Date: Fri 04-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Thorndike-Fairfield-Hills

Full Text:

Middletown Mayor Wishes For A Reopened Fairfield Hills

BY STEVE BIGHAM

A Channel 8 Action News team arrived in Newtown Tuesday to get Herb

Rosenthal's response to a comment made by the mayor of Middletown.

Mayor Dominique Thorndike suggested to the television reporters that some of

the inmates currently housed at Middletown's Long Lane Juvenile Center be

transferred to either Fairfield Hills in Newtown or to Norwich. Both of these

facilities are closed down, a fact the mayor is well aware of.

"I told them that those buildings have been closed for years," Mr Rosenthal

said. "We're having a developers' conference this week to look at potential

buyers of the site."

The Action News team was apparently unaware that these facilities had closed.

Mrs Thorndike's comments are the latest in her campaign to have some state

patients moved out of Middletown. Recently, a 15-year-old inmate committed

suicide at the Middletown facility, prompting an investigation. State

officials discovered deplorable conditions inside.

In 1995, Middletown filed a lawsuit against the state, seeking to halt the

closing of Fairfield Hills Hospital and Norwich Hospital. It also sought to

stop the consolidation of the state's mental health services at the

Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVA) in Middletown.

This was not the first high-profile effort by the Middletown mayor to rid her

town of some of its mental health patients. Last spring, she wrote a letter to

all of the state's first selectmen and mayors. In it, she inquired as to

whether any of them would be interested in bringing a state mental health

institution into their town. She pointed out all the advantages, including

potential for Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) money.

"I wrote back and said `thanks, but no thanks. We've already been down that

road,'" Mr Rosenthal said.