As the year comes to a close, The Newtown Bee is looking back on some of the biggest stories in town for 2023. It has been an incredibly eventful year, both in town and even here at The Bee, and here we’ll take a jaunt through some of the highlights and lowlights. While this is hardly a comprehensive list, these were the stories that struck this writer as most memorable over the past year.

ARP Funds

Over the course of the year, the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, and Legislative Council have been slowly but surely continuing to spend the town’s allocated American Rescue Plan Funding. Awarded $7.6 million in 2022, the town has appropriated approximately $7.4 million. There is $231,000 left to be appropriated, not including the pickleball courts. Of the appropriated money, $4.3 million has been spent. The town has until 2024 to appropriate all the funds and until 2026 to spend all the funds.

Newtown Finance Director Robert Tait said he expected that some money appropriated will return to the undesignated amount as some projects come in under the amount appropriated.

Among the largest appropriated amounts are $2.5 million for the Hawley School HVAC project, $1.5 million for a replacement of the water distribution system at the Fairfield Hills campus, a $325,000 reimbursement to the town’s medical self-insurance fund for COVID expenses, $300,000 for a front bucket loader for Public Works, $240,000 for a six-wheel, eight-ton dump truck for Public Works, $215,000 for sidewalks in Sandy Hook, $200,000 for sidewalks in the Borough; $200,000 for improvements at the Transfer Station; $100,000 for pickleball; and $60,000 police sidearms.

Rosenthal Steps Down As First Selectman

Dan Rosenthal ended his run as first selectman after six years, when he chose to not seek a fourth term. Republican Jeff Capeci was elected the new first selectman in November, over Democrat Dan Cruson.

Rosenthal said that, “The door prize is that I still get to live [in Newtown].” Rosenthal said he hopes he can enjoy just living in a town he hopes he left in a better place than it was when he assumed the first selectman role in 2017.

With his public service behind him, Rosenthal will begin a new position with Newtown Savings Bank in January.

On making his decision to leave, Rosenthal in a written statement in February said it was “not a decision that I arrived at easily and without a great deal of soul searching.”

“Serving the town that I love has been a privilege of a lifetime and only gratitude comes to mind when I think about leaving it behind,” he stated.

Reflecting back six years when he decided to run for first selectman Rosenthal recalled, “My daughter, Hana, was still in high school, my daughter, Emi, in middle school and my son, Ben, was in fifth grade.

“They, along with my wife, Meri, got behind me and gave me the push I needed to run and the love and support I needed to be able to do the job,” he said. “Fast forward to today and Hana is out of college, Emi is nearing the halfway mark in college, Ben is closing in on completing high school, and Meri is home while I attend meeting upon meeting.”

Rosenthal said his loved ones “all sacrificed time with me and wholeheartedly supported a job with its 24/7 responsibilities.

“It’s time I give them all of my focus and attention,” he said.

With a family legacy in the office he vacated, Rosenthal said he never saw himself as first selectman when he was younger. While he went door to door campaigning when his grandfather, Jack Rosenthal, was campaigning for first selectman, he said he “did not see the politics of it back then,” and that it was a “different time.”

Jack Rosenthal served for six terms, from 1976 to 1987, before losing a bid for a seventh.

“I only saw the job’s ability to help people,” said Rosenthal. “That was my exposure to the job.”

When his father, Herb Rosenthal, was elected, Rosenthal was grown and out of the house, but he did see more of the political side of the position during his father’s six terms in office, from 1997 to 2007. Herb Rosenthal also lost a bid for a seventh term.

For his own part, Rosenthal was happy with his career in finance and with his wife and family of three children. He left the hedge fund he worked for in summer of 2016, however, and tried to “reconnect with the town.”

In November 2017, Rosenthal and running mate Maureen Crick Owen won over Republican Will Rodgers and his running mate, Jeff Capeci.

Rosenthal said that as first selectman, he had “lots of power to say No, but limited power to say Yes,” but even given the limitations of the office, he was “proud of the successes” he’s had. He said the key part of the job was convincing people who did have the power to say Yes to see things his way.

“I think this job is about collaboration, at least if you want to be successful at it,” he said. “If you want to snap your fingers and boss people around, you won’t be successful. People work for the town, not for me.”

