Firm Picked For FFH Cleanup

By John Voket

Ability, familiarity, and economy are just three of the reasons why town officials and the Fairfield Hills Authority (FHA) abruptly switched gears this week deciding to commission R.W. Bartley & Associates to perform soil remediation on the campus. The move, according to FHA chairman Robert Geckle, allows the town to tap the expertise of personnel from O&G Industries in other areas of the development.

In recent weeks, officials including First Selectman Herb Rosenthal and former Fairfield Hills Management Committee Chairman John Reed had become increasingly concerned and vocal about the rapidly accelerating time line for fulfilling contractual obligations to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The town is obliged to complete hazardous soil remediation around every standing structure at the former state hospital site by June 2006.

The town purchased the campus from the state just over one year ago with several stipulations regarding the removal or treatment of soil around the structures that contains pesticide residue and excessive amounts of lead from chipped and peeling paint that fell from the buildings since they were constructed in the 1930s.

During recent management committee meetings, representatives from O&G had already determined that some of the soil could be treated on site and reused in certain applications without the town incurring the expense to truck it off site and out of state to be processed. In July, a company representative assured the committee members and Mr Rosenthal that the DEP stipulations could be easily completed in the remaining time available to do so, even providing for winter weather.

Russell Bartley, a licensed environmental professional, has worked with and consulted on a number of municipal and school projects in the past, and has proven to be an asset as he worked alongside local and state officials and others during the long transition process of transferring the Fairfield Hills site to the town. Torrington-based O&G Industries was identified last spring as the company that would handle long-term project management duties including the soil remediation component, but a company spokesperson said it would be redundant to keep Mr Bartley on overseeing environmental issues while an O&G contractor did the work.

“It makes more sense to have [Mr Bartley] managing the soil remediation,” said O&G spokesperson Jeff Cugno, who is also a liaison between the town and the company. “He’s done a lot of work for the town and he’s certainly familiar with and capable of handling it.”

Mr Geckle confirmed that Mr Bartley’s company would be taking up this element of the project immediately, saying his company had likely handled projects significantly larger than the one at Fairfield Hills.

“He already has established [a level of] confidence in town on other projects,” Mr Geckle said.

The shift in responsibility will allow O&G personnel to shift their energies to other areas of the overall project, Mr Geckle said. Mr Cugno said his company will continue to be available and is continuing work in the areas of planning, scheduling, and budgeting for project components including the installation of new utility infrastructure across the campus, planning for new sport fields installations, and the likely renovation and construction of a new municipal center on the site.

“At this stage we’ll be more involved with budgeting and planning than actual construction,” Mr Cugno said.

Mr Rosenthal said at this point, the start of soil remediation is “imminent,” and that signs have already been posted on the grounds warning visitors of the impending project. And he said once the work begins, it will continue in a rolling pattern until all of the buildings are completed.

“Any large-scale abatement and demolition like this should be contiguous,” Mr Rosenthal said. “This way it eliminates the expensive prospect of stopping and restarting the work. You keep all of the personnel and equipment on site from beginning to end and finish it quickly.”

Budget For New Fields

The first selectman said earlier this week that the 2005-2006 budget for work on the campus is about $5 million, and that he expects about $3 million to be expended for remediation work before next June 30. Part of the balance of that budget is expected to be spent installing two 90-foot baseball fields on the site.

“It’s pretty clear that the fields we need first are the largest and may be the most costly,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Parks and Recreation Department Director Barbara Kasbarian said that the construction of these fields would alleviate the most pressing current need for her department, while providing some relief for the overtaxed facilities at Newtown High School.

“Right now we only have one field in town large enough for 13-year-olds to play on,” Ms Kasbarian said. “And we have to restrict the use of that field, which creates a problem for the high school and adults who want to play.”

Ms Kasbarian said the high school currently fields three baseball teams and they all use the single appropriate high school field.

“This puts a lot of pressure on that facility and creates significantly higher wear and tear,” she said. “Having these two new fields would certainly help us eliminate scheduling nightmares we have trying to find places for our kids to play.”

The town recently learned, however, that property originally slated for the two 90-foot fields would require significant and very expensive engineering and construction to prepare them for this type of use. As a result, the town is currently considering whether to alter the plans and relocate the baseball field construction to the location of several soccer fields along the property’s fence line on Wasserman Way.

Ms Kasbarian said a minimum of nine to ten contiguous acres would be required to complete the project and that baseball field installation would take precedence over other sports currently being played on the campus because the baseball diamonds are identified as part of the master plan for the facility.

“Even if we looked at locating these new fields to the front of the campus, buildings would have to come down. We have to see where the flattest piece of land will be,” she said.

Mr Rosenthal agreed, saying the original parcel along Mile Hill Road South would require a significant amount of fill and landscaping, pushing the project cost out of the realm of possibility, at least in the short term.

“If we have to, we’ll look to other areas that won’t require so much demolition and less earth moving and filling to achieve a level playing surface,” Mr Rosenthal said. “There may be better spots on the campus which could also provide better access to the fields.”

Mr Geckle said his goal is to have a final decision on the playing fields question by the next FHA meeting, scheduled for September 20.