Reader Opinion: Alleged Misuse of State Funds

Below is a letter to the Eye from member of the public. All opinions expressed are that of the author and not necessarily that of the Eye, all responsibility of claims made rest soley on the author below. Eye is publishing this letter as a courtesy to our readers.

Dear Members of the Media-

I am writing to inform you of some improprieties and mismanagement of State Assets. The Connecticut Vally Hospital has made the decision to disband its Volunteer Fire Brigade and reallocate its career firefighters to perform Inspection duties only on the CVH Campus. This has put the burden of fire protection on the tax payers of South District (Middletown) whom receive zero dollars in PILOT (Payment in lieu of taxes) money to offset the costs. CVH is also in the process of renovating the Firehouse at on its Campus at cost of over $200,000. This with the purpose to house a Engine Company from South District at the direction of the South District Board of Fire Commissioners and the Connecticut Valley Hospital Administrators. The Engine company will only be staffed from the hours of 8AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday and furthermore, leaves the Campus with a delayed response for over 16 hours a day. This Engine Company however is not just dedicated to the CVH Campus, it must respond to calls in South District. This delays its response to its citizens as well as leaves the CVH campus without fire protection and emergency services when 911 emergencies exist in its district. We believe this is a gross misallocation of money and resources in a time of great fiscal constraint. The use of South Fire District firefighters whom have never been trained at this highly specialized facility not only put their own lives in jeopardy but those of the staff and patients that reside and work at CVH. The 3 full time firefighters still remain trained and able but are no longer being utilized for their much needed specialized skills required to perform safe and effective emergency operations at CVH. The Connecticut Police and Fire Union strongly encourages members of the media to investigate independently and expose these great wasted resources as well as the jeopardy to life safety that now exists at one Connecticut's last Mental Health Hospitals.

Respectfully,

Chris Brewer

Vice President

CT Police and Fire Union

IAFF Local S-15

50 Columbus Blvd

Hartford, CT 06106

860-953-2626 Office

860-205-9228 Cell

Opinion: South Fire District

Commentary below is a letter of opinion authored by Middletown resident Daniel Penney. It is his opinion only, and does not represent the opinion of The Middletown Eye news blog, the poster of this letter, or any other contributors of the Middletown Eye blog.

9/22/2011

To the editor:

Vested taxpayers of the South Fire District of the City of Middletown remain very concerned with the surprising and most recent developments relative to CVH Fire Department services at the CVH campus . There has been discussion that the South Fire District (SFD) taxpayers will have to pay for overtime expenses associated with new backup coverage at the SFD headquarters. Also, it was recently confirmed that staff and fire apparatus resources funded by the SFD taxpayers have been stationed on the CVH campus.

Additionally there was mention of an 'agreement' involving CVH and the South Fire District. The first question is by whom and under what authority? If in error I stand corrected but I believe that the CT CGS/Fire Codes are very clear in that the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) for fire safety compliance matters at CVH State of CT property and buildings would be the CT Office of State Fire Marshall (OSFM), and not the South Fire District.

At the September 12, 2011 monthly meeting of the South Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners (see web page with meeting notices and minutes, digital recordings of meetings are also available, as posted minutes are only summaries of meetings) it was presented that the district had reassigned a primary fire apparatus and significant staff to be located on the Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH) campus on a 'trial basis'. Such a trial was further represented as more an evaluation of SFD response time throughout the district and less associated with the significant change in services being provided at CVH.

At this same meeting it was shared that a legal opinion of such actions was to be obtained via counsel retained by the SFD once a recently developed conflict of interest question could be resolved relative to said legal representation.

In recent conversation with the SFD Chief it was confirmed that a written agreement is nonexistent. It has also been confirmed that the SFD has requested upgrades of the fire headquarters building located on the CVH campus, using CVH funding. Such an accommodation would suggest a more permanent arrangement.

There have been questions raised by the public at the SFD monthly meetings, for some time, relative to PILOT funding administration. Other possible and related issues may also fall under purview of CT DOL (different union firefighter locals), TJC (Environment of Care accreditation patient safety /physical environment performance standards), CT DPH (Buildings and Fire Safety/mixed campus occupancies/licensure), as well as CT OPM and the CT State Auditors which it seems both would have an interest in allocations of public funds as well as compliance matters associated with of the original CGS based Charter for the SFD.

The SFD fixed budget is set via an annual budget process that identifies district expenses and is voted on via a referendum. Minimally, it seems that the opportunity for public hearings and mandated voting would have been provided for the some 7000 registered voters / residents of the south fire district, relative to such new and significant operational matters.

Most concerning is that new overtime cost and the expenses incurred relative to relocating a critical fire vehicle with SFD staffing to the CVH campus has been placed directly on the backs of the SFD taxpayers. One may also question how daily firefighter task at the SFD headquarters are being completed with staff being pulled. The SFD includes a significant population of seniors who live on fixed incomes as well as a good number of small business ventures.

Additionally, with the new practice of locating a SFD vehicle on the remote CVH campus, travel distance for this SFD vehicle responding from the CVH campus to a good number of SFD residential locations has more than doubled, presenting new fire safety/response time concerns as well as homeowner and insurance rate questions.

The challenge for the State of CT / DMHAS/ CVH Administration, is to work with the designated labor groups on the CVH campus and creatively utilize existing resources to provide the necessary services needed to assure that both staff and client safety in such a specialized behavioral health driven environment are best maintained, especially as such relates to TJC accreditation and CT DPH licensure. It seems that the SFD should only be involved on a cost effective strict MUTUAL AIDE basis, as is common practice throughout the State and with other fire services within Middletown as well as in nearby towns. The CVH also has the unique long established practice of having volunteer fire services integrated in its existing campus operations. From a cost effectiveness perspective, it is critical that CVH maintain such operational flexibility. CVH is equally well positioned to handle most of its own emergency calls, which are medical in nature, with the presence of highly skilled, behavioral health focused, medical and support staff on site.

There are a good number of retired and working professionals in our SFD community with extensive experience in such patient/staff fire safety, compliance, operational and public policy matters (hospitals facility/engineering professionals , TJC accreditation /DPH licensure compliance, retired SFD Fire Commissioners, retired State Firefighters etc.), driven by a focus to control taxes in our district, whom I'm sure would volunteer their time to bring forward creative ideas that would focus on enhanced and cost effective opportunities for improvement of CVH Fire Department Services.