While there were certain points where a crisis would arrive and Rosenthal would have to exercise full authority in the moment, he felt most of the best decisions were made when he had the time to listen and hear what people thought. He felt that hearing others out and working with other opinions was better than getting others to “acquiesce to what they think” Rosenthal wanted.

“That’s not good decision-making,” he said. “I hope I had a reputation for being firm but fair. I always wanted to hear what others thought instead of rushing to judge.”

John Voket Goes To Town

The town was not the only organization that saw a change of leadership in 2023. The Newtown Bee saw its editorship change hands when John Voket left in October after two years at the helm. Voket replaced Nancy Crevier in 2021, who served five years as editor.

Voket didn’t go far, however, as he was hired as Newtown’s director of economic and community development.

Voket brings over 20 years’ experience working locally at The Newtown Bee, where he covered and developed government, business and community content as associate editor, before being promoted to serve as the newspaper’s editor.

He previously worked supporting economic development projects among various responsibilities at the Bridgeport Regional Business Council (BRBC) and Bridgeport’s Downtown Special Services District. Voket has also worked for and consulted on economic development and community projects for other municipalities and nonprofit organizations prior to his tenure at The Bee, and has been an award-winning public affairs broadcaster for over 30 years.

His combined experience and knowledge of Newtown’s history, residents, businesses, agencies, and nonprofits, as well as his local community service and volunteerism make Voket an ideal candidate for this position supporting Newtown’s community and economic development initiatives.

“[Voket] has served the community for so many years that this position will be an extension of his strong association with the many facets of town workings,” said First Selectman Dan Rosenthal. “We are excited to see how he can utilize his deep relationships in the community to further strengthen and grow this important department.”

“This new career chapter is particularly exciting, given my 20 years of nearly daily presence in Newtown,” Voket said. “I am thrilled to have an opportunity to apply my life and career experience in continued service to a community I care about very much — just in a new and different capacity.”

Voket’s replacement was Associate Editor Jim Taylor, named in November.

Sibley Promoted At Land Use

Long-time Assistant Land Use Director Rob Sibley was named director of land use in February, following his predecessor, George Benson, who retired in late 2022.

Sibley started working with the town in 2004 as a conservation official before being named the land use department’s deputy director. Even before that, Sibley served as a volunteer, looking to help steward the town’s environment and development.

With a background in environmental science and communications, Sibley felt he had a role in benefiting Newtown that could “be in lockstep with my personal beliefs.” Sibley served on what was then called the Conservation Commission (now Inland Wetlands), and when the previous conservation official announced their retirement in 2004, he applied and was hired.

“At the time, the town was in transition with residential subdivisions and there was heavy pressure on open space,” said Sibley. Additionally, the town was in the middle of a full update to its Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), where it was “scrapping the old one and starting new.”

“Not only did I learn from the input of the public on all subjects, I also got to see how the process worked, and how things were adopted into regulations,” said Sibley. “Planning, wetlands, and economic development all have a symbiotic relationship.”

Over time, Sibley said he has gotten to work with “a lot of amazing volunteers on a lot of commissions,” all while working under the “steady hand” of previous Land Use Director George Benson, who retired last December.

“He [Benson] had a vision that was close to mine,” said Sibley. “He had a clear sense of process, responsibility, and a dedication to equitable development. He had a clear understanding of the pressures of environmental degradation that carried through into the design of the current regulations.”

Now, as land use director, Sibley is coming full circle as the town is beginning another POCD update. This will be the third Sibley has worked on during his tenure with the municipality.

“I’ll hear again from the public, and current commissions will interact,” said Sibley. “These are ten-year guidelines for the town; it’s a great opportunity.”

Developer Seeks To Build 112 Homes In Cluster Development

Developer George Trudell has spent a good portion of the year trying to sell the public on his plans to build 112 homes on 40 acres of the 136 acre property at 20-60 Castle Hill Road.

He held two informal meetings with neighbors, where sentiments seemed to be positive. Later in the year in September, he asked the Board of Selectmen to approve the discontinuance of Reservoir Road, a paper street bisecting the property. The proposed development currently has an application before the Inland Wetlands Commission, which first reviewed the property in December and will again take up the matter on January 10.

Developer George Trudell said that unless the road is abandoned, he won’t be able to build the amount of units their plan currently calls for on the area of the property they are looking to develop, and would have to develop homes on both sides of the road. This would mean development of the area near the lake, which their plan currently calls for leaving undeveloped and being given to the Borough of Newtown as a conservation easement.

