East Lyme —After a meeting between members of the Board of Selectmen and a public safety committee this month, plans to build a public safety complex appear to be moving ahead at a quickened pace.
No votes were taken at the meeting, but First Selectman Beth Hogan said this week that the consensus among those present was to allow the committee to get cost estimates for two prospective sites: one on the northern edge of the high school property and one on lower Roxbury Road, near the town garage and salt shed.
Hogan said committee members could ask selectmen for an appropriation to pay for the estimates. She did not know how much that appropriation would be.
Hogan said the estimates would include the costs of developing a building on the sites and would specify where, exactly, the building would be located.
“If we're talking lower Roxbury Road, what is the cost and removal of the salt shed?” Hogan said. “And the ledge issue at the high school, trying to fit a building on there that doesn't tear up the field, and how we leave a buffer in ... We want actual dollar amounts.”
Hogan said voters will decide on a site at a referendum. Selectmen still need to decide whether to offer the public one or both sites. Hogan said that if the price is similar, voters might decide between the two.
The search for a public safety complex has gone on for several years, and the issue was likely one of the factors that swung the election in Hogan's favor this past November.
The complex –– proposed as a 23,500-square-foot building –– would house the police department, the fire marshal's office and the emergency management department and dispatch center.
In 2004, the Board of Finance voted down a plan to house the complex in a building jointly owned by the town and the National Guard, a plan touted by then-First Selectman Wayne Fraser. Fraser was criticized for his approach to the project, with some saying he had not included key people, such as the police, in the discussions.
Afterward, selectmen appointed a public safety committee to find a site and design the building. The committee also butted heads with Fraser.
The committee's top choice for a site is the property at the high school, a recommendation that has met with resistance from the Board of Education and residents. The committee deemed the Roxbury Road site too small.
The town commissioned an analysis of three properties this fall, including the high school and Roxbury Road sites as well as land located on Route 1 near the Old Lyme border.
Hogan, who ran for first selectman on a platform of open government, pledged during the campaign to break ground on the complex within a year.
© The Day Publishing Co., 2005
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