City Council’s monthly public hearing did not even reach twenty minutes on Monday.
Nobody signed up to speak.
There were two items up for discussion.
One (an ordinance creating a Commission on the Homeless) received no comments from the public, nor explanation from the five (Alexander Aponte, Joel Cruz, Jr., Raul De Jesùs Jr., Cynthia Jennings, and Larry Deutsch) present members of the Council.
The other — a move to allocate a chunk of change from the Parks and Playground Enhancements account in the Capital Improvement Fund to an account for renovation and expansion of the carousel building in Bushnell Park — garnered a whopping five comments from the public after some awkward attempts on behalf of the Council to get those folks out of their seats and to the microphone.
None of those individuals speaking in favor of this identified themselves as living in Hartford.
Arnold Chase was among those advocating this use of money. Identifying himself as a member of the “Bushnell Park carousel group,” Chase said that children enjoying themselves on the ride is more powerful than any marketing campaign. He called it a regional asset.
Councilperson Deutsch inquired if foundations or regional sources could be tapped for funding.
Louise DeMars of Bristol, the Executive Director of the New England Carousel Museum in that town, said “this has been a good marriage between Carousel Museum and City of Hartford,” with the museum operating the City-owned carousel. She said upward of 20,000 free ride tickets have been distributed to Hartford children through the schools, equaling one ride per child per year.
Three other speakers in favor of this ordinance identified themselves as residing in East Hartford, Rocky Hill, and Windsor.
Deutsch asked if any of those towns had been approached to contribute to funding the cost of renovation. It appears not.
The carousel typically opens for the season in late April. This year the carousel is scheduled to open for its 100th birthday celebration on July 26th, only to close again until one day in September. The Friends of the Carousel announced in April its plan to hold a grand re-opening celebration in November — just in time for Winterfest — when construction is expected to be finished. In the past few weeks since the Friends of the Carousel have made that announcement, the group is now saying it does not know when construction will finish.
According to the Bushnell Park Foundation, construction is slated to begin this month and finish mid-November.
The renovations would include adding heat, restrooms, and a multi-purpose room; the goal is to be able to run the carousel year-round.
The Pump House Gallery in Bushnell Park is not quite a five minute walk from the carousel; it already has indoor restrooms. When we inquired about why the City of Hartford does not keep these existing facilities regularly open to the public, we were told that the maintenance costs were too high.
The ordinance is worded as follows:
Ordinance amending an ordinance appropriating $106,867,975 for various public improvements projects for the fiscal year 2013-2014 and authorizing the issuance of $106,867,975 bonds of the City to meet said appropriation and pending the issuance thereof the making of temporary borrowing for such purpose.
The next regular Council meeting will be on Tuesday, May 27th.
Dave Carrier
I thought that all currently planned improvements at Bushnell Park were part of the iQuilt plan and was part of the 99 million to be spent on it. There is nothing that seems to be straight forward with this iQuilt plan. Is the designated tree removal at the park part of the plan? It seems that every step taken brings up a new issue or and old one that has never been resolved. It is a very uneasy feeling that I have in the way the city is handling our affairs in the planning department and confusion as to who this benefits.
Kerri Provost
The backlash against the Gold Street realignment (one of the only sensible parts of iQuilt) might have actually caused the powers that be to step back and question this project. Finally.
Tony C
The carousel is a great asset, and bringing folks into Hartford is goodness.
Hartford is in the interesting, but not unique, position of having great public parks and facilities that pull in lots of non-Hartford residents. Somehow the city needs to figure out how to get some of the dollars out of the pockets of the visiting suburbanites and into the maintenance, upkeep, and improvement of the parks they visit. Some of the funds come back to the city in tax receipts from the supported businesses and restaurants. As Hartford builds it’s downtown shopping, it needs to keep park visitors around long enough to stop by those establishments. Some private enterprises that pay rent and are located within the parks may be helpful in harvesting funds. I’m thinking bays for pop-up shops, crafts, and food vendors.
When the City surveyed on future parks planning a full 30% of respondents lived outside of Hartford. I’d be interested to see the Hartford resident and non-resident statistics from the carousel usage. Not as a reason for not funding the improvement, but more as information that could be used to scheme on how to capitalize on the visits of those non-Hartford folks.
Kerri Provost
The $1 ticket price is an artificially low rate, as Arnold Chase pointed out.
Maybe a solution is to charge out-of-town visitors the non-artificial price to make up some of that difference.
Luis
Not surprised at the number of people that showed up for public comment. It highlights the ease that a small group of people can shepherd legislation or appropriation (good or bad) through the system without a “real” public process.
With the “artificially low” price of $1, the City should make the Carousel give all City residents enter at no cost. The one one child a ride per year is a joke given how much the City gives to the Carousel as an annual contribution and the even larger investment being made this year. The Carousel will more than get its money in popcorn and soda sales.
To follow-up on Toni’s point above. A further study of attendance numbers might show a large percentage of visits on Sundays when many downtown stores are closed.
Kerri Provost
Exactly…and if/when this goes through, people (who notice) will be pissed that their tax dollars are going toward renovations that may not all be necessary and which could be funded in other ways, potentially.
emily
I worked at the carousel the summer after my senior year in high school (1998) and it cost $1 to ride then. I have been somewhat shocked that the price has never gone up over all these years. It’s great to offer a $1 ride, but when I was working there the stop button was broken and we had to physically ride the carousel and time how long we were riding it and then turn it off with the emergency stop button (i’m sure that has been fixed by now).
At that time we sold very little in concessions and memorabilia – however that was years ago, so things could be much different now.
And as for bathrooms, we were always told that during our work shift to go use the bathrooms across the street at the Y.
I think the carousel is awesome, I have no idea how it is being run now. It needs some help, some guidance for sure.
Kerri Provost
Thanks for sharing this!
The Y has been closed for awhile, so I’m guessing workers are using the portapotties outside of the carousel or walking longer distances for proper plumbing.