“Having a contiguous 136 acres allows the development to be built on one side of Reservoir Road and not touch the other side,” said Trudell.

The proposed homes will be built on roughly 40 acres of the 132 acre property, with none of the homes located on roughly 75 acres nearest the lake. All 112 homes will be clustered together, with roughly 25 to 50 feet between them.

The specific regulation they will be using is 4.05.1, which allows residential open space developments. The homes will be clustered in one area of the development to maximize the open space surrounding it and would be a “multi-generational” development with homes between 1,800 and over 3,000 square feet. There will be large setbacks around the homes from the surrounding roads.

Trudell said the homes would fit the architectural style of the surrounding borough.

The development will have pickleball courts, a pool, a clubhouse, and a one-acre green, among other amenities available to residents.

Trudell noted that the plan to develop the western end of the property in a cluster and leave the area near the lake untouched has been responded to favorably by the neighbors and Borough officials.

Trudell said the land held in a conservation easement would have an easement for public access, allowing people to walk a trail along Reservoir Road’s corridor. Rosenthal noted that the town would also maintain a utility easement on the former road, and that the “bike and trail folks would be looking to build a loop” trail for bikers and hikers.

Kimball Midwest Comes To Town

Kimball Midwest, a national industrial supplier based in Columbus, Ohio, began operations at its new distribution center in Newtown, in September, and then staged a grand opening ceremony in December as part of the company’s centennial celebration.

The 142,000-square-foot facility, which the company acquired in 2021 before undertaking an extensive remodeling process, will allow for enhanced service to thousands of customers across the northeastern United States.

“We appreciate all the hard work contributed by so many people to get our new distribution center up and running,” Kimball Midwest President Patrick McCurdy III said. “We already have an extensive list of customers in the region, and this location will allow us to better serve our existing customers as well as new ones in the future.”

Newtown is the smallest community to host a Kimball Midwest distribution center, but its strategic location made it the right choice for the next step in the company’s growth.

“We’re grateful to have found such an ideal location in Newtown,” McCurdy said. “We appreciate the welcome we’ve received from the community and look forward to partnering with them for many years to come.”

Book Challenges

While it may still be a bit of a sore subject for some in town, one cannot look back on 2023 without mentioning the book challenges that dominated the Board of Education agendas and the public’s attention in April, May, and June of this year. Later it even spurred the BOE to re-examine its policy around books in its libraries and how students access them.

The Board of Education voted unanimously during a June 1 special meeting to keep the graphic novels Flamer and Blankets in circulation in the Newtown High School library. All remaining board members — three Democrats and two Republicans — reached consensus following the May 31 resignation of Republican members Janet Kuzma and Jennifer Larkin.

The motion to retain the books, which passed following more than a month of growing debate among the public and the board following the recommendation of a special review committee, came with an addendum. The books were to remain, “provided that the administration develops a process to address individual or parent guardian concerns related to their children.”

The topic was first raised in March by parents who believe Flamer, author Mike Curato’s semi-autobiographical account of enduring homophobic bullying and self-discovery, is pornographic in content and unsuitable for all school age levels. Craig Thompson’s autobiographical Blankets was added into the conversation soon after.

On May 2, a special review committee made up of the district assistant superintendent and four Newtown High School administrators, including its principal, told the BOE that both books are appropriate for the high school library and should remain there. One of the books had been removed from the middle school library.

Fairfield Hills Parking Issues

Newtown in August accepted a $480,000 federal Community Project Funding grant that it will use to install non-impervious parking on the Fairfield Hills campus in the area around where the Farmer’s Market is located.

The amount of area to be paved is “substantial,” according to Hurley, roughly 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, or two acres of property.

That was one component of attempts to solve parking problems on campus, as earlier in the year in May the Police Commission approved a number of “No Parking” signs to help solve issues with parked vehicles blocking roads in the vicinity of NewSylum and the NYA during peak hours, and over the whole campus during large events.

The permanent signs will replace a number of temporary signs placed by the Parks & Recreation Department, mostly on Keating Farms Avenue and Simpson Street, in the vicinity of NewSylum Brewing Company.

