Fairfield Hills – Zero, Zip, Nothing

To the Editor:

Who would have thought it. Fairfield Hills was the big enchilada.

All of the political maneuvering was over Fairfield Hills. The fight for control between the Legislative Council and the first selectman’s office won by the first selectman, the secret meetings, executive sessions where the public was excluded, the infamous Request For Proposal (RFP) changed by the Council and the power move to discard the changes by the first selectman and the selecting of 200 top developers who were going to fight to the death to get the rights to develop Fairfield Hills.

And now nobody wants it. The results came in on Monday, April 16, 2001. There were no (as in 0) RFP offers by developers for Fairfield Hills!

Our first selectman wanted to do it his way and now we are back to square one. Sure, we are still negotiating to buy Fairfield Hills from the state but without a plan that makes sense, is technically detailed and is supported by the voters.

The selectmen’s meeting held at the library on Monday night, April 16, 2001, was exclusively about Fairfield Hills and was initially closed for “executive session” (a secret meeting between the three selectmen, Pierre Rochman and Ben Spragg). The topic was obviously damage control on where to go with Fairfield Hills.

After passing a request for funding to conduct some additional undefined testing at Fairfield Hills, the selectmen obviously see this as part of their solution to moving forward.

Based on the dialog between Herb Rosenthal and Pierre Rochman, the Fairfield Hills hot potato was being tossed back and forth with Mr Rosenthal being the reluctant winner. It seems that the plan is to whip together a new spin on what Newtown’s officials think the voters would like to hear and sell us on buying into the bonding of $21 million for future Fairfield Hills development. Their objective is to have it ready to jointly present their request with the bonding for the 5/6 school. Just sign the blank check, please.

STOP. As far as NPOA, its membership and its supporters are concerned, it is time to do this properly. We want to buy Fairfield Hills because it is the right thing to do for Newtown. What we don’t want anymore is this political posturing and rash decisions.

This is not a matter of trust or expediency. It is about making sound and careful decisions based on planning, research and specific studies. We have seen the results of poor planning in recent years with such projects as the Booth Library renovation, the Queen Street properties and the Amaral ball fields. These projects are miniscule in comparison to the challenges that Fairfield Hills offers in complexity, scope and cost.

We urge our elected political officials and appointees to take a step back, take a deep breath and turn this process over to an entity that removes Fairfield Hills from the political arena. Only then will the residents of Newtown get to see the real benefits that Fairfield Hills holds as a promise for the children of Newtown’s generations.

Barry J. Piesner, Director

Newtown Property Owners Association

33 Underhill Road, Sandy Hook                   April 18, 2001