Date: Fri 28-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

fire-commission-FHH

Full Text:

Fire Commissioners Weigh Questions About Service To Fairfield Hills

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The Board of Fire Commissioners is reviewing a list of questions from the

town's five volunteer fire companies on the state's request to have the town

provide firefighting services at the sprawling Fairfield Hills property.

Commissioners met Monday night at the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company

Firehouse to consider the request from the state Department of Public Works

(DPW), the state agency which took control of Fairfield Hills after the state

Department of Mental Health (DMH) left in December 1995.

Newtown Hook and Ladder Volunteer Fire Company Chief Steve Murphy provided

Commission Chairman Kevin Cragin with a summary of questions about Fairfield

Hills fire protection which were posed at a recent meeting of the five fire

chiefs. The Fairfield Hills property would fall within Newtown Hook and

Ladder's firefighting district.

Mr Cragin said fire officials will winnow down the list of questions before

commission representatives meet with the state about the request.

The Board of Fire Commissioners has tentatively scheduled a special meeting

for public discussion of the Fairfield Hills firefighting issue on Monday,

April 14, at 7 pm at the Newtown Hook and Ladder Firehouse.

"Any agreement that we should have with the state...should not be permanent,

if we agree to cover Fairfield Hills," Mr Cragin told commission members.

The town and state currently have a "mutual aid agreement" involving fire

protection. Under the terms of that pact, the town's five volunteer fire

companies, collectively known as the Newtown Fire Department, agree to provide

mutual aid firefighting services to the Fairfield Hills Fire Department, and

vice versa, when needed. That agreement is renewable in one-year time

increments.

Following the meeting, Chief Murphy declined to disclose specific questions

which have been posed by fire officials.

Of the Fairfield Hills firefighting request, Chief Murphy said, "The

membership is wondering `What does it mean?'" He said he expects that some

decision will be made concerning the firefighting request within a few months.

The specifics of any agreement the town might reach with the state remain

unclear, adding, "We're not trying to rush into anything."

The firefighting request posed by the state raises both fire protection issues

and legal issues, he said.

Any agreement reached between the town and the state might be based on

providing fire protection for a certain time period or for a certain maximum

population at Fairfield Hills, according to Chief Murphy.

The state recently offered the town 22.6 acres and two buildings at Fairfield

Hills. The offering stems from a 1991 legal settlement which ended a lawsuit

the town brought against the state over the construction of Garner

Correctional Institution.

One of the buildings is a vehicle maintenance garage with an attached garage

bay formerly used to house a fire truck.

The building, though, wouldn't be a useful place for Newtown Hook and Ladder

to keep a fire truck, Chief Murphy said. He pointed out that keeping a truck

there would split up the fire company's equipment between two locations. Also,

the building is located on the edge of the Newtown Hook and Ladder

firefighting district and isn't a practical place to house a fire truck to

serve the fire district's needs, he said.

The scope of the state's request that the town provide firefighting service at

Fairfield Hills will stem from the future uses of that 650-acre property,

Chief Murphy said.

Cragin

Mr Cragin said questions posed by fire officials from the five fire companies

include, in part, the number of calls that can be expected to emanate from

Fairfield Hills and the nature of those calls.

It's one matter to provide firefighting service for the basically abandoned

state institution that Fairfield Hills is today, but it's another matter to

provide firefighting services for an occupied Fairfield Hills in the future,

Mr Cragin said.

At its height, Fairfield Hills housed about 3,500 psychiatric patients.

The state is marketing the property for sale, lease, or sale and lease to

private companies.

The broad issues posed by the state's request for town firefighting coverage

at Fairfield Hills concern the physical drain that such service would pose on

volunteer firefighters and the economic drain it would pose on the town,

according to Mr Cragin.

In a 1994 report, the Fairfield Hills Task Force recommended, in part, that

the property have its open space areas preserved; be used for administrative

office space; be economically developed through the reuse of existing

buildings and the construction of new buildings near the Commerce Road

industrial park; be used for educational purposes; and have existing buildings

used for affordable housing and housing for the elderly.

As currently planned, the state intends to sell more than a dozen small houses

it owns along Queen Street and Mile Hill Road South.

The town offices formerly housed in the lower level of Town Hall South now

temporarily occupy a section of Canaan House at Fairfield Hills. The Booth

Library is temporarily located at Shelton House. The DMH's western district

office is in Canaan House. A drug rehabilitation program known as Addiction

Prevention Therapy (APT) is in Greenwich House. A state credit union office

remains at Fairfield Hills.

A private firm, Tunxis Management Company of New Britain, has been managing

the property for the state. Pinkerton Security is providing security for the

grounds and buildings.