Despite approving $325,000 in the Capital improvement Plan (CIP) and allocating that amount in the FY 2024-25 budget, Milford City Council tabled a second proposal to improve City Hall Plaza, claiming it was too expensive despite the new design coming in under the amount set aside in the budget.
“When we sent this out to bid in September 2024, it was decided there were some concerns with the current design, so we revised the concept and scope, eliminating improvements to South Walnut Street and Southeast Front Street,” Chad Carter of Becker-Morgan, who was awarded a contract to design the new plaza, said. “We eliminated the removable bollards and reduced the overall paver area of the plaza. We took out the brick inlays from the driveways and made a few other aesthetic changes, bringing the price down to $305,000.”
Carter explained that the new design would provide better pedestrian access to the front of City Hall and provide space for future other uses, such as the annual tree lighting, festivals and other outdoor activities. It would also improve ADA access to the site.
“My thinking is we are really close to having budget dialog and I would like to see this reviewed when we get into those discussions,” Councilman Jason James said. “I know this money is already allocated out of our general fund but we could look at other needs and see if we really need to improve the front of City Hall.” Culotta felt the plaza could be upgraded well for around $50,000.
Carter commented that they came to council with Plan A which was rejected and now they have come with Plan B which is under the budget allocated, questioning whether there was a plan C. Culotta commented that there could be because he did not see a need to spend $305,000 to spruce up City hall.
“I certainly understand that, but I was given direction to come up with a reduced scope, not as much of a reduced scope as I am hearing tonight,” Carter said. “I can certainly come back with something that would be within budget, even $50,000 if you would like, but I was working withing the budget I was provided.”
Councilwoman Madula Kalesis pointed out that they were coming up to the end of the fiscal year and they may find something that needs more attention than the front of City Hall, suggesting council go out and “plant flowers” to make it look nice.
“I thought when we discussed this last time, in the fall, we did say this is not something we should be doing because it is a hell of a lot of money to be spending on things when we could use that money somewhere else,” Kalesis said.
Mayor Todd Culotta explained that it was over $500,000 with the previous rendition and that council felt the design was “overkill.” He felt the second option was much better and not overkill and that it would be nice to have as long as the deposit box for utility payments remained.
Council voted unanimously to approve tabling with ore discussion during budget hearings.
“I don’t want to put an amount of $50,000 on this,” James said. “I want to see what is available and I do understand the pavers because it continues what we have downtown, but I am okay with waiting to see what happens with the budget provides us.”
Councilwoman Nadia Zychal felt that as stewards of taxpayer money, waiting to see what the city had to work with as far as funding was a wise move.
“I hope the next time we revisit this, we have a clear dollar amount so that we can stop disrespecting people’s time going through this process and then saying no,” Councilwoman Katrina Wilson said. “I think we need to be clear about our intentions in our budget meetings so that when our staff comes to the table, we’re not shooting them down because we did not give them direction.”
