Brookfield to vote on most expensive project in town history

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – First Selectman Steve Dunn said even though supporters have held information sessions in homes and organized phone banks, many residents still aren’t familiar with the proposed $78.1 million construction of a new Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES), but he tells the ones that he meets that “we’re going to build a good, sound school that will last for 50 years.”

“We’re not getting a Cadillac, but we’re not getting a Yugo either,” the first selectman said in an interview on the proposal, which goes to referendum on Tuesday, March 5, and would be the largest capital expenditure in Brookfield’s 231-year history.

The three-story building would measure 138,000 square feet.

“The project that is being proposed is the right one that we can afford and will meet the needs of the children,” Dunn said. “Doing nothing is not an option” since considerable renovations will otherwise have to be made to both HHES and Center Elementary School (CES) on Route 133.

The proposed new HHES would be on the other side of the parcel from where the current school is located on Candlewood Lake Road and the current structure, which opened in 1961, would be abolished. The new school would house the students from pre-kindergarten through first grade, which are currently at CES, as well as the second through fourth grade classes that are currently at HHES and the fifth grade classes that are at Whisconier Middle School (WMS).

Former Superintendent of Schools John Goetz recommended in 2007 that the fifth grade be moved from WMS to HHES since there is a large gap in ages between them and the eighth grade students.

Regarding the future of CES, in January Dunn said that Brookfield Library officials are interested in moving from their 44-year-old building on Whisconier Road to CES, which also would likely be used by community groups and the Parks & Recreation Department, which in particular is interested in utilizing the school’s basketball courts.

By a nearly two to one ratio, voters rejected a $14.77 million proposal in February 2018 to build a new library on the horse statue field at the municipal campus on Pocono Road.

Brookfield Board of Education (BOE) Chairman Colette Sturm has said that an ad-hoc committee would be established to determine the best use for CES, which is the only wooden school in Connecticut.

Dunn said the new HHES would have separate entrances for the pre-kindergarten through first grade students and for the second through fifth grade students. He added that there would be two indoor courtyards where students could play.

He complimented the BOE, which began with 10 options more than three years ago, winnowed it down to four options and then chose last year to build the new school and eventually demolish the current HHES. The referendum date was set at a special town meeting on January 15 following discussion on the project.

Dunn said that with the possibility of getting the less-expensive natural gas, the heating costs might be at least $400,000 less annually than in the current building, which has electric heat and limited insulation.

He said that, if approved, the project should be completed for the start of the 2022-2023 academic year.

Dunn, a second-term Democrat, said members of the Parent Teacher Organization and the Democratic Town Committee have been making phone calls for weeks to generate support. Additionally, he said Board of Education (BOE) members have been touting the proposal before civic groups and in small groups at residences. A forum at a local restaurant was slated for February 26 – exactly one week before the referendum.

Under the plan, the town would seek a 22.5 percent reimbursement from the state, which would lower the municipal tax costs to $63.3 million.

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 than if the existing structure was renovated.

“I don’t think and there are other people in Brookfield that don’t think that the numbers add up for the final cost for this new school,” said Fred Stoll, a candidate for the 2011 Republican nomination of town treasurer and a former member of the Brookfield Republican Town Committee.

“I don’t think there is any way that they’re going to be able to build what they are seeking to do for $78.1 million,” he said, noting that he had recently seen a presentation on the proposal during a Republican Town Committee meeting.

Both the WMS renovation that was approved at referendum in 1998 and completed in 2001 and the Brookfield High School (BHS) renovation that was approved by voters in 2003 and completed in 2009 required additional appropriations at a later date after the work couldn’t be completed at the initial cost.

State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield said based on the figures provided by the Board of Finance and other municipal boards, he believes the project can be completed for $78.1 million.

Even though Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) has called for an annual $600 million reduction in state bond appropriations, Dunn said he still believes Brookfield can get the 22.5 percent reimbursement for the HHES proposal if it is approved this winter and the paper work is submitted to the state by June 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

Harding, a former Board of Education member and a supporter of the HHES proposal, explained that Lamont’s efforts to reduce bond appropriations “may” have an impact.

