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B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The Parks & Recreation Commission asked the Charter Revision Commission last

Thursday evening whether a special account could be created for the $5

surcharge that is being on collected from participants in sports programs.

"We can't put the money into a gift fund because it isn't a gift," said

Commission Chairman Larry Haskel. "It goes into the town's capital reserve

fund for non-recurring expenditures and many people are concerned that the

money would be used (by town officials) for another purpose in an emergency."

Mr Haskel said he isn't worried about that happening.

"I'm not concerned," he said. "But even if that happened, (Parks & Recreation)

would be no further behind than we are now."

Parks & Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian said P&R expects to collect

about $25,000 a year through the surcharge to use to purchase and develop

ballfields. But the town is facing the potential loss of seven playing fields

at Fairfield Hills Hospital now that the state facility is closed.

"We have to re-apply (to the state) each season to use the fields," she said.

"If we were to lose those, we'd be in trouble."

Even if the state gave Newtown other land for ballfields, the land would have

to be developed, Mr Haskel said.

"We felt the Legislative Council would be more likely to help us if we had

some money to contribute too," he said.

Mr Haskel said the commission also would like to localize facilities by

selling some of the land that has been deeded to the town by developers and

purchase properties closer to the parks. He said the only sizeable town-owned

land available is seven acres on Old Farm Road but it isn't likely to be used

for ballfields because $400,000 to $500,000 homes are being built in the area

and these neighbors would object. The land also so far from the center of town

that the five-man P&R crew finds it difficult to maintain, he said.

"But it's close to where the children live - they could walk there to play,"

said Charter Revision Commission member Jim Smith. "If the ballfields are

there first, people have no right to complain."

"But they do," Mrs Kasbarian said.

Mr Haskel also told the commission that no efforts should be made to separate

the parks and recreation functions and put the parks under the supervision of

another department such as Public Works.

"If that happened, the emphasis would be on highways, not on maintenance of

the parks," he said. "The emphasis on parks might be diluted."

Mrs Kasbarian said her department took over maintenance of the school fields

10 years ago. Parks & Rec also staffs the pools at each of the town parks. "It

would be bad business to have two departments involved - one doing maintenance

and one hiring staff and scheduling programs," she said.

"There isn't any duplication," she added. "We have the mowers, Public Works

doesn't."