East Lyme Leader ‘optimistic' About Acquiring Millstone Building

By KARIN CROMPTON
Day Staff Writer, Lyme/Old Lyme
Published on 2/10/2005

East Lyme —The first selectman said Wednesday that he expects to learn within a week or two what price, if any, the town would need to pay for the Millstone Discovery Center building.

Wayne Fraser said he spoke with Millstone representatives last week and he is “extremely optimistic” they would either offer the building, on Main Street in Niantic, to the town at little or no cost.

Meanwhile, the town building committee and a group of police officers are working on a transition plan and funding request to move the police department into that building temporarily.

“I want to be prepared so if the town does get the opportunity for very little money or none, we'll be ready to forward it to the Board of Selectmen for approval,” Fraser said, adding, “I find it hard to believe if we do get an offer for the building that we would turn it down, but I think the board needs all the information.”

Fraser said the Board of Finance would ultimately approve any purchase or donation acceptance.

A subcommittee of the Board of Selectmen, called the Public Safety Site Selection/Design Committee, recommended last fall that the police move into the Millstone building while they wait to relocate to a permanent public safety complex.

The public safety complex committee expects to recommend a site within a month, said Chairman Paul Renshaw.

Renshaw said Wednesday the four properties still on the committee's list are a parcel at the high school; land near Veterans Field on Route 161; a site on Route 1 near the border with Old Lyme; and property on Roxbury Road where the town garage is located.

“We haven't reached a final decision,” Renshaw said. “It's fair to say that the high school property is still one of our primary sites and a site of high interest to the committee.”

The committee has not yet heard from the Board of Education on whether the school district or the town has jurisdiction over the high school parcel. The town sent a letter two months ago to the school board asking for an attorney's opinion on the question but hasn't yet had a response, Renshaw said.

Renshaw said the committee would move forward with its recommendation regardless. The public safety committee will continue to meet at 7 p.m. each Tuesday at the high school until it has voted and finished its presentation.