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South Norwalk ‘heated staircase’ finally comes to a vote, without major opponent

March 11, 2015
–
Nancy Guenther Chapman

NORWALK, Conn. – South Norwalk scored a victory Tuesday with the approval of the so-called heated staircase project near the railroad station.

However, three Republican Common Council members said that too much money is being spent on what would otherwise be a good project. The dissenters in the 11 to 3 vote did not include the absent Public Works Committee Chairman David McCarthy (R-District E), who Councilman Bruce Kimmel (D-At Large) suggested had been playing “politics” with a “simple, focused project.”

Two Golden Hill Association members spoke in favor of the project, including Mike Mushak, who said that 5,000 people live within a 10-minute walk of the staircase between the end of Clay Street and Martin Luther King Drive. The same radius in Rowayton would encompass 2,000 people, he said, and those near the staircase included minority and low income people who walk to the supermarket.

“All of this drama would have been completely unnecessary if one Council member hadn’t decided to make it a political issue. I am just really upset about it because it’s the urban core that we are talking about here,” Mushak said.

When the topic finally came up for discussion an hour and a half later, Kimmel asked Department of Public Works Director Hal Alvord to come forward to answer questions, apologizing that he hadn’t been to the Public Works Committee meeting because his appearance at the “Lit Crawl” had been rescheduled that morning to make it later in the evening.

“It was made so it was impossible for me to go to the last meeting,” Kimmel said. “But when I did see the agenda I got totally confused because this was the third time it had gone to the DPW committee. It had already been on the Council agenda, it had been vetted by Redevelopment, this that and the other thing.”

He asked why the item had been listed as a discussion item, which meant that two thirds of the committee had to vote to vote on it (technically, a suspension of the rules under the Freedom of Information Act).

The reason that’s important is that if the committee didn’t vote on it, the deadline for the contract would have passed before the following meeting, and the $246,037 bid would no longer be valid, Kimmel later explained in an email to NancyOnNorwalk.

“The discussion I had with Mr. McCarthy, we weren’t clear as staff what the intent was,” Alvord said. “It was sent back to committee, there was no guidance as to what the committee was to do.  So when I discussed that with Mr. McCarthy he wasn’t quite sure either. He said let’s put it on as a discussion item.”

“I am very uncomfortable with the way this was handled,” Kimmel said. “That’s it. I hope it doesn’t happen again. I’m not blaming anybody but it’s true the politics got tangled up in a really simple, focused project.”

Kimmel said he was very supportive of the project because it will help commuters heading for MetroNorth, but said he was concerned that it includes $30,000 for landscaping, which he said seemed high.

Often, when a Council member is absent, someone will toss out a comment as to why. With McCarthy absent, Councilman Rich Bonenfant (R-At Large) said, “I think he is on a two-week tear celebrating Irish history week or something,” sending three Council members convulsing into laughter.

“It’s his birthday, too,” Councilwoman Eloisa Melendez (D-District A) said.

Bonenfant said he had an email from McCarthy that he had been asked to read:

“I don’t think anyone from the council has an issue with implementing the aspects of this project that deal with enhanced safety, such as lighting, a phone, or other things such as crosswalks. The issue before the Council is whether the city’s precious capital budget dollars should be (one) spent on replacing staircases that are in reasonable shape when we have other staircases and infrastructure, such as sidewalks, retaining walls, and myriad ADA projects which are neither funded nor scoped for completion and (two) whether it is appropriate to incorporate a “heating element” that would possibly eliminate the need to shovel the stairs, but for which we have no known cost estimates for ongoing use. … while the cost of heating these stairs may not be in the millions, we don’t have any real idea how much it will be, nor can we be sure that it will eliminate the need for all labor to clear snow.  With no data to support this technology, I think the prudent thing to do is to send this project back for redesign to address the actual rehabilitation of both sets of stairs which are needed to address the real needs of the neighborhood.  SoNo is a vital part of Norwalk.  TOD (Transit Oriented Development) is a valid strategy for this part of SoNo. Dumping all the money allotted into one set of stairs is not a great first step.”

Enter South Norwalk.

“We should have something nice,” Councilwoman Phaedrel “Faye” Bowman (D-District B) said. “I won’t take offense to anything that has been said, but South Norwalk deserves nice things also. I know Rowayton has got a lot of funding to various projects, so I don’t want to see our projects attacked. Our residents deserve nice things also.”

