Answering Jan Andras

To the Editor:

Jan Andras (Herb Rosenthal’s former assistant) spends much of her time expressing her “opinion” that there are people perpetuating “misinformation.” I would like to point out that Ms Andras’s letters to the editor are missing some key factors and financial information.

A few weeks ago, in one of her opinion letters, she wrote that building a new town hall would save taxpayers money due to $18,000 per month savings from not renting Kendro and $200,000 for not renting Edmond Town Hall. Ms Andras neglected to consider that Edmond Town Hall would continue to require funding to operate the building and there are operating costs associated with the new town hall. It is estimated to cost $28,000 per month to operate the new town hall, which is more than renting Kendro. In addition, Newtown will make mortgage payments for the construction of the new town hall ($10.7 million), utilities connection (?) and parking (?).

I would like to answer some of Ms Andres’ questions from her letter submitted last week [“Mrs Johnson’s Day Of Reckoning”]:

“Why would a developer want to commit to the huge expense of rehabilitating a building with that kind of uncertainty?” The uncertainty is most likely due to lack of funds available for the permanent utilities connection and parking. Also, the FFHA is unlikely to achieve the revenue-neutral situation from these lease deals. The one-time lease payments for 30-plus years will not be enough to fund the permanent utilities connection for $6 million and parking for millions more.

“Why does Mrs Johnson feel that there is a problem with having the town public works employees dig trenches for a town project to save expense?” Perhaps Mrs Johnson is concerned that the town resources are being diverted at the expense of road repairs and other necessary projects itemized in the highway budget. It makes more sense for the FFHA to include any work being done on FFH in their operating budget to truly reflect the actual cost to redevelop FFH.

“Why does Mrs Johnson feel there is a problem with a private individual building the Newtown Youth Academy? Peter D’Amico has been planning this for years and had looked at other locations. Fortunately, he chose Fairfield Hills with a great benefit to the town. We should be grateful for his generosity, including his offer to demolish Greenwich House and build a parking area.” I have not read that Mrs Johnson is having “a problem” with Mr D’Amico’s generosity. The concern is related to not having enough in the remaining 2001 bond money to build a new town hall and also provide the permanent utilities connection and necessary parking. The huge added expense of possibly paying $6.5 million to Mr D’Amico for demolition of buildings and leasing back parking spaces for the NYA on town-owned land for $33,000/month for 15 years is a genuine concern. Also, I attended a Claris Construction “update” meeting and witnessed the town attorney asking Claris Construction to approach Mr D’Amico to consider demolishing and constructing the parking lot. Mr D’Amico was not the architect of this lease deal.

Po Murray

Member of the Legislative Council

38 Charter Ridge Drive, Sandy Hook                             May 28, 2008