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The Trust for Public Land announced in June that it had reached agreement with the Ethel Walker School to allow the town to permanently preserve the land at a town cost of $11.1 million. (TPL has committed to raising an additional $2.85 million in private donations to complete the purchase agreement.) The Simsbury Board of Selectmen unanimously approved the $11.1 appropriation, but the Board of Finance declined to send the matter to referendum. Voter approval is necessary for an appropriation of this size.
Keep the Woods began circulating petitions calling for a vote on the Ethel Walker preservation effort in early August. According to Nash, "The petition is another mechanism that citizens have to make their voices heard, and according to the town's charter, this is a way we can make sure we have the opportunity to vote." The petition has already gathered signatures from more than 10 percent of registered voters in town, twice the required amount for a referendum. Given the timeline needed for the town clerk to verify signatures, and for the first selectman to schedule a special referendum, a decision on when to submit the petition will be made by the end of the month.
"We are waiting a little bit longer to see if the town is going to provide an option for the voters of Simsbury to preserve this property and put this issue on the regular November ballot," said Susan Masino of Keep the Woods. "That is everyone's preference. But either way, the signatures provide insurance that we'll get to decide this issue democratically." Masino added that members of Keep the Woods and others are working to present the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance with realistic options for funding an $11.1 million appropriation through a combination of reserves, bonds,and grants.
Mary Baier, chairperson of Keep the Woods, said that protecting the town's water quality was a key concern of the group. "The Ethel Walker land feeds the aquifer that provides 73 percent of the town's drinking water," she noted. "We can't take the chance of development threatening our water supply. Why spend money on future water treatment when we can make the investment now that will not only protect the water, but preserve this beautiful land as well?"
Keep the Woods will continue collecting signatures even though they already have more than enough. A petition is held by an official circulator at Flamig Farm during farm business hours and at Keep the Woods meetings held at 7 p.m. Wednesdays at Flamig Farm. If interested in circulated a petition, call 760-6281.
During the summer of 2005 the school made public a proposal to develop the land with 122 houses. The town of Simsbury had tried unsuccessfully over the last six years to negotiate purchase of the parcel for conservation. The Trust for Public Land, a national non-profit conservation organization, was asked by the town to intervene and negotiate purchase of the property on behalf of the town of Simsbury in November of 2005.
An agreement between the Trust for Public Land and the Ethel Walker School was announced in June to provide the town the option to preserve the land. The acreage includes the horse pasture along Bushy Hill Road and an extensive trail system that is part of a 1,400-acre inter-connected network of trails and open space contiguous with Town Forest Park, Stratton Brook State Park and Massacoe State Forest as well as beyond to Onion Mountain, Flamig Farm and Tulmeadow Farm. The majority of the land is in the aquifer protection zone of the Stratton Brook aquifer, the most significant drinking water aquifer for the towns of Simsbury, Granby and East Granby.
The total price for the 424 acres is $13.85 million. The Trust for Public Land has committed to raise $2.75 million in private donations at the national level. The remainder of the price, $11.1 million, will be paid by a combination of monies from the town of Simsbury and state and federal sources. The town has been asked to hold a referendum appropriating $11.1 million, some of which will then be reimbursed with other monies.
