First Budget Vote Wednesday on $4.2M in Capital Projects

The Board of Selectmen casts the first vote Wednesday on spending plans for 2011-12, but $240,000 for the Tide Mill Bridge won't be on First Selectman Ken Flatto's list of capital projects for the next fiscal year.

Town Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller said Tuesday that the state Bond Commission approved $200,000 in reimbursement for the bridge in Fairfield's Southport neighborhood, which was finished in 2007 but which had an outstanding bill of $240,000 that the state apparently would not initially pay.

Hiller said the Bond Commission had approved the $200,000 in December, but town officials first learned of it Monday morning. He said the letter from the state said that the only reason the town had been shorted $240,000 was because the state's General Assembly had "raided" funding in the Local Bridge Program to close the state's budget deficit.

Town Public Works Director Richard White said Tuesday that the state pledged to try to find the difference through other projects. "The letter I got from a staff member of the DOT said they bonded a chunk of it and the remainder they would try to to find from other projects that came in under budget," White said. "It's good they made us whole."

State Sen. John McKinney, R-Fairfield didn't return a call Tuesday to comment on why town officials first learned Monday of the $200,000 approval by the Bond Commission in December. McKinney didn't return a call last week after White told members of the town's Board of Finance that the town had to pay $240,000 toward replacement of the Tide Mill Bridge because the state had cancelled funding in the Local Bridge Program.

The state, through the Local Bridge Program, funded 20 percent of the cost of bridge replacements in the state, with the remaining 80 percent coming from the federal government. The Tide Mill Bridge, which consists of two spans carrying Harbor Road over Southport Harbor, was finished in 2007, but an outstanding payment was owed to New England Road Inc. for a change order that resulted when bedrock in the harbor was seven feet lower than anticipated. The town and contractor had been in negotiations over how much was owed and New England Road Inc. agreed to a payment significantly lower than what it initially wanted, according to White.

Funding for projects that would be covered by bond anticipation notes in 2011-12 and which will be voted on Wednesday by the Board of Selectmen include:

* $315,000 to replace two 1962 boilers at Dwight School;

* $125,000 to remove and replace a 1978 10,000-gallon fuel oil tank from Holland Hill School;

* $250,000 for renovations to student bathrooms at Jennings School;

* $250,000 for a new acoustical ceiling system and lights in Mill Hill School;

* $150,000 for "building project support" to handle unforeseen issues in the renovations and expansions of Stratfield School and Fairfield Woods Middle School;

* $150,000 for roof repairs at McKinley School ($100,000) and Roger Ludlowe Middle School ($50,000);

* $250,000 for new siding on Roger Ludlowe Middle School;

* $250,000 for front facade cornice work at Tomlinson Middle School;

* $105,000 for a new motor skills learning playground at the Early Childhood Center at Fairfield Warde High School ($60,000) and to install a rubber surface on an existing playground at the ECC ($45,000);

* $540,000 to replace a fire pumper at Fire Station 1 that dates to 1999 and that has 120,000 miles and more than 12,200 engine hours;

* $250,000 for a flood control project by Holland Hill Road that involves replacing three undersized drainage pipes with a 5-foot-high and 14-foot-wide box culvert, replacing the head wall on the south side and improving the channel of Grasmere Brook within 100 feet of the headwall;

* $1 million to replace the 45,000-square-foot roof on the Fairfield Senior Center;

* $120,000 to remediate soil where an $8 million new regional fire training facility will be built. The state would pay for the new training facility;

* $106,000 to install a fuel leak monitoring system and new fuel lines at an underground storage tank at Fire Station 2 on Jennings Road ($40,000), a fuel leak monitoring system for underground tanks at the H. Smith Richardson Golf Course's garage ($40,000), removal of underground tanks and possible remediation of contaminated soil at the Burr Homestead and at the Town Garage in Tunxis Hill ($20,000), installation of new fuel lines at the Fairfield Senior Center $6,000);

* $120,000 to upgrade a traffic control signal at Fairfield Woods Road and Palm Drive;

* $52,000 to extend a concrete path at Lake Mohegan to connect the water park, pavilion, restrooms, concession stand and shoreline;

* $85,000 to replace a wood roof on the Old Academy on Town Green.