March 9 Town Meeting Set For Several Bond Initiatives

By John Voket

The Board of Selectmen this week voted to schedule a special town meeting next Wednesday, March 9, to move $13 million in appropriations and approve the auction of five houses on Mile Hill South.

The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 pm at the Newtown Middle School Auditorium on Queen Street.

Taxpayers — those owning in excess of $1,000 in real or taxable personal property in the Town of Newtown — will be asked to endorse two open space bonding initiatives, an intent to bond up to $1 million to cover costs related to an oil release at Reed Intermediate School, and the house auction.

All proceeds from the auction of the five homes lining Mile Hill Road South are earmarked to underwrite remediation of hazardous soil around all of the remaining buildings on the Fairfield Hills property. The town took ownership of the former state hospital campus last summer.

As part of the negotiations with the State of Connecticut over the purchase, the state gave the town the homes and properties specifying that the money be used for that purpose, according to First Selectman Herb Rosenthal.

“When it came to the costs for soil remediation, the state was unwilling or unable to lower the purchase price for Fairfield Hills, so they basically said, ‘…here, we’ll give you these homes for you to sell to make up some or all of the remediation costs,’” Mr Rosenthal said in a recent interview.

If the sale of the houses is approved at the March 9 town meeting, a date for the auction will be set at a subsequent Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

The two open space initiatives on the agenda include a $2 million appropriation for the possible acquisition of two parcels along Lake Zoar: a 10.5-acre property encompassing a beach and marina at Eichler’s Cove, and a 17.6-acre parcel about four miles north adjacent to the Rochambeau Bridge and Interstate 84.

“This parcel, bordered by Riverside Road at Laurel Trail, would provide an additional 1,600 feet of lake frontage and the entire hillside extending up from the lake,” Mr Rosenthal said. “It’s a very scenic spot and there is nothing on the property now. This parcel is ideal for passive recreation because it features several trail networks that lead down to the lake.”

The second open space initiative, if approved, will establish a $10 million fund for strategic open space acquisitions. Expenditures from that program, funded at $2 million per year for the next five years, would be specifically justified on the criteria that purchases will block development of homes that may adversely impact the town’s economy, and/or to acquire key parcels to bridge existing open spaces, trails, or other open public land.

Following a recent selectmen’s meeting during which the open space initiatives were approved, Mr Rosenthal said he hoped land owners would come to the town first if they are interested in getting fair value for their property while preserving it for future generations to enjoy.

“Of course we’ll primarily consider properties that would bring a negative economic impact if sold for residential development,” he said at that meeting.

Cleanup At Reed School

Taxpayers will also consider the measure that would bond $1 million to underwrite cleanup and remediation costs related to a December 30 oil release, which initially fouled the waters of Deep Brook, the Pootatuck River, and the Housatonic. While several hundred gallons may have been released into the waterways, most of the leaking heating oil has apparently pooled or seeped beneath the Reed School, and will have to be removed.

In addition, the ground under the school, as well as the approximately quarter-mile path the oil followed to get to the waterways will have to be monitored for up to five years. While the Board of Education is contributing $272,000 towards the cleanup and remediation, the town will initially bear the additional financial burden with the hopes of recovering some or all costs in insurance claims or possible future legal actions.

On March 2, the Legislative Council unanimously moved the $1 million bond initiative for town meeting. Pursuant to the public approval of this appropriation, the town will take over the administration of all future remediation and monitoring activities.

During Wednesday’s selectmen’s meeting, the board also set a date for a public hearing for a Small Cities Development Block Grant. According to First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, the Small Cities Grant hearing is an opportunity for residents to suggest qualified projects for grant consideration.

“Every year we ask any organization in town to come forward if they have a project that may qualify for these federal grants, which are administered by the state Department of Economic and Community Development [DECD].”

Mr Rosenthal said quite a few local projects including improvements at Nunnawauk Meadows senior housing facility, and the Edmond Town Hall elevator project have benefited from the grants in recent years. The block grant hearing will be March 21 at 7 pm.

Following the selectman’s meeting, a brief special town meeting was conducted to approve the appropriation of $327,430 from the general fund, to cover municipal payroll expenses for the final pay period of 2004. The move would reduce next year’s payroll budget by the same amount.

Since the final day of the last pay period of this fiscal year actually falls on July 1, the first day of the next fiscal year, the town can shift an entire pay period’s worth of spending and underwrite it from this year’s revenues.

Newtown is set to receive almost a half-million dollars in unanticipated conveyance tax income from the State of Connecticut before the end of this fiscal year. Instead of being forced to transfer the surplus through to next year’s budget as required by charter, Mr Rosenthal asked selectmen, the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council to support applying it to payroll for the last period of 2004-2005.

The measure was approved by taxpayers attending the session.