The Board of Selectmen handled a full agenda April 4, including the calling of two back-to-back town meetings that will occur before the board's April 18 regular meeting, and the commissioning of a High Meadow Management Plan to be administered through the Land Use and Planning Department.Town MeetingsThe Newtown Bee that the original $300,000 earmarked in the town Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) had to be modified to cover a number of added costs to help ensure the project was sustainable for the anticipated life span of the new gas-fired boilers that would replace the two 1930s-era units currently serving the facility.Eagle Scout Project

Land Use and Planning Director George Benson appeared before selectmen to discuss formulating a High Meadow management plan. He explained that his agency received but never addressed a July 2015 letter to selectmen penned by then-Conservation Commission chairman William Darrin, requesting the suspension of mowing on both the High and East Meadows in order for an eventual ecological and habitat assessment to occur.

The commission had secured commitments of support from the local Audubon Society and Western Connecticut State University to help determine the variety and quantity of wildlife using those areas for habitat, food, and nesting. Armed with the results of any completed studies, the conservation panel could then offer its best recommendations for long-term management of the open space parcels.

While the Conservation Commission's memo states that a Middlebury farmer mows both fields for hay with no formal or informal agreement with the town, Mr Benson clarified that when Fairfield Hills was acquired, the state indicated that an agreement was in place permitting the farmer, Anthony Calabrese, to conduct periodic mowing and to retain the hay for his own use to defray any expenses for the labor.

The Conservation Commission also asked that any future permission for mowing be extended first to Newtown farmers. But Mr Benson said there was no interest on the part of any local farmers to take up that chore.

Mr Benson said the first step would be to generate an impact study on stopping regular mowing, adding that there was no current funding in his budget to take on such a study.

"Mowing is a management technique to keep the field open," Mr Benson said. He said pending any impact study, he was not recommending the town force Mr Calabrese to stop mowing.

Selectman Herb Rosenthal, who was first selectman when Newtown acquired the former state hospital campus, recalled being asked to let the farmer continue mowing.

"We never had a formal agreement, just a request to continue the practice from the state," Mr Rosenthal said.

Mrs Llodra said the long-term and overarching goal would be to return the High and East Meadows to their natural state.

Mr Benson said it would take at least five years following the stoppage of mowing to begin an environmental study, since it would take that long for the effects of ceasing mowing to take full effect. And during that time he feared the parcels would become overrun with invasive species.

Mrs Llodra instructed the land use agency to come back before selectmen in July with a proposal on how the town might achieve the conservation panel's request.

A subsequent letter to selectmen from resident Ann Astarita, and Karlyn Sturmer of the Conservation Commission, clarified concerns that mowing before mid-August could interrupt or harm nesting birds in the area. The letter also recognizes that delaying mowing from an early June first-cut practice into mid-August would not accelerate the growth of any invasives.

Lastly, the memo requests that in the future, selectmen call those generating requests to make presentations, versus town staffers.

"In this case outside experts had already been consulted, and this resulting request was a reasonable and conservative effort to do the job that the Conservation Commission is mandated to do," the letter states. "Involving municipal employees with little expertise of the critical subject matter undermines that effort and leads to questionable decisions in this case to the detriment of Newtown's High Meadow."

The first of two town meetings at 6:45 pm on April 18 is set to authorize or reject $904,000 in spending for the planning, design, engineering, and construction of sidewalks. That spending plan involves a combination of revenue sources - primarily $723,200 in state grants - along with $150,000 to be funded through local bonding, and $30,800 in other local source funding

The second town meeting at 7 pm that evening will authorize or reject spending $2.8 million in bonding revenue to complete sewer installations in the Hawleyville area along Routes 6 and 25.

In other business, selectmen approved amending an appropriation to increase spending for a Edmond Town Hall boiler replacement from $300,000 to $500,000 - and amending an appropriation to increase the aforementioned spending for Hawleyville sewer expansions from $2.8 million to $3.8 million.

Speaking to the Hawleyville appropriation, Public Works Director Fred Hurley explained that the increase would not generate added taxpayer expense, since the expansion is being funded by assessments against new and existing users. Mr Hurley said the final price tag for the expansion was not clarified until all development expenses were factored in after construction bids were received

Regarding the boiler cost escalation, Public Building and Site Commission Chairman Robert Mitchell told

He said the anticipated $300,000 was about accurate for just a replacement of the boiler with a planned dual-fuel system that could burn both oil and natural gas. But the town required the town hall management to follow local procurement procedures, and to only consider gas-fired boilers.

Other added costs resulted from electrical and building related code conformity, additional asbestos removal involving the old boilers, and the removal of an existing oil tank, which would no longer be required.

"The idea was to do it right, and do it all now," Mr Mitchell said, adding that the amended appropriation also included an appropriate contingency that would be returned if not used. The added funding would not increase taxation since it was being transferred from unspent funds already earmarked in the plan for open space acquisition.

Selectmen also heard a presentation from Life Scout Dominic Pagliaro of Crabapple Lane, who was planning to construct a bus shelter, benches, and a modest patio for neighborhood children that would extend slightly beyond a donated parcel that abutted public land.

Planning and Land Use Deputy Director Rob Sibley was in attendance and affirmed to selectmen that the encroachment onto town land was minimal, on grade, and would produce no sightline obstructions for motorists.

Mr Pagliaro told selectmen that the benches were being planned to include a inscribed quote from late Sandy Hook School Principal Dawn Hochsprung, which drew a question from Selectman Will Rodgers.

Mr Rodgers asked if the scout would poll areas residents to be sure that such an inscription would not be upsetting or otherwise unsettling for those using the shelter. Mr Pagliaro said he would accommodate the request and would proceed accordingly.

Since no license or approvals were required for the project, First Selectman Pat Llodra encouraged the local scout to proceed considering any feedback he received about planned inscriptions, once he re-canvassed neighbors.