Consensus

On FFH Needed

To the Editor:

Congratulations to Matt DeAngelis for being an involved citizen. He is clearly an individual who cares about Newtown as demonstrated by his community work to build a new dog pound. His lawsuit on Fairfield Hills is reflective of a great deal of dissatisfaction by residents of Newtown over the management of Fairfield Hills and the lack of a voter-approved master plan.

Fairfield Hills is too large a part of Newtown not to have a master plan approved by the voters. We have too much invested to allow an appointed authority to control the development of the property without strong community support and consensus, which is clearly absent currently.

Mr Rosenthal’s comments that there is no need for a town meeting, that the consultants’ recommendations were simply that, recommendations, and his further statements that Mr DeAngelis’s lawsuit has “many, many factual errors” may be in fact true. However, the first selectman may be missing the real issue. The residents of Newtown deserve to be involved and we should have a master plan for Fairfield Hills that the citizens approved. Sure this may be hard, but with so much at stake wouldn’t it be better to have the town’s support rather than being sued? Rather than criticizing citizens who speak up on Fairfield Hills, such as Ruby Johnson, Mr Rosenthal and the community he represents would be well served by embracing these residents and get consensus on the future of Fairfield Hills.

Running Fairfield Hills on the whims of a few is no way to lead Newtown. Let’s get consensus!

Bruce W. Walczak

12 Glover Avenue, Newtown                                  November 27, 2006