On July 29, 2019 the Fairfield Citizen reported that the town’s Superintendent of Public Works was “accused by police of accepting bribes and favors to allow a local construction company to dump truckloads of demolition material containing high levels of PCBs and lead onto property adjacent to the public works garage.” On August 6th, 2019 the Director of Public Works, Superintendent of Public Works and co-owner of a local construction company were arrested and charged with illegally dumping hazardous waste on public property. The associated affidavits were nothing less than stunning. Since then we have seen a Soprano’esque scheme recounted where – it appears – the Town of Fairfield hired a contractor that intentionally took in hazardous waste and then spread it as fill throughout the town. To date PCB’s, Lead, Arsenic and Asbestos have been found at the fill pile and in parks and fields throughout Fairfield.
What makes this situation exponentially worse is that problems with fill being used in town projects were identified as far back as five years ago by my wife and others. Our family sent 19 emails over a period of more than 15 months between Jan of 2014 and May of 2015 regarding glass and ASBESTOS tiles alongside the sidewalk, near children’s playing fields, at Gould Manor Park. ELEVEN of these emails were copied to First Selectman Tetreau. When we heard reports of PCBs and lead at the Fill Pile we immediately thought of our previous concerns and the lackadaisical response by the town. It was then, on July 31st and August 1st, 2019, that Dana reached out to the police detective in charge of the fill pile investigation as well as the State’s Attorney office. Within days the Fairfield Police, Fairfield Health Department and CT Department of Energy & Environment Protection (DEEP) had descended upon Gould Manor Park.
What takes this situation from what has been aptly described as a horrible loss for all Fairfielders to over-the-top infuriating – is that First Selectman Tetreau has clearly placed his political viability ahead of the safety of this citizen’s he has been charged with serving. The political spin from Mr. Tetreau has ranged from dissembling to complete falsehoods in public meetings. As of September 16th, 2019 there is new information that has come to light that demonstrates that First Selectman Tetreau knew about fill issues at additional fields – beyond Gould Manor circa 2015. Further, these new revelations make it clear that the First Selectman was interacting with his team about fill issues on playing fields as far back as four years ago. These facts create more questions than answers – which we will explore as time allows. But one thing is clear, if Dana had not contacted the police and State’s Attorney Office, we have no doubt that children would be playing on contaminated fields in Fairfield today.
Dana & Tim Kery