Town Dedicates Newtown Municipal Center At Fairfield Hills

By Andrew Gorosko

About 70 people gathered on Saturday, November 21, on a brisk late fall day at the northeast entrance of the Newtown Municipal Center to dedicate the large masonry building at the Fairfield Hills core campus that the town has refitted for use as its municipal office building.

The expansive red brick structure has been in service for the past several weeks as offices, bringing together most town agencies under one roof.

The structure, which had been known as Bridgeport Hall, formerly served as the central dining facility at Fairfield Hills, a state psychiatric hospital that closed in December 1995. The town bought the Fairfield Hills core campus and dozens of former institutional buildings there from the state in the summer of 2004.

In a symbolic opening ceremony, First Selectman Joe Borst cut a broad red ribbon that had been stretched between the columns at the northeast entrance to the building.

As Mr Borst handled those duties, First Selectman-elect Pat Llodra, Selectman Herb Rosenthal, State Representative DebraLee Hovey, and Town Director of Economic and Community Development Elizabeth Stocker looked on.

Mr Rosenthal served as first selectman from 1997 to 2007. During that period, town officials considered purchasing Fairfield Hills, after which voters approved that transaction in June 2001. The real estate closing came three years later. The town then gauged the value of the various structures at Fairfield Hills, deciding to refit Bridgeport Hall for use as town office space.

Mr Rosenthal thanked the many town officials with whom he had worked through the planning and development process for the Bridgeport Hall conversion project.

“I believe that it is appropriate that that my 12 years of service on the Board of Selectmen is coming to a close with my last official act [of] participating in the dedication of the Newtown Municipal Center at Fairfield Hills,” Mr Rosenthal said.

“By the late 1960s, town offices had outgrown their space in Edmond Town Hall which was built [in 1930] when the town’s population was about 3,000, and town offices were only needed for a town clerk, a tax collector, and a part-time first selectman,” he added.

Mr Rosenthal pointed out that in June 2001, voters approved $21.8 million in spending for the town’s acquisition and redevelopment of the Fairfield Hills core campus, of which funds were designated for the consolidation of town offices and school system offices.

“Now, it has become the reality that we are here celebrating today,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Mr Rosenthal said he hopes that the various recent improvements made at Fairfield Hills “will serve as catalysts for the revitalization and redevelopment of this grand property in the heart of Newtown.”

After remarks made by the several officials, those present at the dedication toured the office building, viewing the converted spaces that will house both town officials and school officials.