“I will do everything in my power to get the 22.5 percent, but with this debt diet that the governor is talking about, I can’t tell for sure what might happen with the Huckleberry proposal.”

Regarding the possible ramifications of voters rejecting the proposal at the upcoming referendum, Dunn said it is better to apply for state grants now than in two years when less bond money might be available as the Lamont and legislators continue to address a pension debt that was neglected for decades.

Dunn said that, generally speaking, he supports Lamont’s call to curb bond spending since the state has to address large pension obligations that were not adequately funded for decades. However, he said that state should be more equitable in awarding grants for school construction, noting that Bethel, which has a per capita income that is about 93 percent as much as Brookfield’s, is getting a much higher 45 percent reimbursement for renovations to the Rockwell and Johnson elementary schools.

Dunn said that there would be an owner’s agent who would oversee the design and budget for the project and avoid some of the confusion that plagued the BHS project a decade ago.

He acknowledged that for generations Brookfield has renovated existing schools instead of building new structures. However, he said on the BHiS renovation, for example – at least 55 percent of the funds were spent on bringing the existing building up to current construction codes.

Dunn said a number of components were “value engineered” out of that project to reduce costs. He said if the town ultimately opts to renovate the existing HHES it will “probably only get 80 percent of what we want.”

Additionally, the first selectman said he also doesn’t want to put elementary school students in a construction zone for three years as the current HHES is being renovated, which is one of the options that has been considered. He added that if construction workers find asbestos in renovating HHES, it will probably have to be closed and students would have to be educated in a building in Newtown near the Monroe border.

While campaigning for the renovations, Dunn said that earlier this month he encountered a young couple who were not aware of the upcoming referendum.

Dunn said in some instances if residents don’t have children in the schools their primary focus on municipal services is on paving the roads and plowing them during winter storms.

It appears in many municipalities many residents are more familiar with President Donald Trump through viewing broadcast and cable news coverage than they are with their first selectman or mayor.

“I’m not on television,” Dunn said. “If people want to know what’s going on in town government they have to actively pursue the municipal web site and look at the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance meetings. These aren’t being fed through 30-second sound bites.”

“I think in every vote there is a certain number of people who will be against it no matter what you propose,” said the first selectman regarding the obstacles in getting the new HHES plan approved.

However, Dunn said that, “The people who are fully aware of the project” support it.

Stoll said, “I would say it is 50/50 whether this plan gets approved.”

Dunn said the steady decline in student enrollment in Brookfield over the last decade will lessen, since there is new housing projects that will be built.

Dunn said unlike several other municipalities in Connecticut, Brookfield is experiencing a surge in economic development and can more easily pay for a new school even though the state budget has been tattered since the 2008 recession.

The town recently received an AAA bond rating – the highest possible - from Standard & Poor’s.

Branson Ultrasonics announced this winter that it would depart Danbury and build a $53 million facility on 13 acres in the Brookfield section of Berkshire Corporate Park, which also has development in its Bethel and Danbury tracts. The 75-acre Brookfield tract already houses Eastern, a cable television call center.

Dunn said there are plans for a new assisted living facility, a supermarket in the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center near the Four Corners of Federal Road and a medical building on the cornfield along Junction Road, which would each also add considerable revenue to the tax base.

Dunn added that Starbucks is considering putting a location in the Town Center of Brookfield.

Interestingly, for more than 20 years there has been comment about how Brookfield has very little buildable land – since it measures 20 square miles, just three square miles more than Bridgewater, which has a population of 1,700, roughly one-tenth of that in Brookfield...

Dunn said that he agrees that Brookfield has limited new land available, particularly in residential zones.

“However, the land that is being developed in Brookfield for business, except for the cornfield, is a refocusing of properties to a better use,” he said. “You see that at the Four Corners.”

He said that is partly due to Brookfield’s revised zoning regulations, which have gone from being “six inches thick” to a brief document.

“It makes it easier, it makes it clearer,” said Dunn. “Developers in Brookfield can now develop their property in 18 months when it used to take 24 to 30 months. Time is money for developers.”