Westport Community Gardens members pleaded their case yesterday, as the Board of Education discussed next steps with the Long Lots School Building Committee.
A request by BOE member Robert Harrington that the board vote — even symbolically — to support a new elementary school, while keeping the nearby gardens and Long Lots Preserve, was defeated 6-1.
Other members — while expressing a desire not to move the 20-year old gardens, if possible — said they did not want to change a process that’s been underway for a year, before receiving the LLSBC’s recommendations.
The building committee will present its proposals to the board in approximately 3 weeks. LLSBC chair Jay Keenan reported that 6 plans are under consideration. They include building a new school, renovating the current one, and renovating with additions.
The committee is looking at 4 sites: the current lower soccer fields, the current baseball field, the site of the current school, and the gardens. Only one scenario would keep the gardens and preserve where they are.
One of the 6 plans for Long Lots shows renovations and additions to the current school. A baseball diamond would be built on the site of the Community Gardens and Preserve (left). None of the 6 plans have been officially released.
Keenan also noted that during the construction process — 18 to 20 months for a new school, 30 months for renovation — the entire property would be fenced. He implied there would be no access to the gardens during that time.
“A lot of stakeholders are part of the campus,” he said. “The number one priority is the school.
“It’s a puzzle. We’re moving different parts around,” he added. “Everyone will feel pain. In the end, we’ll have a beautiful new building, and a beautiful campus.”
More than a dozen speakers addressed the BOE, during the public comment segment and after Harrington introduced his proposal.
While all thanked the building committee for their arduous and thankless work, most urged that the gardens and preserve be maintained.
Joellen Bradford, a neighbor on Long Lots Road, expressed concern for the impact of construction of any kind on Muddy Brook, part of the property’s wetlands.
The theme of creative problem-solving echoed throughout the meeting. After Keenan noted that the site must accommodate students, staff, workers, buses — plus a staging area for construction, and parking for everyone, including crews — one speaker suggested off-site lots, and shuttle buses.
After the LLSBC makes its recommendations to the BOE, the final decision will go to the Board of Selectwomen, and town bodies including the Board of Finance, Conservation Commission and Representative Town Meeting.
Keenan said, optimistically, that construction could begin “this time next year.”
Long Lots Elementary School. (Drone photo/Brandon Malin)