During Tuesday’s BET budget committee meeting, there was discussion about $5.2 million in funding to rehabilitate Hamilton Avenue School’s geothermal HVAC system.
The system is 20 years old, but is not functional. Instead a hulking, noisy temporary unit has been sitting on the asphalt next to the school.
The RTM, after much community input, last April approved a non-binding SOMR (sense of the meeting resolution) with the goal of keeping Net-Zero conversations an active part of town and school building projects.
The vote was 157 for, 25 against, and 4 abstaining.
The issue was also extensively discussed by the BOE in Sept 2024, when their agenda included a presentation from AECOM.
The consultants did comparisons of geothermal versus conventional gas-fired systems, and Ben Branyan, COO for the school district, said they would look into possible grant money to offset costs to rehabilitate the system.
Recently, on Feb 6, the BOE voted 6-1 in favor of including $5,246,000 in the FY26 capital plan for reconstruction of the geothermal system.
Wendy Vizzo Walsh was the lone dissenting vote.
During that discussion Mr. Branyan gave an update on efforts to find grant money for the rehab work. He said unfortunately the project did not qualify for the Investment Tax Credit.
Nevertheless, he said, “We are recommending funding for the geothermal system for a couple reasons. One is it is consistent with the SOMR the RTM passed in April. The upfront cost is slightly higher for geothermal compared to conventional, but that is made up in the long run when we look at maintenance.”
“Lastly, we already invested in the geothermal wells and we want to see if we can maximize the depreciation of the asset we paid for and haven’t been using. It was almost nose-and-nose on the final. We wanted to present a good comprehensive report.”
“I think we have beat this dead dog,” school district facilities director Dan Watson said, a reference to how long the debate between geothermal and conventional gas-fired HVAC had been debated.
At that meeting, BOE member Laura Kostin asked if there were any limitations to the use of the school fields given the geothermal infrastructure under it.
“Heavy carnival equipment, heavy equipment that could damage any of the components that are in the ground?” she asked.
“We’ve been told not to put any stakes in the ground and proceed cautiously. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize a $5 million investment after our students and staff have been relying on a giant trailer outside.”
Chris Imparato, an engineer from AECOM said, “I would caution you, any time you put stakes in the ground, or anything like that, but from being (about 5 ft deep) and it being a flexible pipe there shouldn’t be serious damage – only from a puncture.”
He suggested that the facilities director stake the well locations as ones to avoid.
“If on grass it would probably be okay, but if it sinks in then it’s probably too heavy,” Imparato said.
“You’re not making me feel very comfortable,” Kostin said.
Imparato said AECOM tested the system and could confirm that it was designed properly and should function properly when it is back online.
“Anything you’ve done previously has not damaged the field to date,” he said.
He added that the well well holes were about 400 ft deep, reflecting the geology in the area.
BOE member Wendy Vizzo Walsh asked, “Is there a precise measure of how much weight the wells could withstand?”
Mr. Imparato said, “It depends on the compressive strength of the soil.”
“We can just avoid the area,” Walsh said, adding that she saw the geothermal system with its wells in the field as a conflict with the St Roch’s Church feast.
“I am not in favor of the geothermal unit for this particular project. I’m just worried it puts the carnival at risk. The St. Roch’s Feast, which I think is part of the community and part of the Greenwich’s tradition to have. And it’s home to our immigrant families. I think it would be terrible if we put that in jeopardy.”
BOE member Dr. Michael Mercanti-Anthony disagreed.
He said he was confident that based on the engineer’s comments that there was no damage over the past 20 years, nothing would prohibit the St. Roch’s Church feast’s use of the field.
“I don’t see the two concepts in conflict,” he said.
Superintendent Dr. Jones said it would be important to “get a good solid answer for this.”
“We didn’t have the carnival since 2009 when the geothermal was put in. So we only have the last two years – so we really don’t know,” she said.
“The idea that we are going to manage staking out the field every summer – I don’t think Dan Watson’s team is going to have the time to do that. You used to be able to see the wellheads sitting on the field, and then when we leveled it and put in soil, it’s more challenging than five years ago.”
