Dunn states there is no need to vote now on demolishing CES

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD –First Selectman Steve Dunn says a proposal by a member of the ad-hoc Police Facilities Committee to hold a town meeting to determine whether to abolish the currently vacant Center Elementary School (CES) is ill-advised.

Ad-hoc Committee member Matt Grimes wrote in an e-mail to the Board of Selectmen: “Should the citizens of Brookfield vote to demolish the current structure or keep it in whole or in part, that decision will only benefit” the Police Facilities Committee and the Community Center ad-hoc committee.

Both committees are considering utilizing the parcel at 8 Obtuse Hill Road (Route 133) for future use.

Grimes stated, “Simply, it will be binding public input on land they own and help steer discussions.”

Grimes served on the Board of Education from 2001 to 2005 and was its chairman through the latter two years. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for first selectman in 2023.

Grimes wrote, “The taxpayers are paying for it. No decisions have been made for the site by the owners, the public. To agonize, to start another study, to send out another survey, to procrastinate, and to wait for a turn of events that may never arrive constitutes a weak - and potentially hazardous - route for the community to follow.”

In an e-mail message, Dunn stated, “The charge to the Community Center Ad Hoc Committee was to review the site, hire an architect and come up with plans to both rehabilitate the existing building or build new. To demolish a building without that information is not something I would support.”

Dunn wrote that it has not been determined whether it would be more cost-effective to rehabilitate the building or to demolish it.

He added that it only costs $20,000 a year to maintain the vacant school.

Dunn stated, “That is a nominal sum and keeping our options open has been the plan and should remain so.”

In late November, Dunn said that the CES ad-hoc committee had recently interviewed architects and would soon select one to “start planning a design” for the site.

CES, which had been the oldest school building in Connecticut and the only remaining wooden school, closed in June 2023 as the new $78.1 million Candlewood Lake Elementary School (CLES) prepared to open.

CES educated students from pre-kindergarten through first grade. CLES has students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and is located on Candlewood Lake Road, on the same parcel where the former Huckleberry Hill Elementary School stood.

Longtime civic volunteer Bob Zinser chairs the panel that is currently considering the future of the CES site, which could become a community center, library or recreation facility – or some combination of those options. Library officials have said since at least 1999 that the current library on Whisconier Road is too small to accommodate the town’s needs. It opened in 1975.

Zinser also chaired an earlier committee that sought input from residents on what activities they might want to have housed at the site on Route 133.

The ad-hoc Police Facilities Committee, which is chaired by former Police Chief Jay Purcell, plans to have a recommendation in June. Dunn has said the police facilities are the town’s top capital priority and that the ad-hoc committee’s proposal could be on the ballot in the November 3 election.

Dunn has said that the current police headquarters on Silvermine Road, which opened in the 1980s, no longer conforms to federal standards.

In October during a debate with Republican challenger Karl Hinger, Dunn said that CES would not be an acceptable site for a new police headquarters since it is near five traffic intersections, which would make it difficult for police vehicles to quickly respond to calls related to accidents and burglaries.

Hinger, who is now a member of the Board of Selectmen, said after the police headquarters is built the current headquarters could be converted into a community center, which would be located near athletic fields and the town hall.

Exclaimed Dunn, "The traffic on five different roads [near there] approaching the same location is not what we want."

Purcell told the selectmen last summer that the ad-hoc committee is considering expanding the current headquarters or building a new headquarters elsewhere on the municipal parcel near Pocono Road or building at another site.