Selectmen Recommend A $21 Million Spending Plan For Fairfield Hills

By Steve Bigham

The Board of Selectmen Monday voted unanimously to recommend a $21 million spending plan for Fairfield Hills and municipal facilities to be considered by the Legislative Council. The plan is simply a conceptual one. A comprehensive plan at this point is still a long way off.

The vote, however, is not. A town meeting has been tentatively scheduled for early June.

The selectmen this week were forced to recommend a broad, unspecific plan after it was decided last week that both Fairfield Hills and the proposed 5/6 school would be presented to voters at the same town meeting in June (two separate votes). Town officials admit they do not have as much information as they would like on costs associated with the purchase of Fairfield Hills, but are sending the plan on to taxpayers using the best cost estimates.

According to First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, this week’s recommendation is not a formal request to the council. That will come in May. “The council wanted a general recommendation of the kinds of things we felt should be in the bonding package,” Mr Rosenthal explained.

However, heading into Wednesday’s Legislative Council meeting (see related story) it remained unclear as to whether council members would go with the selectmen’s recommendation or one of their own. Some council members may be opposed to going to the public with any “unknowns.” Wednesday’s council meeting was expected to be a turning point for the Fairfield Hills issue.

“I’ve been trying to do things carefully, getting the environmental issues ironed out, the insurance costs, negotiations with the state. We had certainly hoped to have a development partner. Now we’re making a change in direction,” Mr Rosenthal said Tuesday. “I’ve tried to be conservative about dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every ‘t.’ This is a little bit different than most times I’ve gone to request for money.”

 The spending plan includes:

Purchase of land and buildings at Fairfield Hills (the state has offered the land and buildings to the town “as is” for $5.5 million).

Renovation of buildings for municipal space needs, fire and ambulance facilities. Also demolition and abatement of other buildings ($10 million estimate).

Remediation of subsurface contamination (no cost has been disclosed).

Environmental insurance to cap town’s liability exposure (no cost disclosed).

Purchase of water agreement from Pootatuck Fish & Game Club (no cost disclosed).

Preparation of a master plan as required by the Planning & Zoning (P&Z) Commission (no cost disclosed).

Architectural/engineering design fees (no cost disclosed).

Construction of playing fields and multi-purpose trail system ($2 million estimate).

Edmond Town Hall code updates, ADA compliance, etc ($1 million).

Newtown High School playing field reconstruction ($600,000).

At Monday’s meeting at the library, there did appear to be some inclination to simply recommend an $11 million plan. Under that scenario, voters would be asked to vote on a plan that did not include money for demolition of some buildings and renovation of others. Those costs are largely unknown. However, the selectmen did finally agree to recommend putting it all out on the table.

“I’m in favor of laying out a picture that includes demolition,” noted Selectman Bill Brimmer.

Selectman Joe Bojnowski agreed, “I’d like to get Fairfield Hills teed up for re-use and if you do the demolition work you’re in better shape for re-use.”

Mr Bojnowski said it is time to “roll up our sleeves” and get a fix on total cost figures because many of the estimated numbers are two years old.

The selectmen then added to the recommendation that “demolition and renovation would follow the creation of a master plan.”

That came as good news to Legislative Council member Ruby Johnson.

“They’re finally acknowledging that they need a master plan,” she said.

Mr Rosenthal said he plans to work with consultants to determine what the real costs will be. He expects to have those costs for the council later this spring.

“Then we’ll make our formal request, which could be larger or smaller than $21 million,” he said.