Casting. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for bearing with us. I call to order the March 19th, 2025 special meeting of the standing bonding committee. The time is now 610 PM. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll? Alderman Connors. Present. Alderman Barbarossa. Present. Alderman McNamara. Here. Alderman Santiago. Present. Alderman Sipson. Alderman Gibson. I'm sitting as an alternate for Jason. Alderman Pabon. Alderman Smedley. Alderman Smedley. Alderman Beloyed-Savagia. Commissioner. Marita Dadido? Dadio, sorry. Commissioner Mary Morocco. Sitting as a voting member for Alderman Simpson is Alderman McAdam. And sitting as a voting member for Alderman Smedley is Alderman Russell. Okay, he's here for Gibson. Stand corrected. You have quorum. Tonight, the first item on the agenda is item number one, to act on a report to the Common Council of the City of Britain regarding a 157,500,000 appropriation and bond authorization for school projects. May I have a motion? So moved with a favorable recommendation. I have a motion for a favorable recommendation made by Alderwoman Beloyance of Adria, seconded by Alderman Russell. If you'd like the meeting to be longer, we can certainly abide. Just checking. Thank you. We have a motion on the floor. At this point, I would like to exercise a minor bit of latitude as the committee chair to invite one expert witness who has direct knowledge regarding the bonding process, our very own State Representative David Franzo, recently elected. you know, pursuant to our public acts and standing committee rules to participate as he, I think, as of most recently of this morning, had meetings with leadership at the state capitol regarding bonding. If we have him on the line. And this would be to just provide some background generally on bonding efforts by our delegation. Any? Oh. All right. Yes. important and needs to move ahead. I think, however, the second two items on the agenda tonight are somewhat problematic. The $47.2 million in new bonding authorizations will create an issue for us here in Hartford. For the city to issue new bonds for paving, dredging, and a huge authorization for the redevelopment of water production wells is short sighted, I would say. These projects may be needed at some point, but approving these projects now at the same time that the delegation is arguing that the city can't afford to fund the Allen Street project would significantly undermine our case here at the Capitol and make it more difficult for us to access state funding for Allen Street. I know, I've been on the council in New Britain, I understand that these are tough decisions and there's a limited pool of resources to go around. I understand that each one of these projects has pluses and minuses associated with it, but the Allen Street project is at a critical juncture. It's time sensitive. The project is shovel ready. It's only gonna get more expensive the longer we wait, and it impacts about 50 households in that neighborhood. At a minimum, some of the bond projects on tonight's agenda should be reconsidered or postponed to a later date, and if possible, money diverted to fund the Allen Tree project to some degree. And the reason for that is simple. Any additional commitment that the city makes in terms of bond allocations to the Allen Tree project sends a clear message to state officials that the city is serious about addressing the problem, and it would help make our case here that much stronger. I know all of you have a very difficult job. I and the rest of the folks here at the citizen delegation appreciate all the hard work that you do on behalf of the city. I appreciate you giving me some time to speak in a little bit of a unique way. And so I'm happy to try to answer any questions people have. Otherwise, thank you very much, and I'll hang here for a little bit. I have a question. Thank you, Representative Franzo. Alderman Belen-Savedra, we'll start with a question. Hi, State Representative DiFronzo. Sharon Saavedra here. I have a couple questions for you. The Allen Street project. I walked Allen Street before you were elected, so a little over a year ago, with the bonding co-chairs from the state capitol. And at that time, clearly, it was a bipartisan walk. Both sides of the caucuses here were represented. and your bonding commissioners are also bipartisan. So they clearly told us that if we put up a third of the money, they pretty much could come through with the rest of the project. And that was the last positive message we received from the state. There was no message of stop all other business in the city of New Britain, all other projects that are of importance and significance to other parts of the city should come to a halt. They said if you put up a third of the assumed costs, then we think we have a very good case of moving the project forward along with the issue that residents were being dropped from insurance policies. So we kind of did what we were asked to do and then put in the request that seems to get a lot of barriers from the state. I'm not sure I accept the argument that all other bonding issues have to cease and not exist because the state is dragging its feet in terms of putting some bonding money together for Allen Street. I support the Allen Street project, and I have not lobbied you, but I've lobbied Representative Sanchez on it. And I do want to also say that 50 households on Allen Street, which I am concerned about and support the project, but for that in exchange, you want us to stop investing in clean drinking water that... supports the entire city and all the residents of the city of New Britain. I'm just struggling with the logic behind your request for us not to move forward with a bond on clean water while we simultaneously advocate at the state level for Allen Street. Thank you, Alderman Valencia. So first, I think all the representatives nationally met with you. And he's met with all of us. I think what he said to everyone was that if the city, I think what he said was nobody really gets considered for significant investment from the state unless they invest, the city invests some money in the project themselves. And so other women, I'm not sure where you got the idea that Nine and a half million dollars is something that just bought a lot of people's pockets up here, but it doesn't happen that way. People have to advocate for it and work very hard for that to happen. So we're asking for some cooperation in that regard. Listen, if the council thinks it's wise to fund the $40 million project for the wells, then that's certainly within the council's prerogative. But it's difficult for us to advocate here for a $9.5 million project at the same time the city's funding for dredging of ponds and repaving of parking lots. To me, we have a crisis situation in that neighborhood where people's quality of life is being significantly impacted. I go to Martha Hart Park almost every day. four or five times a week in the summer. If we don't repave that parking lot, we'll be all right. We can do it next year. So I think the people in the Belvedere area and Roxbury Road have waited a long time for this project. The idea that we need to stop all bonding, I don't think is accurate. I think we see that with the bonding for Smith School moving forward. No one's talking about stop law bonding. I think we're talking about making a careful consideration of how we're proceeding with bonding requests when we're asking the state to seriously consider a very large expenditure to help a significant number of residents in New Bray. Thank you, Representative DeFranco. Do we have additional questions from older persons for the representative at the time? Thank you Representative DeFranco I don't see any other hands going up if you just want to hold tight until we're done with this item that would be greatly appreciated if there's further questions at this point I'll just ask the Alder person's present if there are questions or discussions on the topic if there also is anyone from any other witnesses present who might want to give Alderman McNamara. On the Smith School project we have some folks here from the if somebody would like to come up and give a status of that. I happened to be at a meeting earlier today, but the council would appreciate that. Just before you do that, I don't mean to interrupt, but can we recognize that Alderman Smedley and Alderman Pabon joined the room as voting members. Thank you, Alderman Valencia-Vedra. Spedley and Pabon, I almost combined your names, have joined as voting members as the Alderman stated. Thank you. Let the record reflect. Sorry, Mr. Trump. One quick clarification. Are we talking about all of these items at one time? No, we are not. We are still on agenda item one. Representative Franzo was just brought in as an expert because all of these items require bonding, and he's from the State Bonding Committee. Nope, just number one. And Mr. Dorsey. Thank you. Good evening. This is should probably be the easiest one tonight. So what you have before here with this