A CVH organized review committee that also includes such technical content experts, from the public/community, would be a good starting point and certainly in the best interest of the South Fire District taxpayers.

Daniel J. Penney

Commentary above is a letter of opinion authored by Middletown resident Daniel Penney. It is his opinion only, and does not represent the opinion of The Middletown Eye news blog, the poster of this letter, or any other contributors of the Middletown Eye blog.

CVH Workers Rally in Protest - Wednesday Merrit Hall Middletown

The facts: Under currently proposed state budget cuts, 115 staff members will be laid off and 80 detox beds will be cut at Merrit Hall , which houses the state Mental Health & Addiction Services Division, part of the Connecticut Valley Hospital campus in Middletown. 20 beds will remain open.

Service Employee International Union District 1199, which represents state healthcare workers is asking its members to rally in protest at noon Wednesday July 20 outside of Merrit Hall in Middletown. The facility at Merrit Hall treats many people ordered to seek treatment thru the court system and or do not have health insurance, this treatment would be absorbed by local hospitals.

Information can be found on the union's website : http://www.seiu1199ne.org/

The group In This Together.org are also planing to attend the rally. In This Together.org is a grass roots advocacy organization of past and present state workers, concerned citizens, and individuals who have utilized state services and have organized to lobby for those services to remain part of the budget in Connecticut. For more information : http://inthistogetherct.org/who-we-are/

We The People

Observed around noon on the corner of Main Street and College Street, a group of CVH employees protesting what they say are racist practices in their workplace.

Literature that I obtained from the protesters reads as follows:

" Peoples Manifesto

Undoing Racism at Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH)

We the People of Color are the victims of an unrelenting and systemic level of institutionalized racism and classism that permeates us at CVH.

We the People are tired of discrimination practices at CVH.

We the People are informing all that this issue of racial and class bias within CVH has most recently been aggravated by the reassignment of an African-American man in Nursing Support to another location.

We the People are committed to assuring that the racial class imbalance at CVH senior administration END TODAY, and that CVH Senior Management and Decision Makers finally mirror those in the work force it serve.

We the People are tired of workplace bullying by management.

We the People can no longer accept being victims of disparate treatment.

We the People in supervisory roles get minimum management support than our caucasians co-workers.

We the People have a lack of confidence and trust in management. This is based on evidence of disciplinary matters and yearly performance appraisals.

We the People are looking for equality and fairness when applying for positions and promotions.

We the People will no longer accept being singled out because of the color of our skin. "

Happy Halloween Middletown Style

So I guess you could call this piece an editorial or a personal account. I don't really know which, or the purpose, but I grew up in Middletown and now in post-college years have found myself back here again. I suppose this town and experiences here have influenced my observations of the darker side of life, or should we say the lighter side of death? Today is Halloween, which has brought about a flood of memories for me.

I think it was when I was about 7 or 8 when, back in the mid 1990's, my dreams of what my adulthood would became a little more realistic and a lot less fantastical: I was not going to grow up magically be a movie star, turn blonde and be given a pink corvette by a boyfriend who looked like "Ken." I think this is when I became gravitated toward people who didn't travel with the pack, and who were a little out side of the norm, and thus the attraction I have always felt to the unique. At the time m y best friend and I started a "Mystery Club" because we were obsessed with the PBS show "Ghostwriter;" granted we were the only members.

I was never a brave kid. I spent days with my grandmother in the house my grandfather built. After someone broke into the home in the middle of the day when no one was home, that's probably when I became aware of malice. The idea that someone or something could be present when you were not expecting it, that invasions of my sense of safety were possible. What if the robbers weren't really gone but hiding in or watching the house? If unwanted persons could come into my bubble then why not other more scary things? I remember being too scared get up at night when I slept at Grandma's to go to the bathroom alone; she finally got a little upset and said, "Trust me there are no such thing as ghosts, If i died tomorrow and you stood on my grave and cried for me to get you a glass of water, you would die first waiting." This made me laugh and things were good for a while.

I went to Sunday school for a few years growing up, right on Main Street at First Baptist Church. Mostly because Mom thought I should be "well rounded", herself a Protestant, and because it was a great baby-sitter for a few hours. I mostly stopped going when we started going camping weekends, and when I realized other kids' parents usually went with them, not just dropped them off. Plus they stopped doing arts & crafts in the upper grades, bummer for me. The main issue was my parents unique conflict of beliefs, something which I now am proud of, and has made me be more open minded . It was the 1990's when the show "The X Files" began, which revitalized my Dad's interest in conspiracy theories. I suppose this too fueled my desire to be with the "out" crowd rather than the "in." He began taping documentaries on the JFK assassination, accounts of UFOs, and Nostrodamus. I think for the first time I saw my Dad read a book. I remember at night being upstairs and hearing the strange sounds from the TV show coming from the living room, and being scared. A teacher in 2nd or 3rd grade also watched the show and one science class discussed what our world would be like if there were other beings other than just us. This resulted in a week of me not sleeping, and a visit to school by my parents. I think to let the teacher know about how scared I had gotten and so Dad could meet another person who believed "the truth is out there." One night after not sleeping again and thinking I was hearing the hum of a spacecraft outside my window, I cornered my parents and demanded the truth: "Were there aliens? Would they take me?" Being an only child you are raised between being over protected and treated as a mini adult in a lot of ways. Mom said of course not. Dad said well yes, anything is possible, but if they took me they would bring me back. After more tears and waking them up, I think my parents got together and came up with the conclusion that if there were aliens, they only abducted people who wanted to go for a ride; and never took kids, and that it took a lot of gas to get to earth so they really didn't come too often.

Getting my license brought new freedom and places to explore. My '87 Delta Oldsmobile took to the roads around Maromas and Connecticut Valley Hospital many nights packed with friends ( car fit 7 can you believe it?) hoping we would see something. Well, we saw nothing. I got an slr camera and began taking pictures in black and white of the buildings hoping to capture an orb or a face in a window. Nothing. But I did get very artistic shots and started noticing the architecture and began falling in love with it, but just didn't know it yet. This strange magnetic attraction, and desire to feel a buildings essence pushed me towards my major in college, and the field I am in today.

