Criteria For

Open Space

To the Editor:

It was interesting reading The Bee’s reporting of the proposed purchase of the Raynold’s property for over $1 million. The Open Space Committee was created partly to answer the issue of unfettered development in our community.

This purchase might well preserve this 29-acre tract, but we must go beyond the issue of subdivision, with the following important questions. How will this property connect with the Greenway project or Rails to Trails? If this property does not connect to current open space, is there opportunity to connect in the future? Is this land truly unique in terms of its ecology?

In contemplating the expenditure of large sums of public money elected officials in charge of such decisions must hold themselves to a higher level of fiscal responsibility.

Gary Tannenbaum

Pond Brook Road, Newtown                                            March 1, 2006