Regarding the temporary signs, Rosenthal said he was “fed up” and “needed to do something” to curb drivers parking along the narrow roads and on the grass in spite of adequate parking elsewhere.

At a previous commission meeting, Police Captain Bryan Bishop noted the width of the road is not enough to accommodate parking on either side of the road, and visitors often park on the road instead of parking farther away in one of the available parking areas.

“In the area of the brewery, people obstruct the roadways instead of walking the extra distance to a parking area,” said Bishop.

“The first time we get a sunny day, everyone rolls up on the lawns and then I get tons of messages from people complaining that people are parking on the lawns,” said Rosenthal.

Without signs warning drivers about where they can’t park, the police were powerless to do any enforcement. The only police enforcement available was when vehicles blocked a fire lane. But with the temporary signs and now the approved permanent signs, it is possible for police to take action.

Rosenthal doesn’t envision police giving tickets, but would prefer that if cars are found parked in an area they shouldn’t be, that the drivers could be found and asked to move their vehicles.

Resident Sentenced To 55 Years

Newtown resident Peter Manfredonia was sentenced to 55 years in the killing of Nicholas Eisele and kidnapping Shannon Spies.

On March 24, 2020, Peter Manfredonia shot Eisele to death in Spies’ apartment in Derby, Connecticut. He then proceeded to abduct Spies, leading to a six-day manhunt in several states before authorities captured him.

“I won’t lie. This plea deal does nothing for me except close the door on this court case,” Spies, 25, said during emotional testimony at Manfredonia’s sentencing hearing in Milford Superior Court April 19. “The damage can never be undone. None of this brings Nick back or makes me feel whole again.

“I will never be the person I was before then,” she said. “I will never feel safe, even in a room surrounded by only people I know. I will always look at the world differently.”

Spies said she hoped her testimony “haunts” Manfredonia for “the rest of his life.”

Manfredonia, 26, a former University of Connecticut student, wore a tan prison uniform with his hands in cuffs and apologized to Spies and Eisele’s family. He also was scheduled to be sentenced on April 20 to another 55-year prison term for a murder and separate sword attack in Willington.

He pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in both cases.

Before he spoke, Manfredonia’s lawyer, Michael Dolan, said his client’s mental health problems contributed to the spree of violence but were not an excuse. For most of the hearing, Manfredonia looked straight ahead — not looking at the witnesses and showing little emotion. It remained unclear what prompted the attacks.

“There are no words that can possibly atone for what I have done,” he said to Eisele’s family. “My actions were nothing short of reprehensible. ... Nick was a good young man to whom I felt no ill will or malice. My actions were senseless. Please know you have my deepest apology.”

Eisele and Manfredonia were school classmates growing up in Newtown, where 20 children and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. Eisele’s sister, Jessica, survived the school shooting.

After killing Eisele, Manfredonia forced Spies into her car and fled the state. He let her go, physically unharmed, near Columbia, New Jersey. Following searches in Pennsylvania, authorities finally captured Manfredonia near a truck stop in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Two days before shooting Eisele, Manfredonia killed Ted DeMers, 62, and seriously wounded an 80-year-old man who lost several fingers and part of his ear in a Samurai sword attack.

After the attack, police said Manfredonia broke into another man’s house in Willington and held him hostage for about 24 hours before taking off with his truck and firearms. The man later told police that Manfredonia told him “he just flipped.”

Massive Response To Backyard Fire

The burning of debris in a Sandy Hook back yard — on an April day when local, state and federal officials all announced red flag/high fire potentials — eventually burned 15 acres Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Approximately 75 firefighters from all five companies and out of town responded to Walnut Tree Hill Road and a few adjacent streets on April 11 after multiple calls to Newtown Emergency Communications Center began reporting heavy smoke in the area. Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Chief Anthony Capozziello said the initial dispatch at 3:58 pm was for a brush fire at 130 Walnut Tree Hill Road.

“That’s where I initially headed, and as I was approaching that property I could see smoke up on the ridge and I knew the old railroad bed was up there,” Capozziello said April 12.

“When I got to the home at 130 Walnut Tree Hill, I found the resident there trying to extinguish a debris fire with a garden hose but it had already extended well along the ridge,” he continued.

Capozziello said he acted quickly.

With Newtown Hook & Ladder already part of the call in Sandy Hook’s district, he called for manpower and apparatus from the three additional in-town companies — Botsford, Dodgingtown and Hawleyville — along with a wider net of mutual aid including Bethel, Southbury, Stevenson, and Stony Hill.

