Politics & Government

Part Two: Long Beach West Public Forum

Resident asks if the Fish and Wildlife Service is still interested in purchasing it. Mayor Harkins urges residents to slow down and follow through with the process of analyzing the town's options.

Part Two: Public Forum on Long Beach West. The discussion continues.

Would the town be better off selling Long Beach West to the federal government, the state of Connecticut or perhaps to an entity like the Connecticut Audubon Society? 

At last Thursday’s public forum hosted by Protect Our Environment of Stratford held at St. Joseph National Catholic Church, town resident Joe Korpisky asked Town Conservation Administrator Brian Carey, “Is the Fish and Wildlife Service still interesting in purchasing the property?”

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Korpisky wondered out loud, “What is their vision as far as enhancing it for recreational purposes?,” adding, “Don’t you think the federal government, which has hundreds of wildlife refugee properties across the country has more expertise in managing and more resources to take the burden off of local taxpayers?”

Carey answered, “I don’t know what their status is” with regard to any interest the fed may have in purchasing Long Beach West, adding that both the state and federal governments are experiencing their own budget difficulties at this time. 

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“The town would have to approach them to sell it,” Carey said, adding that the Fish and Wildlife Service itself has hundreds of millions of dollars in its budget, and “if they would purchase [Long Beach West] it would go into the Steward McKinnley Wildlife Refuge” immediately adjacent. 

Korpisky then stated, “in that section of the marsh, they built blinds, kiosks … How long would the town have to wait before we could afford” to improve Long Beach West ourselves?

Carey noted, “I have worked almost daily with them and one of the discussions I have had is” that in general the people of Stratford don’t know where the access points are to the wildlife refuge that exists here. “They’re off the beaten trail,” Carey said, “and when I tell people where they are they are floored.

“Education is a major component of what the Fish & Wildlife Service does … and as far as the town doing that – that’s what we’re going” to talk about and debate going forward.

Carey stressed that “we’re currently in the planning process.” The town has to have a far ranging conversation that asks, ‘What do we want out there?’ and, ‘How are we going to pay for it?’

The Audubon’s Milan Bull, sitting next to Carey, then added, “Financially, I agree the fed should own it … but politically, I don’t think that is good for the town.” (See more of Milan's comments on video, attached to this story.)

Mayor John Harkins then spoke and said the keys to the issue of Long Beach West were to “protect and utilize.”

All of a sudden, there’s a bright light shining on Long Beach West, the mayor said. “Let us try to come up with some ideas, and if that doesn’t work, then maybe we can turn it over to the feds.

“But it seems to me,” Mayor Harkins continued, some residents “are in a rush to sell it.

“We have an opportunity as a town to come up with a plan. There is a process to go through and we have many reasonable people with the same aspirations.”

So, “let’s go through that process to have a discussion and come up with a plan,” he continued. “Maybe in the end we sell to the Fish and Wildlife Service. But let’s give it a shot and if it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else.”

In Part Three: The March 31 discussion continues. Coming up in Stratford Patch.


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