The Best Of All Worlds

To The Editor:

I read a piece in a recent issue of The Bee by Ruby Johnson and I’m confused. She talks about the purchase of the property by Newtown so that we can have hiking trails, bike and bridle paths and open space. She talks about the need for more playing fields and keeping the ones we already have at Fairfield Hills. She talks about a town green open for community uses, as well as the creation of commercial office space. I’ve read the proposals of the three development firms for the property, and I see all of the things Ms Johnson wants already in the plans of one of those firms, Becker and Becker Associates.

Ms Johnson also talks of keeping the gym and other benefits of Plymouth Hall. That same firm proposes that building would be a new YMCA, refurbished at the expense of the Y, with the addition of two swimming pools.  The same firm also addresses Ms Johnson’s wish for a community center in Bridgeport Hall. That’s exactly what Becker and Becker has proposed, and, additionally, under their plans, we’d also get an arts and cultural center in Yale Hall.

If the Town buys the site, there are no guarantees that we’ll be able to afford all of these things without a jolt on our tax bill. But with a private developer that wants to help fill the town’s needs, we stand a better chance of fulfilling Ms Johnson’s dreams at their expense, and with the new commercial office space, we’d get a major increase in the town’s commercial tax base. Isn’t that closer to best of all possible worlds?

Sincerely,

Jeff Price

1 Lone Oak Road, Newtown                                                                  October 12, 1999