Get Started On Fairfield Hills

To the Editor:

In no small way the Fairfield Hills property represents how future generations will judge us. The squabbling that has gone on now for more than ten years should be done. It has become a personal and somewhat bitter struggle. Everyone wants it their way or they will sabotage the outcome through innuendo and downright misstatements.

We have asked a committee to come up with recommendations for the potential use of the property and they did. It was a fairly thorough report with a great deal of input from the citizens of Newtown. We have also asked to have a master plan developed for the property and this has been done.

We need closure on the purchase of Fairfield Hills and a map as to how we intend to use it. Except for the state budget crisis we should have closed on it already and I understand we will by the end of the year. We also have a master plan as to its intended use. It will certainly not satisfy everyone either now nor I doubt in the future as well. There will certainly be “mid course corrections” as we move along. The important thing is to get started.

We lost the Italian Community Center (ICC) property years ago because of this type of squabbling. It is now homes.

We need Fairfield Hills and there is room there for just about everyone’s needs and desires. Certainly it will take time and funding. We need to acquire this type of resource for current, as well as future generations.

The master plan is a reasonable one and it deserves your vote.

Larry Haskel

3 Tamarack Road, Newtown                                            July 23, 2003