Landscaping Plans Change Course At Fairfield Hills

By Kendra Bobowick

As residents drive past the brick house directly across from Reed Intermediate School, leveled and barren soil greets onlookers rather than fresh plantings.

“The landscaping issue is a complicated issue,” Fairfield Hills Authority member John Reed said.

Approximately a year ago, the prospects for landscaping — more than the beds bordering the house, but including trees and shrubbery reaching into high dollar amounts — looked promising as one master gardener volunteered plans.

The first master gardeners initiative was driven by Newtown resident Nancy Gold, and included designs for decorative planting, a walkway removal, and other landscape engineering around the former Fairfield Hills engineer’s residence. Ms Gold had suggested last year that both certified master gardeners and apprentices would work in and around that building and the main gate area. Shrubs and bordering plantings were in line for installation along the main gate, she had said.

Plans never got off the paper, however. Setbacks from other aspects of the Fairfield Hills project delayed initial intentions, Mr Reed explained.

“We ran into soil remediation and removal and a number of postponements,” he said. 

Time worked against the authority as the master gardeners plans and circumstances changed, he said.

Volunteers who had been prepared to work on campus landscaping “were looking at a certain time frame,” he said. “Their hope was to do this last spring or fall and a year and a half ago there was some hope we cold have gotten work started sooner.”

Looking back, Mr Reed now suspects that landscape plans were premature. “In reality we had the conversation about a year too early with the gardeners,” he said.

Now confronting the authority are questions of costs and who will do the work.

Mr Reed is looking at the project in terms of both finances and appearances. He said, “It’s the main entrance to a significant investment for Newtown.”

However, reality looms.

“We’re trying to come to grips with what we would like to. We have to come to grips with financial reality and try to see some savings,” he said. “What’s affordable?”

He indicated that the cost of purchasing plantings sent a ripple through authority members.

“The cost surprised us and I don’t think we can accommodate it,” said Mr Reed, who also grapples with the fact that Newtown has put a lot of time, effort, and money into Fairfield Hills already.

“If people think about the money spent on the property, it’s 186 acres and a lot invested,” Mr Reed said. The campus is located centrally and soon will become the municipal heart of Newtown, he said.

He stresses the future significance of Fairfield Hills, and the role the engineer’s house will play.

“It’s the main entrance to something that’s going to be a major part of town,” he said.

Again grappling with the project’s realities, he explained, “We need to be mindful of fiscal constraints, but have to do something that’s not so small it goes unnoticed.”

He said he has requested a scaled down version of design plans.

“Obviously we won’t be able to fund the first plans, and the second plan, I don’t know…” he said.

He did not provide a clear answer about how the landscaping would be completed or who would do the work.

“I think what we’ll do depends on who wants to volunteer and their level of expertise,” said Mr Reed. “It’s an open question of who is going to install it.”

He also stressed that the planting and landscaping are not easy projects.

“It is not a simple thing to plant significant shrubs,” he said. “It’s a lot more than digging a hole in the ground.”

Offering a word of caution on the labor, he said, “There is a case that could be made that if we invest in this we want someone who is professionally trained who can take responsibility for how things are done.”

Fairfield Hills Authority members discussed the issue on May 15.

In hindsight, Mr Reed said, “I think we need to learn from this and if we had to do it over, we should find out the budget and design to that.”

Financially speaking, Chairman Robert Geckle said, “The reality is, I don’t think we’ll be able to execute that design. The numbers just don’t compute.”

He did suggest that volunteers might be a good solution to the labor involved in planting and arranging the grounds. He has already made inquiries.

“We’re going to talk to the gardening clubs and see if they can donate time,” he said. At the same time the authority is seeking quotes on labor and materials, he said.

Of the two segments to the landscape plan, one is along Wasserman Way and the other involves grounds immediately around the engineer’s house, which is a “more modest” project Mr Geckle said.

Authority member Moira Rodgers also asked if it would be possible for groups to come together, noting that several horticultural and landscaping organizations were in town.

Speaking up from her spot in the audience, Town and Country Gardening Club of Newtown member Barbara O’Connor expressed interest in the project.

Mr Reed did offer one reassurance.

“I think we’re serious about making this an inviting area,” he said.

He encourages those with interest and expertise to leave a message at the town hall at 270-4201.