Bond Commission Removes Juvenile Detention Facility from List

By SUSAN HAIGH
Associated Press Writer
     HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ Plans to allot $15 million for a juvenile detention center in Bridgeport were temporarily put on hold Friday, but a top aide to the governor said the administration remains committed to building Connecticut's only secure center for delinquent girls.
     The State Bond Commission, led by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, removed the item from its agenda after officials, including members of the Bridgeport delegation, questioned the process for putting the 18-to-24-bed center on the state-owned property in a residential neighborhood.
     Robert Genuario, Rell's budget director, said the project will be placed on a future agenda after more people are briefed on the details.
     ``I think a number of the members of the commission, who are very supportive of the project and when all is said and done will likely vote for the project, are more comfortable giving folks a little more time to review the documentation,'' he said.
     Rell attended a funeral Friday, and Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele presided over the meeting in her absence.
     Connecticut has not had a secure center for troubled girls since the Long Lane School in Middletown closed in February 2003. Last week, Rell said that the demographic has ``some of the most challenging and urgent needs in our state'' and that a girls-only facility can help them.
     Rep. Christopher Caruso, a Bridgeport Democrat who questioned the need to build such a center, especially during difficult economic times, said the Rell administration suddenly sprang the project on the neighborhood and did not follow proper siting procedures.
     Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has said the state needs a secure detention center for girls, agreed Friday that environmental concerns still need to be addressed and that neighbors need to be given an opportunity to participate.
     After the commission decided to postpone action on the project, Caruso thanked Rell and said he was pleased that there will be more time to ``get questions answered, get the necessary details'' before the commission meets again, possibly as soon as next month. No meeting date has been set.
     ``Our message of fairness got through _ that the people of Bridgeport had the right to know that this detention center was being sited in Bridgeport. The elected officials had the right to know, and they were not informed,'' he said. ``This speaks well for the process now.''
     Genuario said the project was made known to lawmakers and residents. He said environmental assessments and other documents have been available through the Departments of Public Works and Children and Families ``for months and years.''
     ``There has been a lot of give and take,'' he said. ``It was discussed specifically with the legislature this past session in the subcommittee on bonding, including the location,'' Genuario said. ``This was in the Bridgeport papers for more than a year that this was going to be the location.''

     (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)