resolution is three separate allocations here. The first one is for $145 million for Smith School renovation project that includes the building of a new preschool facility. That money has already been approved by the state legislature and that's going to be at a 95% reimbursement rate for the city. The second two projects on it are HVAC related. The Pulaski School HVAC project is for $9.8 million. And the Slade School HVAC project is for $2.7 million. The reason for the big price difference is there is some of the HVAC at Slade was done utilizing previous money that was already allocated. So it only has a little bit left to go. The big box areas, as I'm sure you'll hear Freddie call them, that's like the cafeteria – the cafeteria, the auditorium, and the gymnasium. So at Slade, that's why those numbers are that. So for the 9.8 and the 2.7, those items are reimbursable at just under 80%, the standard amount there. Additionally, there's money from a bond that was approved by the council maybe in 2021 when we did the bonding for homeschool. four point three million dollars that'll be for the roof at Pulaski but that money's already been approved and we already have that money ready to go so with us tonight Paul Salina from the city Freddie Caricia and Rebecca from the school district are here and they could give you a better overview on the project. Good evening as Justin said I'm Paul Salina from the city I I was hoping this thing wouldn't time out and it did let me just get this up again. as and again we do have Freddy Carichia from Castle Booze they have been selected as the architect for the Smith project and then Rebecca Gonzalez is the chief operating officer for the school district and heads the facilities department and of course Alderman Smedley is also an integral part of this building project as a the director of special projects I just want to give you This is an overview of the current layout of Smith School right now. You have Smith School up here. a very steep incline of around 25 to 35 feet. You have a lower parking lot down here and then all of this area is open. We have had as in all of our schools. Traffic problems when when all of our schools were built they were built as walking schools. We now have really over 70 school buses that traverse the city. Parents are dropping off children more so than they ever did before. So we have always a condition of traffic involvement and safety for our kids. Right now, and you can't see over here, but Jefferson Street, our buses line up and stop. They stop and park and turn off on Jefferson Street before they unload. So the buses come in, say, seven or eight minutes early. They're actually parked on the street in the middle of the street, stopping all traffic, even for homeowners there. And then once they do start rolling, They come in this one back parking lot and just circle around and then come back out and come down Rutherford Street. At the same time you have parents that are trying to drop off children. Some of the special needs children come up through the front of this parking lot. The parent drop off is down here at the bottom of the hill. We have most parents who don't like to drop off that far because it's a long walk up a hill. So traffic has always been an issue and the topography has also been an issue as well. The renovation we're going to do two things one is to renovate Smith totally as new and then also add on an addition to the building. This would be the new footprint again looking at the same building Up here is Rutherford Street. This is a current portion of the building that will be renovated. This is a two-story portion. Over here was our main office, the auditorium and gym. These areas will remain. The back portion that was added on after the building was constructed, I think back in the 1990s, will be demolished to give us more parking and playground area here. The building, this is going to be the exciting part, the building will now cut over and be part of the hill. They're going to cut into that steep grade and continue the building out over the hill. And then on the bottom portion would be the pre-K section of 25 classrooms. It's a separate building, but it will be connected. couple of the other items here that are going to just be tremendous for the whole neighborhood is we're going to have a bus loop as we've done in most of our schools with the renovations all the buses will come in and loop around the school they will be able to queue up park there they will be off the streets and then rather than backtracking and going out the same way they will continue through the entire perimeter of the land and then come out on Ella Street would be parent drop off for our elementary school this would be parent drop off for our pre-k and then this would be also be a separate bus loop for the pre-k down here so we've separated all of these areas one for safety and then just for the convenience of all and for the neighborhood as well this is a kind of a look Again, over here on the left-hand side, this is kind of the current building that would be simply renovated. This was kind of the old main office area. This will still be the office area. This will be the new wing, which now cuts into the hill. And in certain places, it's a two-story wing, but most of it will be just a one-story out over here. We will also have a health center that will be used for both schools. That will be up here. We'll have a family resource center that will be used by both schools and then our central registration would be down on the bottom. Let me just close this up and show you just a couple of more slides and then we're going to do a fly over. Again this gives you a better idea. Here is Rutherford Street and if you're familiar with the this is the current entry and there was a little circle up here where people would turn around and come out. So this is the part that's going to be renovated and the new portion and then the preschool down here we've added pretty how many more parking spaces. Three times the amount of parking. This is looking now from the other side this is our preschool and preschools are only one story building and this will have a different look to make it a little bit more fun for the kids, but this would be the pre-K drop off. These would be the buses for the Smith School coming down and circling out onto Ellis Street. And then let me show you one more. That's kind of a look just from the ground level. And again, that's the ground level looking at the pre-K wing. Now we're going to do a flyover so you'll see what the entire thing looks like in motion. Sorry, I can't get the music up, Freddy. There's music with this too. And that's the current wing that will remain. The health center would be up here. The central registration would be down here. Entry to the pre-K. And here this little tower gives natural light to the center focus of the administrative wing and the main entrance from both sides of the building. As you'll see, the entire building will have as many solar panels as possible on the roof to be efficient. getting clipped by those trees every time we come down. The pre-K will have a nice look for young people. There will be several separated playgrounds for the pre-K as well as the upper grades. This will be access roads for our kitchen area. This would be the media center and the cafeteria. former building this would be new additions to the current building playground areas and as I say between and you can even see with the buildings over here I mean there was a steep grade off of each side so this is the just the amount of earth that will be moved for this project I can't even imagine and as I say the best part is removing the buses from the street removing the buses from the parent drop-off and then adding significant parking for all of our schools. All of our schools now have so many specialized teachers and aides and so forth. It's not just 30 classrooms with 30 teachers anymore. That number is probably about 90 for each school. And that's what we have. Certainly we'll take any questions if you have any. Yes. Thank you Mr. Salina. Any questions Alderwoman Valencia-Vedra. I'm going to ask a couple questions but I'm going to go to the health center because you know I bring this up in SBC all the time and I at least put it on the record all our new school renovations include community health centers but I believe the state has either reduced funding changed the way it's funding it's like a Chamberlain who we built that beautiful space for has never had a community health center in its school so I'm just I'd like to ask about the status of once we build the space for the public community health center for our kids, is the state going to put the money there so that it's functional? I don't have the answer to that question. We are putting the health center in and it would be used in some capacity. Mr. Chairman, if I may. Mr. Salina is correct. The state actually changed the method to which they issue the contract for school-based health centers, so it's a bid process now. We haven't been updated on that any further since it changed prior to Chamberlain. We are reimbursed for those spaces. There is legislation that allows the 95% reimbursement to cover the cost of the buildup for the school-based health centers, so we continue to include them. So I appreciate that. It's just frustrating. because when we also do the Board of Education's budget and we talk about social workers and mental health services I usually fall back and say but isn't it wonderful that we have school based health centers that the state funds so that's in addition to what is in the Board of Ed's budget. It's just frustrating to learn that the state isn't funding it in the same way so although we build it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be staffed. That's just a little sticky point for me that I wanted to put on the record. Another question, Mr. Salina, what is the pre-K capacity? What's the number of students that the pre-K is going to be able to enroll? I believe it's going to be 25 classrooms. That's big. How many? About 425. 