Where Has All the

Money Gone?        

To the Editor:

At the April 27 meeting of the Fairfield Hill (FFH) Authority, I asked one question, hoping to understand one of their recent actions. I asked, “Why did the authority request that $300,000 be included in the Selectmen’s 2008-09 budget to pay for lights at the newly constructed baseball field at FFH when the authority has unexpended FFH bond money that could be used to pay for these lights?”

Members hemmed and hawed. I asked again why didn’t the FFH Authority finish the baseball field by using the existing bond money. The verbal exchange ended quickly; I was advised to ask the selectmen why the $300,000 was placed under debt service in the 2008-09 budget.

Last Monday, at the selectmen’s meeting, I asked the selectmen the same question. They replied, “We don’t answer questions or enter into a dialogue at our meetings.”

Now, I’ll answer my own question the best I can. The FFH Authority and the previous administration decided that the town would become a developer and attract businesses to come to FFH and pay lots of taxes to the town. The town would succeed in creating a corporate park even though the state reportedly had spent a million dollars trying to do the same thing and failed.

The plan of the authority revealed thus far includes a new town hall for $10.5 million; paying O&G Industries management fees ($2.5 million so far), abatement oversight ($800,000 so far), one new baseball field ($992,336 with lights installed; the bond issue provided $1.4 million for seven playing fields). The authority has signed contracts to provide utilities (estimated at $5–6 million) and parking (450 spaces at the rear of the campus at $1,500 each as a minimum = $675,000 — my estimate for just the town hall, baseball field and the sports academy). (Demolition of Greenwich is necessary — about $1 million.) At least eight buildings remain to be demolished. The authority and the selectmen have obligated the town to spend more money than the bond issue, the $1.5 million from the sale of the Mile Hill South homes, and the Newtown Hall contract will provide.

That’s why $300,000 was tucked in the upcoming budget, for which you had to vote Yes if you supported the high school expansion.

Wouldn’t it have been better if our leaders had been forthright with the public by posting their budget and expenditures on the town website and said, “We’ve run out of money, citizens. Will you give us more?”

As long as they continue to push for a corporate park that has been nothing short of a financial disaster, I will keep asking the hard questions and repeat, “The town should not try to complete with the private sector.”

“FFH, a family place, preserved for town use, not a corporate park!”

Ruby Johnson

16 Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook                                May 7, 2008