Becker Wins A Hearing With The Council

By Steve Bigham

Legislative Council Chairman Pierre Rochman announced this week that he planned to put the development firm of Becker and Becker on the board’s agenda for September 20.

Becker and Becker’s meeting with the council would follow the firm’s August 7 audience with the Board of Selectmen.

Becker and Becker has spent the past 18 months trying to sell its plan for the preservation and adaptive re-use of Fairfield Hills to the town, which is currently in negotiations with the state over the possible purchase of the property. The firm’s president, Bruce Becker, believes he has the resources that make his plan work, and though he appears to have fallen out of favor with First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, there are still many who believe his ideas have merit.

Mr Rochman says he simply wants to hear what Mr Becker has to say. The council chair believes the meeting will also give his fellow council members a chance to ask detailed questions about his plan. Mr Rosenthal admitted his disappointment with Mr Becker’s August 7 presentation because it lacked specifics and simply re-hashed his original proposal.

Council member Melissa Pilchard was at the selectmen’s meeting earlier this month and assured Mr Becker she would do her part to get him on a council agenda. She was apparently true to her word.

“We have so many questions. We don’t know where to get started,” Mrs Pilchard said this week. “If Bruce is there, he can answer some of these questions.”

Mrs Pilchard said she is not necessarily an advocate for Becker and Becker. However, she says his track record of preservation work should not be ignored. In addition, Mrs Pilchard said, Mr Becker can provide the town with something tangible to work with.

“We can’t even decide what to ask somebody to put in a master plan for us. Here’s somebody who has done master plans. We can discuss with him traffic, water, sewer, electricity…,” she said.

Becker and Becker’s plan calls for a “joint closing” between his firm and the town at the time of the sale. Once that it complete, the town would receive 100 acres of open space, a handful of buildings, and no town liability over what could be as much as $14-15 million in environmental cleanup costs. The deed, however, would be signed over the Becker and Becker, which would take over ownership of the majority of the buildings in the core campus (although some would be used for municipal office space) and 22 percent of the land.

Mr Becker said the utilization of historic tax credits makes his plan possible.