Local Contractors Win Landscape, Painting Bids—

O&G To Manage Fairfield Hills Environmental Remediation And Demolition Project

By John Voket

Torrington-based O&G Industries has overseen major municipal renovation projects from the New Haven train station to the Hartford Civic Center. And now the company will likely supply project management expertise for the first phase of Newtown’s largest municipal project: the environmental remediation and demolition at Fairfield Hills.

On Tuesday evening, the ad hoc Fairfield Hills Management Committee unanimously voted to recommend O&G from among the three competing companies vying for the project manager responsibilities.

The committee based its decision on multiphase interview process by a volunteer selection panel that included First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, Public Works Director Fred Hurley, several members of the ad hoc committee including chairman John Reed, and several other municipal employees.

According to Mr Reed, the process encompassed a general presentation so selection panel members could familiarize themselves with the contenders’ backgrounds and range of experience in similar projects. Then two of the companies were invited back to introduce the panel to the company employees likely to head up the project manager teams, if either was chosen for the task.

“After a final review of references and recommendations, we decided to select O&G,” Mr Reed told the ad hoc committee members Tuesday before the vote. Although the first selectman could have hired the company based on the selection panel’s recommendation, it was felt the ad hoc committee deserved to make that recommendation, in part, due to their collective exposure to and familiarity of the project to date.

Mr Rosenthal told The Bee Wednesday that the company would now have to negotiate its final contract with all stipulations covered, particularly the timeline under which it will shepherd the state Department of Environmental Protection mandated hazardous material remediation from around all the remaining structures on the campus.

Mr Rosenthal noted several times during Tuesday’s ad hoc committee meeting that the clock was ticking away toward the June 2006 deadline set as one of the conditions of the state’s sale of the property to the town.

“I’m anxious to see this project begin moving forward,” he said. “June 2006 may seem like a long way off but there is a lot of work to do.”

Temporary facilities manager Maria DeMarco assured the committee and Mr Rosenthal that she fully expected the job to be completed on or before the required date.

“They will be able to do this work through the winter,” Ms DeMarco said. “They’ll have it done by next June.”

Ms DeMarco told committee members that two local firms have been selected to provide site landscaping services and painting services for the former engineer’s residence, which has become the security and site management headquarters near the main campus entrance.

“We estimate using the Newtown-based landscape contractor will save us $30,000 annually over the last company we were using,” she said, referring to a company first retained by Tunxis Management Company, former managers of the campus for the state.

Besides completing all the exterior wooden trim on the campus headquarters building, the committee recommended the contractor construct a three-foot-high wall around a former sun porch on the southeastern side of the building.

Other discussion at the meeting centered on Ms DeMarco’s reports, including a meeting she had with town environmental consultant Russell Bartley, who will be working closely with O&G personnel throughout the remediation proceedings. Ms DeMarco and Mr Bartley collaborated on site plans outlining the erection of temporary construction fencing that will separate the areas of the campus off limits to pedestrian and recreational traffic during remediation activities, which involve excavating dirt about six feet down and six feet out from the perimeters of all the campus buildings.

The DEP mandated this remediation as a result of toxins that likely permeated the soil after years of routine pesticide applications, and the scraping and repainting of wooden trim and windows with lead-based paint in the years before those substances were restricted.

Ms DeMarco appealed to the committee on behalf of the many recreational users of the property who she said had approached her over the past few months with their concerns about accessing walking and biking paths. She provided diagrams showing the placement of barrier fences close enough to buildings so pedestrians could still navigate many of the paved roadways on the central campus.

However, Mr Rosenthal and Mr Reed requested some adjustments to the plan to further limit the access to areas near the construction sites.

Ms DeMarco countered that according to the environmental consultant, the likelihood anyone would become ill because of exposure to the contaminated dust was remote.

“Russell told me if some kids got through the fence to go up and play on the dirt piles they would have to sit there for years eating the dirt to feel any negative effects of the contaminants,” she told the committee, eliciting smiles and chuckles from the group.

Mr Rosenthal remained committed to erring on the side of safety, and insisted some adjustments be made to expand the proposed fencing areas.

Ms DeMarco also reminded the committee members and other attendees that this type of fence was modular, and could be moved and reconfigured depending on the demands of each site during the multiphase process.

“We don’t need to rent the fence for every phase,” she said. “Once one set of buildings is done, we’ll just take it apart and reassemble it around the next area.”

With the construction project looming, the committee also moved to post every structure on the campus with “No Trespassing” signs, as well as posting large informational signs at each of the two campus entrances.

Besides reiterating information about the opening and closing of daily campus access, the signs will warn users to maintain a 15-foot distance from all buildings at all times, whether or not ongoing remediation is occurring. This will serve to protect the public from falling parapet walls and pieces of cornice, which have intermittently detached from the structures due to weather-related deterioration.

The public should expect to see a significant ramping up of activities on the campus in the coming weeks as remediation begins in earnest, Mr Rosenthal said.