Shaniece Holmes-Brown
The Hour, Norwalk, Conn.
(TNS)
Nov. 11—RIDGEFIELD — Ridgefield’s proposed $77.4 million public safety building failed its referendum vote for the second time this year.
The project received 4,978 “no” votes and 3,137 “yes” votes during last week’s election, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of the State’s office.
“I was not surprised,” said resident Eric Scheck, who has lived in Ridgefield for roughly 25 years.
Scheck said Wednesday afternoon he still has questions about the project that need to be answered before voting in favor of it and he has issues with its cost, size and location.
“It just was shocking to me that after seven years of discussion and design and redesign, the plan was still not fully baked,” Scheck said. “It’s almost like, ‘Let’s get a really shiny object and sell it, and then we’ll figure out all the details later.’ “
The project failed a referendum vote in February when it initially cost $85.6 million. It lost by just 71 votes.
First Selectperson Rudy Marconi previously said he heard residents’ concerns after the first vote and made changes to the project, including reducing the square footage and cost of the site work, which made it $8 million cheaper.
Marconi did not respond to requests for comment about the latest vote.
The 75,000-square-foot facility would combine police, fire, emergency medical services staff into one facility. Marconi previously said both the police station and the fire station are more than 100 years old and are in a state of disrepair.
Scheck said he doesn’t understand why fire and police should share one big building, instead of having two smaller buildings.
“If you put these guys together, what are you going to do with the existing properties? Well, clearly they’re not going to sell them,” Scheck said.
The project’s website listed some of the reasons for combining the buildings, including reducing square footage costs; saving a set of HVAC, fire suppression and electrical systems; and future savings.
Scheck said he also worries about the burden the project could have on taxpayers.
“We’re not Norwalk, we’re not Wilton, we’re not Danbury — we’re Ridgefield. We’re a population of 25,000 people,” he said. “So, when we get these big ambitions, and it’s going to be fully bonded on the town, guess whose shoulders it rides on? It doesn’t ride on corporate here, because we don’t have a big tax base.”
Scheck said he’s still hoping the project could be revived and approved if the town were to try again. He said the first step is to put together a new team of unbiased people to examine the work that’s been done and figure out how to make the project better for everyone.
“I think everybody agrees it needs to be done, but maybe it’s his time to get a fresh set of eyes on it,” he said.
Longtime resident Chuck Hancock, 86, agreed that the town should put together a group or meeting of residents, firefighters and police officers to give feedback on the project and make changes.
He said Thursday afternoon that the vote was “truly reflective of how the population felt.”
“We recognize (we’ve) got to do something, but we can do better than this,” he said.
He said the goal of the project should be to help law enforcement and first responders better protect the residents.
Hancock said he voted against it and hoped it would be defeated. And now he said voters like himself who criticized the project are accountable for findi