Power to the People in Stratford
Stratford residents will vote on Election Day on whether to sell the town's portion of Long Beach West to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. No matter which side you're on, you can't ask for more than that. Here's what the Connecticut Post reported
The referendum question — which will ask voters if the town should enter into an agreement with the nonprofit Trust For Public Land, which has acted as an intermediary, and would convey the property to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — will be placed on the ballot.
The referendum question — which will ask voters if the town should enter into an agreement with the nonprofit Trust For Public Land, which has acted as an intermediary, and would convey the property to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — will be placed on the ballot.
The question will also include language that the land be sold for a "minimum of $10 million, with a full public access easement reserved for Stratford residents in perpetuity."
And Bridgeport wants to do the same (which I learned from Chris Zurcher's environmental headlines).
Labels: Bridgeport, Long Beach, Pleasure Beach, Stratford
posted by Tom Andersen at 6:47 AM
5 Comments:
The Stratford decision is probably about as close to agreement on this issue as the opposing sides could come.
In Bridgeport, however, the public is not at all informed about the issue and it is barely on the radar screen of even the most politically active people in the city. Bridgeport should wait until people can consider the issue, learn about the pros and cons, as well as have a completed contract in-hand that voters can read through. Having a referendum on the general concept of whether or not to sell Pleasure Beach is pointless, meaningless and a waste of the voters' and Council members' time.
Tom,
Can you help on the details? USF&W is paying $10 million through the intercession of a land trust. Stratford residents are guaranteed access. What about the rest of the public? If the money is truly coming from USF&W, it's our tax dollars. Will the general public have access?
PS. I hope you'll have some time to revisit the LI/CT energy summit to find out if CCE and STS have reconciled re: Islander East; if so, to what effect, and if they haven't reconciled, why not?
Bryan,
The whole beach -- the Stratford portion and the Bridgeport portion -- would become a national wildlife refuge and would be open to everyone, with some restrictions based on the needs of wildlife (for example, limited access to piping plover nesting areas).
As for follow-up reporting on the energy issue, I'll keep my eyes open but I barely have time to blog these days.
tom
That makes the condition of "full public access easement reserved for Stratford residents in perpetuity" superfluous? Or is it there to ensure that USF&W can't do something else with the property in the future? (Have they ever done such a thing?)
I hope you're right about it being in the bag. That would be great news.
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