By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — A gap in funding to renovate the Gillespie Center, a town-owned building housing an emergency shelter for the homeless and food pantry, has been partially filled by an anonymous $170,956 donation to Homes With Hope, the nonprofit that manages the center.

Coupled with “value engineering” to cut costs and pare some features of the plan, the donation has enabled work to proceed building, perhaps as soon as May 1.

While the Jesup Road structure is renovated, six beds for the homeless will be available at the Linxweiler House at 655 Post Road East. Permission to use the house temporarily was recently granted to Homes With Hope, which also will manage that facility.

Calling the donation “very generous,” the Board of Selectwomen on Wednesday formally accepted the gift, while also approving the renovation contract with Zeiss Construction Group of Stratford. 

A $300,00 funding shortfall for the center renovation was projected in February by Helen McAlinden, president and CEO of Homes With Hope, a result of rising construction costs.

“We had to restructure the project a couple of times to be sure we had the funding, which is $1.2 million from the [state] Department of Housing,” Elaine Daignault, the director of the town’s Department of Human Services, told the selectwomen. 

The anonymous donation “is meant to provide a cushion, so that we can add in all [alternatives] that are listed within the construction contract,” she said.

Zeiss was one of three bidders on the job, Daignault told the board. “The timeline is very tight … we hope to have the center vacant by May 1, hold pre-construction meetings in April … break ground in May,” she said.

A separate fundraising campaign to pay for remodeling the center’s kitchen in the future has also been undertaken by two Westport residents who volunteer in the kitchen. Remodeling the kitchen is not included in the renovation project that is about to start, McAlinden said after the meeting.

“We had to make a decision — we couldn’t delay this any longer,” she said of the larger renovation project, for which planning started more than three years ago. “We are very grateful to a wonderful community, for the amount of people who have been concerned. I am absolutely amazed by the people of Westport.”

The selectwomen’s approval of the construction contract included a recommendation that the Representative Town Meeting endorse it at an upcoming meeting.

Soundview Stroll scheduled July 28

The board also approved the closure of Soundview Drive, from Westport Avenue to Fairfield Avenue, on Sunday, July 28, for the “Soundview Stroll,” a new community event.

The event, sponsored by the Compo Beach Improvement Association and Dan Woog of the 06880 blog, has been in the planning stages for a few years, First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker said. 

The community spirit evident during an annual July 4celebration on Soundview Drive, when the road is also closed, encouraged the organizers to plan a second event, Woog said. The road closure will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a rain date of Aug. 4.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.