A Proposal For

Fairfield Hills

To the Editor:

On September 26, several IPN candidates and Ruby Johnson submitted a request to the Fairfield Hills Authority to spend the remaining funds from the original bond issue for Fairfield Hills on demolishing Greenwich and Litchfield Halls, and creating the parking and green spaces that are part of the ultimate plan for the proposed Newtown Youth Academy.

The town has proposed to leave these two dilapidated buildings standing and construct temporary parking around these buildings while it constructs a new town hall in another part of campus, thus choosing to (1) devalue the look of the area surrounding the new Newtown Youth Academy and to (2) throw good money after bad to maintain the status and security of these buildings for no purpose other than to ultimately demolish them, and to build temporary parking that will later be replaced.

As we all know, a significant segment of our community opposes expending $10.5 million on a new town hall at this time, which was budgeted to be $6.2 million in the original bond issue. We are confident a majority of the community would rather see this money spent within the next 12 months to take down these buildings, and undertake the ultimate plan for parking and green spaces for the academy and ball field to maximize the attractiveness of this area. This would essentially “complete” the refurbishment of this portion of the Fairfield Hills campus.

Granting this request to redirect funds from a new town hall should not jeopardize the investment currently being made to refurbish Bridgeport Hall. The cleaned out Bridgeport Hall can be used for a variety of town functions, as it did for the book fair. The funds spent on design costs for the new town hall can be used once higher priority items are completed within our community, and Newtown citizens are given the opportunity to vote on construction of a new town hall at Fairfield Hills.

We have been informed that the Fairfield Hills Authority will discuss our request at its November meeting. We urge all interested parties to attend. We support the Fairfield Hills Authority and town agencies in their efforts to move forward expeditiously with approvals for the Newtown Youth Academy. However, we believe that the job should be done right and that our money should be spent with the utmost efficiency.

This is the type of active leadership you can expect from IPN candidates who are elected to Legislative Council, Board of Education, and Police Commission on Election Day. If this is the type of representation you would like to have in your local government, we ask for your support on November 6.

Gary Davis

Candidate, Legislative Council – District 2

Independent Party of Newtown

23 Charter Ridge Drive, Sandy Hook                       October 24, 2007