New London

- The city could begin repairing its ailing infrastructure of forlorn parks and crumbling roads as early as next year as part of a $13.5 million bonding package that the City Council's Public Works Committee approved Monday night.

The package also includes $2.5 million for the first phase of funding a modern athletic complex at New London High School. City Councilor Margaret M. Curtin suggested that the city include the entire $10 million price of the athletic complex in the bond package, but the committee rejected the motion.

The proposal will now go before the full council with the Public Works Committee's recommendation to approve the projects, which would cost the city about $20 million over the next two decades.

Keith Chapman, the city's interim public works director, said contractors could complete the proposed park and road repairs in 12 to 18 months.

”It's a good start for New London to take a look at its infrastructure,” said Deputy Mayor Wade A. Hyslop Jr. who chairs the Public Works Committee.

The proposal, whose details could change, also includes:

n $4 million to repair roads, curbs and sidewalks along ten miles of city streets.

n$3 million for building improvements, including a new, $1.5 million transfer station and $500,000 to improve the repair-plagued police headquarters.

n$2 million to replace about 50 of the city's most outdated police, fire and public works vehicles.

n$2 million to improve about a dozen parks, including a $1 million upgrade of Bates Woods Park.

Chapman, who was hired in March, spent his first months in the job examining the city's infrastructure: its roughly 90 miles of sidewalks, dozens of parks, 31 city-owned buildings and a largely moribund fleet of 150 vehicles.

Chapman concluded much of New London's infrastructure had fallen into “major disrepair,” as the city neglected maintenance on lingering problems, but created new public facilities such as new schools and the $19 million Waterfront Park.

”The five divisions that maintain the city's infrastructure are really throwing good money after bad,” Chapman told the seven councilors Monday night.

For example, Chapman said the city routinely pays thousands of dollars on major repairs, such as rebuilding transmissions and replacing axles, on decades' old vehicles that most municipalities would have retired tens of thousands of miles ago. He called them “the back-ups to the back-ups.”

Chapman's review found that about a third of the city's vehicle fleet exceeds 100,000 miles. He showed photos of some of the vehicles during a 15-minute presentation to the public Monday night. “You can tell city vehicles because they don't have the hub cabs on them,” Chapman said. “They're long gone.”

Chapman noted the bonding package, while ambitious, would only begin to reverse years of neglect to New London's infrastructure. “There's a lot of work to be done,” he said. “This addresses the beginning.”

In the presentation, Chapman showed that many citywide problems - such as fractured pavement and long-faded signs - can be found within a one-block radius of City Hall.

”This is where most people coming to the city to invest are going to come,” he said. “This is what they see.”

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