Will the town’s Department of Public Works Building be built at Tabor?
For years First Selectman Anthony “Unk” DaRos and a public works buildings committee said yes in part because the town owns the 77-acre Tabor site. Now a site off Route 1 and near the center of town has become available and DaRos is taking the initial steps to possibly acquire it.
The 7.2‑acre site has been known for years to DaRos and to members of the committee studying locations for the building, but it was not for sale, DaRos confirmed Monday. As a result, it was not considered by either DaRos or the committee, which was formed in the fall of 2010 to search for sites for a new building.
Then some weeks ago, inquiries were made and the owner agreed to discuss the town’s purchase of the property. (The Eagle has agreed to wthhold the identity of the owner and property pending negotiations.)
DaRos briefed a group of his department heads and others about the site in recent weeks and is expected to discuss the new site with the building committee. (The public works building has been housed in a rental facility at 137 N. Branford Rd. since its former building on North Main St. was demolished in March 2011 to make way for the new fire headquarters.)
DaRos’s department heads, those who would be involved in land acquisition for a town building, were in favor of the new site. The property’s location, near the middle of town, allows easy access for public works trucks, usually the first responders in hurricanes and snow storms, to travel to different parts of town. DaRos has said in the past that any new site has to be operationally superior to the site at Tabor.
The disclosure of a new site would be a game changer because the town is now at an impasse on where to put the building. Click here to read about that. For nearly six months many neighbors living near the Tabor site have protested building the facility on ten acres of the Tabor site. While the Board of Selectmen (BOS) approved the Tabor site in November, DaRos has not sent the matter to the Board of Finance, which must first approve the vote before sending it to the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).
DaRos is scheduled to hold a meeting Tuesday afternoon with Fred Russo, a leader in the STOP P/W TABOR movement as it is called. The meeting is private but Russo announced it on various news sites and said he is prepared to report the results.
In recent weeks, individual home owners living near the Tabor site asked DaRos at a BOS meeting to meet with them and he agreed, but Russo decided it was better if he represented the homeowners. He told DaRos he will attend the meeting with a witness.
In a message Russo posted on a local news site, Russo told his supporters “I want to thank all you who submitted reasons why PW does not belong in Tabor. I am ready for the meeting and am well prepared. I don’t expect any swift decisions by Mr. DaRos but I will present him with a 24 page compilation of reasons why PW at Tabor is simply a bad idea. It should be an interesting meeting. I will report the results of the meeting to keep you informed.”
Russo has stated at several public meetings that there are 600 people who oppose the Tabor site, and that their concerns should be addressed.
HISTORY OF PROTEST MOVEMENT
An online petition opposing Tabor Drive was initiated last November by Ray Ingraham, who chairs the Republican Town Committee and is a member of the RTM; and Dennis Flanigan, a Republican and clerk of the RTM. Both men represent voters in the Tabor district.
Ingraham said the total number of people, which he said now exceeds 600, have expressed their opposition to Tabor either by signing an online petition, or by e‑mailing their concerns, or by placing a sign in their yards.
The Eagle recently asked Ingraham and Russo if there was a public listing of all the 600 names of people opposing the Tabor location, since only about 400 names are listed on the online petition, and about 40 of those are listed as anonymous. Ingraham said the anonymous names on the petition have been verified, and those that could not were removed.
Russo responded by e‑mail stating: “STOP TABOR is a community based grass roots organization that is made up of people from different political parties, socioeconomic backgrounds and a diverse age group that unanimously opposes the location of the Public Works Building at Tabor because there are other suitable industrial locations in and around Rt. 1.”
Russo went on to state: “The names of STOP TABOR supporters are strictly confidential. We have a number of supporters who do not wish to be publicly identified and have asked that their privacy be respected. I have had several requests from a variety of people asking for a list of our supporters. I cannot imagine what relevance there would be obtaining it and question the intentions of anyone who asks for it.”
Typically traditional paper petitions are public record and require a person’s signature and address.
Diana Stricker contributed reporting for this story.
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