Group poses $14M trim
Improvements to park, fields may go on hold
GREENWICH — As the Board of Estimate and Taxation’s Budget Committee set its recommendations on Friday for the town’s proposed $450.6 million 2021-22 municipal budget, a few items may end up on the chopping block.
The Budget Committee voted to recommend cutting funds for the remediation of fields at Western Middle School and improvements at Cardinal Stadium.
The $1.25 million earmarked by First Selectman Fred Camillo to begin redesign work at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park was also slated for removal in a 4-0 vote by the Budget Committee.
“This will see its day of sunshine eventually,”
committee member Andy Duus said.
“It’s the first year it’s been on our schedule. I think this has to wait a bit.”
Duus called Camillo’s proposal for the waterfront park “a bold plan” but said he had concerns about demolishing the Parks and Recreation building as part of the improvements.
The committee voted 3-1, with Jeff Ramer opposing, to recommend cutting $8 million from the project for the Western Middle School fields.
That cut came because the needed approvals for the remediation plan are not yet expected from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Environmental Protection Agency.
“This is not an indication of a lack of support,” committee member Leslie Moriarty said. “I think all 12 members of the BET have indicated that we will financially support this project as soon as it’s approved. However, given the status of the project and the discussions with the federal or state agencies, it is unlikely funds will be needed even for signing contracts to start work. Maybe for the fiscal year of 2022. It is unclear what the exact amount needed for the project as well.”
Instead, Moriarty said the BET could wait until the money is needed, even if it needs an interim appropriation later. Committee chair Leslie Tarkington said Moriarty’s point was “right on the mark.” Duus agreed, saying with the cost unknown, it didn’t make sense to “put a plug number in here as a placeholder.”
The committee voted to
recommend deferring the $4.8 million allocated for Phase 2 of the improvements for Cardinal Stadium at Greenwich High School. Phase 2 would include the visiting side bleachers and a road to the stadium from East Putnam Avenue.
Committee members indicated that the project was not yet ready for funding, with the many required approvals from the town and the state Department of Transportation.
The Budget Committee, which has met with town departments in the past month to evaluate all the budget requests, will now make its recommendations to the full BET.
The full BET will vote April 1 on the budget, when the cuts and changes recommended by the Budget Committee will be formally debated and decided. A public hearing will be held March 29 for
comments before the cuts are made.
Fire department staffing
One item that avoided the budget knife is creation of a new assistant fire chief in the Greenwich Fire Department. Fire Chief Joseph McHugh and Assistant Fire Chief Brian Koczack advocated for the position to help with management while retaining the recruitment and retention officer who works with the town’s volunteer firefighters.
There had been some concerns about funding both positions, particularly as the fire department begins a strategic planning process and reviews a consultant’s report on improving response times.
A motion was made to eliminate the $150,000 assistant fire chief position, but ultimately it was withdrawn and the decision was made to go with McHugh and Koczak’s
recommendation.
“To set them up for success, I think we should be supporting this position,” Moriarty said of the two fire officials who are new in their jobs.
She made a successful motion to add in $20,000 in temporary salaries to allow for the recruitment and retention officer to remain as a temporary position until October as the fire department works on its administrative structure.
Budget changes
The committee in a 3-1 vote approved a recommendation for extra money for a new Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, adding in $677,000 to the $18 million allocation for construction to match an estimate for the project.
Tarkington said she would look to add a condition at the April 1 meeting that would require getting private money for the project to lower the cost for taxpayers.
Camillo has expressed optimism that a public/ private partnership will be formed for the project.
A condition also seems likely for the $950,000 allocated for additional design work to complete plans to obtain town land use approvals for a new municipal ice rink, a project estimated to cost $17 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year.
“This has the potential to generate a very nice revenue stream for the town, but I haven’t seen an actual budget to that,” sad Duus, who wants to see a budget for operations at the new rink.
The committee will also recommend cutting $250,000 slated for the Reimagine Greenwich project. That money was earmarked by Camillo to pay for new and improved barriers on Greenwich Avenue to allow expanded outdoor dining and shopping — but cut back on parking.
“I don’t want to purchase the decorative barriers, planters and other types of things,” Ramer said. “I think it might be premature. I’m totally open to them continuing the experiment, but I’d like to see over the fullness of time as COVID leaves us whether or not the community reacts poorly to the lack of parking and whether or not there are impacts on traffic flow that we didn’t anticipate.”
Some proposals stalled
Other possible cuts failed to get majority support from the committee, including a proposed deferral of $350,000 for design work on improvements for the Holly Hill Resource Recovery Facility, which will be a multi-year project.
Duus said the project was “not one that needs to be done in this coming year. We have other needs that are more important next year.”
Moriarty said that was an argument that could be made for many projects. “We defer a lot of things from year to year,” Moriarty said. “We shouldn’t keep deferring our infrastructure projects.”
His motion failed as he and Tarkingon supported it and Ramer and Moriarty did not. Any motion needed at least three votes to proceed.
Some motions to add in funding to the budget failed. Ramer attempted to add in $50,000 to fund a study to find the best path for an east-west bicycle route across town, but it failed in a 1-3 vote. More focus is expected on that proposal, before the full BET vote on April 1.
A large number of emails have come to the BET in favor of the study, which is budgeted at $100,000, Ramer said.
According to town Director of Environmental Affairs Patricia Sesto, private commitments have been made to raise $50,000 for the study, and there is some concern that those pledges would not remain in place if the study was delayed a year.
Ramer successfully added $75,000 to pay for a consultant to provide guidance on a possible new deal involving Greenwich Plaza. A proposed deal in 2019 between the town and The Ashforth Company fell apart over the value of the air rights at the site.
The town leases the air rights to Ashforth. The deal had called for the town to sell them to Ashforth in exchange for large-scale improvements to Greenwich Plaza, including two new train platforms and a new transportation center.