The City Council voted Monday night to drop $100,000 for a skateboard park from a bond, after a city councilor admitted he had added the spending to make a point, which “backfired” when councilors approved it.
The council voted, 4-2, Monday night in favor of the amended bond, with Councilor Gary Groves, who added the money for the skateboard park, and Council President Jim Violette voting against the bond. Councilor Ann Peoples was not present at the meeting.
The vote left intact the $150,000 added a couple weeks ago, which prompted Groves to add the skateboard park money as a statement. The money included $50,000 for the Westbrook Food Pantry and $100,000 for improvements to city playgrounds.
Councilor Brendan Rielly, who added the food pantry money, defended the additional spending Monday. “These are issues that we have been working on for years,” he said. “This isn’t something that has come about on a lark or on a whim. We don’t play with the public trust.”
On Monday night, Groves made a motion to cut the entire $250,000 from the bond. “I do believe all three items are worthy,” Groves said. “I just don’t feel on any given night we should just add $250,000 to a bond without any indication to the public.”
Groves’ motion failed after it was not seconded. Rielly then moved to reduce the bond by $100,000, eliminating the money specifically set aside for the skateboard park and leaving in the money for the food pantry and the playgrounds.
The capital improvement bond originally started out as a $1.1 million bond to pay for a new ladder truck for the fire department, a dump truck and a snow blower for the Public Services Department, and money for street paving and an engineering project at the Public Services building. The administration then asked the council to approve an additional $150,000 to cover the cost of replacing the HVAC system at the Walker Memorial Library. That cost would have been covered by interest from the library’s Fluett Trust Fund.
Before voting on the bond during an Aug. 15 City Council meeting, councilors moved to add $250,000 for the Westbrook Food Pantry, playground improvements and a skateboard park to the bond.
While he said he felt all three items were worthy ones, Mayor Bruce Chuluda told councilors he did not feel they should be included as part of the bond. “I was certainly taken aback by the request to add additional money to this bond,” he said. “To be honest, I don’t support this additional request.”
Leona Glidden of Spring Street criticized the council Monday night for adding money to the bond. “I think we’re borrowing too much money,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right spending all that time going through the budget and then when you want something, you just go and borrow the money. There’s lots of things I’d like to have, but I don’t have the money for it.”
Councilor Brendan Rielly added $50,000 for the food pantry. Rielly described the money as an “insurance policy” to make sure the pantry remains open as it searches for a new home.
Rielly said he included the money in the bond to make sure the food pantry would not have to close due to a lack of money to pay for a space. He said he believed if the food pantry were to close, it would cost the city’s general assistance fund well over $50,000 to provide the services that the food pantry does.
In a prior interview, City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the city would have to spend the $50,000 within two years or face penalties from the Internal Revenue Service designed to stop communities from borrowing money they don’t need.
After Rielly added the money for the food pantry, Councilor John O’Hara moved to add $100,000 to improve the city’s playgrounds. He said the city started to look at improving the playgrounds a couple of years ago, and he felt it was time to take some action.
Councilor Gary Groves then moved to add $100,000 for a skateboard park. A move he later said was intended to make a statement about adding money to bonds at the last minute. He admitted the move “kind of backfired” when councilors approved his request on Aug. 15.
At the meeting Monday, O’Hara addressed the issue of the playgrounds in the city, saying the $100,000 he added to the bond is necessary to bring the city’s playgrounds up to modern standards, and would leave money for the skateboard park as well.
O’Hara said while the city’s playgrounds were designed for younger children, the skateboard park was necessary because there was nothing in the city for older kids who don’t want to play organized sports. “There is a huge gap for the 13 to 17 year olds in this community,” O’Hara said. “There is just nothing there if they don’t play organized sports. That is why it is extremely crucial for once and for all to put the issue of a skateboard park to rest.”
Because of the amendments to the bond, the council must still vote on the bond once more before the city can borrow the money.
In other news, the council voted, 6-0, to approve, on first reading, a measure authorizing the city to issue refunds to residents who were improperly taxed when the city vacated its rights to so-called paper streets. The city has adjusted the tax assessments for the residents in question, and will no longer be taxing them on that land.
The city will be refunding a total of approximately $13,500 to correct the error. The total represents the amount of tax collected on that land plus interest from fiscal year 1999-2000 to fiscal year 2004-2005.
The council must approve both the bond and the tax rebate at a second reading at its next meeting. The next regular City Council meeting is scheduled for Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. in room 114 of Westbrook High School.
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