Representative Town Meeting - Regular Meeting

Tonight in the Town Hall Auditorium as well as those watching us streaming live on westportct.gov and those watching on optimum government access channel seventy nine. On my right tonight is the RTM deputy moderator Lauren Karf. A note regarding public participation in tonight's meeting, members of the Westport electorate may comment on any agenda item when we open discussion for that item. Comments will be limited to three minutes. Emails may be sent to the RTM distribution list, that's rtm-dl@westwardct.gov, and that those emails go to all RTM members, but they will not be read aloud during the meeting.

So again, that's rtm-dl@westportct.gov. Tonight's invocation will be delivered by our own new member, Charles Lucas. Welcome and thank you. Come on up.

Hi there. I'd like to thank Andy and Lauren for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. Let us pause for a moment of reflection. As we gather tonight, we do so as stewards of a community with deep roots and a vibrant spirit. A town shaped by not only its present day citizens, but generations of people who believe in the value of civic life, shared responsibility, neighborly care.

Westport is more than a place on a map. It's a living story, one that each of us continues to write. Before we begin our work here, I'd like to share a brief personal story that reminds me why these moments matter. When I was young, my family often spent summers evenings walking around near Campo Shoreline, close to the waters, the same waters that guided Westport's earliest farmers and traders. My parents would tell stories not of just our family but the town itself.

They talk about how Westport grew from a small agricultural settlement into a thriving artistic and cultural haven. A place where creativity and community have always intertwined. They would point out spots where decades earlier neighbors gathered to help one another during storms or where local volunteers helped build spaces for children like me who would one day, without knowing the hand or one day enjoy them without knowing the hands that shaped them. In 2010, in July, on the evening of the fireworks, my father tragically passed away. The memory of my father continues on through this town, through the Ned Dimes Marina and having my family live here, you know, for the last two and a half years.

He or Westport has excuse me. Sorry. Westport has a long history of stepping up. When things get hard, this town doesn't turn inward. It links its arms. That was a quote that he had said to me long before and has always resonated. When our family needed help after the situation, it was the people this community lifted us with meals, with kindness, with understanding, and often simply just presence. That experience taught me what I believe that to be one of Westport's defining truths. Our strength has always come from our people. Our willingness to show up, to listen, to collaborate, and to care.

Tonight, as we enter into discussion and decision making, may we carry forward the legacy built by those who came before us. The farmers who carved out early livelihoods here, the artists and thinkers who enriched our culture, the neighbors who rebuilt and supported one another through storms, wars, economic hardship, and change. Their resilience and unity created the foundation on which we stand. Grant us the same clarity of purpose, dedication that guide Westport through its history. Helping us listen with patience, speak with sincerity, and consider not only our own perspectives but the broader needs of every resident from long term families to newcomers seeking their place in our community.

May we honor our town's legacy by conducting this meeting with civility, fairness, and foresight. May these decisions we make tonight reflect the values that have long defined Westport's cooperation, integrity, creativity, and care for one another. Let this gathering be marked by thoughtful dialogue, respectful debate, meaningful progress, and may our efforts tonight echo the enduring spirit that has carried Westport throughout generations. A spirit of unity, resilience, and shared purpose. Thank you.

Thank you. Will you lead us in the pledge, Charles? Thank you, mister Lucas, for those good words. And I will confirm your father was a great guy. Would the deputy moderator call the role, please?

It's hard to follow

that. Yeah.

Miss Kuykendahl? Here. Mister Mandel? Yes. Miss Purcell is calling in.

Are you on the phone, Kristen?

She said she was gonna be a little bit late.

Yep. Might be late. Might be on the phone.

Mister Tate? Here. Mister Keenan? Here. Miss Levy? Here. Mister Mull?

Here.

Miss Pitock? Here. Mister Burkhart? Here. Mister Drake? Here. Mister Izzo? Here. Miss Kopak? Here. Mister Kolabella?

Here. Mister Lucas? Here.

Miss Wiley? Here. Mister Gold? Here. Miss Kramer?

Might be a little late.

Okay. Mister Lowenstein? Here. Miss Chaum? Here. Miss Banks? She was gonna be late. Late. Or something. Mister Braunstein? Here. I am here. Miss Sorrelli?

Late.

Miss Briggs? Here. Mister Carson? Here. Miss Lautenberg? Here. Mister Kling? Here. Miss Fatou?

Might be on the phone.

The phone.

Okay. Miss Cohn? Absent. Miss Grayson?

I don't think I heard, but I she was on last night. I bet we'll hear from her.

But Okay. Well, we'll put

her absent

for now.

Mister Newman? Here. Miss Johnson?

Here.

Miss Kale? Here. Mister Moore? Here. Miss Schneeman? Here. And mister Weiser?

Here.

One? One? Mhmm.

There are 31 members present, and we might have a little bit of comings and goings tonight, but we shall see. We send January birthday greetings tonight to Jack Kling, to Lou Maul, Brandy Briggs, and Victoria Wiley. Congratulations and happy birthday to all. And I will start announcements tonight and acknowledge the loss of a well known former RTMer. I I you know, a lot of our RTM the times we speak about this, are people who are way far away, and we didn't know them.

Doctor Arthur Ashman died at the end of last year, and he many of us in the room served with Arthur, who was just a wonderful oral surgeon and inventor of medical devices, and served on the RTM from 2009 to 2015. He was a great contributor to the RTM, and it's really it was kind of a surprise. We haven't seen him for a long time, but it was a surprise to lose him. So could I ask for a moment of silence for doctor Ashman? Thank you.

Also, I want to confirm that we will not be discussing item nine on tonight's agenda, because the town attorneys have not had time to provide the comfort that we need regarding any legal obligations regarding the Connecticut Municipal Development Authority, we will pull that item from tonight's agenda and discuss it at a future meeting. There will be a committee meeting toward the end of this month, and there will be more was it January 27? Did you decide on that date? More details to yeah. More details to follow, but for the moment, there will be a committee meeting on January 27.

And there's missus Arelli, so we're up to 32. Are there any other RTM announcements? Yes. Miss Levy.

Hi, everybody. I just wanted to make an announcement that on January 28 at the Westport Library, Ellie Sherabi, one of the hostages from October 7, will be speaking. He's a fabulous inspirational speaker, so I encourage all of you to come and to let everyone you know, know that he'll be there as well. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Thanks.

Thank you, miss Levy. Miss Banks is here up to thirty three. Any other RTM announcements? Oh, mister Mantel.

Happy New Year everybody.

Happy New Year.

Matthew Mandel, RTM District one. Arthur Ashman, used to sit right over there. Great guy. And he used to tell me about some of the things that he would invent like skin that could go over your arm to heal you instead of having to stitch you up, the things that he invented. Amazing. Wonderful guy and sad that he's gone actually. Really like them. So, announcements. VersaFest is coming back for our fifth year, collaboration with the library and many other organizations, including the chamber. We're starting off this year with an appetizer concert at the February with The Thing, a rising indie rock band out of Brooklyn.

So, if you're interested in checking out some new music, February 27, a Friday, will be the taster of VersaFest. But, the main acts in VersaFest will be happening the last week in March. It's not in April this year because Easter has come early, so we've shoved the whole event up into March. Ani DiFranco will be speaking about her book on Thursday night. The main concert will be Wyclef Jean, who was the founder of the Fugees and went on to great fame on his own, winning Grammy Awards.

He will be there in concert on Friday night. And then, we also have Heartbreakers and Tom Petty discussion. Claire Derreter will be talking about her book about monsters. Gina Gershon, the famous actress, will be speaking on Saturday night. And, we also have musician David G, we're talking about David J, talking about his stuff. And, Peter Shapiro, who has produced numerous, numerous concerts. And, most like most lately, he's been down at the Port Chester in the Capitol doing all of their acts. So, this is what we're doing, four days of music and media. It brings a lot of people to Westport. It's really a a magnet and it's growing every year.

So, urge all of you to come. So, the thing on the twenty seventh and then last weekend starting on Thursday in March is VersaFest.

Thank you, mister Mandel. Any other RTM announcements? I would just add a message that on February 1, Sunday February 1, which is the weekend before Super Bowl, and there are no football games, is our eighth annual state of the town, I think eighth annual state of the town at the library where our new first selectman and Abby Tollin will be speaking about the state of the town and the state of the board of ed, followed by question and answers that's sponsored by the two Westport Rotary Clubs, Sunrise Rotary and Westport Rotary, and it's always a really good useful way to get to know what is on the minds, especially now of our new first electman. So Sunday, February 1 at 2PM in the library. And miss Grayson and miss Kramer are now here, so we're up to 35.

So if there so our next regular scheduled meeting is two days after the state of the town, February 3. So if there are no further announcements, we the deputy moderator read item one of the call.

Result took me by surprise. Sorry.

We go.

Oh, it's right here. Okay. To take such action as the

meeting may determine in accordance with CJS section 13 a dash 49 discontinuance of highways or private ways to approve the discontinuance of a proposed private roadway identified as proposed road and lying between Lot 37 and Lots 3839, And 40 on map number 965.

Thank you. Presenting for the administration will be, Eileen Levine, our assistant town attorney.

Good evening. Eileen Levine, assistant town attorney. I believe the homeowner is here also. So if you don't mind coming up and you can explain I can explain what's what the the the legal issues, and you can explain the boots on the ground issues. So what we have here is there was a at there's a piece of property adjacent to 7 Highgate Lane, which is

what's your name? Zobel.

This which is the Zobel's property. I represent the town, of course. The attorney for the Zobel's is out of town and was not able to get a flight back this morning to be at this meeting tonight. So I'm here to representing the town to explain all the legal issues to you, and missus Zobel can explain the the logistics of of why the why the family is doing this. There is a there there's they're they have they own both parcels of land, the parcel with their house on it and the parcel adjacent to it, which was mapped out back in the forties as a proposed road on the subdivision in this on on Highgate Road.

It was never developed as a road. It was never used as a road. It was just on the map, which is referred to in some deeds. And so the way to clear these paper roads up is the statutory procedure in CGS section 13 a dash 49. What it entails is that posting both sides of the road so that the neighbors have noticed that this road would be discontinued, that this proposed road would be discontinued, notifying all the abutting neighbors, which has been done.

Both of those things have been done. Getting the vote of approval of the board of selectman, which has been done. And then now this is the final step is getting the approval of the representative town meeting. And then after your approval, then the resolution will be filed on the land record so that anybody who has a deed that refers to the map that shows the proposed road will now also have a document that says that the proposed road was discontinued. So that's the that's the statutory process.

All the steps have been followed up to here. You've seen these before or the your some of you who've been around long enough. We a year or so ago, we came to you with a discontinuance of of Miller and Clark Road at Willowbrook Cemetery. And prior to that, Belden right off of Main Street was discontinued. Prior to that, Sunny Lane at the Y was discontinued, and

then

later, Allen Raymond part of Allen Raymond Lane was discontinued. So this is this is something that happens from time to time because roads are either no longer needed or they never became a road, but they're tying up the the rights of the property owner. This stub I call it the stub, but it's this, like, piece of proposed road. Like I said, it was never a Road. I looked at the street view, and it has trees, some mature trees. It's privately owned. They have the deed to the property. Do you wanna give a little more background to this? As much as I can. Okay.

Alright. Good evening, everyone. I'm Elizabeth Sobel. My husband Ron and I own the property. We joined both parcels of land together so that we could have that extra piece.

It it's just an extra sort of ghost piece sitting there. We expanded our fence onto it, and we made it our yard. The proposed word was made in 1932 and based on a subdevelopment that was never developed as it was planned anyway. So all the different lots you mentioned, I think, are some of them aren't even viable anymore. So the proposed road is a piece of property that you really can't even make a path a footpath through, and it's never been spoken of as a road.

We've notified everyone. No one has gone against us. No one has protested all around us. So that's what we're here for, to hope that they can be abandoned.

Thank you.

As missus Sobel mentioned, the the original layout of this subdivision showed the road and then three lots coming like this, kinda like the letter e backwards. But then when it actually was developed, that wasn't how the properties were actually laid out in the end. It was remapped so that instead of having three properties like this, the developer instead put a property one property right next to it. So while this road which is the Zobel's other you know, property with their houses. So this was originally a stub of a road to access three separate lots, which were they originally thought to do.

But then now that there's only one lot here, you don't need nobody needs that that access at all anyway. So I'm here to answer any questions or any questions for missus Sobel.

Thank you, miss Lee. And we have a committee report by mister Mandel. And if you're on the phone, if you could mute, please.

Matthew Mandel, RTM district one chair of planning and zoning. I left the paper on my printer, so I'm gonna read it off of the screen. So, bear with me. So, we met last night on June on July and January 5. All 11 members of the RTM P and Z were there.

And so was Roseman Cother, who was representing the applicant and Eileen Levine, the town attorney was there as well. Ms. Cuthbert explained that the goal of the client was to officially discontinue the proposed Roseway Roadway, so that the survey and other paperwork could accurately reflect the way the property is and always has been used. She further explained that this proposed roadway was originally introduced several decades ago and was never actually put into use. There were several questions about who owns the property, as well as the surrounding property, noting that the names of the property owners involved were very similar, but it was determined that they were separate owners with no shared interest in the outcome.

