Grants Sought For Fairfield Hills

By Kendra Bobowick

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal is hopeful that a recent series of grant applications will benefit the Fairfield Hills redevelopment project and bolster local initiatives.

Earlier this week he announced that funding applications had been submitted to the Naugatuck Valley Corridor Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) group to receive United States Economic Development Agency funding.

Believing Newtown is in the top tier of applicants, Mr Rosenthal said, “We’re hopeful.” He explained that the CEDS group “tends to give where there is the prospect of economic development. You have to show some activity.”

Ongoing projects at the former state hospital campus point specifically in the economic direction. A building being refinished to accommodate the municipal and education offices is in its early stages of renovation, and another building has come down to make room for a nearly completed 90-foot baseball field. One private developer already has plans prepared to build a sports complex, while two other businesses-minded residents intend to enter lease agreements with the town for the use and redevelopment of several smaller buildings. William Mangold Construction, LLC is eyeing duplexes 59, 60, and 61. Naveen and Pushpa Kapur are looking at duplexes 58 and 63.

By submitting grant applications the town has entered a lengthy review process to receive the federal funding. Specifically, requests are for a new utility loop to carry water, sewer, natural gas, and telecommunication services.

An application seeking $200,000 is also going to the US Environmental Protection Agency to assist with asbestos cleanup surrounding the Litchfield Hall Building. The old brick structure is slated for demolition to make way for an eventual recreation/community center to house seniors, recreation offices, and possibly arts commission programming, and will sit beside the Newtown Youth Academy (NYA). The NYA is a private sports complex proposed by resident Peter D’Amico. Mr Rosenthal expects that the agency will review requests throughout the winter and will announce decisions as soon as the following April.

The Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism will also receive a request from Newtown. The municipality seeks roughly $250,000 in funding through the Capital Improvement Grant Program for assistance with the Edmond Town Hall kitchen renovation project. The renovation “appears to qualify” under the provisions of the state’s historic structures program, according to a release from October 10. 

The release states, “The town will continue its dynamic efforts to secure the assistance that it can from a variety of sources.”

The first selectman explained that $21 million appropriated at a town meeting in 2001 for the redevelopment of Fairfield Hills was never meant to supply the project’s entire funding.

How critical are grant sources?

“We’re trying to fund later phases of the project,” Mr Rosenthal explained. “The [$21 million] bond didn’t call for funding for infrastructure, sewer and water, etc,”  he said. The $21 million was based on estimates for known anticipated expenses, including purchasing the property, for example. Other aspects of work were unknown at that time. “We didn’t know the costs,” Mr Rosenthal confirmed.

Of the grants available to Newtown, some are administered through reimbursement, which warrant caution. Mr Rosenthal wants to be sure that no buildings come down, for example, and the town later learns that funding could have been available.