By Gretchen Webster

Parks and Recreation officials still have not decided on a specific site for a planned new maintenance building, citing the need for more answers to site-specific questions that will drive the ultimate size and location of the building.

The maintenance building has been a major topic of contention at several town meetings in the recent past, including a blistering exchange between First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker and veteran Representative Town Meeting member Dick Lowenstein at the May 5 RTM meeting to approve funds for the building.

Wednesday evening’s meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission, by comparison, was much calmer as Director of Parks and Recreation Erik Barbieri led a discussion about the building and what comes next in the process to complete what he called a “basic, standard, operational building.”

Barbieri told the commission he needs to interview staff in both his department and the public works department to determine the size of the building and what needs to be in the building, as would be done for any maintenance facility, before a specific site for the building is discussed. Among the questions he says need to be answered by staff and the capital plan’s consultant, Stantec, include the following:

• Would showers be necessary?
• What size would the building be?
• How much would it cost, and what equipment must be stored or used there?

It is also impossible at this stage of the project to determine a particular site for the maintenance building, Barbieri added, calling the current work on planning the building “site unspecific.” Possible locations on town-owned property would have to be fully analyzed, and private property might even be considered as a location in the future, he said.

The location of the new maintenance facility became controversial at a Representative Town Meeting earlier this month, when a state-owned site on the Sherwood Island Connector was discussed as a possible location, an idea that was shot down by First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker. Despite the controversy, a $238,000 appropriation to design the building was approved by the RTM.

Replacement of the 50-year-old maintenance building is the first project to be addressed in the $40 million Longshore Capital Improvement Plan, which was launched three years ago.

“Erik will be giving periodic updates to the commission for discussion,” Parks and Recreation Chairman David Floyd told the commission. “Analysis of the properties will be discussed at the commission level,” as the work on the project proceeds, he said.

Barbieri said the project is still only in Phase 1 design phase of development, and once the cost, the size, and other crucial facts are known, “as a department we will present something we think is right for the town.”

The whole process “will take some time certainly,” he added. “I want it done as soon as possible,” because the aging building badly needs to be replaced.

Input requested for Parks Master Plan

Barbieri also called for as much input as possible for an update to the town’s master plan for parks, introduced at the end of last year, and which would the first update in more than three decades.

“If you have something to say about it – whether it’s an athletic field, art in the parks, whatever – you should let us know,” he said.

Meriden consultant BL Companies was hired to put together the master plan, and has been conducting workshops, including one on April 24, to solicit public comments and answer questions about the initiative.

Additional meetings on the master plan will take place during the summer and fall, with specific dates to be announced, as the town establishes priorities for its parks over the next decade. Putting the plan together will include taking an inventory of the town’s parks and recreation facilities; assessing how those facilities are used; studying maintenance needs and community needs not being met currently, among other factors.

Parks officials previously have said that Longshore Club Park, the town’s largest recreational facility, however, will not be part of this town-wide master plan because a separate Longshore Park Capital Improvement Plan has been in the works for more than three years.

Two Staples High School juniors, Kevin Cano and William Enquist, attended Wednesday’s Parks and Recreation meeting virtually to stump for a mini golf course to be installed on town property. Cano called the Baron’s South property “one of the target sites” the Youth Commission was considering for the golf course.

The idea for the mini golf project “has been going on for years,” according to Andrew Colabella, an RTM member who attended the meeting on behalf of the students. The mini golf plan has been submitted to the consultants working on the Parks Master Plan in the hopes it will be included, Colabella said.

A public meeting on the Parks Master Plan will be held this summer, probably at the end of July, Barbieri said, with a final meeting to report on the plan in September or October.

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