The Fairfield Hills Authority held a Regular Meeting on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 in the meeting room at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, Main Street, Newtown, CT. John Reed called the meeting to order at 7:31p.m.
Present: John Reed, Brian White, Walt Motyka, Ross Carley, John Madzula, Jim Bernardi and Mike Holmes.
Absent: Andy Willie.
Also Present: First Selectman Pat Llodra, Maria DeMarco, (DeMarco Management), three members from the public and two members from the press.
Public Participation: No Public Participation.
First Selectman’s Report: Do to time constraints of the First Selectman John Reed asked her to give an overview of the following items before she had to leave for another meeting:
Kevin’s Community Center: Ms. Llodra handed out a Timeline outlining the beginning of the Community Center and when the relationship with the Town of Newtown came to fruition.(See Attached). Ms. Llodra stated that some questions have come up about the $500,000 grant and if that amount will be sufficient to retro fit the duplex that is proposed for their use. Ms. Llodra stated that there are several areas of the proposed use of the property, such as cost estimates by Kevin’s Community Center that need further review.
Brian White asked if anyone has analyzed the business model with regards to health care reform?
Ms. Llodra stated none that she knew of.
John Reed interjected that there is a caveat to the use of the grant money for this project. The Kevin’s Community Center would have to be in service for 10 years or replaced by a similar provider or a prorated amount of the grant would have to be repaid.
Litchfield Hall: Ms. Llodra informed the Authority that the demolition of Litchfield Hall has been delayed because more asbestos has been found in this building aound the windows that had not been encountered in any of the other campus buildings. This could cost an additional $100,000 to $200,000 to the town. Ms. Llodra stated she did peruse the asbestos report from 1986 but did not find anything about the window sills or thresholds.
Landscape Contract: Ms. Llodra stated that all of the town landscape maintenance was managed through the Parks and Recreation Department so it made sense to add the Fairfield Hills Campus landscaping under their supervision.
Campus Security: Ms. Llodra informed the Authority that another area that has been discussed is the possibility of the Fairfield Hills Campus Security supervision to go under the Newtown Police Department. Ms. Llodra made the point that this was up for discussion as part of the goal of making every town department to take more ownership of the Fairfield Hills Campus and was in no way to despair the quality of work the Campus Security is doing. The Chief of Police is working on a proposal to see if this could work.
Engineer’s House (28 Trades Lane): The final area that Ms. Llodra brought up for discussion is the proposed use of the Engineer’s House by the Newtown Police Department as a Sub-Station on the Fairfield Hills Campus.
At this time John Reed asked Bruce Herring to state what possible area the Newtown Ambulance is hoping to use for their new facility. Mr. Herring who is the president of the Board of Trustees of the ambulance association stated that they are in favor of the area where the white houses are off Mile Hills South Road. He will tour that area with John Madzula and Walt Motyka and will also need to investigate the cost of bringing the infrastructure to the area. It is assumed that such cost would be responsibility of the Newtown Ambulance Association.
Acceptance of Minutes: The meeting returned to the regular agenda format. Mike Holmes made a motion to accept the minutes from the October Authority meeting. Walt Motyka seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as submitted and passed unanimously.
Property Manager Report: John Reed asked if anyone had any questions comments for Maria DeMarco (DeMarco Management) regarding her monthly report and there were none. Ms. DeMarco stated that the only thing she had to add was the final quarterly common area charge bill was sent out and all of the payments were up-to-date at this time.
Broker: John Reed stated that the Real Estate Broker was not in attendance because he did not have anything new to report and had no firm interest in the campus at this time other than an inquiry pertaining to an assisted living facility.
Director of Economic Development: An overview of the VCOG Clean Up Grant of $100,000 that has been executed and was distributed from Elizabeth Stocker. This report was dispersed to the Authority members.
John Reed stated that this amount of money was not enough to accomplish everything needed to remediate the remaining three duplexes but as much work that can be done will be done until the funding is spent. This abatement work has to be done whether the duplexes are going to be renovated or torn down.
Finance: Brian White stated that the financial report done by the property manager was a little ahead of the report done by the Town Finance Department because the laps in actual payments made.
Operating Committee: John Reed asked that the Operating Committee get together to discuss the Proposed Rules for the Campus Trails. They will plan a meeting upon Andy Willie’s return from vacation.
OLD BUSINESS:
Walt Motyka reported that he is going to revisit the duplex area with the First Selectman. Mr. Motyka stated that he sent a letter to the First Selectman as a resident of the town stating that he did not think a non-income producing organization should be in the duplexes. Mr. Motyka went on to say that there are a lot of costs associated with this proposal i.e. paving the road to the area, upgrading the infrastructure.
Mike Holmes suggested that the Authority wait to hear the outcome of this meeting.
New Business: John Reed stated that he thinks that moving the Authority meetings for 2011 to the Newtown Municipal Center has merit because there is a much more advanced assisted hearing system for town residents to use. Mr. Reed is also considering televising the meetings to make them more accessible to town residents. The Authority members stated what days of the month would not work for them. New days will be configured and forwarded to the members for confirmation.
Budget: There was a minor glitch with the distribution of e-mails regarding the budget for 2011 so the Fairfield Hills budget will be submitted after the December 2010 meeting. John Reed, Maria DeMarco and Brian White will have a budget subcommittee meeting on Tuesday, November 23, 2010 to get the budget work started.
Executive Session: At 9:20 p.m. the Authority members went into Executive Session to discuss the security cost elements and to discussed a draft of a proposed lease agreement between Kevin’s Community Center and the Town of Newtown that has been written by the Town Attorney. John Madzula made a motion to go into Executive Session which was approved unanimously. (Maria DeMarco was invited to attend). Jim Bernardi seconded the motion.
The Authority came out of Executive Session at 10:13p.m.
A brief discussion was held about how to place the recommendations for security before other town officials. Jim Bernardi will make the changes discussed in Executive Session and get the updated material to John Reed who will discuss them with First Selectman Llodra and Mr. Hurley. Maria DeMarco volunteered to assemble specific cost information for the specific items discussed in Executive Session.
Jim Bernardi made a motion to adjourn at 10:19 p.m. The motion was seconded by Brian White and was approved by unanimous vote.
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