The Town of Brookfield held two special town meetings Thursday night to vote on whether to spend $47,000 to repair a problem with the high school elevator and $894,718 to purchase the outstanding two sections of the Northern water line on Federal Road. Town officials have stated that neither expense should ultimately fall to the taxpayers.

Forty-eight members of the public attended.

High School Elevator Control Panel

The first meeting was to consider purchasing a new control panel for the high school elevator, as the current system does not communicate with the fire alarm, which could result in the elevator doors opening on a hot floor during a fire. This is a serious safety issue, according to the Fire Marshal, and should be remedied before the start of the next school year.

"Both the Selectmen and the Board of Finance questioned the Municipal Building Committee (MBC) as to why this wasn't done" by the contractors during any earlier stage of the renovation project, First Selectman Bill Davidson said. "It wasn't clear that it shouldn't be and it wasn't clear that it won't be," he stated, "In no way have we absolved Morganti and the contractors of their responsibility."

The panel will take three to four weeks to arrive and another six to eight weeks to install, prompting the Boards of Selectmen (BOS) and Finance to hold this hearing now to get the ball rolling in time for the 2010-2011 school year. Davidson stressed that the town would be seeking reimbursement from Morganti, the contractors on the high school project, and that they were in legal discussions as to whether it was included in the original project.

Some members of the public in attendance questioned the method for rectifying the situation, wondering if the town was dipping into the non-recurring capital fund because the high school project was out of money. (Voters approved the $31 million project at referendum and later approved an additional $750,000 at a town meeting.)

"Does anybody know how much the town has actually spent on the high school renovation project as of today?" Ernie Nepomuceno queried. "Out of the $31.750 million, only $161,622 is left today," according to his research. As of July 2009, records show that $30,707,431 had been spent out of the budget to-date. Since last July, the project has spent an additional $880,947. (Besides the elevator panel, the MBC is still working out the reconstruction of the track and issues with the pressure pump for the fire suppression system in the winter.)

Nepomuceno contended that the "reason why this was presented here today is because there's no money left in the project. If it's really part of the project, we should have one request from the town — we need $1 million or some other amount — let's just ask the town for that amount and not do this piecemeal."

Davidson outright denied that circumventing the project budget was their intention. BOF member Ron Jaffe, who was in attendance, clarified that his respective board, "clearly moved forward with the idea of dealing with the safety issue on a timely basis; with the idea that the money the town was fronting would be put back."

"For the record," Davidson added, "It is not my intention, and I'm confident it's not the Board of Selectmen's intention and bet a lot that it's not the Board of Finance's intention, to bring forth periodic requests to finish the high school renovation. This is a special request. If we win this arm wrestle [with Morganti], which I'm confident we will, they'll get the money back."

Due to the very real safety issues involved, the residents at the meeting voted to approve the panel work this summer, with none objecting.

BV Water Sections II and IV

The second meeting was to consider the purchase of sections II and IV of the BV water line, soon to be known at the Northern water line once connected with sections I and III, which were purchased by the town in 2009 for $1.885 million.

Upon purchasing the line, the town will retain ownership, however operations, maintenance and service will fall to the Brookfield Water Company, the town's water utility provider.

The Northern line was constructed primarily to bring water to the commercial corridor from New Milford to route 133 (branching off onto Silvermine and the condominiums) and was funded by a consortium of 10 business owners. Upon purchase of section II and IV, the town will bond the cost over 20 years and assess the 140 potential users along the line to repay it. The town hired a CPA to review BV Water's construction expenses and assure that the users will be paying for the line at cost.

Users will be assessed according to a formula set by the Water Assessment Committee and will pay a separate water bill to the Brookfield Water Company. Water is a regulated utility, which means rates will be set by the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC).

Nepomuceno asked if the town plans to dispute the water company rate with the DPUC. "Yes," Davidson answered, "because a large part of the cost is the capital charge and it is my explicit plan to challenge the rate because most of the capital costs are ours, not the water companies." Since the capital costs shouldn't go into the usage charge, Davidson expects the "rates will be unusually low."

Users on the line will be paying for the capital costs through a benefit assessment, or special taxing district. Assessments will be going out to all property owners along the line, whether they decide to tie in or not, by the fall.

While the users will bear the ultimate cost, members of the public in attendance Thursday night were concerned that the installation and maintenance of fire hydrants will be borne by the taxpayers.  Testing and maintaining hydrants costs approximately $750 per hydrant per year.

The town's hydrant budget this year was $30,000, though it will likely rise to "$60,000 and $100,000," according to Davidson, who added that the project is "100 percent revenue neutral for bringing potable water," while the hydrants "are a public safety issue." Similar to paying for police and emergency services, Davidson believes hydrants are a public issue and should be treated as such.

Brookfield resident Paul Scalzo suggested that the water line is actually revenue positive. "One thing we haven't brought up," he said, "for us property owners the value's increased, we're paying more money," as having municipal water increases the valuation of a property and ultimately the grand list, which shifts the tax burden from other parts of town.

The vote to purchase the two remaining sections passed 44-4.