Despite some assertions on social media, rumors that the town is planning to acquire NYA Sports & Fitness Center at Fairfield Hills with $10 million earmarked in the Capital Improvement Plan are simply that — rumors — according to First Selectman Pat Llodra.

On November 29, Democratic Registrar of Voters and Commission on Aging member LeReine Frampton posted on Facebook that the town “is buying it for 10 million.”

“I heard money is set and source thinks it is being done without a vote,” Ms Frampton stated in the post. She added that her “Source was pretty reliable it was a Republican source.”

Mrs Llodra said that such a decision may be years away.

“We just don’t know how it will unfold,” she said as the town moves forward with Phase One of three, which will utilize a generous $15 million grant provided to the town last year by General Electric to construct and operate a new recreation facility.

That grant will construct a senior center and swimming or aquatic complex with at least two, possibly three, pools. There is also discussion about building a connecting facility between that first phase development and the NYA, so users of the two facilities can move between them, especially during foul weather.

“Phase Two may be the connector, or it may be a smaller project that will bring all the Parks and Rec [administration offices] into a standalone building,” Mrs Llodra said. “These are just possibilities. But as far as an acquisition of NYA, or any part of it, there’s just nothing there” as far as firm plans are concerned, she added.

Mrs Llodra said talk about merging community center ideas within the existing NYA complex has been ongoing since before she took office as first selectman.

“But it’s always been envisioned to create offices for Parks and Rec, pools, and a senior center,” she said, reminding residents that a former senior center plan that was on the drawing board failed because of disagreements over shared space between seniors and recreation functions.

“The $10 million [construction grant] from GE releases the town from the financial pressure to accomplish what is now a 10-year-old plan to bring a central recreation facility to the campus,” the first selectman said. “But the discussion has only included possible future involvement with the NYA.”

NYA founder and President Peter D’Amico told The Bee he believes it “would make good sense for that to be part of the town, and I am all for the town doing that.”

When Mr D’Amico privately funded and built the massive indoor sports facility, he had no thoughts about eventually selling it. But with the GE money and the town’s years-long plans to build a community center, Mr D’Amico felt it would not make sense to “duplicate efforts of what we have and what town wants to do.”

If he should sell the NYA facility, he said Newtown could concentrate on accommodating seniors’ space needs and a pool. “We thought maybe the town should buy [the NYA] and run it as a community center for everybody.”

Mr D’Amico said he didn’t build the facility to make money. “It was for the community and sports organizations, and if town wants to purchase and run it as a town complex, I am OK with that. Whatever is best for the community.”

According to a negotiated agreement between Newtown and the sports and fitness center’s owners, the town and its Parks & Recreation Department receives 1,400 hours of reciprocal use time at NYA annually for a discounted rate, and an additional 200 hours at no cost under an amendment endorsed by the Board of Selectmen in 2011.