Submitted by Joe Rothenberg
As a follow-up to my letter published on Jan 20, (We Need to Move Forward Now with the Plan to Replace Hamill Rink) addressing opposition to “the flip”, I’d like to address certain political and procedural objections which have been raised within the RTM. I’m writing again because I feel that supporters of the project – a majority of our town – are at a disadvantage when opponents are entrenched within the RTM and able to send their missives out to massive email lists. We need a voice as well.
The Rink Committee was created and staffed in accordance with law, rule and custom, and as objections were raised about its composition additional members from the community were added in a good faith effort to listen to and address those concerns. Given that the creation and composition of the Rink Committee were done in accordance with law, rule and custom, I’m sorry, but objections on that point just don’t convince me of any concern significant enough that they should even come close to outweighing the competing interest of actually getting the new rink built, which is the point of all this.
I’ve also heard that cost estimates haven’t been provided or that the cost estimates provided by the architecture firm engaged for the project are believed by some to not be accurate. I can’t sit back and let someone say estimates haven’t been provided when they have; what they’re really saying is that those estimates – which again, come from the professionals engaged for this project – just don’t meet their (undefined and, frankly, arbitrary if not codified) standards. This concern is not convincing on its merits and, again, when compared against the overriding point of all this – to actually build a new rink – I don’t see how those concerns can be taken seriously enough to halt the project at this point. And to go even further, even if these concerns were to be assumed to be valid or correct, they absolutely do not constitute reason to revoke the Municipal Improvement status duly and rightfully granted to the project by the Planning & Zoning Commission at this stage of development of this project. Professional estimates have been provided; if someone doesn’t like those estimates, that’s their prerogative, but the reasonable response is to sharpen their pencils and work with the Rink Committee to address any concerns they have. If we stopped projects in their infancy because every single person involved didn’t like the numbers reported by third-party professionals, nothing would ever get built.
Some people seem to think other projects tackled by the town have been required to provide some different level of cost estimate (whatever that means) at this stage of progress, but those concerns also don’t hold water. As I understand it, projects which may have satisfied different standards at a similar stage were school projects, and I think we all know, at this point, how much bureaucratic red tape ties up those projects. This project has satisfied every single standard required of it, and to create additional standards at this stage is simply unfair and obfuscatory opposition to getting a new rink built. I don’t think any reasonable person thinks we should be adding more unnecessary, anti-progress red-tape to this process, hindering our ability to do great things like providing facilities like a functioning skating rink for our town and its families. And if that red-tape hasn’t been codified for projects like this or applied to other similar projects in the past, it would seem to be arbitrary and unfair to apply it here.
Also – nobody is required to, or is even being asked to, approve costs at this stage of the project. This idea that some higher level of cost estimate is appropriate at this point in the project is totally fabricated, as far as I can tell. There will come a time and place at which the costs of the project will be fully vetted by the RTM and the BET and the appropriate governmental bodies will work with the Rink Committee until the costs are deemed appropriate and (hopefully) approved. This objection doesn’t just move the goalposts but builds a 50 foot tall brick wall in front of them.
When big projects are tackled, there’s no way every single concern of every single resident will be addressed to their full satisfaction. We cannot bow to the objections of the few – objections which have all been addressed in due course, in accordance with law and established procedure – at the expense of the many and, most importantly, at the expense of the most important constituency of all, our children.
I sincerely, whole-heartedly appreciate the time, effort and work put in by our elected officials on our behalf – including certain of the opposition members who I know and about whom I’ll gladly publicly declare how much I appreciate them and their efforts. I simply ask all of our elected officials to put aside politics and not let this vital, important project get caught in their cross-fire. If they want to address the process of how a project like this is done in our town, I think that’s great and that what we’ve elected them for – but there’s zero reason why that should halt the rink project. Let the rink project proceed in due course, continue listening and speaking and guiding it, and continue exercising your due and rightful powers to approve or disapprove of the design, the budget… all of it. But there’s no reason why we – the public who so dearly need and want this project (which again, has followed all law, rule and custom and has the strong support of the vast majority of our town) to move forward, should be punished.
Even if we were to assume that each of the many (seemingly constantly evolving) reasons to oppose the rink replacement project are valid… revoking Municipal Improvement status does absolutely nothing to address any of those concerns. It acts solely to delay and/or halt the rink project. If these concerns are being expressed in good faith, they can and should be dealt with in the ordinary course of continuing RTM oversight over this project and by the RTM in preparation for future projects by negotiating with other governmental officials and codifying a fair set of rules and guidelines for future projects. Moving the goalposts on this specific project simply isn’t fair and it isn’t right. If you support the Rink Replacement Project, you should vote against revoking Municipal Improvement status at the RTM meeting tonight.
The only reason this vote is even occurring is because people are trying to delay and/or halt this project.
I just want it to be totally clear to everyone what’s happening here – there’s no deadline at play, there’s no approval being requested… there’s no reason this is happening right now other than the attempt to delay and/or halt the rink replacement project. We need to all call it like it is and acknowledge the cold, hard facts of the situation.
RTM members: don’t strip this project of the Municipal Improvement status duly and rightfully granted by the appropriate authorities. Don’t delay, obstruct and possibly halt the project to replace our rink – which is at or beyond the end of its useful life – with a new rink and upgraded park which will be a benefit to everyone.