Selectmen Discuss Modular Classrooms, Stipulations To FHA Broker Contract

By John Voket

The Board of Selectmen moved through several pieces of business May 16, initiating discussion on issues ranging from the disposition of town-owned modular classrooms to a contract extension request for the Fairfield Hills Authority’s broker contract.

First Selectman Pat Llodra also brought her board up to date about how a study on possible consolidation of town and school human resources, building management, and business functions will commence now that a consultant has been hired.

Mrs Llodra told Selectmen Will Rodgers and William Furrier that representatives from the firm Blum Shapiro, which has offices in West Hartford and Shelton and Rockland, Mass., will begin working with town officials and employees, gathering the data required to produce a feasibility study and recommendations on the matter.

“We’ve had our scope of work meeting with them and developed a calendar of activities,” she said. “The interviews will start sometime in June.”

According to the first selectman, the study should be completed by September 2011. She also asked and received commitments from both of her colleagues that they would participate in a survey that would be part of the overall data compiled by the consultants.

Mrs Llodra said once the study is completed, there will be planned presentations on the findings to Newtown’s lead elected boards, including the Legislative Council, and the Boards of Finance and Education. To that, Mr Rodgers suggested permitting the selectmen to review and make any final suggestions about the draft findings before the information begins circulating for other officials’ input.

“We’re kind of creating our own model here,” Mrs Llodra said of her impression of how this municipal efficiency study will roll out in concert with the consultants.

Mr Furrier suggested the school board and administration should be next in line after the selectmen to see and review the findings, and Mr Rodgers and Mrs Llodra concurred.

The selectmen also heard from Town Finance Director Robert Tait about the status of town-owned modular classrooms or portables that must be removed from the Newtown High School property now that the addition has been completed and occupied.

The eight classrooms, approximately 8,700-square-feet of classroom space, were budgeted including installation Mr Tait said. But the approximately $90,000 to dismantle and remove the modulars was not budgeted.

He said the district has been “putting out feelers” trying to sell the classrooms for several months, but it was a solicitation he placed in a government finance officers publication that garnished two inquiries, one from New Canaan and another more solid lead from East Haven.

East Haven In Negotiations

Mr Tait said he was currently in negotiations with East Haven officials, and hopeful that the sale could be completed soon.

“East Haven needs them by the next school year,” Mr Tait told the selectmen, adding that there was already a bonding resolution approved for the purchase.

Mrs Llodra said that while there was always an alternate use option available for other departments in Newtown, the $90,000 cost to remove the classrooms coupled with no solid plans for reuse and the prospect of having to incur added costs to store the modulars is driving the move to sell them.

She and Mr Tait plan to meet with East Haven officials May 20 to try to move the prospective transfer of the portables along. She said when and if the sale is completed, she is planning to use the revenue to pay down municipal debt.

Moving on, Mrs Llodra said the Fairfield Hills Authority has requested an extension of its broker contract with Advantage Realty, which would then put the contract renewal at or near the end of a collateral master plan review process.

Mr Rodgers expressed some dismay about how the broker was handling potential offers being expressed about possible developments on the town-owned campus, saying he hoped going forward, the broker could simply present any offers or queries made, versus advocating for them.

Mr Furrier agreed, adding that he would like to see an agreement struck that would also limit the broker to representing Newtown as its client, versus representing both Newtown and the potential developer on offers related to Fairfield Hills.

Mrs Llodra said that absent a vote to mandate those stipulations going forward, which the selectmen agreed to forego, she would strongly suggest those requested stipulations be honored going forward if the town decides to continue its relationship with Advantage.

Town Meeting Set

In other business, the selectmen agreed to grant an easement to a homeowner on Lake Trail. Mrs Llodra said Lake Trail was a “paper road” and the town has no interest in the property, although it is town-owned. She said at some point, a neighboring property owner installed a septic system on the parcel, and the easement would permit that system to remain in that location and available for use by the new property owner.

The final steps in granting the easement will involve holding a Town Meeting May 31, and then if approved, offering the easement to the family involved in a sealed bid process.

The meeting Monday also encompassed a vote to accept a state grant to partially underwrite a solar panel power-generating system for the town’s wastewater treatment plant. Public Works Director Fred Hurley spoke about the project, which was previously reported in The Bee.

He also mentioned several other grant opportunities that might be available to secure solar panels and related equipment to supplement electrical power generation for Newtown Middle School and Reed Intermediate School, as well as the soon-to-be-built Animal Control facility at Fairfield Hills.

Asked by Mr Furrier if the solar system at the treatment plant would be maxed out once the planned installation was done, Mr Hurley said it would be. But he added that a low-level feasibility study has shown there may be room for some type of wind-powered generation system at the location.

Mr Hurley added, however, that any consideration about a wind-powered system is on hold until the state settles on policies for citing and installing such localized energy saving measures.