To the Editor:

I've watched with satisfaction as Fairfield Hills has become a central hub in Newtown for a wide variety of cultural and recreational activities. Since the town took ownership of the property, we've seen the NYA Sports and Fitness Center, municipal offices, ball fields, Victory Garden and the new ambulance building located there. Soon we will have a new community center there. We also have the annual arts festival, weekly farmer's markets, road races and Strut Your Mutt, all of which take place on the grounds of Fairfield Hills.

There are a lot of reasons to come to Fairfield Hills!  Weather permitting, I am on the walking trails nearly every week.

It distresses me to see that the commission tasked with building a 12/14 memorial is still moving for-ward with its plan to construct the memorial - with some combination of a road, parking area, walking path, utilities and security cameras - in, or on the fringes of, the High Meadow.  They say that nothing's been decided or approved, but hiring a consultant to lay out the best means of access sure makes it seem like a done deal.

There is a reason why the Garden Club of Newtown, Newtown Forest Association, the Horticulture Club and Citizens for Public Commons oppose this specific site for the memorial.  Quite frankly, there's nothing else like it with its sweeping views of the surrounding hillsides and the unique habitat it can offer endangered pollinators, like bees and butterflies, along with birds that depend on such grasslands to breed and raise their young.

At just 65 acres, it's a relatively small meadow, and that's why we can't afford to fragment even two or three acres. It should not be chipped away at.

Mr Lyddy has said supporters of the High Meadow should be willing to "compromise," but this land is not up for grabs - it has already been designated as protected open space in perpetuity. "Open space" means undeveloped. If it is so easy to reverse the open space designation, then what is it worth?

While I respectfully support erection of a memorial, I ask that the High Meadow remain intact and undeveloped, and that the commission pursue a more suitable location for such a memorial, within Fairfield Hills or elsewhere.

Dawn Handschuh

36 West Street, Newtown         May 10, 2016