Ask Questions About Fairfield Hills
Ask Questions About Fairfield Hills
To the Editor:
As most readers know, the lease agreement to have Newtown Hall house medical offices and some Danbury Hospital services has been severed. The building remains vacant. Kevinâs Community Center, the free medical clinic for uninsured persons, was to be located there. Plans are being made to move it into one of the Fairfield Hills duplexes. The state has provided a $500,000 grant for the center, but the town must insure it will operate for 10 years. Clinic leaders are in the process of confirming costs to renovate a duplex.
The Woodbury Hall lease received an extension to October 1. A bank agreed to loan Glen Mountain Holding Co. (a one-man company) the millions needed to abate and renovate the building, but the bank was unwilling to provide money to the leaseholder to start up his veterinary business. Their business plan is under review. They are asking the Department of Agriculture to guarantee the business loan.
The Fairfield Hills Authority (FHA) announced last week it received $200,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to abate Stratford Hall, but the town must match this with 20 percent ($40,000). The direction town leaders have taken appears to have changed. The town may abate the buildings, provide utilities and parking, and then turn them over to interested parties for a lease payment. A restaurant is a possibility. No other restaurant in town has been given land and a clean building.
The conversion of Bridgeport Hall into a town hall hit another snag. Surprise! Drains around the building must be installed to divert the water that flows into the basement. The cost has not been made public.
On June 16 the Board of Education heard a request from the FHA to relinquish the Kent House site (near the soccer and softball fields) if it has no future plans to use it. The authority would then use it for other purposes not identified. Rumored, but unconfirmed, the authority has been approached to allow a group of investors to create a school for Orthodox Jews from all over the world to be constructed at FFH.
The original $21 million bond issue is spent or encumbered, a million or so of state grants, plus the millions owed to the Newtown Youth Academy for demolition of Greenwich Hall and creation of parking in that area â about $25 million so far. Assessor Tom DeNoto estimated tax revenue from Woodbury Hall would be $62,062 and from Newtown Hall about $33,800 (2008). At that rate of tax income, it will take about 240 years for Newtown to recover its investment. We will have a small town hall.
If you care at all about the future of our town, you should be asking candidates for selectmen serious questions about long-range planning for Newtown and FFH.
Ruby Johnson
16 Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook                            June 17, 2009