425 pre-K students? Right. That's pretty significant. And just one more, Mr. Chairman, through you. The additional footprint on Smith. So it's existing building. What's the additional, not counting pre-K, what's the additional footprint for the K-5 school? I think it's 46,000 feet. K-5 is going to be about 102,000 square feet. What's the addition? Addition is like we have portion demolition portion existing so there will be 43,000 square feet of new and the rest will be . And just for the people who don't come to the SBC, can you explain what those additional square footage is going to be used for? That's the one that based on the ad specs that it's created that we need space needs based on the program needs. So that's how we designed it to accommodate it. But I mean is it additional classrooms? Is it because you were thinking there's going to be a higher enrollment? What is the reason? Special ed, special ed spaces which are not there right now so we add more spaces for them. Once you do that we have to create more support spaces for that. So that's why the square footage. So perhaps district wide programming might be located there. One of the good things is in the state legislation that gives us the 95% we also get a space waiver. because our big box units such as the cafeteria, the media center, and the auditorium all count into the square footage. And if we didn't get the space waivers, we would maybe have to cut down on the size of the building in other areas. But the space waivers are critical to us. Once the council members are finished asking specific questions about the school, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to want to ask Bond Council to come up and in her expert, way talk about from the city's perspective what that pro we heard what the state processes I think it's equally if not more important for the alderman to hear what the city's processes and even though the bond is ninety five percent reimbursable what its impact is on the budget but obviously I'll wait till after everyone asks school specific question. Thank you Alderman Valencia-Vader Alderman Raposa. With the expansion there will not be any additional classrooms. Thanks. Additional classroom will be based on all the special needs spaces and everything else. So there will be but it would be designed for special needs people. You know there's a lot of spaces that program develops that they need and that's what it's all provided into it. That's why the existing footprint is about 80,000 feet right now is going to be 102,000 feet. So it will be extra — So will class sizes be reduced with the number of students? The class sizes for the existing one will be the same with the state allows so many square feet per classroom by their standards. But then we are adding more spaces to it to take care of special needs kids. Okay, so each teacher will still have anywhere from 23 to 25 students in their classroom. So this really isn't, in my opinion, really beneficial because we're still crowded in the classrooms. when not enough resources for our students. That all depends on staffing and how the school district I think the numbers of students in the classes are a little bit low and I think it's averaging 22 to 25 or so. But again that that is all driven by the number of full time staff members. Thank you. Thank you Alderman Barbosa Alderman Santiago. So the pre-K addition, this is what alleviates some of the schools that have pre-K and bring them all to this school. So that would open up actually classrooms in those schools that have those pre-Ks in and bring them over to that. So again, you're trying to alleviate some of the schools. Besides Smith, other schools will have room to have additional students to come to those classes they had to. And then every so often I know the Board of Education does look at enrollments in different schools and if need be they can always adjust school borders as we did I think back in 2016 we made some adjustments because we were finding out that you know the schools over in the west end of town Lincoln and Vance the populations were going down in those areas and increasing in the Smalley area and Chamberlain area so we Modify the school district lines. DIRECTOR HERSEY- Now another question to you Mr. Chair. The the baseball diamond I didn't see it on the is it being put back in because again as there was kids that utilize is it that area of that neighborhood they used to use it for practice or any activities is that being put back in or is it. So the current property where the baseball diamond was is now a playscape. We removed the baseball diamond, and there is a field adjacent to it that is used by PAL and some of the other groups. The backside of the property right now, as it stands, has a subgrade play area that is being brought up to level. And I wish I could put the picture back up so I could show you better. But there is a new green play area. behind the property where the older playscapes are right now. So there will be a large field area. Can we go to the right a little bit on that picture, Mr. Salina? Go a little bit lower to that right arrow, yeah. The field area is going to be there, right at the backside of the property. Are you able to see that on your monitor? One thing I wanted to know why that is up to earlier, Mr. Salino was presenting. One of the priorities in our projects for site improvement is separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic and the bus traffic. I know he did talk extensively about that. But if you take a look at the way the bus traffic will work at this property, it enforces our bus to curb concept right so the students don't have to cross a parking lot or a street when they get to school and get off the bus or at dismissal to get back on the bus the buses are all parked curbside directly so dismissal and arrival is at the curb which is a huge safety aspect for us thank you alderman smedley uh i'd like to first recognize that uh alderman scott is present she got me first uh with a question and then i'll get to alderman barbosa So my question is about the mental health area that or the health area that you guys are talking about. I'm confused. So that's so you'll have extra space with this new school for that. So why like I'm confused about the whole thing about how we're not going to have staff because doesn't that come from outside providers that might not be you know Mr. Chair if somebody has the answer to just I'm confused, yeah. Yeah, so the community health centers currently provide programming and staffing at New Britain High School, Roosevelt, Slade, Pulaski, Smalley, and we built out, excuse me, at Gaffney as well, we built out space in Chamberlain for the school-based health center, and they planned to open up there, and then community health center learned that they lost their funding from the state for staffing those locations for us, Chamberlain, and obviously we plan to put it in homes, but we don't have a direct answer from Community Health Center whether or not they'll be able to have programming available to us. Right now what they do is substitute with behavior health professionals at Slade and Pulaski, and we imagine that they'll do the same at the other locations for us instead of a full medical suite because the behavioral health and mental health aspect is important. And in speaking with the superintendent recently he does agree that you know mental health issues and so forth are certainly needed and the school district is willing to provide the space you know but but for outside agencies because right now you know with the budget as it is for staffing the school district cannot provide it but they'll give the space to outside groups that would come in. Yeah. So that's why we're still building the space. Yeah because we should be able to find providers. I'm pretty sure we can do that. All right, thank you. Seeing no further questions. I don't think we have further questions. We have a motion on the floor. Alderman Williams-DeBedra. Thank