Newtown Town Hall:

Main Street Or Fairfield Hills?

To the Editor:

A big question still on the minds of many Newtown people is why do the Fairfield Hills planning board directors desire to relocate our town hall to Fairfield Hills? Our town hall is a centerpiece for Newtown, and where it justly belongs: on Main Street.

Perhaps this was Mary Hawley’s intentions when she built our town hall in the center of Newtown. Did the board of advisors project the overall cost involved in relocating to Fairfield Hills? Perhaps they have, then they are aware that our first cost would be an income loss by removing valuable real estate from the market. If we opt to build a town hall at Fairfield Hills, we would incur an unknown cost exploring for underground water, rock ledge, buried bits and pieces, and etcetera. (An expensive aftershock should we forget to look under the grass.) If we preferred a 70-year-plus building we would incur a renovation cost added to the above cost. Further cost would be driveways, parking area, and landscaping, all of which we presently have on Main Street. Oh! Let’s not forget the actual move and setup cost from Main Street to Fairfield Hills.

Adding all this together, plus the possibility of employing an investor with their restoration contract, plus a gross of surprised etcetera, which there will be. Then of course the investor is entitled to a profit on his leaseback, plus more etcetera.

Over these past 70-plus years we have invested a significant amount of money keeping our building up to code. With all this in mind, we must create better use of our rarely used space. We should give some serious thought in relocating the Newtown Fire Department [Newtown Hook and Ladder Co.] to Fairfield Hills and convert their present quarters into needed space.

We have a number of square footage on our flat roofs to build upon. We could construct a porte coachere over the “out” driveway joining an addition built to the rear of the gymnasium. Floor space above the porte cochere and rear addition would be determined for needed space. Our dollars would be spent wisely for needed space improvement, not shot for engineering a building site, or renovating an old building and etcetera. Rather than running helter-skelter, regarding Fairfield Hills we should give some thought to employ a land planner to layout, map, and design Fairfield Hills. One who would study Newtown and the surrounding towns for what would be the best use for the present and future growth of Newtown, sans commercial. Connecticut has several, search the web.

George W. Wheeler

Nunnawauk Road, Newtown                                    January 30, 2007