Stop-And-Go Progress Marks Fairfield Hills In 2008

By Kendra Bobowick

Fairfield Hills finished the year with an exclamation point: a veterinary facility is interested in occupying space at Woodbury Hall, one of the several former state hospital buildings marked for reuse. The news is significant.

The last 12 months have yielded this one breakthrough at successfully marketing the property. As Fairfield Hills Authority member Walt Motyka had said in mid-December after making public the plans for Woodbury Hall, “It’s like what we had before and lost; we’re back where we were [prior to 2007 municipal elections].”

In the wake of the 2007 elections, a handful of would-be tenants that had submitted letters of intent to lease space in Fairfield Hills had backed away from the duplexes and Stratford Hall, for example, and dropped plans to establish a pub and restaurant, retail and office space.

While 2008 has ended with fingers crossed for luck with prospective plans for Woodbury Hall, the last weeks of 2007 were grim and set the tone for to the year ahead. A Fairfield Hills Authority year-end meeting found bad news that landed heavily on authority members’ hopes — the chairman’s words had stilled rustling papers and halted whispered conversations. “A couple of real estate negotiations, particularly on the duplexes and a restaurant, have concerns relative to the change in town leadership, just to let everybody know,” Chairman Bob Geckle had said.

Board of Selectmen seats had changed when Joe Borst emerged as the town’s new first selectman. Why? Reasons may have to do with campaign issues — one heavy arguing point throughout the campaign season had been Fairfield Hills. Proponents who aggressively questioned the validity of work at the former state hospital grounds had backed Mr Borst, who unseated the former town leadership that supported Fairfield Hills renovation plans.

The initial letters of intent never were regained during 2008. One other likely tenant, extensions of Danbury Hospital services, had emerged midyear, but to date no lease has been signed.

Mr Geckle glanced back at the year this week and said, “It’s still a work in progress.”

Regarding the year’s most recent news about the veterinary hospital, he said, “We will hold a public hearing at the Board of Selectman’s meeting and I’ll present the outline of the lease. With the selectman’s approval, we can enter a formal lease.” The selectmen’s meeting is January 5.

Looking at the good news, the chairman said, “We are happy to finish 2008 by moving forward on one of the buildings.” Brick and stone aside, other aspects of work took place on the sprawling, parklike campus. “We got the trail done; I have heard it’s getting a lot of use,” Mr Geckle said regarding recreation trails that will eventually travel the property’s perimeter. Infrastructure work including electricity and gas lines to run upgraded utilities throughout the campus is underway.

The Parks and Recreation Department has a new 90-foot baseball field that hosted its first game this fall. New parking lots are going in; grants have been awarded and others are submitted. Also on his list of work to revamp the roughly 80-year-old former hospital grounds, roads received new names and the new street signs are up. The new Newtown Youth Academy — a private venture — also is bringing the traffic of renewed interest and business to the quaint roads through Fairfield Hills (see related story).

Sifting through the often-complicated plans for the campus redevelopment, Mr Geckle described the year: “Even though we have had ups and downs, certainly some things have moved forward.”

 

Bridgeport Hall

The year 2008 had carried expectations. During the first days of January Newtown’s newly seated Board of Selectmen wasted no time getting to the heart of what First Selectman Joe Borst called “a problem that the people of Newtown want solved,” by voting to continue the course on a municipal office project at Fairfield Hills that voters approved more than four years ago.

Republican Selectman Paul Mangiafico looked forward to seeing town employees and school board staff occupying new space in Bridgeport Hall “in less than a year, God willing,” he said. What he could not see at the time were unexpected, end-of-year delays.

Although several phases of work found municipal and education personnel settling into new offices at Bridgeport Hall by the end of the year, Mr Geckle said recently, “Now it looks like the first quarter of 2009.”

Renovation work literally trudged through the later part of 2008 as if with weighted feet: state departments of public health and environmental protection had become involved with ongoing projects including Bridgeport Hall during late summer when Highway Department head Fred Hurley realized during phone conversations with state officials that he had a problem.

A host of misunderstandings had lodged themselves in state officials minds; anonymous calls from town to the health and environmental personnel prompted the state’s initial inquiries with Mr Hurley, who soon called for a meeting. From there, certain aspects of work in both Bridgeport Hall and Greenwich House, among other site work, have been on hold while the state does some double-checking.

Paperwork to verify asbestos abatement, for one, quickly began to flow out of town to Hartford. The result? The confirmations for environmental remediation, etc, went on for several weeks. And then: “I request that you continue to refrain from commencing work at Bridgeport Hall,” wrote Ross Bunnell, sanitary engineer with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in a letter sent to the first selectman on November 24.

Mr Bunnell explained in early December, “I posed seven questions [following paperwork review] and some could be addressed potentially with additional documentation.” Also, some questions may prompt further material removal work. So far, he has not found anything causing suspicion regarding remediation. “I have not seen anything that indicates to me that things have been disposed of improperly.”

The state and the town were “making progress,” slowly, toward remaining work at Bridgeport Hall during the last weeks of 2008 Mr Bunnell agreed. “If my questions are answered, they’re good to go,” Mr Bunnell had said. Relieved, Mr Hurley explained, “I think he’s trying to close the book.” While refraining from work in the walls or ceiling, other work schedules have been rearranged to compensate for the delay.