you. I wanted to ask bond counsel to come to the podium and talk about how the bond actually works what the city encumbers prior to receiving piecemeal reimbursements. I think sometimes people think the state reimburses us at 95% so when the project's over they just dump 95% in our lap and we get to bank it. That's not how it happens. So I want to make sure the council understands how that happens and what the impact is on our debt service and on the cap to our debt service while we carry that load. So if you would please. Sure. Danielle Braun from Shipman and Goodwin. So the basic roadmap would be if the Common Council passes any bond resolution, and then I can be specific about the schools, the city would then be able to at any point issue a bond or a note to finance the project. And we always recommend you don't want to issue the debt until you're able to spend the money fast enough. First, you would usually issue a note so you can determine exactly how much the project would cost, and usually it's around the same amount. But if it's $145, you take it out, you take whatever out you think you can spend in the year, and so you're only paying interest on that amount while it's out. And then once the project is done, you would then issue a bond for the full amount that you spent. Now with the school project, it's a little different because you're getting, and particularly the city is getting such a large amount of reimbursement. So in the short term, you would take that larger amount out as a note and pay interest on it. And then once it's done, you would submit and you get the reimbursements. So the long-term bond would only be that 5% of the project. So say it costs the whole budget, you know, just that. seven and a half million so the debt service would be impacted by that amount over probably 20 years is that and I only am asking and I'm formulated these questions because I'm part of the school building committee so I'm watching how over the last 20 years the state hasn't reimbursed us for past projects at the full Not the full percentage, but we would submit, request a reimbursement, and they wouldn't give it to us. So, I mean, we're closing out on Lincoln, on North End, and on Vance. And if anybody around this table understands how long ago those projects were, and we're just recently closing those projects out. So I just, it's important for people to know that we carry that load until the final reimbursements come in from the state. And it's only been in the last two years that we started actually getting reimbursements from projects 20 years old. So we carry this burden until the state gives us our last reimbursement check. And then because we carry this burden, we are limited in what future bonding we can do until the reimbursements come in and we are no longer holding the bag, as it were, on the whole amount. So although 5% sounds wonderful for 20 years down the road, We've had projects that we've held on to for 20 years because the reimbursement checks didn't fully materialize. So I just want to make sure people know it's much more complicated than the state just dropping a bag of 95% of the project in our lap. I think people need to understand that. Thank you Alderman Valencia-Vedra. Alderman Barbosa. Question that interest is paid by who the tax residents? Yes. So there once again a tax increase? I can't speak to the tax increase but you will pay that the city will pay that the percentage of the tax yes thank you Alderman McNamara Mr. Mr. Chairman I'll I'll have questions on the other other agenda items but I thank you for being here I just like to say that I attend the SBC meetings and It seems to me the reimbursements are coming in every 30 days as the city gets them. And what used to be 80% now is 95%, which is the situation has improved considerably in terms of the obligations of the city utilizing the state bond or this bond. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman McNamara. You're sitting at Matthew's spot, so it's just messing me up. Whoever you are, Alderman Smedley. Thank you. Alderman McNamara is correct. The reimbursements are flowing much smoother now. Staff in our office, Sherry, Tyler. has been working to process those older reimbursement projects. And to date, we've brought in close to $6 million worth of money that was out in limbo back into the city to pay down some of those debt service payments that were needed on those obligations from 15, 20 years ago when I was still in elementary school. But... And now the new current process for reimbursements from the state is outlined and detailed online and much easier compared to the way it used to be. So yes, the payments come in, we submit them, and within 30 days, the reimbursement is submitted to the city. Thank you, Alderman Smedley. Alderman Santiago. Yeah, I was gonna say the same. From what I was told a couple of years ago, that it was actually a miscommunication between the school the school not completing their projects. I mean we're not completing their paperwork to be submitted that's why a lot of the funds weren't allocated back to the city as they were. Now that all this was taken care of now again we're seeing the money coming back in like we need to. DIRECTOR HERSEY. Everyone likes reimbursements Alderman Pabon. DIRECTOR PABON. Got a question I was here a little late now but if we go for the one hundred fifty seven million dollars what would the city be in the hook for. until we get all the money. Any other? Yeah, just the remaining percentage. The percentage interest, interest until the state pays back the 95%. So we would still have to pay, am I correct what you're saying? We would still have to pay an interest on the whole 157. If I may. Yes. You're asking if, what will the city be on the hook for? Well, once this project is done, yeah. As Smiley mentioned, we are getting reimbursements monthly. So we submit progress payments on a monthly basis to the state, and we get those back within a month. So for instance, we just submitted one for 2.3 in January and got back 1.8 of that a month later. So as the progress, as the project progresses, we're continuously getting in payments as we enter them to the state. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Alderman Pabon, and I would just assume that prompt repayments would avoid incurring interest penalties, and that's a good thing for the city. Any further questions? I don't see any. Call the question. We have called the question. We have a motion for a favorable recommendation on the table. I see no further discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Motion carries. All right, on to item number two. The next item on the agenda, to act on the report of Common Council of the City of New Britain regarding a 40,900,000 appropriation and bond authorization for the New Britain White Bridge Water Works Facility. May I have a motion? Mr. Chair, I make a motion to refer back to the Council with a neutral recommendation. I have a motion for a neutral recommendation made by Alderman Bolian-Savajra, seconded by Alderman Pabon, and at this time, Do we have any discussion on this item? Great. I'd like to invite Mr. Dorsey back up. Thank you. Second of three times for tonight. So this project you have before you is the White Bridge, White Bridge Wellfield Project. And one of the cities, one of the engineers on the project, Christie Wagner from CDM Smith, who are the co-engineers between them and CEI which is Sebi Amenta who has been before this body before they work in tandem on this project. One thing I want to make perfectly clear about this project is even though we're doing it at a bonding subcommittee meeting it is not a bonding project. This project is being done through DWSRF drinking water SRF. It's a state run project through the Department of Public Health. Even if we wanted to bond for this project $40 million, we wouldn't be able to. It's just not within our bonding limits right now. So I just wanted to make that part clear. But Christy will be able to talk a little bit more about the project and what it entails, and then I'll be back up to answer other questions later. Thank you, Mr. Dorsey. Thank you. As Justin stated, I'm Christy Wagner from CDM Smith. We are... as you said, co-engineers with CEI on this project. The Whitebridge Water Works facilities, I believe everyone got some kind of a basic information memo distributed previously. But I'll try to just give a quick overview. The New Britain Water Department actually owns about 300 acres of land in Bristol. That's where this project is located. It's a water rich area between the Copper Mine Brook, the Polkville Brook. It is a backup water supply for the city of New Britain. There are interconnections and serve other customers in Berlin, Farmington, and Bristol as well. The facility as a whole has grandfathered water rights, essentially rights to divert water up to 23 million gallons per day. dating back to the 20s, which is when some of these facilities were originally constructed. They were upgraded somewhat in the 40s, 50s, 80s. At