Community-Senior Center Costs Rise to $12.24M

The Board of Finance (BOF) learned last night that the cost for a renovated-expanded senior center-community house project had risen to $12.24 million, the result of recently discovered contamination in the soil under the community house and the need to purchase property for additional parking.

In addition, the newly renovated center at 46 Church St. will be transformed into a flood resistant facility in order to serve ​“as a full refuge for the community,” the lead architect told the BOF. 

The newly announced $12.24 million dollar cost of the project is about $4 million more than previously anticipated for a renovation and expansion but by combining two buildings and selling the current Canoe Brook Senior Center it is likely to cost the taxpayers less in the long run, officials said. (By comparison, the town’s brand new Fire Headquarters cost $12.5 million when it opened in 2012.) 

First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove and Thomas P. Arcari (pictured L-R), the principal at Quisenberry Arcari of Farmington, the architecture firm hired for the community house project, answered questions posed by four of the six members of the BOF at a hastily called meeting at the Fire Department’s community room last night.

Timeline for Project

Arcari told the board that the hope is that a detailed design would be undertaken this winter with construction to begin this spring, perhaps by May 2017.  The project will take between 10 and 15 months to complete and the new facility may open in early 2018. Construction had been anticipated to begin this fall after the P&Z approved the project in June.

Recreation programs at the Community House will have to be moved to other locations during construction.

Town’s Next Steps

The BOF must first approve the funding for the project. Then the project goes to the Representative Town Meeting. If approvals are obtained,Cosgrove said he will work with Finance Director Jim Finch to draft a bond resolution. 

Back in January of this year Finch presented an overview of various town projects to an RTM committee. In addition to $88.2 million for the renovation and expansion of the Walsh Intermediate School, he said he expected the community center would be about $8 million. In addition, a new public works garage would cost $10 million, the Blackstone Memorial Library renovation would come in at about $4 million, and the John B. Sliney Elementary School improvements will cost $3.5 million. Add $13.9 million for contingency and $350,000 for FEMA mitigation and the total is $99.4 million in bonding via different methods. Those were the figures nine months ago. 

Cosgrove read aloud a letter he sent to the BOF chair, Joseph Mooney in which he wrote, “Admittedly, the project cost is higher than I anticipated when we began looking into this project.” But he noted that both the seniors and the park and rec departments are currently located in inadequate facilities and this new community center will serve “the entire community for generations.” Arcari estimated the building will serve Branford for at least 50 years. 

Environmental Issues Emerge

While neither Cosgrove nor Arcari was direct, both noted there were environmental issues that needed to be addressed at the site, which is located half a block from the Atlantic Wire building, once the location of major hazardous waste conditions. The factory closed down after it went bankrupt. It was later convicted of federal crimes and state violations in its systemic pollution of the Branford River. That was in 2008.

Fast forward. The property was recently approved for a major upscale residential and retail complex to be called Atlantic Wharf. The new developers plan to continue the clean-up at the site on Meadow Street

Before there was environmental awareness and environmental laws, contaminated waste was poured directly or buried below ground . And that is likely what happened when waste from Atlantic Wire was dumped across the street in the area in and under the community house, which was built in 1963. The community house land was donated by the family that owned the Atlantic Wire Co.

Neither Cosgrove nor Arcari used the word contamination, but Charlie Shelton, a member of the BOF, asked about possible contamination of land.

Arcari indicated there was some dirt from a long time ago under the footprint of the current community house, dirt that needed to be removed.

“There are some challenges on the site that drive the costs of the square foot up,” he said at the meeting. Cosgrove told the BOF that an environmental study was undertaken. He said these kinds of discoveries, decades later, are not uncommon.

Parking Expanded

Parking for the proposed facility on Church St. has been a major concern from the outset, for Cosgrove and for the seniors who use the facility. At the P&Z meeting in June a new parking configuration was unveiled that provided 102 spaces, including five handicapped spaces. There are currently 87 spaces. Now an additional 30 parking spots have been added, primarily to be built on land the town will purchase at 26 Church St. 

“The biggest concern we heard was about parking,” Arcari told the BOF. He noted that teachers at the John B. Sliney Elementary School across the street use the community house parking. “So when the opportunity arose to purchase on the south side it made sense to take it.”

This new space will be close to the community house building, he added. The property consists of a two-story house built in 1893. It has a large garden area.

“It is a win-win for the project,” Arcari added. The BOF also learned last night that the town plans to spend $300,000 to acquire the 26 Church St. property. This new area will provide a second entrance into the building. An elevator will be placed inside this entryway. 

Whence Canoe Brook?

The senior center, now located at the former Canoe Brook School, was built in 1898 and has served as the senior center since 1975. Arcari told the BOF that the proposal envisions selling the Canoe Brook building. ​“This will return a property to the tax rolls,” he said, along with eliminating the town’s costs to keep the building running.

Both Alex Palluzzi, Jr., who heads the town’s Rec department and Dagmar Ridgway, the town’s senior center director, attended the meeting. Their departments will share the community center. Ridgway noted that Canoe Brook is not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Under law, the new building must be.

After an hour-long presentation, Chairman Mooney said he thought the project ​“was expensive.” The next step, he added, is to disseminate the information to the two members who were unable to attend the special meeting, which was only announced Monday morning. No vote was taken.

“We will address the questions and the issues raised,” he said and ​“in the near future consider the appropriation. Thank you, folks,” he said as the meeting came to a close.
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