The fate of the bus lot now resides firmly in the courts, as the NF Board of Selectmen voted 2-1 to deny the petition for a special town meeting at a Thursday, August 25 special Board of Selectmen’s meeting.
Town residents spoke for nearly twenty minutes, addressing all the board members about the desire to locate the bus lot elsewhere, as well as their concerns about having the town fight itself in court. Earlier this summer, New Fairfield’s Permanent Building Committee (PBC) and the Board of Selectmen (BOS) took the matter to the law, with the Zoning Commission receiving a summons on June 30th after it voted to deny the PBC’s site plan application to build the bus lot at Consolidated. The Zoning Commission unanimously voted to hire legal counsel to represent them on July 20th.
“I cannot help but feel disappointed and overwhelmingly frustrated that we are having another meeting regarding the future use of the Consolidated site…we have engaged in what we thought was a fair fight and not only did we win, we won twice,” said resident Julie Stang.
Ken and Susan Huwer, the original proponents of the petition, also spoke at the meeting. “When a zoning application is denied, that doesn’t mean that an application has to be taken to Superior Court. There are other options within the Town’s domain to deal with this sort of thing…the Town vote will provide a fair, and just as important, quick resolution to the issue….” Ken Huwer said during remarks. Huwer went on to ask the BOS to release the costs for all the sites considered for the bus lot in town.
The bus lot location has been a continuously contested issue for over a year, with town officials and residents split about where the bus lot should be placed. The bus lot would contain a dispatch building and all the school buses that the Town’s elementary, middle, and high school students use. No additional buses are being added to the Town’s fleet.
Selectman Khris Hall said succinctly during her remarks, “My guess is that no matter where we put the bus lot, there will always be neighbors who are unhappy about it.” She went on to say, “In taking action tonight, we will likely make some portion of New Fairfield voters angry. So be it. My mandate is to wait and balance all concerns for all citizens before making a decision.”
The project has wound its way, controversially, through the zoning process. This navigation has been hotly debated and watched by town residents since its proposal, something the First Selectman Del Monaco remarked on during the closing of the August 25 meeting. She said, “unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation that’s out in the public about this school project, which is you know, very discouraging to me that it gets repeated and repeated. The PBC has spoken to the facts. I have published their report myself.”
By Timothy Koppe