It’s a good thing the days are getting longer.
The Board of Finance will need all the time they can get at next Wednesday’s meeting (February 7, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall auditorium).
The agenda includes 3 discussion-only items: a financial report from the Finance director, and updates on the Longshore Sailing School lease and from the audit manager.
Then come a bang-bang series of action items:
- A request from the Long Lots School Building Committee to approve $6.8 million for the design of the new elementary school and Stepping Stones pre-school.
- A request from the Parks & Recreation Department director to approve $104,000 to install irrigation at the Coleytown Middle School fields.
- Another request by the Parks & Rec director to approve $80,000 for analysis, design and preparation of construction documents to replace critical elements of the Compo Beach Ned Dimes Marina.
- A request from the Fire Department deputy chief to approve $110,000 for work to update and merge Fire Department conceptual plans to include the Police Department and Emergency Medical Service in a new concept analysis, for a joint public safety facility.
- A request from the Public Works Department director to approve $630,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for design and permitting of the redevelopment of Jesup Green and the Imperial Avenue parking lot.
That’s a robust agenda.
And it’s an indication that Westporters will be asked to fund a number of big-ticket items, in the months and years ahead.
This is the 8-24 preliminary plan for a new $100 million Long Lots Elementary School. It may cost nearly $7 million for a complete design.
We’ve talked a bit about the redesign of the Parker Harding parking lot — though without much discussion of cost (and no firm decisions yet). Now, Phase 2 of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee’s recommendations looms on the Saugatuck River horizon.
Few people have mentioned much about plans for a join public safety facility. Police, fire and EMS have all done great work in cramped, aging buildings. A new, shared facility is important — and will soon be a topic for debate.
The request for work at Ned Dimes Marina is a rounding error, compared to what’s ahead for Parks & Rec. Officials have been working for a couple of years on a long-term redevelopment plan for Longshore.
Parks & Rec is developing a long-term plan for the renovation of Longshore.
In addition, the Coleytown Middle School field request is just one of many that Parks & Rec may make.
The Long Lots debate has underscored the woeful conditions of a number of town playing fields. Artificial turf — the modern, non-carcinogenic type — may be an answer, at sites like Wakeman, Staples’ Loeffler Field, and Kings Highway Elementary School. Lights would help alleviate the fields crunch too.
Those are costly, quality-of-life, youth-oriented projects that we’ll hear more about in the months to come.
Not on the Board of Finance’s long agenda next week, but hard to ignore: possible renovation of old-as-Long Lots Coleytown Elementary School.
Dredging the Saugatuck River.
And, I’m sure, one or two other important projects I’ve forgotten to mention, or not yet heard about.
Coleytown Elementary School is in need of modernization too.
On Wednesday, the Finance board will vote, for the most part, on initial design work.
These are small down payments on future work. Appropriations to come will have many more zeroes.
All are important to some people. Some are important to all.
But improving our town for generations to come won’t come cheap.
Buckle up.
(Click here for the full Board of Finance agenda. The meeting will be livestreamed at http://www.westportct.gov, and shown on Optimum channel 79.)
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80K just to have some company tell the taxpayers how to spend money on Ned Dimes Marina. Money better spent on improvements to tennis courts. Eliminate the salary of some women sitting in Ned Dimes office doing nothing. Parks and Rec needs new leadership
When I was involved with the malfeasance of the radar solar “guns” on North Avenue, I was told a 25K$ study was being completed on the intersection of Cross @ North Avenue, I inquired what was the outcome? I was told from a representative of the P&Z that “we have a boatload of studies” which never come to fruition” Since, we have a 1.3 million $ town school budget which send 42.5% of its graduates to UCONN, perhaps , Peter, we need a new Board of Finance?
I think you forgot about affordable housing unless, of course, everyone has changed their minds and are happy to allow 8-30g (which show zero sign of going away) to solve the problem for the town.
To preview the $6.8 million Long Lots item, zoom this 2pm meeting today:
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Long Lots School Building Committee
Notice is hereby given that the Long Lots School Building Committee (LLSBC) will hold a special meeting on Friday, February 2, 2024 at 2:00 PM via ZOOM (instructions below) for the following purpose:
To approve the request from the LLSBC to the Board of Finance for an appropriation of $6,800,000 along with bond and note authorization to the assigned Municipal Improvement Account for the design of the new Long Lots Elementary School and Stepping Stones Pre-school.
Jay Keenan, Chair
February 1, 2024
This will be a remote ZOOM meeting only. There will be no in-person, physical attendance. Members of the public are invited to attend by connecting through the following ZOOM link:
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88485149347?pwd=ejd2d1ptWjc5Um1uQythUWsvSW0zdz09
Meeting ID: 884 8514 9347
Passcode: 813294
Keeping up with the Long Lots School Project.
The $6.8 million appropriation for the design of Long Lots, to come before the school committee today at 2 pm and the BoF on Feb 7, has yet to be competitively bid. Phase 1 is complete; Phase 2 must be competitively bid. Looking forward to the request for bids public notice. Note to bidders: Apparently the town is prepared to spend $6.8 million.
Competitive benchmarks study on the cost of new schools is being done now for this school project. Looking forward to this public document also. Will expect it as part of the BoF meeting packet.
Separately, the Board of Education just voted last night to send a ~$147 million budget to BoF, and $11k increase over last year.
Please, no more turf fields! They are expensive to install, expensive to maintain, and increasingly expensive to dispose of. More important, they are known to increase athletic injuries, and are horrible for the environment.
EEEEEk!!!!
Westport is headed over the fiscal cliff. Decades of kicking the can down the road have finally caught up and been exposed by the mostly post-Pandemic new residents with school-aged kids who paid “Westport prices” for their cookie cutter houses and a killer school system.
I went to KHS in the 70’s – my kids went there in the 00’s – and the answer to the perpetual mold problem was to remove all the ceiling tiles and upgrade the HVAC system. That school should have been replaced years ago – how long are the “temporary” classrooms going to continue?
Longlots and Coley need to be removed and replaced. Saugatuck is as bad as KHS.
And the bandaids applied to Coley Middle were just that.
Wepo needs a massive infrastructure upgrade – Fairfield has nicer facilities. The number one driver of Westport real estate values is the school system – the ambivalence they’ve received for the past decades is about to come back and bite taxpayers hard.
Buckle up and do the right thing – the river and marina can wait.
I thought I recalled something about Fed funding for dredging the Saugatuck. Yep, about 2 years ago, the First Selectwoman made a big deal out of this press release (I’m sure there was a photo of her somewhere accompanying the release) and yet nothing has happened. And using all of those ARPA funds to ‘plan’ the Imperial lot, once again. It was under water 2 weeks ago. Hopefully, they won’t be putting that requested playground right along the river. No accountability in this town. Just carte blanche spending. https://www.westportct.gov/Home/Components/News/News/9210/