Town Approves Fairfield Hills And

5/6 School Projects

By Steve Bigham

With one big roar Wednesday night, a packed house at Newtown High School approved spending $21.8 million for the purchase of Fairfield Hills and its associated projects.

Moments later, a second roar from the nearly 1,000 in attendance turned the proposed 5/6 school ($27 million) into a reality.

The results sent residents and town officials into a state of euphoria, particularly on the part of Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed, who embraced all those around him, including school board members, selectmen, council members, women, and children… and a reporter.

But the outcome of this week’s town meeting was not a victory just for school officials and politicians. It was, many said, a victory for everyone who has a stake in the future of the community. The approval means a lot of things to a lot of people. The 5/6 school helps alleviate overcrowded conditions at both the four elementary schools and the middle school. The purchase of the 189-acre Fairfield Hills campus helps the town control its own destiny by allowing it to decide the future use of this key property. It also gives the town a host of options in its efforts to address its municipal office space shortage. The FHH package also includes $2 million for the construction of seven new ball fields, as well as improvements to fields at the high school.

After a delayed start to the meeting, it took a little over an hour for townspeople to approve nearly $49 million worth of projects, a large portion of which – 1.5 mills worth – was already approved in the 2001-2002 budget referendum in April. The 2002-2003 budget will see an impact of 1.7 mills as a result of this week’s approval. The 2003-2004 budget will be impacted a half mill and no further incremental increases are expected after that.

As of Thursday morning, there was no indication that anyone would lead a petition drive to force a referendum on the issues. To force a machine vote, a person or organization would need to compile the signatures of five percent of the town’s registered voters by the end of next week.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal called Wednesday’s town meeting a historic event for Newtown. His wife, Michelle, said she hoped her husband might finally catch up on some sleep. The past few weeks had taken their toll on the first selectman, who seemed uncertain as the evening kicked off. Unlike the 5/6 school, which had all its plans and cost estimates in place, Fairfield Hills is less defined. To date, many of the costs are just estimates; and with no master plan in place some residents opposed Mr Rosenthal’s proposal.

“I had butterflies in my stomach when I came here tonight,” said the first selectman, who is expected to announce his bid for a third term in office in the coming weeks.

In the end, however, the vote was a decisive one. A close vote may have been somewhat disconcerting and left doubt in the minds of residents. With the overwhelming majority of people in favor of the plan, Mr Rosenthal says the town can move forward more confidently, knowing that most are committed to it.

Early in the Wednesday night meeting, Barry Piesner of the Newtown Property Owners Association (NPOA) made an unsuccessful bid to reduce the appropriation to $9.5 million. He argued that by spending only enough to purchase Fairfield Hills, build ball fields, and initiate work on a master plan, the town would be able to reserve judgement on the bulk of the expenses until more details were known about how the property would be reused.

There appeared to be some support for Mr Piesner’s plan and a full-scale debate was about to start when Po Murray of 38 Charter Ridge Road stepped to the microphone to urge that the meeting decide the question immediately.

“Let’s vote. We don’t want to be here until midnight,” she said.

The crowd responded enthusiastically to the suggestion, shooting down Mr Piesner’s proposal and eventually approving the entire $21.8 million in short order. Mr Pienser later voiced his disappointment in the fact that many voters with kids in tow seemed anxious to get home, largely ignoring the fact that they were approving almost $50 million.

Board of Education members jumped from their seats to congratulate one another after the 5/6 school was approved, but the celebration won’t last for long. There is work to be done. Construction of the new school along Wasserman Way is scheduled to begin later this month. The school is slated to open in January, 2003.

“Now we have to go out and get a wonderful school built,” Dr Reed said. “I’m euphoric, but we’ve got 18 big months ahead of us.”

The $27 million cost to build the school will be offset by a 34 percent state reimbursement.

Also in attendance at the Wednesday town meeting was Richard Nuclo of the state’s Office of Policy & Management (OPM), who led the state’s team of negotiators during talks with the town on the Fairfield Hills sale. He said he could feel the excitement in the air as he entered NHS.

“This is a good day for both the town and the state. I personally think the town made the right decision,” he said. “This has been my project for eight years. Yeah, it took a long time, but I think we had to go through the process in order to get where we are today.”

The actual cost to purchase the Fairfield Hills campus is $3.9 million, a figure that is part of the much bigger $21.7 million package. The package includes money for ball fields, code updates and maintenance at Edmond Town Hall, and office space needs, as well as future renovations, abatements, and demolition of the campus’ massive buildings, some of which may eventually be used for various forms of economic development.

In the coming weeks, the Legislative Council is expected to approve the proposed sale of the town-owned homes on Queen Street to help offset some of the costs.

One of the last to depart Wednesday night was Ruby Johnson, a longtime Newtown resident and Legislative Council member who is credited with helping turn the tides of public opinion in favor of buying Fairfield Hills. Wednesday’s vote was a long time in coming for Mrs Johnson.