With Fairfield Hills Talks Nearly Complete, Rosenthal Promises Answers Next Week

By Steve Bigham

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal this week announced he had all but completed negotiations with the state over the purchase of the 185-acre former state mental health hospital at Fairfield Hills. He assured The Bee this week that the information he unveils next week will help answer many questions and put to rest many doubts about the purchase of the property by the town.

“I’ve been saying I hope we’ll be there, I’ll hope we’ll be there. I can now say that I’m optimistic that we’ll have an announcement to make by next week,” he said. “I plan to come to the selectmen with some recommendation for funding for the purchase of Fairfield Hills and all the things that go along with it, perhaps renovation of a building for town offices, ball fields, Edmond Town Hall, all the things we’ve been talking about.”

On Monday, the Board of Selectmen is expected to make a formal request for funding to the council in time for its meeting on Wednesday.

Legislative Council member Donald Studley has played a key role in the discussions with the state and believes Fairfield Hills should join the 5/6 school on the ballot at the June 6 town meeting. Of course, the two issues will be voted on separately and Mr Studley thinks people will have all the information they need to vote “yes” on both issues.

“Finally things are coming to a conclusion. I’m optimistic that we have struck a deal that the town can live with,” he said. “I’ve just become more and more convinced of the need for the town to buy Fairfield Hills.”

Mr Studley believes the state will turn around and sell to the campus to the highest bidder if Newtown turns it down. And furthermore, he said, the state might not give the town another six months to mull it over.

That fact remains clear to Legislative Council Chairman Pierre Rochman. He too supports buying Fairfield Hills to ensure control. However, he can not overlook the fact that so much remains unknown. The council chair likens Fairfield Hills to an iceberg in that you can only see what’s on the surface. What lies beneath the water is what concerns him and he fears trying to force the issue could create problems of titanic proportions.

And council members say they do not want to risk losing Fairfield Hills at a town meeting simply because the decision was rushed.

“I personally have enough reservations now in my mind that I cannot tell you I’m ready to go to a bonding resolution on June 6. There are too many unanswered questions,” Mr Rochman said. “If we buy it and we don’t have a well defined plan, then how do we manage the property? What are the mechanics of managing that property? I’m concerned that it may be managed like the Amaral property,” referring to the over-budget overdue construction of ball fields off Elm Drive.

On Wednesday, the Board of Education approved the contractor for the 5/6 school, setting the wheels in motion for Legislative Council approval of a $28 million bonding resolution. The school board voted unanimously in favor of hiring Haynes Construction Company of Seymour to do the job. The council is expected to follow suit. But will it do the same with Fairfield Hills?

“I hope it is,” said Mr Studley. “I think enough facts will be presented by Herb [Rosenthal] for [the council] to make a reasonable decision and I think the town will have the facts to make a reasonable decision, as well.”

Mr Rosenthal’s presentation to the council is not expected to answer all of the questions. But it should the outline for what will eventually be a master plan for what the town can do with the land, according to the first selectman.

“We’re going to have outlined whatever we request in funding. We’ll have a substantiation of those requests. We’ll tell them what we’re spending the money on. It won’t have had bids on the property, but they’ll be estimates of costs. They may not agree with it, but they’ll know what it is,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Mr Studley agreed, “We won’t have all the pieces in place for a comprehensive plan as to what will happen. But I think we can make a purchase decision without knowing that. The presentation will be presented in such a way that all the lose ends, the loose pieces will come together. It’s not that we’ve answered every question or resolved every problem, but enough so where we can come to a reasonable solution.”

But Mr Rochman fears Mr Rosenthal’s recommendation will be too broad and lacking in detail. That, he says, may be a problem for some on the council.

Council member Melissa Pilchard expressed concerns as next week’s meeting approached. She knows there are people out there who won’t vote for Fairfield Hills unless they know every penny that will be spent. Is that 100 people or 7,000?

“We want so to make the right decision. When I look at costs for the future, I’m so afraid we’ll regret losing the opportunity. Do we risk a ‘no’ vote from the public? We can not afford a ‘no’ vote. The question is if we go now are we at a greater risk or if we wait are we at greater risk? There’s no better way to find out than to do it.”

Council member Ruby Johnson said the public would need a lot more of a plan than has been presented.

“I think people really want to buy Fairfield Hills, but they want to know what we’re going to do with it,” she said. “We need to take it out of the political process.”

When it comes to Fairfield Hills, there appear to be two camps. The first believes the town should buy Fairfield Hills and then decide later what it wants to do there. The second camp believes the town should know exactly what it is going to do with it and exactly how much it will cost before presenting the issue to the voters.

“The most likely scenario is the one in the middle. How could we develop a master plan today that looks 10 to 20 years into the future, and you don’t even own it to boot?” Mr Rochman said. “It’s a question of whether the council will come up with that middle ground in the next two weeks. It’s the art of compromise and that’s what politics is all about.”

Mr Rochman said he would support presenting Fairfield Hills to the town on June 6 if town officials can agree to come up with an ordinance that creates an entity without the sweeping autonomy of a development authority that is responsive to town government and put in place only to implement a master plan.