Thursday, April 30, 2020
www.berlincitizen.com
Volume 22, Number 9
Council votes to PZC rejects demolition of Farmington Ave. property appropriate $1M
for sports facilities
By Everett Bishop The Citizen
At a recent Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, the panel voted to recommend that a building at 861 Farmington Ave. not be demolished because of its historic significance. The building, which housed Country Kitchen and the Drain Doctor, was purchased by the town in May of 2019 as part of a purchase-andsale agreement with Newport Realty that was necesThe Planning and Zoning Commission voted to sary for the Farmington and recommend that this building at 861 Farmington Steele project.
One provision of the town’s agreement with Newport Realty was that the building at 861 Farmington Ave. be “preserved and renovated,” according to Economic Development Coordinator Jim Mahoney. “The primary reason we acquired (861 Farmington Ave.), at the time, was to help with remediation of en-
Ave., which housed Country Kitchen and the Drain Doctor, not be demolished because of its historic significance.
vironmental issues related to the adjacent property at 889 Farmington Ave.,” Mahoney said. “That operation had contaminated the property, the soil and the groundwater.” Mahoney said the town tested the groundwater at adjacent sites to 889 Farmington Ave. and found that those sites also had contaminated groundwater. After working with Newport
field and the Scalise Field restrooms.
The Town Council last week voted to adopt an ordinance appropriating $1 million in bonding for improvements to local recreation facilities.
“All of you, especially the Town Council field committee, have heard numerous times about the conditions of the field and the much needed renovations for the safety of the kids playing on them,” Bovee said during the April 21 council meeting.
Donna Bovee, chair of the town’s recreation commission, spoke about the importance of improving the town’s Sage I softball field, the Percival Park soccer
See Facilities, A9
File photo
and environmental consultants, Mahoney said that it would have been more cost efficient to demolish the building at 861 Farmington Ave. During the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, correspondence from residents were read aloud – all rejected the idea of demolition for the sake of preserving local history. See PZC, A6
In this 2016 photo, Berlin's Allison Souza gets a shot off between the Southington defense at Scalise Field in Berlin. File photo
R229860
The project is an initiative to revitalize downtown near the train station with commercial and residential buildings.
By Everett Bishop The Citizen