Police Commission members last week reviewed the potential use of a Riverside Road property as the site for a memorial to the 26 people who died in the December 14, 2012, shooting incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Kyle Lyddy, chairman of the town's Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission, attended an October 4 Police Commission session to discuss the suitability of using some land at a 6-acre property at 28 Riverside Road as a memorial site. That property and an abutting 0.85-acre property at 32 Riverside Road are owned by Boys Social and Athletic Club of Sandy Hook, Inc, a nonprofit group.

The 28 Riverside Road property holds a garage used by Newtown Underwater Search And Rescue. The 32 Riverside Road site holds a single-family house.

The 28 Riverside Road property is commonly known as SAC Field due to the presence of an old baseball field and soccer field there. The site is near the new Sandy Hook School, which has a street address of 12 Dickinson Drive.

Police Commission members discussed the public safety/security aspects of using the property as a memorial site. The Police Commission also is the local traffic authority.

Mr Lyddy told Police Commission members that the memorial commission is scheduled to meet at 7:30 pm on Thursday, October 13, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street, to vote on whether to pursue the Riverside Road site as the preferred location for a memorial.

The memorial commission has considered many possible locations for a Sandy Hook School memorial. It recently ended consideration of a Nunnawauk Road site near that road's intersection with Wasserman Way, deciding that the proximity of a target shooting range made that location an inappropriate site for a memorial. In July, the memorial commission formally dropped a proposal for a memorial at the High Meadow at Fairfield Hills, after encountering stiff opposition from environmental groups.

The ad hoc memorial commission's charge is to make a formal recommendation to the Board of Selectmen on the site and nature of a memorial for that site.

Mr Lyddy said the trustees of the nonprofit group that owns SAC Field are open to having the site used for a memorial. Memorial committee members toured the site on September 14.

Mr Lyddy said that SAC Field is located in a residential area, noting that residents living in that area may be concerned about increased foot traffic that the presence of a memorial would generate.

Memorial commission members have been discussing the suitability of the SAC Field site for a memorial with the Parks and Recreation Department, Mr Lyddy said.

To the passerby, SAC Field is not visible from Riverside Road.

"It's kind of an unknown field back there," Mr Lyddy noted. The field is overgrown, he said.

Police Commission Chairman Joel Faxon said that using the site for a memorial would require the extension of utilities to the property.

Police Lieutenant David Kullgren said that computer networking cable also would need to be extended to the site.

Such a memorial site would need some degree of lighting, as well as video surveillance equipment for security purposes.

Mr Lyddy noted that while there are few neighbors in the immediate area of SAC Field, the memorial commission is sensitive to the concerns of the people who live nearby.

George Lockwood, Sr, who is a trustee for the owners of SAC Field, said October 5 that besides the baseball field and soccer field, the site holds two ponds.

Mr Lockwood said that if the site were to become the location of a memorial, the two properties' current owners would donate the 6.85 acres for that purpose. Mr Lockwood said access to the property would be provided at 32 Riverside Road. The two properties have R-2 (Residential) zoning.

Following the October 4 Police Commission meeting, Mr Lyddy said it is yet unclear what physical form a memorial would take. After a site is selected, the memorial committee would seek proposals for the design of such a memorial.