Capozziello then went to the Algonquin pipeline station east of the initial location, where he gained access to land along the Algonquin pipeline and former railroad bed. The fire was spreading through the woods near the pipeline, but did not threaten the pipeline directly, he said.

Nonetheless, Algonquin sent a representative to the scene.

Capozziello also served as incident command, as the command post for Tuesday’s fire was set up adjacent to the pipeline entrance along Walnut Tree Hill Road. He credited Fairfield County and Litchfield County Fire Coordinators for a lot of assistance.

“They came in and added Bethel and Monroe, and a lot of other people,” he said. “They were the ones who helped me know who had what equipment. They assisted with the command and accountability. Having that resource was invaluable.”

Bernie Meehan, a Danbury Fire chief and lead of Litchfield County Fire Coordinators, was among those to respond to the call. The list of mutual aid, he said, grew to include 15 responding companies sending manpower and forestry vehicles to the scene. Fairfield County Fire Coordinators Chief Ed Bruey also led response efforts.

The response included not only those going into the woods or running tankers — Bethel, Brookfield, Middlebury, Roxbury, Stevenson, Stony Hill, and Woodbury among them — but also those who offered standby for in-town fire companies.

Additional companies provided station coverage not only across Newtown but also the neighboring towns who had sent their volunteers to Sandy Hook.

“New Milford covered Brookfield, Redding covered Bethel, and Prospect went to Southbury,” Meehan said Wednesday morning, ticking off just a few of the regional companies called on.

Newtown Public Works had a crew set up road closures, and Sandy Hook’s Ladies Auxiliary made a few trips into the area with bottled water and other supplies.

At the request of Capozziello, Newtown Police Department used its drone to find hot spots from the air.

CT DEEP, reportedly already contending with several other fires across the state, sent at least one member of its forestry division to the scene.

“It was,” Chief Capozziello said Wednesday morning, “a massive effort.”

Communications System Finished

The town’s new emergency communications system, authorized by voters at referendums in 2020 and 2021, was completed in July.

The project, which was voter authorized for $7.5 million, came in well under budget, with a total of approximately $7 million spent.

It provided Motorola switches, routers, three new base stations, upgrades to the current five base stations, and radios within most of the town’s emergency vehicles, allowing the town to switch from analogue communications to digital, giving the fire companies, police department, ambulance corps, and NUSAR better communications coverage as well as the ability to freely communicate between departments using the system.

At the June 19 Board of Selectmen meeting, Rosenthal revealed the town had also considered the possibility of a warranty from Motorola. The warranty would be paid on a yearly basis, and Motorola priced the first five years at $174K for the first year, $226K for the second year, $233K for the third year, $242K for the fourth year, and $250K for the fifth year, for a total of $1.13 million over that span.

Rosenthal said that the cost was split between maintenance and upgrades to operating software in the equipment. The split in the cost between maintenance and upgrades has the upgrade portion being “reasonably small,” starting at $49K in the first year and ending at $79K in the fifth year.

However, Rosenthal recommended against getting the warranty, at least initially. He felt that with a brand new system, the risk of expensive equipment replacements being necessary was low.

“There is an expectation that the town will put a premium on public safety,” said Rosenthal. “But the dollar value here is low. I’m comfortable with the risk, at least for now. We may buy in later.”

The old system was 20 years old and “top of the line” at the time, said Rosenthal. However, there were a number of coverage gaps where emergency services had to resort to cell phones because “Newtown was a very large town and not very flat.” The new system will substantially reduce those gaps.

“This is a very, very significant infrastructure upgrade project,” said Mark DeWolfe, a Sandy Hook firefighter who served on the Communications Subcommittee.

Town Administrator Recommended

Charged by Rosenthal, the Town Administrator Workgroup worked for more than a half year reviewing types of municipal government, before recommending the town hire a town administrator to work as a right-hand man to the first selectman.

The recommendation is a 57-page document affirming that it recommends the hiring of a town administrator to supplement the role of first selectman. It was an eight month effort for the four workgroup members: Maureen Crick Owen, Pat Llodra, Bill Brimmer, and Ned Simpson. The group began on January 9 and finished its report on September 5.

