Brookfield to consider largest building project in town history

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Residents and property owners are about to consider the most expensive construction project in the town’s 231-year history, which, if approved, would move pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students into a large new school and ultimately could turn the only wooden school in Connecticut into a library.

First Selectman Steve Dunn said the proposed $78.1 million construction of a new Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES) on the parcel along Candlewood Lake Road where the present school has stood since the early 1960s has received the “unanimous” support of the boards of Selectmen, Finance and Education.

He said municipal and school officials are optimistic that if the project is approved later this winter that an application for a 22.5 percent reimbursement from the state could be submitted by June 30 and approved by December, which would lower the cost to local taxpayers to $63.3 million.

Board of Education Chairwoman Colette Sturm said that if CES and HHES are not renovated or new construction built, it would cost the town about $21 million to replace outdated systems and materials in the coming years at the two schools.

Dunn and Sturm said in an interview that they want a large turnout at the special town meeting on Tuesday, January 15, at 7 p.m. in the BHS auditorium. Resident and property owners will consider sending the package to a day-long referendum vote on Tuesday, March 5.

The first selectman, who is in his second term, said it is projected that construction would start next year and the new building, which would be built across from the current school and accommodate a projected 1,130 students, would be completed before the start of the 2022-2023 academic year.

“People definitely think something needs to be done,” said state Rep. Steve Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, who is a former member of the Board of Education. However, he said although many support a new building some of them think that it would best to renovate the existing building.

Harding said he supports building the proposed new, three-floor 138,000-square-foot structure, which would house not only the second, third and fourth grades that are at the present school but would move the pre-kindergarten through first grade classes from Center Elementary School, the last wooden school in the state.

It also would shift the fifth grade classes from Whisconier Middle School (WMS) to Huckleberry, a move that former Superintendent of Schools John Goetz endorsed in 2007 shortly before he retired.

Sturm said fifth grade students are more comfortable in an elementary school.

A consultant to the Board of Education studied various options, including renovating the existing school.

Dunn said that for decades Brookfield has renovated schools instead of building new structures. He said each project has required that considerable funds be spent on updating the structure to current building codes. He said there was a limited amount of expansion at the Brookfield High School (BHS) renovation that was completed in 2009.

The last two major school constructions projects, the BHS renovation and the expansion of WMS that was completed in 2001 required additional appropriations at referendum to complete the work.

Dunn said if asbestos or PCB content are discovered in the current HHES building it might have to be closed and students would be bused to an empty school in a nearby town. He said he also would prefer not to put students in a renovation “construction zone” for three years.

“I would rather spend more to get a new product,” the first selectman said.

The News-Times of Danbury reported in November that Marcia Marien, the municipal controller and finance director, has said that in 2020, the first year that the project would likely be paid for, the average family would pay $17 more than if HHES was renovated. She said that in 2023, the peak year, the increase for a new structure would be $73 more in taxes for the average homeowner.

The newspaper stated that Marien said those figures could be lowered by adjusting other capital project timelines.

Dunn said it would be easier to keep a new building within budget. Reports indicate a number of school renovation projects across the state in recent years have required additional appropriations.

“You know ahead of time what steel costs and other materials cost,” Dunn said. “You’re also not going to find additional existing construction that needs to be updated.”

“We want input from the voters,” said Dunn, regarding the discussion scheduled for the special town meeting.

He said that he has received constructive suggestions for the project from residents since it was approved last November by the Board of Finance.

“We want to have informed voters,” said Sturm, noting that she and other members of the Board of Education plan to speak to a raft of civic groups and also give presentations in homes across Brookfield before the referendum.

Dunn said some residents have asked, “‘Why are you all of the sudden dumping this on us?’ ”

He said he wants voters to understand that a Board of Education consultant began studying options for HHES nearly three years ago.

Since his early months in office, Dunn has said with a projected decrease in debt service and a grand list that is growing from retail and housing development in the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center, near the Four Corners of Federal Road, the town could over time address the HHES project and minor improvements to WMS and BHS.

He also has said it also could expand the police headquarters on Silvermine Road, which hasn’t been renovated since it opened in 1988, and consider the need for additional space at the Brookfield Library on Whisconier Road, which was built in 1975.

