Are We Constructing

An Energy Dinosaur?

To the Editor:

I read in utter astonishment in last week’s Bee: “Jerry Waters, a town hall project architect with contractor Tai Soo Kim Partners, said incorporating things like geothermal mechanical systems and photovoltaic or solar supplemented electrical generation would significantly increase the cost of the project, and would provide little or no immediate financial benefits in return.”

Has Mr Waters been fired, yet? Has his employer, Tai Soo Kim, been indicted, or at least investigated? We are paying to build a new town hall meant to last for 80 years. (The life span of our current town hall, thus far.) Oil costs $136 a barrel, today. Heating oil approaches $4 a gallon. Electricity rates in Connecticut are among the highest in the nation.

Fairfield Hills’ open spaces are ideal for horizontal closed-loop geothermal heating systems. And all the parking lots to be built could be roofed with solar panels, which would incidentally reduce snow plowing costs.

If Mr Waters and Tai Soo Sim Partners have their way we will build one of the last of the energy dinosaurs, and pay dearly for it for generations to come.

Justin Scott

Parmalee Hill Road, Newtown                                       June 24, 2008