“I think the residents around the Rowayton railroad station would have gladly given you all that money to put in several staircases because we didn’t want that project,” Councilman John Igneri (D-District E) said, referring to the Rowayton Avenue project to lower the highway under the railroad bridge.

Igneri said he supported the South Norwalk project because the current stairs are dangerous.

Councilman Travis Simms (D-District B) said he often uses the stairs as part of his exercise program. “There’s not 140, there’s maybe 400 or 500 folks that use those stairs on a daily basis and those stairs are in pretty bad shape,” Simms said, disputing the Redevelopment Authority’s count of stair users.

Simms said he thinks the heating element will eliminate the ice on the “very, very steep stairway,” and that mothers use it with baby carriages. Having to use salt on the stairs whenever there is ice makes the problem worse, he said.

“I think if we can spend so much money on other projects going on throughout the city, that’s a safety issue and that’s a project that should be supported. Because it’s not just for folks in that neighborhood, that’s for everybody that uses it, coming from out of town also, parking in areas up there,” Simms said.

Norwalk Council 15-0310 165
Councilman David Watts (D-District A), left, and Councilwoman Sharon Stewart (D-At Large).

“I feel that it’s about time stuff like this is taking precedence and we are finally seeing some improvements coming our way in South Norwalk,” said Councilwoman Sharon Stewart (D-At Large), who lives near the staircase. “… There are a lot of seniors who can’t drive and they walk up and down those stairs all the time. It’s really important so they are afraid to come and go. The lighting is horrible there. In the wintertime you really do have to hold on to make sure you don’t fall, so it’s very important that this is done,”

Melendez said her grandmother uses the stairs routinely. Her only concern is the price of the plants, she said.

Councilman David Watts (D-District A) offered to shut up.

“We talk about improvements in the urban core,” Watts said. “Someone asked me, what would it take for you to shut up? I tell you what, fixing things in the urban core, between sidewalks, road paving, and improvements in the urban core, I promise I’ll shut up. To me, this right here is going to help improve the area, improve the conditions. I mean, you’re going up and down a flight of steps.”

The city is set up to have representatives from each district, he said.

“We really are under pressure sometimes when we represent the urban core for people to see those improvements,” Watts said. “You may think it’s just a flight of steps, for the people using it, they could feel like, hey, things are moving in the right direction. I think these steps actually take that step towards improvements in the urban core. I promise you, if you fix things in my district I won’t say anything at these Council meetings.”

Then there were those who voted no.

“I am going to oppose it just because I think it is too much money for too little in a sense of the bigger picture is going to get ignored,” Majority Leader Doug Hempstead (R-At Large) said.

The project had originally been planned as two staircases and now the one at Hamilton Street will probably not get done because the bids had been much higher than expected and “nobody is going to put that kind of money into it,” he said.

“Lighting, yes I get it,” Hempstead said. “Improving the stairs, yes, but all the other things that go into it? There’s probably about $100,000 at the table there that could have been reworked. So I am just not supporting this. Nothing about not supporting South Norwalk. I don’t think anybody should ever be construed no matter what we vote on what part of town. It’s all the tax dollars from all our tax people going into the pot.”

“Although there is need for Clay Street stairs to be worked on, the work we needed or proposed for Hamilton came in for $200,000 more, so I don’t like the amount of money that has been put forward for this one set of stairs,” Councilwoman Shannon O’Toole Giandurco (R-District D) said. “The need is for both to be fixed and for all the residents to have the best access possible. I feel like this money could be spent a little bit better to really fix a bigger problem in the area rather than just one staircase.”

Councilwoman Michelle Maggio (R-District C) also voted no, but did not say why.

Mayor Harry Rilling said he knew there were enough votes for the staircase to pass, but if there were a tiebreaker needed, he was on board.

“I want to put my wholehearted support for this project,” Rilling said. “I think it is something that is needed. I too go down in that area frequently. I have dealt with that area as a police officer, with people getting hurt. It is dark, it is dangerous, and when we have ice it’s even more treacherous. I think this is a good step in right direction in starting to improve an area that is screaming out for improvements and for investment and getting it right.”

