By Paul Formica
Published on 3/23/2007

Who else wants to save $3.8 million? We all support our safety officials and realize, especially in these times, that our freedoms come with a cost. I voted against this building at the East Lyme finance board's March meeting. I am not anti-safety or against the need for a new building. Simply put: We can build it for less money, not raise our taxes and still give these departments what they need.

• The Police Department uses 6,500 square feet in a building on Main Street that is 9,500 square feet. They need a modern space but haven't filled this one.

• The fire marshal, emergency management and the dispatch operate out of an antiquated, 4,000-square-feet building on Flanders Road.

• Currently, the only town interested in regionalizing our emergency-dispatch services is Waterford, and it wants us to go there. Therefore, regional dispatch needs for the new building do not exist.

• We do not have a town-run East Lyme police department. We are run by resident state troopers. We may want our own department in the future, but we should determine that size and scope as well as the operating costs a new police format will have before we go ahead and build for it. The last report on this was done in 1985 and surely needs to be revisited.

• No figures were presented to us relating to the operating costs of this new 32,410-square-feet building.

I propose that we build a new 25,000-square-feet building (28 percent less than proposed), which would:

• Double the police space to 13,000 square feet, which is more than requested.

• Double the dispatch/fire marshal's space to 80,00 square feet, which would include meeting-room space.

• Include 20 percent space for future growth, which is about 4000 square feet.

The architect estimates construction costs to build are at $250.21 per square feet. Multiply 25,000 square feet by $250.21 and the total is just over $6.25 million, which is the cost to build the building. Add in $1.25 millon (this is the committees figure, less 28 percent) for site work and keep all the equipment that they are proposing intact at a cost of about $1.179 million.

The 8 percent architect's fees go down to $678,540, for a total cost of about $9.36 million. Add a contingency fee for add-ons and overruns of 8 percent, which equals $749,401, and it brings the total to build to about $10.116 million (if we use the overruns), a savings of more than $3.88 million. This becomes a win-win and I think will get overwhelming support from the community. Everybody gets what he or she needs.

The town's capital-improvement plan for the next five years includes a new Fire Department in Niantic ($4 million), an upgraded town hall ($5 million) and a library expansion ($6 million) to name just a few.

The $10 million that I am suggesting fits into our debt forecast beginning in 2010, along with these other proposed projects, without raising taxes. The $14 million proposed for referendum will add $1.3 million dollars per year to our annual debt service and would cause a mill-rate increase. This year's budget calls for $6.2 million, just to pay debt service.

I suggest we vote “no” on March 26; then encourage the Board of Selectmen to appropriate $10 million to build a complex that will work for the safety providers, for our future and for the taxpayers.

Paul Formica is a Republican member of the East Lyme Board of Finance and has been a local business owner for 23 years.