Greenwich RTM Approves Municipal Budget For Fiscal Year 2022-2023

GREENWICH, CT — After months and hours worth of meetings and hearings, the Representative Town Meeting approved Greenwich's $465 million budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 early Tuesday morning after a six-hour meeting that began at 7 p.m. Monday.

The budget was approved by a vote of 165 in favor, three opposed and four abstentions.

Greenwich Avenue Intersection Improvements

The biggest debate of the night centered around $2.8 million for the proposed Greenwich Avenue intersection improvements.

A motion to cut the funds, which are coming to Greenwich by way of a state grant, failed by a vote of 95 in favor, 111 opposed and four abstentions after the RTM debated for an hour.

The project encompasses the Greenwich Avenue, Arch Street and Havemeyer Place intersection and the Greenwich Avenue, Fawcett Place and Grigg Street intersection.

Similar to the Greenwich Avenue/Elm Street intersection project that was completed last year, these intersections would be aesthetically improved with more green space and plantings, and also outfitted with bumpouts to help decrease crossing times in crosswalks, improve sightlines and overall improve the safety for pedestrians and motorists.

Supporters of the cut said the project wouldn't improve safety and would take away needed parking spaces in the downtown area.

The Greenwich Department of Public Works has said the project would add 12 new spaces.

"When you really look at it, they don't do anything for public safety. The crossing distance remains the exact same, and the cars aren't slowed by the bumpouts," said RTM member Bill Lewis from District 1. "The whole project has largely become a vanity project. That might be amusing if it wasn't costing $2.8 million in state taxpayer money."

Jane Sprung of District 10, and the Republican Town Committee vice chair, said the community is deeply divided on the project, and the bumpouts would impact trees and infringe upon the World War I monument on Havemeyer. She said there's no statistical evidence on the efficacy of bumpouts.

Beth MacGillivray, RTM member from District 7 and the RTC chair, said "beautification cannot be the compelling reason for this change."

First Selectman Fred Camillo, who has championed the project in recent years, said the project is more than just beautification.

"These bumpouts have the absolute support of almost every single merchant I've spoken to, not just restaurant owners. This is the most dangerous intersection there is on Greenwich Avenue," he said of the Arch Street/Havemeyer intersection, which DPW has said is the first focus. "We know that because of the statistics. We also know that intersection improvements do three things: they absolutely cut down the distance that one has to cross the intersection. It also improves the sightlines. We know that. And it slows down cars. We know that, too."

Alan Gunzburg, chair of the First Selectman's Advisory Committee for People With Disabilities, said that as a person who is hearing and vision impaired and uses a guide dog, the bumpouts would allow him to safely traverse the busy stretch of roadway.

Gunzburg said he once relied on the Greenwich police officers who used to direct traffic on the Avenue.

"I know the police are not coming back, but I also know there's a better way. The new intersection will fix ADA problems... It will fix the slope of the curb cuts, it will increase the sightlines to make it easier and shorter for people with disabilities crossing curb to curb," he said.

Greenwich Fire Department Cut

The smallest cut of the night sent perhaps the loudest message.

The RTM voted 145 in favor with six abstentions to cut $1 from the Greenwich Fire Department in a symbolic vote to get career firefighters and volunteer firefighters together to ease friction between them.

Lucia Jansen of the RTM's Budget Overview Committee said the catalyst for the most recent issue between the two groups stemmed from a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that was implemented by GFD Chief Joseph McHugh on Feb. 1.

The new SOP prohibits volunteers from responding to emergencies in their personal vehicles as they did before, and requires them to go to their fire stations first before going to a scene. It also increases staffing requirements on volunteer apparatus, according to Jansen.

"The volunteer fire chiefs are strongly objecting to the new SOP, and have formally written a letter to the first selectman and the Board of Estimate and Taxation and still felt there was an impasse," Jansen said. "Going forward, we hope the fire administration and the volunteer departments can work on resolving all issues that exist in their relationship that in any way puts at risk the quality of fire services provided to the town or jeopardizes the continuation of a viable combination department."

Brad Sry, a volunteer at the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department, encouraged the RTM to vote for the cut, and said he viewed it as a "shot across the bow."

"A shot across the bow is obviously something that is intended to do no harm, and this does no harm. A dollar doesn't matter one way or the other. It's symbolic and says a course correction is needed, and a course correction is needed here. To come before you and air our dirty laundry is very unfortunate and slightly embarrassing," he said, noting this is the latest in a series of disagreements between the two groups. "We just can't keep backing up and wee can't keep having our utilization chipped away. We're not being heard. We're being eroded."

McHugh said when the policy was put together, the department "explained to everybody this was something we'd have to work through as a department, and we're going to work with everybody involved."

"I've been nothing but open and accepting of all the volunteers in the department and all the career firefighters in this department. I appreciate all the work of every single firefighter in this department, whether you're a career or volunteer, and the volunteers can attest to that," McHugh said, adding that he was a volunteer at one point. "In no way is this a policy put together to take the feet out from underneath the volunteers. The volunteers have a vital role in this department."

But, McHugh said, the policy was meant to get the fire department "up with the times." He said many departments in the country and in Connecticut have implemented a similar policy.

"It's not about hurting anybody or reducing anybody," he said.

Temporary Ice Rink Cut

The RTM cut $45,000 for a study to find the site of a temporary rink to use while a new ice rink is built in Byram. The vote was 136 in favor, 76 opposed with one abstention.

Jansen said the ice rink project has expanded in scope, and it would be more prudent to wait to find out more information on the project before utilizing funds to find a site for a temporary structure.

"The Budget Overview Committee wants the town to finish the most important next step at hand, which is to finish finding the scope and cost of the project, and receive municipal improvement," Jansen said. "To begin a study for the second ice rink is premature and out of order."

Bill Drake, a member of the BET and the chair of the Rink User Committee, said the funds would come at no cost to the town.

"The new temporary rink must be up and running before the other comes down. The sequence, which we're discussing, is obviously a temporary solution rink needs to be thought through and created first," he said. "We've had a rink for 50 years in town. We musn't adopt a rink renovation plan that has the outcome of turning off and prohibiting all of Greenwich's skaters from their one facility for three years."

Another cut came when the RTM voted to delete $116,000 for new pickleball courts. The RTM expressed support for new courts, but said there wasn't enough information about a location. The RTM said it would entertain an interim appropriation once more details are known.

Patch will have a more in-depth story on the pickleball cut.

A motion to cut $50,000 to study a relocation of employees from a maintenance building at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park so the building could be demolished failed by the slimmest of margins: 98 in favor, 99 opposed with four abstentions.