Home Care In Darien, CT

DARIEN – Officials voted Monday to double the town budget for sewer system improvements — to $4.6 million — in an effort to combat flooding and lower an annual payment to Stamford.

Darien’s sewer system runs along 81 miles of the town, and flows over to the Stamford Water Pollution Control Facility for treatment. But with an increase in flooding during storms and “questionable” pipe quality, Department of Public Works Superintendent Ed Gentile went before the Board of Selectmen on Monday to request an additional $2.3 million for phases two and three of the town’s sewer project.

“Right now, I’m pretty much solvent at zero,” Gentile said of his remaining budget.

In October 2020, town bodies approved an original $2.3 million appropriation for the Gentile’s sanitary sewer system project. He said the department has completed phase one – inspecting the system, hiring an engineer and repairing some of the broken pipes – and was starting the second phase when he realized he was over budget.

“We’re projected to be at a total of $2.9 million,” Gentile said. “We’re about $580,000 over.”

Gentile said he dipped into federal funds allotted to the town from the American Rescue Plan to offset the overage, but needed the town to issue another bond to continue the improvements.

The town has continually struggled to mitigate flooding during major events like tropical storms Elsa and Ida, which wrecked Darien houses and businesses.

In a memo to the selectmen, Gentile said the three-phase sewer project focuses on areas with high infiltration rates to eliminate overflow.

He also said that the project will reduce the total annual sewage to Stamford for use of their wastewater treatment plant. In fiscal year 2022-23, Darien paid Stamford about $3.6 million.

The two municipalities first entered an agreement allowing Darien to use the Stamford plant in 1971. Per their current five-year agreement, Darien can send over no more than 3.7 million gallons per day. Gentile did not respond to CT Examiner questions about the town’s sewage output on Monday.

Stamford calculates the town’s payment based on its sewage output and pipe size, so a more-efficient sewer system could seemingly help to reduce the town’s annual cost.

In a Monday email to CT Examiner, Stamford WPCA Executive Director William Brink said the city’s annual average daily intake decreased from 16.2 million gallons per day in 2021 to 14.6 in 2022. Despite new commercial and housing developments in Stamford and Darien in recent years, Brink attributed the drop to 2021 upgrades to the city’s treatment plant and new technology.

“The additional flow from new development appears to be offset by the use of flow saving water fixtures and appliances in new and existing development,” Brink explained.

But even with the eco-friendly technology, Darien’s payment to Stamford has increased by almost 39 percent in the last year, compared to their $2.5 million charge in fiscal year 2020-21.

In phases two and three, Gentile told the selectmen, the department will inspect, clean and fix the remaining 60 percent of the town’s infrastructure. Once the project is complete, he said he can finally be confident in Darien’s sewer system.

“The next phase, and even the next evaluation phase after that, is going to start wrapping up this town to an area where I know the sanitary sewer system is reliable,” Gentile said.

The board unanimously approved the appropriation, with little comment other than thanking Gentile for his work. On Tuesday, Gentile will appear before the Sewer Commission for their approval.

DARIEN — The town is working to finalize the nearly $800,000 purchase of another piece of Great Island, following a “complicated” negotiation process.

At a Monday meeting of the Representative Town Meeting Rules Committee, First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky announced that Darien is under contract to purchase the traffic circle which leads visitors to the entrance of the Great Island for $792,010.

While Darien initially appropriated $103 million for its purchase of Great Island in May, the price dropped by about $18 million. If approved by the RTM and the Environmental Protection Commission next month, Zagrodzky explained, the town will use some of those leftover funds to buy the traffic circle.

Zagrodzky said Darien chose not to include the traffic circle in its initial acquisition of Great Island because the pieces of land were separately owned by two local families — the Steinkrauses and the Zieglers.

The Steinkraus family, who owned Great Island for more than 100 years, sold the land to the town in May, but the Ziegler family still owns the adjacent properties, including the traffic circle and a 50-acre section known as Ziegler’s Farm.

“It was too hard to try and get all of those parties together to perform a simultaneous transaction to get that to work,” Zagrodzky said. “And so it really just effectively meant that the traffic circle was going to be later.”

The traffic circle provides access from the town-owned Pear Tree Point Road and Rings End Road to both Great Island and Ziegler’s Farm.

Zagrodzky said the purchase of the traffic circle has been in the works for a while, but took time as negotiations coincided with the separate sale of Ziegler’s Farm. The subdivision was put on the market for $85 million last year, and Zagrodzky said it’s currently under contract for purchase.

