Date: Fri 22-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Borough-Zoning-Hawley-School

Full Text:

Borough Zoning Approves Hawley School Plans

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The Borough Zoning Commission has approved site plans for the expansion of

Hawley School.

Commission members approved the $3.5-million project March 14 after listening

to a presentation on the construction plans by school officials and expansion

project designers.

Board of Education Chairman Herbert Rosenthal told the zoners expanding Hawley

School is "essential" to the public school system in light of an increasing

student enrollment.

Having a larger Hawley School would let the town "buy time" until it would

have to pursue the construction of another elementary school, he said.

Architect Rusty Malik of Kaestle Boos Associates of New Britain said the

proposed addition would add approximately 22,000 square feet of space to the

building, which opened in 1921. Hawley School once served as the town's high

school.

The construction project would provide six new classrooms, plus gymnasium, art

and media facilities for Hawley School students, Mr Malik said.

Hawley School sits on a congested, heavily used site at 29 Church Hill Road,

so the project's designers are proposing some site changes there.

The plans call for modified school bus and automobile traffic patterns

intended to improve public safety.

All windows in the existing school and the proposed expansion would be

replaced with new windows to provide a sense of architectural unity, he said.

Landscape architect Dick Webb of Richter, Cegan and Webb, the Avon firm which

did site planning for the project, said the current, tight 49-space parking

lot at the school would expand to 61 spaces. Also, paved space for an

additional 22 vehicles would be provided for "overflow parking," bringing

total parking to 82 spaces, if needed. The 22 added spaces would serve as a

children's play area when not used for parking.

The three athletic fields behind the school would remain intact, Mr Webb said.

Mr Webb said the site changes proposed for the Hawley School property amount

to "a significant improvement."

Under the school board's plans for the Hawley school property, the existing

septic system would be demolished. The school's sewage would be sent to a

holding tank where it would be contained and frequently emptied until the

school is connected to the town's sewer system now under construction. The

sewer system is planned to be in operation by late 1997.

In reviewing the Hawley School expansion proposal, Fire Marshal George

Lockwood and Newtown Hook and Ladder Fire Chief Steve Murphy recommend that a

fire hydrant be installed in front of the school.

Borough Engineer Ronald Bolmer recommends that a drainage pipe planned for the

property be increased in diameter from 12 inches to 15 inches to provide

higher storm drainage capacity.

Kathleen Purches, the town's environmental health director, reviewed the plans

for the project. In a letter to the borough zoners, she wrote she doesn't

object to the project as proposed, but recommends that the expanded school

contain a full food service facility.

As now planned, the project calls for warming ovens to heat lunches

transported to Hawley School from the nearby Newtown Middle School. Hawley

students would continue eating lunches in their classrooms in the expanded

school.

The Hawley School expansion proposal will be subject to voters' action at an

upcoming referendum, tentatively scheduled for June.