Capeci has yet to take any action on hiring a town administrator. In pre-election interviews, Capeci said he would take the recommendation under consideration but would be in no hurry to do so.

While very similar, a town administrator is a position that is in addition to and complements a first selectman, while a town manager would largely replace a first selectman’s position — or at least a significant amount of a first selectman’s duties — and would locally require a change to the Town Charter.

While the work group split on whether a town administrator or town manager was the best solution long-term, all agreed that in the short-term, a town administrator could help the first selectman in meeting the increasingly “dense” demands on their time. Llodra’s position was that the town administrator was the best choice for the town; Crick Owen believed that the town administrator was a good first step to assist the town now while it evaluated a town manager in the future, and while both Brimmer and Simpson preferred a town manager, they were willing to compromise on an administrator as an intermediary step.

“It’s very thorough,” said Rosenthal of the report. “I see no holes I can poke in it. I’m hoping the town benefits from it.”

The final report is the end of a long process by the work group, which has spent the last few months interviewing town officials, both from Newtown and surrounding towns that have either a town manager or town administrator, as part of its information gathering phase. With information gathering done, the group sat down to hash out what its final recommendation would be.

“As part of the work group’s due diligence to craft alternative solutions to these challenges, we identified comparable towns to meet with and explore how they have responded,” stated the report. “We met with town managers, mayors, first selectmen and town administrators from Clinton, Fairfield, Greenwich, Manchester, Monroe, Simsbury, South Windsor and Wilton. We also met with several of Newtown’s department heads including a former department head. The interview process took four months.”

The process began with a charge from First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, who credited the hiring of Matt Knickerbocker as town administrator by Wilton for giving him the idea of potentially creating a town administrator position. Previously, Rosenthal thought he would have to charge a Charter Revision Commission with looking at a town manager position.

The report includes statistics and analysis of the other towns, examples of the job responsibilities of town administrators and town managers in the nine comparable towns, as well as analysis of the different types of governments present in Connecticut.

“I think we found a nice consensus,” said Brimmer. “It’s not that I think an administrator is not a good idea, I was thinking beyond it into the future.”

Simpson said he thought that in four to eight years, the town would be looking at a town manager. He said it was “striking” how much he learned, that the workgroup’s efforts were “like a graduate course in municipal management.”

Hawley School HVAC Project Finished

First Selectman Dan Rosenthal reported to the Board of Finance on August 24 that the Hawley HVAC project is expected to come in $340,000 under budget.

The current plan is to use the leftover funding for an add alternate, allowing chillers to be installed in the ‘97 wing that were originally cut earlier in the project time line.

Rosenthal said school Facilities Director John Barlow will be “sharpening his pencil” and looking for any available rebates or grants to help cover the full cost of the chillers.

“It’s looking pretty good,” said Rosenthal.

Rosenthal also commended the Public Buildings and Site Commission and Downes Construction Company for their efforts on the project and shepherding it in under budget.

“They’ve done a great job,” said Rosenthal.

Board of Finance Chairman John Madzula commended them as well for bringing the project in under budget and on time.

The Hawley School project recently passed inspections by the Fire Marshal, and the air conditioning is currently up and running. Students were able to return to school on time August 30.

The under budget news was welcome considering a nearly year-long problem acquiring a switchgear.

When the vital piece of the school’s electrical system hadn’t arrived by late July, it threatened to cost the town $50,000 and would have caused the school to open without air conditioning in certain sections of the building.

A switchgear is part of an electrical system that includes fuses and circuit breakers and allows regulation of the power system. Barlow said that the contractors were on the verge of doing a “backfeed,” which would have allowed them to test different parts of the new HVAC system without the switchgear, when the switchgear “just showed up” weeks before the town was told it would arrive.

First Selectman Dan Rosenthal said the town “got lucky” that the switchgear arrived when it did.

The project was authorized for $8 million by voters in 2021. The town used $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan money to help cover the cost.

The project was planned with a large contingency due to the fact that Hawley School is an “older building” and there were concerns there may be an expensive abatement or something else costly that was not foreseen before work began.

Now that the project is wrapping up, that money can be used towards adding alternates, such as replacing some cooling units in the ‘97 addition that were in the original HVAC project plans but were removed when bids came in higher than expected. The air conditioners in that section are nearing the end of their 25- to 30-year life expectancy.