Letters: 'This Is the Team We Need and Deserve'

This is the team we need and deserve

To the Editor:

My wife Giovanna and I want to express our strong support to John Lundeen, David Bayne, and Vicki Riccardo in their run for the Board of Selectmen. We have personally and closely known both John and David for years, and are outright impressed by the quality of the team they have put together along with Vickie for the leadership of our town.

I have known John Lundeen for over two years and have worked closely with him on various projects. John has an impressive breadth of expertise which makes him uniquely qualified to be first selectman. His credentials include 20 years of work experience in government and financial services, a strong academic background that includes a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard, and local expertise and firsthand knowledge of our town's issues as current vice chairman of the Darien Chamber of Commerce and local entrepreneur. Having lived in Darien for 25 years, John is deeply committed to improving our town and its management.

David has an impressive eight years of involvement with the town's government, including his elected positions as RTM district chairman and his past four years in the Board of Selectmen. Giovanna and I have known David for over 10 years since our sons became close friends in kindergarten. As our friendship grew, so did our admiration for David, seeing him become more and more involved in the community despite a full time career and daily commute to Manhattan. We remember among his many achievements David's outstanding performance and commitment following the March 2010 storm, as he worked tirelessly to restore normalcy to our savaged town.

The issues that Lundeen, Bayne, and Riccardo have set as priorities concern us all: fiscal responsibility while enhancing the town's services, increased state school funding, sidewalk improvement, affordable housing, commercial and business development, and environmental preservation. This team is profoundly committed to and passionate about public service. Their combined expertise in budget planning, analysis and control, public policy, legal issues, financial issues and environmental matters make this group of individuals exceptionally well prepared to tackle any complex issues and challenges that our town may face in the upcoming years. This is the team we need and deserve in Darien.

Victor H. Peña

8 Alpine Lane

Taxpayers should reflect on missed opportunities

To the Editor:

History has this remarkable tendency to repeat itself, even within a small community like Darien.  

In 2005 the town faced an important land use decision related to the purchase of the Procaccini property. At that time, David Bayne was a RTM member. He wrote to the Darien Times, "It seems to me that while purchasing the property may slightly add to our property taxes in the near term, it will save the town money in the long run." 

Mr. Bayne explained that if Darien purchased the Procaccini property the average homeowner would have experienced a tax increase of $115/year. Despite that near term expense, he argued it was worthy investment because the costs of education, police, waste disposal, and other town service burdens brought by market rate apartments would likely exceed any revenue benefits provided by property taxes.

Vickie Riccardo, also a RTM member in 2005, expressed her own displeasure with the decision via a letter to the Board of Finance which was reprinted in the Darien Times:

In closing the Procaccini discussion, you glared at your assembled neighbors and asked if we are ready to accept a 12% increase in the mill rate, implying that many of us are frivolous spendthrifts for questioning the BoF's paternalistic conclusion that purchasing the Procaccini property is unwise. Well, sir, I am ready to pay higher taxes if they will give the town the financial resources it needs to make our lives here better. Since I moved to Darien in 1995, I've read and heard that the town prides itself on having one of the lowest property tax rates in the state. And, we've gotten what we've been willing to pay for. Until recently, we've had crumbling school buildings; limited parkland and open space; overcrowded and overused playing fields; no public pool; an inadequate senior center; etc.

As the construction of the 62 market rate housing units on the Procaccini site commences, taxpayers should reflect on that missed opportunity (among many others over the years) so that we aren't led down a similar path by selling the 35 Leroy Avenue facility to a private developer. Ironically, this is now the misguided idea that is being endorsed by both Mrs. Riccardo and Mr. Bayne as well as their running mate.

Looking into the future, I am confident that Jayme Stevenson, David Campbell, and Jerry Nielsen will maintain their focus on providing fiscally responsible financial resources for Darien residents in order to make all of our lives here better over the long run. That is why they will receive my vote.

John Sini, Jr.

Birch Road

The writer is a member of the RTM's Planning, Zoning, and Housing Committee and the Treasurer of the Republican Town Committee.

The shuffle: a grandiose plan to fill empty spaces

To the Editor:

The shuffle is a grandiose plan to fill empty spaces, not to meet essential needs.

I have attended the facility tours and presentations. I have studied the drawings and the data. The shuffle is unnecessary. The Board of Education didn’t ask to move. The shuffle is too slow. The Darien Senior Center badly needs better space, but can’t move to until 35 Leroy is remodeled, the board of ed moves, and their previous space is remodeled.

The shuffle is way too big. Costs are much higher than first estimated. The projected growth in the number of seniors is not credible. There is now about 9,000 square feet of space in Town Hall the board of ed does not use. That space plus existing Town Hall gyms would be sufficient for the senior center/community center.

Let’s leave the Board of Education in Town Hall, use 35 Leroy for affordable housing, and remodel the unused space in Town Hall into a downsized senior center/community center as soon as possible. Seniors would get new space earlier. Affordable housing would happen sooner. Taxpayers would have lower costs. Everyone would win. What’s wrong with that?

Marc Thorne

Darien