Democrats Advocate for Infrastructure and Neighborhood Improvements as City Standing Bonding Subcommittee Recommends Park Borrowing With Board of Finance Votes
The City Bonding Subcommittee approved recommending for $6,300,000 in borrowing for parks projects, with members of the Republican-controlled Board of Finance and Taxation tipping the balance in favor. Democrats on the committee had moved to table the proposal, calling for city bonding to include funding for flood control and other neighborhood priorities, but were outvoted with Board of Finance members voting.
But the proposal now goes to the City Council, which will meet again next Wednesday, March 26, 2025, where it would take ten out of the fifteen members in favor for the proposal to be approved. The Council has an 8 to 7 Democratic majority.
Neighborhood flooding has become a big concern in a number of areas of the city. Notably, the neighborhood between Allen Street and Roxbury Road near CCSU neighborhood has been facing serious problems with neighborhood flooding because of overdue infrastructure improvements. Neighborhood activists, Council members and state legislators have been pressing for funding for a $13.9 million drainage project to alleviate mounting concerns about flooding caused by drainage infrastructure in need of improvements.
Advocates have pointed to tens of millions of dollars of federal and state aid and local borrowing spent by Mayor Erin Stewart (R) during her administration on non-infrastructure projects as ample opportunity to have addressed the problems. Residents of the Allen Street area facing flooding have compared “shiny” taxpayer-funded construction projects in recent years, like the Beehive Bridge on Main Street, to basic infrastructure improvements, like drainage in their neighborhoods, that have been made a lower priority to those projects.
The $6,300,000 bonding proposal at issue in tonight’s committee meeting would go for four park projects, Willow Street Park Project for $1,625,000, Walnut Hill Park Paving Project for $1,625,000, Martha Hart Dredging Project for $1,100,000 and Willow Brook Park Paving Project for $1,950,000.
Two other proposals on the committee’s agenda, at its meeting tonight, were recommended for approval to the Council.
