Camillo unveils $450.6M town budget proposal
GREENWICH — In his $450.6 million proposed town budget, First Selectman Fred Camillo seeks to fund some long-awaited capital projects, including a new civic center and improvements at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, while also reducing the town’s employee headcount by not filling open positions.
“We have some projects that have been talked about for decades and are very much overdue,” Camillo said Tuesday afternoon before presenting his budget plan to the town. “We’re working on all levels to make sure these things get done — and done properly and efficiently and effectively.”
Camillo unveiled his proposed 2021-22 municipal budget Tuesday night before the Board of Estimate and Taxation’s Budget Committee. The total spending plan came in at $450,649,585, with $51 million set aside for capital projects.
That is a 0.51 percent increase over the current fiscal year’s budget of $448,381,253. If passed, it would cause a 1.75 percent increase in the town’s mill rate.
The proposal falls within the BET’s guidelines for a $460 million budget and $55 million in capital spending. Next week, the BET’s Budget Committee will begin hearings on the details and make recommendations to the full BET before it votes on the budget in March.
The proposed capital projects include $18 million to build a new Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, Camillo said. His plan would budget $18 million for
The proposal falls within the BET’s guidelines for a $460 million budget and $55 million in capital spending. Next week, the BET’s Budget Committee will begin hearings on the details and make recommendations to the full BET before it votes on the budget in March.
construction of the new facility. Replacing the existing over 50-year-old building has been a priority for years.
“This is going to be a beautiful facility, and I think people are going to be very happy with it,” he said of the proposed new civic center. “I can remember people in the ‘80s talking about it being outdated and not what the town needed. … This couldn’t come at a better time.”
Camillo said he “hoped to be making an announcement shortly” about an anchor donor that would provide private money to offset the construction costs. Naming opportunities would also be available along with other ways for private donors to get involved.
For Roger Sherman Baldwin Park — which Camillo called “maybe the most underutilized asset in the town of Greenwich” — the plan would set aside $1.25 million to design park improvements; $11.2 million would be slated for the 2022-23 budget for construction.
Camillo said he believes the costs can be reduced “significantly” before construction starts.
The plans for the seaside park, the site of the Greenwich Town Party and the Wine + Food Festival, include adding greenery, removing concrete and improving sight lines to Long Island Sound. Walking paths would be added, with a promenade offering space for seating. A small Parks and Recreation building would be demolished.
Staff reductions
The reduction in headcount would impact both full-time and part-time positions in Town Hall and the Board of Education, Camillo said. But there would be no layoffs, he said.
Open positions would not be filled and changes that have already taken place, such as contracting with an outside firm instead of hiring a town auditor, would become permanent, he said.
According to Camillo, other cuts would include an administrative staff assistant from the assessor’s office, two positions from the town’s legal department, an administrative staff assistant from the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency and two uniformed police officers. The part-time positions would include using less temporary help in the tax collector’s department and administrative staff in the land use department.
But he said he would add a part-time staff member to help with economic development in town and focus on business retention and recruitment.
School fields, GEMS and a rink
The budget would also include $10 million for soil remediation for the athletic fields at Greenwich High School and $8 million for the fields at Western Middle School. The multi-year plan for GHS would provide another $10 million for remediation in fiscal year 2022-23 and then $4 million in both 2023-24 and 202425, he said.
Camillo also slated $1.4 million for a new station for
Greenwich Emergency Medical Service station, bordering the Griffith E. Harris Golf Course on King Street.
“We have a station on the east side of town, so this geographically balances it out,” Camillo said. “We want the ambulances to be inside. When they’re outside on a zero-degree day there’s no guarantee they’ll start and you can’t have any doubt like that in an emergency. It’s a critical project.”
Construction is years away, but Camillo included $950,000 for design and construction plans of a new municipal rink to replace the outdated Dorothy Hamill Rink. He said he would look to put $17 million for construction of the rink in the 2024, but the cost could be offset with donations.
Overall, Camillo said capital projects would require “careful long-term planning” so that needed projects are not curtailed by emergencies such as the COVID-19 crisis. He noted that it’s difficult to set priorities with interruptions from the pandemic, but “the business of government doesn’t stop.”
Changes in town
More funds — $1.3 million — is in the budget plan for further work on cybersecurity, Camillo said, which would cover work in town departments, the Board of Education, the Greenwich Library and The Nathaniel Witherell.
Camillo’s presentation also focused on how the coronavirus crisis affected the economic situation in Greenwich and in the state. He noted that the future impact is unknown as the pandemic continues into the 2021-22 budget year.
The pandemic forced the BET to take fast action during last year’s budget season, scaling back all the proposed budgets and forcing all town departments to operate at the same levels as in the 2019-20 budget. The BET also deferred nearly $39 million in capital projects to the future.
The pandemic has brought a change in how residents do business with the town, with far fewer people going to Town Hall, Camillo said. Greenwich saw a 70 percent reduction in average visitors at Town Hall to conduct business and a 92 percent growth in daily visitors to the town’s website.