Town Gets $200k EPA Grant For FFH

By John Voket

The federal Environmental Protection Agency this week pledged $200,000 in grants to be used for a number of different possible projects at Fairfield Hills.

First Selectman Joe Borst said he was practically out the door Tuesday afternoon, heading to an event designed to showcase commercial development opportunities in Newtown, and especially Fairfield Hills. But he was stopped in his tracks by a phone message.

“Sue came in and told me the EPA office in Boston just called congratulating us on getting a $200,000 grant,” Mr Borst said, referring to his administrative assistant Sue Marcinek. The news was particularly surprising to Mr Borst, as well as Community Development Director Elisabeth Stocker, because the town received word just a few weeks earlier that it had not qualified for the grant.

“We were told we did not score high enough to rank [among communities] getting the grant,” Mr Borst told The Bee. But, according to the town’s brownfields consultant, the news is legitimate.

While he could not explain why the EPA’s “no” turned to “yes,” Arthur Bogen of Down to Earth, a firm that helps communities like Newtown find resources and facilitate environmental cleanups to spur economic development and land reuse, said he was delighted to get the news.

“You work on these grants, trying to qualify the best projects, and then you sit and wait,” Mr Bogen said Wednesday. “Then, when the news comes from someone in the EPA you’ve been working with for years, and it validates that this is a really deserving project.”

Mr Bogen said the grant is subject to guidelines that include holding a series of public hearings to take questions and outline the specific use of the funds, which are targeted for environmental remediation activity.

“Community organizations that supported the grant application will be involved in these meetings,” Mr Bogen said, adding that the Board of Selectmen and Fairfield Hills Authority would be among officials handling the public information sessions.

At that point, the public comments will be included in reports, along with what Mr Bogen called a “Quality Assurance Project Plan.” All documentation on the proposed project will then be reviewed by the state departments of Environmental Protection and Health, as well as the federal EPA.

Both Mr Bogen and Ms Stocker were particularly excited, because this grant and the project it funds could be the catalyst for additional money to augment the original grant project or new activities.

“I can’t count chickens before they’re hatched, but receiving this grant demonstrates the comprehensive approach the town has taken toward Fairfield Hills,” Mr Bogen said. “It validates that the [authority] is very competently managing improvements and reuse [of the campus], so far without federal money.”

Mr Bogen said this first grant proves the federal government sees value in investing in Fairfield Hills development and reuse.

“We believe now that other grantors will begin looking at this project, especially considering how [Newtown] has met the level of detail this grant application requires. It proves the project is planned well, it demonstrates a capacity and understanding on the part of the town to get the project done,” he said. “I think with this grant delivered, there will be other opportunities forthcoming to assist the taxpayers with Fairfield Hills going forward.”

Ultimately, Mr Bogen said, the EPA grant addresses a public health issue, in that it is targeted toward abating asbestos, which has to be done with or without supplemental underwriting.

Mr Borst said within a few days, he expects to welcome a representative from the regional EPA office to tour the sites of proposed work, and to sign the grant agreement. Concurrently, he expects Ms Stocker to work with authority chairman Robert Geckle to qualify the best application of the grant.

“Maybe we can use it toward the abatement for the Litchfield Hall demolition,” Mr Borst said, “or environmental issues we’re having at Woodbury Hall.”

Ms Stocker seemed to lean toward the Woodbury Hall project.

“My line of thinking is to use the grant in a way that further promotes positive development of the site,” Ms Stocker said. She said there was “a party” interested in leasing Woodbury Hall — one of the buildings straddling the commons, a square in the center of the campus that used to be in the main entrance to the former state hospital facility.

“With this grant, we may be able to move that project to fruition,” Ms Stocker said. “If that happens, we can use it to justify the next round of grant applications.”

The community development official said that successfully utilizing this preliminary grant to bring a commercial lease to fruition could boost Newtown’s chances of getting a $2 million grant under consideration from the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Ms Stocker said upon completion of the public hearing and reporting criteria, the town would likely see the $200,000 delivered in early October of this year.