Diana Stricker
Fran Walsh, Unk DaRos and John Opie.
The Board of Selectmen is sending a message to the Representative Town Meeting: It’s your job to make a decision about the infamous building swap; there will be no new advisory committee.
The three selectmen voted unanimously Wednesday against forming a new committee to assist the RTM in deciding whether to swap a town-owned building in the Town Center that now houses the Board of Education’s offices for a privately-owned office building on North Main Street.
The RTM last week overwhelmingly passed a resolution “urging” the first selectman to appoint a committee to review the proposed swap as well as plans for a senior center and the Board of Education offices. That committee would then make a recommendation to the RTM’s Administrative Services Committee, which has been tasked with debating the issue and reporting its findings to the full body of the RTM.
The RTM has been slow to act on several issues in recent months and has repeatedly re-referred items back to committee. Until a committee votes on an issue and presents its findings to the full RTM, the full RTM cannot act.
First Selectman Anthony “Unk” DaRos initially appeared willing to partially comply with the RTM’s wishes. “Their task would be to check into the feasibility of a building swap,” DaRos said of the proposed committee. “They’re not to discuss the use of the buildings.” He listed nine people who agreed to serve on the committee and then asked Republican Third Selectman John Opie to serve as chair.
Opie refused, stating there was no need for any new committee. “The building swap is a business deal,” he said. “There’s no magic here. There’s no rocket science,” he said in regard to the swap proposal. He said it is the RTM’s job to make such decisions and chastised them for their lack of action. “It’s shameful how the RTM has ignored it,” he said. The RTM has authority over Town property sales and exchanges.
DaRos concurred with Opie that the committee was not needed. “This committee was not my idea, it was the RTM’s,” DaRos said.
“I don’t think it’s necessary either,” said Second Selectman Fran Walsh. “But I don’t see how we can avoid doing what they (the RTM) asked us to do.”
“We can do anything we want,” Opie said.
RTM minority leader Frank Twohill Jr., who voted against the committee resolution last week, told the Board of Selectmen that the new committee would only be “an extra layer of bureaucracy.”
Several members of the RTM last week said the swap had become mired in politics and that a non-partisan committee might help resolve the issues. Others speculated that it might further delay a decision.
“We don’t have to do what the RTM said,” DaRos said in regard to forming an advisory panel.
“I look at this thing as an opportunity for the town of Branford,” DaRos said in regard to the swap. He said that exchanging the two buildings is essential whether the town’s newly acquired building would be used for a senior center, or the BOE or public works or other purposes. “You trade these buildings, then there are plenty of options and time for discussion,” he said.
The swap initially involved moving the BOE offices to the Canoe Brook Senior Center on Cherry Hill Road; and renovating a building at 175 N. Main St. to become a new senior center. The North Main building, which is owned by the Giordano family’s Queach Corp., would be swapped for the BOE building at 1111 Main St., which is owned by the town.
The Giordano family’s proposal through its Queach Corporation to renovate and use the BOE building for retail was quickly approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission last month.
Vincent Giordano Jr. attended last week’s RTM meeting and announced that the family needs a decision about the swap before the end of December.
That makes a tight timeframe for an RTM decision, because their next meeting is Dec. 8. Since there will be no new advisory committee, the ball bounces back to the RTM’s administrative services committee. Gail Chapman-Carbone, who chairs administrative services, announced today that a special meeting of the committee will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 30 to discuss the swap.
Opie said that tying the Canoe Brook Center with the two-way swap was confusing the issues. He suggested moving the BOE offices to North Main Street and then taking time to study any proposals regarding a senior center.
Hamlet Hernandez, the newly appointed superintendent of the school district, told the selectmen that the BOE would not be asking for new quarters in the current economy, but that if a move is going to be made, the BOE wants to be part of the process. Hernandez said they are willing work in partnership with the town regarding a move, but that they need a definite timetable.
Opie said that since all three selectmen agree on the feasibility of swapping the two buildings, they could “lean” on the RTM.
“It’s a no-brainer,” Walsh said in regard to swapping the two buildings. “We’re beating a dead horse here.”
After voting down the RTM’s suggestion, DaRos thanked the nine people who were willing to serve on the panel.
In other business, DaRos announced there will be a special public hearing Monday at 7 p.m. at the Orchard House to discuss a proposed cell tower that would be located at 171 Short Beach Rd.
DaRos also read a letter from Kurt Schwanfelder, who served as a leader on the RTM for many years, and sought to be appointed to the Board of Finance. Schwanfelder stated his intentions to resign from the cell tower panel and from the Parks and Open Space Committee. In the letter, Schwanfelder said he wanted to devote more time to his family and to the next chapter of his life.
DaRos said he was reluctant to accept the letter of resignation, stating that Schwanfelder had “devoted so much of his life to the betterment of Branford.”
Schwanfelder tended his resignations after a Democratic promise to place him on the Board of Finance fell through. Last month in a surprise move, Second Selectman Fran Walsh threw his vote with Opie to appoint Jennifer Aniskovich to the finance board instead of Schwanfelder.
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