Armory Plans Dropped—

National Guard Starts Military Kennel Project

By Andrew Gorosko

Demolition work required for the planned construction of a military dog kennel for the Connecticut National Guard (CNG) keyed to antiterrorism activities is underway in an agricultural area at Fairfield Hills.

A barn there, commonly known as “the piggery,” has been under demolition and is the site where a $2.3 million kennel will be built to house six military dogs, with space for up to 12 dogs. The facility is planned to open in late summer 2005. It would be the first such dog unit for the military reserve in the United States.

Although the CNG will be constructing a dog kennel, the organization has dropped its plans to refit a building at the Fairfield Hills core campus for use as a “readiness center,” or armory, according to CNG Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Lukowski, who is the CNG’s construction and facilities management officer.

CNG had been considering converting an existing state-owned warehouse building, which lies across the street from Reed Intermediate School, as a space for military reservists’ training, drilling, and offices. The warehouse is situated next to Fairfield Hills’ former steam plant on Old Farm Road. 

CNG had been considering refitting the facility to house a “chemical decontamination unit,” where soldiers would receive training in chemical, biological, and radiological warfare, keyed to antiterrorism. Alternately, a military police unit or an engineering unit might have been housed there.

That site though would not have provided suitable facilities for such an operation, so such plans have been dropped, Lt Col Lukowski said.

But demolition work for the planned dog kennel has been underway for the past several weeks. Roads leading to the area have been fenced off to keep unauthorized vehicles and people out of the area.

The approximately 5,000-square-foot kennel where the military dogs will be kept will be staffed on a daily basis, Lt Col Lukowski said. The dogs would be used for drug-sniffing, explosives-sniffing, and for search, rescue, and recovery work, he said. The majority of dogs would be German shepherds. A military dog-handling team would be attached to the kennel.

The kennel site is in an isolated area, but it also has easy access to Interstate 84, Lt Col Lukowski said. Planning for the project was underway before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he noted.

Of the military dog project, State Representative Julia Wasserman said, “I think it’s a good idea. I like the military presence at Fairfield Hills.”

The dilapidated and now-largely demolished 1,867-square-foot piggery, which overlooked farm fields, is located in an isolated area at the base of a hill, near Fairfield Hills’ former sewage treatment plant. The structure that was built in 1932 formerly was used for hog raising by the psychiatric patients who lived at Fairfield State Hospital, which closed in December 1995.