The Fairfield Hills Authority held a Regular Meeting on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 in the meeting room of the Town Hall South, Main Street, Newtown, CT. Bob Geckle called the meeting to order at 8:02 p.m.
Present: Bob Geckle, Andy Willie, Walt Motyka, John Madzula, John Reed, Don Studley and Mike Holmes.
Absent: Kathy Furey
Also Present: Amy Mangold (Director of Parks & Recreation), Maria DeMarco (DeMarco Management Corp.), Gary Sorge (Stantec) and one member of the press.
Public Participation: Mark Necio, 91 Squire Road, Southbury, CT.
Mr. Necio introduced the concept of a Drivers Education Classroom for the Newtown Youth Academy. Keith Miller from the Newtown Youth Academy and the Zoning Commission sent Mr. Necio to the Authority Meeting to discuss the possibility of opening a drivers education classroom at the Youth Academy.
The Authority members asked a variety of questions of Mr. Necio.
Bob Geckle – This involves the Town of Newtown’s lease agreement with the Newtown Youth Academy. Some research needed to be done to find what is permissible under that lease relative to activities and sub-leases so the Fairfield Hills Authority would be unable to give an answer tonight. Mr. Geckle stated that this would be worked on in the next few days.
Bob Geckle stated that the Authority would contact the Newtown Youth Academy directly with the answer.
Skate Park: Walt Motyka, 5 Kent Road, Newtown, CT, spoke as a private citizen. He had a hand-out regarding the skate park. (See Attached).
Walt discussed the location of the skate board park and his concern is the unsupervised children going to and from the skate park.
Bob Geckle stated that the Fairfield Hills Authority did give the Skate Board Park group another year to raise the money for the park. They have until October of 2009 to raise the funds.
John Reed suggested this subject be added to the Agenda for the July meeting.
Andy Willie suggested that the skate board people be invited to the next Authority Meeting to discuss the options.
Bob Geckle agreed to put it on the Agenda to reevaluate the location of the Skate Park.
John Reed stated that Park and Recreation would be responsible for several of these options and would like their in-put.
Acceptance of the Minutes:
Andy Willie made a motion to accept the minutes from the May 20, 2009 Authority Meeting. Walt Motyka seconded the motion. All in attendance voted unanimously.
Finance:
Capital Expenditures – There should be approximately $82,896 contingency left. (See Attached).
Don Studley will coordinate with the Finance Office to ensure that his numbers and their numbers line up.
Bob Geckle stated that $67,000 reimbursement from the Danbury Health Systems will be put in the Fairfield Hills Revenue account.
Bob informed the Authority that he attended a meeting with Maria DeMarco, the legislative council sub-committee and a member of the Board of Finance
They were very impressed with the financial report that Don Studley does every month as a volunteer for the Fairfield Hills Authority.
Operating: Maria DeMarco gave an overview of her monthly report.
Relay for Life – Amy Mangold stated that she is going to have a meeting to review the event to see if any changes need to be made for next year. Maria DeMarco, John Reed and Carl Samuelson will attend the wrap-up meeting.
All of the feedback was very positive.
Amy Mangold stated that it was successful even with all of the construction on the campus.
Maria gave an update of the Center Green project.
Ms. DeMarco informed the Authority of a dog group’s proposal requesting that they can do dog training. The group is willing to “Adopt a Trail” and would offer to clean up the campus trail once a month and they would purchase the dog waste bags.
Bob Geckle stated that he is not in favor of this group using the campus for this type of training. This is not a permitted use on the Fairfield Hills Campus. John Reed agreed and stated that it is too confusing to everyone conforming to the leash law. Ms. DeMarco also informed the Authority that the bicycle patrol will give out citations for the leash law ordinance. Ms. DeMarco will follow-up with the organization to inform them that the Authority turned down their proposal.
Real Estate:
Andy Willie informed the Authority that the EPA is considering that Brownfield Money could be considered for each separate address, possibly $200,000 for assessment and $200,000 for clean-up.
Bob Geckle gave an update of the Woodbury Lease. The Appraisal has been completed and accepted. The Third Party business review is in progress now.
Follow-up: Bob Geckle will follow-up with Dave Grogins to see if it the Driving School at the Newtown Youth Academy is a Lease Agreement issue.
Capital Improvement – A subcommittee will review and will move forward on it at the next Authority meeting.
John Reed asked what the pricing difference would be if all of the buildings were taken down at the same time instead of one at a time.
Bob Geckle agreed that this was a valid point. He suggested that the Authority estimate the differentiation.
Motion: John Reed made a motion to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Don Studley. All in attendance voted unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 9:18 p.m.
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