I still drive around the CVH campus. I got plans of some of the torn down buildings from the state. One day home from break I drove through campus and saw that some of the buildings were being demolished.

I swear to this day I saw a building completely cut in half vertically, cross sectioned. From the car I thought i could see the exterior skin maybe 2 feet away from another interior concrete structure; each exterior window looked as if was false, with 2-3 small rooms behind it. I'd never seen a building from any of my field trips in college or text books that was being demolished quite this way; in pieces like a dissection. Was I seeing cells where the patients were held in secret areas behind a seemingly innocent fascade made to look like a brick Victorian? I planned that I would come back with a camera when it was brighter out. I went back the next day to take pictures and much to my dismay the building was leveled, a pile of rubble. I will never know if my childhood beliefs about the hospital on the hill had gotten the best of me, or I had seen something I was not supposed to. Either way I think I like not really knowing. During a lecture I recently attended I got the chance to ask Lorraine Warren, famed demonologist, about CVH, and she gave a clear answer of her never finding evidence of anything strange on the campus.

I waited 22 years to find MY answer to what happens to the human spirit when it passes over. I still don't know what the real explanation is, if I am crazy or somedays if I even believe my own memories of what I think I experienced. With time memories become ghosts themselves, traces of the true event. I watched my grandfather die of lung cancer over a 2 month period 3 years ago. He went to church every week. He never smoked. I watched a lively healthy person leave this world breath by breath day by day. I now know the body is only a shell of something else, what else I don't know. He waited to die a week so my younger cousins could visit from across country. He waited an half hour to die so that I was well on my way home from his home, and I wouldn't have to watch the final painful moments. His brain was consumed by cancer, doctors said he didn't know where he was anymore, he lost the ability to speak 3 weeks into the end, but his last words whispered to me the night he passed were "I'll see you tomorrow little one."

My grandfather had a passion for gardening. 2 weeks after his death I went outside to deadhead the roses in my parents yard. Again I have no idea why I felt compelled to do this at all. It was the summer. That day i saw more bumble bees than ever. Chipmunks. 4-5 squirrels. A robin, in August? Ok odd. But i didn't think anything of it until I was attacked, yeah attacked by a monarch butterfly. Usually butterflies tumble through the breezes just out of reach, but this one swarmed around my head, followed me through the yard, landed on my arm. I swatted and it kept at me like a wasp. I said "Ok! Ok I know you're here." The monarch flew off, gaining in height until it was out of site.

Happy Halloween.

Maromas Proposals At EDC

(Plans for the proposed Arawana Golf Course.)


Normally sparsely-attended, the Economic Development Committee meeting in Room 208 in City Hall was filled today as presenters, interested residents and commission members gathered to hearpresentations by three groups hoping to sponsor "open-space recreational" developments on former state property in Maromas.

Among those presenting were The Connecticut Forest and Park Association represented by Eric Hammerling and John Leshane.

Hammerling explained that the group, which plans and maintains the 825 miles of blue-blazed trails in Connecticut, that the loop proposed on the property would offer a spur that would be accessible to downtown Middletown.

"If there is to be a blue-blaze trail," Hammerling said. "We want it to be compatible with the area but also in a beautiful place."

(ArtFarm's proposed post and beam barn headquarters.)

ArtFarm directors and advocates Dic Wheeler and Marcella Trowbridge described a low-impact development for their organization on a piece of the former state property identified as parcel 5. On the wooded parcel, with two beautiful meadows, ArtFarm proposed to build two post and beam barns. One barn, the larger of the two, would hold a small performance area for an audience no bigger than 80, rehearsal space, meeting space for weekly or weekend retreats, and bunkhouse lofts for those retreats. The other barn, labeled the agricultural barn, would house small farm animals, and be the site of nature programs for school children and visitors.

"What we'd like to do is get 200 people together for a barn-raising, to put up the frame," Wheeler explained. "And then you have 200 people with a sense of ownership."

Tony Pioppi, a local golf writer, ended the presentation with a proposal for the nine-hole Arawana Golf Course.

The proposed course, which winds through the hills on the property, would feature Integrated Pest Management, (meaning curative and not preventive spraying of pesticides and herbicides), a hardy grass blend which is not water sensitive, and standards which would Pioppi hoped would give it Audobon Sanctuary Status.

Piopi explained that the course designed by well-know golf course architect Brian Silva, harkened back to the Golden Age of Golf Architecture (1910-1935). Piopi foresaw a three and a half year planning and construction timeline if the golf course plan is accepted.

Members of the public, and some from the Conservation Commission expressed concern with the affect that the course would have on the environment. Neighbors to the proposed golf course, Councilman Earle Roberts, and local attorney Ralph Wilson came down on opposite sides of the issue. Both claimed longtime status in the hills above town, but Roberts urged the EDC to consider abandoning development and preserving the land for future agricultural use. Wilson, who indicated a cynicism toward the State's promises, and urged the EDC to support a golf course which would occupy the land and prevent the state from building any further unwanted development on the site.

Maromas: Land of Opportunities, Part IV

This is the final installment of a 4-part series on city and state actions which have the potential to affect undeveloped land in Maromas owned by the Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH) and by the city. Part I covered the Mayor's action to stop the Department of Environmental Protection from owning conservation easements on the land which protects the CVH water supply. Part II covered a proposal by the city to supply water to CVH. Part III covered the Governor's directive to CVH (and all other state agencies) to identify properties which could be sold to generate revenue. Part IV will cover the city-owned open space land stretching from the shore of the Connecticut River to the other side of watershed land (Thanks to Barrie Robbins-Pianka for two of the photographs).


The state transferred five parcels of land from CVH to the City on June 21, 2005, with the restriction that it would remain open space or revert back to State ownership. This land conveyance has been portrayed by elected city and state officials as a "compensation" for the imposition of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School on other CVH land. The City is currently considering how to use this land, and has released a "Request for Proposals" (RFP) to develop it. The RFP suggested a variety of possible uses for the land, but emphasized "active recreation" possibilities.

The Land
All 5 parcels of land abut state-owned land that is either used for state facilities or for watershed protection. Parcels 1 and 2 wrap around Riverview Hospital, the State's only mental health facility for children and adolescents. Parcels 3, 4 and 5 abut the state land around 4 reservoirs which supply drinking water to CVH and Riverview.

