Submitted by Bill Drake, Chairman, Rink User Committee for Design and Planning
The latest e-mail to our town’s Democrat party members (On the rink delay, the puck stops with Fred Jan 30, 2025) seems to be a declaration by Mr. James Waters that he is a candidate for first selectman in the election this November. Partisan Greenwich Democrats take aim at Mr. Camillo particularly on the topic of the Hamill rink. Missing their target badly, instead they damage recreation, budgets, Byram and baseball.
The Democrats wrote “Last year, the RTM’s Budget Overview Committee (BOC) ‘universally agreed that oversight is a problem with this project,’ and urged Camillo to create a building committee, similar to school projects.” The BOC chair is …(surprise)… Mr. Waters. James together with rink project opponent Mr. Al Shehadi have repeated this criticism of the Rink User Committee. This is certainly not a conclusion justified by actual observation since neither of them have attended any of the committee meetings over the last four years.
Everyone knows that Greenwich needs a new rink. “Every RTM member who spoke agreed that we need a new rink, plus somewhere for skaters to go while it’s built,” admit the Democrats. Among the Greenwich residents who elected the RTM members, the support for a new rink is overwhelming: 84% in the professional survey, 90% in the emails to the Planning and Zoning Commission in November and 90% in the emails to the RTM in January. It is unfortunate that the RTM felt obligated to vote on the rink project before the analysis was complete. One key issue is that they felt detailed financials were owed them at this point which is not the case. This obviously created a lack of confidence in the rink “flip” plan.
The morning after the RTM vote, Mr. Waters made a written recommendation that a building committee like that for the Old Greenwich school should be formed for the rink project. The chairman of the Old Greenwich School building committee is …(surprise)… Mr. Waters. However it seems his recommendation probably violates the charter, section 75 which covers the responsibility of the Director of Parks and Recreation and section 150 which covers the responsibilities of the Commissioner of Public Works. The Commissioner of Public Works is the sponsor and designer of the rink project, not the Rink User Committee (let’s correct that misunderstanding.)
Despite the Democrats’ claims, the actions of the RTM to set aside the plan as approved by the Board of Selectmen and the Planning and Zoning Commission will certainly delay and spoil years of healthy recreation of Greenwich’s skaters, the most popular sport in town. This may not be the intent of the democratic leadership but it certainly is the result. A second result will be an important increase in the budget.
Rebuilding the rink on its present footprint will add to excavation costs and require either a substitute rink or the purchase of ice time in Norwalk or elsewhere. These extra costs are not needed. Also, rebuilding the rink in place is not likely to allow the improvement of the much-needed Strazza ball field, to make it full-sized and properly oriented. And certainly the Democrats have not listened to the Byram neighbors who reside on Sherman Ave., next to the rink. These neighbors do not wish to see demolition, excavation and reconstruction on the present rink footprint just over their property lines. Please listen to them: we have.
Our popular first selectman Mr. Camillo is a strong supporter of healthy recreation, high quality infrastructure, and careful budgeting. The bitter partisanship of our Democrats shows disregard for these core values of our town.
Bill Drake, Chairman, Rink User Committee for Design and Planning