Submitted by Peter Berg
Dear Editor,
Bad assumptions. We all make them. Like assuming we can drive across town in 20 minutes and then get stuck in traffic, so we are late for an appointment.
In business and government, many project teams make Bad Assumptions that lead them astray.
Some can be costly. The White Star Line, with government oversight, assumed the Titanic was practically unsinkable, leading to a fatal shortage of lifeboats.
Locally, the Hamill Task Force made a Bad Assumption. It assumed that a single site could meet every need.
•It had to be a full-sized rink to accommodate hockey.
• It couldn’t lose a hockey season.
• It had to stay in Byram, because it had been there for fifty years, starting with an outdoor rink in the way-back of the former school.
So the Task Force’s proposal rotates the existing uses at Eugene Morlot Park, including the rink, the parking lot, and Sal Strazza baseball field.
• The grade plain of the baseball field will be raised by 7’ in left field and 4.5’ over the entire field.
•Some expressed concern about traffic congestion in a hilly residential neighborhood. So the Task Force recommended bulldozing a new road through the woods on Western Jr Highway.
• Rink supporters asked for a snack bar, although the existing Hamill could not sustain one.
So the Task Force proposed a snack bar.
•Proponents want a year-round operation, although the existing Hamill is open only seven months a year. So the Task Force proposed a year-round operation, without providing a business plan.
•The Task Force proposed The Flip, budgeted at $41.2 million. Not counting the cost of the new road.
• Some members of the Hamill Task Force lobbied for “two sheets of ice,” to accommodate hockey, figure skating, and open skating, like Twin Rinks and Chelsea Piers in Stamford and the Playland Ice Palace, where Dorothy Hamill trained. But The Flip provides only one sheet of ice.
Meanwhile, the Task Force rejected a proposal for two rinks, with a total cost $6 million less than the Flip.
• First, a new municipal rink, Harborside Arena, can be built at 100 Arch Street, the footprint of the now-vacant teen center and Park’s garages. (See attached site plan)
• Roger Sherman Baldwin, a BET member, envisioned a recreational use for the proposed park.
•Harborside Arena can have a mezzanine level restaurant like the one at Twin Rinks. The restaurant can provide panoramic views of Greenwich Harbor, Long Island Sound, Baldwin Lawn, and the skaters below. This can be an affordable water-view restaurant for Greenwich residents, including for residents who don’t belong to a yacht club.
• Harborside Arena has a ground-level snack-bar, pro shop, and restrooms open to the adjacent Baldwin Park. The lease revenue can help lower skater fees.
• To mitigate flooding, the grade plane needs to be raised by only 3 or 4 feet, less than the 4.5 feet for the Strazza baseball field.
Using Task Force information, Harborside Arena costs $30.4 million
•$27.0 for the building, $2.1 for site work, $1.3 for demolition, per S/L/A/M.
• Then, renovate the existing Hamill Rink for $4.2 million, per the KD&G Rink Evaluation Report.
• Total cost for two rinks = $34.6 million. That is $6 million less than the Flip.
• There is also $10 million in the budget for Baldwin Park.
• Harborside Arena can adopt the governance structure of the Bruce Museum, which raised $69 million for its recent expansion.
• The Hamill Task Force did not interview any professional fund-raisers or conduct a fund-raising feasibility study to learn how much can be raised privately in donations, naming opportunities, and sponsorships.
The Hamill Task Force disqualified 100 Arch Street for two reasons:
1. Flood Plain. But the Task Force did no studies or surveys to learn how developers build mansions and multi-million condos in Greenwich’s flood plain. The vacant teen center is at elevation 11. Greenwich’s regulation requires 14.
2. Pedestrian Safety. The Task Force said Arch Street is dangerous for pedestrians to cross.
The Task Force conducted no studies or surveys to support that claim. It did not contact the Police Department for crash data or our traffic engineer to ask if Arch Street is dangerous, or how to make it safer. Arch Street has a signalized cross walk. It is used by thousands of residents who cross to the ferry terminal and to events at Baldwin Park.
Bottom line: No Titanic. Bad Assumption is exposed in time. Massive disruption to Morlot Park is avoided. Byram gets a neighborhood rink. Cross-town traffic congestion is minimized.
Residents who don’t belong to a yacht club get an affordable water-view restaurant. $6 million is saved, probably more.
You can learn much more at our website, HarborsideArena.com. Watch our videos.
Best regards,
Peter Berg
Peter Berg served on the BET and for 22 years on the RTM including 12 years as chair of the RTM Land Use Committee. He served on the First Selectman’s Greenwich Plaza Task Force.
He served two terms on the Greenwich Library Board of Trustees during the construction of the Peterson Wing including the purchase of the Grassi Cadillac property for parking. He co-chaired the Building Committee for the Cos Cob Library including the purchase of the land on Suburban Avenue. He was a director and executive director of the Greenwich Land Trust.