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Comments

4 responses to “South Norwalk ‘heated staircase’ finally comes to a vote, without major opponent”

  1. Bruce Kimmel

    Regarding the politics:

    Without getting into details, please see the next story on NoN about a $456,000 project on Monroe St., which, like the so-called “staircase,” is very expensive. Yet nobody on the Council questioned the price tag and it flew through committee. The only reason I brought it up at the meeting was to note how expensive these types of projects can be.

    I am somewhat surprised that those Council members who opposed the staircase, voted for the more expensive Monroe “streetscape” project.

    It should be noted, yet again, that the Clay St. staircase was only one part of the project, which included lighting, new sidewalks, etc. The controversial heating coil, which will cost $15,000, will probably save the city money in the long term and protect it from lawsuits.

  2. Mike Mushak

    I want to thank the Common Council for doing the right think last night, and approving a a major investment in improving public safety on a heavily-used project in a dense urban neighborhood, despite the highly disturbing fact that Councilman Dave McCarthy from Rowayton tried hard to mislead Councilmembers and the public by wrongfully declaring prior to last night that “this project was never approved by anyone,” a position which he needs to apologize to the public for as it is clearly wrong based on the facts on the record.

    Mr. McCarthy began his politically-motivated crusade weeks ago by misreading links on the city website, where he read by his own admission a PowerPoint summary instead of an actual 300-page study that was approved by the Common Council, a study where the staircase replacements were described in detail the same as they were in last year’s capital budget that he voted for.

    These are the facts on the record Mr. McCarthy is denying ever happened in his unfair attack on the people of South Norwalk:

    1.) Mr. McCarthy continues to claim that the phrase “stairway replacement, landscaping, and lighting” was NOT listed in last year’s budget he voted for (it clearly is, on page 237 of this link: http://www.norwalkct.org/documentcenter/view/5703),

    2.) He claims that the staircase was NOT described as needing replacement in the 2011 TOD Master Plan that the Council approved (it is, on pages 23 and 62 of this link: http://www.norwalkct.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/1985),

    3.) He pretends that 3 public meetings NEVER happened that were held on June 13, July 16, and November 13, 2013 where the staircase designs were presented and discussed in detail (they did, here on pages 13 and 14 in this presentation that was shown at those meetings: http://www.norwalkct.org/DocumentCenter/View/5496,)

    It would have also been appropriate and courteous for Mr. McCarthy to have discussed his opposition to this much needed project on a busy pedestrian route with the Council representatives from our district before he publicly opposed the project. He would have expected the same courtesy for a project that was well-vetted by the residents in his own district, just as the stairway was well-vetted in numerous public meetings in the community they are located.

    It is ironic that Mr. McCarthy would have played so many petty games with this project (which included a staircase, crosswalk on Flax Hill, and many other improvements) after he fully supported the $3 million waste of taxpayer dollars on the Rowayton Ave project in his own district last year, where a decade of public comments made by a majority of speakers at numerous community meetings to reduce the scale of the project and add pedestrian improvements into town were simply ignored.

    The results of that $3 million dollars spent in Rowayton included the removal of hundreds of feet of historic walls, removal of hundreds of mature trees, and the installation of massive over-scale retaining walls that created new dangerous sightline blockages for pedestrians and cars that never existed before as anyone can see. It also included lowering the road which has increased traffic speeds and the potential for dangerous accidents, and most importantly the lack of any pedestrian improvements to connect the station to downtown Rowayton, which was the whole point of why that community requested that project in the first place back in the 1990’s, and why they were so angry all those years as the city proceeded to ignore them and design basically a state highway for the once-quaint historic area that did little solve the issues that the community had identified.

    Improvements to the sidewalks and lowering the road could have happened for about $300,000 without having replaced all the retaining walls and lowering the road for 800 feet, leaving millions to improve footpaths and sidewalks into town which still haven’t happened. That said, it would have been extremely inappropriate for a councilmember from another district to march over to Rowayton and declare that project unnecessary and wasteful, without having discussed it first with the councilmembers from Rowayton, that basically challenged the integrity of professional planners, city officials, and the public who had been involved in the 6 years of meetings and approvals to that point..

