Bridgeport Hall Construction Work Begins To Stir Again

By Kendra Bobowick

Wind blasted grit and loose soil across cracked pavement outside Bridgeport Hall at Fairfield Hills Friday afternoon, February 13. Clerk of the Works Bill Knight raised a hand to block the sun in his eyes and pointed out a few work features evident from the sound of flapping tarps and the sight of tradespeople crossing the excavated soil between make-shift entrances to the old brick building.

With recent delays for work at Bridgeport Hall now in the past, former first selectman Herb Rosenthal sounded relieved. “It’s great news, great news, and long overdue” he said. “I am glad it’s moving forward.”

Now a member of the Board of Selectmen, Mr Rosenthal had spent his ten years as the town’s top official supporting the purchase and development of Fairfield Hills — 186 acres of the state’s land and buildings that have been empty since the late 1990s.

Last Friday, the former state hospital campus carried the sounds of heavy machinery carving a new below-ground conduit for upgraded infrastructure. The crunching gravel of passing cars headed for Newtown Youth Academy also added to the background sounds.

What was happening behind the weathered brick façade at Bridgeport Hall late last week?

“Painters are scraping the stipple,” Mr Knight explained. “It’s like popcorn.” Textured ceiling paint that is “stippled” makes a gritty mess coming down off the ceiling as workers sand and chip away the decorative peaks of paint. Once it is down, framers can shape-out the walls and partitions to form the Board of Education and municipal office areas. He also described the web of woodwork that will crisscross the floors. “They are going to lay out the tracks for framing so the plumbers and electricians can cut their holes where [the utilities] come up from the basement.”

Renovations aside, a long-vacant building comes with its own problems. Mr Knight noted the broken windows, water damage, and birds that had entered the structure — all adding to its deterioration. Despite the surface damage, however, Bridgeport Hall is structurally sound, he said. On the outside are two large tarps covering recently renovated stairs leading into one wing or another, and a series of above-ground propane tanks heating the hall until permanent gas lines are activated.

Mr Knight looked ahead, saying, “Work should start picking up.”

Public Works Director Fred Hurley anticipates that the permanent gas lines as part of the upgraded infrastructure should be hooked up in March, “As long as we’re not fighting snow,” he said.

Only in recent days have crews been able to continue certain aspects of work inside the former psychiatric hospital buildings where the town intends to relocate both the Board of Education and municipal offices.

Progress had hit a snag.

Anonymous phone calls from town residents to state Departments of Environmental Protection and Public Health had prompted a flurry of paperwork since September as town officials hurried to confirm with the state methods of site testing and procedures for remediation of hazardous materials such as asbestos and lead.

During Tuesday’s selectmen’s meeting town attorney David Grogins tallied the cost. “The net result of the investigation by the state Health Department and [Department of Environmental Protection] is that the town did nothing wrong.” The taxpayers have suffered, however. “We wasted thousands and lost months,” he said.

In a conversation Wednesday his frustration was still high. “The town spent thousands to satisfy the demands of the two departments; it was a shame that local people were calling the state and trying to whistleblow without any basis.” Calling the situation a tempest in a teapot, Mr Grogins added, “The whole process was unfortunate and we never needed to go through it.” In the end no wrong-doing surfaced, but delays set the project back five months.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Selectman Paul Mangiafico asked about costs accrued. “How much do you think, thousands? One hundred thousand?”

“Maybe more,” Mr Grogins stated. “That’s what happened, thanks to our ‘good citizens.’” Rent at the Kendro building on Peck’s Lane, which houses some town departments and the Board of Education offices, is slightly more than $19,000 monthly, and just one example of expenses that have added up. “This is terribly frustrating,” he said.

Mr Rosenthal agreed. “It was anonymous calls by the people who want to stop Fairfield Hills [development]. It was frivolous complaints, but the DEP has to cover the bases.”

During one phone call before the selectman’s meeting Tuesday Mr Rosenthal blamed political factions and individuals in town who, as Mr Hurley phrased it, “Do not wish the Fairfield Hills project well.” In Mr Rosenthal’s words, certain people are “doing what they can do to slow or eliminate the project.”

Mr Grogins blamed the delays in part on anonymous communications with the state, and in the spirit of due diligence in which the state followed up. Reams of paperwork traveled from Newtown to the state beginning in September to confirm work. “We had to jump through hoops,” Mr Grogins said. Mr Rosenthal added Tuesday, “It’s this kind of thing, people putting personal agenda ahead of the town under the guise of democracy.”

Earlier in the meeting, resident Ruby Johnson also mentioned democracy. She made lengthy assertions that the town processes that put Fairfield Hills plans in motion was a poor example of democracy, poor communication, and a failure to include the public. (See related story this edition.)

As of this week, the project is moving forward again.