this point, they are operating well below the permitted capacity due to the aging of the wells. Several of the wells are not operable. The pump systems that were put in at that time, again, last upgraded in the 80s. At this point, it's hard to even find parts for them. Um, so the facility is not operating anywhere near its intended capacity. Um, it overall, it's also below the floodplain. The facility is subject to flooding, um, which makes it not accessible and subjects the equipment to more damage. So this project would restore the capacity of the, um, of the water supply wells as well as there's a surface water pond there that provides additional storage capacity for times of, um, essentially for drought conditions. It also will, yeah, the flood protection, the new building would be elevated. The new pumps are submersible pumps that are intended to be in the wells. It's a much simpler system compared to what it was originally constructed as, and it's much more resilient for the city. So that's it in a nutshell. Thank you. Do we have any questions for Christy? Alderman McBargo-Bossa. first. I have a couple questions. Regarding timeline and delays, what is the anticipated timeline for the project completion? So it's about a two year construction schedule plus an additional year of testing. I should have mentioned this, there's two separate well fields as well as the surface water pond. One of the well fields has pretty good water quality and with a little bit of treatment we expect it can actually be used as a backup POTABLE WATER SUPPLY, MEANING IT WOULDN'T HAVE TO GO TO THE TREATMENT PLANT. SO THAT'S PART OF THE CRITICALITY HERE. IT WOULD BE THE ONLY BACKUP POTABLE WATER SUPPLY FOR THE CITY. SO BEFORE THAT WOULD ALL BE ONLINE IS A FEW YEARS FROM NOW. THANK YOU. ALDERMAN BARBOSA, ANY ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS? ALDERMAN MCNAMARA. HI, YES, I READ THE MEMO WHERE would be up to 8 million MGD, as you guys call it? Yep, million gallons per day. And now it only is generating 4 million. We had a drought here a few years ago that nobody told the citizens about. Is that the backup you're talking about? Well, I mean, we have a very extensive watershed, but I'm told we're limited if what, the Burlington well or some other well goes dry? Yes. So what are the benefits of this coming online? So truthfully, I don't know the details of the rest of the city's drinking water system, but this is one of the larger backup sources. And this one, again, being in a fairly water rich area, whether it's prone to flooding, can be positive or negative. But in general, there's a lot of water in this area. So it has the ability during drought conditions to, you know, or during times of water-rich conditions, has the ability to store water and also pump to the Shuttle Meadow Reservoir to keep that level up high for supply when actual rainfall is low. Thank you, Christy. Thank you, Alderman McNamara. Oh. If everyone's done asking this representative a question I'd like to bring Mr. Dorsey back up to explain a little bit more about the financing. I think people are. Let me just make sure everyone's done any other questions for Christy Alderman Santiago. Thank you Mr. Chair. Yeah. How is it going to work. Is it ready. Is it already tapped into the city's source or we have to literally run a new line and a whole. No, that's a really good question. Most of the piping is already there. The facility, when it was constructed, there's an interconnection right with Bristol, and then there's a raw water line. I think it's a 36-inch diameter pipe that goes all the way to the Shuttle Meadow Reservoir. And that pipe will remain. It's just right now the facility is underutilized and not producing enough water. So now, my other question, since you said this has been done, this built over, what, 20, 40, 50 years? Yeah, some of it's close to 100. Okay, 100 years. Those pipes... one of the issues right now because again we're looking at just the city itself the pipes are you know old collapsing. How are we going to deal with these pipes if they've been 100 years old. So there's a small piece of pipe kind of between the site and the street that's on the I can't remember like a. few hundred feet away that will probably need to be lined when the potable water portion of this project comes on. Otherwise it's been operated and maintained and inspected by the City Water Department and pipes last a lot longer than pumps and wells. Oh yeah, I understand. And now is again this would be also utilized for other cities to be able to use purchase water while we're I mean waiting for the time when the the drought will come or something like that. Right yeah the interconnections with um Farmington Bristol and Berlin already exist and the city has agreements with those cities to or those towns to to purchase up to a certain amount of water um when conditions warrant. So conditions warrant but what I'm saying as in say for instance we're waiting for eight years or so in eight years we're selling we have water that's still stored there. Is there ways of actually selling it out more until we finally get, you know, that we need it? Or is it just, just those three cities that are, or towns that are using it now? Oh, I see what you're saying. So that's a more complicated question for the water department. Unfortunately, I don't think I can answer that well. Part of it has to do with water chemistry. Mm-hm. In each, each city, each water supply has different water chemistry and mixing them with other. towns may or may not be appropriate depending on what their facilities are and what pipe materials they have and things. All right, thank you. Thank you, Alderman Santiago. Alderman Barbosa. Were there any alternative solutions or projects considered and what led to the decision to pursue this particular facility? So there was a study done several years ago that looked at three or four different alternatives. This one was determined to be the most economical and the most feasible to maintain the available capacity of the wells there. I think the other alternatives were to, you know, essentially abandon this facility and go to other places but this this area with the existing registration permitted is a great asset for the city to to maintain thank you at this point do we have any other questions for miss wagon thank you hang out for a moment in case there are more We'll invite Mr. Dorsey back up and Alderman Williams-Savedra, I believe you had a question for him. Mr. Dorsey, I was wondering if you could go over that financing piece again. Because all the language here says bonding. So if you could just kind of walk us through that. Sure. And just Alderman, just excuse me for one second. I just want to chime in on Alderman Santiago's question. So both, so Pat Kearney from the Water Department, he's not here tonight. He's got a water board meeting. He will be at the full council meeting. He'll be able to answer that question as well as Sebi Amenta. Because if I remember correctly, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on it. Not when you and I met Alderman, but when I met with the rest of the leadership team, Sebi did mention that there would be mechanisms in place to be able to sell to other, to municipalities so but Sebi will be here next meeting he's in the southern office right now and Pat will be here when he doesn't have water commission. Thank you I'm not sorry to cut that because I heard that was a conversation that was spoken so that's why I was trying to make sure that we iterate that point a bit too that also we'll be able to solve some of that water we have to. And all the women to answer your question, so the DWSRF and I brought Danielle up here with me just to talk about a little more. So the way the program works is it's a loan program with a very small grant portion. So we are actually very beneficial with this, with the work that CDM and CEI has done with the state of Connecticut and DPH. Normally the grant portion is only one and a half million forgivable. But because they're considering this three separate projects, the two well fields and the pump house, or I forget exactly how it was broken up, Christy. But because it's being considered three separate projects, we would actually be entitled to $4.5 million of a grant for this instead of the regular $1.5 million. But the DWSRF, it's a loan program. It's at 2% a year, which is honestly better than any bonding because bonding rates right now are, not much higher, but in the grand scheme of things, higher than that. Is it over 20 years, Danielle? Yep, over 20 years. Sure, it's 2%. It's over 20 years, and they do it in two stages, similar to bonds and notes. The first stage is an interim funding obligation. It works just like a construction loan. So you are only paying the 2% on the amount that you draw. So if it takes... three years to do the project again you're only paying the 2% on what you've borrowed each month the city would submit a reimbursement to the state and then that same month they would reimburse that amount