Is A Military Base Coming?

Officials Still Do Not Know

By Kendra Bobowick

Despite the new year and fresh layer of snow, town officials still have no new tracks to follow to learn if the military wishes to establish a training base in Newtown. With 2009 already working its way through January, has the first selectman heard from his military contacts?

 “As a matter of fact, no, I have not,” said Joe Borst on Monday. Newtown is one of several sites eyed by the federal government for a training center per the base reassignment and closure (BRAC) program. “I was going to call them this afternoon.” And he did.

Speaking with his contact, Base Transition Coordinator Gary Puryear, Mr Borst explained, “He tells me there is much discussion. The upper brass is still discussing it.” When they do arrive at a decision regarding Newtown, they will tell Mr Puryear, who will tell Mr Borst. But the answer will come in its own time.

“He did not give the impression he would push,” Mr Borst said. “It’s out of his hands; it’s with the upper brass.”

December 2008 had closed without a clear understanding of what the military’s next move would be after it first expressed interest in the High Meadow at Fairfield Hills in October. The meadow sits along the upward slopes along Wasserman Way heading uphill toward Reed Intermediate School. Residents and officials are protective of the open spaces in and surrounding Fairfield Hills, however.

Mr Borst turned the military’s attention to the technology park site off Commerce Road. How would the town react, the military wanted to know. They sought an answer by Thanksgiving.

Quickly, as November drew closer to the holiday, the first selectman had asked the Economic Development Commission and the Conservation Commission — two groups with an interest in how and if the technology park site is developed — to weigh the possibility of a training base there. The Economic Development Commission members felt that the question was larger than their board alone should answer. The conservation members simply did not like the thought of the base settling along the land accessible from Commerce Road, but also sitting so close to the Pootatuck and Deep Brook Rivers.

Conservation Commission Chairman Joe Hovious commented on the tech park site: “We [feel] open space should be preserved for use by the people of Newtown.” He also worried that the town would lose control of the land to the federal government.

Economic Development Commission members also questioned whether a one-time sale was a sound economic turn. If the BRAC training facility does come to Newtown, the deal would provide a one-time purchase price, rather than annual revenue. In November, Director of Planning and Community Development Elizabeth Stocker had said, “It’s a one-time payment and doesn’t seem to go beyond that,” when compared to a similar building on the books for real estate and property taxes.

If not the High Meadow, and not the tech park site, then where could a base be located? Keeping an open mind, Mr Borst had said this week that the Batchelder property, which would require significant cleanup and abatement, is a possibility. The abandoned buildings and overgrown lot sit at the corner of Botsford Hill, where the street passes on a 90-degree turn below the train tracks.

Mr Borst, with the help of articles and letters to the editor published in The Bee, had offered to the military the town’s reactions. Now, he will wait. “We have no indication of when we might have an answer,” he said Monday.

Despite opposition to placing the base at Fairfield Hills, and objections to the economic benefits of a base, Mr Borst weighed other factors. Noting the declining economy, he said, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”