Amended Minutes-Date Change
The Fairfield Hills Authority held a Regular Meeting on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 in the meeting room of the Town Hall South, Main Street, Newtown, CT. Bob Geckle called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m.
Present: Bob Geckle, Andy Willie, Walt Motyka, John Madzula, John Reed, Don Studley and Julia Wasserman.
Absent: Kathy Furey.
Also Present: Maria DeMarco (DeMarco Management Corp.), Elizabeth Stocker, (Director of Economic and Community Development), one member of the public and one member of the press.
Public Participation: John Voket spoke as a member of the public to tell the Fairfield Hills Authority about the great experience everyone had at the Relay for Life on the Fairfield Hills Campus. He stated that everything went smoothly and everyone he spoke to hoped that they could keep the event on the campus for years to come.
Acceptance of Minutes: Andy Willie made a motion to accept the minutes from the June 17, 2009 Authority meeting. John Madzula seconded the motion. All in attendance voted unanimously.
Finance: Don Studley gave a overview of his monthly statement. (See Attached).
Mr. Studley stated that the Encumbered funds for 2008 totaled $77,000.00.
Bob Geckle informed the Authority that on July 1st he gave a presentation to the Legislative Council and Board of Selectman to provide an update on the Fairfield Hills Master Plan.
Operations: Maria DeMarco, DeMarco Management, gave an overview of her monthly report. Ms. DeMarco stated that she received a lot of positive feedback from the tours she conducted for the members of the Legislative Council.
Ms. DeMarco stated that the Center Green Project should be completed by the end of the month. The curbing, electrical and water conduit have been installed.
The Emergency Operations Center is closer to completion and they are applying for more grant money.
Ms. DeMarco discussed the new dog waste stations that were delivered and stated that they were much larger than expected so she will be looking at other models to see if a small version could be used.
Ms. DeMarco stated that the Newtown Bicycle Police Officer has been patrolling the campus and this does seem to help enforce the leash and waste clean-up ordinance.
Capital Improvement Program (CIP): The Fairfield Hills Authority will be presenting a five year Capital Improvement outline to the Town of Newtown. Walt Motyka put together a spread sheet showing the potential costs in this plan. Walt gave an overview of the spreadsheet. (See Attached).
Some of the line items on the list are potentially capital items that will be covered by other town departments so the Authority decided that a notation (i.e. asterisk) should be added to these area’s to avoid confusion when presented to the town.
Mr. Motyka discussed the proposed trails and concert area stating that these are positive projects that every town resident will benefit from.
John Reed stated some concern that if all of the projects are included on this spread sheet these items will only be attributed to the Fairfield Hills Authority instead of the actual departments who will be covering the costs of each project. Mr. Reed gave the example of the campus roads which are now considered town roads so should be a part of the Department of Public Works budget.
Mr. Motyka stated that this will be discussed that this spread sheet should be used a guideline and that some of these items should be left in as “placeholders” for the Capital Improvement Program. This preliminary list will be presented at an informal discussion with the Director of Finance and the First Selectman and can be removed at that time if it is felt unnecessary to keep them on the list.
John Reed stated that in the sub-section of Passive Uses there was no money planned for the Campus Trails Project in next year’s budget. He stated that the funding for this project needs to remain a priority and made the following motion to this point:
Motion: John Reed made a motion that the Fairfield Hills Campus Trails project be added in the proposed 2010/2011 Capital Improvement Plan.
The motion was seconded by John Madzula.
All in attendance voted unanimously.
The discussion continued with John Reed appreciated Walt Motyka’s vision for the concert stand and area but suggested that the cost of a plan that was only started in the last two months might alienate the residence of the town and suggested that this aspect of the plan should be taken care of by the Cultural Arts Commission.
Mr. Reed suggested that there was a need to build public support and thought that the Concert Area project should be removed from this years plan.
Motion: John Reed made a motion that the proposed Concert Area Project be removed from the proposed 2009/2010 Capital Improvement Plan.
Don Studley seconded the motion for the sake of discussion.
Mr. Reed elaborated that he did not think it was prudent to add something to the CIP without getting public input.
Walt Motyka stated that this idea was started with the Trails architect and Mr. Motyka decided to run with it. Mr. Motyka said that he thinks this to should be put in as a place holder and that the Authority should let the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance take it out of the CIP if they deemed it necessary.
Julia Wasserman stated that she thought this was the first time that every concept of the campus was in black and white and she thought it was a fantastic way to show what is being thought about and planned for the campus. Ms. Wasserman thought that this was a good way to show that the Fairfield Hills Campus could become the real jewel of the town.
Mr. Motyka stated that the Cultural Arts Commission was willing to work on this project. There is also the possibility of finding a benefactor/benefactors to help finance this project.
At this time John Reed stated that after these insights he withdrew his motion. Don Studley concurred.
Ms. Stocker stated that the preliminary CIP was due Friday, July 17, 2009. The informal meeting to discuss the CIP has not been scheduled yet. Mr. Geckle stated that when the date is finalized and more than three members of the Authority wanted to attend, he would do a notice of the meeting. Ms. Stocker stated that the CIP will need to be presented to the Board of Finance on August 10, 2009 and is finalized with the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance on August 27, 2009.
John Reed made the suggestion that the town investigate what projected savings could be achieved by bidding the demolition and remediation as a single package rather than separate projects over five years.
Planning: Bob Geckle stated that the Woodbury Hall project was still on track for a close on or before August 31, 2009.
Scheduling: Bob Geckle stated that the scheduled Fairfield Hills Authority meeting in August will be cancelled but that the monthly reports and information packets will still be distributed.
Motion: John Reed made a motion to cancel the August Fairfield Hills Authority Meeting. Andy Willie seconded the motion.
Motion: Andy Willie made a motion to adjourn. John Madzula seconded the motion.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
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