By Reginald Johnson
BRIDGEPORT --- Months after city officials
quietly decided to locate the new Bassick High School next to the University of
Bridgeport, there are rumblings of discontent.
A group of community leaders are
asking why there was a sudden change to move the new high school from a
previously discussed open space location on State Street to property at UB,
which includes the university soccer field and several dorms.
Though they don’t have proof, members of the
group also think that Mayor Joseph P. Ganim was secretly involved in the
decision to move Bassick to the UB site, instead of the parcel on State Street,
where the Harvey Hubbell factory once stood.
If so, they say,
Ganim is in a conflict since he sits on the University of Bridgeport board in
addition to being the city’s chief executive officer.
“The Bassick location
was going to be on State Street on the old Hubbell factory site but all of a
sudden there was a change and they went to UB,” said the Rev. D. Stanley Lord,
president of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP.
“They won’t give a real reason … (Hubbell) was the site and two weeks
later it was UB.”
“This whole deal
stinks and it stinks of the mayor --- because the mayor sits on the board of UB
so it’s all a conflict of interest. The attorneys involved work for the city
and have ties with UB. They’re all in a conflict of interest,” said Lord.
Ganim could not be
reached for comment on Lord’s comments or on the Bassick decision-making
process.
Lord and others in
the group --- which includes a state senator and some city council members --- say
they also want answers on the nature of the transaction where the city paid $6
million for the UB property. The School Building Committee, a subcommittee of
the city council, approved of the
payment by the city to UB, but the deed of sale shows that the land was
conveyed by UB to the city for one dollar, not $6 million.
“We paid $6 million
for it but the deed says it was gifted for one dollar. How does that happen?”
asked Lord.
When asked why the
deed of sale said $1 as opposed to $6 million, John Weldon, chairman of the
Board of Education and a member of the School Building Committee, said: “I
wasn’t aware of that, no. I can’t speak to what the rationale would be for
that, it’s just more like a legalese question. I’m sure there’s a rationale, I
just don’t know what it is.”
Weldon was asked
whether the mayor was involved in any of the decision-making on locating the
new high school at UB. “I don’t believe so, no,” he answered.
“My understanding
is that OPED (the city Office of
Planning and Economic Development) was really in the trenches doing the
legwork, negotiating with the University, doing the surveys, the appraisals and
all that stuff. It was strictly a business transaction on the city’s end,” he
said.
Plans call for the new high school to be built on a site on Broad and Lafayette Streets, just off Seaside Park in the South End, at a cost of $115 million. The area now includes the UB soccer field and a number of university dorms. Three of the dorms --- Bodine, North and South Halls would be torn down to make space for the 200,000 square-foot facility.
 |
| One of the UB dorms that will be demolished to make way for the new Bassick High School |
Prior to last summer’s decision to place the
high school at UB, there were years of public discussion about what to do with the
currrent Bassick high school on Fairfield Avenue, which was deemed out-of-date
and inadequate. Some felt the present building, which has historic qualities,
should be rehabilitated and saved. Others thought the building should be torn
down and a new facility built there.
Later the focus turned to possibly building it
on the Hubbell site, not far away in the West End. The city began negotiating
with the owner on a purchase and that’s where matters stood early last year.
Then apparently the idea of going to UB came
up. The proposal was not publicly aired. The School Building Committee,
meeting in closed session, approved the UB plan and site acquisition in July.
State Sen. Dennis Bradley, D-Bridgeport, who
was previously on the Board of Education, sat through many of the discussions
on Bassick and said he’s not happy with the city’s decision and the way it was
arrived at.
“We had meetings until 2 and 3 in the morning
debating those issues...after community input we come to find out in the ninth
hour that the city of Bridgeport building department committee has switched the
location to the UB campus, spend whatever, another $7 or $8 million to buy the
property, when God knows how much property the city already has the tax rolls
that’s owned by the city of Bridgeport that’s just simply been foreclosed on
and nobody wants it.” Bradley said.
“This is the stuff that just blows
everybody’s mind away and everyone is saying Bridgeport is a lost cause,”
Bradley said. “I mean all these deals behind the scenes throwing away community
input and not doing things transparently.”
The decision to place Bassick at UB came up
as the financially-troubled university is about to be taken over by
East-Hartford-based Goodwin University. Goodwin is spending about $52 million
on the acquisition. Goodwin is obtaining financing from Citizens Bank, which
has also agreed to write off $30 million in UB’s debt, according to the
Connecticut Post.
Paier College, an art school now in Hamden, will
be part of the new university at UB.
Rev. Lord, Bradley and city council members
like Jorge Cruz have also been voicing concerns about the Goodwin deal, saying
it may not be the best option for saving UB.
They doubt that Goodwin ---- known primarily as a two-year college
offering associate degrees --- is up to the job of taking over the
better-established University of Bridgeport, a four-year institution.
There’s also suspicion about Goodwin’s
intentions in taking over UB. Rev. Lord and Cruz both claim that Goodwin is
really interested in acquiring valuable real estate on Long Island Sound, and
then turning a profit by selling it for high-priced housing development.
Cruz, who represents the South End, has said
repeatedly that the Goodwin takeover will spur gentrification in the
neighborhood and price out many minorities.
But Mark Scheinberg, the president of
Goodwin has strongly rejected those claims. “There is nothing that would ever,
ever suggest that what we’re doing down there is a land grab,” he said. “We're
such good community members.”
Scheinberg said the merger is going to be a
positive development for both the city and the South End. “This is such a win
for Bridgeport, and because it is our mission, a win for us, too,” he said.
Weldon said that contrary to what was widely
believed, there had been no definite decision made to locate Bassick at the
Harvey Hubbell site.
“Actually a decision had not been made with
respect to Hubbell. It was still in negotiation and there was a lot of
back-and-forth going on at that time. While that was going on, the opportunity
arose to take a look at the easternmost part of the UB campus in the Broad
Street area and the city evaluated it,” he said.
A big
factor in city officials deciding to go with the UB location was that the State
Street site was contaminated and would need cleanup. With the purchase price
for the two properties about the same, and considering the beauty of the UB
parcel near Seaside Park, the decision about where to locate the high school
became a “no-brainer,” said Weldon.
The school board chairman said flooding
concerns in the area are going to be resolved by the federal “Resilient
Bridgeport” project so flooding will not be a problem with the new facility.
There were no community meetings to discuss
the Bassick-UB project before the decision to buy the university land was made.
Also, the City Council was not asked to review or approve the $6 million land
purchase, said Cruz.
The Board of Education was briefed on the
plan to locate at UB in executive session, said Weldon. The board approved the
plan unanimously, he said.
“I’ve been trying to put together kind of a
public meeting to let the neighborhood and let the Bassick student body see
what’s going on,” said Weldon. “That’s
been difficult for obvious reasons. But I’m hopeful that in the very near
future with social distancing being relaxed we’ll be able to gather people in
an auditorium, show some slides, show this is the overall site, this is where
the building is going, you know, the whole thing.”
