Selectman: Police building on softball field a ‘dumb idea’
NEW CANAAN — “This is a dumb idea,” Selectman Nick Williams said Tuesday when he confirmed with First Selectman Kevin Moynihan that Saxe Middle School’s softball fields are being considered as a location for the new police station project.
The town has been looking at alternatives for an updated police department since the 27,000 square-foot school on 174 South Ave. lacks space for law enforcement needs that were unforeseen when it was last renovated 38 years ago.
The middle school softball field “was one location among several,” Moynihan said at the selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday.
The town is considering 12 locations for a new building while also investigating the possibility of renovating the current, 96year-old building, Moynihan said.
The police building committee hired Berlin based Brian Humes of Jacunski Humes Architects in February to determine options for either renovating the present building or building a new station on the same property.
Though the town is discussing renovation, a new building “is a preferable solution for a police department which these days (needs) a very specialized building and we are really building it for the next 50 to 100 years,” Moynihan said.
The current police station does not meet police needs for 2021, according to Humes’ study, since when it was last renovated there were no lockers for female officers, no simulated training area and a lack of space for computer equipment.
“Just to be clear, (would) part of the equation (be) that you would look at taking out the softball field and the baseball field at Saxe Middle School?” Williams asked.
Moynihan confirmed that was the intention.
“You are a terrific first selectman and you have ideas that run rampant — some good, some bad. This is a dumb idea,” Williams said. “It is never going to happen on my watch.”
Williams had previously rejected an idea to use the Saxe Middle School’s ball fields for a parking lot for the YMCA. He added that “we are not going to take away our fields at Saxe to put in anything.”
“I understand where you are coming from,” Moynihan said. “We will have a vote for town bodies. That will be a discussion for Sept. 7.”