Bots and Bots
Fast forward to this week’s BET meeting.
Ms Tarkington said, “It’s my opinion we definitely need to approve an HVAC solution, but we have had a lot of email traffic also for a traditional HVAC system, so I am suggesting that we also get their description of a traditional Hamilton Ave HVAC CIP so we can have a better dialogue between the two of them.”
BET member Leslie Moriarty pointed out the BOE and Greenwich Schools administration already supported geothermal, and there was documentation to support that approach.
“I question these emails we’re getting – I’ll say they’re suspect whether they’re real individuals, real voters in our town,” Moriarty said.
“They all have suspicious email addresses and there’s now new technology that is going to mask our ability to determine what is real resident and user feedback, and what is not. It’s very concerning.”
Ms Tarkington said she too had concerns about the recent emails, and that she had contacted the IT department to see if there was a way to ensure emails were genuine.
Still, Tarkington added, “I think we should just see the alternative. I think there is a lot of traffic out there one way or the other, and I don’t know what’s the right thing.”
BET member Elliot Alchek said he had personally checked the emails and noted one purported to be Anthony Moor, who he described as a prominent Democrat known to support geothermal, but in the suspicious email Moor was skeptical about geothermal at Hamilton Ave School.
Reached by email on Wednesday, Mr. Moor replied, “No that’s not me. Ignoring the obvious, spammy, fake email address, I don’t have an “e” at the end of my name, and I’m a staunch supporter of green, cost-effective tech. What’s most concerning to me is that someone would spin up such a fake campaign, and that certain members on the BET would be so naive or craven as to fall for it.”
Mr. Alchek, during Tuesday’s BET meeting, said the first sign an email is fictitious is generally that there are a lot of numerals in the email address.
“That’s sort of an early warning sign. The more robust way of checking is by Googling the person and seeing if the person exists. We got an email, for example, from a ‘Helen Roberts,’ and the email address didn’t match her actual name,” Alchek said.
Greenwich Free Press reviewed over 60 alleged spam emails and noted that the signatures all ended with a period (.).
In case of Helen Roberts, for example, her name was misspelled HelenRoerts within the actual email address. 
A third example Alchek cited was an email signed by someone purporting to be a Hamilton Ave teacher, but the school has no one with that name on staff.
BET member Scott Kalb said ways to determine whether emails are spam or a “bot program” are when they end with .usa or .xyz, or have a series numerals in the address.
“This is malicious and it’s interfering with our business,” he said.
“What we should do, regardless of any affiliation, is have a form the way the RTM does. If you want to send the RTM an email, you go to the website and fill out a form and it gets sent,” Kalb said.
One of about 63 questionable emails received by BET and BOE members between Friday, Feb 21 and Tuesday Feb 25, 2025.
Reached by phone for comment early Wednesday afternoon, BOE communications director, Jonathan Supranowitz, said, “The district has received no emails outside of the BOE on this topic since Friday, and have received only one phone call complaining about geothermal at Hamilton Ave School since Friday.”
When asked who made that call, Supranowitz said, “The person identified themselves as Paul Cappiali.”
Mr. Cappiali is the town’s appointed harbor master. He has also been an organizer of St. Roch’s feast. Last fall he was a candidate for State Rep in the 150th district.
He also seeks a spot on the Board of Education. After the BOE voted in Jen Behette in an emergency meeting on Oct 21, the Board of Selectmen voted 2-1 to place Cappiali on the school board. Firs Selectman Camillo has said the BOE meeting the prior day was “illegal.” An active lawsuit pits Camillo and the Town of Greenwich as plaintiffs against the Board of Education and its four Democratic members as defendants.
At a November 21 meeting Mr. Cappiali shared a screen with Ms Vizzo Walsh. Zoom screenshot Nov 21, 2024
Also, on Wednesday, Greenwich Schools Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones wrote to the BOE members saying the district’s tech team had looked at the questionable emails.
“After reviewing the emails, it was obvious that either a team or individual is creating gmail accounts and tweaking the emails as many of them utilize the same phrases and words,” Jones said. “It could be a bot, artificial intelligence, or a manual creation of gmail accounts which is easy to do.”
