With about a dozen residents on hand to represent the entire community, a brief town meeting February 17 sealed plans to demolish the home at 36 Yogananda Street, where 12/14 perpetrator Adam Lanza and his late mother Nancy resided. Following that meeting, the Board of Selectmen also acted to initiate foreclosure on a key commercial parcel on Church Hill Road adjacent to eastbound I-84.

At the town meeting, Legislative Council members Robert Merola and Philip Carroll, along with resident Eric Paradis, who serves on the current Charter Revision Commission, made brief remarks before the unanimous vote to raze the dwelling and permit the vacant lot to “return to its natural state,” at least for the time being.

While Mr Merola and Mr Carroll both articulated their support to take down the house, Mr Paradis went a step further, calling on selectmen to ensure that no pieces of the formerly demolished home shows up as a gruesome novelty items for sale on the Internet. First Selectman Pat Llodra assured that the company handling the demolition would be bound to similar legal rules as the company that demolished the former Sandy Hook School, safeguarding all demolition debris from access and removal.

Following the town meeting, Mrs Llodra announced that Manafort Brothers construction company of Plainville has offered to underwrite all demolition work at the site. She said the company enjoys a “special relationship with the town,” along with employing several staff members who live in town.

A meeting to negotiate details with Manafort representatives was set for the following day, she added.

Mrs Llodra also thanked each of the more than 30 residents who came forward expressing ideas about the disposition of the Lanza home, including creating a group home for the disabled, using the dwelling for a live burn fire company exercise, and donating the property to Newtown Forest Association to maintain.

The first selectman said after discussing these and other ideas with immediate family members and 12/14 survivors and Yogananda Street neighbors, she determined simply razing the house would be the best choice.

Selectman Will Rodgers affirmed that he wanted to see a formal, legal document in place to ensure that any eventual disposition of the parcel would benefit immediate victims and survivors of 12/14.

“More important than who the property might eventually benefit, is who it’s never going to benefit — that’s the town,” he said.

Church Hill Foreclosure

Later, after a closed executive session, the selectmen unanimously agreed to commence foreclosure on what Mrs Llodra described as “key gateway property” at 75 Church Hill Road. The first selectman noted that with a potential developer poised to take on the parcel, it was paramount that the town foreclose in order to “clean up the back taxes and abatements to position that gateway property and get it back on the tax rolls.”

Mrs Llodra told The Newtown Bee following the meeting, that the parcel, directly across the road from Blue Colony Diner and the I-84 Exit 10 eastbound off ramp, reverted to its original owner, Noie Richards, after another owner defaulted on his mortgage more than a decade ago.

“We know it’s contaminated,” the first selectman said (a dry cleaning plant was formerly located there). “But we’re very interested in cleaning it up and making it a more welcoming parcel for our community.”

She said the realignment of Edmond Road and the progressing development of a new mini-mart and gasoline station on an adjacent parcel has stepped up interest in the vacant location which has only served as a location for holiday scouting canteen activities, and a brief memorial location following the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Mrs Llodra said the courts typically move slowly on foreclosure actions of this nature, but she is hoping to see the legal action progressing through the spring.

“That parcel is primed for development,” she said.

Energy Commission

The selectmen also welcomed Public Works Director Fred Hurley and Sustainable Energy Commission Chair Kathleen Quinn to provide the commission’s annual update. Much of the brief presentation included reviewing the growing number of commercial grade solar installations in town, which currently generate about a quarter of the town’s eventual clean energy goal of 20 percent by 2020.

The five major commercial installations are located at the Water Pollution Control Plan, the Parks & Rec maintenance garage on Trades Lane, the local animal control facility at Fairfield Hills, along with the Reed and middle schools.

Ms Quinn said that the ultimate goal would be for the town to self-generate the 20 percent of clean energy to achieve its long-term projection. Mr Hurley said the town was moving forward developing a new solar project at the landfill, with proposal requests expected to go out by the spring.

The public works chief said the energy commission in concert with town leaders will need to decide if taxpayers should cover the cost and reap the maximum benefits of energy savings, or build the landfill system using a power purchase agreement. That alternative only begins paying dividends back to the town after energy savings have covered the cost of installation and solar hardware to make the system operative.

Looking farther out, Ms Quinn said her commission is motivated to try and locate another significant one megawatt solar farm on the former Batchelder property in Botsford. She also reported that a $10,000 grant targeting energy efficient lighting conversions on 30 municipal fixtures will save taxpayers about $4,000 annually in electrical costs.

Mr Hurley said another 100 Newtown private homes were “solarized” in the past year, bringing the total number of residential projects in town to more than 500. He also noted that the St Rose Parish has completed a 35 megawatt installation and another major commercial project is in the planning stages for a local business in the Edmond Road area.