Heat ‘Malfunction’ Sends Canaan House Staffers Home

By John Voket

For a few hours Wednesday it must have been like déjà vu for some Newtown employees who came to work at Canaan House.

After suffering through part of last winter using nothing more than electric space heaters after a central boiler serving the former state hospital building exploded, the piercing cold Wednesday morning must have brought back chilly memories.

According to First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, sometime earlier this week someone apparently lowered the first floor thermostat to 50 degrees in the wing that houses building, health, and planning departments. As temperatures in the building began to drop, the temporary boiler that had been supplying heat to the facility since November shut down.

While inside temperatures were sufficient to allow a meeting of the Ad Hoc Fairfield Hills Management Committee to continue Tuesday evening, some people in attendance and panel members donned hats, coats, and scarves to stay warm in the brisk environment.

By midmorning Wednesday, the misadjusted thermostat was discovered, the boiler was reactivated, and the heat slowly began to creep back into the offices. But not before Mr Rosenthal arrived and dismissed all but the health department staff who were staying until 5 pm in order to keep Kevin’s Community Center clinic open.

While damage was minimized to three frozen pipes, the incident should have never occurred, Mr Rosenthal said.

“The security guards on the campus should have caught this much earlier than they did,” he said while standing in Canaan House Wednesday wrapped in an overcoat and wearing heavy gloves.

Mr Rosenthal said orders to watch the temporary Canaan House boiler closely had been communicated “numerous times” to contract security guards working for a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cognisa Security.

“We kept reiterating to Cognisa to continuously check to make sure the boiler is running,” he said. “If they find it isn’t running, the guards are supposed to take corrective action, and contact their management.”

The incident tarnished a recent span of time in which Cognisa guards received recognition for both advancing their training and helping to prevent break-ins and vandalism on the campus. In late November, property manager Maria DeMarco of DeMarco, Miles and Murphy informed town officials that private security guards who work at Fairfield Hills were the first in the entire state to be certified under a new statute that took effect October 1.

And as recently as Tuesday’s management committee meeting, Richard Sturdevant, a committee member and liaison on security issues, reported that there had been no arrests or criminal incidents on the campus since Thanksgiving weekend.

While he and Ms DeMarco credited the Newtown Police for their stepped up enforcement of after-hours trespassing enforcement, and town employees for sealing up abandoned structures on the campus, both also acknowledged that private security guards had stepped up to the challenge of keeping the grounds clear of vandals and trespassers.

Ms DeMarco said she is still investigating, but this heating incident only reinforced her eagerness to see all town staff out of the building. Throughout the week of January 24, she said, professional movers will be relocating the offices from Canaan House to newly acquired leased commercial space on Peck’s Lane.

“This is the last straw, I guess. I’m just so glad we’ll be out of there next week,” Ms DeMarco said.

She said her management staff normally turns the heat in Canaan House down in the evening and then back up in the morning, so it was not surprising that the meeting attendees Tuesday night were a bit chilled.

“We turn it up and down because the heat is inconsistent on one side of the building and sometimes it gets too hot,” she said. “But someone was a little too hot and turned the heat down without our knowledge. I know the first selectman is pretty upset about it; security should have picked it up sooner.”

Mr Rosenthal said that once the campus is vacated, he plans to seek proposals in consideration of contracting a new security provider for the campus. Cognisa Security is one of the few holdover contractors from the days when Tunxis Management controlled the facility on behalf of the state Department of Public Works.

Since its contract lapsed, several individuals including a principal of Tunxis Management were served with federal indictments accusing them of conspiring to steer state contracts from 1997 to 2003. Those indicted include former governor John Rowland’s then co-chief of staff Peter N. Ellef, his son Peter N. Ellef II, and contractor William Tomasso of Tunxis Management. Those indictments include allegations of extortion and charges that the men conspired to launder money and pay bribes.