Harding Has Reservations About Building Library On Horse Field

Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD -- State Rep. Steve Harding (R-107) of Brookfield says he supports building a new library in town but is “very leery” about embarking on a proposed $14.77 million project at the Municipal Center horse statue athletic field “prior to getting everything in order for” the largest renovation to Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES) in more than half a century.

Harding, who was initially elected in a February 2015 special election, said he recognizes that the library needs to act before March to keep a $1 million state grant from expiring. “I see the value to a new library, however, financially, I have some reservations as I think some other people in town do.”

The Board of Finance is expected to consider the project December 13. If it is approved, a special town meeting would be held December 21 at Brookfield High School to discuss the proposed structure, which would include 15 meeting rooms. A referendum would likely be held February 27.

Democratic First Selectman Steve Dunn, who just started his second term, has said that in 10 years the town’s debt service will be trimmed to about half of what it is now and with $1 million to $1.5 million in additional annual tax revenue from the emerging 198-acre Town Center of Brookfield central business district, over time the town can renovate HHES, expand the 29-year-old police headquarters on Silvermine Road, which also is part of the Municipal Center, and build a new library.

But Dunn has added that the town can’t embark on all three proposals simultaneously.

Library officials first started seeking options for a new facility in 1999. The current facility on Whisconier Road, which opened in 1975, has just 38 parking spaces and limited room for meetings.

Library officials told the Board of Selectmen in October that they would seek to raise $1 million privately to help defray the costs and that some of the contingency funds for the project may not be used, which would generate further savings.

Dunn said the proposed new library, which has resulted through input from focus groups that were coordinated this last summer, could be constructed and the long-term financing could be in place before any bond payments would have to be made for construction at HHES. He said it usually takes about six years between when a new school project is initially proposed and when the payments start being made.

“He’s the expert on this,” said Harding, a former Brookfield Board of Education member. “I take him for his word.”

However, both Dunn and Harding have acknowledged that the proposal may meet some resistance at referendum from: Families attached to the horse athletic field; residents who don’t accept the premise that libraries are just as important in the digital age because the newer ones, such as the facility in Ridgefield, have numerous meeting rooms for youth groups and businessmen to utilize; residents who aren’t confident that Brookfield can afford the pending projects when state assistance is dwindling; and naysayers who believe the library should be built in the Town Center of Brookfield to attract more customers for the retail businesses.

“I know there are problems with downtown, but we should remain open to options of placing it downtown,” Harding explained, acknowledging that a facility would be more expensive due to land acquisition costs.

“But a library could be a strong economic engine in the Town Center,” said the state representative, whose district covers Brookfield, the Stony Hill section of Bethel and a slice of northern Danbury.

Danbury attorney Fran Collins, who was the state representative in the 107^th District from 1967 to 1975, has said he helped secure the money to buy the property for the current library during his final term, when was serving as Speaker of the House.

Harding said he would make similar efforts, if needed, to get state funds to help secure a parcel in the Town Center of Brookfield or another acceptable location.

On another topic, he said the projected $207.8 million state budget deficit for the current fiscal year is “a serious problem,” particularly after the state government went four months into the current fiscal year before Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) signed a budget and Connecticut has been plagued by fiscal shortfalls since the Great Recession of 2008.

Farmington Bank economist Donald Klepper-Smith, who had headed former Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s (R-Brookfield) economic team, has said Connecticut is the only New England state that hasn’t regained all of the jobs lost following the fiscal collapse.

Harding said that the Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA), the General Assembly’s budget arm, stated that the bipartisan $41.2 billion budget for the current two year cycle was balanced when it was approved in late October.

“I think this is an issue with OFA,” Harding said in an interview. “I think we need to get some better revenue numbers.”

As of last week, he said he wasn’t sure if the General Assembly would hold a special session before Christmas or in early January to address the projected budget gap.

Harding said that he believes legislators can trim some personnel costs outside of the collective bargaining agreements approved earlier this year – such as freezing overtime pay, eliminating deputy administrators in some departments and not filling positions that are vacant.

The state representative said he agrees with Connecticut Business & Industry Association economist Peter Gioia, who told CT Mirror last month that the bipartisan budget approved this fall is a major step forward for the Nutmeg State.

“It’s given hope to a lot of businesses, because they know that Republicans and Democrats can get issues done in a bipartisan way,” explained Harding.

He said “we’ll see better budgets” in the future as a result of changes that will allow the General Assembly to vote on all contracts with the collective bargaining units and stringent spending and bonding caps.

On a related subject, Harding said he agrees with Stamford’s director of finance, Mike Handler, a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, that rank and file employees in the state collective bargaining units could be convinced to accept the less-expensive defined contribution pension plans.

Handler has said he even has ridden in police cruisers to speak with municipal employees in Stamford, and the result has been that six of the 10 bargaining units now have defined contribution packages.

The collective bargaining units have noted, though, that the concessions package approved this last summer would save taxpayers $1.57 billion over the current two year budget cycle and $24 billion over the next 20 years.

However, Harding said that the state could annex further concessions if it “was explained the right way” to workers by noting that with a pension system that is only 35.5 percent funded, further concession will be needed for adequate money to be there when they retire.

On a separate topic, Harding said although he doesn’t have “any economic data,” he is concerned that online shopping through Amazon and other outlets “could hinder” the 31-year-old Danbury Fair Mall, which is largely responsible for the Hat City ranking first in Connecticut in sales tax revenue and first, per capita, in restaurants.

Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce estimates indicate that 40 percent of the shoppers at the mall come from out of state.

“It’s a great attraction,” Harding said. “But more people are staying away from a retail setting.”

Time reported earlier this year that analysts have said that one in four shopping malls could be out of business within five years.

However, Harding believes there is “great potential” for Amazon to establish a distribution or collection center at the Matrix Corporate Center, the 2.1 million square-foot facility in Danbury that a generation ago was Union Carbide’s headquarters, or another site in the Hat City.

Amazon already has two facilities in Connecticut with a third under construction in North Haven.

“In Danbury you are only an hour away from New York City and you have easy access to international airports,” Harding said.

He added, “I think an Amazon center in Danbury would supplement and bolster the mall.”