to you and count it as a disbursement under under the loan and then once the projects complete you would finance it over 20 years at 2% can I follow up please thank you So when we're looking at our bond obligation then let's say let's take State Representative Dave DeFranzo's concern that if we bond for bigger projects that's sending a signal to the state this is actually not considered a bond it's not carried like other bond debt it's a loan to paperwork wise is it different or is it the same on the books? I mean it it's it's a loan and so you're issuing it in a different way but it's still debt because that's an obligation to repay. Um, so in that respect, I mean, it is a loan, but you're not selling it as a bond. The payment's going directly to the state. One more question, just to close out. And it's from this specific program that the state offers, right, that's designed for this type of stuff. And also, too, this is not something that touches the general fund. It's all strictly out of the water fund, the special revenue, or the special revenue fund. the enterprise fund through the city. Well, you just answered my follow-up question, so thank you, Mr. Dorsey. Thank you, Alderman McNamara, and then Alderman Barbosa. Just to clarify that, if I buy a car and get a loan to replace my 06 Corolla, that is a debt, as you said. But to Mr. Dorsey's point, and maybe Mr. Paragini, this does not count towards the city's indebtedness? I think Mr. Perugini would be better than you, Justin, to answer that question. The reason I say that is that we have a very high per capita debt to the city. We recognize that. So we have to be very careful and judicious about what we bond for to meet our city's priorities and what needs to be the greatest priority. So the floor is yours, John. Thank you. And when you're repaying it, it comes out of the water fund. It comes off user fees, and the debt is associated with the enterprise fund, which is the water fund. So when we get the audit on March 31st, thereabouts, this will not be reflected in the indebtedness of the city in terms of or general financial outlook? It shouldn't be, because it's off the property taxes, and that debt limitation is off property taxes as the base, but the enterprise fund pieces comes off our water debt, our water user rates. In the water fund, we almost have an endowment fund, in terms of paying those off or not an endowment but yeah what do you mean by well I mean there is yeah yeah I mean there is revenue not off the property tax per se it's paying for this loan that I'm talking about yeah it's going to come off future water fees that are received that the taxpayers A fee is a tax. A tax is a fee. We get it. But I just wanted to clarify that. It was analogous, as presented to me, that it is analogous to the school bonding system, but it's a different loan. And my other, if I could, Mr. Chairman, my other question is this DWSRF revolving loan fund that the state I guess the Department of Health administers at the state level. Does this involve federal funds? And I think you know why I'm saying that at this point in time in our nation's troubled history. Does it involve federal funds and reliant on payments from Washington? I have no clue on that. I don't know how the state gets the money for the fund. Oh, did you then? Yeah. not super clear-cut but the vast majority of the money that they use is generated by the state of Connecticut issues clean water fund bonds and it takes that money that it receives from the sale of those bonds and puts it in a revolving fund so they loan out the money they count on the repayment over 20 years and so they keep that flush so the vast majority of it is is because the state of Connecticut issued bonds to fund it There are some pockets, this is like a tiny footnote, I have seen some projects in doing these for other municipalities that there's a small federal component that I haven't seen anything to believe that this would be, have that federal component to it. Might be in the form of a grant that Justin mentioned. Yeah, so sometimes, I mean, I have seen a federal component funneled through there, but I wouldn't believe that this would be one of those projects. And so again vast majority it's just the state bond like — State generated self-sustaining. Absolutely. Yep. Every once in a while they'll pass through a federal as an addition. Thank you Alderman McNamara Alderman Barbosa. I have two questions. So if it's not a bond shouldn't the verbiage on the resolution be changed to eliminate the word bond from it. Because on the resolution it does state bonding So as written, I mean, it still goes through bonding subcommittee and we use like lowercase b bond, right? So it would be a type of indebtedness like a bond, but we would still call it a bond. It just doesn't, you're not going to go sell. I mean, this, you could, I mean, you could sell a bond. You could say, we're going to send, we're going to sell a bond for the school, the other projects, and water right you could sell them all together. But that's not the intent here. Because why would you do that when you can get 2 percent and a grant component from the state of Connecticut which is a much sweeter deal than anything you'd get on the open market. And the second question is for the water department. The engineer yes I'm sorry. What is the current lifeline of the current facility? Meaning the available capacity or the time? So at present, let me find, I had that note before. At present, I believe it can, When everything is operational, it can pump in the range of 6 million gallons per day out of the intended 23. And for how long? That is hard to say because the equipment, the pumps are getting harder to maintain. So as each pump – right now what they're doing is they've salvaged some parts from – some pumps and they're using them to repair other pumps. So it really depends. If there's a flooding event, more equipment could be ruined. It's hard to source parts for these things. That is probably a better question for Patrick if he comes back another time. But in general, it is beyond the life expectancy of all this equipment at this point. No I understand that I work for an elevator company and elevators get old and parts can't be replaced. Yeah. That's where we're at. Yeah. Thank you Alderman Barbosa Alderman Boleyn-Savedra. Maybe you could stay up there I'm not sure whether it's going to be you or Mr. Dorsey who answers this question but I understand the State Water Planning Council has labeled New Britain just this past February as at trigger level. And I just thought, can we put a definition around that? Is that trigger level for having backup water? Is that trigger level that our water levels are reduced? Do we know what that status means? I don't, honestly. Okay. I don't. It could have to do with redundancy and resiliency in the system. I know that's a big concern. the state correct we're currently at 67% capacity as it stands and I wanted to address earlier alderman McNamara said there was no notice to the previous droughts there was the mayor's office issues advisories when there is according to the state law so in November of 2024 as an example there was a drought statement issued by the mayor's office to the city and previous to that in 2014 I think there was one of the larger ones where we were below the trigger level of our water capacity. And the trigger is related to whether or not there's a drought notice needed based on the capacity of the reservoirs. Thank you. Alderman Valencia-Vedra. Any other questions for Ms. Wagner? Alderman Santiago. As of right now, the shuttle metals capacity is at what right now? 67%. No, no, I'm saying as in what they're pumping out a day out of there now. It's 8 million gallons that it takes to populate the city in the ground. 