The Hidden Costs Of Delay

To the Editor:

About eight to ten years ago, the swimming Pool at Dickinson Park was closed. It could no longer meet Health Department requirements, and its chemically treated water endangered the health of the brook nearby. The Park and Recreation Department carefully studied a variety of pool designs in nearby towns and presented cost estimates to the Board of Selectmen. As I remember the data, about $1 million would be needed to duplicate the closed pool. No plan was adopted to replace that pool; the opportunity to learn to swim at a summer camp program at Dickinson Park disappeared.

Currently, the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) proposed for the next five years includes $750,000 for a large water spray facility, an oversize garden hose sprinkler system, in my view, for Dickinson Park. The cost is huge, but it is not what is needed to teach children to swim and to practice water safety. Is there no open space land already owned by Newtown that could be developed as a new swimming park? The cost is not just money, but the safety of hundred of children.

Is an indoor pool just as good? Yes and no, but what plans are there for this expenditure if the Board of Finance carries out its plan to reduce borrowing for town projects in order to receive a AAA financial rating? What other delayed projects will be pushed into the distant future in order to eventually become a “cash only – no borrowing” town like Greenwich?

How many years will the decaying and unusable buildings at Fairfield Hills remain? How will FFH become the parklike destination citizens desire as reported in the Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review Committee’s report? It recommends the flat 40 acres of FFH should contain a Cultural Arts Center, recreation areas and playing fields, town services (police and ambulance), open space and walking trails, and limited commercial activity (p 4–8).

To remove the deteriorating and unusable buildings, millions will be required. Canaan House is 193,000 square feet, Cochran 193,563, Plymouth 66,135, Woodbury 42,512, Norwalk 34,316, Stamford 58,240, Danbury 20,984, Shelton 99,896, and Kent 238,407; totaling 947,053 square feet to be leveled.

Newtown desperately needs a Long Range Plan of Development much more detailed and realistic than the often changing five-year CIP included in each year’s budget, dependent upon the vision of a first selectman. Our town needs a new, long range planning committee, including volunteer citizens, appointed to carefully weight all future needs as Newtown grows in a difficult to predict pattern.

How can we meet these immediate needs if the Board of Finance lowers the amount of money we can borrow for already identified projects? Would it be better to borrow the money needed as soon as possible to make FFH a truly great asset for the enjoyment of all our citizens, or delay and seek that AAA bond rating and keep staring at the buildings of a lost opportunity?

Ruby K. Johnson, PhD

16 Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook                       January 11, 2012