After double-header resolution, Fairfield softball field wins approval

The Representative Town Meeting (RTM) went into extra innings Monday night before approving $350,000 in bonding to build a girls softball field at the Parsells property on Hoyden's Hill.

The legislative body finally agreed to vote on the issue after four hours of debate -- at 12:23 a.m. Tuesday. The vote went down to the wire, but the proposal passed 22--20.

The decisive nod came from Harold Schwartz, D-7, a softball and Little League umpire who said earlier in the night that, because he stands to earn money while umpiring games at the new field, he'd likely abstain from the vote.

But with the roll-call hanging in the balance at 21 votes for the project, 20 votes against it, Schwartz threw his vote in the project's favor. Loud cheers erupted from many of the 50 or so residents still on hand.

In practice, the RTM's handling of the issue was a double-header.

First, it had to approve a resolution from the Conservation Commission designating the 9.4-acre town-owned site as "active open space" to be overseen by the Parks and Recreation Department, ending two-and-a-half years of the property being managed by the Conservation Department.

Only if that passed could the RTM vote on whether to grant the $350,000 in bonding required to construct the softball field. That bonding will also be used to tear down the home that stands on the property, lay down a gravel parking lot and install restrooms.

The house now sits between where the softball field's pitching mound and second base will go. The building was frequently described Monday night as "run-down," and it fell prey to three fallen trees during last week's storms.

The meeting took place at the Board of Education's second-floor conference room. For most of the evening, the room was packed tight, with some 200 residents crammed inside. The public's chairs filled early on and a spillover crowd was left standing around the back of the room, three-deep in some spots.

Several rows of people had "Vote No!" stickers attached to their shirts. A couple dozen teenage girls wore "Fairfield Girls Softball" jerseys in support of the resolutions. Selectman Sherri Steeneck wore a Fairfield Girls Softball hooded sweatshirt.

The first resolution

Last month, the Conservation Commission voted unanimously to turn over the management of the Parsells property to the Parks and Recreation Department. And while the RTM ratified that resolution Monday around 10:30 p.m. by a 33-9 vote, it did so only after two hours of debate.

The fault lines were myriad. Current and former RTM members sparred over what the body's original intentions were for the property when it approved the town's $1.8 million purchase in December 2007. Residents and RTM members jousted over whether funding the field -- which will be home to the Fairfield Little League Girls Softball program, open to local girls ages 8-13, as well as for public use at other times -- is justifiable, or even necessary.

Faith Dillon, R-9, said RTM members clearly had field space in mind in 2007. "I'll feel betrayed if I spent [$1.8 million] only for open space," she said. "If so, we should put the property back on the market."

But Karen Sussman, of Burr Street, who was an RTM member in 2007 but isn't now, said she voted then with the intention of keeping much of the property for passive open space, which would rule out athletic fields. She added that since the space is directly beside the Hemlock Reservoir, it should undergo more extensive environmental impact studies before any development takes place.

Some Hoyden's Hill-area residents said the neighborhood is already overtaxed by the H. Smith Richardson's golf course and its driving range, and said the narrow, winding roads leading to the Parsells property aren't suited for the traffic that softball games and tournaments will bring.

One such resident was Yvonne Zeisler, who lives on Hoyden's Hill Lane and decried a shortage of passive open space in town. While showing a poster-board map of Fairfield with the passive open space colored in green, she argued that the Parsells property has been kept as a meadow for the past four decades, mowed just once per year. She also said that while some have described the site dilapidated, she finds it "beautiful."

Kathryn Braun, R-8, proposed the town conduct an inventory of all of its athletic-field usage so that open space can be found to accommodate all youth and adult leagues with the exisiting facilities.

Currently, there are 20 "combination Little League and softball fields" in Fairfield -- 12 on town parks, eight within the school system, said Parks and Recreation Director Gerald Lombardo. Lombardo said more fields are needed and that more will continue to be needed even after the softball field goes in.

First Selectman Kenneth Flatto complained that some members of the RTM and public were politicizing a "what's-best-for-the-town" issue. Clearly frustrated by efforts to keep the Parsells property undeveloped, he addressed the body in a fiery manner.

"I wouldn't have spent [$1.8 million] for the property to have it stay as it is," he said.

Flatto described the site as "unsafe" now and said the house on the site is falling apart. He added that people have been using the site for illegal dumping, which has forced the Parks and Recreation Department and public works employees to clean the space twice.

Flatto concluded by stating that, in his memory, this is the first time in 20 years that the Parks and Recreation Commission, the parks and recreation director, the Conservation Commission and the conservation director all support a single project.

"Don't you think you should listen to their guidance?" he asked.

The resolution passed, 33--9.

The second resolution

With the property now under the Park and Recreation's oversight, the RTM turned to the matter of whether to bond the $350,000 for the softball field. The discussion quickly turned toward fiscal matters.

Chief Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller explained that, given the historically low interest rates now, the amount bonded would cost the median household in Fairfield 92.5 cents per year over the next 15 years.

Flatto said that the project's approval (or rejection) would neither add to nor subtract from the town's plan to bond $25 million over the next two years, which will go into effect next week. The town's "debt services" budget, he continued, has shrunk in recent years to about $23.5 million, which amounts to less than 10 percent of the town's total budget, the zone that credit rating agencies advise for municipalities, he said.

Even so, some residents and RTM members called for drawing a fiscally tough line in the turf regarding bonding -- and regarding spending at all. Alexis Harrison, R-2, summoned Christopher DeWitt, a Republican Board of Finance member, to the microphone to explain why he was the sole member of that board to vote against the softball field project on June 1.

DeWitt said he's uncomfortable with the level of bonding in Fairfield already. Harrison echoed DeWitt's point, as did David Becker, R-1. Becker added that the softball project has the potential to bring in revenue through hosting tournaments, but said he needed a better fleshed-out plan to be convinced that it would do so.

When it came time to vote, however, well after midnight, the narrow majority of RTM members present disagreed with DeWitt's sentiments.

Walking out of the Board of Education's conference room around 12:30 a.m., Lombardo -- with an aerial map of the Parsells site under one arm and several folders in hand -- paused to speak with a Hoydens Hill resident who had a "Vote No!" sticker still sticking to his polo shirt.

"We promise we'll be good neighbors," Lombardo said.