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December 3, 2024 5:34 AM • Last updated: December 3, 2024 5:34 AM
Norwich – The City Council voted 6-1 Monday night to purchase the Chelsea Groton Bank building on Main Street for $800,000, with a plan to seek voter support in November 2025 to renovate and expand the building for a new police station.
Monday’s vote, which followed a lengthy council discussion and a contentious public hearing, included only the purchase of the bank property at 300 Main St. and parking lots at 13 Arcadia St. and 17 Arcadia St.
The meeting was peppered with angry comments back and forth between various residents and council members throughout the night.
After the hearing, Police Chief Patrick Daley said Old Saybrook architectural firm Hughes & Cronin estimated the cost at $49 million to renovate and expand the building, the least expensive of three potential sites assessed for the project. The design is expected to meet the department’s needs for the next 50 years, Daley said.
Daley pledged to hold regular public meetings over the next eleven months to explain the project and gain public input on the plan before the planned referendum in November next year. He said the city will also pursue state and federal grants to offset local taxpayers’ costs for the project.
Councilwoman Shiela Hayes cast the lone dissenting vote. Hayes questioned why the city had to purchase the police station building almost a year before the referendum. She asks how likely it is that the building will be sold to another buyer before the referendum.
She also wondered what the city would do if residents rejected the police department.
“It’s about the building,” Hayes said, “not about supporting a new police station.”
City Manager John Salomone said the bank lowered the price from the original asking price of $1.4 million to $800,000 if the building could be sold by Dec. 31. Salomone said the price is only good through December 31.
The bank plans to move its administrative offices to its Groton branch and will look for leased space downtown to open a new bank branch.
Salomone acknowledged that the process is a bit unorthodox. He said he is confident the city can find a developer to buy the bank building if residents reject the police station. Owning the building would give the city control over what is developed in the future.
During the public hearing, residents made angry comments toward the council complaining that the police department’s proposal would come in the wake of steep tax increases last July.
Nicholas Casiano, a recent candidate for Republican state representative, complained that the proposal comes after massive bonding measures, including the $385 million to build new schools and $145 million to secure the city’s pension debt.
“And now this,” Casiano said.
He said property taxes continue to rise as the city continues to increase spending and tie up major projects. Referring to comments from police that the department’s heating system is broken, Casiano said residents are being forced to turn down the thermostat in their homes because they cannot afford the high taxes.
“I got a text from a woman this morning asking, ‘Who is going to pay for this police station after all the working people leave?’” Casiano said. “We have an increasing tax burden on fewer and fewer people.”
Resident Joanne Philbrick expressed frustration at repeatedly trying to obtain information about the police station project and other measures, only to encounter roadblocks. Philbrick, a frequent critic of the council, complained that councilors refuse to look at her when she speaks at meetings.
Later, the decorum of the meeting was disrupted several times when speakers shouted at the council, attempted to speak on topics not on the agenda and attempted to re-address the police department issue after that vote had taken place.
Mayor Peter Nystrom repeatedly tried to calm speakers or enforce municipal protocols.
“How on earth are any of you not ashamed,” resident David Attis said during the bank’s public hearing.
Nystrom defended the council for taking bold actions in recent years to acquire the dilapidated former YMCA property on Main Street and secure developer Mattern Construction to build its new headquarters there, supporting a developer after decades for the Reid & Hughes Building on Main Street. of failed attempts and to purchase the ruined and long-vacant Marina Towers building in Norwich Harbour.
“This council had the courage to do things,” Nystrom said.
c.bessette@theday.com
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