Town officials this month approved an approximately $58,000 contract for environmental services required in order to demolish the main and guest houses in Irwin Park.
The prospect of demolishing Irwin House—a 1963-built Colonial that served as the temporary home of some municipal departments during the Town Hall renovation and expansion about 10 years ago—emerged publicly during the recently completed budget process.
On April 15, the Board of Selectmen approved a contract with New Haven-based Fuss & O’Neill to prepare for the project.
The environmental services firm “will perform the pre-demolition hazardous material inspections and design services,” according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works.
“They will inspect the building for asbestos, lead paint, PCBs and mercury, and they create a big document for us to remove them,” he told the selectmen at the regular meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference.
Zagarenski continued: “Once they finish putting together the bid specifications they’ll assist with the bid process. They’ll also put together the bid specifications for the removal of an underground storage tank that’s there. They’ll monitor the project in the next phase, which is included in this. They visually inspect the areas. They’ll see the containment area setups. They monitor the air. They clear the space to make sure it’s safe for demolition and it’s properly disposed of. Lastly, they compile all the required reports, testing results, the disposal records and they report to all the authorities having jurisdiction to properly close out the project. The EPA. DEEP, the health department and the fire marshal. So it’s kind of one stop shopping with these guys.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the $58,050 contract.
The selectmen asked whether all the services Zagarenski described are in the contract (yes), why there’s an underground oil tank there (it came with the house), what kind of shape it’s in (it was replaced about 20 years ago), whether that tank also heats Gores Pavilion (no) and what is the time estimate for the entire demolition (this testing by Fuss & O’Neill will determine much of that).
The town has $400,000 for the demolition project in next year’s budget, officials said.
Carlson said that, beyond public meetings, she has discussed the plans for demolition at community events.
Murphy Carroll said that the plan when the town acquired Irwin Park was to demo the house.
“We just kind of got stalled,” she said.
Karl said that it’s important for locals to know the plan to raze Irwin House.
“I don’t want anybody saying, ‘Oh, I was surprised that we took the house down,’ ” he said.
Karl added that redoing the inside of Irwin to make it useful and compliant is not feasible. He noted that an estimated $1.3 million would need to be spent for the building envelope alone.
“It’s pretty clear that this is the right decision,” he said.
Carlson noted that while there may be a need for office space in New Canaan, Irwin House isn’t purpose-built for such. Karl said there’s nothing precluding a future plan to put in a logical building on the site.
There is always an egregious lack of understanding of how much a still standing historic building strengthens the identity of a community. The dollars and cents loom large while the “sense and sensibility” are valued as nothing.
Thank you, Nancy.
From what I’ve seen, New Canaan shells out a lot of money for historic preservation—look at the Town Hall renovation, or The Playhouse, or the millions that have gone and continue to go into Waveny House and other outbuildings on that property. (To say nothing of municipal bodies such as P&Z requiring preservation of ‘historic’ structures that are privately owned, such as the 1913 library.)
I think sometimes aging or older buildings—and I don’t believe the 1963 Irwin House even qualifies as such, though the abutting Gores Pavilion does (note: Gores is not under threat of demolition)—should come down because they have no real historic or practical value for taxpayers. For me the “Richmond Hill Garage” and “Audubon House” both fell into that category. And I think most would agree that Irwin House also falls into that category, certainly it does not date to the Jane Austen era. For those seeking more background on Irwin House, here’s an information sheet written by the New Canaan Preservation Alliance. It’s not a situation where the town can just continue to do nothing, because there’s a real maintenance cost.
This could be one topic of conversation at the monthly Community Coffee hosted by the New Canaanite, to be held 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. this Thursday, May 1 in the Jim & Dede Bartlett Auditorium at New Canaan Library. Hope to see you there.
Thank you again. -Mike
Michael Dinan, thank you for such a thoughtful response. Your reminder of what the town has invested in Historic Preservation is important for everyone to see.
There has been little in the way of rationales given on the planned tear down of the Irwin house on this site, just that though it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to do the tear down it would cost a lot more to do a full restoration of the house. Did we get something definitive on problems of leaving the house as is? What is the plan for the area of the property when it is torn down? How much will filling that space cost and whatever they plan for it?
Two large maple trees were removed on Maple St. this week on the St. Aloysius property at the suggestion of the town tree warden. There was nothing either through the church or online on this or a process to question the removals with reasonable alternatives.
On another environmental concern, there have been substantial increases in fields changed over to artificial turf with all the concerns about microplastics and the infills. Wilton put up to a vote the proposal to turn “Allen Meadow” into an artificial turf field and after industry presentations and credentialed professionals closely examining industry talking points as lacking in credibility, the artificial turf field proposal was voted down.