One was Zobel and one is Zobel. The town attorney Eileen then asked her questions, answered questions and she said that she recommended the approval of the discontinuation because she recognized that while it is a proposed road, it was never built and the town has done this prior, in other circumstances. It was noted, that by discontinuing this proposed roadway would allow the current property owners the opportunity to expand their house if they wanted to because PNC would no longer view the property as abutting a road. It was provided provides them with some flexibility. Everyone agreed that that seemed to be the right thing to do.

A motion by mister Keenan, seconded by miss Bateau with unanimous 11 o in favor submitted by Matthew Mandel, RTM P and Z, aided by Melissa Levy, chair of RTM Transit. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Mandel. We now turn to the public. Would anyone from the Westport electorate like to comment on this item? Yes.

Good evening, members. My name is Benjamin Levittes. I live next to the Zobels at 9 Highgate Road. I agree with the remarks of attorney Levine and member Mandel in respect of this application discontinuing this paper Road. One point I would add would be at the Board of Selectmen meeting, the Bertazes, another neighbor of the Zobel spoke, they've been longtime neighbors and also added that it had never been used, never passed, never repassed, or never laid out in any way.

One additional point I would add for everyone's consideration is the fact that the reference statutes were passed for discontinuance and abandonment were passed in '55 and '59, which was after this 1932 map, which is just another reason that the application should be approved.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister Levatis. Yes, miss Grayson. Yes. Please. This is great seeing all the returning children of old friends. This is terrific. You guys.

So I listened to this yesterday, and I don't have any problem with it, except I have two questions because I don't know. I just wanna be confirmed that you are not related to the other Sobel through any type of

We are not.

Any all.

There's the names are spelled differently.

Okay. I just wanna make sure

because Let the record reflect that Zobel said no.

No. Yeah. I just in this town

Pick up the microphone. That's fine.

Sorry. In this town, sometimes all of a sudden

It's good question.

Pieces of I just wanna make pieces of property get combined together, and then we have a whole big problem. Yep. Who's been paying the I live on a private road, we're having a fight about who owns the road. Who actually owns this road? Do And you pay property taxes on it, or does somebody pay property taxes on it?

Yes.

And so will your property taxes change?

No. I I these are legal things.

Yeah. If you'd step up to the mic for these I think you mean like a road association charge or something

like that? Road association charge each year. We pay about a $100 for the road association charge depending on the plowing.

It's it's a different thing though, I think. So just I just to be clear, Eileen Levine, again, I spoke with the town assessor, and the Zobelles pay property taxes on both parcels of land. They are deeded both parcels of land separately, and they pay property taxes on both parcels of land. So there's no road association that goes along with the stub, what I call the stub, the the proposed road. The road association would be for the road in in the front that that they actually use.

Thanks. Thank you. Thanks, miss. Oh, I should've I should've waited for the resolution to call on an RTM member, but there you go. Well, that'll make that part quicker. Just waiting. Any other members of the public like to speak on this item? Seeing none, do we have a resolution? We do.

Resolved, and in accordance with CGS section 13 a dash 49, discontinuance of highways or private ways, the discontinuance of that certain piece of land or parcel of land situated in the town of Westport County of Fairfield in the state of Connecticut, shown as proposed road lying lying between Lot 37 to the north and lots Still Yep. Still going. And Lots 38, 39, and 40 to the south on a certain map entitled map of property of May l Jennings, Westport, Connecticut, April 1932, filed on the Westport land records as map number nine sixty five and also shown as a portion of 7 Highgate Road on a certain map filed on the Westport land records as map number 10258 is hereby approved. Second.

Thank you, miss Garfin. Mister Kling, twice. Would any member of the RTM like to comment on this? Any other member of the RTM like to comment on this? Seeing none. Oh, yes. Miss Kramer.

Karen Kramer, RTM district five. I feel for you. I went through the same thing. Westport has and I don't mean to cause any more problems but we should do something about a lot of these little pieces of roads. I had a fight for a piece of land that I own seven, ten years with the neighbor that said, oh, it's not doing anything. So we should do something about that. I hope you get to enjoy your land. It's yours and we should look at the rest of the town or someone else. Maybe you should. Alright. Thank you. That's all I want to say. Good luck with him, ma'am.

Mister Dremer. Any other members of the RTM? Any other members? Seeing none, we're voting on the following resolution that in accordance with CGS section 13 a dash 49 discontinuance of highways or private ways, the discontinuance of the certain piece of land or parcel land situated in the town of Westport County of Fairfield in the state of Connecticut shown as proposed road and lying between Lot 37 in the North and Lots 383940 to the South on a certain map entitled map of property of May l Jennings, Westport, Connecticut, April 1932, filed on the Westport land records as map number nine six five, and also shown as portion of 7 Highgate Road on a certain map filed in on the Westport land records as map one zero two five eight is hereby approved. All those in favor?

Any opposed? On the phone

Kristen might have just called in.

And There

she is. So it's 36.

Oh, that's oh, good.

Assuming everyone on the phone is in favor. So Rachel and Wendy.

Rachel and Wendy?

Wendy is the other.

Rachel. Nope. Did we lose Rachel? Sorry.

I have that signal right now. I missed it.

Okay. So you're not voting?

I'm not gonna vote on this one. I got that signal.

Right. Okay. So the item passes 35 to nothing. Congratulations. Thank you. And thank thanks. Would the deputy moderator read item two of the call?

To take such action as a meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance to approve an appropriation of $275,000 to fund a settlement agreement between the town of Westport and Hooked on the Sound LLC, which agreement provides for an early termination to a food and beverage concession lease dated 08/27/2020 for Campo Beach Pavilion, Halfway House, and the Longshore Pavilion space.

Thank you for presenting for the administration will be parks and rec director Eric Barbieri Barbieri. Welcome back.

Nice to see you. Happy new year, everybody. Eric Barbieri, parks and recreation director. This has been a long and extended process that we' been going through with hooked. I started in February had spoken with several people within the first twenty four hours probably about hooked.

Various items that they wanted to talk about about hooked. But also within a week I also received their email formally choosing to exercise their options that they have which was two five year extensions of their lease. If you play that out it' 2035. However within that was some language about being mutually agreeable terms. I think some people thought mutually agreeable terms meant we could renegotiate the contract and I think it' important everyone understands that' not what we were doing.

They have a contract, and they have two five year extensions in place that they can choose to extend. So the thought process of can we get them out in another way and all that is not something that we could do. We did negotiate in good faith. We attempted and when I say we, Dave Floyd and the town attorneys were heavily involved. Dave as the parks and recreation chair.

It became pretty clear in a short amount of time that we weren't going to mutually agree on some of the extension terms. We were attempting to try to shrink the length of the agreement as best we could. We were attempting to work on the rent amount as best we could. And it became pretty clear that we weren't gonna it just wasn't gonna work. That's when the thought process of a buyout was brought up.

Apparently, it had been brought up in the past before I was here, a couple years ago. At the time, that number for the proposed buyout was in the $705,100,000 dollar range that they were proposing to have them walk away from the business. We' now two years later 2025 and they' in the area of when we first started they were in the threes we were able to get it down to $2.75 and we think that is a fair number for you to consider. The amount of money they put in for equipment and the amount of money they put in to the structure itself to make it code compliant and things when they first started back in 2020 was in the $180,000 range. Some of that equipment they do they have requested to keep.

I don't have a problem with that. If it' part of the agreement that gets us to part ways amicably then I said that' fine with me. The town attorneys had no problem with that as well. I think one thing that we should all consider as well and Ira bloom is here to represent as far as the town attorney but if for some reason we wanted to go down the litigation road because what's gonna happen is we're not going to be able to agree. We're probably just going to close the doors and and say, you know, you're out.

We'll probably end up in a lawsuit. I can't guarantee that, but I'm pretty sure we will. And in speaking with Ira and and Ira speaking with some of his colleagues, going down that road is a dangerous one because they have a lease for another ten years. And they didn't do a lot of things to break that lease. And, you know, there was some discussion, last night at the meeting beforehand in regards to were they fulfilling the contract there was other items in there that were areas of default and things like that.

I' been here since February I can tell you that I was enforcing that contract, and they heard from me on a regular basis. But there was before that, for four years, there was nothing in writing. And with the exception of one time, they paid their rent every single month, every single, you know, year. So there's not a lot to to go on. So if we go into down that road, we don't know what we're gonna get. The judge could say you owe them more money. If they were averaging $50,000 a year and they have ten years, that's $500,000. They could say, no. You're staying. There's no reason to kick them out.

They they're you don't have enough evidence, and and they get to stay. So I I the amount of people that I had spoken with both in leadership and in the public, you know, the the the fact that they were amicably willing to leave and this was the number that we were able to come up with it sounded like to me in the best interest of the town that that would be the way that we would recommend. They have since signed this agreement So you don't have to worry about us going back and them saying, well, we changed our mind and we want x y and z. That's not gonna happen. They've already signed it.

The next step would be for to go to the board of selectmen and have them sign it in the very near future. Time is obviously of the essence tonight. You know, it's not about, well, what are we gonna put in the next RFP and all that? It's about an appropriation to pay Hooked so they can we can terminate this lease and have them go, and we will then we already have started working on a new RFP, which will be written differently. The new lease would be written differently.

I can guarantee you that. So I'm sure you have concerns about that again, but just a reminder, this is about the vote to have them us be able to sign this agreement and have them leave. So I'm happy to answer any questions in this regard, and we have both Ira and Dave Floyd who was heavily involved, not just for the past five months while we're negotiating, but for four years. So

Thank you mister barbieri we have a committee report by mister bronstein for the joint finance and parks and rec committees.

Good evening, everybody. Eric did a great job. Not much to add. I would just say a few things. I think if you boil this down to its essence, it's sort of a question of whether or not we wanna move on.

So we could endure what we thought was sort of unsatisfactory execution of the lease terms for up to another decade. We could engage in potentially protracted legal arguments to attempt to break that lease, or we could reach, and I'll use Eric's word, an amicable settlement. And that is, in fact, what we're trying to do here with this appropriation request. By funding that, we would be able to move on. And quite frankly, we spent more time last night discussing what will happen in the future than we did sort of rehashing the perceived shortcomings in the current lessor's execution.

There is a clear sentiment that the lease terms that were put in place really did not work to the town's advantage. In fact, as we can see quite clearly, they worked to our disadvantage. I think that message has been received loud and clear. The lease terms in the next agreement will hopefully be altered in a way that we won't be in a position where future renewals are not at our option, like this currently says, unfortunately. I think the sentiment to walk away with is that Eric is earnest in his desire to sort of get this settled as quickly as possible so that he can move on, with an RFP.

And, there's no guarantee that we'll reach an agreement with another concessionaire in time for, the full upcoming season, but I think what we all heard last night was that Eric is already thinking about many different ways in which the town could furnish service to the to the beach area to the longshore halfway house. And, you know, it seems like he's willing to consider almost anything to make sure that there's appropriate service provided to to folks down at the beach this coming season. And then when you know, I think the message is also we're not gonna rush. We're not gonna just do this for the sake of expediency in terms of identifying the next, lessor of the of the concessions. I think that really hits it.

But what I would say is the votes were unanimous. So it was a joint meeting. It was both finance and parks and rec. For finance, you had Joseph Carson move. He was seconded by Charles Lucas, and the vote for finance was seven o unanimously in favor of approving the recommendation to the full RTM. For parks and rec, Andrew Colabella moved, was seconded by Jim Izzo, and that vote too was unanimous eight o. Thank you.

Thank you, Bronstein. We now turn to the Westport electorate. Would anyone from the public like to comment on this item? Seeing none, do we have a resolution?

Yes. Resolve it upon the recommendation of the board finance the sum of $275,000 to fund a settlement agreement between the town of Westport and Hooked on the Sound LLC, which agreement provides for an early termination to a food and beverage concession lease dated 08/27/2020 for Campo Beach Pavilion, Halfway House, and the Longshore Pavilion space is hereby appropriated.

Thank you,

miss Carpenter. Mister Klingman, any member of the RTM like to comment on this request? Mister Tate. Bless you.

Chris Adartian, district one chair of the parks and recs committee. Just wanted to follow-up everybody what you just heard. But for somebody who had been involved for the last couple years at least since they've been here, just wanted to follow-up that we bent over backwards to try to make sure this try to make them work. It did not happen. They're in the driver's seat. We're lucky to get out of this for what it's worth. Come push it, come equipment, what they put into it, it's about a buck 50 at the end of the road. Hopefully, we'll make that up in the new lease. But that being said, we're lucky to get out of this. If we don't, we got under ten years of them selling an m and m and still staying in in there. So it's real smart. We're lucky. We have no choice. They're in the driver's seat. We're lucky to get out of this as it is. So let's move on and vote for this.

Thank you mister tid. Anyone else from the rtm like to comment on this? Mister mull.

Lewis mull District two. When I first saw this and $275,000 as a settlement it struck me as like how many hotdogs would you have to sell to make $275,000 that falls straight to the bottom line, but this is a little more complicated than just selling hot dogs. We do have a lot of expenditures going on with this town, and spending 275,000 to get out of a contract just took me by surprise. But, I listened to the discussion last night and it convinced me that both committee reports were right, that we have to cut our losses and move on. And Nancy Kayle brought up something that she asked, where does the money come from?

And it comes from the general fund. And I'm a big believer that users of services should pay for it, so I don't know whether we consider upping our parking fees for Campo and Longshore to sort of soften the blow for the people who don't use those facilities. But, so rather than saying, oh, I'm not going to vote for this, my mind was changed last night listening to the discussion, but I do wanna keep something in mind for everybody of what we're spending in parks and recreation. And so far on September 2, 250,000 for the tee box leveling. On November 12, 95,000 for irrigation system.