8 million? Yeah. All right. So what do you think about a month without no rain would it look like? So what I'm saying is there was no rain, nothing to re-replenish the, the, the, the resources. What would it look like in a month if we had 8,000, 8 million gallons taken out? Pretty much drained, correct? I mean, I know the capacity at Shuttle Meadow is like in the billions. Okay. Um, but I don't know the exact numbers. Pat would be able to better answer that one. All right. I, I do recall a recent water tour where they said at the most recent drought, uh, we toured the water department, all the women, Scott and I, um, I believe it was last year but they said the capacity was somewhere between 30 and 40% at the worst part of it but I am at second hand and I saw Alderwoman Barbosa. Regarding the urgency of needs, assess the critical needs served by the Water Works facility. Are there urgent health and safety concerns that necessitate immediate action? I think the vulnerability of the facility to flooding and the inability to maintain the current mechanical equipment is probably certainly approaching critical. I think there's no redundancy or resiliency left at that facility. Can you talk about the benefit of having potable water there? That was a term I just learned when Sebi came and we had our leadership meeting on this. My understanding is this would be the only other location outside of our actual shuttle metal reservoir where potable means ready to drink. So could you talk a little bit about how important that could be should something happen at Shuttle Meadow that there's actual drinking water ready to go? Right, right. I mean, you kind of just said it. Essentially, Shuttle Meadow right now is the city's only source of drinking water. If something were to happen there, you'd be relying on other interconnections with other systems that can't supply necessarily what is really needed on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, the potable water. So the Whitebridge facility has three components. There's an upper well field that's north of Maltby Street, a lower well field that's south of Maltby Street, and then this drinking water pond, which is essentially just a surface water reservoir. those facilities only the lower well field has water quality good enough that we expect it can be treated to be used as a potable water and that is it requires the construction of the facility as well as that year-long test that I mentioned earlier it's basically a test to confirm that that groundwater is not influenced by surface water because surface water can have outside influences and not be suitable for for drinking. So it will take a while before that is in place. But yeah that is essentially the city has no other no other source of independent drinking water and this would be one. Wagner thank you Alderman Valencia-Vidra. Any other questions. Mike's on. Alderman Barbosa. Has there been any feedback from the community. We had a couple of public meetings people had some questions. The folks that I recall at public meetings were actually they were related to the construction going on in Bristol and people concerned with the impacts of the construction and impacts of you know just work at the site. I'm not aware of public feedback from New Britain on the project. And what. Just one follow-up on approvals have been indicated for this project via the state. Are you the person to answer that? I can try. I know that the project is eligible. DPH is supportive of it and has, you know, we're working with them to finalize some permitting and approvals. The reason is we don't want to get left holding the bag once the project starts. In terms of the loan. So yeah. But it's like Danielle said it's a draw down. So if they we wouldn't be able to call for the money until they've already given us the approval. Right the loan agreement would be entered into before beginning construction if that answers your question. At this point the project has been deemed eligible and DPH is supportive but there's no loan agreement in place. Great discussion. Lots of questions. Any other questions? As the chair, I will call the question. All in favor of the, we have a neutral recommendation. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Thank you. And thank you. The next item on the agenda is item number three, to act on a report to the Common Council of the City of New Britain regarding a $6,300,000 appropriation and bond authorization for various capital improvements for the City of New Britain. May I have a motion? Mr. Chair. Alderman Valencia-Vedra. I move that we refer this back to the full council with a neutral recommendation. I have a motion for a neutral recommendation seconded by Alderman Russell. Sorry, I'm getting a little fussy here. All right. Do we have questions on this item? Alderman Valencia-Vedra. Can we ask Mr. Dorsey to come forward? And I understand that your caucus might have some concerns over either the whole thing or part of it, but maybe... I don't have a caucus. No, no, I'm sorry. Talking to Mr. Alderman Connors on this one, I understand that your caucus may have some questions or issues on this one, and I thought maybe Mr. Dorsey could just briefly go through the reasons these things are before us. Yeah, sure. So third time tonight, here I am. So this is a small capital improvements bond project. It's got four different projects located within. Also here tonight is Jason Outlaw. city engineer that works up in public works. He met Rob Trottier before he took over for Rob about a year ago. So first project listed on here and I believe there should be pictures of all these on all of your desks. There's a concept for the Willow Street Park project. That's where the building at 238 North Street was demolished roughly six weeks ago or so. And prior to that there was another building next to it Brothers Cleaners that was also there that was taken down the city now owns both those properties. It's right next to Alderman Sanchez's her house there. So what that would do is that would change that whole vacant land area to. So if you're looking at the picture there obviously so The far left there is the corner of Oak Street. That's currently a vacant lot. That's where the old cleaners was. Then where it says lawn planning and all that, that's where the 238 North Street was that came down. Currently there's some environmentals going on there. They found eight tanks in the ground that if they were oil tanks, it would have been fine. they were eight all dry cleaning solution tanks, which, from what I'm told, is the absolute worst of the worst that you could find in the ground. So we're currently going through a remediation that's being paid by an old Brownfields grant, and on top of that, there would have to be what's known as an ELUR, that's Environmental Land Use Restriction, essentially saying there's not much that could ever go back on top of it. That work's being done, and he will be here at the next meeting, too, Sebi Amenta, CEI and but that's already been paid for brownfields and then a small portion of some CDBG funding but yes this is what the reimagining of this area of the park would look like for Willis Street the second thing is the Walnut Hill Park paving project that's the loop itself the Willowbrook Park paving project lot of peas that's the the parking lot at veterans New Britain Stadium and Beehive Stadium important thing and note with those two projects is those projects not the projects but those two parks have the ability to bring in revenue to the city Willowbrook for example they have the food truck festival numerous people utilize uh, Willowbrook for, um, events that are renting out either veteran stadium or into Britain stadium for parking concerns. Um, Walnut Hill has the race in the park. It has the cyclocross, uh, by the nutmeg state games, um, and numerous other, uh, charitable walks and events and all that stuff. And then the last thing is the Martha Hart dredging project. That's of doors pond. You might have to change a language in there because I think we listed it Martha Hart Pond, but the official name of the pond is Doerr's Pond, D-O-E-R-R apostrophe S. A little bit of a history lesson way back when as it used to be used as ice harvesting. People utilized that to sell ice throughout town. But what happened at Martha Hart is similar to what happened at Stanley Quarters several years ago where last year all the fish We're killed because of no oxygenation, if that's the proper term for that, in the water. And it's just caused a mess with that being one of New Britain Little League's home diamonds over there. It's just the pond needs badly to be dredged. But Jason Outlaw could get into far greater detail on those projects. Good evening. I met some of you. I'm Jason Outlaw. I'm the city engineer. So I think we assist the Parks Department in a lot of these projects. I think for us, the thing to note for Willowbrook Park and the paving of the lot there, there's already been quite a bit of patching. There's a lot of alligator cracking, transverse cracking. The concern is that when the pavement starts unraveling, we're going to spend more every year on patching It ends up with potholes, creates dangerous situations, creating liabilities for anyone going there for whether it's games or other events. And the same is similar for Walnut Hill Park paving. That is the loop road that goes through the park, but it's not just the road for vehicles. So there's a big section of that that is a pathway, whether it's cyclists, walkers, or people with strollers. The concern here is we need to maintain that to ADA standards, making sure that it's treated as a sidewalk, not just a roadway for vehicles. So potholes, cracking, that's a much bigger concern for a walkway for pedestrians. Jason, I'm not sure if you could talk to this, but when I was talking to the mayor about this project, and my understanding, Willowbrook, the Veterans and Beehive Stadium project, that there were going to be increasingly more permeable surfaces added to the project that helps with the water flow? Yeah, so one thing we're considering is right now you have John Karanik Way that crosses through. There's a few small islands that are at the end of parking areas, but most of it is just an ocean of pavement, whether, you know, coming