Groton Open Space Association

Connection: East Lyme Votes $2 Million For Open Space

EAST LYME–A special town meeting voted overwhelmingly April 11 to approve up to $2 million to preserve open space in the town, The Day reported.

The newspaper said in an article by staff writer Karin Crompton: “Although the money can be used to buy land anywhere in town, the focus will be on purchasing land in the Oswegatchie Hills, a 700-acre expanse of woodlands that borders the Niantic River.

“About 300 people attended the meeting, held in the high school auditorium. Only two or three people voted no in the voice vote.

“Immediately after the motion passed, the room erupted into cheers, hollers and whistles. Half the room stood and applauded while others hugged and pumped their fists.

“‘You could feel it here tonight–this was a community, it was everybody,’” said Marvin Schutt, president of the nonprofit Friends of Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve. “‘Previous times, there wasn’t the unification of communication and of desire.’

“Many people who want to preserve the Hills have lamented the town’s failure to buy a key chunk of land there 18 yeas ago. In 1987, the town received a $1 million state grant to help it buy land in the Hills, but East Lyme failed to use the grant and the state repealed it in 1989.

“Now, that same property belongs to developer Glenn Russo, who owns Landmark Development LLC of Middletown. Russo either owns or has the option to buy 230 acres in the northern end of the Hills and has twice applied to the town to build market-rate condominiums and affordable housing units there.”