Blaming Everyone Except Themselves

To the Editor:

The Newtown Roosters have come home to roost and the Fairfield Hills Authority (FFHA) is blaming everyone except themselves.

For the last two years the Newtown voters have been asking for a reassessment of the FFH master plan. After all, the master plan was never approved by the voters, therefore the very foundation of the plan was in question. When you start down the road with no “agreed upon road map” you’re certain to get lost and that’s what has happened.

What happens without a road map or directions? The driver says, “I think we should go that way,” and the passenger says he thinks, “The right way is over there,” and the other passenger says, “We should go back to where we started.” That’s when they run out of gas!

Last November, voters gave a clear signal to the town leaders that an evaluation of Fairfield Hills redevelopment should take place. First Selectman Borst attempted to do this immediately upon taking office and was blocked by Herb Rosenthal and Paul Mangiafico with help from Will Rodgers.

Mr Rosenthal and Mr Geckle did not come clean with the voters that the FFH master plan was in serious trouble. The FFHA was scrambling for money as the utilities loop may cost up to $6 million and there is not enough from the 2001 appropriation to fund it. There are not enough 2001 funds to complete the permanent parking plan for the area around the Newtown Youth Academy and the ball field. They have asked Peter D’Amico to tear down buildings and construct parking spaces which would cost the town over $6.5 million in payments (over 15 years). Town resources are being diverted to plug the financial holes and even the high school expansion project was used to divert attention from the lack of planning and financial bankruptcy at FFH.

Mr Rosenthal and the appointed FFHA members even pronounced that asking questions about Fairfield Hills would cause potential leases to be lost. I think we all know now that there really weren’t any real leases, just some passing interest. The FFHA is not in the business of economic development and they don’t understand how the commercial leasing business works, “Lots of interest and little action.” The FFHA didn’t ask the Economic Development Commission for advice as the charter and ordinances suggest. They went it alone. Now they want to blame everyone except themselves for the mismanagement of FFH.

After years of work and spending of millions of dollars, what did the town actually get? One baseball field? And a Youth Academy paid for by someone else!

What’s the solution? Hold the presses and catch our breath. We need to know what this project has really cost to date and what the real projected costs are going to be. We need voter approval for a plan going forward.

And above all we need our elected and appointed officials who got us into this mess to stop blaming everyone except themselves.

Bruce W. Walczak

12 Glover Avenue, Newtown                                             May 21, 2008