What Are Our Priorities

For Fairfield Hills?

To the Editor:

After almost four years of deliberations, Newtown has finally made its first payment to the state for the 186-acre Fairfield Hills campus.

During this time, the list of town and community uses for property has not diminished. Some expressed needs include:

1. Passive open space for enjoyment and preservation of wildlife habitats. 2. Playing fields for baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse. 3. Outdoor recreation facilities which include hiking trails, horseback riding trails, bicycle paths, playground, volleyball, picnic area with tables and benches, outdoor stage for summer plays, open area for outdoor gatherings, flea markets. 4. Indoor recreation center for indoor soccer, basketball, batting cages, ping-pong, roller-skating, ice-skating. 5. Community Center with kitchen that would have large and small banquet areas, meeting rooms, Booth Library book sale, indoor flea markets, canine obstacle course, trade shows, dances, weddings. 6. Cultural Arts Center to include an indoor theater for the dramatic arts, dance, musical events, and space for fine arts, crafts, woodworking, and culinary arts. 7. An enlarged Senior Center. 8. The alternative school with appropriate facilities. 9. A building or space for the education academy to accommodate the anticipated 2,000 pupil high school enrollment in 2012 which in 25 years could become 3,000.

While we are contemplating both the intermediate and long-term needs of the town, let’s add permanent space for the newer groups. 10. Kevin’s Community Clinic serving the medical needs of uninsured adults and children. 11 Youth Services in Newtown now required to relocate from its Main Street location. 12. The aspirations of the skateboarders. 13. A historical museum to honor Newtown. And 14. municipal space for town offices, which in 25 years could include a much larger Police Department, and a large parking lot for school buses.

We can’t afford all of these now, but we must preserve the land for future use. Can all of the these desirable facilities fit into the FFH campus? Probably not, and if the economic development proposed in the defeated master plan totaling over 200,000 square feet and requiring at least 1,174 parking spaces is implemented, certainly not.

Where then will the town find space for those projects that enrich the quality of life in Newtown?    Should we purchase land somewhere else for schools? Should we forget about a Community Center or Cultural Arts Center, cut back on playing fields, deny the seniors?

Is there room at FFH for limited economic development? Would none be better? Would we be financially better off by saving FFH for future community uses and encourage business development in the town-owned 38 acres at Commerce Park and private lands such as Exit 9, South Main Street, the Curtis Industrial Park, the SBC building on South Main Street, and other vacant commercial property in Newtown?

These are the questions we need to answer. Friends of FFH have long supported preserving Fairfield Hills as a municipal center and central park. We hope all of our citizens can recognize that this objective is best for Newtown.

Ruby Johnson

16 Chestnut Hill, Sandy Hook                           November 10, 2003