Questions Remains Unanswered on Guy Whitten Field Project

Board of Selectmen members expressed several specific concerns about the Guy Whitten Field lighting project on Monday, Nov. 3, including questions about delays, unapproved contracts signed by First Selectman Toni Boucher, and payments that did not receive BOS approval.

Delays

Last month, the Parks and Recreation Commission was disappointed to learn that installation of floodlights on the field, which they had hoped to see completed by this fall, would be delayed until at least spring 2026.

The discussion around lighting at Whitten Field goes back to at least October 2023, when the P&R Commission prioritized lights on that location ahead of another field at Middlebrook School; and April 2024, when the Town issued an official RFP for field improvement work at Guy Whitten.

Steve Pierce, director of Wilton’s Parks and Recreation Department, placed blame for the delay on approval process changes made within the Zoning Board of Appeals, which was apparently unable to provide the requisite variance to allow the erection of four 70-foot high LED light poles on the field along Kristine Lilly Way just south of Wilton High School.

Pierce submitted a Project Summary to the BOS outlining his explanation for the steps that have been taken on the effort. In that summary, Pierce wrote that he applied to ZBA after he consulted a local land use attorney that he’d worked with on all previous ZBA approvals.

“Upon receipt of his proposal I forwarded his contract to Town counsel for review and was told it was their responsibility to represent the town, not outside counsel. When mentioning this to the private counsel he thought that odd as the town would have a conflict of interest representing both sides of the application. In speaking with the Town manager [sic] [Administrator Matt Knickerbocker] and Town counsel I was told that shouldn’t be a problem and on August 15, 2024 I was told to confirm this decision with the private counsel.”

However, Pierce said that once he discussed the application with the town’s land use attorney, he was told that “in fact he couldn’t represent the town as it could be a conflict of interest but felt I should continue forward with the application.”

After spending several months on some false starts in his efforts to get approval from the ZBA, Pierce said ZBA finally directed him to the Planning and Zoning Commission, which is scheduled to hold a special hearing on Nov. 17 to amend zoning regulations in order to allow the lights to be built.

“There’s significant frustration with sports parents that this has dragged on as long as it did,” Second Selectman Josh Cole said, “because I think we first talked about this over a year ago and here we are a year later and people have sent me pictures as recently as last week of middle school kids practicing on the field with car headlights, so there’s a lot of upset people that this has dragged on as long as it did.”

Pierce maintained that, in the past, the ZBA had been the town body that would sanction approval for lights that were beyond what is technically allowed by town ordinance. He previously told the P&R Commission he had received approval in the past for more than one field project through the ZBA for field lights.

It took more than six months, however, before the ZBA — after having Pierce resubmit his request three separate times due to technicalities — advised him to go directly to the P&Z.

Cole, however, noted that the change to the ZBA’s rules came at least four years ago with regard to its ability to grant such variances, and that those approvals of field lights done through ZBA variances took place many years ago.

“I think those original ZBA variances were back in the early 2000s, when that was permissible … so I’m just questioning where the breakdown happened that we decided to go down this futile path instead of a year ago pursuing the text amendment at that time and saving probably significant time and expense,” Cole said. “I don’t know why we decided to go down that route to begin with.”

“There were so many different iterations of the applications to the ZBA,” Cole noted.

Pierce, responded that the town’s Zoning Department advised him to do so.

“I don’t have an answer,” Pierce said. “I went to [the] Planning and Zoning [Department] and after looking up those previous ones, that was the path that was suggested to me.”

With Director of Planning and Land Use Management Michael Wrinn scheduled to be on the Zoom call for the discussion, Selectwoman Kim Healy asked for him to weigh in. However, Wrinn, who had been in attendance, had apparently signed off of Zoom and left the meeting.

Knickerbocker explained Wrinn’s departure.

“Michael recused himself because he will have to comment on this (zoning amendment) application for the [P&Z] commission and he thought it would be a conflict of interest to answer questions about the application,” Knickerbocker said.

“It is my belief, based on my previous conversations with Michael, however, that Steve was advised to go the ZBA route because that’s how the previous lights [were done] … In the interim, those rules changed and ZBA said this is not our purview anymore. You have to go back to Planning and Zoning,” Knickerbocker said.

Healy said to Pierce, “It would be good to hear from Michael Wrinn, why, if they gave you bad information, and it has delayed it a year and a half.”

Pierce, however, avoided putting outright blame on that department.

“They pulled the file and I believe they were going off what was in the file for the other lights, because we tried to compare apples to apples, so I think their intent was to say this was how the other lights were approved,” Pierce said.

Contracts Signed and Funds Paid Out without Proper Approval?

The meeting also raised more procedural questions around whether contracts and expenditures have been made without proper approval.

None of the BOS members followed up on Pierce’s statements about bringing in and working with an outside land use attorney, whether approvals to do so were sought or any funds were spent toward legal work.

Healy did ask questions about contracts and expenditures related to field improvement work done at Guy Whitten, submitting them in writing before the meeting as well as asking them in person Monday night.

Healy made note that the contract with Waterfield Design Group, Inc., of Winchester, MA, was dated May 23, 2024 and signed by Boucher, but that there was no record of the BOS granting approval for that contract.

Minutes of the BOS meetings from the two months prior show no record of any approvals by the BOS regarding Guy Whitten Field.

“It was signed by the First Selectman on May 23rd. When did it come before the Board of Selectmen?” Healy asked, told by Pierce that the RFP was closed on April 26, 2024.

“So, sometime between April 26 and May 23rd, it would have needed to be approved by this board,” she said. “So, I cannot locate that. I have asked that it be located.”

Pierce also acknowledged that $43,318 in design costs had been paid out for the project thus far.

“If the Board of Selectmen has not approved that contract, we can assume that $43,318 has also not been approved by us,” Healy said. “I think that’s pretty much all of my questions. I’m not sure what we’re gonna do about that.”

Boucher did not offer any explanation for how or why she moved forward and signed a contract without BOS approval. Instead, she was immediately defensive, stating she had only received Healy’s questions about the matter at 11 o’clock that morning.

“I sent it Friday,” Healy said.

Boucher responded, “Many of the questions that you ask at the last minute often times require a lot of research and time to get an answer back. Some of these processes go way back to 2022, especially with regards to Covid funding.”

Boucher proceeded to talk about ARPA funding in more details, stating it was challenging for look back at 2022, when ARPA funds were first being received by the Town, in an apparent reference to how the Town had planned to pay for work at Guy Whitten Field.

“I’m not sure what you’re— I never asked anything about 2022,” Healy said.

None of the other BOS members said a word in response to Healy’s concerns.

GOOD Morning Wilton reached out directly to Boucher to inquire if the 2024 contract was signed without BOS approval, and if the payments were made without BOS approval. 

In response, Boucher gave no comment, but sent a copy of a section of BOS meeting minutes from June 3, 2025, referencing approval given by the BOS to the reallocation of ARPA fund money from a deferred improvement project at Schenck’s Island to the funds that will pay for field improvement work at the WHS athletic complex and Guy Whitten Field.

She did not mention anything about the contract she signed on behalf of the Town with Waterfield Design Group, Inc. on May 23, 2024 that still would have required separate approval by the Board of Selectmen for her to execute the contract and use the funds that had been allocated.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The day after the BOS meeting, Healy won election to the Board of Finance and will be leaving the BOS at the end of November. Her BOF term begins Dec. 1. At the end of the BOS meeting Monday, Cole announced he was resigning from the BOS, effective Nov. 19.