• Parcel 1, between River Road and the Connecticut River, contains a mixed Larch and Pine forest, and includes a rail line which runs from Middletown to Pratt and Whitney (and further) along the river. There is a long-abandoned mine which provided lead for cannonballs early in the Revolutionary War (helping to defeat British Gen. John Burgoyne), and silver in the mid-1800s. Passing by the mine is a picturesque small stream which empties into a small sand delta in the Connecticut.
• Parcel 2, wrapping from River Road all the way to Bow Lane, contains open fields and a swath of secondary tree growth. Duck Hill (elevation 221ft) is in the center of this parcel, and contains Native American Holly and Black Cherry trees. Millane's nurseries leases part of this land to grow trees and bushes.
  
• Parcel 3 goes from Bow Lane to the top of Indian Hill (elevation 335ft), at Reservoir Road. There is an extensive stand of 20-50 year old cedars with moss and fern glades, and high bush blueberries in the understory.
• Parcel 4 is the smallest of the parcels, and is composed primarily of fields along Reservoir Road and Cedar Lane.
• Parcel 5 has a remarkable mature forest of Tulip Trees, Big-Toothed Aspens, and Chestnut Oaks, with an understory of Mountain Laurel, Ironwood, and Striped Maple Trees. Along the eastern border of the property is a breathtakingly beautiful stream which in places flows through a deeply cut ravine. Just before the stream approaches Brooks Road, the stream flows for about a hundred yards in a man-made channel made of cut stone, flowing in places as waterfalls over steps of hand-cut granite. This masonry may have been the handiwork of patients committed to CVH. In addition to the mature forest, there are two large hay-fields in parcel 5.

The Legislation and the Deed restriction
Residents in and around Maromas have long sought to reduce the number of state instututions in the area, or at least to prevent the imposition of new ones. There have been various attempts to wrest control of the CVH land from the State, including a 1995 bill (HB6537) to transfer over 800 acres from CVH to Middletown, which was introduced by Reps. Joe Serra and Susan Bysiewicz, and Sens. Tom Gaffey and Billy Ciotto (their bill did not make it out of committee).

In the late 1990s, activist groups such as Residents Against Institutional Dumping (RAID) unsuccessfully tried to stop the relocation of the Juvenile prison from Long Lane to CVH land. One of the outcomes of the decision to site the CT Juvenile School on CVH land was apparently a commitment by the state to compensate Middletown for the prison by giving the City other parcels of CVH land.

In the 2005 session, the legislature finally approved the transfer of CVH land to Middletown, in bill HB6909 (AN ACT CONCERNING THE CONVEYANCE OF CERTAIN PARCELS OF STATE LAND). Representative Serra, who played a critical role in this, told me that his goal was to remove as much land as possible out of state control, "The more you take out of state hands, the better the city is."

When the State gives land to a municipality, there are usually restrictions on the use of that land (for example some parcels might be required to be used for a municipal building). In this case, HB6909 stated that the land was to be used for "agriculture, parks, natural areas, forests, camping, fishing, wetlands preservation, wildlife habitat, swimming, hiking, other active recreational, educational, and other purposes that further state and municipal policies."

Serra is proud that his efforts went further than just securing the land for the City. He said that when the legislation was being written, he made sure that "Active Recreation" was one of the allowed uses for the land: "I always thought a golf course would be great [on the former CVH land]."

Buzzy Levin and his Dream of Middletown Golf
Efforts to build a municipal golf course in the city go back many years, probably to at least 1940, when the Highland Country Club on Atkins Street closed. The 1965 Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) said, "One city-wide facility which is now lacking in Middletown is a golf course." The 2000 POCD agreed, "The city also needs ... a golf course to bring its recreational facilities up to SCORP [Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan] standards."

One of the most ardent proponents of a municipal golf course in the 1960s and 1970s was Jerome "Buzzy" Levin, owner of Malloves Jewelers on Main Street. Levin was a member of the Common Council from 1963 to 1971, and worked tirelessly first to get authorization and then funding for a course on Newfield Street, and later to get authorization for a course on what was then state-owned land in Maromas. In an article about the Maromas golf course proposal, The Hartford Courant described Levin as "the moving force behind the plans for a golf course."

Levin spoke with me at length about his time on the Common Council and as chair of the Park Board, and his efforts on behalf of a golf course. He reminisced fondly of his early days on the Council, when many of the meetings to discuss city business would take place at the kitchen table in his house, before the enforcement of the right-to-know laws made that impossible, "The first 5 years on Common Council were the most enjoyable." He also said that during this time there was virtually no partisanship, and he worked closely with both Democrats and Republicans.

In the 1967 session of the State Legislature, Levin and Mayor Kenneth Dooley lobbied state officials for the city to be allowed to build a golf course on the CVH land. The Hartford Courant of April 22, 1967, reported:

The Committee on Humane and Welfare Institutions hears the local bill Tuesday morning in Hartford. It will have strong support from city officials and golfing enthusiasts. The proposed golf course would cost an estimated $300,000 if the land were secured.

Levin brought a petition with 1200 signers supporting the golf course, and endorsements from the town committees of both parties, labor unions, the Chamber of Commerce, and a variety of civic groups. The State Board of Mental Health was initially opposed to a proposal for Middletown to purchase the land from CVH, but did not directly oppose an agreement to lease the land. The efforts of Levin and Dooley were successful, and HB 4720 (Authorizing Middletown to enter into lease agreement with trustees of Connecticut Valley Hospital for use of state land for municipal golf course) was passed on May 16, 1967. The total land under consideration was 175 acres.

Levin told me that he was working with the same team that built the Tunxis Plantation golf courses in Farmington, the Tomasso Companies. He lauded their work, saying they were wonderful partners to work with. For the state land in Maromas, the noted local golf course architect Albert Zikorus laid out a 6607 yard, par 72 course (the accompanying photo is Zikorus' plan). The Courant reported that the city would probably apply for Federal open space funds to pay for the construction of the course.

