Officials Try To Block BHC Sale

By Steve Bigham

State and local officials are trying to develop a new strategy to stave off the sale of the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company (BHC).

Earlier this week, the state’s Department of Utility Control (DPUC) blocked their efforts to participate in the sale of the utility company to a British firm. Even the arguments of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal weren’t enough to convince the DPUC. He is now seeking a legislative moratorium to protect the 20,000 acres worth of open space land now being threatened.

“We are on the verge of a disastrous land grab of historic proportions,” Mr. Blumenthal said.

A total of 684 acres of BHC-owned land lie in Newtown and with the pending sale to the British water company, Yorkshire, PLC, a subsidiary of Kelda Group, there is the chance that some of that land could be sold to a developer. Mr Rosenthal recently learned that BHC was already planning to sell 46 acres of its Newtown land prior to its talks with Yorkshire, PLC.

The British firm is reportedly on the verge of buying the company for $444 million and would assume $150 million worth of debt.

Mr Rosenthal said there is no indication that the Kelda Group plans to sell the land. Any sale, however, must first be offered to the town under a right of first refusal law. Mr Rosenthal wonders why Newtown and other towns were not offered right-of-first refusal on all BHC land currently up for sale.