Selectmen Delay Vote on $1.7M in School Maintenance Projects

The town's Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Wednesday to postpone its vote on nine maintenance projects at public schools so cost estimates and the need for the projects could be reviewed by a town commission.

Selectman Sherri Steeneck was blunt in her request that the Town Facilities Commission, a group of volunteer residents involved in construction trades, review the list from the Board of Education.

"I have no confidence whatsoever in any of the numbers that you give to me...and I'm really kind of tired of it," Steeneck said to a group of education officials in the audience at Sullivan-Independence Hall. "I really don't feel comfortable at all with the numbers...and, some of them, I'm not comfortable they have to be done."

"Kick Board of Ed items on the list to the Town Facilities Commission, get numbers and if the items should be done. I'd rather use their expertise. That's why we have them," Steeneck said.

Steeneck's comment came two days after James Millington, the Republican majority leader on the Representative Town Meeting, expressed displeasure with the $2.2 million cost of Roger Sherman School's renovation. Millington said Monday night that a more extensive renovation at Sherman proposed by the school district's Central Office was estimated to cost $1.925 million, while the true cost of that more extensive renovation was later estimated by Turner Construction Co. at $4.4 million. The renovation approved by the RTM Monday night involved a fraction of the work originally sought by the Board of Education.

Steeneck on Wednesday also questioned the need to install an acoustical ceiling and lighting in Mill Hill School for $250,000 if that school were to be renovated in the near future as the Board of Education wanted.

Selectman James Walsh said the Town Facilities Commission also ought to review maintenance projects proposed by the town, but the selectmen agreed to send only three of eight town maintenance projects to the commission for review. Those three projects were:

* $1 million to install a new roof on the Fairfield Senior Center;

* A total of $106,000 for removal or work on underground storage tanks at Fire Station 2, H. Smith Richardson Golf Course, Burr Homestead, the Town Garage in Tunxis Hill and the Fairfield Senior Center;

* $85,000 to replace the roof on the Fairfield Academy, a historic schoolhouse on Town Green.

The four maintenance projects approved by the selectmen on Wednesday were:

* $540,000 to purchase a new fire pumper;

* $250,000 for a flood control project in the town's Holland Hill neighborhood;

* $120,000 to remediate land on One Rod Highway where the state plans to build an $8 million regional fire training center;

* $52,000 for concrete paths at Lake Mohegan to increase accessibility to the elderly and disabled.

The selectmen postponed its vote on $120,000 for upgrades to a traffic control signal by Fairfield Woods Road and Palm Drive to see if grants could be obtained.

Thomas Cullen, the school district's director of operations, said cost estimates for the Board of Education projects were based on similar work done in the past and consultation with contractors and town employees. The selectmen received 50 pages of backup material on the school projects, but Steeneck said she didn't get the backup material until after Wednesday's meeting started.

"If you give me information today in this packet, it's not something I can absorb while sitting in the meeting," she said, an opinion shared by Walsh.

Board of Education Vice Chairman Pam Iacono said the backup material had been given out at Tuesday night's Board of Finance meeting, but it apparently wasn't distributed to the selectmen. First Selectman Ken Flatto said he first saw the backup material Wednesday morning.

Iacono said she didn't believe the selectmen had enough time to read the material, even if they had received it Tuesday night. She just didn't want members of the public to think the Board of Education gave the report out during Wednesday's meeting.

"We got a lot of documents distributed at the table last night," Flatto said. "I didn't see this particular one."

James Gallagher, vice chairman of the Town Facilities Commission, said his commission didn't mind reviewing the Board of Education's projects, but he didn't think it was necessary to review the three town projects. Flatto asked him to anyway, and Town Public Works Director Richard White said he wouldn't mind another set of eyes on the proposed roof replacement at the Fairfield Senior Center.

Earlier, Flatto said he couldn't imagine supporting the Board of Education's proposal to replace cedar wood siding on Roger Ludlowe Middle School for $250,000, a sentiment shared by Gallagher, who said cedar wood siding was on town buildings much older than the middle school, which was built in 2003.

"The cedar on that building is 10 years old. It's in the nature of cedar to turn color," Gallagher said, adding later that he did not want to micromanage the school projects and "in no way wants to inherit an adversarial position, and that's what I feel like right now."

Flatto said the Town Facilities Commission was not a decision-making body and would just present information to the selectmen.

Supt. of Schools David G. Title said maintenance projects on the school board's list had to be done over the summer, and he was concerned there wouldn't be enough time to do them if the Town Facilities Commission's review took a long period of time. "Most of them can't be done during the school year. We really want to get to these as soon as possible," he said.

School board member Tim Kery said, "The longer the delay, the greater the cost is in fixing them."

Flatto said he was concerned about the timing, though he liked the idea "of having some more vetting" of the school projects.

The selectmen asked Gallagher to have the Town Facilities Commission come back with recommendations before a joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance at 7 p.m. March 14 in the Education Center, 501 Kings Highway East.

School-related maintenance projects to be reviewed by the commission include:

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

* $125,000 to remove and replace a fuel tank at Holland Hill School;

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

* $250,000 to install new acoustical ceiling and lighting at Mill Hill School;

* $50,000 for roof repairs on Roger Ludlowe Middle School;

* $100,000 for roof repairs on McKinley School;

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

* $250,000 to restore cornice work on the facade of Tomlinson Middle School;

* A total of $105,000 to build a motor skills playground at the Early Childhood Center at Fairfield Warde High School and to install a rubberized surface on an existing playground at the ECC.

Two maintenance projects on Flatto's original list were officially withdrawn Wednesday - $240,000 toward replacement of the Tide Mill Bridge, which the state agreed to pay the vast majority of, and a total of $150,000 for unforeseen issues in the expansions and renovations of Stratfield School and Fairfield Woods Middle School.