In July of 1967, Levin told the Courant that a target date for opening of the course would be July 4th, 1969. However, Levin's dream of a course on CVH land did not survive another summer. The Board of Mental Health decided in April of 1968 to reject the city's proposal for a golf course, according to The Courant, they "favored the saving of hospital land for future hospital or related mental health needs rather than for golf course use." CVH had also been authorized to give some of its land to the new Middlesex Community College for a campus, when CVH did so, it removed a key piece of land from Levin's proposed golf course.

[Levin told me in great detail, and with pride and regret about the other golf course project that he pushed, in Newfield Meadows. He said that he arranged for the city to purchase 278 acres for $250,000 in about 1963, using Federal and State open space funds. The land was mostly wetlands, but Levin told me a golf course is a permitted use, "When you build a golf course, you increase the beauty of the streams." Some of the city land was used to build Woodrow Wilson Middle School in the 1960s (and Middletown High School this decade). The golf course bond referendum narrowly lost in 1964, "37 votes! That's all we lost by."]

Levin now lives most of the year in Florida, returning to work at Malloves only in the summer and the holiday season, and he said he has no involvement at all in city politics, "The only time I've been to City Hall recently is to pay my taxes." However, he has not lost his passion for the cause he championed for so long, "It's a shame that the City of Middletown doesn't have a golf course."

A Golf Course in 2009?
The pace of golf course construction nationwide has slowed considerably since the 1960s and 1970s. Most of this cannot be attributed to the economic difficulties of the past couple of years--the number of rounds of golf played in the U.S. has consistently fallen since 2000. Joe Perillo, of the Connecticut State Golf Association, told The Eye, "Building a golf course is not a profitable thing right now." Mike Colandro, a PGA tour professional who lives in Cromwell, said that to make it feasible, it needed to be a year-round facility, with indoor practice facilities, "That could be beautiful if done right... It's definitely something that should happen."

Mike Milano, who owns Quarry Ridge Golf Course in Portland, said it would be extremely difficult for anybody to build a new golf course. He had heard that "city hall and the state rep were interested in building a golf course up there," and that there had been a proposal a few years ago. However, Milano said that golf courses are overbuilt right now, and the ownership of the land by the city would be problematic for any developer. He also told me that the Chamber of Commerce is dead set against any municipal golf course because it would be at a competitive advantage over private courses, since it would not pay property tax, "The Chamber and all the other golf courses would fight this to the tooth." Larry McHugh, president of the Chamber of Commerce, did not return my phone calls about the city-owned land.

A Request for Proposals
The RFP issued last month suggests many possible uses which would be appropriate for the city-owned land, including baseball and soccer fields, dog parks, golf courses, playgrounds, and boat ramps. Any proposals are to include extensive financial information, including a business plan and a demonstration of financial capacity. The RFP "is designed for income generating uses which can develop the land," according to City Planner Bill Warner, although he said that other proposals would also be considered.

Warner told me that the RFP was not targeted towards a specific proposed use such as a golf course, but rather, "I thought this was an opportune time to see what interest there is." Deputy Director of Planning Michiel Wackers said the RFP was advertised in the New England Real Estate Journal, the Hartford Courant, and a CT Park & Recreation listserv. Wackers told the Hartford Courant (July 22) that proposed ideas include the creation of a playground, a golf course, agricultural use and continued use by a local airplane club. The agricultural use is likely to be a proposal from Millane Nurseries to continue their lease of land for growing trees.

When I spoke to Mayor Giuliano about the State-owned reservoir land, he mentioned only one of those possible uses, "We're looking at a golf course in that end of town." He confirmed that the city would be receiving a golf course proposal in response to the RFP. During my conversation with Rep. Serra about the conservation easement, he too brought up the RFP, referring to it as an "RFP for a nine-hole golf course." Serra pointed out that when a golf course is built, the value of neighboring properties rises. Neither man could tell me which company might be putting in a proposal, but Giuliano indicated it was not from a group known for building courses in the area.

Councilmen Gerry Daley and David Bauer both serve on the Economic Development Commission, which will be evaluating the proposals. About a golf course, Daley said to me, "Personally I think it would be a challenge to build a course up there... [but] I'm not opposed to a golf course if it's done in an environmentally responsible way." However, both Daley and Bauer said they did not have any preconceptions about what should be done with the land, and both spoke of not only the financial value of using the land, but also the non-financial values.

Bauer was cautious about developing the land, saying that the benchmark for any development should be quite high. He noted, "This is some of the best farmland around." He said he would put a very high value on doing nothing, because "when we do nothing, the potential is for the future." Daley on the other hand, was a proponent of developing the land, "I don't think the best use is to leave it totally undeveloped. You need to find ways to get people to use the land."

Decisions made and decisions to come
Middletown and the State together own an enormous, uninterrupted tract of land that stretches from the banks of the Connecticut River for over two miles. The land abuts Middlesex Community College, CVH, and large tracts of land owned by Connecticut Light and Power; it is in close proximity to lots owned by the Kleen Energy Power Plant and by Pratt and Whitney. This land is valuable by almost any measure: it is a very short distance from downtown, is easily accessible from Route 9, it contains what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers to be "Prime Farmland", and it has spectacular old forests, ravines with waterfalls, pristine watershed and reservoirs, and beautiful vistas.

The last two fiscal years have been challenging for both Middletown and the State. In Middletown, the Common Council has used sales of city assets to balance the budget each of those years (Remington Rand last year, and Cucia Park this year). It would not surprise me if the Council evaluated proposals for use of the city land primarily on the basis of their ability to maximize city revenue. In Hartford, the state's budget woes are even worse than Middletown's, and both political parties support the sale of state assets to balance the budget. With these pressures, it would not surprise me to see a proposal that the state offer to sell some of its Middletown land holdings.

I have been struck by the way that apparently small decisions by elected officials can have dramatic effects on the value of these city and state lands. These decisions, even when they relate to public legislation, are not always obvious at the time. For example, Rep. Joe Serra's 2005 insertion of the phrase "Active Recreation" into the deed restriction for the city land vastly increased the possible uses to which the land could be put, and led directly to the form which the RFP has taken. As another example, a few interested residents worked with Rep. Gail Hamm to generate conservation protection on the state lands, but even the elected officials of the City were not kept fully informed.

