New Fairfield Hills Authority Being Staffed By Familiar Volunteers

By John Voket

While the names may remain the same, volunteers staffing the new Fairfield Hills Authority will be empowered to employ significantly greater measures of, well, authority as environmental remediation and demolition gives way to the development of sports fields and possibly other commercial or municipal ventures on the former state hospital grounds.

The authority, which was appointed at Monday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, includes every current member of the ad hoc Fairfield Hills Management Committee. The panel has been working alongside other town agencies and officials, and more recently with both a facilities management company and representatives of O&G Industries, the Torrington-based company that was contracted as the project manager for new construction and development on the 800-plus acre campus.

In related business Monday, selectmen unanimously endorsed the town enter into a formal contract with O&G to handle those and other project responsibilities at Fairfield Hills. The contract approval will take effect pending final sign-off by town attorneys, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal told fellow selectmen Joseph Bojnowski and William Brimmer, Jr.

Road Ordinance Change

The meeting began with Economic Development commissioner Kim Danziger addressing an expected need for a change in, or variance from, the town’s Road Ordinance. Mr Danziger told selectmen that the adjustment or variance would be required to complete construction of proposed roadways that will serve businesses occupying parcels in the new tech park, which is being developed off Commerce Road.

“I’m really here seeking your opinion on a change that were seeking for the proposed tech park,” Mr Danziger said, unveiling a plot plan to illustrate his concerns. “We’d like to start addressing developing these areas on more green type basis by removing some of the drainage structures that would normally be required for a subdivision of this nature.”

Mr Danziger told selectmen that more environmentally friendly trends in industrial development dictated creating roadways with lower or no curbing, which would create what he called a “sheet flow” of rain and precipitation runoff, and reverse shoulders with low impact requirements. He said he is working with members of the Conservation Commission to develop plans to achieve the desired results, but ultimately the town would have to modify zoning to accommodate the environmental considerations.

“We really need to start looking at this road as a collector road,” Mr Danziger said. “The current road ordinance was written in 1986, and it is actually more severe than what the state road requirements are for this kind of road.”

He noted that a variance or change would eliminate what he pointed to as “strange curves,” that had to be drawn into the plans to accommodate the current ordinance requirements.

“It really is an onerous requirement. We’re not talking about a high-speed road here,” Mr Danziger said. “Of course we’d like to do this for the tech park, but it would also be a good opportunity to review the road ordinance that may in and of itself need some adjustments.”

Following the comments, Mr Rosenthal suggested Mr Danziger concurrently prepare his suggestions and illustrations for modifications to present to the town engineer and town attorney, as well as providing the same brief explanation to the Legislative Council, whose Ordinance Committee would likely be charged with drafting a new, or modifying the existing road ordinance.

Authority Appointed

Following some subsequent discussions of Capital Improvement Plan matters, the selectmen turned to the business of appointing the Fairfield Hills Authority to pick up where the ad hoc management committee would be leaving off. In interviews prior to and following the meeting, Mr Rosenthal confirmed that at the time of the next scheduled ad hoc committee meeting, set for Tuesday, August 16, he would likely disband the committee and concurrently install the authority.

By ordinance, the authority would then select its officers and reconfirm a new meeting schedule. Mr Rosenthal said he expected the authority would adopt the same schedule as the ad hoc committee was relinquishing, which saw the panel meeting the third Tuesday of each month.

Along with appointing the eight Fairfield Hills Authority members, the selectmen also allocated one-year, two-year, and three-year terms to various members.

“Nobody [on the ad hoc committee] said they had any preference as to whether they wanted to be appointed for one-, two-, or three-year terms on the authority,” Mr Rosenthal said. “So we’ll just start from the top and assign terms. Anyone who wants to reappointed would simply need to express that desire as their reappointments come up.”

Agreeing on that plan, the selectmen were quick to complete the task of naming Amy Dent, Robert Geckle, and Judge William Lavery to one-year terms; Donald Studley, John Reed, and Moira Rodgers to two-year terms; and Richard Sturdevant and Andrew Willie to three-year terms.

In endorsing the contract for O&G to head up project management on the Fairfield Hills campus, Mr Bojnowski was quick to point out the initial contract had no final costs for work specifically spelled out, and no exact terms identified for completion of projects the company’s crews and contractors are assigned.

Mr Rosenthal explained that the general contract stipulated that O&G would issue separate reports and “task orders” for each job to be addressed and completed.

“The task order will then indicate their fees for the various items to be completed,” Mr Rosenthal said. “As each task comes along, each task order would be monitored, and might have payment allocated on either a task basis or on a percentage basis depending on the scope of the work to be performed as part of that task order.”

Mr Bojnowski clarified the difference between what O&G crews would be doing on the campus, versus the responsibilities of facility management firm staffers employed by DeMarco, Miles and Murphy.

“DeMarco, Miles and Murphy is purely the management firm handling landscaping, security, and building maintenance,” Mr Rosenthal said.

The first selectman related that O&G would handle a sequence of tasks including overseeing construction, remediation, asbestos abatement, and construction of a proposed town hall and playing fields on the campus.

Responding to a question from Mr Brimmer regarding the day-to-day coordination of any concerns or issues cropping up as O&G moved through its task assignments, Mr Rosenthal said he would continue to make himself available to project management personnel, as would Public Works supervisor Fred Hurley, facilities manager Maria DeMarco, and other town personnel as needed.

“There may be some things that need to be referred to the authority, and other things that may be grander in nature, that might have to be referred to the selectmen, the public works manager, or even the purchasing authority.

“I think the good thing is that you need to be in the loop on these things,” Mr Brimmer said. “There’s an element of control in effect, and I think it’s good that you will be there.”

“Yes, I can’t pass the buck on those things,” Mr Rosenthal said. “Something as simple as the remediation, we have a plan that we can follow. To me, I don’t see that as being something that has to even go to the authority. But something requiring a change, the authority or even the public building and site committee may come into play to offer their opinions on the matter.”