Ham Ave School loses out in power play between the Greenwich legislature and the budget board

It was a power play between the budget oversight committee (BOC) of the Greenwich Legislature (RTM) and the town budget board (BET). The result was a vote by the RTM (180 in favor out of 206), to cut $4 million that the BET allocated to the Hamilton Avenue School for a traditional gas-powered HVAC system.

The original Hamilton Avenue School geothermal system that was installed in the early 2000s, failed due lack of knowledgeable maintenance for this complex system -- the only such system in a Greenwich public school. Hamilton Avenue school has been operating on a back-up system waiting for funds to repair or build a new system. The BET prioritized this project but required it to be a less risky traditional gas-powered system, despite many studies by the RTM and others recommending refurbishing the existing geothermal as the best green option.

The battle between the two bodies had already escalated further when the BET ignored the RTM's sense of the meeting resolution to restore $4 million of the full $12 million funding increase demanded by the public schools. Since the RTM by charter can only cut, not increase, the budget presented by the BET, these targeted cuts to the Ham Ave HVAC ($4 million) and to the West Brothers Brook Drainage ($500,000) seemed to be payback to the BET for ignoring the RTM's wishes.

Chair of the RTM's BOC, James Waters, seemed to say so in an email to the Greenwich Free Press, “The targeted cuts his committee recommended were for a BET ‘pet project’ (West Brothers Brook drainage) with tremendous cost but limited benefit to the community, and for the BET’s attempt to assert control over energy systems in our schools (Hamilton Avenue School HVAC).”  He said the Hamilton Avenue cut wasn't about the merits of the item, but to limit the BET power to put conditions on releasing funds on capital items. "The cuts are a check to BET overreach," he said.

Between the Lines: Sorry, Hamilton Avenue School, you got caught up in a political battle and will have to wait to get your HVAC system fixed.

Story here