FAIRFIELD — Perhaps no one was happier than Lynn Thomann and Lynne Pashkoff that the Representative Town Meeting approved the Fire Department's $2.08 million plan to install more fire suppression lines in the town's Greenfield Hill section.

But Thomann and Pashkoff don't think it's fair the town will charge residents who live near the planned lines an estimated $9,123 to hook into the town water system for service to their homes. That fee does not include the cost of laying pipe from the fire suppression lines to the residents' homes.

"We're very unhappy with the cost of the hookup. We feel we're being discriminated against," Pashkoff said outside Osborn Hill School after the RTM's 28-14 vote.

Thomann said, "I don't see how they can charge us more than they did the Burr Street people."

About two years ago the town installed fire suppression lines on Burr Street and North Street and charged homeowners $5,500 to hook into those lines for water service.

"I think, basically, they're being a little bit cheap here," Thomann said of the town.

Greenfield Hill residents, Thomann said, helped to pay for the $45 million overhaul of the sewage treatment plant on One Rod Highway, even though they don't have sewer lines.

Thomann predicted the town would get less money than it would if residents were charged $6,000, which was the original hookup fee.

DeeDee Brandt, R-3, said the estimated $9,123 hookup fee sounded arbitrary, unfair and "really kind of discriminatory."

Board of Finance Chairman Kevin Kiley said it sounded like Greenfield Hill residents would be charged a high fee simply because they can afford to pay it. "This is what we call means-based government. The town of Fairfield doesn't do that, folks," Kiley said.

Kiley said the project's cost and the number of households capable of tying into the lines also was not certain.

But First Selectman Kenneth Flatto said the fire suppression project would not cost Greenfield Hill homeowners anything — if they choose not to hook into the lines for water service.

"This resolution contains no tax or required payment by anybody for the fire suppression lines," Flatto said. "I think that this is a fair proposal."

Under the plan approved Monday night, homeowners will not be charged for the 3.5 miles of fire suppression lines and 26 fire hydrants if they do not hook into the lines for water service in their homes.

If they do, they will be charged an amount equivalent to 1/228th of the project's cost. That is because the town wants to recover 50 percent of the cost and 114 homeowners would be able to tie into the lines.

Homeowners would have three years to pay the hookup fee, but if they pay in a single installment within two years, they will get a 20 percent discount.

Wayne Parks, R-3, tried to give homeowners 20 years to pay off the hookup fee, but Eileen Kennelly, an assistant town attorney, said the RTM wasn't allowed to do that.

Fire Capt. George Gomola said more than 99 percent of Fairfield homes would be within 2,000 feet of a fire hydrant after the upcoming project is finished.

Andrew Brophy, who covers Fairfield, can be reached at 330-6255.