Selectmen appoint five members to ad-hoc facilities panel

BROOKFIELD -- A former candidate for first selectman and the former municipal police chief are among the members of a committee that will address the town's next high-profile infrastructure project.

At its regular meeting on Monday night, January 6, the Board of Selectmen appointed the ad-hoc Police Facilities Committee, which will start with five members with terms that will extend until at least February 2027. The selectmen indicated that more members may be appointed in the future.

The possible construction of a new headquarters or the expansion of the existing facility on Silvermine Road has received considerable discussion since at least the 2017 municipal election campaign.

First Selectman Steve Dunn has said multiple times that the current facility, which opened in the 1980s, no longer meets federal standards. He has said more space is needed for operations and for locker room facilities.

The members appointed to the ad-hoc committee were Irene Corea, Matt Grimes, Jim Mitchell, Jay Purcell and Mario Nacinovich.

Dunn said the panel includes Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters.

Purcell, a former chief of the Brookfield Police, was on the force for about 40 years. During that tenure, he also was the second-in-command for about 16 years under former Chief Robin Montgomery.

Grimes ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for first selectman in 2023. His platform made the police facilities a top construction priority.

He was the chairman of the Brookfield Board of Education's Facilities Committee 22 years ago when it approved an major expansion to Brookfield High School. He later served as chairman of the Board of Education.

Dunn, Selectman Bob Belden and Selectman Tara Carr, who served as first selectman from 2021-2023, all have indicated that the bonding costs associated with the high school expansion and those associated with the Candlewood Lake Elementary School, which opened in 2023, would make it difficult financially to immediately embark on a new or expanded police facility.

However, they also have said that the bonding costs will ease starting in 2026 when the payments for the high school expansion will conclude.

The town also has an ad-hoc committee studying possible uses for Center Elementary School, which closed following the the end of the academic year in June 2023. There has been discussion about moving the library to that site, developing a community center and Parks & Recreation uses.

However, Dunn has said that the police facilities should be the first project to be addressed.