Other important decisions are made administratively, usually with the consultation of elected officials, but also not necessarily noticed by the public. An example of this would be the proposal by the Director of Water and Sewer to sell city water to CVH, so that the State would no longer need to manage its own water supply. Another example, possibly forthcoming, will be the decision by the senior management of CVH about what assets CVH might consider selling. Finally, city administrators can influence decisions by the manner in which they solicit proposals and the manner by which they present them to elected officials.

The other thing that has struck me as odd is the way that some ideas seem to persist for decades, even if virtually everybody first involved in them has moved on. 40 years after Buzzy Levin gave up on a Maromas golf course, the opening of the CJTS gave Middletown the possibility of finally acquiring most of the land that he wanted for it. When the City got the land, the Planning Department's RFP was for developing the land in any sort of manner consistent with the deed. But somehow, despite all the intervening decades, the thoughts of two of the most important elected officials (Serra and Giuliano) turn to an idea that was championed by Buzzy Levin, who last held public office over 30 years ago.

The next decisions on the city lands will be at the August meeting of the Economic Development Committee, when it evaluates the proposals which the Planning Department receives.

The state land is subject to largely administrative decisions, at least in the short term. The first one will be whether any CVH land is listed as a "salable asset."

Maromas: Land of Opportunities, Part III

This is the third installment of a 4-part series on city and state actions which have the potential to affect undeveloped land in Maromas, owned primarily by the Connecticut Valley Hospital as a watershed for reservoirs which supply CVH and Riverview with water. Part I covered the Mayor's 'veto' of a bill which would have given the Department of Environmental Protection the ownership of conservation easements on the CVH land. Part II covered a proposal from the Water and Sewer Department to supply City water to CVH, eliminating the need for CVH to manage their own water supply. Part III will cover recent State-wide actions by Governor Rell, and their potential to impact CVH land. Part IV will discuss city-owned land adjacent to CVH.

Veto of 2009 Conveyance Bill tied to asset valuation
Virtually every session of the State Legislature features a bill which transfers ownership of state land. These conveyances may be between different state agencies, between the state and a municipality, between the state and a non-profit organization (for example a Land Trust), or between the state and an individual or corporation. The 2009 Conveyance Bill (HB6695, discussed in Part I of this series), which at first had a conveyance of conservation easements in Maromas from the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to the Department of Environmental Protection, also had many other minor and major transfers of land. [One of the major ones involved a "Backroom Deal" involving a powerful legislator and a local developer, according to an excellent article by Jon Lender in the Sunday Hartford Courant].

The annual conveyance bills are typically sent to the floor for a vote and receive very little attention. Thus, it was not unusual for this year's conveyance bill to be rushed through on the last day of the Legislative Session. The rules were suspended, it was grouped with multiple other bills under a "consent calendar", with no possibility for any modifications, and shortly before midnight, these grouped bills were voted on as a package, passing 36-0 in the Senate and 145-0 (3 absent) in the House.

However, this year, when the bill reached the Governor's desk, something unusual happened: Rell vetoed it. She did so because of the need for revenue. In her veto letter of July 7th, she admitted, "A conveyance bill such as this is fairly typical," but went on to say:

This year, however, the fiscal landscape has changed. Thus, on behalf of Connecticut taxpayers we must maximize the utility of each valuable asset which the state owns.... Included in HB6695 are instances of land swaps, sales for less than fair market value of property ..."

[On Monday the Legislature met to override Governor Rell's vetoes, but one of the bills that they specifically decided to avoid was HB6695, which therefore does not become law.]

Governor and Legislators Look for Assets to Sell
A week after vetoing a conveyance bill because she wanted to maximize the utility of each valuable asset, Rell went one step further, ordering Department Commissioners to identify land that could be sold to address budget shortfalls. She noted that legislative Democrats had supported a requirement that her administration raise money through the sale of state assets. In a July 15th Press Release, she said:

The Democrats have not specified which assets should be sold, but given the amount of money to be raised it is clear these unprecedented economic times will call for difficult decisions. We must consider parting with parcels we would never consider selling in the ordinary course of business - among them the Seaside property in Waterford. I will need each agency head to think creatively and constructively about assets that can be sold to reach this ambitious goal without dramatically hindering state operations.

Governor Rell stressed in her press release that all property should be considered, and sales should happen quickly, "Once my office approves the potential sale, the disposition process must be conducted as expeditiously as possible but within the parameters established by statute." Rell provided a deadline of July 27th for Commissioners to return to her with their lists.

State Rep. Matthew Lesser, representing parts of Middletown (and Middlefield and Durham), told The Eye that selling state properties was actually the Democrats' idea, and they "obviously support" Rell's directive to identify salable assets. Lesser said, "In the current fiscal crisis, selling state assets is a way to continue to provide vital services to families [and] towns, without raising taxes."

Could the State Sell its Maromas Land?
The State owns about 75 different parcels of land in our city, ranging in size from less than half an acre to more than 150 acres. Half of the State-owned parcels are in Maromas, and most of those are owned by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). Jim Simonowski, media relations at DMHAS, told me that the senior management staff at CVH would be working on the governor's directive, but that there was currently no information available about which of their properties might end up on the list of "salable assets". He was not sure how soon after the July 27th deadline the list would be made publicly available, saying that decision was up to the Governor's office, "We're really early in the process at this point."

The State properties in Maromas can be crudely grouped into three categories, according to the complications involved in selling them. The simplest of the categories would be those properties that are essentially abandoned already and could easily be listed as salable assets. This would include buildings (many of them large and beautiful) on the CVH campus that are boarded up, these could be offered for sale or lease to businesses interested in adaptive reuse, or razed and replaced with new buildings.

A second, relatively simple category would be those properties that are in active use and whose listing as a salable asset would generate enormous difficulties for the State. This would include institutions like Riverview Hospital, the state's only Mental hospital for children and adolescents, and the Connecticut Juvenile Training School. At various times in the past couple of years, Rell has proposed shutting each of those down, either to improve patient or inmate care, or to save money on their operations, but any action on those properties is likely to be quite complicated, and thus unlikely to yield cash for the State in any short time frame.

