Parking question too late for vote on Nov. 8

As published in the Record Journal, Thursday September 15, 2011

By Robert Cyr
Record-Journal staff
rcyr@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224

WALLINGFORD — Nov. 14 is the date a town-wide referendum will take place on the Town Council’s controversial decision to upgrade a private parking lot in return for public parking.

The council set the date late into its regular meeting Tuesday night. The referendum vote will likely cost more than $30,000.

Putting the referendum on Nov. 8 election ballot was not an option. The secretary of the state’s office would have needed to be contacted by Sept. 8, which was also the petition drive’s deadline, said Town Clerk Barbara Thompson.

“That was impossible from the start,” she said. “It’s not something we’ve ever done — we’re not familiar with how to do that.”

Voters will be asked to consider overturning the council’s Aug. 9 decision to make up to $500,000 in upgrades to a group lot behind four buildings along Simpson Court in return for 30 years of free public parking. Those opposing the council’s decision say town money should not be invested in private property.

Robert Gross, organizer of the petition drive to hold the referendum, said the Nov. 14 date likely won’t affect voter turnout.

Gross was also instrumental in a referendum on the town owned Wooding-Caplan property five years ago, a vote that was held during the summer, when most people were on vacation.

The town bought the 3.5acre Wooding-Caplan parcel in May 1992 for $1.5 million. In April 2006, the council voted to sell the property to local developer Joseph DiNatale for $409,000. Four months later, voters rejected the council’s decision 6,659-413.

“We wouldn’t have done it if we weren’t confident we’d get a good turnout,” Gross said Tuesday night. “We did it once before, and we’ll do it again.”

For the Simpson Court referendum, Gross and other volunteers, including Town Councilor Nicholas Economopoulos, collected far more than the 2,491 signatures needed, or 10 percent of registered voters in town. Thompson certified 2,634 names and had not counted about another 600 signatures.

At least 20 percent of registered voters must participate for the referendum to count.

The Nov. 14 vote will be held from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at polling places in Lyman Hall’s Vo-Ag center, the Senior Center, and a third polling place at either Moran Middle School or Sheehan High School. Registrar of Voters Chester Miller said a decision on the school will be made in the coming days.

The cost of the referendum will likely exceed $30,000, he said.

“Things are more expensive than they were for the Wooding- Caplan vote,” he said. “We have to pay for things we didn’t have to before.”

Due to changes in election rules, the town now has to pick up the bill for paper ballots, and the 8,000 ballots Miller will probably order for the referendum could cost as much as $1 per ballot, he said. Add to that about $16,000 for staff to work the polls and custodial staff to keep the buildings open, and about $1,300 for memory cards for electronic voting machines, he said.

The town owns 20 electronic ballot-scanning machines, and nine are required for elections. A referendum vote on the same night as the general election would require another nine machines with staff for each unit and both personnel and back-up machines mandated by the state would be lacking, Miller said.

Other costs include setting up dedicated phone lines between election officials and making sure the different machines and polling booths are outside proscribed distances from each other, in separate rooms.

Each voting station requires separate tables for the ballot clerk, moderator, assistant registrar and official ballot checker, with a minimum of 36 square feet around each voting machine and 25 square feet around each voting booth, Miller said.

“Everybody thinks it’s clear cut, but it’s not,” he said.

New train station location proposed

As published in the Record Journal, Wednesday September 14, 2011

By Robert Cyr
Record-Journal staff
rcyr@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224

WALLINGFORD — After much concern and public input from a meeting last month, a state transportation official returned Tuesday to present another possible location for a train station that will be part of a multi-million- dollar railway upgrade, connecting New Haven and Springfield, Mass.

Town councilors worried about increased automobile traffic and problems involving development around proposed train station sites at Judd Square and a newly proposed Parker Street location.

“I think this could be a real winner, for not only the state of Connecticut but for points up north as well,” said Councilor John Sullivan. “But my real concern is that we don’t have a long-term plan for the downtown.”

Plans call for upgrading signals along the track, which is slated to start as early as next spring. The first proposed station at Judd Square has raised concerns over an elevated platform and parking for 200 cars. The proposed Parker Street station, farther from downtown and higher-density population areas, was drafted on public input, said DOT Project Manager John Bernick.

Wallingford has the most crossings of track over road of any municipality along the corridor — 10, eight with signals and two gates without signals. The most heavily trafficked areas are Parker, Hall, Ward and Quinnipiac streets. The town now has five or six trains passing through every day. The rail project calls for 25 cars running every half-hour during peak morning and evening commutes and once an hour in between, Bernick said.

Springfield will become a central connector, with service to Boston, Vermont and finally to Montreal. The $647 million project consists of double-tracking 62 miles of track, upgrading the signals, building new stations in North Haven, Newington and Enfield, relocating Wallingford’s station and building new elevated platforms, walkways and parking garages in each town.

“This service promotes transit-related development, and allows the downtown to grow without creating traffic congestion that normally goes with it,” Bernick said. “We’re here to make sure that no matter what site comes out in the end, it’s buildable and the impacts aren’t any more than what we anticipated.”

An environmental impact study, with a public comment period, is expected to be completed and ready for presentation in November. Once the studies are done, the project will be eligible for $121 million in federal funding, he said. Full service could begin by 2016.

Public officials have said they are concerned that more trains, which can go as fast as 110 mph, would pose a safety threat to residents and disrupt nearby businesses. A traffic study previously conducted by Wilbur Smith & Associates gave several crossings poor ratings for the proposed project without altering streets and traffic flow.

Some residents, however, disagreed with the DOT’s philosophy and cost benefit studies that say the upgraded railway would create economic growth along the commuter corridor. Public Utilities Commissioner David Gessert told Bernick that the transit system would benefit few and be a financial burden to many.

“I think it’s a beautiful fairy tale, but I don’t think all of these things are relay going to happen,” he said. “It’s hard to see in my mind how this high speed train is going to be of any tremendous value.”