Another $50,000 we paid for a consultant to tell us what we needed down at Longshore and where to build it for a maintenance facility, and that brings us to $395,000 Now with this $275,000 settlement, we've spent $670,000 We're no further along toward doing something about the maintenance facility, so I'm going to keep my score sheet and remind everybody what needs to be done is to get that built, and the sooner the better. But I will vote for this tonight.

Thank you, mister Mull. Any other RTM members like to comment on this request? Any other RTM members? Seeing none, we're voting on the following resolution. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the board of finance, sum of 275,000 to fund a settlement agreement between the town of Westport and Hooked on the Sound LLC, which agreement provides for an early termination to a food and beverage concession lease dated 08/27/2020 for Campo Beach Pavilion Halfway House and the Longshore Pavilion space is hereby appropriated.

All those in favor? Any opposed? And on the phone. Ms. Bateau?

I think that's 36 to zero.

Kristen.

Oh, sorry.

I'm gonna abstain.

Abstain. 35 to 0 to one.

Kristen Purcell?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you. You know, that that is just a good example of how a a good committee meeting can make our lives easier. That was really helpful conversation. It was long and useful, but it was long. But it was useful. And it was really good. It helps tonight. So thank you all who are at the committee meeting. And thank you, Eric and attorneys and David. Would the deputy moderator please read item three of the call? To

take such action is the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the finance director to approve a resolution approving a bond to note authorization in the amount of $51,083 for cost associated with the Staples High School water pumps and valves project.

Thank you, miss Garf. Presenting for the administration will be Gary Conrad, finance director. Welcome back, mister Conrad.

Thank you. Gary Conrad, finance director. This project, the appropriation was approved, and there was multiple projects being presented at the same time. And this should've had the terminology bond and note with the appropriation, and it did not. So the attorneys had to rewrite the resolution to basically say that we're now gonna have This part, this is a soft cost related to the project. The overall project estimate is over $800,000 So the soft cost we would bond to. So basically, it's just the appropriation has already been approved. This is just an addition to it.

And we approved it in December or something, November or December? The RTM approved the

The RTM approved it October 5 or I'm sorry, November 12. Yeah. That was the board. Yeah. The board of finance on it was October 5, board of finance. November 12 was the RTM.

And I was confused today, just catching up on all this, because we don't have a committee report on this. I was confused because we did have a committee report on it. We went through all the different accounting and stuff, and this is just add bond and note authorization.

That's all there is. Thank

you, mister Conrad.

Thank you.

So so it's an administrative item. As as my email today said accounting, but it's really administrative. So I am going to ask maybe if mister Braunstein could just give me a thumbs up from the finance committee that that all sounds Just inserting a couple of words to a bond and note authorization. So I'm going to ask that we forego some of the formalities that we often have and ask for a request for approval. All those in favor?

Any opposed? On the phone, did you get all that? Great. 36 to zero. Thank you very much. Thank you, mister Conrad. I should have read that resolution, but you know what it was. We'll take that resolution. Thank you. Know what?

I'm gonna just read the resolution we just approved. Resolved upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the finance director a resolution approving a bond and note authorization of the sum 51,083 for costs associated with the Stapleside School water pumps and valves project is hereby approved. Thank you for approving it. Okay. Would the deputy deputy moderator read item four of the call?

To take such action as the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works to approve an appropriation in the amount of $220,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for analysis, design, permitting, and preparation of constructive documents for the replacement of the longshore water supply system.

Thank you, miss Carr. Presenting for the administration is someone you might not recognize this early in the evening, Pete

And not limping. Good evening. Pete Rakowitz, director of public works. This request is for basically the design for the replacement of the waterline at Longshore Club Park. It's not a waterline for any specific part of the park.

It's the whole park. So every facility that is down there that uses water will need a needs a new waterline. The original waterline was built in around 1930 when the club was built. The town took it over in around 1960 and did not replace it at that time. In the late nineties, we did replace a section of the waterline from Campo Road South out to approximately where the Golf Maintenance Building is, but everything else is still nineteen thirty and theoretically four inches, but in that period of time, it's probably really accreted back down to about two inches.

So it's a pretty critical system. And considering we're I have a huge investment going in in the longshore in as well as the irrigation system down there. It's time to get this done. In addition, this effort, we've requested that the engineer, provide us with a method of separating the private properties that are within Longshore Park so that they can be separately metered. At this time, they're not metered, and people properties are getting free water.

Because if we charge them for it, we would have to become a water company. So, with that, the request for the appropriation is 220,000 We did go out to RFP for this. We had two bidders on it and looked at their qualifications, interviewed them, and chose to go with Snyder Engineering. They are a local not local company, but they do a lot of work in Westport Port for the Aquarion water company so we felt that their experience with Aquarion was going to be beneficial to expediting the design and permitting of this project. With that, I'd be happy to take any questions.

Thank you, mister Ratkowitz. We have a joint committee report by parks and rec public works and finance by mister Keenan.

Happy New Year, everybody. Jay Keenan. The this was a large committee meeting. It was four separate committees, but for this part, it was just public works and finance. As Pete said, this was a $220,000 appropriation to the municipal improvement account to design, take it all the way through construction drawings and bidding for new longshore water supply.

The existing six inch line, I'm not sure if Pete mentioned this, but at this point, he mentioned at our meeting that at this time, the meet the the pipe was probably hasn't been replaced since the thirties. Yeah. So it's probably six inch line is down to about three to four inches at max. And currently, the inch and a quarter line that supplies the private homes, they actually it isn't large enough to supply the homes, so they have actually tanks that they fill up at night in order to have water during the day. So that'll all be replaced, and as Pete said, will be metered. That's pretty much it. Both committees voted unanimously to recommend to the full RTM. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Keenan. We now turn to the Westport electorate. Would anyone from the public like to speak to this matter? Anyone from the public? Seeing none, do we have a resolution?

Resolve that upon the recommendation of the board finance and request by director of public works, the sum of $220,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for analysis, design, permitting, and preparation of constructive documents for the replacement of the long shore water supply system is hereby appropriate.

Thank you.

Thank you, miss Garth. Mister Kling, would any member of the RTM like to comment on this request? Any member of the RTM? Seeing none, we're voting on the following resolution. The result, upon the recommendation of the board of finance and a request by the director of public works is some of $220,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for analysis, design, permitting, and preparation of construction documents for the replacement of the longshore water supply system is hereby appropriate.

All those in favor? Any opposed? On the phone? Great. 36 to zero.

Addison, did you vote on that one? Oh, abstain. You abstain? Okay.

Okay. Thirty five zero to one. Thank you. And would the deputy moderator read item five of the call?

To take such action is the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works to approve an appropriation in the amount of $440,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for an analysis, design, permitting, and preparation of constructive documents for the replacement of the Easton Road sidewalk.

Thank you, miss Carf. Welcome back, mister Rakowitz.

Again, Pete Rakowitz, director of public works. This is another project that has been a long time coming and is really well much needed. If you've ever walked from Main Street up to Coleytown Schools, there are parts are heaved parts of the sidewalk that are heaved by tree roots. Parts are are so narrow and it makes it very difficult to even clear snow from them. We've been working on this project in terms of funding actually for about two or three years now.

And we successfully received a commitment to fund from the state of Connecticut for approximately $4,000,000 to build this project once it's designed. We feel that that is a good number. That is also the limit limit of the WOTCIP funding that WESCOG would approve for us. So if anything goes over that $4,000,000 the town will probably be on the hook for it. We do anticipate that we can get this done for under 4,000,000.

The 440,000 is for the design work and it is pretty extensive. It's not just not a cross section, a sidewalk like we usually do because it's on a state road, so once we go to the state and ask them for their comments, they had the opportunity to say, well, we have some drainage problems. We'd like you to fix those. We have some asphalt problems. We'd like you to fix those, etcetera, etcetera.

They added a lot of design work to the project. However, it's about a mile long and like I say, it is heavily needed. And if we do the design work, the $4,000,000 is 100% paid for the construction. So I will not be coming back for an appropriation for $4,000,000 just anything over the four mill. This was in the capital forecast at a design value of $440,000 and in 2026, fiscal year 2026, so we're a little bit late.

But the construction value of $4,000,000 is shown in f y twenty twenty eight. I will say that we'll be lucky if we get to 2028 and actually get this done because it is a state road. It often takes many more years than that. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thanks, mister Reckwich. We have a joint committee finance and public works by miss Braunstein.

Hello again, everybody. Seth Braunstein, RTM district six. I get excited when we talk about sidewalks. And in the in the fourteen year twelve years I've been doing this and twenty years I've been living in the town. Pete and his crew have done a remarkable job.

I would I mean, if you appreciate sidewalks like I do, you'll see just some incredible progress that we've been making, you know, all over town. My personal favorite, frankly, is is Hills Point. It's just a tremendous improvement to the walkability of the areas where we're able to do these improvements. And this area in particular is hazardous. It's an extremely high traffic area.

And what's there, it would be difficult to actually call it a sidewalk. There's sort of a path in various states of decay, cracking with tree roots, places where you may feel like you're taking your life into your own hands, quite frankly, given the amount of activity that's occurring in this area amidst heavy traffic. So what you're gonna get here is basically a five foot wide asphalt sidewalk with six inch curbing. And like you've seen around town, the curbing is typically in a lighter color, so it helps also sort of denote the boundaries of the of the roadway. I think the the key items here for me when I look back at this meeting, and it was a long time ago now, was before Christmas, which seems like eons ago, the things that stood out to me were the town, you know, is is not gonna get to do all that we would have hoped to do here.

Originally, this was intended to go all the way up to Coleytown. But as the term Pete used was shrink shrinkflation. So we've basically had to shorten the section of the road that will be redone to account for the fact that asphalt and the curb and all the other materials, quite frankly, have just become significantly more expensive. So it'll be about a mile. There's hope over time that we'll continue to move up Eastern Road and ultimately get all the way up to Coleytown.

The other thing that I think is worth mentioning, there were some questions that arose in the course of our discussion that I think would be helpful for people to understand. So one question was, would an ordinance requiring homeowners to shovel be helpful? Right? Because once you have sidewalks, then you have issues with snow removal. So I think the general consensus is that, yes, an ordinance might be helpful, but that's really not part of the agenda item that we're here discussing this evening.

Question was asked about a bike lane. And, again, bike lanes are great. We would love to incorporate more bike lanes, but you're dealing with a state road that's abutted by private property. There really is very little ability to widen that road to be able to accept a full bike lane. The other thing that I think is important to recognize here is that and I I do think it's worth repeating.

I don't like to repeat, but I think in this instance, the key is this cost for the actual work will be fully borne by grants that the town has gotten through the LOTSIP program. Now we hear LOTSIP and we're like, what the heck is LOTSIP? So LOTSIP is the local transportation capital improvement program. And we've got a commitment letter for the up to $4,000,000. But part of LOTSIP it it basically requires the town to incur the design expenses.

So the $440,000 that's being asked to be approved this evening is just to cover those soft costs associated with the design and planning. And, you know, I think that this will be helpful in terms of safety, ADA compliance, and really just continuing to add to the walkability of the of the town in general. You had a joint committee meeting of public works and finance for public works. A motion was made by Andrew Colabella, seconded by Matthew Mandel. That vote was a unanimous ten ten o in favor of approval.

For finance, the motion was made by Nancy Kale, seconded by Charles Lucas, and we were similarly unanimous five o. So I hope we'll be able to approve this appropriation this evening. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Bronstein. We now turn to the Westport electorate. Would anyone from the public like to comment on this item? Seeing none, do we have a resolution?

So that upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works to sum up $440,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for an analysis design permitting and preparation of constructive documents for the replacement of the Eastern Road sidewalk is hereby appropriated.

Thank you, miss Garth. Mister Kling, anyone from the RTM like to comment on this? Yes. Miss Kopech.

Hi, Pete. Pam Kopek, RTM district three. How we're going a mile, and I literally live around the corner.

Where does it get the sidewalk to? Where does it end?

The sidewalk will start at Weston Road and go under the Merritt Parkway and all the way up to Coleytown School.

But will go to the school?

It will go to the school. It's not gonna go to the intersection of Coleytown Road and Easton. That was the part that we had to take a take off

Okay.

Because of the things that the state added. But we were we we I've postulated that in a few years we'll go back for another grant to do that section.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. My concern was I was here in Coleytown School when it was Coleytown Road. So no problems. Thanks.

Thank you, miss Kopak. Anyone else from the RTM like to comment on this? Yes, Ms. Johnson.

Hi, Jennifer Johnson, RTM district nine. I'd like I share Seth's tremendous enthusiasm for any form of sidewalk improvement in our town. So, I apologize. I was not able to attend the December 22 meeting where this was discussed. And so I I know that the some of the comments that I have would have been better in committee, I I think it's still worthwhile to raise.

Pete, in the discussion you said about the the inability to put in a bike lane. So you're saying that the actual roadway, that section is the state roadway would not well, there's not enough physical room for both a sidewalk and a bike lane. Is that yeah. That's the question. So there's there's so just confirming there isn't enough physical room in the state right away for it.

Correct. As it is, what we have to do is obtain sliver easements across many properties on the way as we go up the road. The state is going to assist us with that but that's just to get the width that we need to do the five foot sidewalk. To do a bike lane we would have to do five additional feet on either side so it would be much more expensive because each of these sliver easements gets charged at the cost of land in Westport, is pretty expensive.

