Council panel OKs capital budget

Committee members say yes to bathroom renovations, no to welcome center

NORWALK— The city’s $31.41 million capital budget was approved by the Common Council Tuesday night with the shift of $38,000 from the schools’ bathroom renovation project to the library department, and the elimination of funding toward a new welcome center.

Other notable capital budget approvals include the $700,000 repaving and lining of the Calf Pasture Beach parking lot and $750,000 to repair and replace docks at Veteran’s Park. Large-expense items requested from departments that went unfunded include a $7 million BOE welcome center, a $2.5 million baseball complex and nearly $1.5 million in technology updates for Norwalk schools.

The change in appropriation, proposed and approved by the Common Council Planning Committee earlier this month, was a result of discussion over the necessity of the bathroom renovation.

Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling thanked the city departments for working to keep their budgets slim for the upcoming fiscal year.

“Realizing that some things are nice to have, but not right now,” Rilling said. “They were very good at prioritizing what they need. We reflect on what’s good for the city and helping the city move forward.”

Prior to the Planning Committee’s change, the $1.5 million requested by the Board of Education for the renovations

was fulfilled by Mayor Harry Rilling. The $38,000 taken from the project will be put toward completing the public library’s digitization of The Hour newspaper started five years ago.

The bathroom renovation budget was unanimously approved by the Council for $1,462,000 at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We got an idea of what’s on the horizon and the needs of the department,” Council member and Planning Committee Chair John Kydes said. “We got real insight in what’s going on, particularly on the capital budget side.”

At previous Planning Committee and Board of Estimate and Taxation meetings, Norwalk parents and residents expressed their concern and disgust over the state of the schools’ bathrooms.

During the committee’s April 1 meeting, councilmembers Tom Livingston and Lisa Shanahan contested the veracity of the claims regarding the bathrooms’ disrepair.

“I’m concerned about how these are being portrayed,” Livingston said. “Some need work, but there’s a misconception with parents . ... I worry people have a perception that they’re bad and they’re not. And I worry about that because I fear sometimes that the default setting is to throw money at it and replace the whole thing when they don’t need it.”

The bathroom discussion led Kydes to propose the transfer of funds from the bathroom project to the library department.

The Council’s approval was the final step in the fiscal year 2022 capital budget process.