What We Should Be Chafing About

To the Editor:

Last week’s article “First Selectman: Taxpayer Costs For Fairfield Hills Complaints ‘Close To $1 Million,’” [Bee, 7/10/09] is designed to lay blame on a person who, from the first day she took office, fought for the welfare of Newtown citizens. Let’s put everything into perspective. The original master plan estimates, below, will help us do that.

Phase I: Prepare a master plan, given to the HMA consultants for $200,000, which bears no resemblance to the plan that we have today and actually cost $360,203 and could have been developed by a Newtown “strategic/long-range planning group,” if we ever get around to developing one.

Phase II. First line: $850,000 for seven ball fields. We have one at Fairfield Hills that cost us just under $1 million. Need I say more!

Fourth line under Phase II: “Renovate building for town and school purposes,” $6 million. Note (5) reads “Assumes Shelton House @ 60,000 square feet at $100 / square foot.” Well, we couldn’t use Shelton House because there was water under it. Somehow we got rid of the water under Bridgeport Hall. Did you hear about how many times we tried to fix it or about the cost to the taxpayer? We have managed to take a $6 million estimate for 60,000 square feet of space for town offices and turn it into an over $12 million town hall with just over 40,000 square feet of space. I can’t tell you the actual cost because O&G keeps our records. We just pay what they submit!

Now, since this is an election year, we are seeing what most politicians do: divert attention away from themselves and accuse others. Regarding $662,217, I quote Selectman Rosenthal: “Since we didn’t get anything for it, the town might as well have taken the [money] and flushed it down the toilet.” Profound! Attributing $662,217 to Po Murray is ludicrous especially when considering far more of your money has been spent and wasted at Fairfield Hills for significantly less than was planned.

Phase I: $6.4 million — prepare master plan $200,000; secure all agreement (water rights), $200,000; environmental insurance, $500,000; property, $3.9 million; code items at Edmond Town Hall, $1 million (1); rebuild playing fields at high school, $600,000 (2).

Phase II: $15,323,600 — playing fields, $850,000 (2); remediation, $800,000 (3); remediation and demolition, $7,173,600 (4); renovation for town and school purposes, $6 million (5); site/infrastructure improvements, $500,000.

Phase III: — Dispose of buildings or demolish, TBD.

Total Bonding — $21,723,600: (1) Request from Edmond Town Hall Managers; (2) seven fields at Fairfield Hills at $125,000 and $600,000 estimate for high school field; (3) Russell Bartley estimate; (4) Includes Canaan House, Cochran, Kent House, Greenwich House, Litchfield Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Yale Lab and Fairfield House. Demolition assumes on-site crushing and disposal of building/masonry materials. Potential use for basement fill, roadway and parking area subsurface and site grading for playing fields. Demolition, $1.57 million; asbestos roof and windows, $603,600; balance remediation, $5 million. Total: $7,173,600. (5) Assumes Shelton House @ 60,000 square feet at $100 square foot.

Albert P. Roznicki

169 Hanover Road, Newtown                                           July 13, 2009