Upcoming Town Referendum Wiped Clean of Any Mention of $15 Million GE Gift

By Rebecca Carnes

Following a rash of public concern regarding the narrow scope of a planned senior center and aquatic center, the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously last night to remove any mention of the $15 million GE gift from the upcoming town referendum on April 28.

The town formed an ad-hoc committee more than a year ago to start looking into the development of a 10,000-square-foot senior center and 20,000-square-foot aquatic center near the NYA at Fairfield Hills, and spent $81,000 since last August on what First Selectman Pat Llodra called “conceptual” ideas, including the hiring of architects, designers, and a construction company.

The town was set to vote on the acceptance and usage of the GE gift at the April 28 referendum, but last week Llodra cancelled three last-minute public meetings on the project and recommended to pull it from the referendum. The wording on the sample GE ballot question - which town attorney David Grogins said was “confusing”, would have required voters to either vote “yes” to both accept and use the $15 million on the senior center and near Olympic-sized indoor pool, or vote “no” against acceptance and use.

Last week it was revealed that a town referendum on whether to “accept” the GE money was unnecessary because Llodra already legally accepted the money from GE on Nov. 19, 2014. The town, by law, only needs to hold a public referendum on gifts of $10 million or more in order to get public approval on appropriation or “usage” of the money. The GE money was split into two appropriations of $450,000 and $9.55 million for the initial planning and design on the senior center and pool. A town referendum is not needed on an appropriation under $500,000.

Related:

• Newtown Referendum on $15 Million Gift May Be Postponed
• No Referendum Needed to Accept $15 Million GE Gift for Sandy Hook Tragedy
• Newtown First Selectman Asks to Call Off Community Center Vote
• Newtown Officials Spent Part of GE Gift, Split Money into Two Appropriations

At a special Board of Selectmen meeting on Feb. 27, Selectman James O. Gaston, Sr., made a motion to add the “acceptance” of the $15 million GE gift to the April 28 town referendum, tying the acceptance and usage of the gift together for one town vote. During a 10-minute presentation Gaston made speaking as a resident during the last public meeting on the GE gift, he explained in depth, the virtues of a seven-lane, eight-lane, or Olympic-sized indoor pool at Fairfield Hills which could be used for regional competitions and become a “wow” factor for the town.

GE announced in November 2013 it would donate $15 million to Newtown in the wake of the Sandy Hook school tragedy in order to help the town recover and heal. At last night’s meeting, Llodra, said the only stipulations GE made on donating the gift was that it be used for a stand-alone, brand-new facility that would serve a community purpose.

The $15 million project to build a senior center and pool has been dubbed a “community center” since the town accepted the money. Immediately after the GE donation was announced, an ad-hoc committee was formed of 12 people from the Commission on Aging, some parks & recreation representatives, and some senior center members.

At last night’s meeting, Llodra charged the board - comprised of Llodra, Gaston, and William F.L. Rodgers - to come up with a few names by the next board meeting on April 20 in order to form a GE gift money “commission” who will collect input from the entire community in a systematic and all-inclusive way.

“We need to refocus the task, reset the process, and reconstitute the group - in part or whole - that has been working on the project,” Llodra said, adding that the committee should ensure a broad representation of Newtown residents. She went on to praise the ad-hoc committee’s efforts up to this point calling it “valuable work.” Gaston said he agreed that the ad-hoc committee provided “helpful information” and that the work and money that was spent on the “design” won’t be for nothing.

While the process on how to use the GE gift money up to this point has had its “shortcomings,” said Selectman Rodgers during the meeting, the ad hoc committee should “not be blamed for not foreseeing some of the difficulties that arose.”

Llodra said deciding on how to use the gift money has been a “difficult challenge,” and added that the process “clearly didn’t have us on the right path, so we needed to stop.”

Selectman Rodgers emphasized the importance of having multiple avenues for gathering public input for the planning of the project. “We don’t want to have a vocal and very small minority dictate things,” he said at the meeting.

One voter at the sparsely-attended meeting chose to ask a question and make a comment.

“I’m really anxious to know if that (senior center) is still a possibility?” asked Rose West, who said she was an 86-year-old Newtown resident.

Llodra explained to West that Newtown has great community support for its seniors and recognizes that “we truly need to do better by them” and that there’s a need for a much-improved senior center in town.

“I don’t think that interest and that passion is going away, but how we achieve it is a little less clear right now than maybe we would hope for it to be,” Llodra said to West. “So even though this has been a really rough process to figure out what we mean by community center, I don’t think our pulling back on that project means that we don’t support the seniors. That’s not the case. We’ll have to find a way to make it (senior center) happen.”

West thanked Llodra for all she’s done. “I’m really grateful,” West told Llodra.

Photo Credit: Rebecca Carnes

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