
The Derby Senior Center on Main Street (City of Derby photo).
ANSONIA/DERBY — The Derby Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen voted 5 – 4 on Thursday to reject an agreement that would have created a Derby-Ansonia Senior Center.
Ansonia is building a new senior center within 65 Main St., the same building that houses the new Ansonia Police Department. The combined senior center would have been there. Ansonia is still moving forward with its plans to open its facility in September.
Alderwoman Barbara DeGennaro, Alderwoman Anita Dugatto, Alderwoman Sarah Widomski, Alderman Brian Coppolo and Alderman Rob Hyder voted to reject the agreement.
Alderman Gino DiGiovanni, Alderman Ron Sill, Alderman Charles Sampson and Alderman Kevin Sharkey voted to approve the agreement.
The audio from the discussion is embedded below. The article continues after the podcast.
THE NO VOTES
In general, the no voters on the board lacked confidence in the deal.
Before voting no, Alderwoman DeGennaro said the Dziekan administration was supposed to provide information about possibly merging senior centers with the Town of Orange. In May, Walt Mayhew, the mayor’s chief of staff, posted a comment to The Valley Independent Sentinel’s Facebook page saying Orange was a possibility. Detailed information never arrived, DeGennaro said.
Dziekan indicated the Orange deal wasn’t real. He said ​“somebody made an off the cuff comment and somebody ran with it.”
​“Unfortunately it went out when it shouldn’t,” Dziekan said.
DeGennaro said the Ansonia deal called for Derby to pay for 50 percent of the senior center’s operating costs moving forward. How much that will cost Derby isn’t known, because operational costs fluctuate.
DeGennaro also said there could be less expensive avenues to explore, such as having Derby pay the membership fees for Derby seniors to use the Ansonia Senior Center. As it stands, seniors are able to join senior centers outside their home towns.
​“It would be cheaper to pay yearly dues for the Derby residents that belong to the senior center. They’d get the same benefits as a member (in Derby). I don’t think it’s in the city’s best financial interest. That’s what I have to say,” DeGennaro said. ​“I’m still concerned about some unknown costs.“
Alderwoman Dugatto said she was concerned about parking at the shared center, which will occupy 8,500 square feet on the first floor of 65 Main St. The space will be separate from the Ansonia Police Department on the upper floors.
Richard Buturla, an attorney who represented Derby in the negotiations with the City of Ansonia, said there were 100 parking spaces available. Some of those spaces are in a parking garage within the building (the garage needs repairs, the job is out for bid), and in parking lots next to the building. Dugatto was concerned the seniors would not have reserved spots, but Buturla said 100 spaces is more than enough.
Alderman Hyder said he was hesitant to do business with Ansonia because of Mayor David Cassetti’s comments over the past year. Cassetti has gone on morning radio programs criticizing the City of Derby for what he called a lack of cooperation in negotiations to merge schools (discussions that failed) and senior centers. Cassetti threatened to pull out of other intermunicipal agreements if Derby didn’t merge in those areas. Hyder said the mayor made good on one of threats, involving the use of Ansonia gas pumps for city vehicles.
​“What’s he going to do with the senior center after we make this agreement?” Hyder asked.
Alderwoman Widomski called the negotiations ​“tainted,” and said that the administration, at one point, put Walt Mayhew, the mayor’s chief of staff, in charge of the negotiations.
​“We didn’t hear about it for months, until we got attorney Buturla back, but this whole process has been tainted,” she said.
Alderman Sampson took exception to Widomski’s comments, saying that if Widomski has a problem with the Dziekan administration she should deal with it on her own, not during a public meeting.
THE DEAD DEAL
The deal on the table called for a 30-year agreement with the City of Ansonia with three, 20-year options to renew. Derby would have paid 25 percent of the senior center construction costs, not to exceed $300,000. The $300,000 would be paid off in 10 annual payments of $30,000.
Derby and Ansonia would split the yearly operational costs, which include employee salaries, electricity, heat and other items. Derby would not have been on the hook for capital costs, such as building repairs.
There would have been no cap on the number of Derby seniors (defined as 50 years of age and up) who could join the combined senior center. The Derby Senior center executive director and assistant director would have kept their jobs, with Derby’s executive director becoming in charge of the merged center.
The complete rejected deal is available by clicking this link.
THE YES VOTES
Derby senior center members interviewed by The Valley Indy in May were begging for the merger to move forward. The building, an old bank, is set up badly for seniors, with multiple levels, small rooms, and an elevator that seems to be on its last legs. A bathroom can’t be used because the floor is too ​“weak.” The members park in a garage next door that is literally falling apart (side note: Derby is researching whether the dilapidated garage can be repaired using federal funds). Click here to read a Valley Indy interview with Derby seniors.
Alderman Sampson said the deal with Ansonia would be cheaper for Derby, and the Derby seniors would have a new space with expanded programming.
He said the notion of the city just paying dues to send Derby members to the new facility didn’t make sense — because Ansonia can set the fees at whatever rate they want.
Sampson said right now the city spends money each year on a building that is ​“uninhabitable” and ​“just doesn’t work for them.“
Sampson, who worked on the deal, said the negotiations took a long time so Derby could ​“come up with a contract that I believe is in the best interest of the City of Derby at this present time.“
Sampson’s statement received audible support from Alderman Sill and Alderman DiGiovanni.
REACTION
The Valley Indy posted the vote tally Thursday evening on The Valley Indy’s Facebook page.
​“Shame on them for doing this to us seniors,” said Jan Mann, a Derby senior center member previously interviewed by The Valley Indy.
Mayor Dziekan’s office issued a statement Friday morning.
​“I am very disappointed the Aldermen chose not to provide our seniors with a brand new facility that is double the current square footage, with greatly improved access and parking, that offered Derby a true shared management oversight and responsibility of the entire program as they have now and the ability to have greatly expanded programming,” according to the statement. ​“I think to vote against such a proposal and do so saying our seniors can simply pay an annual fee and participate demonstrates a lack of understanding in what the proposal contains, what our seniors deserve and is a huge disservice to them and the value they are to our city.”
Derby has been talking about a new senior center since at least 2009. It is unclear what happens next.
Ansonia government is moving forward with its construction project. The work on the new senior center space is underway and it could open in October, according to John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel.
​“While this news does not alter the city’s plans to establish the best senior center in the Valley, we are saddened to learn that it will not be a joint venture with Derby’s seniors. The Valley is always stronger when working together,” Marini said.
Attempts at large-scale regionalization, although constantly talked about, have failed locally.
A committee formed in 2018 to explore regionalizing Ansonia and Derby school districts failed to reach an agreement and died with a whimper in February.
A study to regionalize sewer systems in the lower Valley has been met with ambivalence by local leaders, too.