The Derby Board of Aldermen Tuesday voted unanimously to open the municipal parking garage by Thursday morning.
A shuttle service will be available Wednesday at the municipal parking lot on the corner of Hallock’s Court and Caroline Street in Derby.
Crews worked from Saturday until Tuesday evening anchoring slabs of aluminum composite panels to the ceiling to form a barrier between damaged concrete and the public.
Some areas of the garage will still be off limits to the public. The city’s parking authority workers will be marking off those areas Wednesday and figuring out just how many parking spaces at the garage will be closed to vehicles.
The unanimous vote ends a turbulent few weeks within the Derby political scene.
The audio clip below contains a statement by Mayor Anita Dugatto, which she read into the record Tuesday.
Background
The Aldermen voted to shut the garage out of a concern for public safety on Feb. 27, after an engineer hired by the Derby Parking Authority — the city entity that operates the garage — said that parts of the structure should probably be closed because water-worn concrete could potentially fall from the ceiling.
The parking authority provided Alderman Carmen DiCenso with a two-foot slab of concrete that had fallen from the ceiling as proof of the poor conditions inside the garage.
At a meeting March 4, Aldermen tasked the parking authority with coming up with a plan, signed off by an engineer, to protect people from falling concrete. On March 7, Dugatto announced in a press release that IDA International of Derby would be making temporary fixes to the garage.
Dugatto’s actions angered members of the Board of the Aldermen — DiCenso, Barbara DeGennaro, David Lenart — because Dugatto ignored the order of the city’s legislative body.
Furthermore, they said the mayor does not have the authority to promise payments to IDA International, who donated the metal panels but are being paid an hourly rate for labor.
Also, the mayor promised to pay Valley Transit for two days use of a commuter shuttle, without getting authorization from anyone in Derby government.
Anger
The mayor’s actions prompted a rebuke Tuesday from DiCenso, a fellow Democrat. He said Dugatto promised transparency while campaigning for mayor but went behind the Aldermen’s backs when it came to the parking garage.
“You went above our heads. We had already given them a directive,” DiCenso said.
Click the play button below to listen to an exchange between DiCenso and Dugatto.
Dugatto said the parking authority was working on ordering nets to attach to the ceiling to protect people from chunks of falling concrete. However, the nets had to be obtained through a special order, and wouldn’t arrive in Derby for two weeks.
In an interview with the Valley Indy before the Aldermen meeting, Dugatto, a dentist with an office on Elizabeth Street, said she was hearing from fellow downtown business owners about how the lack of parking downtown was hurting business — particularly Archie Moore’s, a large restaurant on Elizabeth Street.
Meanwhile, the free shuttle service — which Valley Transit provided for a week at no charge — was running out as of Friday, March 5.
So, instead of waiting weeks for nets to arrive while the garage sat closed, Dugatto said she reached out to IDA International, who offered a simple solution at a good price.
Dugatto said she acted out the city’s best interest. She said the Derby Parking Authority did not seem to be operating with a sense of urgency, a statement that angered members of the authority.
At the same time, the mayor acknowledged she probably stepped on a lot of toes.
“This is still a new job and I’m learning,” Dugatto said.
More Anger
Members of the Derby Parking Authority said they have no plans to pay IDA International for the work done, because it wasn’t authorized by the parking authority.
Click here to listen to a statement from Joe Moore, the parking authority’s chairman.
DeGennaro, the president of the Board of Aldermen, and a fellow Democrat with Dugatto, also implored the mayor to open up her lines of communication with her fellow elected officials.
“This nonsense has to stop. I’m at my end. I think everybody in this room knows I am at my end,” she said.
The harshest statement of the night came from Alderman Art Gerckens, but his admonishment wasn’t aimed at the mayor — it was aimed at the Derby Parking Authority. Gerckens accused them of trying to bully elected officials.
The Derby Parking Authority has been pushing for a public referendum in order to get permission from voters to allow the city to borrow money to make repairs at the garage. The latest estimate puts the price tag at $7 million.
The latest “temporary repairs” are merely a Band Aid on the aging, neglected garage.
“I think you did a little bit of overkill on this,” Gerckens said. Click play on the video at the top of this story to watch Gerckens’ comments.
