Parks And Rec Pleased With Facility Developments

By Kendra Bobowick

Parks and Recreation Chairman Edward Marks sounded pleased at Tuesday night’s recreation commission meeting. “I never thought I would be here saying this, but once we get Tilson [field] and the high school [field] resurfaced, we’re done.” The recreation department has met the town’s field needs for the moment. “I feel we have done a lot to get caught up,” Mr Marks said.

The Parks and Rec chairman said Wednesday morning, “We don’t have any other field or turf projects on the horizon…it’s the first time in a long time that we have been able to take a breath and don’t have another thing on the task list.” Turf surfacing and lighting are two big reasons. “Turf provides so much more time for play; you don’t have to worry about the field resting, and light extends playing time,” Mr Marks said. Artificial turf installation at the high school and Tilson field is among the items in line for capital improvement funding in the next year to two years.

Also in place to alleviate playing space needs is the new 90-foot baseball diamond at Fairfield Hills, which will be ready for play later this year. The one field is the current answer to years of planning for recreation space at Fairfield Hills. Mr Marks had a ready reply Tuesday at the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to criticism that the recreation department is not getting the space it needs for playing fields on the former state hospital campus.

“I want to clear things up; we have $300,000 for lights at Fairfield Hills,” he said. “Our thought was to have lights and we won’t need to build another 90-foot field.” The lights extend playing time beyond sunset.

The recreation department is now poised to plan long-term. Mr Marks said, “I think we’re in good shape and can begin looking strategically at the next ten years.” His thoughts turn to areas sketched out for future use on the former state hospital campus. He explained Tuesday, “We have land banked at Fairfield Hills.” Areas are set aside for fields, which is spelled out in the master plan for redevelopment of the campus.

Under the heading, “Playing Fields,” the plan describes a variety of proposed fields, and states, “The fields can be constructed in a sequence and within a schedule to meet the priorities of the Parks and Recreation Commission…a vast majority of the 186 acres comprising the campus is proposed to be land banked, open space, and recreation fields.”

Tuesday, Mr Marks also answered suggestions that the recreation department had twice lost its chance to establish a recreation/community center, first in Plymouth Hall, then in Bridgeport Hall, which is now under renovation for municipal and education department offices. He agreed that the commission must have been disappointed that two opportunities to have buildings fell through.

“At first we begged for Plymouth,” he acknowledged. But the department soon changed its mind. “Early in the planning stages a consultant said to us, ‘You’re missing the boat. Determine what needs are first. Don’t tie yourselves to one building.’” His department began planning for programming needs as a priority.

“We backed off and stopped saying we needed a building,” Mr Marks said. Throughout the last year the Parks and Recreation Commission has been trying to coordinate with the seniors planning for recreation needs and senior center space in a multiuse building of both shared and dedicated spaces. In recent months senior representatives have met with the Parks and Recreation commissioners to discuss sharing a building where facilities, including a pool and gymnasium and track space at the adjacent indoor sports complex, The Newtown Youth Academy, will be available.

As of Tuesday’s recreation meeting, Mr Marks was still waiting for a firm answer from the seniors, and did not know that one day later he would have a concrete answer. Tuesday, his concern was clear when he said, “At some point in the next two months will be a referendum…for design work for the facility,” he said. Funds for design work and possibly even demolition will go before voters. By the following day’s Legislative Council meeting he would know the answer to another questions on his mind for nearly a year: who would be using the space. “I need to know if we’re incorporating space for the seniors once the dollars have been allocated,” he said. “We need to know definitively.”

It became clear this week that the community and recreation center will not include seniors,. Commission on Aging representative John Aurelia told the council Wednesday that seniors did not want to be part of a multi-purpose building.  (See related story, Shifting Funds May Speed Rec Center Project.)

The Recreation/Community Center

Following the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting Tuesday, Mr Marks spoke at a Fairfield Hills Authority meeting later that night about the recreation/community center. The conversation revealed how much both the recreation commissioners and authority members had supported the plan.

“We have worked with the seniors from the beginning and worked to integrate their space needs,” Mr Marks said. He also mentioned the possibility of teen center space in the facility. Based on help from O&G Industries Inc, project managers for the Fairfield Hills redevelopment, and the rough architectural drafts he has seen, he added, “It looks like it can be done.”

With prophetic words Mr Marks said, “At some point someone is going to tell us to include seniors or move on without them.” Authority member Moira Rodgers agreed. “We need clarity,” she said. Clarity came the next day as Mr Aurelia expressed seniors’ desires to remain separate from a recreation/community center facility.

The seniors will not be part of a plan that authority member John Reed saw as beneficial. Tuesday, he explained that in the past had visited area senior centers that were part of a combined-use building, and saw benefits of seniors sharing recreation space. Mentioning a pool that the recreation center will eventually include and the proximity and use of the adjacent youth academy’s indoor gymnasium, he said, “There is so much potential for a shared facility. Seniors can have a greater wealth of opportunity if there is a merging.”

Were seniors ever considering joining the recreation department, or had they been determined to establish their own space? Authority members have heard conflicting stories since the Board of Selectmen had suggested in the last year that the two groups think of a combined facility. First Selectman Joseph Borst, who attended the Fairfield Hills Authority meeting Tuesday, told members he would attend the next Agency on Aging meeting to seek answers. “I want to find out where they’re coming from,” he said as the meeting adjourned. He found his answer the next day at the Legislative Council meeting.