Okay. So my next question relates to is this we as you know, we've completed the safety action plan. That is that document's complete now. Right? I think there's a January 2025 draft, but that's in final form now.

There is in that is for some our team members that don't know, we received a 500 I think approximately $500,000 grant a couple years back through the bipartisan infrastructure act to do a safe streets for all safety action plan. And that plan was completed, and I believe it's on the town website. But in that, there were 30 priority projects for sidewalk enhancements that were listed. And I'm not sure I'm not saying that this isn't a worthwhile project. There's no doubt about any neighborhood having the opportunity to have a sidewalk added.

But I'm curious as to whether or not this was one of the priority sidewalks because I don't see it as one of the 30 listed.

Nope. It was not. And that's because this project was underway long before we got the Safe Streets For All grant. So we'd always intended to go for a lots of grant on that. The projects that are envisioned on here are not on your Safe Streets for all list of priority projects.

Those are prioritized for additional grant opportunities. So as we go down the road here figuratively, we will utilize this list to prioritize additional projects. But this project was already underway. Applications have been made for at least four or five years on this project as we've been working on it. So I didn't wanna backtrack.

Okay. And then in terms of the context of other LOCIP projects, we, I know, received a a LOCIP grant for South Campo sidewalk project. And that project we funded. What's the status of that?

South Campo sidewalks going from Post Road to Bridge Street are going out to bid right now. We got approval from the state, and that's another project that will get paid for 100% by the state to the tune of about 1.2 or 1,300,000.0.

Okay. Great. So that funding hasn't expired. Okay. This is all really helpful. I think as we move forward in trying to develop some sort of rational plan for how we're gonna accomplish this, might be worthwhile for I don't know I don't know whether or not the transportation committee wants to take this on, but to kind of see which projects we are applying for and use them in the context of our safety action plan which is on the town website which I encourage everyone to look at. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Johnson. Anyone else from the RTM like to comment on this item? Seeing none, we are voting on the following resolution, resolved upon the recommendation of board of finance and a request by the director of public works, sum of $440,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for an analysis, design, permitting, and preparation of construction documents for the replacement of the Eastern Road sidewalk is hereby appropriated. All those in favor? Any opposed?

And on the phone? And Rachel? Rachel might have had to drop. Oh, there you are. Well, we'll 35. 35. Yep. And would the deputy moderator read item six of the call? To

take such action as the meaning may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works to approve an appropriation in the amount of $124,000 to the capital non recurring fund account for the replacement of the Levitt Pavilion Stage.

And mister Rakowitz is back with Carly Welsh from Levitt Pavilion.

Yes. With me tonight is Carly Welsh, executive director of the Levitt Pavilion. This request is for 124,000 to replace the stage on the Levitt. And the first question that most people will ask is, didn't we just build that? It actually was going on twelve years ago.

The stage surface itself has constant exposure to the elements. Rainwater has penetrated the stage surface. And over the last twelve years, the Levitt Pavilion has tried to continually do maintenance on this stage surface. But at this point, it's it's been the vinyl coating that's going over the top of it is delaminated. The plywood underneath is rotted, and attempted repairs to the surface have been unsuccessful.

So there's numerous tripping hazards that we try to keep up with with those, both the Levitt and the town as well. But at this point, it really does need to be replaced. This was in the capital forecast for FY twenty five at a funding level of $150,000 and the actual price from the contractor, which is Harlequin I guess that's their whole name, is 120 well, actually, $111,877, but we put a little contingency on it because you never know what you're gonna find when you rip up a piece of rotted wood. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, mister Ratkowitz. Mister Keenan has a joint committee report from finance and LMA. I'm just trying to figure it out. Exactly. I he's trying to figure it out. We I've got folks here if you don't have those.

Jake Heaton, district two. I'm filling in for Kristen. And I'm just reading this now, so bear with me. This was the same meeting as the joint public works library museum and arts education and finance meeting that we had. Pete pointed out that this was in the capital forecast for a $150,000 in 2025, and the appropriation request is for a $124,000.

Also pointed out that the vinyl coating surface of the stage is deteriorating and attempts to repair it have been unsuccessful. The conversation of the meeting surrounded, around issues like liability. Should we, close off the stage temporarily? Put some some things up, but it's been temporarily repaired so that it's okay. Also, conversations around the license agreement and other license agreements that maybe we should start looking at things like that.

Who is responsible for insurance?

What else we got here?

I think that's pretty much it. The public works committee voted, and bear with me again, unanimously to approve. And it doesn't say the others here.

See. Kristen just emailed, texted me to say that public works was nine yes and two no.

Two no.

And that LMA was eight yes and two no, and finance was seven yes. Does that sound right to everybody? I'm sorry. We missed this report in the packet, but there were a couple

Mhmm.

Couple no's.

This this here says two nays, so that must be

the Definitely public right

on LMA, there were two nays, and I don't have the names. Maybe anybody remembers. Anyway, there you go. That we we can continue that discussion. Maybe Kristen can add something on the phone.

Thank you.

But for now, does anyone from the public like to comment on this? Anyone from the public? Seeing no, let's move to a resolution.

Resolved that upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works, the sum of $124,000 to the capital nonrecurring fund account for the replacement of the Levitt Pavilion Stage is hereby appropriated.

Thank you, miss Garth. Mister Kling, anyone from the RTM like to comment on this? Miss Schneeman.

Hi. Good evening. Kristin Schneeman, District 9. Wanted to say thank you to Pete and to Carly for being here and bringing this forward. I also wanna stipulate that I love the Levitt Pavilion. It's in my district. It's a great asset to the town. Definitely want us to have our facilities in good repair and certainly don't want anybody get hurt or there to be any liability to the town. But I just I have to keep coming back to the license agreement. I shared a copy of it with everybody this afternoon, and I apologize that I didn't have a chance to kind of dig into it and read through it before the committee meeting or before this evening.

But I just go back to the language here, and it it actually seems to be reasonably clear to me what the rules and responsibilities between the Friends of the Levitt and the town are. And in the agreement, forgive me for reading it, and also I'm reading on my phone and my eyes are bad, I'm gonna summarize under, you know, the responsibilities of the Friends. It says keeping the buildings and premises in good order and repair. That's pretty brief and could be open to interpretation. Responsibilities of the town include, and I'm just going through the list, seeding and mowing of the lawn, tree maintenance, clearing sidewalks, payment of utilities, winterization of seasonal buildings, removal of trash, identifying assistance in identifying maintenance needs, procurement of contractors, etcetera, providing office space, providing computers, etcetera.

Care and maintenance of the Riverwalk area back to a previous conversation about the Riverwalk. Then in section seven, expenses contributions from the town except as provided in paragraph six which I just summarized and except as it relates to the payment and insurance proceeds under paragraph nine as a result of damage to the buildings, all operating expenses and the cost of all maintenance of and repairs to the buildings and premises shall be the responsibility of the friends. And then the insurance section down below talks about how the town will maintain a special form property insurance and commercial general liability insurance for the premises and the buildings in the event of damage by fire or other casualty event. All insurance proceeds shall be used to repair and restore the buildings to substantially the conditions in which they existed prior to such damage. Anyway, I so we clearly are liable for insurance, insuring the the buildings and the premises, and for payments related to what happens after something bad happens.

I don't necessarily think this is a great idea, but we are not actually the ones responsible for the expenditures related to the maintenance and repair of the buildings and the premises. So I'm a little bit twixt in between here. I certainly want this work to happen and I want I don't want anyone to get hurt. I want the facility to be in good repair, but I think the license agreement is pretty clear on the point of who's responsible for paying for it. So at the moment, I'm inclined not to support this appropriation. I suspect I'm in the minority, but I did wanna make sure that everybody was familiar with the terms that are in the current license agreement. Thanks.

Thank you, mister Damon. Any other RTA members? Mister Gold.

Peter Gold, RTM district five. I agree with Kristen. I'm all in favor of the Levitt being a safe place. And I did vote for the appropriation of the committee meeting however I did not have a license agreement at that time it was not provided to us as part of the backup material christen is absolutely right in her interpretation of the license agreement The town's only obligation is to provide the mowing and things like that and up to $15,000 for operating expenses. There's nothing in there about our obligation to pay capital expenses whatsoever.

This is obviously a situation that has been coming on for some time. As Pete mentioned, repairs have been made over the years. It's something that the friends of the could have foreseen and could have fundraised for over time. They do have, according to the most recent report filed with the IRS on form nine ninety, almost $800,000 in assets. I think that there's sufficient money there to do it.

They pay nearly a quarter of $1,000,000 in salaries to two people. Other levered provisions around the country, which also provide 50 free nights of entertainment, provide about half of that in salary to their to their operators, I think there's probably room for the levitt to cover the costs and I don't think we should vote for this.

Mister Gold, any other members of the RTM like to speak to this issue? Mister Lowenstein.

Dick Lowenstein, District five. Levitt is like another organization in town, the library. It's an independent organization with its own board trustees, if you wanna call them, but it receives a lot of funding from the town as well. And, while I will support the motion tonight, I will request that as part of the 2627 budget process that the letter come forward with a more ex detailed explanation of its expenses, its income, and its assets so that we can determine as a town what we are going to appropriate for the levend. And, I think, I hate to use the word because it's been overused over the last couple of months but we have to be more transparent on these expenses.

Thank you.

Thank you mister Lowenstein. Miss Lautenberg.

Hi, Alan Lautenberg, RTM District seven. Yeah, since this issue of the agreement has come up sort of very recently, I don't know whether it's gonna be premature for us to vote on this because we didn't really have the information. And I'd love to hear either, you know, one of our attorneys or somebody respond to this issue. But I also wonder if, you know, if if this stage deteriorated over a period of ten, twelve years, whatever it was, whether, you know, if we make these repairs, this is just gonna happen again. And maybe in making these repairs, we need to it needs to have something that's gonna be more resilient to the the wear and tear because it seems like this is just gonna continue.

So I actually am not sure which way I'll vote on this, but I'd like to I don't know whether we should postpone it because we do have this information that was not considered in committee.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Let let's let's talk let's talk about it some more. I mean, unless mean, fact.

I don't know if people watch Point The board of finance looked at this twice. They looked at the agreement and came back the second time, and I believe they undertook to look at the lease agreement, make it less vague, and make it reflect what they think is going on, is the town provides the the asset and the levitt operates the asset, and repairs doesn't replace, doesn't rebuild the capital parts of it all. That was that was the board of finance undertaking. There will be continuing conversations and I don't know if miss Levine or miss Welsh, would you like to comment on any of these thoughts?

Thank you. Eileen Levine, town attorney assistant town attorney. Sorry. Gave us up a promotion here. So the license agreement, I sent it to Kristen probably a month ago before the holidays, and I I I thought it would be in the packet.

I assumed it would be in the packet, but so I apologize if nobody has seen it. But the license agreement is not clear about capital. It doesn't assign responsibility for capital improvements to the Friends of the Levitt Pavilion, and it's not clear that it was that it's the responsibility of the town either. It but it does assign to the Friends the repair and maintenance. And capital replacement, rebuilding a capital property, it's is not a repair or maintenance of the project.

We actually had a conversation with the attorney for the Levitt for the Friends of the Levitt Pavilion at the time that this license agreement was was drafted who made clear that there was the assumption was always that the town would be responsible because the town owns the building. You might recall that in 2000 this was signed in 2012. And around that time, the Levitt Pavilion stage was replaced completely and the the grounds were re redone. The town ran that project. Stu McCarthy of the Parks and Rec Department managed that project.

The town issued the RFPs. The friends raised millions of dollars, got millions of dollars in state grants. That money was given to the town as a gift. The Tartium voted to accept the gift of that money for the town's project of building its stage. The town owns the stage.

The town engages the friends to run the programming, and the friends have the responsibility for repairs and maintenance, but not for capital projects. And this is the same the same rationale for the board of finance to approve to recommend this appropriation to you. And it's also why this this replacement of this stage is capital expenditure has been on the long term capital forecast for several years. So, the town's position is that this is the town is responsible for capital improvements and under the license agreement and that the friends are only responsible for the repairs and maintenance. Did you wanna add to that?

You got that? Is it okay if I do Sorry. Can Kristen I mean, can Carly address it as well? Even though I was the one who

If that's okay with everybody, I I think it would be useful for us all. Yes, please.

Good evening, everybody. Hi. I'm Carly Welsh from the Leavitt Pavilion. Thank you all. Just to widen the lens of context and also it speaks directly to ownership of the facility.

In the beginning, the the ground that you look at now was, of course, the town dump. It was a landfill. And when there and technically, still is. When there was a community decision, a swell, a passion to create a place for community gathering and specifically for the arts to be the nexus of this place. Several organizations and community members came together.

Essentially, it was privately funded then back in 1973. The Kiwanis raised money. The downtown merchants raised money. What was then the West Westport Western Arts Council was involved in helping to raise money. The Westport Young Women's League raised money.

Bruce Campbell Graham donated his services. Galt donated gravel and more. The town donated the land, the dump. And so through the project that would become the Levitt Pavilion, through private fundraising, we transformed that land into something that you see today. So that was the first wave of a fantastic return on investment of a piece of brown land that was transformed into something green and vibrant that is both a cultural hub and an anchor institution for downtown.

