Dear Members of the Legislative Council:

Newtown is struggling to pay for the needs of the growing town and the expectations are high for all school and town officials to prioritize the needs to find the most cost effective solution to meet the space needs of the town as a whole.

The finance board has set its own limits, and they have prioritized the capital improvement projects for the next five years disregarding many necessary projects such as roof replacements, HVAC for certain schools, middle school auditorium and cafeteria renovation, park and recreation needs, and an adequate expansion of the senior center. What rationale was used to decrease funding of the high school expansion from $30 million to $25 million?

While it is appropriate to ask the school officials to evaluate all possible options for high school space needs, it would also be fair to also ask the town officials to evaluate all of their possible options for the town space needs. Has the town evaluated the possibility of holding off on a new town hall at Fairfield Hills if they could utilize the space at the middle school if the middle school students were moved to the present high school? Could they also utilize a portion of the middle school for an expanded senior center? This would result in significant savings also taking into consideration that there would be no reimbursement from the state to build a new town hall but we would be reimbursed for approximately one third of the demolition cost and the construction costs of building a high school to accommodate all 1,982 students (the eight-year projected student enrollment number). The architects have stated that a new building would have wider hallways and incorporate space that can be modified into classrooms should the enrollment rise beyond the projected numbers. Holding off on this construction and utilizing temporary solutions (such as long-term use of modulars, which will not be optimally connected to the current high school due to its landscape design, constructing a small new building to accommodate a small population of high school students, or constructing a loosely attached high school expansion at the current site) would be a costly mistake.

It would be wise to reevaluate the existing debt not yet bonded and possibly reallocate those funds based on the priorities of the town as a whole. We need to evaluate which needs are immediate and which can be done when the 73 percent of debt is paid off within the ten years. As stated previously, there is evidence that the amount of state reimbursement would decrease as our tax base continue to increase. It would be difficult to support the need to build a new town hall before a new high school is built.

Once again, I am concerned with the Band-Aid approach to financing the deferred maintenance projects of our school and municipal buildings. Short-term financing has increased costs of all required projects. If we had the foresight to plan for a new high school a few years back, the school could have been built for much less and we would not be in a crisis mode at this time. I encourage you to tour the schools, park and recreation facilities, municipal buildings, and the senior center to clarify why certain capital improvement requests are being made.

Po Murray

38 Charter Ridge Drive, Sandy Hook                  December 19, 2005