The State of the Town

Greenwich needs to continue to grow its business base and to that end First Selectman Peter Tesei is establishing an Economic Advisory Council.

In his annual State of the Town address to the Greenwich Chamber of Commerce Friday, Tesei announced he is appointing a 11-member body that will be charged with attracting new businesses to Greenwich as well as keeping abreast with the competition posed by surrounding communities. Nine members will be business owners and leaders, along with two nonvoting members - the chamber's director and a member of the town's Board of Estimate and Taxation.

Following his address to about 70 chamber members at a luncheon held at the Millbrook Club, Tesei said the council "is really in the infancy stages" and that he has not decided on who will be appointed. "It will be a collaborative effort and a little more disciplined than the chamber's full board. I want them to explore what are the things that need to be done to attract businesses," Tesei explained.

He said he has been meeting with chamber officials for the last six months discussing how to implement an advisory council plan. "In the next couple of months, we will have a more firm plan and sit down with potential members including someone who is an economist," Tesei continued.

In a wide-ranging presentation, Tesei also discussed the town's budget process and the need for capital improvements including the controversial proposals to expand and improve the auditorium and music instruction space at Greenwich High School and to relocate the Central Fire House to a temporary site to be built in the Horseneck Lane commuter parking lot while a new fire house is built on Havemeyer Place. (See video.)

Those two projects are part of the Representative Town Meeting's budget decision meeting to be held Monday night at 8 o'clock at Central Middle School.

In answering a question from Richard Kral, an RTM member and owner of the Greenwich Water Club and Beacon Point Marine, about the ranking of capital improvement projects, Tesei said, "There are some people who want to crawl into a fetal position and not do anything. There are others who want to whip out the credict card and bond everything. That's where information from departments comes into play" in ranking the importance and feasibility of each project.

John Blankley, the declared candidate for the Democratic nomination for First Selectman, asked whether the town would expand private-public partnerships to fund capital projects. Tesei said the town is seeking to identify potential partners for projects ranging from the town's senior center, the Old Greenwich Civic Center rehabilitation to the Greenwich Emergency Medical Service that is considering buying the building housing its headquarter operations at 1166 E. Putnam Ave. as a permanent headquarter and training facility.

Tesei highlighted one of the latest public-private partnerships with the Greenwich Point Conservancy which is completing the renovation of the Innis Arden Building at Greenwich Point Park. The building will house the Bruce Museum Seaside Education Center and be named the Floren Family Environmental Education Center in recognition of a $300,000 donation from the family of state Rep. Livvy Floren and her husband Douglas.

Public-private partnerships aren't new. The town was able to renovate the Western Greenwich Civic Center on Pemberwick Road, now known as the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center, with private donations.

Tesei also announced the town has received confirmation from the state Department of Transportation that Route 1 will be repaved this summer, from Dearfield Drive (at Greenwich Library) to the New York state border. Also scheduled for repaving is the Greenwich corridor of the Connecticut Turnpike from Exit 2 to the Stamford border.