    I don’t see how the RTC can continue to be obsessed with demanding apologies from certain Democratic officials for things they said, when one of their own members has not apologized to the public for deliberately mis-stating the truth on the record, insulting the character of so many officials and members of the South Norwalk community by declaring that they were NOT involved in vetting or approving a project that actually went through 6 years of studies and public meetings and Council approvals as the facts support. Is there a double standard here for holding officials accountable for what they say?

    As Co-Chair of the Bike/Walk Task Force, I will continue to support pedestrian and bicycle safety improvement projects in other parts of the city, for example on East Avenue near the East Norwalk train station, and sidewalks and footpaths in Rowayton, even though an argument could be made by councilmembers from outside those districts that the money might be better spent on more worthy projects elsewhere.

    Do we really need nice brick sidewalks and trees and historic lights on East Avenue between the train station and Exit 16 to create an attractive gateway to East Norwalk with a real New England “village” feel, slowing traffic speeds and increasing safety and walkability and property values? I think so, same as we worked hard for 10 years for those same things on Cedar St in our neighborhood, cleaning up a dangerous blighted crime-ridden area that enhanced safety, increased occupancy of vacant businesses, while promoting a real sense of of pride in the community. This is what smart communities are supposed to, which is invest in themselves to replace crumbling infrastructure and make things safer and more attractive, which is exactly what the stairway replacement does.

    What about school and park improvements, including bike and pedestrian improvements that are needed near them, in Silvermine and Cranbury? What about much-needed improvements on Wall St? What if those are suddenly and without warning declared “wasteful” by councilmembers from outside those districts when they are proposed? How would the councilmembers from those districts feel about that, especially if they were NOT consulted first after their community may had worked years on it in many meetings and approvals?

    That is exactly what Mr. McCarthy did to South Norwalk, a district with many low-income and minority residents that he was so willing to just throw under the bus without the decency of even contacting our minority councilmembers from that district, before he began his carefully orchestrated smear campaign to create headlines for himself.

    I am also waiting for Mr. McCarthy’s endorsement of bicycle, footpath, and sidewalk improvements in his district that his constituents have been requesting for many years, some of which SHOULD have been included in the $3 million Rowayton Ave project but never were. In fact, Mr. McCarthy promised the public on the floor of the Council on January 28th 2014 that he would work with the state to stripe bike lanes and sharrows “all the way up Rowayton Ave.” That and many other projects are been promoted by the Bike/Walk Task Force to be done this year, and these various bike/ped improvements are supported by the other councilmember from Rowayton, John Igneri, and some of the 6th Taxing District commissioners.

    I look forward to working with Mr. McCarthy to help his constituents, who have been waiting patiently for years for these important public safety improvements. That is what we are supposed to do, work together for the betterment of the entire city, even if it is not in our own community. We are all Norwalkers first, which is why Mr. McCarthy’s campaign against a much-needed safety improvement project in South Norwalk that our community supported was so shocking.

  3. Bill

    Mike,

    You are a nice guy, you have plenty of valid things to say, but keep it to 2-3 paragraphs max, otherwise you are just talking to yourself. This is the Internet in 2015.

  4. Mike Mushak

    Bill, thank you. You are not the first one to suggest that!

    But let me defend my diatribe by suggesting that I am motivated by the pursuit of social justice. I serious wrong occurred here, a breach of proper behavior by an elected official. Dave McCarthy proceeded to step into another district, and while showing absolutely no respect for that district’s elected representation and the wishes of the community after years of meetings and studies that occurred, manipulated the process with false claims (“this project was never approved by anyone” after he himself voted for it a year earlier) just to create headlines for himself.

    Some might describe that kind of behavior as bullying, or self-serving, or even pathalogical as it showed a complete lack of respect for the truth on the record, and a lack of empathy for others.

    In other words very bad behavior, that deserves an apology. Or do we a double standard here, one for Republicans, and one for Democrats?

    All this to pretend he was some sort of champion of frugality. Ironically, this occurred a year after he had little concern for wasting $3 million of taxpayer dollars in his own district, on a project his own community did NOT want, that provided few of the amenities the community begged for for years including walkways into town, and actually built overscale walls that decreased public safety by blocking sightlines.

    Bill, that’s a lot shorter. I am working on it. Bear with me here. But would you agree an apology is in order by Mr. McCarthy to the South Norwalk community he tried to throw under the bus with little regard for their concerns for safety? Just curious, Bill.

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