Building Swap Put On Hold

On the day that Branford Board of Finance (BOF) budget meetings were set to begin, Chairman Joe Mooney informed First Selectman Unk DaRos that his board will not act on a controversial proposed three-way building swap during the budget hearings this week. 

DaRos said in an interview yesterday that the BOF (pictured above) does not want to handle the issue right now. ​“They do not want the distraction,” he said. ​“They have plenty of work to do on handling a $94.4 million budget.”

The first phase of the budget was rolled out last night as department and commission heads, including top police and fire officials, presented their priorities to the board over a three-hour session. The process continues tonight and tomorrow night when the Board of Education (BOE) presents its proposed $49.6 million school budget. The BOE budget increased 3.97 percent over last year, largely the result of a costly teacher contract that will cost $1 million in its final year if no givebacks are negotiated. 

The BOF meetings take place at the Canoe Brook Senior Center at 7 p.m. Next Monday, the BOF will meet to make cuts and finalize the budget as they see it. Then it will be sent to the Representative Town Meeting for review. The RTM will vote on the budget in May and soon after the BOF will set the mill rate, up by 1.15 mills over last year, but expected to drop by the time the budget process is over. 

DaRos said he was not discouraged by the Board of Finance’s decision on the swap. He told the Eagle he will pull his plan back and form a committee to look at all town and school owned buildings in order to assess whether other buildings might work for a new senior center and a new Board of Education headquarters. ​“This will satisfy some of the arguments that were raised,” he said. 

The swap involves three buildings. The Board of Education (BOE) central office would move to the Canoe Brook Senior Center, which is owned by the town and the senior center would move to 175 N. Main St building, which is owned by the Giordano family and is called the Office Network. The town would give its BOE building at 1111 Main St., an historic building, to the Giordano family in exchange for its private building at 175 N. Main St. The Giordano family would convert the corner BOE building for commercial or business use.
 
From the time it was first unveiled before the RTM’s administrative services committee months ago, the proposed swap ran into trouble on a variety of fronts, becoming a public relations nightmare for DaRos. It never got out of committee. 

The swap proposals only arrived at the BOF on Feb. 28, nine months after the plan was first unveiled. After a belated presentation by key town department heads, Mooney summed up the board’s general response at the end of the presentation.

“One thing that we have heard in bits and pieces is that we have a lot of facilities that we really have not looked at in its entirety, whether they are town- owned of Board of Ed-owned. I think we need to take a step back and look at all of our facilities. I don’t think we have a comprehensive view of what our usage or what our long term needs are.” Jeffrey E. Vailette, another board member, made similar comments.

During the town’s presentation to the BOF last month, key parts were challenged and additional facts were sought. The BOF gave no promises and took no vote. BOF members raised questions on the legality of the project, its cost, the validity of the appraisals and whether other town-owned sites might work as well. They also wanted to know why no formal drawings were presented to them. (It turned out the architect had another commitment that night.)

The BOF has not taken a formal vote but it has now clearly signaled its direction.

One major issue was DaRos’s decision to seek approval for the project before the Representative Town Meeting instead of going first to the Board of Finance, the usual process. He did so, he said, because he believed the two properties were essentially equal and that the swap did not involve a sale and a purchase in the usual sense. But the swap did require major funding for renovations of two buildings and that meant it had to go before the BOF. Going last instead of first did not sit well with Mooney or the board. 

DaRos said he now plans to put together a committee to look at all other buildings the town owns as possible places for a new senior center or Board of Education headquarters. This would include the Indian Neck School on Melrose Avenue and the Branford Hills School. The town owns both.

But he still thinks his original idea is solid, he said.

“I took advantage of an opportunity,” he said in describing the arrangement he sought to reach with the Giordano family to swap their building for the BOE’s. In the end he thought renovating each of the buildings, along with Canoe Brook Senior Center, would be far less expensive than starting from scratch. He had been thinking about a new senior center for years when plans were announced last June. 

He viewed the swap as a benefit to restructuring the down town area. If the Giordano Brothers gained the historic BOE corner building across from the town green, they would then be in a position to develop 1.54 acres of their own land directly behind it. Their lumber yard currently occupies that land. 
 
The Town Center Revitalization Review Board said giving the property to a developer has value. In a unanimous decision the Board said that private ownership of the property ​“would enhance the economic vibrancy of the town center by bringing more business to the town center.”

And the Planning and Zoning Commission gave the green light to the Giordanos’ commercial and retail plan for the BOE building.

That was then. In the end, neither the RTM nor the BOF voted on the project. The RTM voted to form a special committee to look into the swap last November, but the Board of Selectmen turned them down. Now the BOE headquarters stays put. So do the seniors who occupy the Canoe Brook Senior Center where the Board of Finance met last night. The Giordano family will be thinking about the fate of 175 N. Main St.and the fate of the Board of Education building so nearby to their to their property. 

As for DaRos, he goes back to the drawing board and to a new committee to see what will emerge in comparison to his plan. Then he will go back to the BOF. This time, they go first. 

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