Multi-use Trail May Be Packaged With New FFH Sports Fields

By John Voket

Newtown residents may have a picturesque place to stroll or power walk off some extra pounds while their young ones recreate on new playing fields scheduled to open next year on the Fairfield Hills campus. If all goes as planned, a proposed family and ADA-friendly year-round recreation trail will be installed as part of the larger playing field construction project at the town-owned facility off Wasserman Way.

During the Fairfield Hills Authority meeting last Tuesday, former Fairfield Hills management committee chairman John Reed asserted that the authority should consider requesting proposals for a user-friendly trail incorporated into an existing project plan for new playing fields. The former town school superintendent, who also heads up the trails subcommittee on the authority, said that a recreational feature would potentially serve more of Newtown’s residents than any other practical recreational installation at the sprawling campus.

“We should either put this on the back burner, or allocate some money for the firm that will already be working on the new fields,” Mr Reed told the authority. “It would cost a relatively modest amount of money, so I suggest we consider this RFP [request for proposals] for a study to determine the need and expense for establishing a trail.”

Mr Reed explained that the trail, which would extend for about two miles through the campus, would actually be more like a track. The 12-foot-wide network would accommodate full handicapped accessibility and features suitable for walkers, runners, those using roller blades or bicycles, possibly even cross-country skiing in season.

“It would be a maintained surface with a number of rough [cross country] trails going off of it intermittently,” Mr Reed said. “Everybody needs a piece of Fairfield Hills, and this trail would serve the greatest number of Newtown citizens.”

In the outline of consultant services for the proposed multi-use trail, which was submitted for the record, Mr Reed indicated that the master plan for the adaptive reuse of the former state hospital and grounds by the town identified possibilities for developing certain recreational features including a trail that would wind around a cluster of playing fields bordered by Wasserman Way, and extend among the renovated or new buildings connecting these various points on the campus.

“The next step toward implementation is the preparation of plans that will refine the location taking into consideration such issues as existing site conditions, present and future buildings, access to the trail, parking, and construction phasing,” the outline related.

“In addition, trail width, intersection treatments, surface materials, and other trail features should be identified early in the design process to provide the town with a comprehensive approach to the phased development of the trail system,” the memo concludes.

The plan calls for the town to retain a landscape architect and engineering consultant with demonstrated experience in the planning, design, and construction of similar multi-use trails. Mr Reed said he was pleased to learn that the firm of Milone and McBroom was among the “short-list” contenders for the playing field construction project, and therefore might be the firm that also incorporates the trail project.

“We are familiar with this firm going back to the formation of the master plan, and they have completed municipal trails in neighboring communities,” Mr Reed said. Speaking to The Bee after the meeting, Mr Reed added that except for very select areas around Main Street, there is no safe place for residents to go and walk on relatively level surfaces with any immediate barrier from passing vehicles.

“If you were a [visitor] who came to town and looked around the neighborhoods, you might make the observation that there are really no places for people to walk unless you want to do it out in traffic,” Mr Reed said.

Authority vice chairman Andrew Willie agreed during discussion on the matter that a trail network similar to the one described would be a great asset to the residents of Newtown.

“I think this will touch the most people in town,” he said.

Mr Willie later confirmed that since the first development for new fields would likely target the existing makeshift soccer fields along Wasserman Way, and that location was also designed to accommodate part of the trail, that both the fields at that location, and the trail might be accessible by late next year.

“That’s our wish in a perfect world,” Mr Willie said. “But definitely by 2007.”

Authority Vacancy Filled

In other business, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal revealed that his board had selected and unanimously recommended the appointment of Walter Motyka to fill a position on the authority left vacant when Richard Sturdevant moved out of town recently.

The first selectman acknowledged that his board was forced to decide among “three good candidates,” for the post. He told authority members, however, that Mr Motyka’s professional credentials and lengthy history of community service weighed heavily in the selectmen’s decision to appoint him.

“Walter has a background and has made a career out of planning and maintaining large commercial facilities,” Mr Rosenthal said. “He has spent years working on logistics and marketing connected to the reuse of large industrial and commercial facilities like we have at Fairfield Hills.”

Mr Rosenthal noted that the new appointee also played a preliminary role in planning for the facility early on when the state announced the facility would be closed and possibly redeveloped.

“He has a extensive knowledge of the property,” Mr Rosenthal said.

The first selectmen said he was also pleased that the other candidates who volunteered for the position each agreed that they would avail themselves in any voluntary capacity that might be required as projects on the campus move forward.

Contacted after the meeting, Mr Motyka confirmed that he had participated in writing the first mission and master plan for the reuse of Fairfield Hills, and that his coming around to the current appointment would help him realize the “fulfillment of an original vision.”

“Our committee, I think, helped convince the state that the way we are planning the reuse of Fairfield Hills today was really the best use of the property,” he said.

Mr Motyka went on to say that in his current work, which also includes writing master plans for multimillion-dollar industries, including large pharmaceutical and biotech firms, he has learned that projects like those conceived at Fairfield Hills are not built in a few days or even a few years.

“It’s not unusual for even the huge companies to take ten or 15 years to bring a master plan to completion, and even then, because of changes in funding sources or other considerations, there are significant adjustments to the original concept,” he said.

But Mr Motyka indicated that he was pleased to be reaffiliated with a group that was so enthusiastic about bringing the campus back to life.

“I was always hoping to see the kind of mixed use that would permit the town to control the entire facility, while bringing in some limited outside interests that would help carry the cost so it would never become a burden to the taxpayers,” Mr Motyka concluded.

The newest authority member will sit in his first official meeting in December, but is already getting up to speed on late developments by interacting with present authority members and other town officials close to the project, Mr Rosenthal said.