New Haven Independent

Last week, Ms. Morris changed a special meeting of the Board of Selectman scheduled for Wednesday, August 23, to Tuesday, the 22nd. Morris gave no more than the obligatory 24-hour notice. Two citizens showed up. One of the items centered on Alex Vigliotti’s latest effort to construct a 120 unit housing complex, the so-called “Founders Village,” in the middle of town. So far Mrs. Morris has refused pleas from abutting neighbors, RTM members and John Opie, the Third Selectman, to hire an attorney with expertise in affordable housing.

Last night Morris held another special Board of Selectmen’s meeting, again after only 24 hours notice. There was a small turnout. Word of mouth produced about a dozen citizens eager to voice their comments on an issue dear to the hearts of many: the Stony Creek Quarry, a unique place owned by the town and long linked to its history. “I learned about this meeting 45 minutes before it was to take place,” Mark Barnes, a former Quarry worker, told Mrs. Morris. “That’s no way to do business,” he declared. Morris sat as stony faced as the stone she spoke of as she described the town’s lease proposal with a new lease holder, Douglas Anderson of Stony Creek Granite Co., LLC.

More citizens might have shown up if they had known what was on the agenda. This is what the special selectmen’s meeting agenda, announced on Monday, August 28, said:

1. To consider and if appropriate approve an addendum to a lease.
2. Adjournment

Pam Fowler, a Republican member of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) asked Mrs. Morris why the agenda language “was so vague.” Mrs. Morris replied: “That was not our intention.”

Intention aside, the item is extremely vague, and may well violate Sec 1-225 of the Freedom of Information Act, which says an agenda of a special meeting must state “the time and place and business to be transacted.”

The only “business” the public learned about was an addendum to an unnamed lease. It was only at the meeting that citizens learned this was about the Stony Creek Quarry lease, most recently in the news because of Town Counsel Ed Marcus’s investigation into the quarry. (The 4th Granite-gate hearing takes place tonight at 7 p.m. at the Canoe Brook Center.)

One reason the public knew so little is that Shelley Marcus, town counsel #2, viewed the lease and its new addendum as “confidential.” John Opie, Republican Third Selectman, asked why, saying he had received his packet only the day before and it was marked confidential. She said it was “the prudent” thing to do. (More lawyer speak.) There was some urgency to this meeting because the contract has to be signed, sealed and delivered by 31 August.

Does the RTM have any say? Section 73-3 of the town code says that “No town agency, town officer or the Board of Selectmen shall acquire, sell, lease, mortgage, abandon, gift, transfer or encumber in any manner real property of the town until such action has been approved by a majority vote of the members of the RTM.”

But Shelley Marcus said quite emphatically: “this is an addendum to the lease,” not a lease per se, and her interpretation was that the town’s legislative body has no oversight role.

Mrs. Morris emphasized in her talking points that the main changes in the Quarry lease effective January, 2007, included raising the rent from $20,000 to $25,000 in quarterly installments, new guaranteed royalties of roughly $16,000 per year, a new security bond of $50,000, a new scale that worked, and so forth.

Last week the First Selectwoman conceded that while the current annual quarry monies were relatively small, in the $30,000 range, these funds could be used to fund the salary of a teacher, or a firefighter or a policeman. Opie, her Republican predecessor, gently chided her lack of knowledge last night, saying the funds from the quarry go directly to an Open Spaces fund, not to the general fund that is used to hire town employees.

It was Opie who outlined the contract’s major changes and its shift in philosophy. He said the contract required “aggressive” production of stone at the Quarry. “…It requires at least in the first year 5,000 tons per quarter, which is 20,000 tons per year. Stone weighs 1 ton per 12 cubic feet. What it amounts to is 20,000 tons of stone a year. That means about 240,000 cubic feet of stone…They have never done this kind of volume. These are record numbers.

“You are talking about 1,800 truckloads a year. And that is only in its cubic form. If it is broken up into grout, you are talking about a lot of trucks going in and out of there… If we go ahead with this contract, as much as I would like to see better management down there, I think you are looking at a lot more volume, if there is a market for it. I’m worried that we might be looking at a mining operation turning stone into gravel.”

Opie said he was even more concerned about Section 12 of the contract, the creation of Non Stony Creek Granite or NSCG products. Reference is made to “storage, processing and subsequent distribution.”

“That alarms me. It has never been done before. There is no cap on this, no limit to what could be done. The operator at will could bring in dirt, boulders, whatever in a reclamation process. I am concerned that we could be opening the door to an industrial operation in this otherwise quiet residential setting. If it turned into an industrial site, then $25,000 a year for 50 acres would be quite a bargain. “I can’t vote for the contract with this section in it.”

Anderson told the audience that he wasn’t particularly happy with the amount of tonnage required but “the town negotiated it.” It wasn’t an option, he told the group. It is not clear whether Mrs. Morris or the Marcus Law Firm directed the contract.

Barnes asked if the town would repave the lone country road that leads to the quarry, given anticipated truck overuse. He said it floods out. Mrs. Morris said she did not have an answer for that. Pam Roy asked whether crushing stone in great quantities would have an impact on the environment. Again Mrs. Morris had no answer. Barnes said if the quarry were now going to be used to produce “Non Stony Creek Granite” products that signaled a change in the use of the quarry and required a zoning variance. “It doesn’t seem to me that anybody thought about this,” Barnes added.

Afterwards, Morris would not comment. But Second Selectman Richard Sullivan told the Eagle that Anderson may well have to go before the zoning board. “It’s all on him,” adding that Anderson is a fine businessman, Branford born and bred.

So without any other legal analysis on the role of the RTM, without any truck traffic study, without any environmental study, without any discussion of whether a zoning variance was required and, lest we forget, without any valid notice to the public, a vote was taken.

The new contract was approved, 2-1. Opie voted no.
###

Sign Up for Email AlertsEmail This Story Email the Author

Your Email:

Recipient's Email:
Your Email:
Message (optional):

Your Name:
Your Email:
Message: