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State Offers Fairfield Hills Acreage And Buildings To The Town

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The state is offering to give the town 22.6 acres and two buildings at

Fairfield Hills for municipal use as part of a 1991 agreement, which settled a

lawsuit the town brought against the state over the construction of Garner

Correctional Institution, state Rep Julia Wasserman said Thursday.

In a letter to First Selectman Robert Cascella, Michael Kozlowski, head of the

state Office of Policy and Management (OPM), offers the town the land,

Watertown Hall, and a garage that formerly was used as a firehouse.

Watertown Hall is a vacant 32,348-square-foot brick building, which formerly

served as an employee dormitory for Fairfield Hills workers. It is located

just north of the Mile Hill Road main entrance to the core campus.

The brick 7,316-square-foot vehicle maintenance garage is on Trades Lane, near

the campus's power plant.

The state offer includes the rolling field that lies between those two

buildings. The offer also includes the recreation areas that lie across a

service road to the north of Watertown Hall. The land extends southward to the

site of the future Fairfield Hills bypass road. The road is scheduled for

construction in May or June. Bids on the bypass road were opened Wednesday. A

road bidder is to be chosen by April 1.

"The exact boundaries [of the land] will be determined by an actual land

survey," Mr Kozlowski wrote.

"The property would be conveyed in an `as is' condition and the state would

assume no liability for any pre-existing conditions associated with the

property or the buildings being conveyed. The Department of Public Works will

be responsible for the conveyance to the town by means of a quit claim deed,"

according to the letter.

Mr Cascella did not return phone calls before The Bee's press-time Thursday

morning, seeking his reaction to the announcement.

In a November letter to OPM, Mr Cascella wrote, "What seems to make the most

sense at this point in time is that we combine the 22.6 acres with land around

Watertown Hall and use Watertown Hall to provide [the town] with additional

municipal space."

State Rep Wasserman informed the Legislative Council in September that the

state was considering making Watertown Hall available to the town.

In the November letter, the first selectman listed some reasons to support the

proposal. Such a transfer would give the town ownership of existing recreation

fields; it would provide acreage for future town educational needs; the land

is near the town center and the planned bypass road; Watertown Hall is of a

manageable size; and Watertown Hall wouldn't have an effect on a future re-use

of the larger core campus.

Mr Cascella was not a part of the negotiations with the state OPM and the

governor's office that led to the transfer, according to state Rep Wasserman.

Mrs Wasserman, who participated in all the talks with state officials, said

that it was a very difficult process to establish not just the scope of the

state's offer to the town, but the mechanisms by which the transfer would be

made. She credited Richard Nuclo of OPM and Governor Rowland with making the

deal possible.

Mrs Wasserman termed the property "land that is very desirable to the town,"

adding that its location "makes the most sense" in terms of the town's needs.

"The governor has endorsed this. It has gone all the way to the top," she

said.

"The town is getting two buildings and that's important," she said. "The

buildings, for lack of a better word, are a gift."

"Watertown Hall ... is a usable building," she said. "It's much bigger than it

looks."

If the town accepts the state offer, it could demolish the two buildings if it

chooses, according to the state representative.

The OPM's offer of land and buildings at Fairfield Hills would be subject to

action by the Legislative Council.

Marketing

Mrs Wasserman said the state is seeking bids for the services of a marketing

firm that would act as the state's agent to lease, sell, or both lease and

sell state holdings at Fairfield Hills.

In its advertisement, the OPM states the property is 658 acres, contains 111

buildings and 1.65 million gross square feet of enclosed space. Of those

buildings, seven are listed in excellent condition, 58 in good condition, 39

in fair condition and seven are in poor condition.

Also, the OPM is seeking to learn if any state agencies are interested in

using any of the buildings at Fairfield Hills. The OPM will decide if any

requests for use of the Fairfield Hills facilities are appropriate uses, she

said.

Fairfield Hills formerly served as a state psychiatric hospital that housed

about 3,500 patients at its height. The state closed the hospital in December

1995 as it pursued the Department of Mental health's policy of patient

"reinstitutionalization."