Jones said every email has also been a gmail account with a numerical sequence behind the name, which is also not customary for the volume of emails to all have the same provider and structure.
“In addition, from a district perspective we have only received one email around this issue. There has been no PTA or any other entity reaching out with concerns. We have not heard from GEA who would reach out if staff were concerned. There has been zero communication on this topic from a district perspective, other than the usual elected official discussions who are receiving these fake emails.”
Reached by phone Wednesday, BOE member Laura Kostin said, “If these emails are basically meant to mislead us, it does abuse our trust. We always take the time to read emails from stakeholders and this takes time away from legitimate ones. I could be doing productive work.”
Conflicts over Purview of Ham Ave School Field
In 2021, $465,000 of work was completed by the BOE to upgrade the Ham Ave School field.
Once the work on the fields was completed the Parks & Rec Dept took over the field maintenance.
In 2022, use of the school fields was in dispute when Parks & Rec director Joe Siciliano said any decision about the church’s use of the field for their carnival was not his to make, but warned the fields were not fully established after being replanted.
He said he had concerns that parking trucks on the field could damage it or leak hydraulic fluid.
After a letter came from Friends of St Roch’s Church to parishioners suggesting they contact the BOE members to urge them to approve use of the field for the feast, the BOE received about 500 emails.
In what became a memorable remark, then BOE member Christina Downey said, “I’m just expressing my frustration that we received no documents other than a bunch of emails. I feel it’s kind of like a gun put to our heads because there’s a carnival in a couple weeks and we have to make a decision.”
Mr. Cappiali was quoted in the same 2022 article saying he had contacted Thornton Tomasetti, the engineering firm who did the original geo-thermal project.
“They said that field was suitable to be utilized for the St. Roch Church annual carnival, which may include vehicle traffic, parking, free-standing amusement rides, and booths. There was no danger.”
“The horizontal piping is made out of flexible tubing so they can move with the earth,” he said. “They’re made to be abused.”
Cappiali added, “They (wells) are safe for the use we seek and much more…You can put the Bruckner Expressway on top of them and we’re just putting carnival rides.”
Late Wednesday afternoon an email from Mr. Cappiali to the PTA president of Hamilton Ave School, Dawn Wistrand, included a cc to the BOE.
The body of the email to Ms Wistrand, says, “Send to [email protected] and Cc: boardofedmembers@greenwich.
From there the email reads:
Dear Members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation,
I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed geothermal heating and cooling system at Hamilton Avenue School. As the President of the Hamilton Avenue School PTA, and a resident of Greenwich, I am deeply frustrated that this decision has been made without meaningful consultation with parents, the school administration, or the staff—those of us who will be directly impacted.
For 20 years, our students and staff have endured the failure of a geothermal system that has left classrooms without reliable heating and cooling. Instead of investing in a proven, effective solution, we are being forced into yet another costly experiment—one that no other school in town is subjected to and was recently rejected for Central Middle School. A traditional HVAC system, which would cost about the same, offers guaranteed reliability. The administration, the Board of Education, and the BET made empty promises two decades ago, and we refuse to be misled again.
Our community already faces unique challenges. Many parents at Hamilton Avenue are single parents or work multiple jobs, making it far more difficult for them to attend meetings or engage in advocacy like parents at other Greenwich schools. That is why they rely on the PTA to bridge that gap—yet we were never consulted. The failure to engage with us demonstrates a complete lack of respect for our families and the realities they face.
Reinvesting in a system that has already failed—rather than installing a guaranteed solution—is not only irresponsible but insulting. The decision to push forward with geothermal, despite its history of failure, sends a clear message: Hamilton Avenue School does not receive the same consideration as other schools in Greenwich.
This is not equity. This is neglect.
I urge the BET to reject this geothermal proposal and approve a traditional HVAC system that will provide the reliable heating and cooling our students, teachers, and staff deserve. Our community has been ignored long enough.
Sincerely,
Dawn Wistrand
President, Hamilton Avenue School PTA