“Until all the questions are answered, there’s going to be hell to pay before one shovel full of dirt comes off of that property….This is a disservice to veterans all over the US to do anything to that memorial park. It’s no different than Washington, DC. What do you think people would say if they were going to put a Walmart size building in the middle of the Mall where the reflecting pond is? It would be unheard of.”
Don Sylvester, Commander of the Byram Veterans Association and Officer with CT Veterans of Foreign Wars“Parks are open space…What you’re doing here is dividing up this property, chopping it up,” Sylvester said, arguing that the existing location should be maintained. “Keep the open space as what it is.”
Mr. Sylvester said he did not want a Walmart size building placed in the middle of the park’s open space, and preferred a new one be built on the existing rink location.
“I don’t understand why everyone is so hell bent on putting this building in the middle of a park,” he continued, before going on to question the need for the access road, which will stretch the project to two years and add significant expense according to Mr. Monelli.
He noted that the representative from SLAM, the design firm hired by Parks & Rec, had said large pieces of equipment and sections of steel and concrete would have to be brought into the park and it would be a challenge to come in via Sherman Ave and Sue Merz Way.
“What happened when they did the original building? I think they had to bring large pieces of steel in for that one,” he said.
Also during public comment Ros Nicastro from Byram said she thought the new rink should be built on its existing location.
She complained the committee lacked RTM representation from District 3 and that a third of the D3 RTM members lived in the apartments across the street from the park, where a new access road is being planned and trees will be removed.
“Instead of a quiet bucolic park across the street, we’re going to have a Sears, Roebuck & Company size building and an access road across the street,” she said.
Nicastro said she agreed with Francia Alvarez from the Greenwich Tree Conservancy that when tree roots would be destroyed by trenching, and that she was concerned trees would die that currently protect people in apartments in her complex.
Ms Nicastro was joined by Molly Saleeby in agreeing that the committee did not have broad enough representation.
“This is not the Balkans where we need a delegate from Herzegovina,” Mr. Drake said.
David Wold, a member of the Byram Veterans Association, lamented that the two-way access road would “cut the park in two.”
He asked how many trees would be eliminated, where the ADA parking and existing playground would be relocated. Mr. Drake said answers were yet to be determined.
The committee members did not vote on a preferred option, but those in attendance agreed they leaned toward option A or B in which the rink would be positioned in the northeast corner of Eugene Morlot Park, just below a possible access road via Western Junior Highway.
They agreed that options C, D and E would have setback issues with respect to the memorial grove.
By the end of the meeting, only Bill Drake and Liz Eckert were in attendance to vote on the previous meeting’s minutes.
See also:
Adding Access Road to New Hamill Rink Could Bump Users for at Least a Year A During Construction
May 6, 2021
RTM Cuts $900 from Budget for Design Work for Hamill Rink at Eugene Morlot Park
May 11, 2021
May 29, 2021