According to the sellers, the first selectman said, only $10 of the traffic circle purchase price will go to the Ziegler family, and the remaining $792,000 will be given to the farm’s buyer to install privacy screens, such as fencing and shrubbery.

“To get the traffic circle purchase negotiated while, at the same time, trying to navigate the negotiation with the sale of the Ziegler property to this buyer was extraordinarily complicated,” he said.

Zagrodzky said the final cost of the traffic circle is about 34 percent higher than its appraised value of $560,000. However, he explained that the town cannot discuss the details of the negotiation as the involved parties signed non-disclosure agreements at the seller’s request.

While the traffic circle is currently not open for public use, Zagrodzky said the purchase would mean that Darien officially owns all of the roads leading to Great Island — a key step in opening the property to residents.

The public is barred from entering Great Island until summer 2024, as the town is remediating some arsenic contamination and plans to widen the access road that leads visitors to the traffic circle.

Zagrodzky told the RTM committee members that, if approved, the purchase of the traffic circle should be finalized by mid-December.

Before the RTM committee meeting, the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved the purchase agreement. But in order to finalize the deal, it must be reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission on Nov. 28, the Environmental Protection Committee on Dec. 6 and the full RTM on Dec. 11.

DARIEN, CT — After 8.5 years of service, Darien Parks & Recreation Director Pam Gery is leaving town.

Gery, who has commuted to Darien Town Hall nearly two hours each way, has accepted a job to be the parks & recreation and senior center director in Guilford where she lives. Her drive to work will be shaved down to approximately one minute.

Prior to arriving in Darien in 2015, Gery oversaw parks & recreation departments in Westbrook and North Branford.

Selectman Monica McNally, who served as the town's chief elected official before Zagrodzky, also praised Gery's work in town.

"I think she brought fresh energy. I always appreciated her eye toward the business side of the parks and rec. department, and her ingenuity for creating programs and for just running a really great department as far as personnel goes," McNally said.

Gery said she's particularly proud of implementing several community events that have become staples on the calendar, like the Old Fashioned Holiday event at Tilley Pond Park which saw record attendance last month, or Rocktoberfest and Weed Beach Fest.

Before coming to Darien, there were hardly any community events in town from parks & recreation.

"The town supported my proposal to get a full-time recreation supervisor on board, and that was pretty much a key element because most of the staff had been here close to 20 years and they had been doing a lot of the same things for a long time," Gery said. "It was really great to get that new, fresh blood on staff. We were able to, as a team, come back around and make a lot of changes in town."

A visit back to Darien might be in order once the town completes the Weed Beach Meadow and Trail Project, one of the first initiatives Gery tackled when she came to town.

Darien purchased a piece of land at Weed Beach which expanded the park, and one of Gery's first goals was to figure out what to do with the property.

"Now we have a plan and we're going out for construction bids soon, and unfortunately I won't be here for it. I'm sad for that, but I'm really happy for the town we've gotten this far," Gery said, calling the project "near and dear" to her heart.

The proposal calls for an expanded beach area, parking area, new green space and a trail loop.

Teamwork was an important element for Gery, who thanked her volunteers, staff, the Darien Parks & Recreation Commission and other key government boards for their support and help over the years.

"It's just been a terrific experience here. I've learned a great deal," Gery said. "I came here with just an unbelievable amount of enthusiasm and passion, and desire and commitment to give Darien beautiful facilities and great events and lots of things to do to make sure [residents] love their town as much as I ended up loving it, too."

DARIEN, CT — When Sydney Riccio, then a sophomore at Darien High School, discovered she had undiagnosed learning disabilities like dyslexia, she sprung into action.

Always successful academically, Riccio wanted to help other young students with learning disabilities navigate through challenges that arise.

"I realized that so many other students are in my position and do not get diagnosed until much later in their academic careers, which can be really detrimental to their development and their ways of thinking," said Riccio, now a senior at DHS. "So I wanted to create an organization and a space for them to have a platform, to understand their intellectual differences, and to get the resources that they deserve in an accessible way, and to have an opportunity for them to share their stories."

Riccio recalled an email she received shortly after Learn Abilities was launched from a girl named Aneri who lives in Dubai. Aneri became a member of the organization.

"She was thanking me for doing what I did because she didn't think that learning disabilities were talked about a lot," Riccio said. "She had learning disabilities, and she was just grateful to find a space where she felt proud to be a part of, and she felt she was able to really express her experiences."

Because of her work, Riccio applied for the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) Activism and Advocacy Scholarship, which is given to students who have a passion for bringing about social, political, and/or civil change in their community.

One day in October, she was sitting in her guidance counselor's office at DHS when she received the news she had been selected.

