On Putting a Town Shelter in a Flood Plain

News Analysis. Part 2

Was it wise to place a town shelter in a flood plain?

The decision to make the renovated Community House-Senior Center a town shelter for the community in the event of a major hurricane was made without oversight from the Public Building Commission or the public even though the community house is located in a flood plain, off Meadow Street, a road that experiences serious flooding. (See top photo)

Groundbreaking for the $12.15 million building on Church Street took place last week and the combined facility is expected to open in about a year. 

The decision to place the shelter at the Community House-Senior Center helped to raise the cost of the project from $8 million to $12.15 million. There were other reasons for increased costs, including an environmental clean-up of the area and purchasing an adjacent residential house in order to obtain essential parking spaces not only for the Community Center, but for teachers and staff who work at nearby Sliney Elementary School. Contamination at the site was not explored beforehand despite the location of the contaminated Atlantic Wire property across the street. Click here to read Part 1.

Five years ago this week, on Oct. 30, 2012, as Superstorm Sandy hit the Branford shoreline, town officials declared a state of emergency and ordered a mandatory evacuation of certain areas along the shoreline as well as the Thimble Islands.

Then First Selectman Unk DaRos said in an interview back then that those families living in a flood plain in different sections of Branford faced difficult choices. They had been hit hard by Hurricane Irene in 2011, and they knew that flooded streets meant ​“emergency trucks cannot get to you. And that is what we were worried about,” he told the Eagle. DaRos urged residents living in these areas to evacuate.

In 2012 Branford High School and the Mary T. Murphy Elementary School were designated by town officials as the town shelters as the deadly Sandy Superstorm made its way to shore.

Community House Not A Designated Shelter for Storms Irene and Sandy 

The Community House was not a designated a town shelter during storms Irene and Sandy because it is located in a flood zone.

​“Why would we ask people to leave their homes located in a flood plain to go to a building located in a flood plain?” DaRos asked in a recent interview, recalling the days of those natural disasters.
 

Church Street, the location of the Community House intersects with Meadow Street, a street that floods routinely be it a normal rain or a heavy rain. So even if sections of the Community House are now to be raised to accommodate a town shelter there is still the massive flooding of Meadow Street and Hammer Field (pictured), which is adjacent to the Community House. 

One question not answered is how people would be able to drive to this town shelter given the flooding of nearby streets.

DaRos observed in a recent interview that it might be time to put a dike around Hammer Field to prevent the land behind it from flooding.

To put residents in an emergency center located in a flood plain could present potential legal issues, he added. 

Former Fire Chief Jack Ahern, who now sits on the Board of Selectmen (BOS), raised the issue of the Community House location in a flood plain after it came to his attention late in the process at a BOS meeting. He was not happy about that decision.

Town-Owned Buildings in Flood Zones

In an interview Ahern told the Eagle, ​“We must be thinking about all town-owned buildings and property that are in flood prone areas. Planning and designing not only for now but for future predictions of sea level changes. Areas of refuge must be safe, easy to get in and out of, and meet all state and local life safety requirements. Proper authorities and agencies must always be consulted prior to making decisions about construction and design,” he said in a recent interview.

In the end, there was little if any public discussion on why the Community House-Senior Center should become a refuge-shelter in the event of a major hurricane. That’s because none of these issues went before the Public Building Commission. The Community-Senior Center project, didn’t get to the commission until 40 percent of the planning and site work had been done behind closed doors at Town Hall.

Alex Palluzzi, Jr. (pictured) and Dagmar Ridgway, he of the recreation department, she of the senior center at Canoe Brook, were the two town department heads who worked behind-the-scenes on the project from the outset. Cosgrove could have but did not appoint any other stakeholders to the two other available slots on the commission for this project.

Other Town Hall decisions included purchasing new land for parking apparently without contamination inspection. That aspect of the purchase only emerged at an RTM meeting when Chris Sullivan, an environmental employee with the state, raised it.

It was Ahern who pressed Cosgrove at a public meeting to return the Community House-Senior Center to the Public Building Commission. After a long discussion, Cosgrove agreed.

Hastily Called BOF Meeting

During the 18 months away from the Public Building Commission, decisions regarding the Community house-senior center were made primarily by Cosgrove, who prior to his election, ran the Cosgrove Construction Company in town, and Thomas P. Arcari, the head architect at Quisenberry Arcari, the firm selected by the building commission to redesign and renovate the building at 46 Church St. Arcari explained at an RTM meeting that a decision was made to give the community house project to the Public Building Commission only after the RTM approved its funding.

So the first time the public learned that the cost of the project had increased from $8 to $12 million came at a hastily called special Board of Finance (BOF) meeting, two months before the final RTM vote on the project. Joseph Mooney, the chair of the BOF, did observe at this special finance meeting that the Community House had turned into ​“an expensive project.”

While numerous public meetings were held in the lead up to the project and in the discussion of the needs of the town’s seniors, a process undertaken early on by Sandra Vlock, the architectural consultant who directed the process for Cosgrove, there was little if any public discussion on major decisions that contributed to the rising costs of the project prior to the October, 2016 BOF meeting. This included the decision to make the new building a refuge-shelter for the town in the event of a major hurricane. 

Decisions made inside Town Hall but outside the authority of the Public Building Commission became decisions without notice of meetings, without public agendas and without minutes. Then when Cosgrove needed to fund these changes, he had to go to the major town bodies. The decision to expand the Community House to include a new senior center was made even though parking was known to be a serious issue. When Cosgrove’s office heard about a house for sale nearby, the town quickly agreed to buy the property. The public learned about it late in the process.

A divided RTM, concerned about the price tag and hearing information for the first time about all these issues, raised a series of questions, many not yet answered at an informational meeting held in early Dec. 2016. Cosgrove pressed for a speedy decision in order for an RTM vote to authorize the $12.1 million by its mid-December meeting. 

RTM Rep. Peter Black (R‑Short Beach), who is astute about financial matters, initially voted against the project as chair of the RTM’s Ways and Means committee. He changed his mind after a meeting in Town Hall the next day with Cosgrove and Jim Finch, the town’s finance director, he said.

He told the RTM on the night of its fast paced mid-December 2016 vote that he had learned that $13 million in town bonding had been paid down in the past year. He also learned from Cosgrove and Finch, that the reconstruction of the community house gym had to be done first because it was necessary to have a working gym while the Walsh Intermediate School is renovated. Black announced he had changed his mind and voted for the project the night the RTM voted.

Initially the $12.1 million bonding resolution did not receive the 2/3 majority to pass with the Republicans voting in favor and the Democrats against, 15 – 13. Several seniors spoke of the need for a senior center. Then the Dems took a recess and changed their minds. The motion to adopt $12.1 million in bonding that now included funds to place a town refuge-shelter in a flood zone passed unanimously as midnight approached.

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