Budget architects balk at $150K for Byram pool

Architects of the town's budget publicly balked at a $150,000 request Monday for the design of a new community pool in Byram, saying that the scope and overall cost of the public-private project need to be fleshed out first.

The Board of Estimate and Taxation Budget Committee shared its concerns about what it characterized as a lack of details about the project with key supporters of the pool initiative, led by the Junior League of Greenwich, during a Town Hall briefing.

Given the finite amount of taxpayer dollars for capital projects and unforeseen soil contamination at Greenwich High School that could cost millions to clean up, committee members said they cannot go forward with funding for the pool design in the near term.

"It sends the wrong signal to the town at this time," said Joseph Pellegrino, the committee's chairman.

The powerful arm of the BET will hold its deliberations on a broader $368 million spending package Wednesday, the first of three rungs of the budget process that will continue with the full finance board in March and then the Representative Town Meeting in May.

Using a combination of private donations and town money, the project's supporters hope to build a 6,000-square-foot pool at Byram Park that can hold up to 300 swimmers.

The capacity of the existing pool there, which is prone to leaks and has no dedicated restroom facilities, is 40 people.

"We are still committed to the concept of this project," Anne Miller, the Junior League's president, told the committee.

Pellegrino sought to allay concerns that the committee does not believe in the merits of the project.

"By not supporting the $150,000, (the committee) is not killing the project," said Pellegrino, a Republican who is in his first term as the group's chairman.

Democrat William Finger echoed Pellegrino's comments.

"This is a worthwhile project," Finger said. "I think that we have a very good basis going forward."

Democratic Selectman Drew Marzullo, who did not attend the meeting, characterized the decision as penny wise and pound foolish.

"What I don't get is the notion that $150,000 for continued plans out of a $300 million budget is somehow going to break the bank," Marzullo said in an interview. "The majority of the money (for the pool) will be raised by private donations. I'm concerned that if the perception is that if the town is not behind this project, fundraising is going to be very difficult to do."

Pellegrino urged the project's supporters to get their ducks lined up so that they could return to the finance board in the fall or next spring for a financial commitment.

"I'm looking for the scope of the project," Pellegrino said. "I'm looking for the cost of the project."

Initial estimates have put the pool's price tag at $7 million, a portion of which would be offset by private donations.

"It's going to be a long, hard slog to raise this kind of money," Miller told the committee.

The forces behind the pool initiative had planned to use the $150,000 on blueprints that could be incorporated in a fundraising appeal.

"We just don't want to come to a full stop," Miller said of the progress of the pool initiative.

Marzullo hasn't stopped lobbying for the pool money.

"I encourage both the Democrats and Republicans on the BET to support this project," Marzullo said.

The timing of the pool initiative is less than ideal, with budget architects having earmarked $3.57 million in the proposed budget for an environmental cleanup project at the high school.

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report of the town estimated that the price tag of the cleanup could grow to as much as $13 million, fallout from the discovery of polychlorinated biphenylss, after breaking ground on a $30 million performing arts center for the school. A full accounting of the PCB cleanup costs won't be available until at least the fall, however.

"At that point in time, we will have a better feel for our cash flows," Pellegrino told the pool's supporters.

The town has already budgeted $55,000 in the current fiscal year for preliminary work on the pool, which the project's supporters were able to augment with $45,000 in prior donations to the Greenwich Parks and Recreation Foundation.

Of that $100,000, only $25,000 has been spent to date.

Citing the pro bono work of local landscape architect John Conte and others, Miller said the pool's supporters have been able to keep initial costs in check, a trend that they hope to continue.

"We don't see this at all as the end of the road by any stretch," Miller told Greenwich Time in an interview after the meeting. "We're going to take a different route than obviously we were hoping."

Miller said it is not out of the question that the Junior League could kick in some of its own money to help the cause, though it would take a vote of the membership of the women's organization.

The town isn't the only one eager for a reckoning of the costs of the entire project, according to Miller.

"There's going to be a reality check point where if it comes in at $2 million we're in, but if it comes in at $20 million, we would have to reconsider," Miller told the committee.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy

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Budget architects balk at $150K for Byram pool