Sherman voters overwhelmingly approve $43 million 'renovate to new' project for town's only school

Sandra Diamond Fox

SHERMAN — In a second trip to the polls, town voters overwhelmingly approved a proposal for a massive renovation of the Sherman School.

In the referendum held Saturday, Oct. 5, residents voted 961-505 to approve a $43 million "renovate to new" construction project on the aging school building.  

The first referendum, held last October, overwhelmingly failed. This was the second referendum held on renovating the district's only school, with a voter turnout of about 40 percent, town officials said. 

"The renovated school will be an excellent, highly efficient, safe building for staff and students to learn and thrive," Schools Superintendent Pat Cosentino said Monday. "We look forward to starting the project and the next steps." 

Matt Vogt, Sherman Board of Education chair, said he's "incredibly grateful" for the work of the volunteers on the Building Committee and by the Board of Education and Board of Selectmen "to develop the right plan for Sherman.

"A lot of time and effort was put in to make sure that we could get the best plan possible at the lowest cost to taxpayers. And while the process can feel like a grind, it's all worth it when you end up with a great result," Vogt said. "I have truly appreciated the collaborative nature of the process and look forward to taking on the next challenge of executing the project and getting the Sherman School back into the condition that our students and teachers deserve, and that we as a town can be proud of."

A Facebook post Sunday by "Save Sherman School," made up of residents who supported a comprehensive building project to maintain local education for students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, applauded the approval.

"Thank you to every person who came to (Save Sherman School) meetings, made donations, stood at tables, talked to their neighbors, shared our posts and proudly displayed their support of the school," the post said. "This process has been nerve-wracking and intense. The school means the world to so many of us, as our whole worlds are contained in its walls."

Financing, timeline, restructuring

The 87-year-old building is in such poor shape that local officials considered closing it down as enrollment declined, citing problems with mechanical, plumbing, electrical and structure-based systems. Failing parts from many previous renovations need to be removed, reengineered and replaced, officials have said.

The town will finance the project through bonds of about $32 million or less, according to a previous statement from the Sherman Board of Selectmen. Special state legislation passed last year guaranteed a minimum reimbursement rate of 30 percent by the state. Taxpayers will cover $30.53 million of the project's costs.

The project will take 18 months to two years to complete, Board of Education member Tim Laughlin previously said. Construction will begin next summer and is anticipated to be complete in late fall or early winter of 2026. 

The project will reduce the gross square feet of Sherman School from 86,110 to 60,089, a size that expected to accommodate current and future enrollment, the Board of Selectmen previously said. School officials will also restructure the school so that fifth grade students are considered middle schoolers, which will enable the school to be more efficient in its use of space and reduce costs, school officials previously said. 

The original $47 million plan, which was rejected Oct. 7, 2023, in a vote of 914-509, had also called for renovations to the building.

Steel-topping ceremony held for New London community and recreation center

Sarah Gordon

New London ― Three years ago, Felix Reyes, director of the city’s Office of Planning and Development, and other community leaders met with a group of sixth graders from the Bennie Dover Jackson Multi-Magnet Middle School to hear what was important to them in a community center.

On Monday, several students from the same school signed the last piece of structural steel to be placed in the unfinished community and recreation center as part of a steel-topping ceremony.

“Today, we’re standing in the room each and every one of those kids asked for,” Reyes told the crowd of community members and students as they gathered in what will be the facility’s community room. “After that ribbon is cut next summer, you’ll walk in here and see students doing homework. This ground right here also will be a place for seniors to do programming and senior city officials to meet with the community.”

The ceremony marked the halfway point of construction, Mayor Michael Passero said.

The 58,000-square-foot center in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood will include a gym, recreation office and classroom spaces, a community lounge and a kitchen. Construction is still on schedule for a summer of 2025 opening, Passero said.

