Trumbull getting back to ‘almost normal’ in 2024, Tesoro says

TRUMBULL — If everything goes according to plan, 2024 could be a normal year in Trumbull.

First Selectman Vicki Tesoro said several projects she began working on that were stalled by the pandemic will either get started or continue to move forward in the new year. 

“I think the biggest issue I had was leading through COVID because of what it did to not only our community but the world,” she said. “It sets you back so there was a catch-up period and I would say things are returning to almost normal.”

“I’ve been elected four times and I think people believe in how I’ve run the town for this amount of time,” she said. “I feel encouraged by their confidence, but I want to continue to earn that confidence because I know that doesn’t come easily.”

Now, projects that have been long underway, such as the proposed new senior center, are another step closer toward potentially coming to fruition, she said.

“The two biggest projects that were stalled were the building committees for our senior community center and for our pool that was in Hillcrest Middle School that was shut down,” she said.

Tesoro said the potential price tag was not a surprise.

“When things actually go out to bid and get prices, they’ll probably be in the ballpark of that number,” she said. “With inflation, those prices have been jumping around so I would hope for everyone’s sake that inflation continues to go down and not go up.”

The center is planned for a 25-acre town-owned parcel of land on Hardy Lane.

“We focused on the senior community center because there’s a real need in this town for our seniors to have a better senior center than what we have right now,” she said. “The new community center will give an ability to have more people involved in programs there, there will still be more parking there and it will just be a new building so a much better building that what we have now and I think seniors deserve that in this community.”

The project is now going to referendum, where community members will vote if they want the project to move forward or go back to the drawing board.

She said the town has a referendum process for projects that involve more than $15 million in bonding.

“In the end, it is not my decision,” she said. “My job is to bring it forward to give people the opportunity to consider it and to vote on it. But ultimately, it’s the people’s decision. So if you want it, the town will build it. And if you don’t want it, the town won’t build it. It’s as simple as that.”

The 150,000-gallon pool is over 50 years old and was deemed unsafe for residents because the water couldn’t be balanced to a safe level regularly.

Tesoro said that a discussion to place a natatorium on the same campus as Trumbull High School and Hillcrest Middle School had been ongoing for years but was removed before she took office in 2017.

“There was a plan to put in a second natatorium, which is a separate building for the pool on the campus of Trumbull High School and Hillcrest. It was going to be situated somewhere on that campus,” she said.

“When I was elected in 2017, we empanelled that committee for the pool and we studied it before COVID hit,” Tesoro said. “We did discuss putting a pool in the new senior community center, but I pulled that out of that project right after COVID because it was too expensive.”

Tesoro said it is unclear when talks about the new pool will resume, but she hopes it will be in the coming year.

“It’s been an ongoing conversation about the pool and what I would like to see happen now because the pool belongs near Trumbull High School somewhere, because it should be used as part of their curriculum, used by their swim teams,” she said. “And (it) can be used by the community as well because it would be a separate building.”

Finally, Tesoro said the town would continue to make much needed infrastructure improvements to improve walkability and safety for residents.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure projects in town that we still need to focus on,” she said.

She said one of the biggest infrastructure changes that is needed is the improvement of culverts along Williams Road and Edison Road.

 “That’s a critical safety project for the residents who live there and our police department that also is impacted by that culvert issue in that neighborhood,” Tesoro said.

The project’s overall cost is $1.6 million, of which the town is contributing half, according to town officials. 

That project is expected to get underway in 2024.

Tesoro also mentioned that improvements to the Long Hill Green area will continue with a new traffic light and sidewalks.

“It will be a redesign of that whole intersection there to improve safety and the walkability of the entire area,” she said.