Finance board urges Swift House decision

KENT, Conn.—Members of the Board of Finance recently expressed dissatisfaction with the selectmen’s decision to let the new town administration deal with the issue of Swift House.

Swift House, a town-owned building, is among the oldest structures remaining in town. It has been used for a variety of purposes over the past 50 years but has been empty since before the Covid pandemic. It cannot be reopened, according to the building inspector, until it is made compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The current board of selectmen and a task force examined the condition of the building and had an architectural study done over the past two years. First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer, who questions the building’s usefulness to the town, proposed that the Kent Social Services Department and Food Bank be moved there, but the STEAP grant he hoped to secure to renovate the building did not materialize.

Lindenmayer and Selectmen Glenn Sanchez are not running for the board this year and it was decided this summer to let the incoming board decide the building’s fate.

Finance member Jason Wright said the $2 million price tag for overhauling the building for modern usage is “too big for the town to support” and Finance Chairman Nancy Odea Wyrick registered her disappointment that no action will be taken before the election.

“They are just kicking the can down the road and that is not right,” she said. “We need to take a hard look at it. The townspeople need to decide if they will continue to pour money into it.”

She added that the new Selectmen will have many things to look at and that Swift House might not be a priority. “It just continues hanging on,” she said, concluding that the Finance Board should continue to push for action.

Treasurer Barbara Herbst said she is preparing for the annual town audit and had not heard directly from the Board of Education about whether it would retain the 2 percent of last year’s budget that state statutes allows it to use from its surplus. That sum would have been $120,000.

Perusing the school board’s minutes, however, she discovered it retained only $21,000 to pay for a social worker at the elementary school. 

Herbst further reported that the school roof was completed under budget in 2024 and it “looks like $168,000 will be coming back” to the town coffers. She is also asking for the school board’s plans for the residual funds included in Capital Plan.