And we all know from several independent data sources that every dollar a municipality spends on the arts will come pouring back into the community at a ratio of at least 14 to one, oftentimes more. So there you have of again, just at this very point of origin story, this is a a point where the town got something massive in return for a dump. As we go forward, the Levitt Pavilion becomes a not for profit five zero one c three. It is an independent five zero one c three organization. It stewards the wooden bandshell that was very sturdy and useful for many years, the wooden bandshell that welcomed Ray Charles, where the Levitt Pavilion presented Ray Charles, Keith Richards alongside Willie Nelson, the Beach Boys, Tony Bennett.

So, again, the Levitt Pavilion is an arts organization and steward of its home. This site and facility continues to give away at minimum 50 free shows every year.

Carly. And We all love the

Okay.

I And No.

No. And I

just We're talking about the capital improvement of the stage. And if you could kind of

Yes.

Work your work your way around that. Okay. We we love the Levitt. We appreciate the Levitt. We love what you do. But we're talking about

Okay. Then to zero in on the dollars, the $15,000 that is mentioned in the 2012 license agreement that goes towards our op our

programming

and operations. It is $20,000 now from through the parks and rec line, and that compares to, for example, last year, a $1,800,000 operating budget that is raised by the Levitt Pavilion. So, again, our what we bring to the table is vast, and we fundraise all the time. And we also just going back to the capital campaign, the Levitt Pavilion raised a total, including 1,100,000.0 from the town, a total of 9,500,000.0 to build the new Leavitt Pavilion. Everything was new.

Every blade of grass, the lawn, the regrading, the hospitality building that does not exist before, all of that was privately funded with the exception of the 1,100,000.0 from the town. The Levitt Pavilion applied for grants from the state and won them. We were awarded them. They were administered by the town. But, again, we put in the man hours to win and deservedly so those grants that helped fund that project to the tune of $950,000.

We expend an extraordinary amount of money as we should under the license agreement to undertake all of the maintenance and repairs that we are obligated to do so year over year to maintain the site beautifully and safely. And we partner with Parks and Rec and DTW all the time to identify those projects and prioritize them. But when it comes to capital, Ken Bernard, Eileen Pflug, two attorneys of note, and who have poured over the license agreement agree that it is the once the the the building that our funds built was essentially donated again to the town, the town is the owner and every owner knows that they are responsible for capital improvements. And so that's just what I wanted to share. Thank you.

I think

Thank you, miss Welch. Sure. Quickly, please. We're using up mister Lowenstein's time.

Yeah. We so just to use as an example, differentiating between maintenance and capital improvements. There's a cloth roof over this structure. There's a cloth roof over the hospitality area as well. If we a little rip in that roof, we have to repair it. You go up and put a patch on it. If you get five rips on the roof, you probably patch them five times. But once that roof has a catastrophic rip in it, that's a capital improvement once it has to be replaced. There's a difference between maintenance, repairs, and capital improvements. Most of the year, outside of the season, we own the asset, and we have to maintain it.

So we don't call the Levitt in in the January to fix a hole in the floor. So the maintenance is really speaking to when they're using the property and to keep it in shape for when they're using the property. All the rest of the time, that is an open structure. We don't have it fenced off. We don't have a key that's only given to the Leppet.

You can walk up there anytime, go up on the stage, go up on on the area, hang out there. It's a town asset. It's a town park. And for that reason, because the town is the landlord, we need to we are responsible for the capital repairs, the major improvements to the structure. This is not maintenance. This is not repairs. The Levitt has done a good job of repairing the stage as many times as they can, but now we're at the point where that rip has gotten too big and it needs to be replaced.

Thank you, miss Thank you, miss Reckwich. We're gonna try to give miss Bateau a chance to comment from the phone. If you could make it loud and we'll see if this works, Wendy. Go ahead.

Okay. Are you able to hear me?

Well, give it a try.

Okay. I'll keep it short. I I support this for two reasons. One one being the practical reason that this is a capital asset of the town, and if for some reason the license agreement runs out or is canceled, the town is left with the capital asset. And therefore, it seems to me that that would be paying for capital improvement, improvement to this stage.

But more importantly, there were a couple of documents that the committees were able to see that I haven't seen passed around. And really importantly, the prelude to one of the documents was the absolute unconditional support of Westport for the arts and its dedication to be supporting arts and to being a successful arts community. Earlier in this meeting, Lou Mal made an interesting comment adding up the parks and recreation fees that sort of haven't gone anywhere, haven't been productive, which was, what, about five times what this appropriation is asking. And it seems to me that for this for this amount, we should support we should support Westport's dedication to the arts. So I do hope that people will vote for this.

Thanks.

Thank you. Yep. I think I think we got that. Thank you, miss Bateau. Anyone else from the RTM like to comment on this? Mister Tate, then mister Gold.

Chris Tate, RTM district one. Trying to wrap my head around this. And, Peter, Christine, you brought up some good points I didn't notice in the lease, and that brought me some questions of, like, why are we doing this? But at the same time, Eileen Flue or sorry. Eileen thank you. Sorry.

She got married.

Forget that. Used the old name. And spoke to the fact that from her perspective, it's a town owned property. It's like you own the building. You rent from inside. The landlord own controls the structure, cleans up the structure. You're responsible for the inside light bulbs and all that stuff. And then hearing from the fact, as I'm going back and forth on this, board of finance, I think twice, went back and forth to confirm because they had the same questions, it seems like. That they went back to confirm, is this really what we should be paying for? And they came back the second time, and the board of finance, our purse strings, ended up approving this.

So as an RTM member, I'm looking at this going, okay. Eileen has, you know, stipulated that from the town attorney's perspective, it's our responsibility. Peter has said, it's not a maintenance. It's a structure way he explained it. We own the structure as a town. Yes. Do we do I look forward to going forward that maybe some more fundraising could be into that mix and how we move that lease? But, you know, I was going from not approving this to, okay. I'm getting an explanation. I'm getting some answers.

And, Peter, I I hear what you're saying, but I got the board of finance twice questioning it and saying yes to it. And Eileen kinda stipulated from a a legal perspective from the town side saying, we own it. And our public works director saying, here's the examples of why we own it. It's not a patch. It's a rip. That's why we have to do it. So, again, stuck between bar force. I may not like it, but I think from what's been explained to me, it is what it is. So, I appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Tate. Wait. Peter, you've you've you went once already. Right? Anyone else like the RTM want to speak on this first time? Miss Bronson.

Good evening again everybody. Seth Bronstein, RTM district six. I do think it's quite clear this is a capital asset. The town owns it. The town is is gonna be responsible for the structure. And this is a structural element of the facility. And you wouldn't ask a tenant to incur the expense for a structural element. That would be the responsibility of the property owner. And the town of Westport is the property owner. So I think it's quite clear that we would need to approve this appropriation. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Brownstein. Anyone else like to speak the first time? Okay, mister Gold.

Peter Gold, our team district five. I bow to no one in my admiration for the Levitt's fundraising abilities and all the good work they've done in the past. I enjoy the Levitt. You guys do a great job. That's not really the issue here today. Pete, I believe I heard you say that in the winter months when the levitt is not putting on performances that we actually do some maintenance work on the levitt. Is that correct, Pete? You're saying yes.

Yes.

Okay. And do we charge do we charge those maintenance expenses back to the levitt since the lease is clear that they're obligated to maintenance? No. And what's the magnitude of those expenses been?

I'm not prepared to answer that at the moment because I don't have the books in front of

me. Proximate.

I don't know. Couple thousand dollars here. Couple maintenance guys going up and maybe doing a patch or something.

Mhmm. Alright.

It's it's minimum.

Okay. I'm just curious. You mentioned it. The lease is quite clear that maintenance costs are levitt levitt's obligation. The Hills Point School, which is being used by the child care centers, aren't they responsible for some of their capital costs?

Yeah. And it's a completely different situation because they have a lease. They're not licensed to have a lease. There's a difference between a license and a lease. So I think

absolutely absolutely understand the difference. But, it is it is true that for some town properties, whether we license them or lease them, the person who is using them is sometimes responsible for capital costs. It's not always the case that the town is responsible for the capital costs.

That's correct. And it's usually clearly stated in the lease exactly what capital costs and what the mechanism is for paying for that. This license agreement is silent to that.

Which brings me to the next point. I would hope that going forward, given the problems we're having with the Hooked agreement and the interpretation of this agreement, that we draft our future agreements more clearly. I think that would be a great thing to do. I also think that you should charge the 11,000,000,000 back for the maintenance costs that you've you've incurred.

Thank you, mister Gold. Mister, anyone else wanna go before mister Alonsine's second kick at the cat? Mister Kling, yep.

Good evening happy new year like everybody else Jack Clang District 7 I have a little bit of skin in this game going back to 1973 my wife was on the in the young women's club back then She and Barbara Schott, who was the president of it, contacted a man named Mortimer Leavitt, and the rest is history. They built the building. The town owns it now. Is it a valuable town asset? Is the beach?

Is the golf course? Are the schools we send our kids to? You bet. And so is the Levitt Pavilion. I firmly believe the Levitt should take care of its maintenance as it does, the towns responsible for capital repairs and improvements. And we all get to enjoy the benefits of those. I urge you to please support this appropriation. Thank you.

Let's see. Yeah, you haven't gone, Mr. Mull, on this one? Go ahead.

Lewis Mall, District 2. One of the things that I didn't mention when we were talking about Hooked was that Ira used a term, and he said, what what is in the best interest of the town that changed my mind on the Hooked situation and and that we negotiate in a businesslike manner. If I understood you right, the return is 14 to one for what the Levitt produces for the town. Is that correct?

That's more. But I I can on arts expenditures, every dollar you spend on the arts will bring back at least 14.

And and and just think what it does for the downtown

That was a yes.

And the record. And and and the restaurants and the vibrancy and so forth and so on. So to ask for them to pay for a capital expenditure is just I think it's totally wrong. I'm going to vote in favor of taking responsibility for what is ours, and don't think that we need to belabor the point any further. Thank you.

Thanks Mr. Mull. Mr. Lundstein still maybe bring us home.

Dick Lowenstein, District 5. The subject of the fact that this property is open to the public twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty two weeks a year, so forth, was brought up also at the committee meeting. And I would like to see at the next meeting of the LMA committee, when the budget comes forward, that there'd be some proposal to better protect the property from, let's say, incursions? You know, there's no reason why this property should be totally open when it's a stage where people can come in and do damage when no one is there. And I'd like to see a proposal from the 11 and perhaps from the public works department to ensure that the property when it's not open to the public is protected from public entry. Thank you.

Thank you miss Florentine. Anyone else? Mister Mandel, please.

Matthew Manalotti on District 1 Dick. It's a park. Yeah. It should be open.

Matt, we're we're just we're not talking about the future. Okay.

I just want know.

But people bring up these new things

that

you should think about. I'm done. We're oh, okay. I'm done with that. Good. Good.

Running the levitt is a risky business. You have a paid show and the weather doesn't want to cooperate, and that show can be gone like that. So, they're putting a lot of risk out there all the time. Peter, you're right. This is a gray area that needs to be addressed moving forward. Not just for this but for Hook, for every other contract that we have. We have to make sure they're buttoned up tightly so we don't go into another Hooked or situation here. But, in this case, to me, it looks like a capital forecast and I appreciate the Levitt Pavilion, you know that. And you'll find me next to the soundboard most days. So, there we go.

Thank you, mister Mandel. Thank you. Yes. Any other members of the RTM? Any other members? Seeing none, we're voting on the following. Resolved upon the recommendation of the board of finance and a request by the director of public works of some hundred and twenty four thousand dollars to the capital and non recurring fund account for the replacement of the Levitt Pavilion stage is hereby appropriated. Let's just see if we can do this by hand vote or do we need a roll call? All those in favor? Any opposed? Who's opposed? To miss Neiman and mister Gold. And anyone on the phone? Kristen and Wendy.

Kristen's here.

And Wendy is a yes, I suspect, having endorsed it. Wendy? There, here. Wendy? Maybe she checked out, but she anyway

So are we

Oh, yes. Yes. Good. Okay. Two on the phone. And is that 34 now?

33 to 2.

33 to 2. Thank you.

I think only Rachel Jay, you voted yes. Right?

Everyone except miss Niemann and mister Gold, and we're we're down one. So 33 to two. Great. Would the deputy moderator read item seven of the call?

How should

I do

this? Fifty minutes late. Okay. So thank you, Pete, and thank you, Carly. Thank you.

So now this next one is, I I sent an email on this today and it's a little unusual item in that we're being asked for one large amount from the board of education, and then eight different appropriations. So the board of ed is going to present this big number of 3,574,000.000, and then we're going to ask the public if they'd like to speak on any of the eight items, but then we're going to have a resolution after which only the RTM will discuss it. So if anyone from the public wants to speak about any of the eight items that will be discussed right now and in the committee reports, they'll have a chance right after the presentation and the committee reports. So speaking for the board of ed, we have the entire

I have not done the call.

I I didn't do that.

I know. But we're gonna do call. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Please. Should I

just read the initial paragraph, not the individual questions? Correct. Okay. Sorry. One sec, guys.

One sec, Lee.

To take such action as the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the superintendent of schools to approve an appropriation in the total amount of $3,574,260 for the board of education fiscal year '26 building projects. The total appropriation is broken down with an appropriation in the amount of $3,376,290 along with bond and note authorization to the Educational Facilities Improvement Fund account, an appropriation in the amount of $25,000 to the Capital Non recurring Fund account, and an appropriation in the amount of $172,970 to the general fund. And then each motion will go.

