Follow The Money

At Fairfield Hills

To the Editor:

Week after week, none of the hard questions asked by the Independent Party members concerning Fairfield Hills are ever answered. On the contrary, they are always treated with derision.

Remember when Deep Throat told Bob Woodward to follow the money? I’m led to believe it’s virtually impossible for us to do just that, ergo the attacks on the IPN! As the saying goes, the best defense is a good offense!

To the extent that we are aware of where things stand in the development of Fairfield Hills after all these years and all this money spent, my take on the campus is of a gymnasium being built, a ball field with or without lights, a plan for a new unwanted town hall with a 60-year-old roof at a cost considerably over budget, and parking lots that we will be paying for, for years to come.

All this amidst temporary pipes and wiring for utilities, surrounded by decaying, rotted buildings.

We are told that the failure to attract tenants is all Joe Borst’s fault, and that the ultimate decisions are not with the Fairfield Hills Authority (FHA) but with the Board of Selectman. How convenient now that the deck is stacked, two against one.

I urge the citizens of Newtown to pay attention to what is going on and how our money is being spent; and I strongly urge that our public officials hold the FHA and the Board of Selectman to the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley act, which was instituted by Congress to prevent any repeats of an Enron’s method of bookkeeping.

We may hear that, theoretically, as a municipality, Newtown is not subject to Sarbanes-Oxley, but I doubt they’d go in that direction!

It is not easy to write a letter like this, nor am I accusing anyone of wrong doing; but as much as we’d like to believe in our fellow man and his integrity, we have to realize that there’s the dream and then there’s the realty.

I strongly urge the FHA to open up; to show us where every penny of our money has been or will be spent. To reestablish our trust.

Richard J. Cole

72 Main Street, Newtown                                                June 29, 2008