nothin New Haven Independent | Board of Finance Approves Largest Project in…

Board of Finance Approves Largest Project in Town’s History

With Permission

Saying the $88.2 million renovation, expansion and transformation of the Walsh Intermediate School was the largest bonding appropriation the town has ever made, the Board of Finance (BOF) last night unanimously approved the school project. It is expected to be completed in 2019.

By voice vote, the six-members of the BOF, which has been involved in the project’s development from the outset, took the first required financial action to set Walsh on its way. It recommended the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) adopt their resolution. The RTM Education and Ways and Means committees will meet in special session Wednesday to act on the resolution. The full RTM will meet on Jan 13 for a final vote.

Marcia Chambers Photo

Board of Finance

While the appropriation is $88.2 million, that is the overall cost the state requires for the school project. The estimated state grant to the town is roughly $30.2 million. That would mean the revised estimated net cost to the town by 2019 will be about $58 million.

The Walsh school construction has been discussed at the Board of Education and Board of Finance level since new conceptual plans and a feasibility study were formally unveiled to the BOE and the BOF last September. At the meeting last night, the town’s top school officials and the top architects hired for the job answered questions from the BOF.

The Walsh project is now being fast-tracked as it reaches the RTM, the town’s legislative body. Education officials are pressing to get a complicated package to the state by the end of June so that the process of funding re-imbursement to the town gets underway. The RTM Education and Ways and Means Committees will hold a special joint meeting, their first, tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Community House on Church Street at 7 p.m.

The BOF Comes First

In an interview after the meeting BOF chair Joseph Mooney, Jr. said, Number one, there has been a demonstrated need to improve and renovate Walsh. So we can’t put our heads in the sand with regard to the fact that a school has to be renovated and improved.” The next step, he said, was to move forward and make sure we do it conservatively and to make sure we do it appropriately, that we don’t spend any more money than we have to. We are not here to second-guess the programmatic approach to it. We are here to ask: Can we financially afford it?”

Overall, Mooney told the Eagle, the town can do this. There would be a growth in the town budget of about 7 to 8 percent debt service as a percentage of the budget, but I think the growth in the budget would be 2 to 3 percent. It would be modest increases for the taxpayer,” he said.

The town’s finance office, under (First Selectman) Unk DaRos a couple of years ago said we want to put together a needs plan and then put together a plan that seems to be affordable. And we have demonstrated on a pro forma basis that this was affordable,” Mooney said. He noted in the interview and at the meeting, there are inherent risks in anything we do. That is not unlike any other project. It’s just that this is the largest project we have ever embarked on.”

Unlike previous feasibility studies for Walsh, these plans went first to the BOF. More than two years ago Mooney sent a letter to then BOE chair Frank Carrano outlining a new process that the BOF formulated to decide the when, why and how for future funding of school and municipal buildings. As a result, any plan for a new or renovated municipal building needs BOF approval first — rather than coming later for approval of drawn-up plans.

One Major Change

During an hour-long meeting at Fire Headquarters last night, the BOF made one major change in its initial resolution. The original BOF resolution restricted that the proceeds of a sale of 1111 Main Street, the school board’s current headquarters, if any,” go toward reducing the Walsh bonding.

But several BOF members were uncomfortable with that decision, saying the town might want to use the iconic building, across from the Green for other town needs.

BOF member Kenneth Kaminsky said, That was the old post office building. That to me has always been a nice building for the town of Branford.”
He noted it could be become an annex to Town Hall. To limit ourselves to getting money for the school is short-sighted,” he added. Board members Victor Cassella and Charlie Shelton agreed.

The school system’s administrative offices are included in the Walsh building, thus eliminating the need for the current offices at 1111 Main Street.
In the end, Mooney agreed to remove this section of the resolution because the overall, main issue was the bonding for the school, he said.

Space Expansion

With Permission

At the meeting there was discussion about space, which over the course of meetings with the BOF and school and architect officials has increased from 160,000 square feet to 178,000 square feet to finally 182,000 square feet, including a new wing for the superintendent’s offices. Click here for an earlier overview of the specific educational specs as first outlined in November by architects from DTC/Perkins Eastman.

There was discussion about pupil enrollment, which has fallen significantly. BOF member Lorraine Young noted at the outset the juxtaposition of the declining population and the expanding footprint of the school.

You can support the decline,” she said, but she wondered how one could support the increase in space, which has risen over the course of the plans.

Young said she was only looking at the numbers. The greatest decline in the census is children,” she said. She wondered given the expansion of the school if the population was now going to grow.

Marcia Chambers Photo

School Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez (pictured here second from right) agreed there was a decline but observed that the school was being built for at least the next the 50 years and the child population could well increase.

I am looking at who is paying for it,” Young observed. It is the taxpayer. We don’t want to run the town out of a Triple A Bond rating. It is a numbers game,” she added.

First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove who has worked closely with Hernandez and the BOE on the project was enthusiastic. In recent years, as the town has prepared for this project and several others, Finance Director Jim Finch has taken steps to make the bonding effort fall under a ten-year plan. 

At the end of the meeting, Cosgrove announced that the town’s Building Commission, which will oversee the project, will have three new ex-officio members for this project: Mooney, Hernandez, and Michael Krause, the chair of the BOE. Cosgrove is also an ex-officio member of the commission.

But these are non-voting members and the building commission ordinance provides for two project experts to be added to the commission who presumably have voting rights. They are likely to have construction and/or engineering expertise for the Walsh project and would be appointed by the first selectman. 
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