We'll And then we'll then we'll do each motion separately. Thank you, miss Karp. And we have most of the staff of the board of ed here. And thank you for all being here. And chair of the board of ed, Lee Goldstein, will lead us off.

Yeah. Thanks for having us. Last but I hope not least, happy new year everyone. Lee Goldstein, Westport board of ed. We had extensive conversation at the committee level. It was there were a lot of members of the RTM on that call. So with your permission, I think we're gonna do a quick presentation and then dive into whatever questions, concerns, and comments everyone still has. I begin every presentation with saying how proud we are of our schools and this town's commitment to them. It is a shared Westport value. Our facilities, not so much.

And this board's priority has been to address those facility needs. And now we're beginning to move beyond envelope and mechanicals and look at some programmatic needs. To to determine those needs, we have really spent a lot of time prioritizing them. Our administration, our faculty, our board, our coaches, our students have collaborated to work on what what are the highest priority needs and and chip away at them incrementally. There's no one on the board of ed who wouldn't be happy to come to you with more requests in every one of these categories.

But in the same way that we're all elected officials and we steward our town resources and in the same way that most of us are also taxpayers, we really prioritize them and we really have to go one by one by one. So what we're asking for tonight is not all we need, but it's what we believe is the first of what we need. And it leads to a lot of robust discussion, some healthy back and forth. So I just wanted to address two things quickly that came up in the committees. One of the things that we kind of have heard along the way is that maybe we're not prioritizing girls in girls sports.

And that's another one where our board loves hearing that you'd like us to be doing more, that people want equity, and we should be always working to achieve that. But I do think, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't say in defense of our administration, the board itself, and particularly our athletic director, Vijay Sarullo. He's the person who specifically raised equity when he got here. He's the person who and not just for girls, but across sports. So he's the person who opened the weight room that the Gridiron Club donated to the football team.

He opened that to all sports, and there's a shared calendar. He's the person who ensures that when the boosters fund additional coaches, that girls have as many per athlete girls and boys have the same number of coaches. You're gonna see Friday in our operating budget, we're adding uniforms so that team uniforms are not to the vicissitudes of parent fundraising, another equity issue. VJ's been working with PNC now that some of the restrictive lighting covenants are sunsetting to get lights on our our field. So I I just wanna say that.

Agree or disagree about what we should be paying for now, but this is our issue that we've brought forward. The second one is the concession stand request. That, I would admit, is poorly named. Elio and Tom will discuss that, But it is essentially very needed bathrooms. It's an outdoor it's for the design work for an outdoor structure.

We are just about the only district in this area that doesn't have an outdoor structure for bathrooms, for coaches, trainers, referees, officials. This is very badly needed. And the reason we're starting with it is that I'm sure you know there's going to be a master plan for all the fields and the athletic facilities. I don't know how that's gonna go or how long it's gonna take. This is something we can do now.

Get going with it now. And the design work is such that whatever's designed, that building can be moved. So it doesn't necessarily need to be this place on the football field. And depending on what the town and what you determine we should do with turf versus grass, that will change where the building goes. But we will have those bathrooms, and they will be open.

The final thing is that there's nothing we're asking for today that precludes further work when we need it. So the example I like that came up at board of finance, in the auditorium, one of the things we're doing is safety lights along the floor. And if you in time, we will need new flooring, new seats. Nothing about replacing the seats or the flooring will make us have to destroy the lighting we're putting in now. So the same is true of that of the team room that will be part of the girls' locker room. It will not, in any way, undo further work on the locker room. So with that, I turn it to Tom.

Thank you, Lee. Thank you. Tom Skerry, superintendent of schools. Thank you for having us here this evening. When we make capital requests and come to this level, I instantly go back in my mind to January and February 2020 when the Board of Education hammered me in my interview wondering if I would come up with a strategy and help the district develop a strategy for facilities. Looking in the rearview mirror now, I'm proud of the work we've done. You can go right on our website. We have our ten year capital forecast, but it's driven by a priority. It's driven by keeping our buildings dry. It's driven by making sure they're warm when they should be warm, cool when they should be cool, and that involves our mechanicals and our envelopes.

That you'll see and I think what is such a real hallmark of success of that is we're asking for a roof at Greens Farms School and it's 3,000,000 or so overall, right, with the construction cost and there was barely a discussion about it at the board of finance level because I believe that's the credibility that we've built around our studies, our reports, and prioritizing these types of things, our envelopes and so forth. It's been a good track record over the past few years. We put a new roof on Staples. We put a new roof on Saugatuck Elementary School. These are multimillion dollar projects that came on time and on budget.

If you had gotten a chance, please go see the field house up at the high school. It is stunning. It is gorgeous. Tremendous project, again, on time and on budget. And I have to call out our partners from Colliers, project leaders, and also our director of facilities, Ted Hanyati, for helping to lead that work.

But what I think is really important is that what the board, this board of education has done is start to take on projects that haven't been touched literally for thirty or forty years. I mean projects like long lots which didn't have a dime put in it for thirty years and got to borderline crisis probably a year or two away maybe from what CMS was. We've taken three rooms offline because of mold and air quality issues. We've stabilized that. Protocols are in place for testing and treatment, and we've done work with the HVAC there as well to keep it going, but that's a thirty year problem that was addressed.

The auditorium at Staples, actually longer. Beloved theater teacher David Roth will tell you that when he was there back in the eighties and nineties, it's exactly what it was like then. These are problems that have that have really dogged the district for for decades that this board has decided to take on. And you'll see that we started to take on the issue with the girls locker room. And next you're good to hear is the board of ed's request, think is imminent for a building committee for a Coleytown Elementary School, which will be next on our portfolio as well.

So those are things that are really important in the big scheme of things to keep in mind that it's not just the mechanicals and envelopes and some programmatic. There are projects that have for thirty or forty years or longer we're starting to take on that need to be done. Wasn't here but legend has it, the CFO was told you have x amount of dollars in capital to spend this year. And that came from the town funding bodies. And that was the strategy for funding capital. That's not how we do it now. We put our requests out there. We have studies, evaluations, reports, and then you tell us what the town can afford. And that's kind of where we are tonight. There has been an incredibly collaborative partnership with the Board of Finance and RTM to which we are very grateful of.

I can echo what Lee had said, particularly at the committee level, which we spent a lot of time with the questions and Lauren and Seth spent a lot of time with us on really drilling down deeper. But what I think gets lost, there's some things that we can possibly take for granted right now with the collaboration. We combine our design costs, which we're asking for approval tonight, with subsequent construction cost projections. That wasn't there in the past. We were able to kind of forecast out, here's what we're asking for design, here's what the construction can cost.

I think that's very helpful for funding bodies to consider. The timing is very different. We asked for funding now in September through November. We're a little late this year because we had a lot of site visits to conduct for some of these projects. But that's very important to separate that from the operating budget. Site visits I mentioned is also something that we've started to take on the past couple of years. We invited RTM members this year as well. We had a robust group that came to do that and we welcome that. This year we added file jackets to all the projects which is incredibly descriptive criteria of each project and through consensus requests from the RTM board of finance we'll add criteria to that as well. I just don't think you can find a more transparent and collaborative process.

We've never been given the consensus signal to request everything at once as Lee indicated earlier, so we make judgment calls. And those can be agreed upon, disagreed upon, but we heard Jeff loud and clear at the board meeting when he came in December about the ongoing costs of capital projects across the entire town and when we approach our operating budget we're mindful of that as well. Why does the collaboration matter so much? You're not seeing gimmicky strategies from the Board of Education. You're not seeing us request everything, drum up public distress and chaos and come in here and pound fists.

We do the best we can to just be transparent, be thoughtful and cerebral about this. And you certainly don't see us doing a spending down every year of the operating budget. If we were able to, and LEO is an incredible, best I've ever worked with, a fourteen year superintendent, the best I've ever worked with, steward of the financial resources, and when he can keep funds in the black and we can return funds to the town, we do that. So, there's no spending down. That's because the trust that we've built, we use priorities, we use studies and feedback.

So you're going to continue to see a heavy emphasis over the years on mechanicals and envelopes. They're not sexy, but they're needed, especially to keep our buildings warm, keep our buildings dry and cool, but you will notice some programmatic requests this year. Bedford Science Labs, for example, the WiFi project at Staples, Lee had mentioned the outdoor structure at Staples as well, which I can speak to and she covered it well, The Staples Auditorium, the Staples girls locker room, the team room part of that project. So those go beyond the mechanicals and the envelopes, but we're starting to to see those and and and recognize those and prioritize those. There are a lot of priorities.

It's no secret it happened publicly. We had a room we had to take offline at CES because of a leak that happened earlier in the school year. That building is getting to a point where it needs to be attended to and eventually be replaced and we've talked about that publicly. So, these things we're gonna try to keep ahead of and we certainly do not wanna get in a position where it's a crisis. So, with that, I'll have Eliolongo step forward and go through these eight projects.

Thank you, Tom.

Do you want us to just present one by one, Jeff? Do you wanna comment?

If you'd go through the eight. Yep. And and then we'll have the public talk about the eight, and then we'll go through one by one resolution, and the RTM will discuss the one by one.

Thank you. Thank you. For for the record, I'll Iolongo, school CFO. Good evening, and happy New Year. Tonight, we're presenting the remaining eight capital projects that were earmarked for current fiscal year 2526.

It is with gratitude that the board of education has accepted prior funding for 14 projects so that this we were approximately two dozen projects for their current fiscal year. Of the remaining eight projects, three are ready for actual construction or replacement. At this time, the three are the district wide painting exterior of of facades, the auditorium stage rigging, lighting, and sound system proposal at Staples High School, and the replacement of a motorized folding partition at the Sukha Tuck Element School gymnasium. The other five projects are for soft cost design at the moment. Included in the board packet, you should have received a estimate cost estimate.

We included a cost estimate for next fiscal year for construction costs related to the remaining five projects. In all, our request this evening is approximately 3 and a half million dollars, and the related construction costs for the five projects next fiscal year, the estimate is approximately $4,100,000. Again, in full transparency, if we're asking, we're requesting your consideration this evening on 3 and a half million dollars. We want to inform you as well that the forward cost is approximately $4,100,000 scheduled for next fiscal year. With us this evening, have Ted Inyadi, our director of facilities and security and John Oblis from McAuleyers, who's our partner on our capital improvement plan.

At this time, I'd like to turn it to John just to give a executive summary presentation on each of the eight projects, please.

Sure. Good evening. John Koplus from Colliers Project Leaders. And I'll just go through the eight projects as they are listed on the agenda. The first project is the staples high school auditorium renovations.

This project originated back in 2022. There were two studies that were performed. One by Sapsis, which was for the rigging inspection, and the other was by Supertech, which was looking at the lighting components. And, over, I think, six, seven months, they put together their assessments, presented those findings, and also at that time had presented some estimates for the proposed repair work. The scope of that work ended up entailing further discussions and the resolution of hiring a designer.

So, an RFP was put out for design scope. That subsequently was awarded to a company called Theater Design. They proceeded to put together documentation based on those initial findings and then after performing some site investigation and review of the existing conditions, determined that there were some other issues and concerns that were present within the auditorium space. The biggest of which was the fact that there was a need for a loading gallery, was associated with the weights in the arbor for the raising and lowering of some of the rigging components. That system did not exist and in turn had resulted in some challenging and safety related issues with respect to the operation of that rigging system.

So that was something that they looked at. That in turn resulted in the need to relocate some existing HVAC piping lines that are on stage left of the auditorium space in order to locate the necessary loading gallery. There was also another component on the backside of the auditorium space. Upper right, upper left, there were two lighting rails that had been installed previously several years ago. And it was determined that those in turn had not been properly installed and were technically a structural concern based as to how those were installed at the time.

So, that in turn was added to the design scope. Finally, after consulting with David Roth and Steve Zimmerman, it was felt that while this work was going on, the sound system should also be something that would be looked at and considered as far as being improved repaired. And so, that component for the design was also added to that scope. So, probably a ten month duration for the design entailed a set of drawings. Those in turn went out to bid.

We had received or we have received two prices back from contractors and that work is anticipated to begin in April funding pending approval. And that is intended to be completed by the start of the twenty twenty six-twenty seven school year. So rather than waiting until the end of the school year, starting in June, and jeopardizing the potential start of or the impact to the start of the school year and the need of the auditorium space at the start of the school year, September months, the feeling was by sacrificing the end of this school year starting in April, That work in turn would be able to be completed by the end of the summer so that by the start of the school year, that would all be completed. Should we have questions now or you want me to just continue to the next one? Okay.

The next project is associated with the Bedford Middle School upgrade of the science labs. This is associated with the eight science labs for Bedford Middle School. This was something that had previously been discussed when Holytown Middle School's science labs were updated. And the Bedford Middle School science rooms, classrooms are, I think, about thirty, thirty five years old at this point in time and are very outdated. The layout is the old laminated lab tables.

You have the gas feeds, which are no longer used in the science classrooms anymore. There are challenges with just simply the educational approach for the classroom. The teachers at one end of the classroom, the way these tables are set up, half of the class has to turn. They do not have a table to put their notes on, their laptops, etcetera. So they're literally taking notes on their laps.

There is challenges with respect to some of the visual and audio with during the classrooms. Some of the equipment is a little bit outdated that's there. There's storage units along the perimeter of the rooms that are outdated and some of which are falling apart. So, it's essentially a means of updating that. This is for the design services to bring in a designer to provide a design for that scope of work with the intention that the renovations themselves would be performed the 2027.