Additionally, he said that with projected grand list growth this could be accomplished and still keep annual tax increases at two percent or lower in many years. He said through the years there has been scant support in town for a tax increase of three percent or higher.

Dunn noted in a November interview with Brookfield Patch that the town had just received an AAA bond rating from Standard & Poor’s, the highest possible, which would help it get lower interest rates when it borrowed money for construction projects.

However, Ray Dalio of Greenwich, the owner of Bridgewater Associates in Westport, the largest hedge fund in the world, told CNBC last fall that the United States is in the “seventh inning” of a cycle that will result in an economic recession.

Would that change any of Brookfield’s capital construction plans?

“It’s possible that it might be slowed,” Dunn said of the timetable for the police headquarters and the library if there is a recession. He acknowledged that interest rates have increased over the last year and he expects that they will continue to increase.

“However, the development coming to town is committed,” the first selectman added. Brookfield is still in the process of developing a New England-style central business district.

But, CTNewsJunkie reported in December that Ben Barnes, who recently completed eight years as the secretary of the state Office of Policy & Management, the governor’s budget arm, said the state has to consider reducing its municipal aid.

Dunn said that might happen as the state budget continues to be in deficit, but at least for now there is “a window of opportunity” to get the full 22.5 percent reimbursement for the project before the end of this calendar year.

Regarding the proposed new HHES, Sturm said the building would have multiple hubs, creating separate communities for each grade level and that the pre-kindergarten through first grade students will have a separate entrance to HHES.

Dunn, the father of four adult children, said he agrees with educators who believe that the primary and intermediate school grades are the most critical in a student’s development.

“You need to have kids set on a positive path by age six or seven,” he said.

Sturm and Dunn said that municipal and school officials are committed to making a new HHES energy efficient.

“If you look at Huckleberry now, its electric heat,” said Dunn. “It’s the most expensive way to heat a building by far.”

“We’re exploring and pursuing vigorously natural gas,” Sturm added, making reference to a less-costly heating source. She also said there also would be energy savings for the school district through the closing of CES.

Regarding safety, she said a new HHES would have a better security system through improved slight lines into the parking area and administrative offices that would be at the front of the building.

Some residents criticized the oversight on the BHS renovation project, which was approved for $31 million in April 2003 and was completed six years later. They complained that in 2015 the state indicated it was going to withhold $7 million in reimbursement because of inadequate documentation. Also, a synthetic athletic field had to be replaced in 2008 months after it was installed, which led to protests against one of the contractors.

“There were a number of massive problems,” said Dunn, a former vice president for J.P. Morgan Chase. “We were getting documents from peoples garages” to justify the state reimbursement.

“You had too many chefs and not enough cooks,” he explained regarding the oversight for the BHS renovation.

He said the members of the Municipal Building Committee “are very qualified” but have to work at their full-time jobs and therefore have limited time to review a major construction project.

Thus, Dunn said that for the HHES proposal the town would hire a construction agent who would oversee all of the contractors and sub-contractors full-time.

Dunn acknowledged that some residents have an emotional attachment to CES. Reportedly some people in neighboring New Milford resented the decision made about five years ago to close the venerable John Pettibone Elementary School, which now houses the Parks & Recreation Office and other municipal personnel.

“We have to let people know that we’re not knocking it down,” said Dunn said of the potential plans for CES.

“There is a psychological sentiment about Center School,” said Harding, who attended CES. “But I think people would be pleased to have a library there and make the building productive.”

Harding has said that some residents were concerned a year ago about building a new library before knowing what the price-tag would be on the construction at HHES, which led to a defeat at referendum by a nearly two to one ratio last February of a proposal that would have placed a $14.7 million structure on the horse field at the municipal campus on Pocono Road.

Sturm said if the HHES proposal is approved at referendum an ad-hoc committee would be established to consider the best uses for CES.

Harding and Dunn said they think CES would be an excellent location for a library, since it has more space and a larger parking lot than the current library. Dunn added that “the library board is in favor” of trying to move their facilities to CES if the new HHES is built, although no formal decision has been made.

The first selectman said residents may also want to utilize the gymnasiums at CES for recreational uses and some of the rooms for meetings.