MONTPELIER — Windsor officials made their case to senators on Thursday with their staunch opposition to renovating the former state prison to create a bill to 10-bed temporary secure facility for juveniles, instead pitching housing as the best use of the property.
The hearing, held by the Senate Committee on Institutions, concluded with no vote on a bill, SB 245, that would put $3 million toward the renovation. Committee Chairman Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, said discussion would continue.
Former state Rep. Donna Sweaney, currently Chairwoman of the Windsor Improvement Commission, and Town Manager Tom Marsh said Windsor residents have repeatedly said they do not want another prison, which had operated at two locations in Windsor for more than 200 years before closing in 2017. Instead, the roughly 100-acre parcel should be repurposed to address the shortage of housing, they argued.
Sweaney also warned that the cost to operate the facility, off County Road, would be higher than estimates for education, therapy, health and security and once construction begins, the population would increase.
“Youth centers are not cheap,” Sweaney said. “I promise you, the minute you start building, they will come. It won’t be just six. It will get to be 15 or 20.”
The proposal comes as state officials seek a facility for justice-involved minors after the closing of the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Essex, Vt., in 2020, which routinely held only a handful of juveniles. A plan for a secure youth treatment center in Newbury, Vt., was rejected by the town last year. Officials then turned their eyes to former prison as a temporary solution.
Sweaney and others referred to the most recent study on the Windsor property, released in December, which recommended looking at a private or private-public partnership for housing.
“Please give consideration to allow this 100-plus acres to be put to a better use,” she told the panel.
At least two senators of the five-member committee appeared to agree that Windsor is not the right location for the facility.
“I think you said it well,” state Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, told Sweaney. “I think Windsor has done its part over the years of being a prison town.”
Mazza said a centrally located facility where there is access to services is a better approach.
Sen. Richard McCormack, D-Windsor, reminded the group of a vote years ago when the state was looking to build a new prison and Windsor residents said no. Springfield residents narrowly approved the proposal, and that is where the Southeast State Correctional Facility is today.
“I hope we will continue that level of respect for the will of the people,” McCormack said.
Chairman Benning referenced a lack of option for replacing Woodside. The state has floated only two proposals — Newbury and Windsor — “neither of which in my opinion sound like a good idea.”
Earlier in the meeting, Benning said Newbury does not have the emergency services but Windsor does.
Marsh agreed that Windsor has those services, including police and fire, despite its small size, but supporting those services costs taxpayers a lot, Marsh said.
“To take that 100 acres, that could be housing to help the hospital, the town budget and emergency service and to turn that upside down and say let’s take it off the table for any kind of housing use and let’s put additional burden on the already burdened fire and police — that may be the right place for the state but for all those reasons it is absolutely the wrong place for here,” Marsh said.
Also arguing against SB 245, which has identical wording in a House bill, was John MacGovern, whose property abuts the wildlife management area that was split from the fenced-in prison property several years ago.
MacGovern said the $3 million price tag is “absurd” for a temporary facility, since its construction would make it harder for the town to develop the remaining buildings on the site. He said the state needs to do its homework and find the right place at the best price for taxpayers.
“A temporary solution should be temporary, not cost $3 million and not situated in the wrong place,” MacGovern said.
Toward the end of the hearing, Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, told the committee there is a crisis at hand threatening the safety of youths and employees who work with them. Howard, who did not voice support or opposition to the Windsor plan, said one female employee was assaulted while supervising a youth in a hotel room because there were no secure facilities.
“That is the situation that is raging out of control in the Department (for) Children and Families,” Howard said, pointing the finger at the Scott administration.
“Closing Woodside was a disaster, and it is having real consequences for the children and for employees,” Howard said. “Time is not on our side. We need those beds and we need them now, not in six months.”
The project in Newbury that would convert a former bed and breakfast was awarded an Act 250 permit in late January. But the state still needs to win a court case challenging the decision by the Newbury Development Review Board to deny a zoning permit for the project.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
