Don’t say the Sterling Opera House on Elizabeth Street isn’t at the front of Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s 2010 “to do” list.
He keeps the keys to the place on top of his desk.
“I’ve always seen it as a way to attract culture and to bring more people downtown,” Staffieri said.
Progress on the Opera House is one of the mayor’s top priorities for 2010, the mayor said during an interview Tuesday.
The old Opera House has been under renovation since 2002, thanks to a multitude of grants.
Staffieri said Derby will award a bit shortly to a company who will come up with a plan to design the interior of the building. After that renovations could start inside the Opera House.
Staffieiri said the Opera House is more than a pipe dream — it’s one of several keys to rebuilding downtown Derby, where Staffieri himself was a businessman for decades.
“Look at the Waterbury Palace Theatre. My wife and I just saw the Christmas show there. It was spectacular. Then, afterward, we stopped at a restaurant to get a bite to eat. That area used to be a dump,” Staffieri said. “That theater revitalized the whole area.”
The city has submitted an application to the feds, hoping that the Opera House project can be funded with federal stimulus money, Staffieri said.
Downtown Redevelopment
The city took a giant leap forward in 2009 by wrestling itself free from a contract with a developer for the downtown redevelopment zone, Staffieri said.
Staffieri said there are many issues still swirling downtown, but called redevelopment the most important priority of his administration in 2010.
“It’s the no. 1 priority and has always been the no. 1 priority,” Staffieri said.
In 2010, residents will see a new road be constructed in the area behind BJ’s Wholesale off Division Street. The idea is to attract businesses to make the new road their home, which will bolster the city’s tax base.
How does that play into the downtown redevelopment zone, which runs along Main Street toward the Route 8 ramps?
Well, Staffieri said the city hopes some of the existing businesses in the redevelopment zone will consider moving to the new business zone, so that the city and developers can move forward with downtown revitalization.
“If you want your city to succeed, you obviously have to have a good downtown,” Staffieri said. “I see something coming about. There is real interest in most of those properties. I see the project moving forward.”
The city will also be using federal stimulus money in 2010 to pave roads, including Elizabeth Street, in the heart of the city’s downtown business district.
O’Sullivan’s Island
Now into his third term as Derby mayor, Staffieri said he’s accepted the fact projects financed by the government progress much slower than the private sector — especially when you’re relying on grants. He said that’s why Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley is so important to the city — she fills out much of the paperwork needed to snag the money, the mayor said.
“You have to fight for every penny — not every dollar — every penny,” Staffieri said.
Then again, sometimes you get surprised — like in 2009, when the city, using grant money, finished a clean-up of toxic materials underneath O’Sullivan’s Island, a peninsula near the Derby Greenway (also known locally as the Riverwalk).
2010 will see the construction of a walking trail around the newly-cleared field, along with a handicap-accessible fishing area.
Like culture entities, passive recreation can be another economic piston that indirectly drives economic growth, Staffieri said.
Don’t believe him? Look at the non-Derby residents that use the river walk every day.
“It creates a positive image,” Staffieri said. “People want to come here.”
The Transfer Station
The city closed its transfer station at the end of 2009, after a state labor board ordered out Annex Associates, the company running the facility. The city must negotiate with a union representing the city’s Department of Public Works about who runs the transfer station, according to a ruling from the state labor board.
Staffieri said the city has tried to talk to the union, but the union won’t talk.
It was also revealed the city never received a permit to operate the transfer station, despite the fact it’s been open since 1996.
Residents are now using Shelton’s transfer station — and will be for the next three to six months.
The city is trying to secure an operating permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection, but, in the long run, Staffieri said he rather see a private entity run the transfer station — especially given the history of problems at the facility and the lack of oversight by the state.
“The best way is to let a private firm run it,” the mayor said.
“Private firms, the government can be like a watchdog and watch over them,” he said. “When the government has to watch themselves, they don’t do a good job.”
