School Officials Criticized Over Unfinished Athletic Complex

Durham's Planning and Zoning Commission had a clear message Wednesday night for Region 13 school officials hoping to get extra time to complete a controversial bathroom facility at the new Coginchaug High School athletic complex: No plan, no extension.

The commission grilled school district officials on their application for a 24-month extension to complete the bathrooms, which were supposed to have been finished by the end of January.

"For us to sit here and hear, 'Well, we don't know what the plan is, we don't know how much the money is,' frankly, I'm like, 'Are you kidding me?,'" commission member Lisa Davenport said.

In 2009, Durham resident Karen Cheyney sued the school district and the Planning and Zoning Commission to stop the new complex from being built. The settlement of that suit required any changes to the project to be approved by Region 13, the PZC and Cheyney and stipulated that the work be finished no later than 18 months after the settlement date.

Region 13 attorney Tim Hollister told the commission that work has been done on the bathrooms, but there was no money to finish the job.

"What's been done, as you know, is the slab has been laid, the utilities have been (put) in, but at this point, let's be very candid: there is no specific appropriation to finish off the bathrooms," Hollister said.

But attorney John Corona, who represents Cheyney, said during the hearing that the district had failed to lived up to its end of the settlement.

"I heard [attorney Hollister] say earlier that this is something like a high priority for the district and yet it wasn't the district that came in and said 'We realize we're approaching the deadline and we'd like some more time and here's what our plan is,'" said attorney John Corona. "They've done zero."

Cheyney told the commission that while she felt the restrooms needed to be built, the school district should not be given more time to complete the project until officials present a viable plan for it.

"The school built the facility. They spent four million dollars. They decided to put in expensive artificial turf. They decided to do all of these things, which is their decision, except they chose not to include bathrooms, and they said we'll have somebody else pay for it. Oops, nobody paid for it," Cheyney said.

In 2008, voters in Durham and Middlefield approved a $4.99 million bond that did not include construction of the bathrooms. At the time, officials said, money to pay for the facilities would be raised through donations.

"We don't have any money to build it," said Bill Currlin, chairman of the building project committee overseeing the athletic complex. Currlin said the bathroom facility would cost between $100,000 and $180,000, depending on how much of the work was done "in-kind."

Several Board of Education members, including finance subcommittee chair Kerrie Flanagan, used the opportunity to clear up confusion over the board's role in the project, specifically in overseeing funding for it.

Flanagan noted that the board had recently voted unanimously to reappropriate just over $123,000 left over from the bonding project back into the district's capital reserve fund and towards paying down the district's debt.

The money, Flanagan said, was designated specifically for the school wells and roofs projects that had been completed. The athletic fields project, she said, had gone about $13,000 over budget.

"Just clarify something for me: Although money was shifted from one place to another, there never was money for the bathrooms, and even after the shifting there still isn't any money for the bathrooms," asked commission member Frank DeFelice. "So all of the shifting is irrelevant to the bathrooms?"

"Correct," Flanagan responded.

Superintendent of Schools Susan Viccaro indicated that funding for the project could come out of the 2012-13 school budget, which will be voted on by residents next month.

While the commission voted to continue the public hearing on May 2, any request must be also approved by Cheyney and the court as a part of the settlement. 

"We will move forward with this, we will do it the right way. We will get the building built," Viccaro said.