Town Poised To Approve $2.5 Million Contract for Waveny House Elevator, ADA Bathroom

Town officials are poised on Tuesday to approve an approximately $2.5 million contract with a Ridgefield-based company to install an elevator in Waveny House.

The $2,493,425 contract with Alden Bailey Restoration also calls for an ADA-accessible bathroom on the second floor of the public building, according to the Board of Selectmen’s meeting agenda.

Discussed for years by town officials, the elevator had once appeared to be a priority for the town, which even created a Waveny House Renovation Advisory Committee to help plan for it. The Committee’s meeting minutes from October 2018 called for formal planning for the elevator to commence the following month for an early-2020 project completion. (Town officials in fiscal year 2018 had budgeted $1 million for the project, though it was to be bonded.)

Yet the elevator never materialized, and the Committee stopped meeting three years ago, town records show.

Then in October of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice found dozens of “barriers to access” during an investigation into reported violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In a Site Survey Report that town officials had tried to withhold from public disclosure, the federal agency found that “[a]n accessible route is not provided to the Recreation Department on the second floor [of Waveny House].”

“A public entity shall operate each service, program or activity so that the service, program or activity, when viewed in its entirety, is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities,” Diane Perry, an architect in the DOJ’s Disability Rights Section, said in the Oct. 7 report.

It isn’t clear to what extent the DOJ investigation into ADA compliance shortcomings in New Canaan led the town to its decision to move forward with the project now, why the project didn’t get underway following the work of the Waveny House Advisory Committee, what is the timing of the project, whether municipal departments located on the second floor of Waveny House will be relocated until it’s done, how much more money the project will cost now versus three years ago, what other projects the town has planned to address the ADA violations cited by the DOJ, what those projects are expected to cost, how much money has been spent on recently completed projects that do not meet ADA standards and whether the town is going to bring in an ADA consultant for the Playhouse work.

Town officials did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The company that the selectmen plan to hire for the work at Waveny House, Alden Bailey Restoration, is the same one that was approved two years ago for a $777,992 contract to create ADA-compliant entrances at Waveny House. Yet the DOJ report cited several shortcomings with those entrances.

“The ramp to the west porch does not have edge protection along the open sides,” the report said. “A curb or barrier shall be provided on each side of the ramp that prevents the passage of a 4 inch diameter sphere, where any portion of the sphere is within 4 inches of the ground surface.”

Town officials say the ramp connects the balcony behind Waveny House to the west porch.

Similarly, the new ramps from the terrace to the loggia behind Waveny House were cited for improper slopes, lack of handrails on one side of the ramp and failure to extend the handrails beyond the bottom of the ramp run.

“The slope of the ramps from the terrace to the loggia is 1:10 (10%),” the report said. “Ramp runs shall have a running slope not steeper than 1:12.”

Tuesday’s meeting agenda, which came into the Town Clerk’s office rather later than usual—at 8:12 a.m. Monday, according to a date stamp on it (just 18 minutes ahead of the statutorily required 24-hour notice)—also has an item listed as “Discussion of Part-Time Employees.” It’s a reference to a request from Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams for the full Board of Selectmen to approve, as it has in the past, all part-time hires for the town. The matter has grown contentious over the past few selectmen meetings, with pushback from First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

The meeting agenda does not include “Selectmen’s Comments”—a portion of the Board’s meeting where members can address general matters before the town. Moynihan had tried once before, earlier this year, to remove the standing item from meeting agendas, but it was restored after Williams and Corbet pushed back.