Regarding the BOE's Conceptual Deal

The Board of Ed should know that Hekemian’s attorney used their support for them in his closing arguments, along with the fact that they did not come forth with any concerns about this development being next to the High School. 

This is now a part of the record that will be reviewed by the judge when it goes to appeal.

This is what Mr. Delvecchio, the developer’s attorney had to say:

“The School wanted an athletic facility. There were concerns --   although not raised by the School --    about safety of the children that might be attending the school.  About construction impacts on the school.  Again none of those concerns were ever raised by the School Board. In an effort to continue to try to do right, we met with the School Board after they indicated they wanted a quote unquote seat at the table. We thought we had found a way to make the project better for everybody concerned, or at least for one more person concerned -- that being the School Board. We asked you to temporarily take a break one night and not hold the hearings so that we could explore those discussions. We did our due diligence. We tried to come up with a way to provide that extra athletic facility that the School Board desperately wanted. But ultimately after the due diligence was done we found it not feasible to produce that result and we had to resume with the plan as then amended.”

This is what a Zoning Board member later stated in his denial:

“As far as the Board of Education not being here, I think it’s hypocritical. The BOE had a vested interest in this.  They were going to get a field out of it.  They were going to get a lump sum load of cash. That didn’t work so why should they be here. The superintendent of the School’s Board, he doesn’t even live in this town. If this place floated away tomorrow, he could care less.”

The children’s safety should have been the Board of Ed’s number one concern, but it wasn’t.