Penfield Pavilion Rebuild Could Hit $3M

The cost to rebuild the center and westerly sections of Penfield Pavilion, a project slated to start this fall and end in time for Memorial Day 2011, could reach $3 million, according to the architect hired for the job.

Craig Wiles, an architect at Wiles and Associates Architects in Bridgeport, said at the Penfield Pavilion Building Committee's most recent meeting on April 26 that the incomplete cost estimate for the project was $2.8 million, and he added that he thought that estimate was low, according to minutes of that meeting on the town's Web site, www.fairfieldct.org

Wiles confirmed by phone this afternoon that the minutes were accurate and that his firm's estimate was $2.8 million.

But Jennifer Carpenter, deputy chief of staff for First Selectman Ken Flatto, said Flatto thought the cost would be closer to a $2.2 million estimate from town recreation officials last year.

Town Public Works Director Richard White said this afternoon that he probably wouldn't have the cost estimate until the Board of Selectmen's meeting on Wednesday, when the selectmen are scheduled to vote on a funding request for the project.

"I'm probably going to have them at the last minute. I'll probably be fine-tuning them up until the last minute," White said of cost estimates from Wiles and Associates Architects; a second construction estimator that was hired by the building committee; and his own estimate of how much work done by DPW crews will cost.

"On Wednesday, we'll make a presentation and have the full numbers. If I throw out a number now, it's not a number I'll have any confidence in," White said.

The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to vote on the funding request at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Sullivan-Independence Hall. If approved by the selectmen, the funding request would then head to the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting in June.

The cost to rebuild the easterly section of the 109-year-old pavilion was $1.5 million and that project was completed in 2008. The town had secured a $400,000 grant for that project, so the cost to taxpayers was about $1.1 million, according to Chief Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller.

Hiller wasn't available today to say if the Board of Selectmen could approve a funding request without the cost being identified in a bonding resolution that accompanies funding requests voted on by town boards. Bonding resolutions are normally prepared in advance of the selectmen's vote on a funding request.

Confusion existed today about when the project would be put out to bid. The April 26 minutes say the architects expect to put out the bid on May 15, but Wiles said today that the town now planned to bid it in June. Projects normally aren't bid until after the RTM has approved a funding request for the project, and the RTM's next meeting is on June 28, according to the Town Clerk's office.

The funding request to finish the rebuild of Penfield Pavilion comes at a time when residents are questioning expenditures by the town. A $400,000 funding request to build a girls' Little League field at 520 Hoyden's Lane turned into a hot-button issue for Hoyden's Hill residents, who said the time wasn't right to spend $400,000 on an athletic field, due to the economy and especially after town boards cut $3 million from the Board of Education's 2010-11 budget.