Capital Budget Public Hearing Draws Stamford Animal Shelter Staff, Oakdale Residents

The staff of the Stamford Animal Shelter and concerned residents of the oft-flooded Oakdale Road petitioned for their places on Stamford's 2012-2013 capital budget at Tuesday evening's planning board meeting.

During the three-hour public hearing, which began at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria, city organizations and individual citizens explained to the board why their particular causes should be city-funded projects under the 2012-2013 capital budget.

The proposed budget, which has a net amount of $41,234,092, will not face a Board of Representatives vote until at least May 2012.

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"We need more money for a more efficient shelter," said director Laurie Hollywood, who proposed a $1.5 million project to improve the shelter. Hollywood and other residents in support of a better shelter named animal overcrowding, small facility size, and cold building temperatures as their chief, current concerns.

"Stamford is a very transient city...pets get left behind all the time," Hollywood said about the overcrowding. "A new building would run more efficiently, especially from an energy perspective."

While Hollywood told that board that she was open to the building of an add-on facility to the current animal shelter, there may not be enough land for it at the shelter's present location.

Oakdale Rd. residents James Van and Joe Gonzalez went before the board in hopes of securing a project that would eliminate constant, severe, rain flooding in the lower-part of the Oakdale Road, where Van lives.

"Every April, we live in fear," Oakdale Road resident James Van told the planning board. Van elaborated on the rain flooding on Oakdale Rd., which he described as being shaped like a funnel, and he and several other residents were at the bottom, thus getting the worst of bad rainfalls.

"One time, it went to my knee within one hour of flash rain...I call the city and they never do anything," Van told Patch. According to Van, in October 2008, thirty-five Oakdale Rd. residents brought Mayor Dannel P. Malloy's attention to the Oakdale flooding in the form of a letter. They met with Mayor Malloy, who assured them that the area would be monitored, and the problem solved.

"Workers came by two separate years and performed suction. No one has come back since," Van said.

While Van has tried to find a solution to the constant flooding on Oakdale Road, still, not even he knows exactly what is causing it.

"Houses are being sold back-to-back because of the flooding," Van said.

Late in the evening, the planning board reiterated that none of projects proposed to them would be voted on or approved immediately, and that their proposals would be examined as the capital budget reaches it's final version.

"I think everyone who came forward had legitimate concerns," board member Dudley Williams said after the meeting.