The next item is the renovation of the girls locker room to create a new team room at Staples High School. This is an initial or first step that was pushed for by Vijay Cirillo to try to provide a team room space for the girls teams which is presently nonexistent. As you probably know, the boys teams do have a designated team room that is used for both the football team and the lacrosse team predominantly. The girls team sports teams do not have a designated team room space. So, the intent is to have a designer address that on the I think it's the north end of the existing locker room space.

There's essentially an oversized locker room area that is something that can be subdivided, and that this area would be in turn converted into a single or potentially two team room spaces, a divider wall in the middle, depending on the ultimate need and use of that space. But this is for the design intent for that scope of work. The next item is for the Greens Farms elementary school roof replacement. This is the next one in a series of roof replacement projects. As Tom had mentioned earlier, a couple years ago, we addressed the Saugatuck elementary school roof replacement.

Last summer, we addressed the Staples High School, the majority of the Staples High School roof, not the entire flat roof area, but the majority of that. This is for the design services to address the flat EPDM portion of the greens farms roof system as well as the replacement of the 15 exhaust fans on the flat portion of the roof to the school. Again, this is just for the design services. The construction costs would be determined. These documents would go out to bid during the summer so that by next summer we would have the pricing in place and a contractor scheduled to perform that work. The

Yeah. I thought so. Thank you. With on in our list, the concession stand is right before the roof replacement. Did we not

Oh, I'm sorry. I did skip one there. The project for the concession stand for the fields with the bathrooms, this is, as I believe Lee had mentioned previously, a part of and ultimately a master plan for the field area. That is something that is going to be the first step in this overall plan. The intent is to address numerous components and portions of the field areas on the backside of Staples, potentially portions of the Wakeman Fields.

And, that could entail artificial turf fields, lighting, additional bathrooms, etcetera. So, that's something that would be part of the master plan. The intent for this project is the design scope associated specifically with the concession stand and bathrooms as the first piece of that puzzle, if you next one. The painting of the exterior facade components. This is for the cost for the actual construction efforts, if you will.

The RFP is going to be issued and then subsequently this work will be performed during the summer months. This essentially entails recaulking efforts, lintel repairs, repainting to five of the schools, Staples High School, Bedford Middle School, Kings Highway, Greens Farms, and Saugatuck. So, all of those schools will be addressed. This is for exterior repairs. Simply Or generally maintenance upkeep type of items.

Similar to, you know, repainting your house every, you know, ten, fifteen years. These are items to ensure that the exterior is maintained. The next item is the motorized folding partition at the Saugatuck Elementary School. This partition is the original partition from 1966. And, if you've seen it, then you probably know why this is on the list.

This is in dire need of replacement. It is a very heavy, old folding partition. And, at this point in time, in order to operate it properly, they need to have two people monitoring that to open and close that partition. It is obviously beyond its useful life. This is a project that has gone out to bid.

We have already received contractor pricing on this, so we do know the costs specifically, and that is what is listed here, including a 10% contingency just to cover any potential unknowns that may come up during that installation work. That is scheduled to be addressed during the summer funding approval pending. And, the final one on the list is the install of the wireless access points to the athletic fields. This is a request to have wireless access provided to the backside of Staples High School. This is something that has been requested by Vijay, another one of his requests.

And this is something that is associated for for numerous reasons. One of which athletic trainers just for trying to have a wireless signal. Presently, do not have that capability in the backside of the site there. This is something that is, I don't want to say desperately needed, but is vital to helping support the athletic program, ensuring that they have the ability to contact people if needed, especially during some of these sporting events. And is something that will also, should clarify, address the front end by the tennis courts as well.

So this would be for the entire perimeter of the school, but mainly for the back side and then the tennis courts at the front side of the school.

Great. Thank you. That's great. Now we'll have a committee report from Ms. Kale from Education and Finance Committees, and then we'll get back to the individual items one by one. Thank you. That was a great intro.

Nancy Kale, RTM, district nine. So Seth loves sidewalks. I I like sidewalks too, but I really love school related projects and especially these projects before us tonight. So and I realized that this was a mega jumbo committee meeting. There were 15 members of the RTM present and voting the other night, and one member was was absent. And everybody who's here tonight was also on the call. So and I should say that many other RTM members were also present, and we always love that. So most of us are hearing this for the second time.

And

alright. I'm gonna dig right in paraphrasing or summarizing greatly. Spoiler alert. The committees recommended approval of the $3,574,000 appropriation in its entirety. That's all eight projects.

Most of our votes were unanimous. I'll point out where they weren't. And these are the final as elliot said school related cip requests for the current fiscal year in the schools. All these people before you started out by presenting the districts long term facility strategy capital planning process. And as Lee mentioned, school the Westport Public Schools are academically strong, many facilities and systems have not really kept pace.

And since, superintendent Screece's arrival, the district has focused, on safety building envelopes and critical mechanical systems. They've operated under a very well defined capital improvement plan. They have a five to six year track record of delivering projects on time and on budget. For the first time we're seeing some programmatic related projects which is very exciting. So I'm gonna go through these projects in order that we' voting on them tonight and I' just going to highlight some of the rationales for these projects that might not have been addressed in the presentation we just heard.

The first project is a hard cost it' the Staples Auditorium for slightly over $3,000,000 and this is a safety driven project addressing rigging lighting sound and related systems multiple assessments identified deficiencies and needed repairs there have been failures that have caused cancelled performances and four to five month shutdown last year it' been decades I know personally because I am related to the person who spearheaded the Staples rebuilding project over twenty years ago, and there were upgrades that weren't even addressed then. So this is a long time in coming. By the way, my sister was the star of the Hello Dolly production that David Roth appeared in that you just mentioned. So this project addresses all systems at once, which is safer and more cost effective. It is designed for twenty to thirty years of use.

This was competitively bid and ready to proceed. And, sorry, I have a couple of papers out here. Just let me get back to I' m reading and paraphrasing from the committee report that I submitted a couple of days ago. The rationale for this the existing auditorium no longer meet safety standards or the functional needs of the school community community. It is unable to reliably support performances, assemblies, facility meetings, or parent events.

It was noted that while Staples has a renowned music and theater program, we all know that, the auditorium lags far behind comparable high schools and its core systems have not been upgraded, as we said, in several decades. Timing. The project has been competitively bid and the lowest possible bidder selected if approved construction will begin as soon as feasible. This was a unanimous vote by both committees. The upgraded science labs, they've been discussed $32,000 in soft costs and estimated, hard cost cost of 435 $431,000.

That's for the next fiscal year. The rationale. This is an equity driven project. Approximately two thirds of Westport Middle School students at Bedford do not currently have access to the science facilities comparable to those at Claytown. So the proposed work will bring Bedford Science Labs to the same instructional standard, another unanimous vote by both committees.

Project three is to renovate the girls locker room, is really the team room, $30,000 in soft costs, an estimated a $154,000 in hard costs. This is as we've been saying, this was one of the nonunanimous votes and there was a a lengthy discussion about this project. It represents the first phase of a broader set of facilities projects and priorities. Female athletes currently don't have a team room, and the request funds the design services to provide the scope and estimate future cost to install that. Some committee members question whether the design for the girls locker room should be funded at this time rather than limiting the scope to the team room.

Superintendent's agree said that the the approval of the team room wouldn't preclude or commit the town to additional facility work, and he indicated that an alternate cost could be included in the design RFP to provide flexibility during future bidding. So, the rationale for this is the providing a team room addresses equity across athletic programs. The priority reflects broader departmental review of athletic facilities and the desire to address needs in a systematic equitable and financially responsible manner. Fourth project the concession stand with bathrooms $25,000 in soft costs and estimated $300,000 more or less in hard costs. The rationale for this is that the project supports field use and community events while aligning with longer term planning efforts.

And, again, this is in conjunction with a larger athletic facilities project down the road. There was a question about a d a compliance that the administration said would be addressed as part of the design and development phase. Project five roof replacement and repair this is again design cost estimated hard costs around 3,000,000 for next fiscal year. I don't think it requires any other explanation. The six cost the six project is for exterior painting and facility maintenance, about a $173,000 estimated.

And this is for all of the six elementary schools but for Long Lots and Colliol. Seven is the wireless access points in the athletic fields. This would provide connectivity to support athletic trainers, emergency response, instructional use, and digital ticketing. Soft cost of $25,000. I don't have the hard cost here. Sorry. Wasn't in the report, but it's in the other materials in our packet. Finally, there's a hard cost of a $181,000 for replacing the folding partition. It's just it's broken. So this is an equity issue as well.

I wanna summarize for you. There was one other vote. Let me give you the votes of the team room and then there was another non unanimous vote and I think that was for the concession stand there was one member of one committee who voted against. If that'92s incorrect it'92s in the report but for the girls' locker room the vote was nine ten for education and four eleven for the finance committee. To summarize sorry this is like eight reports in one so be patient.

We're voting on eight projects tonight. Three are for hard costs. The largest hard cost or the largest project hard cost is for the auditorium. The two other hard costs were are for painting and the partition. Those hard costs for those three projects totaled $3,390,000.

We're voting on five other soft cost projects which imply hard costs in the next fiscal year or beyond. Those total $182,000 I won't itemize them all for you, but they are the non hard cost projects that I just did did define for you. So, both committees voted to advance all eight projects, and we respectfully ask the rtm to improve the full slate of these projects tonight.

Thank you miss kale. We now are going to turn to the public for comments on any of the eight items and seeing very few members of the public out there We have, of course, one member of the public who was on our field trip, so come on down.

An invaluable member.

An invaluable former Staples student.

Yes. Hi. I'm Emma Tate at Ton Buenavista Drive.

Emma, a little closer to the mic, please.

Yes. I graduated Staples in 2024, And during my senior year, I, was able to be part of a class where we discussed about, the locker room situation, so on and so forth. And I'm happy to hear that it's now coming up to the budget meeting and actually being pushed through. And speaking for a lot of, like, the women athletes in the school, I think it would be very important to push this forward, especially for this upcoming year because it's something that the women athletes do not have and that the men athletes do as were the girls with their team rooms and having to do film in the other classrooms, lugging all their stuff into the cafeteria and it not being in a safe secure place unlike the men where they have their locker room, the team rooms, and just having their own place. And so I think it'd be important to push through with the budget about the team rooms to make sure that the women get get given something that they don't have and so that we can even out the slate for all athletes as our athletic director is like really pushing to do.

It's even everyone out and how he's already done just to help him get that forward and helping out our own athletes there and helping Staples just really become a little bit more level with all the other schools around us. And, just enhancing our program even more and making an even better program than it already is. And, helping our town just become even more well known for being an equal playing field, good athletics, and good academics. So, yeah.

Wonderful. Thank you very much. There

we go. Are

there any other members of the public who'd like to talk about any of these eight items? Seeing none. Now, we're so we're going to have each resolution after which, RTM members will be invited to speak on that item, and then we'll vote on that item, and at the end, we'll vote on them all. So, thank you for your forbearance in this kind of unusual jam packed one single item in the call. So do we have a resolution on the first item, madam?

Yes. Motion upon the request of the superintendent of schools to approve an appropriation in the amount of $3,037,790 along with bond and note authorization to the Educational Facilities Improvement Fund for SHS 002 Staples Auditorium.

Is your your is your by appropriating?

That that so that was the That

was the resolution. No. That was the resolution.

No. That was the call. This is the resolution. They're pretty much the same. These are my resolutions, and these are my calls.

Yeah. That's a resolution. So we're just doing the resolution because Yeah.

But we never read

in the call. That doesn't matter.

Well, this is this is what this is the call. So just read the resolution.

It's identical. Yeah. Okay. Resolve it upon the recommend

It just ends is hereby appropriated. Right? The resolution.

Yeah. I I'll read the first paragraph, but then each motion I so I have to read this part first because we haven't done this.

No. I don't think so. I think you just read No? No. You just read the resolution. Yeah.

Upon the request of the superintendent of schools, the sum of $3,037,790 along with bond and note authorizations to the Educational Facilities Improvement Fund for SHS 002 Staples Auditorium is hereby appropriated.

Thank you,

miss mister Kling. Now are there any comments from any RTM members on the auditorium renovation. Mister Tate and then mister Rizzo.

R t m christate hartam district one. I just want to support this and just get some backup here on understanding what we're talking about and what we're funding for funding the building that was built in 1964 when I was there in 1980 it was still the same building. For some reason when they did it in 2000 they never touched the building the building has brick around it but inside is the exact same structure from 1964. I give our superintendent credit and all of the team because we are now actually looking at not wants but needs. And it's unfortunate the needs are gonna be expensive.

And but to get us back up to our needs and then we can start our wants, it's not gonna happen till we get our needs done. And that's where we are today. And and to the Scrucius credit is putting a structure together to tell us, hey, guys. This is what's ahead of you, but these are our needs. These aren't wants they want. This is not a new program. This is not a new school facility. This is needs to keep us to where we are. So it's gonna be painful, but at least somebody's addressing it and giving us the forthright to know what I when I when I went through that field trip for the for the locker room and all that, it was great to hear that this is thought out, these are needs that we need, not something we're gonna come to out of the blue. So, again, you're we're talking about a building in 1964. It's Ty.

Thank mister Rizzo, did you have oh, you were just pointing. Mister Mull. Yeah. Thank you.

