Rep. Mary Mushinsky and Cathy Granucci are co-chairs of the Quinnipiac River Linear Trail Advisory Committee.
I was contacted directly as were other Councilors and I am more than willing to publicly weigh in on this ahead of the vote. Below is my response to that email:
Hi Catherine,
Thank you for taking the time to send this email today.
Since $1 million has already been raised through previous budget appropriations and the final million will be coming from a reimbursement grant recently awarded by the state (all we have to do is appropriate the money now and it will be reimbursed to us later) I see no real reason to not support this.
We cannot use the grant funding for anything else and if we would not accept it for the planned use, the second choice on the list would get it.
Additionally, what has already been raised through previous budget appropriations would not be redirected to any other capital / non-reoccurring work, so if it will not be used for anything else that is needed then this is as good a use as any.
While the economy slowly recovers and with the whole mindset of “getting up and moving around” as a way to combat the obesity issue I see the trail as fitting both efforts – a place to go that has limited added cost for those that use it and is fully suitable to promote wellness and exercise.
Wallingford made a commitment a long time ago to support this project. The longer it takes to complete it, the more it costs in the end. Engineering and materials go up and sometimes, as we saw with Community Lake, you reach a point when costs become unattainable and / or permission to do the work becomes denied due to legislation or some other rules and regulations.
Thank you for taking the time to send this email today.
Since $1 million has already been raised through previous budget appropriations and the final million will be coming from a reimbursement grant recently awarded by the state (all we have to do is appropriate the money now and it will be reimbursed to us later) I see no real reason to not support this.
We cannot use the grant funding for anything else and if we would not accept it for the planned use, the second choice on the list would get it.
Additionally, what has already been raised through previous budget appropriations would not be redirected to any other capital / non-reoccurring work, so if it will not be used for anything else that is needed then this is as good a use as any.
While the economy slowly recovers and with the whole mindset of “getting up and moving around” as a way to combat the obesity issue I see the trail as fitting both efforts – a place to go that has limited added cost for those that use it and is fully suitable to promote wellness and exercise.
Wallingford made a commitment a long time ago to support this project. The longer it takes to complete it, the more it costs in the end. Engineering and materials go up and sometimes, as we saw with Community Lake, you reach a point when costs become unattainable and / or permission to do the work becomes denied due to legislation or some other rules and regulations.
If we consider the economy to be still soft, now is a better time than after it picks up speed, to get us the materials and resources necessary to build out the project. Future demand and inflation will be more, not less.
Since Wallingford has made this commitment I say we see it through to its completion as we can and as we are able.
So to reiterate what I mentioned prior – the previous budget appropriations have been set aside and we have won the grant; let’s move forward.
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