Derby officials are targeting late June for a referendum asking voters to approve borrowing $26 million and change for repairs to the city’s ailing sewer system and the replacement of roofs at three schools.
Aldermen identified those two projects as priorities during their regular meeting Thursday.
Two other projects that had been discussed as potential referendum items — renovations to the city’s municipal parking garage and buying downtown properties in Derby’s redevelopment zone — will not be considered, officials said.
Aldermen on Thursday did not actually vote to move forward with specific questions to put to residents, or set a date for the vote, but they directed Keith McLiverty, the city’s treasurer, and Corporation Counsel Joseph Coppola to work on developing referendum questions limited to those two projects.
McLiverty and Coppola said after the meeting that Aldermen will have to schedule a special meeting to give the OK to the questions, then meet jointly with the city’s tax board before an actual date is set.
Though the city’s Parking Authority on Tuesday voted to spend $35,000 for an engineer to develop plans to renovate the municipal parking garage on Thompson Place with a view to getting on the referendum ballot, Aldermen seemed concerned voters will have sticker shock if the city seeks approval of too many projects at once.
“When we do things like this, all the no votes come out,” Alderman Carmen DiCenso said, listing the various cost estimates involved. “You’re going to scare the hell out of a lot of people.
“I’m not so sure that we shouldn’t let the WPCA go by themselves,” he went on. “That’s what we need most the first time.”
“If we were going to add anything, I would say add the schools,” McLiverty replied. “Rates are cheap, our bond rating’s the highest it has ever been, who knows where the market’s going to go tomorrow.”
“There’s going to be a lot of no votes if we go for $40 million,” he added.
Also not making the ballot will be the potential buyout of property owners downtown in the city’s redevelopment zone.
Coppola told Aldermen Thursday that unless they could enter into contracts ahead of time with the property owners — and thereby have an exact figure of what to pay — the properties would need to be appraised to get an idea of the number.
“This sounds like this is going to draw out in weeks, that we wouldn’t make it,” said Alderman Ron Sill, who last week floated the idea of asking voters to approve $4 million to $5 million to buy the sites.
“You can’t just pick a number,” Coppola replied.
“We can’t wait any longer,” McLiverty offered, again stressing that interest rates are low, though who knows where the bond market will be going.
The Projects
Water Pollution Control Authority John Saccu said at Thursday’s meeting that estimates for a multitude of repairs the WPCA wants to ask voters to approve stands at about $25 million.
The number had been $35 million, but two of the projects — new pumping stations to replace problematic pipe systems in the Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers — are planned so far in the future that borrowing money to finance them wouldn’t make sense, McLiverty said.
The ballot would likely ask two questions on sewer work, one asking voters to approve the “most critical” repairs needed, totaling $20 million, and another asking them to approve “limited major capital improvements” of $25 million.
Saccu reiterated to Aldermen Thursday the dire need for the repairs.
“We continue to have serious breakdowns of vital systems that threaten our compliance, and seriously threaten our operational efficiency,” Saccu said. “Which must be taken care of. We need to move forward.”
Click here, here and here for more information on the WPCA issues.
Aldermen will also need to decide — before the referendum — whether to spread the bond payments for the repairs throughout the entire tax base or just residents and businesses using sewer service.
Also slated for the referendum ballot are new roofs at the Irving School, Bradley School and Derby High School.
The roofs on those three buildings have outlived their lifespans, school officials have said.
Estimates for the three replacement jobs came in Thursday, McLiverty said, and total about $5.7 million, though the city will only have to borrow $1.5 million of that amount, with the state paying the rest, he said.
The actual ballot question must ask voters to approve the $5.7 million, he said, but the explanatory text accompanying it can note the city will not actually borrow that much.
