Building Cleared For Baseball Field—

A Diamond In The Rough

By Kendra Bobowick

Fairfield House has vanished amid the hurried pace of heavy demolition equipment.

The demolition went “really, really well,” said O&G Industries, Inc, Project Manager David Cravanzola. Concrete outlines and mounds of soil are all that remain of the first Fairfield Hills building razed for redevelopment. Fairfield House, which was nestled at the back of the campus opposite the Wasserman Way entrance, has been coming down in pieces since late July as crews from Standard Demolition Services of Trumbull either removed or reused materials on site.

Preparations and work to remove Fairfield House ended with a push of overtime on Sunday, August 12. The building was “done and out” that Sunday despite one complication.

“We had encountered some hazardous materials,” Mr Cravanzola said. “The contractors did a great job.”

With Fairfield House down, the footprints for a new, 90-foot baseball diamond will soon take shape. “We’re now starting the major earth work for the ball field,” Mr Cravanzola said. Nagy Brothers Construction of Monroe had been doing what grounds work they could while the building remained in place.

A tight timetable prompted the overlapping building and field work. Mr Cravanzola explained, “We realized the importance of meeting the September 17 deadline.” By that time the field needs to be seeded. Field development will continue through October, he anticipates. With confidence in the project, he said, “We have the means and resources to meet the seed date.” The work schedule and urgency to seed the area is focused on an opening date for the fall of 2008.

“Park & Rec feels it’s important that the [grass] has time to establish. It will see a lot of use,” he said. Parks and Recreation Department Director Barbara Kasbarian has been visiting regularly and watching the demolition process. “It’s exciting,” she said. The much-needed field will “absolutely” see a lot of use and she has in mind a certain age group of athletes in town ready to tap the dirt from their cleats and swing their bat over home plate.

“The 13- to 15-year olds and 16- to 18-year-olds really don’t have a field to call their own,” she said. She is referring to the town’s Babe Ruth Leagues, but also expects that high school teams will be registering for time slots after school.

Does the field have a name yet?

“First we want to see the field there,” Ms Kasbarian said.

With the building gone, O&G Industries, Inc, and Mr Cravanzola can now turn their attention to renovating Bridgeport Hall to house a new town hall for the municipal and Board of Education offices. “We have dedicated a lot of time and planning and are still devoted to the field, but are at this point soliciting bidders for the town hall project.”

Phase one will include demolition of areas that had been added on to the building. Bids are due August 27, and a bidder will then be selected and contracts awarded. Phase one is an estimated $600,000 for demolition and material abatement. The overall building and site renovation is an estimated $10 million, Mr Cravanzola said.

“Completing phase one now allows more time to deal with building conditions before construction starts, and we’ll have a better understanding moving forward,” he said. Actual renovation work is slated to begin in February 2008.