There is a temptation in Newtown to hold the world at arm’s length and to think of this sprawling pleasant town as a place apart — an island of amiability and ease. Only lately have we been reminded how much we are connected to the larger world by the ebb and flow of money; unpredictable economic tides can jostle and dislodge even our most sensible plans to make a nice place better. So it was, this week, when we learned that a keystone of the town’s emerging plan for the development of a center for commerce, culture, and conservation at Fairfield Hills came unstuck — apparently as a result of economic uncertainty and lowered expectations for the growth of the health care industry both in Newtown and the region.

Danbury Hospital notified town officials last week that it was backing away from plans for the development of medical offices in Newtown Hall because of its inability to secure commitments from enough tenants to fill the facility. Unfortunately, one tenant that was committed to a move to Newtown Hall was Kevin’s Community Center (KCC), the free health clinic for adults who are uninsured, underinsured, and have limited financial resources. KCC is currently housed in leased town office space on Peck’s Lane but will lose that space when the town offices move to Bridgeport Hall in late 2009 or early 2010. The collapse of the Danbury Hospital leasing deal for Newtown Hall jeopardizes a $500,000 state grant won by KCC to help it develop its leased space there. Suddenly, one of the remarkable services that makes Newtown special has been dealt a major setback by waves of economic circumstance that are swamping so many other worthy causes around the country.

We are beginning to understand that all of us, no matter how protected or insulated we think we might be in this beautiful town, are in for a period of trouble — trouble we neither asked for nor created. Stalled plans at Fairfield Hills are just part of it. Newtown’s Grand List grew by just a whisker last year, and town budgetmakers are putting whole precincts of town government and the school system on life support for 2009-2010 and pulling the plug on others. Property values are shrinking, and the corps of taxpayers who perennially vote to reject every town budget is growing.

If there is a silver lining to this shadow cast upon us by the encroaching world, it is this: We are now required to think deeply about what is important and what is not, to decide what sacrifices we are prepared to make for which priorities, and to define, in so doing, those truly special qualities of our town we wish to carry, at all costs, with us into the future. From our perspective, the welfare of those with the least resources at greatest risk — like those served by Kevin’s Community Center — makes that list of priorities, as does the community’s longstanding commitment to education and the protection of its environment and natural resources. Newtown is a helping town, and these things are part of its DNA.

What else is on the list? Only time and that perennial tug-of-war between sacrifice and desire will tell.