Lewis mall district two like chris said this is the big ticket item but the lighting and the sound hasn' been updated for over thirty years If you amortize this $3,000,000 over thirty years we' really talking about $100,000 per year. I also want to say that when I first got on the education committee I heard Elliot Landon talk about the three a's of our schools. The academics, the athletics, and the arts. And that how we wanna excel in all three. And the the this is the arts that really give back to the town with the productions that we get from our kids.

And we' all just seen recently les mies that was fantastic and this is well deserved to give what we need appropriate for this I'm gonna vote in favor of it.

Thank you mister Mueller. Anyone else from the rtm? Yes. Miss Kobach.

Pam Kopak, RTM district three. When I went on the tour, there was a lot of talk about the safety things we needed to do versus the non safety things. And I feel like I'm reading that there are more safety issues in here now. We were told those were all addressed. Do we have a risk at people being on the stage right now or on the doing anything? No. No. So this we don't have to do if we did nothing right now, and I'm not saying we're going to, but if we did nothing right now, we don't have a safety issue.

We will eventually.

Okay. Not right now. Okay. Okay. And not trying to be bad here, but I know both both this and the concession stand, you have a lot of parent groups who do a put a lot of money into the programs and help with coaches and things like that. Was there ever any thought given to asking the players family who send the kids to Europe every year whether they would be willing to contribute towards any of the cost of this?

I can answer. You can answer. Yeah.

I mean, the extra lighting, the seats,

and the warm, but not the sound.

Yeah. So I I can summarize there. So the boosters for players are very generous, and they do contribute already to a lot of parts of the program. These are essential components that and the board's judgment and my recommendation is the responsibility of of the school district to provide Okay. Those components that we're asking for.

Okay. But they but they do contribute other things. And okay. So you're the needs and they're the wants. I Sort of. Okay. Alright. Great. Thank you. Thank

you, miss Goebak. Any anyone else from the RTM like to comment on the Staples renovation? Anyone else? Alright. Then we're voting on the following. Resolved upon the request of the superintendent of schools, sum of $3,037,790 along with bond and note authorization to the Educational Facilities Improvement Fund for SHS 002 Staples Auditorium is hereby appropriated. All those in favor? Any opposed? Any anyone on the line still? Miss Purcell, miss Beto?

Thank you. And Wendy has been sick, so I think she might not be there. So that oh, there you are.

You

support the Staples Auditorium. Great. Thank you. So that is What are we down to?

I think it's just Jay and Dick who left and Rachel off the phone.

Rachel's not

Anyone else? See anyone leave? Okay.

Alma. So Alma

Alma's here.

Alma's here. Sorry. Yeah. I think that's right.

So 33.

330. 0. Okay. Now the the next one for the

Upon the request of the superintendent and schools, that sum of $32,000 along with bond and note authorization to the Educational Facilities Improvement Fund for BMS zero one one Upgrade Science Labs is hereby appropriated.

Second. Thank you, miss Garth. Mister Kling, would any member of the RTM like to comment on the, science lab upgrade? Mister Kling?

Evening, I'm Jack Kling, District seven. As I said, I'm only gonna say this once, but I could say it four or five times on the rest of these upcoming items. This is my twenty ninth year on the education committee. About twenty years ago, we finally began to get serious with the Board of Ed and look at maintenance instead of just construction costs. And, we began to do a much better job planning ahead, scheduling, and maintaining our assets.

I think there's four or five of these soft cost projects, for example, fix the labs at Bedford Middle School, and the soft cost I know is design only. But, I can't for the life of me understand why we did nothing about those things for twenty nine years. Okay? Whether it's a concession stand or a wireless system outside of Staples, things that if we knew we needed them, and common sense said we should have done them, we should have at least gotten the soft cost out of the way so we eventually do the projects and not have to wait twenty nine years. Okay?

So, I'm going vote for all of these, but I feel the soft cost should have been an operating expense for the school to get ready to do things right with the hardware and the capital goods. So, that's my concern. If I had my druthers, we would have been doing it over the last twenty nine years and not waiting until 2026, especially for Title IX, things like the girls' locker room. That, I feel, is inexcusable, And we all share some of the blame for that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kling. Anyone else on the science labs? Seeing none, we'll vote on the following resolution that upon the request of superintendent of schools, some 32,000 along with bond and note authorization to the Educational Facilities Improvement Fund for BMS dash o one one Upgrade Science Labs is hereby appropriated. All those in favor? Any opposed? Miss Pursell, miss Becteau? Rate 33 to zero passes. Would the deputy moderator read the third resolution,

please?

Request of the superintendent of schools to approve an appropriation in the amount of $30,000 along with bond and note authorization to the educational facilities Improvement Fund for s h s o two five renovate girls locker room, new team room, is hereby appropriated. Second.

Thank you again. Any comments from the r t m? Mister Tate.

Chris Tate, RTM district one. I was on the walk through with this. And first of all, I'm gonna say that Emma, you did a fantastic job. If I was your parents, I'd be extremely proud. Just saying. And if I was your dad, I heard he was really cool. But I'm just saying he should be proud too.

And not embarrassed.

Thank you. But that said nice going, Emma. That said, so I was on the walk through with this. And, again, I go back from experience, and and what I'm giving experience here is this this athletic facility was done in 1980, and that's the last time it was touched. And when I went through the walk through down there, I was embarrassed to find out it's the same crap, same stuff that I walked through 1980. The girls' locker room, I understand the design. There was this discussion about design, having a full design. I hear that, but, again, this is not a want. It's a need. And to just get this up and running to make us in parity with at least the boys' room, whereas as Emma stated that they don't wanna have to put their stuff all over to school.

They can actually be equal with the with the boys, and it's way past our bedtime for what the other, in our in our county, in our districts are up to. So it's a no brainer to me. We don't need to discuss about design and all that. Unfortunately, the way we work, and this is something that was put forward as a priority. Next year will be another priority. Other priorities change. If we do a full design, who knows what's gonna change next year, and that design becomes mute. So this is what's in front of us. This is what needs to be done. And let's let's move this forward because, as Jack said, it's embarrassment.

It really is. And for for our, you know, our students, especially from the girls sports. I mean, when I was there, it was four or five sports. We have, like, 15 now. So we just need to it's embarrassing. So let's just get this over with and approved.

Thank you, mister Tate. Mister Mull.

Lewis Mall District 2. I'm following Chris here all the time to echo his sentiments. First of all, I'm a girl dad, and my daughter played basketball at Staples, ran cross country and track and so forth. And I I'm embarrassed as a dad that I didn't ask the question, what about the girls? And the the team room for the girls basketball team is actually a storage closet at the end of the basketball court.

And you literally it it's about the size of these first three rows, and you stuff in 12 basketball players and three coaches, and you wonder what what the conditions are like in there. But we did the boys' showers six, seven, eight years ago. It's it's been on my watch over here, and that's when I didn't ask the question, what about the girls? This is step one in a team room, which is desperately needed. But step two is the locker rooms and the facilities for the girls.

I know costs and expenses that we have for schools are gonna be astronomical in the coming years. But I asked my daughter, why didn't One of the comments when I did the tour was, well, girls don't shower. They don't use the facilities here. I asked my daughter about that, and she said, well, dad, they're so gross. And so that that that says enough for me, and she left Staples ten years ago. So I I I vote for this approval.

Thank you, mister Muller. Any other RTM members? Yes. Miss Grayson.

So I did not go oh, sorry. Jill Grayson, District 8. I graduated from Staples in 1971. The facilities in 1971, I lived in the gym. That's where I lived for three years. The three years before that, I lived in the gym at Coleytown Middle School. Well, it was junior high school at that time. This is unbelievable. I don't know where the mothers have been because I'm embarrassed. I had a son who graduated in 2005 and another who graduated in 2007.

The facilities for the boys were never complained about. I didn't look at the girls, although I did go to Coleytown Middle School's girls facility because I vote there, and they're disgusting. This can't wait. It just can't wait. It's not it's I don't care. I I do care about the way the science rooms work. I never spent one minute longer than I had to in a science room. And everybody will testify to that, including Dan Wouge. So when I read this on June, as you can probably see, my blood pressure went through the roof. This is terrible.

This is this is something that the town of Westport and the athletic directors at Staples have been terribly remiss on. And I think you guys need to do something about it really quickly. I think everybody gets where I'm coming from here, but we need to spend the money we need to spend to bring this facility up to date. I just had a friend who I graduated with in '71 who goes to Greenwich all the time for the music concerts that go on at the auditorium there, and they're New York performers. So I think we definitely need to fix the auditorium because it needs to be fixed, but there are just some things that we should not tolerate.

And title nine's been around for a long time. I was at school before title nine. I did not visit the gym facility the other day because I was playing tennis because I was brought up here to play tennis. I still play three to four days a week. And it's because I was brought up as a jock, period.

End of conversation. I started jogging at Coleytown Junior High School when I was 12, and I haven't stopped. If we want girls become women and stay healthy, we need to get them involved in sports. When we moved back here in 1999 and I saw the girls running track and field, I my heart just went yes because if you start young, you are going to do this all your life, and you're gonna hopefully stay healthy. So I wanna say one other thing.

We haven't gotten to the bathrooms at the concession stand, but the bathroom facilities at especially Staples are terrible. I used to jog every day. I walk almost every day. I am going to try to get the walking changed at Staples in Wakeman again because not being able to walk until it gets dark at 04:30 or when there's no one on those fields is another just the the sidewalks here are terrible. I live in District 8, but I started jogging on those sidewalks when I was 12.

I I could jog on Easton Road and Bayberry Lane and Lions Plains and Weston Road and not worry about being killed. I wouldn't jog on any of those roads today for anything in the world. So I think we really need to get this done, but as probably most people don't know, the porta potties disappear when the football down in Staples when the football season ends. We need permanent porta potties down there.

Miss Grayson, let's stick with the Well, I didn't wanna come

back at I didn't wanna come back at

the next We we should speak about those things when we

come back.

So anyway, that's how I feel and that's what we need to figure out how to do and get safety all the time because old people need to be able to go to a bathroom when they walk on the field. Thanks.

Thank you, miss Grayson. That worked so well last time. Miss Bateau is gonna have another kick at the cat here with a comment. Wendy, all yours.

Hi. Here I am. Wendy Bateau, District 8. Briefly, of course, I'm will vote for this, and I hope everybody votes for this. But further, what planet are we living?

This is not a time for us to ignore equity parody for the girls, and I will not vote for the next item. I will not vote for the concession stand in the bathrooms because I think that funding should go to fixing up the locker rooms. I think we should go for some version of parity. So anyway, I I will certainly vote for this, but I urge everybody to think about whether or not we need upgraded concession stands in bathrooms on the field or whether we need parity for our girls. Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Beto. Anyone else like to talk about the girls locker room, the team room? Yes. Come on down. Yeah.

Hi. Melissa Levy, RTM district two. I wanna first thank Lee and Tom and Elio. I feel like you heard our comments and the things that, I brought up over the last couple of weeks, and I felt like your your responses were thoughtful. And I just want to ask two questions, I guess, because when I hear you talking about every item on the list, it's it's it's a complete and thoughtful request of design for the entire auditorium.

Even if you're taking it step by step, you're first looking at the whole the whole concept. So I I would like that to be addressed with this, with this solution. Right now, we're only looking at the team room, which is obviously important. I actually spoke to little Tate what's the day that we did the walk through, and and I asked her, you know, would it be important to have a bathroom in the locker room? And she said, absolutely.

This is only one person's opinion and but, you know, understanding what's important for the facility as a whole and looking at it as a whole, I think, is important. So, there was some minor potential for having the request include that. And then there was some discussion about there not being enough money or you can't reappropriate the money without going through the whole process again, etcetera. So I understand that this is a soft cost and that you're gonna have to come back with the hard cost. So I'm my request is, can we look at that and open it up when you're talking about it with the hard cost.

So just to be clear, the auditorium is not the whole space. We're not we're not looking at design of the seating. We're not looking at designs around around the rest of the structure. So it is looked into indifferently and and broken up. Similar to the locker room space, what we could do is add an alternate to the RFP and and see where the bids come in from there. So that's an option that we can add to the alternate package when we issue an RFP.

Okay. Thank you. That's it. Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Levy. Anyone else wanna come forward before mister Tate's second kick at the cat? No. Come on down, Chris.

Thank you. RTM teacher one. Just wanted to follow-up what Wendy was saying, And I think if if you could address this is, the plan is equity. The plan is we're doing the, the team room now. The locker room's next. So the equity is in the priorities. You know, one thing at a time. We're gonna do this. We're gonna do lockers and all that. And from the, athletic director has a vision and a view of how the locker is gonna be. But as we know how we do appropriations in this town, it's gonna come to a budget, comes to the board of ed. We appropriate our priorities, and this is a priority right now. Locker rooms could be for next year as we move on. So, yes, the parity of the locker rooms and everything else is part of the plan. It is on your

if you can

talk to that, is on the spectrum of making the parity as a whole, Not just to do team room and leave their lockers aside for some other day. It's part of the plan. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Tate. Anyone else like to comment on this item? Seeing none, we'll vote on this resolution upon the request of the superintendent of schools to approve an appropriate or the appropriation in the amount of $30,000 along with bond and note authorization to the Educational Facilities Improvement Fund for s h h s o two five renovate girls locker room, new team room is hereby appropriated. All those in favor? And any opposed?

Miss Purcell, Miss Bateau? Well Wendy said she was gonna be a yes, she might have just checked out.

Just making sure you heard me.

Oh, yes. Yep. Wendy, are you still

there? Oh,