Marcia Chambers Photo
After months of educational discussion, School Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez went to the Board of Finance (BOF) Monday night with plan “B” — the installation of sound attenuation tiles to reduce the noise in the fifth-grade wing at Walsh Intermediate School.
After listening to Hernandez’s presentation, the BOF approved $60,000 in funds for new acoustic tiles to help reduce the sound levels in the fifth- grade wing where classrooms exist without walls. The ceiling tiles will cover approximately 16,000 square feet. The BOF agreed that $60,000 could be taken from a previously allocated $2.1 million construction bond for windows and doors at the Walsh school. There is about $188,000 left in the current bond; $60,000 will be used for the tiles.
Marcia Chambers Photo
Hernandez (at center of photo) explained to the six-member board that a Board of Education appointed committee was studying a long- range renovation plan for Walsh and it would be “counter-intuitive” to spend a lot of money on the noise problem at this juncture. Click here to read about it.
“We have come full circle and we have done our due diligence now,” he said months after parents pressed for ways to reduce the sound problem. The school system has long been aware of the issue.
Hernandez told the BOF said a number of plans were examined. Plan A, for example, a more elaborate soundproofing plan, came to a halt in September after a local architect the BOE consulted said he wouldn’t recommend it because it would require an additional $100,000 in safety code upgrades.
At a September meeting, the architect, David Stein, who is with the firm of Silver Petrucelli & Associates, said ceiling tiles will make a major improvement but exactly how much of an improvement he couldn’t say. At the time he said either sound panels or simple draperies might help absorb noise. Hernandez told the BOF he couldn’t be sure either how much sound would be reduced but the tiles would help.
So far the Board of Education has not put forth renovation plans or costs for a renovated Walsh, built in 1972 as an open-space concept with few interior walls. Since that time, some classrooms have been enclosed and makeshift partitions have been added.
Parents have been very vocal in their concern about sound levels in the school, and have been rallying for walls and sound-proofing. With last night’s approved funding, it seems some action, however small, is now about to begin.
The Fiscal Cliff: “Call Jim”
“What is our worst-case scenario if something does go wrong?” Kurt Schwanfelder, a member of the BOF, asked a group of investment brokers who oversee the town’s $20.275 million pension investments.
It is a relevant question given the Dec. 31 deadline to avoid the nation going off the fiscal cliff — tax increases and budget cuts that might well cripple the economy.
Schwanfelder’s question provided a lively exchange between Charles Andriole, senior vice-president of investments at Merrill Lynch and Michael LePore, a Wells Fargo advisor.
Schwandfelder asked if any safeguard was in place in the event that the fiscal cliff lasted more than two financial quarters.
Andriole agreed the stock market would be weaker and the results could be significant. But all agreed that if the alarm were to go off, the first thing they all would do would be to “call Jim.”
Jim is Jim Finch, the town’s finance director. Andriole observed that Jim Finch is a terrific financial director. “He won a triple A bond rating for the town. You can’t ask for more.”
So if the alarm goes off, said Andriole, “Call Jim. Call me. Call Joe Mooney, the board chair.” Mooney added that if the nation goes over the fiscal cliff, town officials would move quickly. He also said Schwanfelder was asking good questions.
The bankers were not willing to commit to any type of action at this point. “In our view we think it will be resolved,” said Lepore. “The stock markets seem convinced that all will be solved before the end of the year deadline,” he said.
Schwanfelder made the point that the investment brokers were concentrating on the long run, not the short run, thinking seven years ahead and not in the immediate future. They referred to the seven year perspective, that is, that in the long run everything will be okay.
“Well,” said Schwanfelder, “it may, but in the short term you may lose a lot.”
What is your worst-case scenario, asked Schwanfelder, mindful that the town’s police commission was that very night discussing the possibility that up to ten to fifteen police officers may retire in the next several years.
As he left the meeting, he told the Eagle his questions weren’t really answered. “They talk long run,” he said. “But this cliff is unique in American economic history,” he added.
Superstorm Sandy’s Chain
During Superstorm Sandy the town’s recreation department was flooded along with its nearby ball fields. And when that happened other town buildings attached to the recreation building power lines went down as well.
The Branford police department is now the key communications center for the town’s Information Technology services. The police department had run a line to the recreation department for internet and other power. Then that line failed.
As it turned out once the recreation department power failed, so did all the other lines that ran from it. The buildings on its chain included nearby BCTV, the town’s television cable operation and the Registrar of Voters, the sewage treatment plant ( which had its own generator and did not lose power,) the counseling center and the animal shelter.
“We found out the hard way,” Joe Abbatello, the IT network engineer, told the board, explaining once the recreation department lost power so did the other buildings. And it stayed that way for days.
The IT department asked that $20,359 be transferred from salaries and wages to communications in order to install dedicated fiber lines for each of these town facilities. The BOF approved their request.
The last item came from Finch, who asked the BOF to recommend to the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) a $500,000 increase in the appropriation for the FEMA fund, bringing the total to $1.553,000. This Superstorm Sandy related item will be funded through FEMA grants, insurance, intergovernmental revenues and transfers into the fund from other funds. The BOF approved the request. The RTM meets tonight at 8 p.m. at fire headquarters.
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