Riccio was one of just five students in the country to receive the $1,000 scholarship award.

"I was ecstatic. I didn't think I was going to win. I was so happy and so surprised," Riccio said.

She noted she has "ambitious goals" for Learn Abilities.

"I recognize that I can't change how learning disabilities in schools are approached in the world; I can't enforce more policies and more testing, but I can help change the stigma surrounding them," Riccio said. "If we can get more members who are willing to share their experiences and to learn more about what neurologically learning disabilities truly are, maybe we can destigmatize them and make people realize that even if they think differently, it's not a reflection of their intelligence."

Even though Riccio is still figuring out where she will attend college next fall, she hopes to study neuroscience and psychology at the collegiate level.

"I'm so glad this is something that has become so large in my life," Riccio added. "I'm excited to see where it takes me."

For more on Learn Abilities, visit the organization's website.

DARIEN – The cost of potential repair, environmental cleanup and maintenance on Great Island is adding up as officials plan for public access to Great Island by bus tour, and seek to coordinate the efforts with long-term goals for the town property.

At a Wednesday meeting of the Great Island Advisory Committee, Department of Public Works staff warned the members of the growing costs of repairing and maintaining the town’s $85 million purchase.

Public Works Director Edward Gentile said the town has already removed dead trees, filled potholes and made repairs at a few of the buildings on Great Island. And with plans to launch free weekend bus tours of the 60-acre island as early as September or October, he outlined remaining work to be done on the island.

Gentile said he received quotes for some potential repair and remediation projects, which totaled anywhere from $225,000 to $240,000.

“These are very rough estimates but I erred a little bit on the high side – just to make sure that I wasn’t low-balling it too much – to give you a flavor of what things would cost as we start to do them,” Gentile said.

The quotes include about $100,000 to repair the roof of the stone carriage house, about $40,000 to run a new underground electric line, anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000 to remove four transformers, about $37,000 to replace some oil tanks, about $9,000 to repair the roof of the horse stable, and almost $4,000 to replace the roof of the squash building.

In addition to those projects, Gentile said the town will need to widen the roadway to accommodate two-way access, remove and replant vegetation, and address asbestos issues in a couple of the houses.

In a Thursday email to CT Examiner, First Selectman Monica McNally said any projects that make the island “safe and accessible” to residents will be funded by the $18 million the town saved in the purchase of Great Island.

While the town agreed to and budgeted for a $103 million price tag, the purchase dropped to $85 million in March after discovering environmental, structural and access issues and negotiating with the sellers – the Steinkraus family.

McNally said any maintenance projects would be funded by rental income from Great Island residents, and new projects need to go through the typical town approval process.

But she also said the cost of Great Island projects could change as the town’s Public Works Deptarment surveys the property and structures, and the committee creates a long term plan for Great Island.

“[P]lease recognize that this will be a dynamic list and items will be added, modified and removed as the plans for the property and its structures continue to evolve,” McNally said.

At the meeting, committee members questioned whether the town could potentially waste funds by undertaking projects without an ultimate goal in mind.

In the case of the squash building requiring $4,000 in roof repairs, Jon Zagrodzky – committee chair and Board of Selectmen member – said he’s not sure if the committee plans to keep the building. He asked if the town would be better off deferring the repairs until the committee has a clear plan.

“It’s worth considering because we’re spending money on that, and we might decide later that that particular building might come down,” Zagrodzky said.

Jim Palen, committee member and chair of the finance board, said the same about the dead underground electric line powering the beach house, which could cost $40,000 to replace.

He said the committee should first figure out where the roadways and walking paths will be before replacing the line.

“We need to start thinking a little bit longer term about those types of things as we deal with short term things like the power,” Palen said.

Zagrodzky asked Gentile for a priority list of outstanding projects.

Gentile agreed, and planned to have the list for the committee meeting next month.

In the meantime, Gentile highlighted two projects he wanted done before late September, when the bus tours are set to begin – disposing of the four old transformers which contain PCBs, and the removal of any asbestos.

“Any type of remediation – I want to get it done as soon as I possibly can,” Gentile said.

While Great Island is still inaccessible to the public, McNally told the committee that bus tours would be a safe way to show residents the island as repair and remediation work on the property continues.

In her email, McNally said the tour would be free to residents. And while the town is still finalizing some details including the bus company and exact dates of the tours, she said the 50-seat buses will stop at two locations for residents to explore – the 13,000 square foot estate house and the beach house.

Earlier this summer, the town announced that arsenic contamination had been found on the property. On Thursday, McNally said that the two bus stops would be outside the “scope of our remediation efforts.”