Will the RTM Approve $12.1M Bonding for Community-Senior Center?

By a 4 – 1 vote with the chair dissenting, the Representative Town Meeting’s (RTM) Ways and Means Committee last week approved a $12.1 million authorization for a community house-senior center renovation on Church Street. The recommendation goes before the full RTM meeting tonight at 8 p.m. at Fire Headquarters. 

Rep. Peter Black (R‑3), chair of Ways & Means, voted against the bonding, saying there were too many unknowns regarding other current projects, including the Walsh Intermediate School and other proposed projects. The community house project is now 50 percent higher than expected. In 2013 Finance Director Jim Finch outlined the bonding process here.

Speaking to the committee and a group of seniors and town officials, including First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove at the Canoe Brook Senior Center, Black said, ​“There are placeholders for other things, too. And there are unknowns; we don’t know what Public Works is going to cost. We don’t know the final number on the Blackstone Library.

“We are not sure about the school reimbursement. That’s a little up in the air. If that comes in a little less than expected, then we start into contingency,” he said of the Walsh project. He is also concerned about a potentially higher mill rate for taxpayers, one that could reach the number 30.

Cosgrove and the Board of Education are seeking an $88.2 million renovation of the Walsh school, the most expensive project ever undertaken by the town. (The town’s share for the Walsh project is about $58 million. The state’s share is between $25.7 million and $28.4 million. Whether the state delivers this amount given its current fiscal crisis remains to be seen.)

Seniors Overlooked

Over the course of the two-hour meeting, a number of seniors told Cosgrove they were deeply upset with the decision to merge the community and senior centers, openly blaming him for not holding a second meeting to decide location as he had promised. David G. Goclowski (pictured), a voice from past senior center battles, stood to say that the seniors had no say in the decision where their center went.

“The townspeople did not have a real voice in this plan, as the site of the project was chosen long before any public hearings took place,” he declared. Click here to read an earlier story.

“Many more citizens, especially the seniors, wanted a separate senior center facility. I know this to be true because I was extremely involved in the process that the previous administration was attempting to move forward, and a separate location was a critical issue at that time as well. However, the question of location was never addressed properly for the proposal in front of you because the public meeting that was promised by the administration to discuss location and related issues was never held,” he said in a letter to be read at tonight’s RTM. The Eagle obtained a copy of the letter.

Goclowski read a similar statement to the Ways & Means committee. Cosgorve served as Goclowski’s campaign manager when he ran for the state assembly on the Republican ticket in 2010. He lost to State Rep. Lonnie Reed.

Contamination, Flooding

RTM members from both sides of the aisle have raised a number of questions about the community center renovation in recent weeks, including questions about on-site contamination, rising seas, and a flood plain designation. Tom Arcari,Jr. of Quisenberry Arcari Architects LLC of Farmington and the lead architect on the project, said flood prevention was an issue his firm had tackled. ​“We have provided long-term protection for flood prevention. We could raise protections higher,” he added. He is pictured here with Cosgrove. 

Chris Sullivan, Democratic RTM minority leader, raised a series of questions about the long and contaminated industrial history of the area. He asked at a recent meeting to postpone tonight’s vote because contamination questions asked were not yet answered. .The community house-senior center building is located near the Branford River, off Meadow Street and across the street from the once highly contaminated Atlantic Wire building and surrounding areas. A new housing and neighborhood development, Atlantic Wharf, will replace Atlantic Wire on Meadow Street.

Rep. Black read a series of questions from Rep. Peter Hentschel (D‑2), an architect who asked questions about the costs of clean-up at the site, including a new house and adjoining property the town wants to buy for additional parking. Black had a list of questions from Hentschel that Arcari attemped to answer.

Goclowski said that a ​“highly questionable traffic study fails to adequately account for the impact of the Atlantic Wharf and other nearby projects.”
Parking is a big issue, especially because the John B. Sliney Elementary School is located across the street from the Community House.

Goclowski noted there were ​“over 180 non-school days of overlapping use between seniors and children and that there was no outdoor senior activity space.” He said the traffic problems would be immense.

Goclowski, for all his differences with former First Selectman Unk DaRos, noted the irony that he was now standing to say that the ​“previous administration was not spending $12 million on this project. Take a good look before you make this decision.”

Back in 2010, DaRos’s controversial swap proposal came in at about $3 million, if that, and would have included a major renovation for a senior center and a renovation for the Board of Education offices at the Canoe Brook Senior Center, once an elementary school. DaRos wanted the swap in order to make the project less costly. Now Cosgrove wants to sell Canoe Brook to help defray the cost of the renovated community house. Canoe Brook is part of an historic district in town. Arcari’s architecture firm drew up the first set of senior center plans in 2010. Click here to read the story.

Goclowski argued that a stand-alone senior center, which he said is what the seniors want, should be placed at Orchard House on Short Beach Road. He said that facility is equipped for seniors because it is on one-level while the Community House is on two levels and has ​“limited wheelchair elevator access,” to the second floor where seniors are expected to spend a good deal of their time. 

He told the committee and will tell the RTM tonight via letter that the seniors need a separate center and that a renovated community house ​“could be built for far less than the proposed amount and serve the community much more effectively.” He also said that Orchard House has buses for seniors, nurses on staff, and other facilities for their needs. He, along with other seniors attending the meeting, said a promised meeting by the current administration to discuss location was never held.

After Goclowski told Ways and Means that the seniors had no say in choosing a location for a senior center, one senior, Genevieve Goff, a senior who has tangled with Cosgrove in the past, agreed. ​“No we did not,” she shouted to Cosgrove who sat nearby. 

“You promised to have a second meeting and you didn’t, and the location was never addressed,” Goff told Cosgrove to his face. Another senior, Helen Kelsey, shouted, ​“It’s too late.” 

Both Goclowski and RTM Rep. Peter Jackson, (D‑3rd) said Recreation Director Alex Palluzzi, Jr., who oversees the Community House, wanted a new gym for his building. The gym was the high cost item, said Jackson, who noted that his constituents were deeply concerned about the $12.1 million price tag. Jackson is an architect.

Cosgrove defended the project, describing an earlier $8 million number as ​“a placeholder,” a word other Republicans used as well but not a word that went over well. It was only in October that the Board of Finance first learned that the cost for the renovated-expanded senior center-community house project had gone up by 50 percent to $12.1 million. Nonetheless, Cosgrove called the process ​“transparent.” He said seniors in town had ​“waited long enough for a senior center to fulfill their needs.”

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