The third category consists of those properties whose sale would require relatively minor changes to state operations, this category includes the CVH reservoir land which is the topic of this Eye serial. As highlighted in Part II, Guy Russo, head of Middletown Water and Sewer, suggested to Governor Rell that Middletown should be the water supplier for CVH. If this were to happen, then the reservoir lands would be prime candidates for salable assets. The absence of a conservation easement owned by the DEP makes such a sale less difficult than it would otherwise be (see Part I, which highlighted Mayor Giuliano's 'veto' of such an easement transfer). It does not seem too far-fetched to imagine that Governor Rell might come to view the 511 acres of CVH reservoir lands as assets which could generate revenue for the state.

However, when I spoke with Simonowski in DMHAS media relations, he seemed to think that CVH would be unlikely to list the reservoir land because they would be unwilling to jeopardize their water supply. In addition, it is not clear who might be interested in purchasing the reservoir lands, because the land use restrictions for watersheds are quite strict and it is difficult to decommission a productive source of drinking water (see Part II).

Presumably, the most likely purchaser of the reservoirs would be the City or a neighboring town which wants to maintain them as a water supply.

Maromas: Land of Opportunities. Part I

The water for CVH originates from reservoirs east of Training Hill and Reservoir Roads, in the Maromas section of Middletown. The watershed area which protects these reservoirs includes land owned by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), Middlesex Community College, private landowners, and the City. The watershed land totals over 500 acres, and is a region of largely unspoiled forests, streams, and rocky outcroppings overlooking beautiful reservoirs.

This is the first installment of a 4-part series on recent city and state actions which have the potential to impact the use of land in Maromas. Parts 1, 2, and 3 are about land owned mostly by Connecticut Valley Hospital, and part 4 is about city-owned land adjacent to CVH.

Protecting Maromas and Middletown
Towards the end of the 1990s, concerned residents as well as city officials began to focus on ways to protect land in Middletown from being developed by the State or by private developers. One of the events which motivated them was the unilateral decision by the State to build a $53M Juvenile Detention Facility on state-owned land in Maromas, overlooking the Connecticut River. Despite enormous pressure from residents, neither the mayor (Domenique Thornton), nor the state delegation (led by Joe Serra) stopped this project.

Concerned residents, led by Katchen Coley, Linda Bowers, and Ellen Lukens, formed a group called the Advocates for a Maromas Plan (AMP). This group was especially concerned about the re-zoning of portions of Maromas to industrial and they resisted efforts, backed by Joe Serra in the legislature, to extend sewer service into Maromas. In recent years, one of AMP's major efforts has been to add legal environmental protection to the land owned by the State.

The City Planning Department also wanted to make it more difficult for the State to again dump another facility in Middletown. The Planning Department felt that if the State land were under a conservation easement owned by the Department of Environmental Protection, far more transparency would be required at the State level before a new facility could be imposed on Middletown. Such an easement would minimally require extensive hearings and assessments to determine the environmental impact of a new facility, or it would require an act of the Legislature to give the easements to the agency wishing to build a new facility.

State representative Gail Hamm, who represents most of the Maromas section of Middletown (as well as Haddam), took up the effort on behalf of the city and its residents. In 2009 she wrote language for a bill which would have resulted in the transfer of conservation easements from the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Department of Children and Families, the City, and Middlesex Community College to the Department of Environmental Protection.

However, the bill ran into an unexpected roadblock when it reached the Mayor's office this past May. Just a week before the Legislature was to vote, Mayor Sebastian Giuliano blocked the bill by telling Representative Hamm that the city was adamantly opposed to the transfer of conservation easements.

Background to House Bill 6695
Any easement conveyance is a complicated affair, but especially when it involves multiple different State agencies. During the 2007 Legislative session, preliminary discussions among interested parties took place, but there was

insufficient time in that session to bring forward any bills. However, Representative Hamm did arrange for the DEP to fund a survey of the watershed property boundaries (see map image, which comes from the Middletown Planning Department).

At the beginning of the 2009 Legislative session, the effort to introduce a conveyance bill intensified. The efforts led to a meeting to discuss the conveyance, on March 24th, at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. This meeting included representatives from all of the involved parties, including the City's Planning Department, Representative Hamm, Senator Doyle, and representatives of the DEP, DMHAS, DCF, and Middlesex Community College. According to three people present at that meeting, both the City Planning office and the DMHAS supported the conveyance of the conservation easements around the reservoirs. Middlesex Community College and the DCF were also in favor.

With the support of Middletown Planning Department and the various state agencies, Representative Hamm arranged for the following language to be inserted into Bill 6695 ("AN ACT CONCERNING THE CONVEYANCE OF CERTAIN PARCELS OF STATE LAND"):

Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes, the Departments of Mental Health and Addiction Services and Children and Families and the city of Middletown and Middlesex Community College shall each grant to the Department of Environmental Protection conservation easements over certain parcels of land that are the subject of the "Land Title Report, Southerly Watershed Properties, Connecticut Valley Hospital 1866-2007", as prepared by Attorney John E. Hudson. Such easements shall be granted for the purpose of preserving the reservoirs, watershed, aquifers and other water supply lands, located on or abutting the grounds and buildings comprising the Connecticut Valley Hospital in the city of Middletown.

The Bill was approved by the Government Administrations and Elections Committee on March 30th, and scheduled for a vote in the full House and Senate. [The CVH easement conveyance was only one of many unrelated conveyances in the bill. For example, two small houses on Wadsworth Street, formerly owned by DCF as part of the Long Lane Correctional Facility, were also to be conveyed to the city in the same bill (many properties in other towns were also in the bill).]

Mayor kills bill
However, the CVH watershed conservation easement conveyance went no further. As is customary, prior to voting on a bill which would impact land in the City, Representative Hamm faxed a copy of its language to Mayor Giuliano, sending it to his office on the Friday before Memorial Day. Mayor Giuliano's response was swift and certain -- on Tuesday he phoned Hamm's office and according to the intern who fielded his call, said, "The city administration and me absolutely oppose this bill."

In an interview with The Eye, Mayor Giuliano said that he supported the preservation of land in Maromas, but that there was not enough time for him to analyze the effects of this particular bill. He said the bill came to his attention, "at the 59th minute of the 11th hour." Giuliano said he consulted with Representative Joe Serra, with Ralph Wilson, an attorney who lives in Maromas, and with Larry McHugh, president of the Chamber of Commerce. He did not apparently consult with Representative Hamm or with AMP.

