Waiting For An Answer On A Military Base

By Kendra Bobowick

Everyone is waiting: the first selectman, the army corps of engineers, and residents concerned about the location of a military training base in Newtown.

Does the Army intend to pursue land in the Technology Park area off of Commerce Road? “I just don’t have any response from the chain of command at this time,” wrote Todd Hornback, US Army Corps of Engineers representative in Kentucky. He serves as a contact for Newtown officials. In another email he indicated, “We have not received additional guidance from the Secretary of the Army’s office on the Newtown project.” The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) has identified Newtown as a potential site for a training base. (Visit Brac.gov for information on the commission.)

Mr Hornback awaits a reply regarding First Selectman Joe Borst’s most recent letter of March 30, declining the army’s offer to purchase land at the Technology Park site off Commerce Road.

Mr Borst’s letter explained: “The purpose of this letter is to formally confirm … my statements relative to the non-availability of the High/East Meadows of Fairfield Hills and the Tech Park property.” He noted that his fellow selectmen had indicated the same news to the Army during separate inquiries. In past months town officials declined offers first on the High Meadow in Fairfield Hills along Wasserman Way and across from the Second Company Governor’s Horse Guard, and have now specified that the Tech Park also is not for sale.

As Mr Hornback awaits an answer, so does Mr Borst. The first selectman concluded his correspondence, “I would appreciate receiving a letter acknowledging the Town of Newtown’s position on the subject matter.” The letter went out as certified mail and Mr Borst confirmed that it arrived in Kentucky on April 2. “We shall pursue their response,” he said. Mr Hornback confirmed for The Bee that they have received the March 30 letter, which is now under review.

Mr Borst raised the subject during a Board of Selectmen’s meeting Monday, April 6. Addressing Selectmen Paul Mangiafico and Herb Rosenthal, he stressed his message to the army: “We’re not interested in selling that property and losing the economic development.”

In an April 2 letter to Mr Borst, Conservation Commission Chairman Joe Hovious stressed again his commission’s findings from November when Mr Borst had asked for responses to the possibility of locating a training base at the Technology Park site.

The commission recommended against a facility in that area for five reasons: the preservation of open space for residents’ use; concern that army security will hinder and discourage public access to existing and future open space along Deep Brook, Trades Lane, Watertown Lane, and Old Farm Road that is currently used by a variety of hikers, dog walkers, fishers, runners, cross country skiers, and others; the loss of short- and long-term input through reviews by town agencies and commissions regarding the area’s use; the proposal to conduct vehicle maintenance in the Pootatuck aquifer protection area; and the creation of a potential military or terrorist target in proximity to three schools, three preschools, and a church.

Land use officers later determined that the United States Department of Agriculture would be concerned with the base over a sole source aquifer zone.