The Master Plan Is Fatally Flawed

To the Editor:

If you think your taxes went up too much in the last few years, just wait for the shockwave from Fairfield Hills (FFH). It will be Newtown’s worst tax nightmare.

Our current leadership under Rosenthal has carefully and methodically misinformed Newtown residents about the tax implications of all the fanciful plans they have to spend your money on grossly underestimated projects and then dump the tax bill in your lap.

Let’s look at the record. Herb told us the library asbestos remediation would cost $40,000 and it ended up at over $400,000. The Amaral property ball fields were suppose to cost $500,000 and they ended up at almost $2 million. Now he wants a new town hall for a measly $9 million. This isn’t a fairy tale and you will pay the tax bill.

We have FFH about to be purchased and the $21 million we already set aside is only the down payment. None of the figures by the consultants are backed up by hard quotes based on a complete Phase II environmental evaluation. It was Herb who chose not to request a standard full environmental disclosure from the state, who agreed to pay for it. All we have is Herb’s guess at what our actual costs will be.

Rosenthal says the environmental remediation for FFH will be $11 million, but one of the prior bidders two years ago calculated the cost could be $40 million. What if Herb is wrong and they were right? Where does that leave the taxpayers of Newtown? Yes, with more potential of over 30 percent tax increases for years to come.

The master plan and the FFH Authority are also a nifty piece of presto-digitation on the part of Mr Rosenthal. He conspired with Julia Wasserman and John McKinney to pass a state bill for the formation of the FFH authority before the Legislative Council had approved it. Being slightly illegal must be OK for our town leader since he seems to enjoy flaunting his ability to break your town charter rules when it benefits him. The original language of this bill gave absolute control of FFH to our politicians without any access for Newtown taxpayers to revenue generated by the future FFH development.

The only way for Newtown residents to slow down this runaway spending spree is to vote No on the master plan on August 12. The only way to protect the assets of FFH for the people of Newtown is to vote No on the master plan. The only way for all of us to make sound intelligent decisions on the future of FFH is not to rush into bad decisions based on Mr Rosenthal’s contrived urgency.

There is an old cliché which is appropriate at this time, “haste makes waste.”

The construction of FFH was started in 1933 and it has been an important part of Newtown for 80 years. There is no compelling reason for Newtown to rush into making rash decisions before we have all of the facts, options, and costs at our disposal to evaluate. Since Rosenthal’s responsibility as first selectman of Newtown is to protect the town first, why is he desperately trying to shove a wish list master plan and a one-sided management Authority down our taxpayers throats? Why?

Whenever you make an important decision which involves your personal life, no doubt you do it carefully. The same logic should be applied to FFH, vote No on August 12 and protect Newtown’s crown jewels.

Barry Piesner

Newtown Property Owners Association

38 Underhill Road, Sandy Hook                                                                                               August 5, 2003