After these consultations, Giuliano said he was simply unsure of the effects that HB6695 would have on the interests of the City. He said he needed more time to analyze the bill than he was provided, "It may be the greatest deal in the world, but I had no way of knowing that at the time."

With very clear instructions from the Mayor to block the bill, Hamm had no choice but to oppose the language regarding the Middletown land conveyance. When Bill 6695 was raised on the floor of the House June 3rd, an amendment which stripped the relevant paragraph was introduced and passed. With that language removed, the Bill was passed by the House, and then the Senate.

Speculations about the failure of this bill
In speaking with city workers, citizen activists in AMP, Rep. Hamm's office, and others about this story, one of the persistent questions that came up was, "Why did the Mayor kill this bill?" To me it seems that there are two broad categories of explanations for his action.

The first possible reason for the Mayor's "veto" is that it resulted from a series of failures by elected and unelected government officials. Communication between the Department of Planning and the Mayor's office was incomplete, and the communication between Rep. Hamm and Rep. Serra may also have been less than it should have been for a topic of such importance to the city they both represent. In addition, it seems clear that Rep. Hamm did not notify Mayor Giuliano until the very last possible moment, after a time when it would have been possible to arrange a meeting. The language of the bill was filed on April 16th, and yet Hamm did not share it with the Mayor until May 22nd. In addition, the conveyance is without question complicated, some of the meetings involved 30 different people, with each agency bringing their director, a finance person, and other staff. This legislation may have moved forward if there had simply been better communication and better coordination between agencies, the city, and the politicians. If this explanation is correct, a renewed effort in the next legislative session may yield a different result.

Alternatively, it may be that any conveyance of a conservation easement on any land in Middletown to the DEP is doomed to fail, no matter how much communication there is. It may be that some elected officials, or the people that they consult with on important issues, would block any attempt to restrict the use of land in Middletown, no matter how it was handled. This may reflect a belief that the City government is the best entity for determining the use and preservation of land in Middletown.

I repeatedly contacted Rep. Hamm, to get her insights into these possibilities. However, her legislative assistant, Rosemarie Hice, told me that Hamm would not be available to answer any of my questions about HB6695.

Epilogue to HB6695: In July, Governor Rell vetoed the bill, so even if Mayor Giuliano had not blocked the Maromas passage, its future would have been uncertain. I will discuss this and more in Part III of this series. Part II will cover a proposed change in the CVH water supply.

Recognition of CVH Patients Buried In Numbered Graves

The Middletown Clergy Association will conduct its 11th Memorial Service in the cemetery of Connecticut Valley Hospital on Wednesday, May 20, at 1 p.m. As in each of the past 10 years, members of the Clergy Association will recognize and honor persons buried in numbered, anonymous graves, speaking publicly their names, dates of death, and ages at death. This year’s group of 100 numbered graves spans the period from March 1927 to February 1931.

The 1,686 numbered graves in the CVH cemetery are a moving testimony to the stigma that persons suffering from mental illness have endured over the years — a stigma that endures to this day. The memorial service is designed to restore the dignity and identity of Connecticut Valley Hospital patients whose names have been kept secret over many decades and to bring attention to the ongoing ways in which individuals with psychiatric disabilities are still feared and shunned by many in our communities.

The Memorial Service will last approximately one hour. In case of very severe rain, the ceremony will be held on May 21, at 1 p.m.

The CVH Cemetery is located on Silvermine Road east of the main CVH campus. Take Bow Lane east past the State Veterans Cemetery on your right. Proceed a bit farther and turn left on Silvermine Road. For those traveling south on Rte. 9, take exit 12, turn left onto Silver Street and go .7 miles, past CVH and the Connecticut Juvenile Training School. Turn right on Silvermine Road and you will come to the cemetery.

For more information, call The Rev. John Hall at First Church of Christ, Congregational (860) 346-6657 ext. 13.

Riverview Hospital is not Connecticut Valley Hospital

Earlier this week, I called attention to an excellent column by Rick Green in The Hartford Courant. In just the few sentences of text that I wrapped around a link to his article, I managed to completely mangle one major fact and a couple of minor ones. I further proclaimed my ignorance loud and clear with a beautiful image of a vintage postcard. My major mistake was to conflate Riverview Hospital with Connecticut Valley Hospital. These are different entities, serving different patients. Rick Green's column was unambiguously about Riverview Hospital, I mistakenly thought that CVH and Riverview were two different names for the same thing, and used the CVH moniker because that was more familiar to me. Fortunately, within a day of my posting, Dr. Wayne Dailey, Senior Policy Advisor for the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, posted a comment correcting my mistake.

I contacted Dr. Dailey to learn more about CVH and its relationship to Riverview, he very graciously answered my questions about CVH and Riverview. He told me that Riverview was built on land that was formerly part of CVH, but is now completely separate. CVH currently owns 730 acres of land. It provides potable water and Police and Fire Department services to Riverview, but other than that, the two hospitals do not share any equipment or buildings. CVH services solely adults and is operated by the State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, while Riverview services solely children and adolescents and is operated by the State Department of Children and Families. While Rick Green reported that the cost per patient at Riverview is $860,000 per year, Dr. Dailey told me that the cost per patient at CVH is a much more modest $429,605 per year. In an email, he said, "This rate is determined by the Connecticut Office of the Comptroller, and is similar to the Medicaid rate for any of the large general hospitals in Connecticut."

My apologies for the mistake. Middletown's two state-run mental health facilities on the hill overlooking the river are completely independent.

Rick Green on CVH

Rick Green has an excellent column today in The Courant about the care for children needing psychiatric care at Connecticut Valley Hospital. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) spends $860,000 per year for each patient. Advocates for state fiscal responsibility, as well as advocates for patients, have expressed concern that this money is not providing the best care for children who can be institutionalized for several years at CVH. Other states spend far less money per patient by contracting care to privately owned corporations.

CVH is on 650 acres overlooking downtown and the Connecticut River. It was built in 1868, over the years it has become the state's sole psychiatric institution for children, housing patients from throughout the state.

NOTE ADDED (December 11th):
Rick Green's column is about Riverview, NOT CVH. See HERE for more on the relationship between the two institutions. Thanks to Dr. Dailey who pointed out this mistake in a comment.