By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — A resolution to hire a consultant for the Long Lots Elementary School project was no bed of roses at Wednesday’s meeting of the Board of Selectwomen as arguments erupted over whether the plans might uproot the Westport Community Gardens.

First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker reacted angrily when Andrew Coleman and Toni Simonetti, both gardeners at the community plots — which border the school’s campus — suggested town officials have not been transparent about the Long Lots plan and its possible impact on the gardens. 

A building committee is currently reviewing options on whether to renovate or replace the aging Long Lots, the town’s largest elementary school by enrollment. Some variations of those plans might claim or relocate part, if not all, of the Westport Community Gardens and the Long Lots Preserve.

Tooker was not happy with the gardeners’ comments.

“I will not accept accusations of lack of transparency on this project. I will not. It’s not okay,” Tooker said. “It has been a public process from day one.”

“We do our business in public, just like we’re doing this morning,” she said. “This is the chance for the public to engage. We send out agendas, we send out timeframes, we make sure people know where we’re leading and we want public engagement,” the first selectwoman added. 

“That’s why we do our business in public. Because we’re spending your money and we’re using your town assets.” 

Sharp words were exchanged as the selectwomen considered a contract for consulting services on the Long Lots project to be performed by Susan Chipouras, of Vinmas Corp. She also was the consultant hired by the town for earlier projects at Coleytown Middle School, Staples High School, Bedford Middle School and Greens Farms Elementary School.

Vinmas Corp. has worked successfully with the town for several years, John Broadbin, deputy public works director, told the selectwomen, so officials felt it was not necessary to put the contract out to bid. “This is a step to put another professional on our team” for the Long Lots project, he said. 

The building committee is still in the early stages of planning and expects to choose a specific plan for the school project after August, committee member Donald O’Day said while touring the gardens on a recent Saturday. Tooker also toured the gardens and the adjacent nature preserve last week.

Discussion at Wednesday’s meeting became heated when Selectwoman Candice Savin said she’d like to encourage the building committee to consider options that would save the gardens, a comment that Selectwoman Andrea Moore said did not pertain to consideration of the contract. The agenda specified acting on a contract to hire Chipouras as the project’s consultant and not what options the Long Lots Building Committee should recommend, Moore said.

But Savin persisted. “There has been a substantial outcry and concern among some in the community [about the gardens],” she said. “I personally would just encourage [the building committee] to look at those options and have everyone understand what are the trade-offs, what are the costs and so we can all make a decision together.”

The community gardens have been in the same location, adjacent to the Hyde Lane school, for 20 years. The gardeners have been attending building committee meeting to express their concerns, recently held a pop-up market to attract visitors to tour the site, and started an online petition to collect signatures in support of saving the gardens, which as of early Thursday had more than 1,620 signatures.  

During the public comment portion of Wednesday’s meeting, Coleman suggested that the debate over the community gardens and the school project is not really about the gardens at all, but more about the lack of athletic fields in Westport. If Long Lots’ existing field is chosen as the site for a new school building, then a new field for the school might be located on garden plots.

If the town finds another location for the school’s athletic field, the gardens would not be threatened, Coleman said.

Tooker said the town’s Parks and Recreation Department has jurisdiction over playing fields, and the department staff is working on the need for an athletic field on the Long Lots campus.

“They’re actively engaged with our building committee on this issue,” she said. “We have a very big issue around lack of field space, and have for decades in this town. This is not new.”

By the end of the discussion, the selectwomen voted unanimously to approve the consultant contract.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.