Westfield Residents Association reacts to Army Corps of Engineer's Preferred Site List

Last night, the army presented the results of their "new", "open and collaborative" search for a site suitable for the construction of a military training facility. They examined 15 sites in total, rejected 11 of them, and now have 4 sites that they are considering more seriously. The Army's information page is quite informative and has links to the presentation last night (http://lrlcoepao.wordpress.com/).
Coverage in the media is here:

• Middletown Eye
• Middletown Press
• Hartford Courant
  

Here are the 11 that they rejected, the army determined that either they would be unable to build the facilities on budget and on time, or there were simply not enough buildable acres:

1. CL&P (River Road)
2. Aircraft Road
3. Middle and Bell (Manthay property)
4. Roscommon Office Park
5. Country Club Road (on Mt. Higby)
6. Middle Street (Delta site)
7. Atkins (golf course)
8. Freeman Road
9. Saybrook Road
10. Tollgate Road
11. Pratt and Whitney

The four sites that are under active consideration are the following (there is no ranking, just an alphabetical order):

1. Boardman Lane with access from Ken Dooley Drive
2. Bysiewicz Office Park (Middle Street, opposite Smith Street)
3. Cucia Park (Smith Street, opposite Industrial Park Road)
4. Mile Lane (the current army facility)
   

Many Westfield residents expressed their outrage against the continued presence of Boardman Lane on the list. Aides to Congresswoman DeLauro and Senator Dodd voiced their concern over this as well, "My boss will not be pleased, to say the least". Matt Fritz, from Governor Rell's office, attended.

Next:

• Share your opinion with the army! The army has set up a web site where comments will be posted. All comments posted before September 29th will be part of the site selection report that the Corps will send to the Army Reserve.
  TO SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS, GO HERE: http://lrlcoepao.wordpress.com/
• Express your thanks to Dodd, Lieberman, DeLauro, and Rell for sending staff members. Express to them any concerns or opinions you have about how the army is proceeding. Our federal officials have the most power over the army. All of their contact information is on the WRA web site (http://wramiddletown.org/polsContacts.html)
• There will be another meeting in 2 weeks, around September 29th.