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Newtown plans on spending $850,000 to demolish a dilapidated town owned property at 28A Glen Road and to clean up a vacant lot, both in Sandy Hook. Newtown, Conn, Thursday, June 9, 2022.
Newtown plans on spending $850,000 to demolish a dilapidated town owned property at 28A Glen Road and to clean up a vacant lot, both in Sandy Hook. Newtown, Conn, Thursday, June 9, 2022.
Newtown plans on spending $850,000 to demolish a dilapidated town owned property at 28A Glen Road and to clean up a vacant lot, both in Sandy Hook. Newtown, Conn, Thursday, June 9, 2022.
Newtown plans on spending $850,000 to demolish a dilapidated town owned property at 28A Glen Road and to clean up a vacant lot, both in Sandy Hook. Newtown, Conn, Thursday, June 9, 2022.
NEWTOWN — Plans to remove industrial toxins and demolish vacant buildings at an abandoned site in Sandy Hook would rid the village of a longstanding eyesore and contribute to a revitalization of Glen Road.
“It’s going to benefit all of Sandy Hook to have this property cleaned up,” said Christal Preszler, Newtown’s deputy director for economic and community development, after the Legislative Council approved an $850,000 bond for the remediation project.
Preszler is referring to a 1.6-acre property that Newtown took over for back taxes that is contaminated with cyanide, arsenic and other toxins from its history as a metals manufacturing operation.
One-quarter mile north of Sandy Hook center, the eyesore property is next door to an 1898 Victorian that a local builder recently received permission to adapt into apartments, commercial space and a restaurant.
The eyesore property is also just north of a 1-acre dirt lot that leaders plan to transform into a trailhead and a park with a pavilion for special events.
Part of the $850,000 in borrowing approved by Newtown could be used in the clean-up of the town-owned lot. Much of the lot cleanup and infrastructure work to prepare parking spaces will be paid for through a $128,000 grant from the state’s Small Town Economic Assistance Program, Preszler said.
“We are almost ready to release a request for proposals for the work,” Preszler said.
The plan is for Newtown to lease the improved lot for a nominal fee long term to the local business group Sandy Hook Organization for Prosperity, which has been raising money to build a $250,000 pavilion for live events during the warm weather season.
The cleanup of the town-owned eyesore is the latest in a series of actions Newtown has taken to identify the scope of contamination at the site and hire experts to remediate it.
The town has already removed underground storage tanks and “large vats of ‘green solution’…which may have been a wire drawing lubricant containing copper sulfate.”
A grant funded environmental assessment prepared for the town in 2020 documented the property’s history.
“The structures include one private residence, three industrial buildings and two shed structures that were constructed between 1824 and 1947,” the report said. “The site was residential until the Watkins family added industrial buildings and began metal machining operations on cast iron and steel in the early 1930s. From 1974 to 1990, R.S. Watkins & Sons added welding, and brass wire drawing and annealing operations.”
Michael Burton, a local builder whose plans to redevelop the 120-year-old Victorian next door were approved, said he would grade his property in such a way that it would allow access to the town-owned property should the town decide to dispose of it or develop it.
Burton’s plans call for the expansion and renovation of the 4,400-square-foot Victorian and the construction of two buildings — a smaller 2,000-square-foot commercial building to one side of the home and a 7,200-square-foot residential building behind the home where six market-rate apartments would be built.
rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
Rob Ryser is a career journalist with a rare flair for storytelling. He specializes in City Hall coverage and general assignment features.