Cost Breakdown For State Inquiries And Investigations At Fairfield Hills

The breakdown of extra costs related to the various state inquiries and investigations following attributed and anonymous citizen complaints about health, environmental, and labor practices at Fairfield Hills are as follows:

$78,000 for additional environmental consulting and materials testing exclusively in response to public health and allegations concerns.

$14,000 in extra legal expenses, mostly related to a Department of Labor investigation prompted by correspondence from Councilwoman Po Murray, questioning the need to pay prevailing wages for certain public-private renovation and demolition projects on the campus.

$79,900 — the difference between the original labor cost budget and the prevailing wage rate paid following the Department of Labor settlement triggered by the council member’s inquiries.

$76,500 in extra administrative and lease payments to keep town offices at a temporary facility on Peck’s Lane because of a four-month delay in those departments occupying the new town hall at Fairfield Hills

$33,377 to bolster security and rent diesel powered temporary lighting equipment for the campus. If work was completed on schedule, required lighting for campus access would have come from permanent light poles instead of the rented lighting system.

$6,000 in diesel fuel to power temporary lighting.

$11,625 — a common area maintenance (CAM) rebate to the Newtown Youth Academy resulting from delays in completing parking, lighting, and other infrastructure stipulations in the land lease for the organization.

$113,400 for fill to complete permanent parking for the Youth Academy. Fill from the Greenwich Hall demolition was originally planned to serve as the specialized fill, but when demolition was halted because of accusations, the intended fill material was no longer available.

$17,765 to construct temporary parking, and for the routing and rerouting of campus roadways in and around construction that was scheduled to be completed in some cases several months earlier.

$86,760 in additional asbestos abatement and handling costs tied to the Greenwich Hall demolition and parking lot installation projects.

$130,000 for keeping construction management on site for an additional 2.5 months at the Bridgeport Hall / municipal center project. Mr Geckle explained that after reports were received by state agencies, particularly the DEP, construction work that had already been staged and mobilized had to be stopped. That expense also involved a “very limited amount of asbestos and environmental cleanup costs,” according to the authority chairman.

An additional $14,890 was assessed for markups and management fees specifically tied to the delays in demolishing Greenwich Hall.