Around Town

‘We Are Not Going To Do Anything Irresponsible’: For Now, New Canaan Location of Abilis Tied To Doubtful Viability of The Hub

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The head of a nonprofit organization that serves people with developmental disabilities said his agency will only start operating out of The Hub in downtown New Canaan under the board now in charge of the facility if that group somehow achieves financial viability. New Canaan resident Dennis Perry, president and CEO of Greenwich-based Abilis, said his organization’s first priority is to avoid doing “anything that puts the population we serve at risk.”

“I will not open up and find the facility that we are operating in is not financially viable, and then have to shut down,” Perry said when asked about the prospect of operating out of the lower level of The Hub, as per a Memo of Understanding now in place. “The discontinuity that would create for these individuals who do not transition well—we would be irresponsible to do that.”

The comments come as questions surround The Hub’s ability to make money and self-sustain—a challenge that the building’s former operator, the Outback Teen Center, was unable to overcome, ultimately closing for good last summer. Inchoate plans for a catch-all community center appear to have garnered little support. An online campaign seeking to raise $25,000 in support of The Hub has banked just $2,320 in two weeks—with more than a quarter of that from board members themselves—raising questions about the community’s interest in the broad program that’s been proposed for the facility.

Government

Town Officials Seek To Set Aside $10,000 for Community Facility ‘The Hub,’ Formerly Outback Teen Center

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One year after the Outback Teen Center received no town funding as its board at the time sought to forge a public-private partnership with New Canaan, town officials are proposing to put $10,000 into a contingency fund that could support a re-branded facility under new leadership that’s designed to serve a wider demographic. Because the major program expected to run out of “The Hub,” as the newly launched Outback building has been re-branded, would meet a major need by serving special needs adults, the Health & Human Services Commission for next year’s budget is seeking to set aside $10,000 to support the nonprofit organization, according to Judy Dunn, the commission’s chair. “The state of Connecticut stops aiding special needs people at age 21, so after that they get nothing,” Dunn told the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday in proposing a spending plan for next fiscal year. “Because this is an entirely new program, we didn’t want to take the entire amount they asked for and just say, ‘Here,’ ” Dunn said at the meeting, held at Town Hall. “We did not feel that was fiscally responsible of us to do.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Exciting news: We’re hearing that New Canaan’s defunct Outback Teen Center is being renamed ‘The Hub’ by the re-formed board charged with developing new uses for the structure behind Town Hall. Word is, the board is looking at a mix of human services, as well as wellness and possibly food providers to generate revenue at the disused building. New info: New Canaanite Bob Albus, head of the board, told us a program for special needs adults in town will run in the lower level of The Hub on weekdays, and that other activities could include after-school tutoring and mentoring and babysitting for parents who are shopping or dining downtown, and notable local agencies such as Getabout and Staying Put In New Canaan are part of the conversation. “We want to touch virtually every life in town from infants to seniors and really have an expansive program that addresses what are some unmet needs in town,” Albus told NewCanaanite.com. An online fundraising campaign is underway here—designed both to secure some “start-up” money for The Hub and to engage the community, Albus said.

Government

New Teen Center Board Eyes Name Change, Partnerships

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Though many expected the town to take over the Outback Teen Center this summer, the building remains in control of a newly formed board of directors and soon could get a name change as it’s rebranded with an eye on expanding its role and finding a way to sustain it financially, officials say. The new board has assumed the nonprofit organization’s tax-exempt status and “are spending a great deal of time trying to find partners so that there could be some mixed use of that facility,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said Tuesday during a Board of Selectmen meeting. “Who knows where it’s going to come out? They [Outback board members] still want to come to the town for some financing—I don’t know how realistic that is, so I am doing everything I can to work with them and put them in touch with different groups, whether it’s the YMCA or other groups that want to share that facility. But I think the model is some group uses [the building from] 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and runs programming out of it, whether it’s for challenged youngsters in our community that are through with their program and their launch program at our Board of Ed, maybe make that a hub for that, or whether it’s the YMCA that wants to do some programming during the day, and in the evening if the Teen Center may want to do homework studies or have a babysitting venue there for folks that are going out to dinner in town.”

Mallozzi said he is encouraged that Outback’s founding president Bob Albus and longtime supporters such as Katharine Sturgess are on the board and seeking to make a success there.

Government

Town Council: New Outback Board ‘Likely To Happen’; Facility, Nonprofit Status To Transition

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The Outback Teen Center soon will operate under a new board of directors that will include some founding members of the organization, officials said Wednesday night. Thanking the current Outback directors for their “efforts and hard work and dedication,” Town Council Chairman Bill Walbert said during a special meeting that the organization long has been “playing a game where the rules [make it] difficult for you to win” and “can be very frustrating.”

Recently, Wallbert said, the existing board verbally approved a change that will see New Canaan’s Bob Albus and Catharine Sturgess come on with some others, then for the “existing board members to resign, creating what in essence is a temporary—not a temporary, but a transitional board, if you will—that will maintain, most importantly, the 501(c)(3) so that does not go away.”

“And then negotiate on behalf of the building with other organizations in town, potentially the town itself, but basically have a group of people who are not burdened by the existing rules, do not have to worry about the programming and such today but can act on the best behalf of that 501(c)(3) and act on the best behalf of that building and transition the Teen Center to its next use to serve the youth in the community,” Walbert said at the meeting, held in the Community Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. “So we worked aggressively toward that, we think that is going to happen, and I want to report to you that that is likely to happen.”

With a lease termination proposal in hand from the Outback board, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi last week indicated that the change could come soon. It will close one chapter for the Outback and start another. Facing a far different atmosphere today than it did when starting out 15 years ago—both in terms of programs offered to New Canaan youth and private funding—the Outback’s leadership had sought to forge a partnership with the town that would see New Canaan subsidize and staff the facility.