The project’s initial $30 million price tag, approved by the City Council in 2021, jumped by approximately $10 million as more detailed cost figures emerged. That funding gap was bridged with a combination of state and federal funding. The city was also awarded a $1.2 million grant through the state’s Brownfield Remediation program for pre-construction site work.

The facility is expected to cost $2 million a year to run with revenue generated by memberships, rental fees and sponsorships.

“It was kids just like you who helped plan this,” said Council President and middle school teacher Efrain Dominguez Jr. as he addressed the crowd that included his students.

“I’m so excited that you get to sign that beam and be a part of history,” he said.

August flooding aftermath: Emergency work underway to shore up Ansonia’s Coe Pond Dam

STEVE BIGHAM

ANSONIA – Emergency work has begun to shore up Coe Pond Dam, which already was deemed in poor condition in March but became even more at risk for failure after the catastrophic flooding Aug. 18.

Work to mitigate pressure on the dam started last week and likely will continue for two more weeks, said officials from the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.

In March, an engineering firm sounded the alarm about the precarious condition of the 180-year-old earthen dam, which, at 3,000-feet-long, impounds the 34-acre Coe Pond.

Since the August floods, that alarm rings louder.

“It was problematic already, even before the flooding. Now it’s only gotten worse and it holds 800 acres of water. That’s either one foot of water over 800 acres or 800 feet of water over one acre. That’s a lot of water that would flow out toward Shelton,” said Rick Dunne, executive director of NVCOG, the regional planning agency representing 19 towns in Greater Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley. The council is leading the emergency response.

Also damaged in the flooding were nearby railroad tracks serving the Waterbury rail line for Metro-North, which has stifled train service in and out of Waterbury and forced riders to hop buses at the stations instead.

To avoid a complete dam collapse, workers are enlarging a notch in a concrete spillway at the dam, to lower the water level by about 3 feet.

The March report by Gomez & Sullivan Engineers declared the dam an immediate danger and risk of death for those downstream should it collapse.

“It’s not if, it’s a when,” said Kevin Zak of the Naugatuck River Revival Group. “Gravity and time and water is a pretty powerful thing and the dam has been around since 1845.”

The problems at Coe Dam came to light during the ongoing effort to remove the nearby Kinneytown Hydroelectric Dam, a much larger, 413-foot long, 30-foot-high structure that spans the Naugatuck River.

Dunne said the plan is to remove the no-longer-functioning Kinneytown Dam by 2027.

The dam is one of just three remaining from the original nine dams that once spanned the Naugatuck River between Ansonia and Torrington during the area’s manufacturing heyday.

Kinneytown Dam is owned by Trimaran, LLC of Washington state.

“The ultimate goal is to free up the Naugatuck River and allow fish passage where Kinneytown Dam is now,” said Aaron Budris, NVCOG’s director of environmental planning.

Budris said NVCOG, along with partners including Save the Sound, are in the procurement process of hiring an engineer to develop a plan for the eventual removal of the dam system.

Budris said removing the dam will restore the river to its natural course, eliminate dam safety concerns, reduce up- and downstream flood risk, improve water quality, restore natural sediment flows, and restore access to the Naugatuck River for residents and visitors.

“You cannot put a price on a free-flowing river.” Zak said. “The overall quality of life and property values over time are going to increase. Mother Nature heals itself when you give it a little breathing room. It will be transformative in front of everybody’s eyes. And to think it’s happening in my lifetime.” Last year, NVCOG received a $15 million federal grant to acquire and remove Kinneytown Dam through the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank, Inc.

Budris said the discovery of Coe Pond Dam’s poor condition was the result of a due-diligence field investigation related to the acquisition of the Kinneytown facility.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that regulates the facility, approved the dam removal project in September.

Coe Pond Dam was built by the Phelps Dodge Company, a copper mill.

Kinneytown Dam was built to divert water from the Naugatuck River into Ansonia to power Anson Phelps mills.

Kinneytown Dam Removal Project partners also include the Naugatuck River Revival Group, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.