Veto Override Fails For Wallingford Community Pool Funding

WALLINGFORD, CT — An effort to overturn Wallingford Mayor William Dickinson Jr.’s veto of funding for the Community Pool renovation project failed by a 5-4 vote of the Town Council Tuesday night, according to the New Haven Register. Seven votes were needed to overturn the veto.

Dickinson notified Town Council members in a letter last Friday that he was vetoing the ordinance that was approved April 28 that appropriated funding for the project. The Town Council approved the ordinance amendment, by a 6-3 vote, that increased the appropriation and bond authorization to $7.4 million to fund the project, the Meriden Record-Journal previously reported.

In his letter to council members, Dickinson cited concerns over the state of the economy due to the new coronavirus pandemic. He called the Community Pool project "worthy of support" but said it isn't "time sensitive."

The Register reports Republicans Vinny Cervoni, the council’s chairman, Christina Tatta, Tom Laffin and Craig Fishbein voted in favor of sustaining the veto. The motion to overturn the veto received some bipartisan support with Republicans Chris Shortell and Joe Marrone voting in favor of it. Marrone said he thought the town could afford the project and Dickinson was being “overly cautious” on the issue, according to the Register.

The project had called for an 8,000-square foot pool, a splash pad area, a 3,060-square foot bathhouse, a sand volleyball court, shade structures, a playground area, a picnic pavilion, an activity lawn, concrete sidewalks and a 116-parking space lot that allows for bus circulation and drop-off interior of the site.

Read more at the New Haven Register here.