To the Editor:

Placing the Sandy Hook Memorial in the High Meadow open space at Fairfield Hills is a bad idea.

The High Meadow is an environmentally sensitive area providing food and sanctuary for important pollinators and ground-nesting birds. It is a fact that pollinators and birds are in sharp decline. Habitat loss is the biggest threat with meadows and fallow farm fields being replaced by new homes with sterile lawns and paved-over parking areas.

Wouldn't dedicating a new Community Center be a truly meaningful tribute to those lost at Sandy Hook? Or why not dedicate one of or town parks to their memory?

Why must we insist on constructing a monument on land that has already been preserved as town open space by the Conservation Commission and whose secluded location will only serve to attract curiosity seekers and vandals?

Holly Kocet

2 Karen Boulevard, Newtown         January 11, 2016