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07/14/2020 02:30 PMHaving cobbled together $505,000 to purchase a second parcel from developer Toby Hill Associates, the Town of Westbrook, through the work of its inland wetland and conservation agent, Heidi Wallace, is seeking to raise an additional $145,000—and the Westbrook Land Conservation Trust (WLCT) hopes to help narrow that gap, even if by just a small amount.
Contributions toward the purchase will be matched by WLCT up to a total of $5,000, the organization announced in late June.
The parcel, which has an asking price of $650,000, consists of nearly 147 acres that Toby Hill, which is building a residential subdivision in the area, has deemed to be unsuitable for its project.
“We’re pretty small and part of what we’re trying to do is raising awareness,” said WLCT Board of Directors Secretary Bill Neale. “We’ll make a little dent” in the remaining funds that are needed.
The parcel is “very protective of all the Westbrook wells, the watershed, the Trout Brook,” Neale continued. “In my opinion, it’s a good long-term investment...It’s a good, prudent thing for the town to not have a very remote road with lots of bridges and culverts.”
Roads required for new residents in a new development are the town’s responsibility, Neale pointed out.
“Every 40 to 50 years you have to replace bridges and culverts” at the town’s expense, he said.
Tom ODell, who served as WLCT chairman for 48 years and died in 2018, sounded warnings for years about the impacts of overdeveloping land in the north part of town.
“If we preserve open space up in these hills, we’re protecting the water table and the long-term future” of the area, Neale remembers ODell saying.
“The water company well is right in the wetlands, just south of Timberland Road,” Neale said. “That’s a big well for the Connecticut Water Company.”
Fewer residents mean fewer wells taking water from the aquifer and conservation is about looking toward the future, Neale explained.
The parcel abuts two other WLCT holdings: Toby Hill Chase, roughly 26 acres, and Timberland, nearly 15 acres, according to a statement released by the organization in June. It is also adjacent to the Essex Land Trust property known as Fern Ledge.
Purchasing the property will close a gap in the McVeagh Greenway, add to the regional trail system, and enlarge the “habitat corridor...of approximately 527.6 permanently protected mixed hardwood forest and red maple wetlands,” according to a grant application by Wallace.
That application was rewarded with $315,000 from the Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Program, which is administered by the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. Successful applicants for that grant were announced by Governor Ned Lamont on Jan. 8 of this year.
This spring, the Westbrook Board of Selectmen accepted a Westbrook Foundation grant of $50,000 toward the land purchase. The town itself will contribute $140,000 from its open space fund.
The WLCT welcomes contributions of any size. WLCT is a 501(c)3 corporation and contributions are tax deductible. Checks should be made payable to WLCT, with a note in the memo that the donation is intended for Toby Hill VIII. Mail to: WLCT, P.O. Box 1124, Westbrook, Connecticut 06498.