Brookfield to Vote Next Week on $5.3M Parks Renovation Plan

Brookfield residents and property owners have been asked to go to the polls Sept. 17 to vote on a $5.3 million bond package for renovations to Town Park Beach and the adjacent Cadigan Fields.


The full project costs total $5.3 million, however the town also has a $750,000 state grant to cover reconstruction of the multi-purpose building, bringing the net cost to taxpayers to $4.55 million.
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Polls will be open at Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (District I) and Brookfield High School (District II) from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
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The grant was awarded after the first parks renovation proposal failed to pass at referendum three years ago, in April 2010.

At that time, voters rejected a $5.3 million bundled proposal that included renovations to the beach and Cadigan Field, as well as the original Kids Kingdom, with many citing the high price tag on the multi-purpose building at the beach, which accounted for $1.3 million of the projected cost.

The scope of the building was scaled down considerably (and will be fully paid for using the grant funding) and the Kids Kingdom II project was broken out and assisted with a matching $250,000 state grant. However, due to additions to the project and inaccurate projections the first time around, the total bonding request remains $5.3 million.

On the Cadigan side of Candlewood Lake Road, the proposal to install one synthetic field has been increased to two and the true costs associated with the installation have been corrected, according to Parks and Recreation Director Dennis DiPinto.

Cadigan would also get new tennis and basketball courts, a new walking path, better drainage systems and renovated bathrooms.

“Some numbers [in the first referendum] weren’t accurate,” DiPinto explained, noting the project set aside $500,000 for a synthetic field, which run closer to $800,000. “In the first proposal, the numbers weren’t nearly as scrubbed as these are.”

DiPinto said a third party estimator was brought in after the fact on the original project and alerted them to some issues. This time around, the administration began with an estimator during the planning stages.

“We learned from that experience and wiped the drawing board and started from scratch,” he said, adding that it is difficult to compare the two projects on a like-for-like basis. “When we say ‘scaled back,’ we really mean the beach building,” while the rest of the project has been enhanced in some ways and downgraded in others.
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See the mailer above for more specifics on the plan or view the full presentation here.
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“Many of these buildings are 45 years old and were designed for 20 — and they’ve served us well,” DiPinto said. “We’re not planning for 5 years down the road, we’re planning for 40 years down the road, just like the folks in the ‘70s did for us.”