I just have a hard time, not that this isn’t a worthwhile thing to do, but you’re going to have a hard time selling this to the people when you don’t have usage figures on how many people will use a pool,” Mr Brimmer said.

Mr Haskel acquiesced, saying the town could probably complete a Dickinson Park pool replacement for $4–$5 million, or the town could “bite the bullet” on a community center for the benefit of everyone in town and subtract the cost of the new pool from the overall cost of the proposed community center.

“It is the most needed facility I can think of right now in this town,” he said. “We can bring in the teen center, the senior center, arts groups, and every other group into one location. I can’t understand why we can build a school for $30 million and not consider something like this.”

Parks Commissioner Phil Steimle, who has long advocated for a townwide community center, reminded selectmen that a pool would only be one component of a full-scale facility.

“In a community center you’re talking about an incredible amount of usage,” Mr Steimle said. “There’s basketball, swim teams, volleyball, hundreds of people who might not be using a pool.”

Selectman Joseph Bojnowski suggested any project to replace or upgrade a pool facility would enjoy its best prospect for success among selectmen if appropriate data was put forward justifying both a current need, and projecting the likelihood of continued or increased patronage on the part of potential users.

“A lot of the information you’ve been offering is conjecture,” Mr Bojnowski said. “We still have no data to see if [a new pool] is needed. And we’ve been asking for that information for over a year. Just show us some numbers.”

In considering the prospect of funding a $19–$23 million recreation center, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal pointed out the expenditure would significantly exceed all the capital requests currently being considered for all the town departments.

“This 19 to 23 million dollar number just blows my mind,” Mr Rosenthal said.