May 13, 2008
VOTE TODAY:
Referendum includes police station issue
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Armed with questions and curiosity, voters toured the police station’s narrow hallways, steep staircases, and cramped locker rooms Saturday morning.
Voting takes place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the town’s three polling places: See yesterday’s story for details.
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Over coffee and donuts at the tour’s end, some shared thoughts on the $4 million renovation and expansion of the station, which will be voted up or down in today’s budget referendum.
“I love the Police Department,” Bebe McCarthy said. “...I’d much rather support this than some of the other nonsense.
But she was troubled by the town’s $120 million of bonded debt.
“The way we are borrowing is out of control. We don’t have the tax base to do it,” she said. “...I’ve been here eight years and my taxes have gone up 50%.
Working conditions in the old Victorian building made an impression on Jamie Palladino, an assistant principal in Stratford — but taxes concern him, too.
“It’s a little embarrassing, as a resident,” he said after the tour. “I work in education so I see our facilities, our jobs, are often based on tax dollars...
“Everybody has the same issue. Nobody wants taxes to go up,” he said. “I know I’m paying a lot of taxes.”
Handicapped code
Town officials insist they aren’t asking taxpayers to spend $4,250,000 just to give police a nicer work space.
“The heart of the argument for doing it is to become compliant,” Police Chief Richard Ligi said, and meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as electrical, plumbing and other codes.
“The building is not ADA compliant,” said Rick Zini of Doyle-Coffin Architecture, the project designer. “It’s not handicapped accessible. There’s not a handicapped bathroom in the building. There’s no elevator.”
The police station now has 17,650 square feet of space, and the project would add another 7,246 square feet.
Centralized dispatching
The enlarged and renovated building would accommodate a long-planned move to “centralized dispatching” of police, fire and ambulance calls.
Now, as explained in Saturday’s tours, police officers or dispatchers in the police communications room answer 911 calls and, if it’s a medical emergency or a fire, transfer the call to the fire department. Transferring calls to the firehouse usually goes smoothly, but it’s an extra step that invites delays and unexpected problems.
“The chief’s plan — which is part of the project money — is to bring the equipment up to current 911 standards,” Mr. Zini said. “Equipment in there, the chief has estimated, is at least 20 years old... The space just doesn’t work for the equipment or the personnel.”
25 years’ growth
Another goal is “to accommodate our personnel,” Chief Ligi said.
“It’s a building we moved into in 1976 with a projected life of 20 to 25 years, back then, for 40-something officers — which is the number that we’re at.”
The project is designed to accommodate department needs for another 20 years, with potential growth to 65 officers. Currently there are 43 officers, with four to seven cars on patrol, per shift.
Why enlarge the station to house more police, Bebe McCarthy asked Saturday, if the town’s crime rate is among the lowest in the state?
Chief Ligi said the department must keep up with the increasingly complex — and perhaps still unknown — challenges.
“Crime is changing,” the chief said. “If you were here 20 years ago and you talked about white collar identity theft, and talked about terrorism and shootings in the schools, we’d look at you like you had two heads.”
Union uneasy
Among those ambivalent about the $4-million project are the officers who work there.
In a letter to The Press last week, Ridgefield Police Union President Christopher Daly assured Ridgefielders that police would continue to protect and serve them with dedication, regardless of the vote.
“We are also taxpayers — maybe not in this town. We know these are tough economic times,” he said this week.
He confirmed talk that the union is worried a $4 million addition may hold down salary increases in the next contract.
“Is it a concern? Yes, it is. Again, Fairfield County’s not an easy place to live in, ” Officer Daly said. “...We have to live within 15 miles of the town.”
The police union’s contract ends in July 2009. The salary range for patrol officers is $50,321 to $70,228 this year. The highest rank represented by the union, a captain, can make up to $92,511.
The Danbury police union recently lost a contract dispute that went to a state arbitration panel, and the city’s spending on a new police station was cited as a reason for keeping raises down.
Patrol officers may see the station as less of a problem than department’s administration.
“We’re not all in this building at once,” Officer Daly said. “Our job is to be on the road. Our office is our police car, and that’s where we should be. I think the building here is ample enough to keep providing service to the town.”
First Selectman Rudy Marconi said he understood — but didn’t necessarily agree.
“I appreciate their feelings, and what they’re asking. But at the same time, that building is way out of code and needs to be addressed.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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