$950,000 Gould Manor Park Cleanup And Renovation Project Underway

FAIRFIELD, CT — Work is underway to clean up Gould Manor Park, a town property long associated with the contamination and public corruption scandal that shook Fairfield in 2019.

Remediation started Monday at the park, after town bodies in June approved $950,000 in bonds to fund the cleanup as well as a complete overhaul of the facilities at Gould Manor.

“I know it took longer than residents would like to get this project started,” First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said Tuesday in a town news release. “However, I want to remind residents that remediation work has to go through the regulatory agencies, which is a time-consuming process. We must make sure that any potential contaminated sites are tested and cleaned up properly.”

Possible asbestos was reported along the sidewalks at the park, first in 2014, and then in 2019, when police became involved and testing confirmed the presence of asbestos shingles, as well as elevated levels of arsenic and lead in the soil.

The contaminants were tied to soil from the town fill pile, Kupchick has said, which was distributed several years ago to public sites across town. The mismanagement of the pile has been under investigation for years, and seven former town employees and contractors face charges. Additionally, Fairfield’s former police chief and former first selectman are being considered co-conspirators, court documents have said, although they have not been charged.

Contamination associated with the pile has already been remediated at Gould Manor, but further testing revealed arsenic throughout the park that was separate, historic in nature and required cleaning up, Kupchick has said.

The park, which Selectman Tom Flynn at a meeting in June called “ground zero for the issues we’ve had,” has been fenced off and inaccessible to the public.

“I would rather, given what it represents to the community, that we address it once, and we address it as completely as possible,” Flynn said at the time.

The remediation plan, which was approved in July by state health officials, is being handled by contractor Cisco and will be finished in late August.

The cleanup is just the beginning of a full renovation of the park, which will include improving the Little League fields, rebuilding the tennis court, installing a new pickleball court and a new half-court for basketball, replacing the large playground, and swapping the small playground for an outdoor fitness park.

Gould Manor will be under construction for several months, and town officials request residents stay off the property through the winter.

“We look forward to unveiling the new and improved Gould Manor Park in the spring of 2022,” Kupchick said in the news release.