A member of the Town Council on Wednesday night called for the legislative body to push officials to address a documented “powder post beetle” infestation at the former Outback Teen Center Building.
Outback Teen Center in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
Told that the town likely won’t address the problem until a more comprehensive report on the building’s capital needs and possible future use is in hand, Councilman Cristina A. Ross said that it’s been “slightly over one year” since the infestation was identified and “I am really surprised and concerned that this just keeps going and now we are waiting for another report and no action has been taken.”
“So I think it’s within our [Town Council Infrastructure & Utilities] subcommittee to be able to recommend to the Board of Selectmen to act on [an RFP for remediation] and to take care of the infestation at this point,” she said at the group’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall.
No one knows what’s going to happen with the cavernous structure behind town hall. It’s been two years since the Outback Teen Center closed, unable either to make enough money to run itself or convince town officials to support a re-imagined, broad program that went beyond serving just teens. It reverted to town ownership last July and the vacant building has been vandalized since then.
Asked about the prospect of issuing the RFP to address the insect problem at the former teen center, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said the town first needs the final report from the Town Building Use and Evaluation Committee.
“The Board of Selectmen has asked or a definitive evaluation of our buildings and we have entrusted people from the Town Council and the Board of Finance and others to get us that information and then we will decide, but at this point in time I am not going to spend a dime on the Teen Center or other buildings such as Vine Cottage,” he said. “We are waiting for evaluations of these buildings before we spend money on something.”
The committee has set a September goal for its report to the Town Council. That report is expected to include not just evaluations of 40-plus town-owned buildings (everything except Board of Ed buildings), but also recommendations on what to do with them, including whether to offload some.
At the meeting, Town Council Chairman Bill Walbert said that after meeting with public works officials, he understands that there are different types of beetle remediation that can be done—some more comprehensive and expensive than others.
Thank-you Cristina for keeping up the fight to get this resolved. I appreciate Town leaders such as you who are focused on good management of our Town asets!