Douglas Thielen
9 Pheasant Drive,
New Fairfield, CT 06812
[203] 746-4039
e-Mail: Doug1016@aol.com
Letters & Opinions
For the week beginning Monday, February 21, 2011
SHOW US TAXPAYERS THE REAL NEED FOR A NEW LIBRARY!!!
The push by our 1st Selectman to fast track the construction of a new library should raise serious concerns for us taxpayers. John Hodge made a statement in the News-Times on February 17th that a library project has been pending for nearly a decade. This is completely false and also very misleading. While it is true that the Library Board has been discussing what to do with the existing building for quite a while, never have they nor the Board of Selectman, nor the Permanent Building Committee, present or past, ever put any library related projects out to bid until a few weeks ago.
Over the years, when questioned about how many patrons actually use the library on a daily basis the Library Board and personnel have not been able to produce any documentation that corroborates their numbers. Why? Because none exist.
First Selectman Hodge is claiming the present building is too small. REALLY? The existing building is 13,000 square feet on two floors while the new building will be 14,000 square feet on one floor without any basement space for storage. “Too small” is obviously a matter of opinion. A new library will cost $2,500,000, but let us not forget the town purchased the property a few years ago with taxpayer’s funds for $575,000. The property cost should also be factored into our tax liability for building a new library, raising the total investment to $3,075,000.
First Selectman Hodge claims the price to renovate the existing building with a 1,000 square foot addition will cost more than $4,000,000. But as Paul Harvey use to say; “Now, for the rest of the story.” What Hodge failed to tell anyone was that that $4 million dollar “price” was nothing more than the architects budget estimate from 3 years ago and at no time was that project ever let out to bid competitively to contractors in order to get current numbers to present to the taxpayers for their review prior to voting on the project.
The renovation project should have been bid competitively at the same time the new building project was being bid in order to compare both projects side by side in today's market. Who knows, maybe the renovation project would only cost $3,000,000 today, maybe even less, but we will never know.
First Selectman Hodge goes on to state in the News-Times article of February 17th, “If the voters turn the project down, none of the issues with the current building will go away". This is very true; but it is also very true that those same issues would need to be dealt with once the building is eventually renovated for any other use. First Selectman Hodge wasn't willing to advise what the building renovation costs to us taxpayers will be and there is no surprise there. But, let's assume for the moment that to renovate the existing building, his $4,000,000 plus figure is correct. The taxpayers of New Fairfield should be voting on a complete package so we all know what our total tax liability will be for the next 20 years, not just the half a package we have been shown. So we are now looking at a total cost that we taxpayers must ante up to build a new library of $3,075,000+ and renovate the old library for use by other town departments of $4,000,000+ for a total of $7,075,000 and counting…..
Are you getting dizzy? Hodge’s pea-and-shell game will do that to you.
Please think long and hard about this expensive “It would be nice” project before you cast your vote at the polls.
Doug Thielen
