Marcia Chambers Photo
Branford Hills Park
Nestled in an area of dense condos and apartments, local neighborhood folks are throwing a party this Sunday in honor of their first park, a 13-acre area they fought hard to keep.
The site of what was once the Branford Hills Elementary School, at the intersection of Jefferson Road and Burban Drive, will serve residents with green space, a playground, a basketball court, and ball fields for kids of all ages.
Marcia Chambers Photo
The park party, which runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., was the idea of those living in the neighborhood. The town’s Parks and Recreation department, which will oversee the Branford Hills Park, has happily joined in. So has the Branford Early Childhood Collaborative. The event is free, and will offer live music, dancing, DJ, food trucks, basketball, soccer & sack races. There will be face painting, button making, and a Live Photo booth.
A Park Welcoming
The organizers say the purpose of the party is to welcome the park to “our diverse community,” to get to know one another and to enjoy outdoor life at the first park this neighborhood has known. The Sunday party is not a formal event to dedicate the park, but a local party designed by those seeking a new community spirit.
The event is free and is expected to draw some former teachers from the Branford Hills School, which was built in 1955 and was used as a school until 1991. The school was demolished after independent evaluations found it to be deteriorating. The area around the school site, once farmland, is now dense with condominiums and apartment housing.
Victoria (Tory) Armentrout, a Branford Hills resident and one of the leaders of the event, told the Eagle that she proposed the party event to several of the Fourth District legislators “who agreed that a family oriented multi-cultural ‘Party at the Park’ would be a wonderful way to unite this vibrant and diverse community.” Robin Comey, a community organizer from nearby Short Beach, joined the effort. So did Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members Maryann Amore and Adam Hansen.
Branford Hills School was built the same time as Pine Orchard School on Birch Road, which is now the Branford Early Learning Center. Going way back in time, the town built elementary schools in pairs throughout the town rather than in centralized locations.
Armentrout said, “We are very pleased to also honor many of the past administrators, teachers and students of Branford Hills School — who will show photos, and talk briefly of why the park is so named. The School lives fondly in the memory of so many from this close knit group, many of whom are teaching still today!”
Two years ago, First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove thought a park at the site was a fine idea. “The property is nice. My feeling now is that area is underserved by any park so we have an idea of what to use that property for – a park, practice fields for lacrosse, soccer.”
But his words did not mean the park was a done deal.
A Conflict Develops
If things had gone the way Republican RTM Majority Leader Ray Ingraham (R‑5th) wanted them to go Branford Hills might have become the site for a renovated Parkside Village. Parkside Village is located in Ingraham’s Fifth District where RTM moderator Dennis Flanagan also lives.
Last April both Republican leaders set out to create a new RTM committee to look into the idea of using the 13-acre property at Branford Hills for Parkside, an affordable housing facility that serves the disabled and the poor. Cosgrove, also a Republican, listened.
But it soon became clear that neither Ingraham nor Flanagan had done their homework. Both believed the RTM committee could hear, vote, and send the issue directly to the RTM for a vote, where the Republicans hold the majority.
While the Branford Hills School site is owned by the town and while the RTM must approve any transfer of town property under section 73 – 3, the RTM’s duty is to ratify or not ratify the actions of another board or commission that has ruled on the issue. In this instance, no other board or commission had voted. It was this special RTM sub-committee that thought it could take testimony, investigate and then decide the issue on its own.
On the night the matter came before the RTM, the room was packed with Branford Hills neighbors who came on behalf of their promised park.
Kurt Schwanfelder, who served on the RTM for 23 years, came to the sub-committee meeting to set the record straight. It turned out that Schwanfelder had written the ordinance under review.
“You are here to either approve or reject a request from another board,” he told the committee. Yet there had been no such request. If they acted, he said, “You are opening a precedent that goes against our charter,” adding “this meeting shouldn’t even be happening.”
Then RTM member Bob Imperato, who lives in the Branford Hills district, took the lead at the April meeting. Within 20 minutes of opening the meeting, the five-member committee voted unanimously to take no action. This effectively removed the topic from the RTM Call. The Branford Hills audience burst into applause, applause that continues this Sunday.
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