“Getting to the Meat” on Building Priorities: Advisory Committee’s Work Begins Taking Shape

Earlier this year, Wilton’s Town and Schools Needs Assessment Priorities Committee (TSNAP) was tasked with making recommendations to the Board of Selectmen (BOS) for how to prioritize funding to address the long list of building repairs and upgrades needed across Wilton schools and municipal facilities.

As FY 2026 budget preparations begin, and the Board of Selectmen (BOS) must decide which capital projects to propose to residents on bonding referendums at the next Annual Town Meeting, TSNAP’s recommendations to the BOS are increasingly time-sensitive.

TSNAP’s Dec. 4 meeting was another long slog through various projects — mostly those that Wilton’s Department of Public Works leaders have put forward as a working list of priorities — and reopened lingering questions about how the committee should be approaching its work and whether or not its focus should be purely short-term.

But overall, the committee appears to be gaining clarity and perhaps even some consensus about many of the specific projects that seem to be rising to the top of the heap. TSNAPS’s Dec. 4 meeting focused on the latest work-in-progress priority list:

Ambler Farm

First Selectman Toni Boucher, who is also on the TSNAP committee, provided some clarification about why earlier versions of the draft priority list seemed to imply that the $1.95 million for Ambler Farm was not up for discussion.

Boucher explained that decisions about the funds to renovate the Town-owned buildings managed by the Friends of Ambler Farm (FOAF) had been deferred for many years, and in last year’s budget process, a “commitment” was made to FOAF by the BOS to propose the bonding in FY’26.

Some TSNAP members questioned how firm the commitment was and whether it was fair game for the committee to reconsider. Boucher expressed her belief that the verbal commitment should be honored.

Selectman Bas Nabulsi pointed out all of the priority decisions involve tradeoffs.

“[The Ambler Farm funding] is among the ‘moving parts’ that the Board of Selectmen is going to be considering when it evaluates its capital budget in the coming year, and to the extent it is funded this year, then those are funds that are not available for other purposes,” Nabulsi said.

Other Projects

As the committee members continued working their way down the proposed list, many details about the various projects were discussed. Some of the highlights include:

• The list no longer includes a $750,000 generator for Wilton High School, a big-ticket item originally recommended by Pardo for the FY’26 priorities.

• After reviewing an engineering report, some committee members, led primarily by Santosky, questioned the proposal to replace the concrete slab in the fire headquarters apparatus room, which accounted for a significant portion of the $250,000 cost for upgrading that facility.

• Committee members spoke at length about how to best tackle updates like ceiling tiles, carpet, and lighting in Wilton schools, questioning the current approach of spending $1 million per year for the most urgently needed updates (“a bandaid approach”), rather than expediting more work and “catching up” on the needs.

Town Hall

At their last meeting on Nov. 13, the TSNAP committeee members saw two conceptual scenarios for renovating and expanding Town Hall, as presented by a consultant (Eric Kaeyer of KG+D Architects) who had been hired to explore various alternatives for addressing the needs at Town Hall campus. However, the two concepts Kaeyer presented did not include a teardown option, which the committee wished to understand as a potentially more cost-effective solution than renovating the Town Hall building.

Though not presented on Nov. 13, the teardown option was evaluated by KG+D. Assistant DPW Director Jeff Pardo shared the consultant’s findings.

Pardo explained the option included a complete demolition of the existing building, “recreating” the facade to resemble the current building, with a new basement, first floor and second floor — with 21,250 square feet, plus 9,750 in the basement, which would be used for storage.

The cost is estimated at roughly $34 million. Pardo noted the new construction cost is slightly but “not dramatically” higher than the renovation options Kaeyer previously presented, which were in the $28-33 million range.

“I would also note that when you tear down and build new, you have fewer unknowns,” TSNAP member Rich Santosky responded. “When you renovate the building, there are a whole bunch of unknowns that could become change orders.”

Boucher shared anecdotal feedback she says she heard from some residents about the possibility of tearing down Town Hall, which she described as a “totally unanimous, negative response.”

“I don’t think this project will be voted by the town to move forward. I just believe that if we went to the teardown [option], there’s so much sentiment around this building… I’m just concerned that this project will fail,” Boucher said.

At least two committee members — Wilton Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kevin Smith and Santosky — responded that the committee’s role should be more analytical and less sentimental.

“Recognizing ‘sentiment’, I’m also sitting here knowing that we have 200-plus million dollars in facility concerns that we have to consider through this committee,” Smith said. “What’s the cost/benefit [analysis]? Let’s have a good, rigorous process.”

“I think that [for] this group, it’s too early for us to consider ‘sentiment’. I think we have to be fiscally responsible to the taxpayers. I appreciate that it could be nostalgic, but I don’t think that we should rule anything out over that nostalgia,” Santosky said, favoring “systematically, intelligently and responsibly” assessing all options.

Short Term Focus?

During the meeting, DPW Director Frank Smeriglio tried to steer the committee members back to more productive discussions about specific projects.

“What’s been happening at these [TSNAP] meetings is we’re getting stuck — stuck on a lot of these theory questions… [and] we’re running out of time,” Smeriglio said, alluding to DPW’s heavy workload and the urgency of planning for the coming year.

Boucher also urged the committee to focus on the FY’26 priorities and not get sidetracked.

“What we’re looking for [is] just another set of eyes to look at next year’s bonding list — to make sure that we’ve got another set of eyes and your best thinking,” Boucher said. “Keep it simple and keep it on track.”

Boucher said she felt the committee was making progress and thanked the members for their work.

“You’re getting to the meat of the matter. It’s really good to see you are evolving to what we really need. You’re tackling it exactly [as] we need. I know this hasn’t been easy, and it’s gone long, but it has been very helpful to me, listening to all your comments so I thank you very much,” Boucher said.

In fact, she said that once the committee makes its recommendations to the selectmen for the FY’26 capital projects, “then afterwards, there’s no longer a committee.”

That seemed to surprise at least one committee member, Rudy Escalante, who said he wanted more input from the Board of Selectmen on the committee’s mission, considering that the vast amount of identified project needs — including the Town Hall project — are not contemplated within the next one- to two years, but over a 15-year horizon.

Similar questions were raised when the TSNAP committee began its work over the summer. The Board of Selectmen’s guidance at that time was that the committee’s work was “not time-limited.”

TSNAP Chair Patti Temple commented that a short-term focus — only thinking about the next year’s spending for the most urgent needs — is to blame for the daunting challenge Wilton now faces.

“I think we’ve gotten into the dilemma we are in today, with many years ahead of big-dollar projects, because things have just been looked at one year at a time. I think that’s caused a lot of our problems,” Temple said.

TSNAP’s next meeting is tentatively planned for Dec. 18. An agenda will be posted on the Town website.