The approval for renovations to the Cheshire High School locker room will have to wait until next month after a vote on it failed at Tuesday's Town Council meeting because not enough members were present to pass it.
The motion passed by a 4-3 vote along party lines, but failed because it required five affirmative votes to pass, according to council Chairman Tim Slocum.
The high school's locker room has been an issue because of its poor condition. Last week the council killed a proposal to build a new field house that would house the lockers, instead opting for renovations to the current facilities.
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The council vote that failed Tuesday was to send the renovation project to the Public Building Commission, which itself had supported building the new facility. But the recommendation is virtually assured to pass at the March 12 meeting, Slocum said, when the full council will be present and the vote will likely fall along party lines.
Republican members favor the renovations while Democratic members supported construction of a new facility. The Republican members hold the majority on the council.
Once approved, the project will go out to bid, Slocum said, and work will take place over the summer.
"Most of the work will be done when the kids are not in school," he said, "though there are probably things that they can do before that because it's not a classroom."
But other extracurricular activities utilize the lockers, he said, such as the Cheshire High School baseball team.
"They will probably start work the day after school ends," he said.
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When they finally get their wish and have a vote to renovate the existing locker rooms it fails. Hysterical. Perhaps the biggest joke is Slocum. Without a bid or design work completed somehow he believes the locker room will be renovated over the summer. How is this possible? No contractors. No bids. No blueprints. No design. Nothing has changed since the town council originally voted down the project last year. The only reason the town council is trying to fast track the locker room renovations is because it's an election year. This fall, they want to be able to say they fixed something even though it's penny-wise, pound-foolish and short-sighted (pool bubble). And folks wonder why our pool bubble is the way it is. If these 9 town council members are the best that Cheshire can produce then these missteps with town projects will only get worse.
You are probably correct on the optimistic time table. The PBC does have work to do and charter requirements to adhere to. The plans were presented a year ago by PBC to the council as "ready to go". All we had to do was vote for it and it would be done by the fall...truoble is the money available was short of the money needed. If the locker room project can't be completed in this calendar year than it won't likely be done this year. And remember this... voters approved this referendum question in 2009 and it never came to the Council until March 2012. Hope you plan on running against the nine council members this fall. It appears you have identified all the problems we have in town. Will we see "ERIC" on the sign or your full name? Tim Slocum
Last year, Mr. Slocum, the town had a surplus. I believe it was well over $1M which was squandered by the town council on pet projects. Surely Mr. Slocum some of that surplus could've gone to the locker room renovation last year if you chose to do so. But you didn't. Citing a lack of money is nothing but a lie, sir. When the PBC was tasked (by the town council) to look at options, they spent many months studying the best solution. They studied not only a free-standing field house but a structure that would also solve some of the addition $3M in Civil Rights Compliance violations found in 2009 pertaining to CHS including the elevator to the press box at the football field. By bundling the field house along with surrounding CRA remediation items, the PBC determined that the best bang for the buck was the field house. Despite having tasked the PBC to research this, you and the town council voted down the idea with no valid explanation. Knowing that investing the locker room is penny-wise and pound-foolish you and the fab four are pushing for the locker room renovation.
Another lie, you have written here, is about the locker room project never coming to the town council until 2012. My, my, my how you twist the truth Mr. Slocum. But we've come to expect this by you. Here are the facts which can be researched at town hall by looking through the Town Council and its finance/planning committee meeting minutes between 2010 and 2012: - In 2010, during the capital budget planning process, the town council was presented with a field house capital project item. The item carried a request for an additional $500K in funding, on top of the $500K in funding previously approved, in order to complete the project. Through the capital budget process the project was shelved by town council. - In 2011, BL companies was hired to research and design a solution to the existing locker rooms. After extensive work, BL companies delivered a plan to the board of ed which was then forwarded on to the town council via the capital budget process, again. Once again, the town council finance committee shelved the project citing, among other things, the waste water treatment plant as being the most expensive capital project taking precedence over all others. Thus, the locker room was put on the back burner, again.
Question Mr. Slocum: Last year, the town council shot down the proposal to go out to bid for a locker room renovation citing, among other things, that the full cost was not known and should the bid come back higher than what's currently appropriated it would be problematic. The other concern cited was a lack of final blueprints/design. The question is: What changed with the above since last year? The cost is still unknown and the design is not finalized. Yet, you have done an about-face and suddenly what not good for the goose is good for the gander? And what about the office of the CRA? They have a remediation plan, from the town of Cheshire, that calls for a field house to be constructed that addresses, among other things, a press box elevator solution, paving walkways to/from the field, etc. (I know because I contacted the office yesterday and alerted them to what's been going on. They will be in touch.) So, after taking the PBC to task, twice now, ignoring school officials warnings on CRA solutions, ignoring expert advice, ignoring the office of the CRC, etc. you're back at the locker room. Bravo Mr. Slocum. Bravo. Yes, I am running for town council this fall. It's about time we had honest town councilor elected for a change.
I will close with this final thought for Mr. Slocum. The only reason the town council is suddenly rushing to fix the locker room is because this year is an election year. Come this November, the Republicans on the town council want to tell the voters a wonderful story. A story about how, under their watch, the locker room was FINALLY fixed! Oh happy day everyone! The sudden rush this week to get the locker room fixed (even though it is the worst option according to the PBC) is nothing more than damage control and an attempt to divert the citizens' attention away from the missteps made by this town council on this project. Dumping $800K into the existing locker room is a $2M mistake one, like the town pool, it's going to haunt taxpayer wallets for the foreseeable future. What Mr. Slocum will not say publicly is that he's no fan of sports and certainly not the sports program at CHS. He has referred to the field house as the "Taj Mahal" illustrating how his bias clouds his better fiscal judgment. Let's also not forget Mr. Slocum's telling emails that were uncovered whereby he called the soccer players "sissies" among other things. Mr. Slocum, your distaste for the sports programs in town are so obvious that you wear it on your sleeve.