Selectmen Silence The Majority

To the Editor:

On August 12, 2003, the voters of Newtown turned down the proposed Fairfield Hills Master Plan by a vote of 1,238 to 1,084. Often cited reasons for the No vote are: lack of focus, too ambiguous, a new town hall building vs renovation of Shelton Hall, widespread destruction of lawns and trees for parking spaces (1,450–1,500), layout of playing fields, lack of provisions for satisfying community requests for space, no consideration for Edmond Town Hall, too much commercial development (200,000 square feet plus the duplexes for retail stores), and the creation of an authority under state statues to circumvent portions of the town charter.

The Board of Selectmen decided the citizens would not be given another chance to vote on a revised master plan; instead, the selectmen will create their own master plan. Last week, they announced the appointment of five persons to manage a yet unannounced portion of Fairfield Hills without revealing what the selectmen’s plans for Fairfield Hills will include. All five are fine persons, but four have publicly made known they favor the commercial development of Fairfield Hills.

One person served on the Master Plan Committee and voted for the rejected master plan. Two were members of the Legislative Council that supported the rejected plan and voted to dismiss the town charter and to give broad powers of control over FFH under a state legislature-created authority, and the fourth served on the first FFH Advisory Committee that voted to recommend the purchase of FFH, but to then turn it over to a developer. The town paid HMA consultants to write a request for this proposal (which included permission for 200 units of housing at FFH) as recommended by that committee. The fifth member has not spoken publicly about FFH. Two of the five are retired. No young adults with a real stake in the future of FFH are represented.

The voices of those who voted No on August 12 have been excluded from this management team. Sadly, the selectmen have decided that to control the future of FFH and, thus, the future face of Newtown, by giving only the Yes votes a voice. It doesn’t take much courage to steamroller over those 1,238 No voters. Real courage is required, however, to work with opposing views, respect their intelligence, and tap their skills.

Fairfield Hills was not given to us by our parents, it is loaned to us by our children, but our elected officials are destroying it for our children.

Ruby Johnson

16 Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook                            June 15, 2004