from the roadway right into the parking lot. So the hope is not only to restripe it, potentially create more parking spaces or better utilized parking, and then all the gaps in between can become a pervious surface that would capture rainwater, which goes towards our MS4. requirements. You know, we have requirements year after year to reduce our pervious surfaces throughout the city. And this is a great place to do that because there's so many just painted islands that we could turn that space into pervious surface. The other concern, I know the PD when there's events there, school buses, they try to manage a lot. But because there's so many places for people to enter and exit, it's hard for them to control where people park. And once some people start parking illegally it starts blocking off fire access EMS access. So it really could be treated also as a safety concern for public access for the stadiums. Alderman McNamara. Mr. Chairman I don't doubt the value of these projects and I'm not sure the person to answer it but is there any other funding source for one or more of these projects. that the city may tap without bonding. And I'm not I'm not sure you're the guy but. No I don't believe I would be the person to answer for that. I could speak briefly on that Alderman. Any former bonds we wouldn't be able to utilize for this project just because the definition of those bonds is spelled out as to what they could be used for. Obviously that's always the first place that we look for that. Mr. Chairman because the distinction has been made between the previous two items that they are kind of different animals from external sources this is direct municipal bonding and I'm keen to have the most recent audit available as we move into the budget process And I would anticipate considering other bonding needs that may come up to consider along with these. And for that reason, I move to table this item. Do we have a second? Mr. Chair, I second, but also the concerns of the bonding for, we're waiting, again, we're waiting for the state for Island Street. And I'll be honest and be frank about it, because again, we have constituents that come in every council meeting 50-plus homes that are being worried every time there's rain. Even for myself, that I don't live in that area, every time I see a venture top pour, I'm nervous. I'm worried for these people because, again, it's their homes, their lives, their quality of life that have to be based on it. And don't get me wrong. These are great projects. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with these projects. What I'm saying is I think we need to put our priorities first. And as our people, they are the ones that have been coming every single day. Every single council meeting hasn't missed a beat. about this and I think that we could wait on this particular bonding until we get the final answers that we need for for the projects that are coming that we have to presence and stuff so I second the table until we find any more information on. I'm sorry I'm not I'll have to check with procedure I don't know if there's just. Table no no discussion so all in favor of the motion to table roll call. Mr. Clerk will you do a roll call vote on this. Alderman Connors? Yes. Alderman Barbosa? Yes. Alderman McNamara? Yes. Alderman Santiago? Yes. Alderman Pabon? No. Alderman Smedley? No. Alderman Baloin-Savajer? No. Commissioner Dario? Commissioner Morocco? Alderman McAdam? Alderman Russell? Did I call Alderman Barrosa? Got you. You have six votes for no, five votes for yes. Mr. Clerk the motion to table fails. Any further discussion on the item or questions seeing no further Alderman Barbosa. You know first and foremost I do not understand the urgency of these bonding requests. You know we are doing a disservice to our residents. Bonding is paid back by increased taxes, and residents have already faced multiple tax increases. With the new mayor on the horizon, there's a concern that this person will be burdened with addressing the fallout from the current administration. The last thing I want is for our new mayor to spend time cleaning up messes that have been hidden or left behind. Our goal is to make New Britain the best that it can be, but we must not overlook the challenges of our residents. such as flooding, homelessness, and education. We need to prioritize funding solutions that will create lasting impacts and genuinely improve lives. While I spend a lot of time in our parks and see the value in investing millions, we have entire neighborhoods that have been grappling with flooding for years. These issues lead to declining home values, difficulties in obtaining proper insurance, and potential health hazards. It's time we shift our focus to the real issues affecting our residents. We must take action and prioritize their needs. That's all I have to say. Thank you Alderman Barbosa. Alderman Valencia-Pedro. Well I agree we always have to look at what's going to affect the taxpayers of the City of New Britain whether we're talking about property taxes, water sewer taxes, our indebtedness, We always have to look at that. My statement would be this mayor has fixed the financial crisis of the city of New Britain. Whoever becomes mayor after this mayor is going to be very lucky to inherit the financial stability that has been achieved under her 12 years, whether it be in the deficit reduction in terms of the big hole in the budget that she inherited, But I have all the confidence in the world in this mayor and her recommendations. Our caucus has been through this, and I support the bonding that's in front of us, and I do not believe that there is any mess that the next person who holds the office will inherit. And I do say we are all very concerned about Allen Street. i'm not sure i would classified as a shovel ready project uh... as state representative defranzo has only the municipality could decide whether we're shovel ready or not but i would classified as a high needs uh... issue and i i really uh... hope that the state will come through with us on that one and it is a very very complicated project that it's it's not as easy as john downey drive it's not as easy as arch street or myrtle street uh... Allen Street is very very complicated so to classify it as shovel ready I think is misleading but certainly we want it to be shovel ready and funded and hopefully the state will come through for us but I just wanted to address the the comments about leaving a mess because there will be no mess to clean up after Mayor Stewart leads off this thing. Thank you Alderman Valencia. Alderman Scott had next. I just I wanted to say as a single mom raising my daughter I know the importance and have lived the importance of having to prioritize things and so we have to take our priorities first all the time and our safety and our health like I do believe you know there's some safety things with the parks as well but our safety and our health within our homes is a priority like our homes my home is flooding as well so I I'm directly impacted by that So I do take it personal. And it's the maintenance and the value of our homes. And it's just outright unsafe when there's a flood in your basement. Anything can happen when you're down there trying to clean up. You could fall. I mean, there's all kinds of dangers around this. And then our health with having this happening in the home. And it's been a mess. And for this administration, it actually has been a mess. This has been going on for 30 years. And It hasn't nothing's gotten fixed with this under this administration and there was actually misinformation before we took office. There was residents were lied to about four million dollars that was supposed to go towards it. So I just I do believe there is there are going to be some messes and I do agree with Alderwoman Barbosa and I think that this is a priority that needs to be looked at before fixing our park. Thank you Alderman Scott Alderman McNamara. Yeah I just want to reiterate that Britain has one of the highest per capita indebtedness in the state. So we have to proceed with caution and set priorities that matter in terms of life safety issues in terms of property values and other matters. So as we move forward with this proposal and others We need to weigh that in terms of bonding or spending money. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you Alderman McNamara. Any other statements? Seeing no other statements the motion on the floor is for a neutral recommendation. I'm all in favor of. Roll call. Roll call carries over. All right Mr. Clerk please call the roll. Alderman Connors. No. Alderman Barbosa. No. Alderman McAdam. No. Alderman McNamara. No. Alderman Santiago. No. Alderman Pabon. No. Alderman Smedley. Yes. Alderwoman Bologna-Savagia. Yes. Commissioner Dario. Yes. Commissioner Morocco. Yes. Alderman Russell. Yes. You have six votes yes, five votes no. Thank you. The motion carries. Made by Alderman Santiago seconded by Alderman Boyan-Savedra a bipartisan motion to adjourn. All in favor. Have a great night everyone.