Selectmen approve consultant for proposed community center

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – After receiving a five-star review from a visiting team of Parks & Recreation Department officials, the town hired Silver Petrucelli & Associates of Hamden to do the structural review on building a community center on the site where what had been the oldest school in Connecticut is located.

The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Monday, February 2, to spend $66,414 to determine whether the former Center Elementary School (CES) can be converted into a space with a library, meeting rooms and recreation facilities or the building should be demolished and a new structure built for those programs.

First Selectman Steve Dunn said Parks & Recreation Director Laura Murphy and three members of the Parks & Recreation Commission visited projects that Silver Petrucelli had worked on and the feedback they received was "unanimous" that the firm “did a really good job” on each of them.

Silver Petrucelli's bid was the lowest of the six companies that made proposals. Dunn said the highest was $280,000 – more than four times higher.

Seven years ago voters approved spending $78.1 million to build the Candlewood Lake Elementary School (CLES) on Candlewood Lake Road on the parcel where Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES) had been in operation since the mid-1960s. CES, which had students from pre-kindergarten through first grade and was the last wooden school in Connecticut, closed after the 2022-23 academic year and was ceded to the town in September 2023. CLES has students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

An ad-hoc committee, chaired by longtime civic volunteer Bob Zinser, has been developing a plan for a community center at the site. Zinser also chaired an earlier ad-hoc panel that sought public input on what activities would be best suited for a community center.

Selectman Karl Hinger noted that the ad-hoc Police Facilities Committee also is considering building a new police headquarters at the CES site, off of Obtuse Hill Road, Route 133.

Dunn said he would oppose putting a new police headquarters there since it is near five intersections, which would impede police vehicles responding to calls, and the location is in a “residential” neighborhood, which also serves as a “historic district.”

Dunn said that Silver Petrucelli, which will celebrate its 35th anniversary in September, would determine whether CES can be rehabilitated or the building should be demolished. He said the firm will hold public meetings before it makes a recommendation.

Selectman Bob Belden, a former chairman of the Board of Education, noted that part of CES was built in the 1930s and the other part in the 1990s. The school was renovated in 1996.

Dunn said that five years ago it cost $847,000 to demolish HHES. He estimated that it would cost more than $1 million to tear down CES if Silver Petrucelli makes that recommendation.

During public comment, Police Facilities ad-hoc committee member Matt Grimes, a former candidate for the Republican nomination for first selectman, urged the selectman to hold a special town meeting in the coming months to determine the fate of CES, noting that the building is owned by the taxpayers and Brookfield has a town-meeting form of government.

Dunn stated in a recent e-mail interview with Patch.com that it is too early to determine if CES should be demolished.

The first selectman said the community center would likely include Parks & Recreation facilities, the municipal library and meeting rooms.

Library officials have said since at least 1999 that the current facility on Whisconier Road is too small for a town of more than 17,000 people. A proposal to build a new $14.7 million library at the municipal campus on Pocono Road was rejected at referendum in 2018. The current library opened in 1975.

Dunn said Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and other organizations would use the meeting rooms in the proposed community center

“We should have a place where our middle school and high school students can study together and meet together,” he said in an interview with Patch.com after this week's meeting.

Dunn said he hopes that the community center would have a meeting room to accommodate more than 200 people, so that town meetings could be held there instead of in the Brookfield High School auditorium. He said the space in room 133 of the town hall, which holds about 135 people, is not sufficient for town meetings.

The first selectman said the ad-hoc Police Facilities Committee is expected to present a recommendation in June. He said he hopes that proposal will be promptly considered at a special town meeting so that it can be considered at referendum in the November 3 gubernatorial election, where there should be a large turnout of voters.

That ad-hoc committee, which is chaired by former Police Chief Jay Purcell, is considering expanding the current police headquarters at 63 Silvermine Road or building a new structure elsewhere on the municipal campus near Pocono Road or at another site in Brookfield.

All three selectmen have said that the current headquarters is too small and no longer conforms to federal standards.

Although the police facilities are apparently poised to go to a vote in November, Dunn said he hopes that the recommendation from Silver Petrucelli would be completed by then and municipal officials could provide voters with at least a ballpark figure on what the community center might costs, so that they would know the overall cost estimated for both projects before considering the police facilities.

All three selectmen have said that the police headquarters should be the first priority.

He has said that the town can eventually embark on both projects since later this year the bond payments for the Brookfield High School renovation, which was approved at referendum in 2003, would be completed.

Brookfield currently has an AAA bond rating from Standard & Poor’s. Dunn has said that rating helped save considerable money on the construction of CLES.