By Richard Kaufman
Construction on the Greenwich High School bleachers could be delayed, causing them to be unavailable for graduation in June, after the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) on Monday voted to postpone its vote on releasing $1.7 million for Phase 1B of the project.
Last week, the Planning & Zoning Commission voted to move Phase 1B of the Cardinal Stadium improvement project forward, meaning funding now had to be granted by the BET. However, the P&Z approval came just after the BET Budget Committee met so they were unable to work through their normal process.
As BET members noted in their meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission had not issued its formal decision on Phase 1B yet, and because there is a 30-day period that is ongoing in which residents can challenge the Municipal Improvement status, it was best to postpone.
BET members said it was not wise for the Board of Education to enter into a contract and spend the funds while the 30-day appeal period was ongoing, and they wanted more time for the matter to move through the BET Budget Committee and proper BET processes.
The project was broken up into phases. Phase 1A includes the construction of new home-side bleachers that are ADA accessible with a press box, elevator, new bathrooms and a team room that will go below the bleachers. Phase 1B includes the addition of new lights on existing poles, handicap parking, and an entry kiosk.
The BET released funds for the fabrication and installation of the home-side bleachers as part of phase 1A last fall. However, Greenwich Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Sean O’Keefe said work on the bleachers is now dependent on foundation work and the installation of footings, which is included in the funding for Phase 1B.
“This definitely will seriously impact our schedule,” said O’Keefe, who was surprised by the postponement. He noted that foundation and footing construction was supposed to begin a week ago, and that it takes about 25 workdays to complete. The contractor for the project had bleacher installation at Cardinal Stadium scheduled for some time in February. A delay in putting in the footings could force the Board of Education to reschedule for later in the year.
“I’ll come out and say it: we will not have the bleachers for graduation. It could mean that we won’t have bleachers until sometime in the fall,” O’Keefe said.
“We have not released a contract for any portion of Phase 1A and 1B other than the release for the bleachers, which is fabrication and installation. It did not include footings. The footings fall under the contract that we’re still holding, because we’re waiting for the release of funds that would allow us to go to contract with the contractor,” said Dan Watson, Director of Facilities for Greenwich Public Schools. “The way the bid was set up, 1A and 1B is one project. We were not allowed to go to contract without a fully funded project.”
BET members were perplexed about the way the bid was set up.
“It was my full understanding that the reason the Board of Education came back last October was to have the full amount of funds needed to proceed with Cardinal Stadium so it would be ready for graduation. This has added some confusion I was not aware of,” said BET Budget Committee Chair, Leslie Tarkington.
“Now I’m more confused than ever. I thought this was bifurcated into 1A and 1B so the bleachers could be done in 1A, and then the 1B would take care of itself with the other aspects. Now I’m hearing that the contract as bid combined the two, and I’m not happy with this process at all right now,” added BET member Karen Fassuliotis. “I’m really equating this to a bait-and-switch at this point in time. We approved one thing; now we’re told that it includes something else. I’m in favor of postponing until we can unravel this.”
BET member Andy Duus asked O’Keefe if another Request for Proposal was possible to get a separate bid for the foundation/footings work so that it could continue as planned. O’Keefe said that process would take a couple of weeks at best and wouldn’t buy any more time.
BET member Bill Drake said the Board was fully supportive of the Cardinal Stadium project and that any delay is a result of the processes that are in place.
“The big picture is that the BET supports this project. We want to see this happen. It’s gotten snagged in the clerical aspects of paperwork and approvals in the town,” he said.
