Last Friday, the state Department of Public Works formally offered to sell the core campus of Fairfield Hills to the Town of Newtown. As complex as the Fairfield Hills issue has become over the past few years, the state offer to the town is really quite simple. That simplicity was underscored by two check boxes at the end of the offer letter from DPW Commissioner T.R. Anson to First Selectman Herb Rosenthal: one said “Interested” and the other said “Not Interested.”

The town has 45 days to figure out which box to check, though the Newtown hasn’t exactly been hiding its interest under a bushel in the past few weeks. Still, it will be in the town’s best interests to take the full six weeks to reply to the state’s initial query because that reply will set in motion another deadline countdown – 60 days this time – for the state and town to negotiate a sale price for the property. That gives the town 105 days from last Friday to establish a specific financial plan and at least an outline of a development plan for Fairfield Hills. Town officials will also need every bit of that time to secure public support for the purchase.

In the last half of 1999, the campaign to have the town take over Fairfield gained momentum. A core group of supporters for the town purchase of the land and buildings on the 186-acre tract organized themselves under the banner of “Save Fairfield Hills for Newtown.” Their arguments, coupled with the unveiling of intense housing development plans submitted by the private developers for the site, have won many important converts for their cause, including the first selectman and several members of the Legislative Council. The key now will be to get the townspeople behind the purchase plan. Failure to do so will put the town in an untenable position. The normal developer selection process has been short-stopped by the state in order to offer the property to the town now. Should the state’s offer be rejected, pressure will only increase for the state to unload the property quickly to anyone with ready cash. Under that scenario, the quality of the plans to develop the site may become secondary to ending the state’s obligations and expenses at Fairfield Hills as quickly as possible.

We believe now, as before, that the town purchase of Fairfield Hills will yield benefits for Newtown and its residents for generations to come. But for those benefits to become a reality, Newtown officials will have to spend the next 100 days building a vision for Fairfield Hills supported by facts and figures that the townspeople can support.

To help them in that task, the Save Fairfield Hills for Newtown group will be polling townspeople in the coming weeks to try to determine which of the following possible uses for Fairfield Hills is most popular:

Municipal needs such as recreation/playing fields (including the gym at Plymouth Hall).

Moderately priced housing for senior citizens/empty nesters (age 55 and above).

Town offices (in lieu of adding on to Edmond Town Hall and renovating Town Hall South).

A 5/6 school, or land/building for a future school.

Open Space.

Economic development; business and professional offices, start-up companies.

Combination of most of the above.

We urge everyone to respond to this poll –a form appears on page A9 this week. Building a town consensus on these issues in the next hundred days will go a long way toward realizing in full the promise Fairfield Hills holds for Newtown.