Following four months of contentious back and forth between the Town Council and Choate Rosemary Hall over the prestigious private school's request that the town close a portion of Old Durham Road so it could build an environmental center in the area, both sides are left to assess who benefitted or lost the most and what the impasse means to the school-town relationship.
The town opted not to accept offers of money or land from the school, including a pledge to preserve a $5 million parcel as open space, in order to maintain the 0.46 mile stretch of road that is often used as a shortcut in and out of town from the east side.
The Christian Street school, on the other hand, will still build its environmental center, although it will have to contend with traffic from the nearby road while students are using it.
Council Chairman Michael Brodinsky, a Democrat, seemed content that Choate was abandoning its request after the council voted down three proposed counter offers to the school last week, saying Wednesday that "it's probably good for everybody."
|
|
"I don't think this is a bad ending at all," he said.
But Shanahan was much less congenial, shaming the council for passing on the chance to have the school dedicate 128 acres of land near the center of town for open space purposes, property the school estimates would fetch about $5 million on the open market.
"As a town leader, if you have a chance to bank on something that's worth $5 million in exchange for a road versus 'no, we're going to keep the road and take the chance that we lose the $5 million and change the character of the town,' " Shanahan said. "Shame on the town council ... for not being able to look about the fray to see what's good for this town over the next 20, 30, 40 years."
Shanahan also said that perceptions of Choate as a "rich" school may have influenced the process.
The school has an endowment of about $215 million - down from $260 million because of the recent economic slide. It also pays no tax on all of its 450 acres of property and 119 buildings, which have an assessed value of about $91 million - enough to generate $2 million in annual taxes if the school were a for-profit institution.
After the council failed to even vote on the school's initial proposal of either $260,000 - the appraised value of the road - or the deed to Choate's former boathouse property, a 2-acre parcel of land off Washington Street that sits on the shore of the now-dry Community Lake, councilors set about compiling lists of what they would want from the school in exchange for the road.
The items included $615,000 and the boathouse land, which was estimated to be worth about $450,000, putting the cost at more than $1 million.
That's part of what caused Shanahan's board to direct him to find another way to build the $10-15 million center, which will be funded primarily by board of trustees Chairman Herbert Kohler Jr., president and chairman of the Wisconsin-based Kohler Co., manufacturers of upscale kitchen and bathroom fixtures
Shanahan also said he was troubled at times by the council's handling of the school's request - noting that the council agreed to sell portions of Dudley Avenue, Nichols and Carlton streets to Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special Metals for $155,000, their assessed value, in 2007 in a much simpler fashion. He attributed much of the controversy surrounding the situation to "residual resentment" in some portions of the community toward the school.
"I think it was, 'this is a rich school, let's get all that we can from a rich school,' not recognizing that this is a rich school that gives away everything it has," he said. "It has an endowment and it gives every bit of income from that endowment to educate kids. It's not like it's Goldman Sachs sitting on a bunch of cash."
Roughly 840 students attend the private high school, and about one-third of them receive some form of financial aid. From Wallingford, 54 students are enrolled, with half of them receiving tuition assistance from the school. The school's average financial aid award for boarding students is $31,900, or $20,000 for day students. Tuition is 43,380 for boarding students and $33,300 for day students.
There was debate among councilors in the aftermath about Shanahan's assertion.
Vincent Testa, a Democrat, said that the school's request differed from Ulbrich's because the latter pays taxes as a business and the streets it wanted closed weren't main streets.
Testa maintains that "more compensation was necessary" to fulfill the school's request, and that "without question" Choate's application was handled fairly.
"The nature of it led to some public meetings that obviously could be seen as unfair, but we did something that I don't remember the council ever doing before, and that is to take the time to have meetings with them and spell out in clear terms what it would take to have this deal go through."
Instead of meeting in executive session, which the council does when it is considering purchasing land, the meetings had to be conducted in open session because the town was considering selling the section of road. But Robert Parisi, a longtime Republican councilor and former council chairman, thinks the school's request was handled differently in light of Choate's wealth and tax-exempt status.
"I think that the stigma still exists," he said. "I just think that there's still quite a misconception about the payment of taxes."
The school does offer many of its facilities for local use, brings students and their parents to town and employs area residents.
Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., a Republican who has held office since 1984, said he was "disappointed that we weren't able to achieve a decision that would have been beneficial to everybody and better than (Choate) could accomplish with their own resources."
But Dickinson and several councilors were pleased that Shanahan said the school will still seek an arrangement to allow local public school students to use the center.
"I'm not going to feel compelled to rush in there and get all this lined up," Shanahan said in his office Wednesday, "but we're going to be talking and I mentioned to (Superintendent) Sal Menzo that I wanted to start that once this dust settles."
There may be more dust to kick around, however. The school could approach the town again, possibly in front of a new council that will be elected next month, to request changes to Old Durham Road.
"Now we're either going to have to say to ourselves, 'we're not going to be able to use that nearly as much as we want to because of traffic,' or go to the town and say we need speed bumps and caution lights and everything for our kids to be able to somewhat reasonably be able to get through there," Shanahan said. "And you know what's going to happen when that happens? (The road's) no longer a shortcut."
Shanahan said the school still has a good relationship with the town, but that "the relationship between this council and this school is at an all- time low."
He also said the school saved at least $750,000 by not taking the counteroffers the town could have made, that it can still build a "gorgeous" environmental center and sell its boathouse property if it wants.
But he still has a message for the council, offering to "go on for an hour over how for the last 120 years, this school has contributed to this town financially, economically, developmentally" if the town wants to listen.
Timeline
l June 23: Edward Shanahan, ChoateRosemary Hall's headmaster, approaches the Town Council with the request and presentation detailing the school's plans for the center.
l July 10: Herbert Kohler Jr., chairman of Choate's board of trustees and the primary donor for the center, sends a letter to the council offering either the appraised value of the road, $260,000, or the deed to the school's former boathouse property, a 2-acre parcel off Washington Street, in exchange for the road. The letter also pledges to commit 128 acres of land in the area, in perpetuity, as open space.
l Aug. 11: The council discusses the school's request but takes no action on Kohler's offer.
l Sept. 8: The council rejects Kohler's offer without debate or a vote.
l Sept. 14-19: Shanahan and Marshall Ruben, a member of Choate's board of trustees, hold a series of private meetings with councilors to discuss a new compensation offer.
l Sept. 21: Shanahan sends Michael Brodinsky, Democratic council chairman, an e-mail asking the council to instead submit a counteroffer to the school.
l Oct. 13: The council votes to approve making a counteroffer to Choate, but then votes down three councilors' individual suggestions.
l Oct. 14: Shanahan says the school will build the center without closing the road.
