Annual BET Letter

To The Editor:

I send a letter to BET in March every year trying to explain the MISA situation.  I probably sent you copies, and you may have printed some of them...I lose track.  The 2013 letter will go to BET next week.

Here's the 2012 letter: 

               "Measure Once - Cut Twice"

            "Progress on MISA completion 
                    will not be delayed."
 
          The First Selectman's Budget Notes
     Recommended Town of Greenwich Budget
       Fiscal Year July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013
 

"The Greenwich Performing Arts Center" was originally proposed as a $14,000,000 renovation of the GHS auditorium along with expanded parking to accommodate larger crowds.

When the estimated cost went to $20,000,000 (enough to build a new high school) BOE changed the name of the project to "MISA" and explained the additional cost as "Music Instruction Space" renovation.

Actual "Music Instruction Space" renovation boosted the estimated total cost to $28,000,000.

"Bifurcating" the project into two separately budgeted phases raised the estimated total cost to $35,000,000.

Now we are told the estimated total cost is $37,000,000.

Please note, this is for the Auditorium only. "Phase 2 - Music Instruction Space", and "Phase 3 - Parking, Driveways, Landscaping, Stormwater Drainage", are no longer included in the "MISA Footprint".

The $37,000,000 total does not include most of the cost incurred to date--roughly $13,000,000 -- bringing the actual total projected MISA Auditorium cost to more than $50,000,000.  

This $50,000,000 actual total projected MISA Auditorium cost does not include MISA Footprint PCB remediation, which will almost certainly cost more than the auditorium itself.

Bill Effros
Bill@Effros.com

Here's the 2011 letter:

                           BOE MISA Proposal Omits Critical Fact

Attached please find the MISA site plan submitted to The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) by the Board of Education (BOE), with an overlay of the current Town of Greenwich (TOG) "Wetlands" (in green) map taken from the 2008 Greenwich Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) (Page 55). The same designated wetlands area currently appears on all official records designating protected wetlands published in the Greenwich Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Data Base submitted by the Town to both State and Federal authorities. 

As you can see, the BOE site plan, and thus the cost estimate for The Greenwich Performing Arts Center (MISA), is seriously deficient as it does not disclose the fact that the proposed project is unquestionably within a protected wetlands area requiring extensive state and federal permitting procedures and environmental protection safeguards.

BOE was advised of this critical factual error at the first public MISA meeting, prior to submission of the site plan to P&Z. Review and approval of plans for any construction in, or alteration of, property in a designated wetlands area is required by numerous Town, State and Federal rules and laws, including, but not limited to, The Clean Water Act (CWA), The Connecticut Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), TOG Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency (IWWA) Regulations, and Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) regulations requiring public notice, preparation and submission of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).  

The Town Attorney has formally acknowledged, in writing, that BOE has not prepared or submitted an Environmental Impact Statement, and consequently no Federal or State permits, licenses or approvals for the project in a protected wetlands area have been secured. 

Knowingly proceeding with this project without notice, study, approval and licenses subjects the Town and its taxpayers to serious potential financial liability including fines and major remediation expenses. The cost of the MISA project before you has been seriously underestimated, as it cannot legally go forward in its present form. 

Bill Effros

Here's a second 2011 Letter sent back-channel to an individual on BET: (I include it because it is just as true today.  You can't transfer P&Z and IWWA final approvals from one site plan to the next, you've got to start all over again.)

                               MISA -- Not Ready for Prime Time

Pursuant to municipal, state, and federal law, every project in The Town of Greenwich (TOG) seeking Municipal Improvement (MI) status must post notice in the "Environmental Monitor" at least two weeks prior to consideration by any town agency if the project is ever to obtain state funding.

The Board of Education (BOE) never posted legally required notice for the MISA Project.

BET is prohibited from considering this matter until BOE fully complies with the Clean Water Act (CWA), The Connecticut Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), and TOG Municipal code.

Even if BOE is able to obtain all necessary federal, state, and municipal permits, the cost of the project is sure to skyrocket because the current site plan contemplates building without making provisions for the fact that the entire high school property is a wetlands, according to the Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), TOG Geographic Information System (GIS), and all site plans previously submitted by BOE.

When I raised this issue at the first public MISA meeting in 2007, the answer I got was "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

I believe they have come to it.

Bill

Here's the 2010 letter:

                                             Money Pit

Planning and Zoning Commission Section 6-14 (a) (1) B) requires all site plans to include:

            "Existing contours at no more than a two-foot vertical interval"

The MISA site plan before you shows no contour lines.

Why?

Because if the contour lines were indicated you would be able to see MISA cannot be built in the manner or at the cost projected.

Greenwich High School was built in a swamp created by water stagnating in a granite "bowl" left behind by the last ice-age glaciers.  When the ground water level exceeds 40 feet above sea level, water escapes from the "bowl" seeping into nearby ground (“wetlands”). 

The site plan before you shows a single elevation of 54.77 feet above sea level, apparently extending from the northern end of the property all the way to the Post Road with a concrete lined culvert, shown as "wetlands", snaking around and through the playing fields.  The Greenwich Information System, and all prior Greenwich High School Site Plans show something quite different--most of the property consists of “wetlands” roughly 40 feet above sea level.

The MISA site plan envisions digging a 20 to 30 foot deep hydraulically operated "orchestra pit" into the granite bowl.

Obviously, all the water in the swamp is going to flood into the pit and MISA will not be built as shown in the plans.  If you saw a site plan with properly indicated contour lines you would see this immediately.

The Board of Education already knows MISA cannot be built in the manner or at the cost presented. They are trying to fool you by submitting a site plan that omits critical required information.  If The Board of Education wants to build new classroom space and renovate the auditorium, we must insist they properly present a plan that can actually be built, along with cost estimates that can actually be met.  

We have already thrown more than enough time and money into this pit.

Bill Effros

Bill@Effros.com

Here is the 2009 BET letter:

To The BET:

Because the Board of Education either can't or won't keep a straight set of books, no one has the slightest idea how much has been spent to date on the project now called "MISA".  Suffice it to say the number is well above $10 million, and at this point the community has nothing to show for it.

Bill Effros

Bill@Effros.com