Citizens' Petitions to
Challenge Town Council
Referendums Would Allow
Citizens to Decide
Stadium Lighting and Artificial Turf
on Cottone Field are at Issue
Wethersfield, CT ---
March 28, 2004 ---
Several citizen groups, spearheaded by the Wethersfield Taxpayers Association (WTXA) started gathering signatures on two petitions for ordinances today. Each petition has been designed to force the Town Council to either approve the proposed new ordinances or be forced to call one or more referendums. Voters would then decide the underlying issues - how to renovate and modify the chronically disabled Cottone Field at Wethersfield High School.
The first petition would force the Council to prohibit the use of controversial, high-intensity, outdoor lighting for sporting events in town, during dusk, night or dawn. This would be contrary to the Council's current tilt.
The special, stadium lighting would involve the erection of four, towering, light monopoles. Each 70-80 feet tall pole would likely carry 16 high-intensity lighting fixtures designed to illuminate the playing area of Cottone Field. The building code of Wethersfield currently prohibits such poles and luminaries taller than 25 feet. The Town would have to seek and obtain a variance from its own zoning regulations.
The second petition would force the Council to prohibit the use of artificial, synthetic turf on town and school athletic fields, again in contrast to the current Council's inclination.
The use of synthetic, artificial grass ("turf") has been sought by some athletics coaches in the Wethersfield Public Schools system and in private sports organizations as a way to increase the use of Cottone Field. They have claimed that this will have a "sparing" effect on the other, overused fields in town.
The use of such turf itself is controversial. Some cite benefits and others cite the dangers of increased injuries associated with this plastic grass. No meaningful statistics have been seriously and publicly reviewed by the Council or its Cottone Field advisory committee. Nationwide, some organizations have installed this 'turf' only to remove it later.
Locally, the synthetic grass has also been touted by its supporters as a way to minimize the yearly $20,000 to $25,000 maintenance costs of the real grass playing field at Wethersfield High.
Opponents however have pointed out the nearly $1 Million cost of installing an efficient drainage system topped with a plastic grass surface. The playing surface typically must be replaced in 8 to 10 years. With intense use, the field might need to be resurfaced in as little as 5 to 6 years, they worry.
The Council has as its disposal a quarter of a million dollar state bonding offer secured through the efforts of one of the town's State Representatives, Paul Doyle. This would lessen the short-term drain on the taxpayers locally.
Another local group called the 'Wethersfield Youth Organization' (registered as a political action committee) has committed itself to raise the money needed for the special lights. The president of the WYO is former Wethersfield Councilman Daniel J. O'Connor. Some funds raised by the WYO have already been deposited to a town-controlled account for Cottone Field. This 'Cottone Field Fund' is specifically designated for paying the approximately $125,000 cost of buying and installing the special lights. A sports enthusiast himself, Mayor Russell Morin has emphasized that no Town funds will used for installing these low-spillage lights.
Short-term or long-term, the citizens' coalition gathering the petition signatures points out, the taxpayers will pay the lion's share.
The citizens' groups fully expect to easily surpass the needed signatures. They must obtain the support of more than 5% of the certified, registered voters in town, a little less than 900. They plan to obtain at least 1000. They are not constrained by a short time-frame for gathering the needed signatures as is sometimes stipulated for other referendums.
The taxpayers group also plans on the Council's rejecting both petitions. Caught in a Catch-22 position, the Council would then by law have to allow the public to vote in a referendum.
The voting public would then decide whether or not the new ordinances would be accepted and enforced. The Council would be bound by the vote of the Wethersfield electorate. Only subsequent, challenging referendums would be able to repeal the successful passage of the current petitioning ordinances.
Many in town have for months confronted, cajoled and pleaded with the Council to put the questions before the voters in a referendum. The Council, however, has cited an implied mandate to govern which they claim makes such a referendum unnecessary. One Councilor of the controlling party has publicly stated that the Council is not compelled by its Charter to take this to referendum. A member of the public pointed out that taking it to referendum would be the right thing to do regardless.
The Council majority has made it clear by its public comments and actions that this renovation and modification of Cottone Field is to be fast-tracked so that Cottone Field will be ready, turfed and high-lighted, this September, 2004, at the start of this coming school year. The citizens' coalition also points to what they see as the successful tactic by Council of loading their own advisory committee with admitted supporters of artificial turf and stadium lighting.
Frustrated by this apparent 'push it through' attitude on the part of Town Council, the WTXA, allied individuals and organizations sought legal counsel. The taxpayers', watchdog group feels that they must challenge the Council to prevent the Council from causing: the degradation of a quality neighborhood, an overall decline of the quality of life in Wethersfield, and a frivolous increase of taxes in a time of economic challenges. Rocco Orsini is the president of the Wethersfield Taxpayers Association, Inc.
Conversely, the proponents of expanded use of a rebuilt Cottone Field feel that Wethersfield is falling behind the times. They point to a growing need for more athletic field time in a town with limited resources and an increasing rate of growth of the population of the children in town. The continued delay of securing expanded, quality athletic facilities at the town's Mill Woods Park also irks them. The pro-sports groups apparently have the backing of the Council majority.
Architects hired by the Town of Wethersfield have presented several design plans (schemata or schemes) which range in costs from about $1.3 to $2.4 million dollars. The Council majority has opted to jump ahead with a "design - build" modification the least costly of these plans. Recent requests for proposals (RFP) are being solicited by the town from contractors who could handle the approximately $1.5 million dollar project.
The petitions being offered, if certified and then rejected by the Council (as anticipated), might have the effect of putting the brakes on the Council's rush to build. So the taxpayers and allied groups would hope.
The first petition reads: "Section 101-1.1 The Town of Wethersfield shall not keep, maintain, or cause to be kept or maintained any permanent or temporary floodlight, spotlight, other reflector-type lighting for illumination of sporting events on any municipally owned property."
The second petition reads: "Section 154-1 The Town of Wethersfield shall not keep, maintain, install or cause to be kept, maintained or installed any synthetic or artificial grass or turf on any municipally owned athletic fields or parks."
Each side on these issues have publicly stated their confidence that they will prevail if this goes to referendum.
If one or both of the petitions succeed in being certified and then rejected by the Council, then each side will have the chance to prove that they were right. Even the WTXA has said that "the key objective is to let voters and taxpayers decide the issue".
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