Among the earliest efforts by Fairfield Hills Authority (FHA) in 2015 was a visit by its members and town grants coordinator Christal Preszler to Preston, where a former state facility similar to Fairfield Hills is now in that town’s hands.

Unlike Newtown, however, which continues plans to redevelop its campus as a community and municipal asset, the town of Preston aims for the eventual sale of its property. While FHA members sought insights that might help efforts to attract redevelopment, the visit rarely entered conversation thereafter.

In March psychiatric USHealthVest submitted a formal letter of intent (LOI) for a land lease on campus where they proposed to build a roughly 100-bed facility. Meeting that month with the authority was CBRE First Vice President Randy Eigen, the real estate broker representing Richard Kresch, MD. Dr Kresch is the CEO of US HealthVest, a behavioral health care venture.

USHealthVest sought land “suitable for one story,” a 70,000-square-foot building and parking area, and an outdoor assembly and play area, which would be closed off from the main campus. Terms of the lease as stated in the LOI were 99 years. The proposed rental rate was $68,200 annually. The rate would increase at 10 percent every five years.

In October, after much argument and discussion about its role and responsibility to the master plan for campus reuse, FHA member James Bernardi brought the debate to a halt when he challenged fellow members on whether the authority wanted to begin engaging in a lease negotiation. Mr Bernardi said Dr Kresch, who was at that meeting, deserved an answer after months of waiting for one.

In response to the quickly phrased the motion “Should the Fairfield Hills Authority engage in a lease negotiation for locating a project at Fairfield Hills?” FHA Chair Thomas Connors tallied a 5-2 vote against negotiating with US HealthVest. The authority did not support the proposal, and suggested that Dr Kresch look elsewhere.

Successful Projects

While the hospital proposal failed, other projects succeeded in 2015. A continuation of trails has added more walking and recreation space to the property. On April 2, Parks and Recreation Director Amy Mangold explained the trails project, which extended the existing paved passive recreation surface. With a budgeted $300,000 in the year’s capital improvement plan (CIP), the winning bid came in from Newtown-based firm LRM Construction for $291,000.

By midmonth, LRM employees were crating a 10-foot-wide path along Mile Hill South at the corner of Keating Farms Road. The paved, ADA-accessible surface extends the campus trails by 4,200 feet, or slightly less than one mile, and leads recreation enthusiasts around the perimeter of the grounds.

Fresh pavement finishes off the gravel-lined path, cutting through fields of wildflowers, groves of shrubs near single-family residences once used by state hospital workers, and through newer construction on the campus. More of the Fairfield Hills varied scenery — a community garden, meadows, playing fields, wooded areas, and large brick buildings both old and new — is now within arm’s reach where the trail meanders.

It winds along Mile Hill South behind former single-family homes (which came down later in the year), past the Victory Garden, and toward Wasserman Way. From there, a sweeping curve heads toward the new Newtown Volunteer Ambulance garage, passes in front of it, then cuts toward the campus center where it ends at the intersection of Keating Farms Avenue and DG Beers Boulevard, a few yards away from the main entrance across from Reed Intermediate School.

From this point, walkers can access older, refinished sections of trail by heading on the road skirting playing fields and ending at a cul-de-sac. From that location hikers can walk a resurfaced trail uphill through a meadow that crests at a wooded area.

Another leg of trail completes the loop around the campus by dropping back down to a pavilion and parking area near Cochran House, where the new trail begins.

Mr Manna in early July had said the work “went well, was on time and on budget.” Noticing the already frequented trail, he said, “It’s amazing the amount of people already using it.”

Several months later, town officials talked additions for the new and frequently used trail. Two new water fountains and a dog fountain will be installed in early spring. Walkers and joggers passing by the Victory Garden will be able to quench their thirst there and at another location near Glander Field. The estimated cost of $28,000 will come from an FHA account.

Old Buidings Razed

By August another point of progress arrived: A years-long wish came true for officials hoping to raze old buildings at Fairfield Hills. Residents at a town meeting, August 17, approved $5 million in funding, an estimated $4.3 to $4.5 million of which will be used to remediate and raze Canaan House. The demolition had not taken place by the end of 2015.

In the last decade, town officials and FHA members have been working to remove many of the larger former state hospital buildings that are roughly 80 years old to either open up space for recreation, or in some cases, new construction. Most recently, Danbury Hall came down in 2014, at the front of the campus near the main entrance. There are no specific plans for what will take place in the building’s footprint.

Also razed this year was the cluster of single-family homes that once served campus staff. In October, a demolition crew from BesTech ripped into the first Fairfield Hills “white house.” The demolition involved taking down all the deteriorating former staff homes that dotted the western corner of the property adjacent to Mile Hill Road South, as well as an adjacent collapsing green house.

With his attention focused on the campus’s future, authority member Thomas Connors in early December sought to explore if or how Fairfield Hills could be used for or generate revenue from large events.

Mr Connors asked a question that “we’ve been asking for 12 years; what do we want to see happen on campus?”

“It’s starting to formulate, been percolating for a long time,” Mr Connors continued, adding that a community center “is coming,” and the police department may also relocate to Fairfield Hills from its current 3 South Main Street location. The community center will be a new construction, and planning is currently underway.

Considering Parks and Recreation and other town departments, Mr Connors said, “We’re at a place where we have to grow the idea that we’re working as a unit.” Attending an authority meeting, Parks and Recreation Commission Chair Ed Marks noted other groups in town that also have an interest in using the campus. He said, too, that he is “excited at the prospect of coming up with a plan that works for all of us.”