SOME SAY NEW SCHOOL NEEDS NEW NEIGHBORHOOD

WATERBURY -- During his 51 years in the North End, Joseph Perugini has
watched while drug dealers claimed many street corners and much of the
area's stock of multi-family homes decayed under the watch of absentee
landlords.

It's a far cry from the relatively quiet blue-collar neighborhood
where, decades ago, Perugini fetched groceries from corner stores for
his mother and walked to visits with the family doctor.

Now, the city is strongly considering construction of a new elementary
school in the North End, not far from Perugini's three-family home.
And city staff plan to couple the school construction with an
ambitious plan to turn around blighted housing properties and
shuttered commercial buildings.

"You don't want to plunk down a $32 million investment and not have
anything happen around that area," Waterbury Development Corp. head
Michael O'Connor told the Waterbury Development Corp. executive board
last week. "It will devalue your investment immediately."

Perugini feels much the same way, though he harbors doubts that a
revitalization plan could have much impact.

"It would be great to look out my door and see a new school, but I
wouldn't send my kid to a new school if you have people hanging out
there all day peddling whatever they're peddling," Perugini said.
"What are you going to do if you're late picking them up or they miss
the bus? You are going to be sweating bullets."

Waterbury Development Corp. is negotiating with Philadelphia-based
consulting company, Capital Access Inc., to develop a plan to turn
around blighted properties in the area immediately around any new
school in the North End.

City officials plan to build three new elementary schools. And while
specific sites haven't been chosen, a North End location is strongly
anticipated for one school.

Three of nine potential sites lie in the North End, adjacent to one
another, along, or just off, North Main Street. The top contender is a
neglected 8-acre-industrial site wedged between North Main, Robinson
and Griggs Streets. Two neighboring sites, the three-acre "City Mills"
industrial parcel and property associated with St. Lucy's School, are
also being considered.

The study proposal contemplates strategies like demolition of some
neglected housing properties, rehabilitation of others, construction
of new homes and the promotion of homeownership. Mapping out a
strategy to accomplish these goals, and identifying possible funding
sources, will be the consultant's job.

The city's list of potential school sites includes properties in the
South End that are similarly blighted, but O'Connor said his agency
only has enough money for one study at present, and the North End is
the most in need of help. The study could cost as much as $60,000,
with about half being paid by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development.

"It's an area of the city desperately in need of a plan and action,"
O'Connor said.