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Marine police looking at Coast Guard site for HQ

By John Nickerson
Staff Writer

September 19, 2006

NORWALK -- City officials are in negotiations with U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 72 to move marine police headquarters from South Norwalk to the flotilla's headquarters at Calf Pasture Park.

Police and recreation officials and the state harbormaster yesterday began talks with Flotilla 72 officials to determine whether the marine police can share the auxiliary's 1,600-square-foot Dominic Lametta Training Center headquarters.

The move could be made during the next boating season, Deputy Police Chief Mark Palmer said.

The marine police division employs a sergeant and three officers during boating season. Flotilla 72 supports Coast Guard recreational boating safety programs, including public education, vessel safety inspections and safety, search and rescue patrols.

Flotilla 72 built its headquarters at the southwest tip of Calf Pasture Park in 1946 and has held a city lease for the site since 1945, said Joseph Lovas, president of Flotilla 72 Corp., owner of the building.

Flotilla 72's lease, which costs $1 annually, expires within six weeks, Lovas said.

"We emphatically will not accept diminishing our capabilities, and the other side agrees with that," Lovas said of the city's position after a negotiating session yesterday. "The other side feels if we can come together, we should be able to produce a better result than the two of us acting alone."

Palmer said yesterday he is confident the two agencies can exist in the same building.

For at least 40 years, marine police have been given free rent at its site next to SoNo Seaport Seafood on Water Street, said property owner Leslie Miklovich of Hillard Bloom Shellfish Inc.

Palmer said a move to Calf Pasture Park would make sense because officers could arrive at emergency calls sooner.

Police boats now speed through a no-wake zone to respond to out-of-harbor emergency calls, possibly damaging boats and docks along the way, Palmer said.

It also would be a benefit to have police year-round at the park, he said.

"We think the location lends itself to more operational efficiency. It is at the entrance to the harbor and would create a more visible presence of police at the beach," Palmer said.

Common Councilman Fred Bondi, chairman of the council's Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs Committee, said moving marine police to the park is a good idea because it will allow a stronger police presence in the park and give officers better access to the harbor.

Palmer said the police department hasn't determined how it would keep its three boats and a jet ski at Calf Pasture Park. They could keep the boats at nearby slips or dredge and build a pier and slips, he said. Because there is a boat launch ramp at the beach, keeping one boat or more on trailers may be a solution, Palmer said.

Steps away from Flotilla 72 headquarters is the Ascension Beach Club, which could accommodate the police fleet, Palmer said.

The department must examine where most on-the-water emergency calls originate, in or out of the harbor, he said.

"Police are compiling statistical information on calls of service," Palmer said.

Lovas said negotiations will show how much space marine police would need and how much space would be left for the 65-member Flotilla 72.

"We don't know what their space needs are. We want to make sure that neither one of us reduces our functionability," Lovas said.

Because Flotilla 72 owns the building but not the land, it has few options if it can't reach an agreement with the city, Lovas said.

"If we can't co-exist, we may be required to remove the building," he said. "We don't want to go there."