$150,000 Yale gift will buy firetruck for West Haven

Friday, September 19, 2008 6:35 AM EDT

By Abbe Smith, Register Staff

WEST HAVEN — The West Shore Fire Department is in line for a $150,000 gift from Yale University, which will help the financially strapped district buy a badly needed new firetruck.

The gift was announced Thursday at a press conference at City Hall, attended by Mayor John M. Picard, Yale Associate Vice President Michael Morand, West Shore Acting Fire Chief David Collins and other city and fire officials.

The contribution comes almost a year after Yale purchased the 137-acre Bayer HealthCare complex, which had been the major tax revenue contributor for the West Shore district, where it is located. Yale paid $109 million for the site.

Collins acknow-ledged that those were “scary times at first” and then thanked Yale for its support.

“Since they’ve arrived, they have become a great community partner,” Collins said.

Picard, a major proponent of Yale’s opening of the science and technology-oriented “West Campus” in West Haven, echoed Collins’ gratitude.

“I always say, Yale coming to West Haven is the best thing that could ever have happened in this town,” he said.

In addition to this week’s gift to West Shore, Picard noted Yale’s $50,000 donation to the school district in June for its “Take a Seat” project, aimed at refurbishing seats in the West Haven High School auditorium.

Superintendent of Schools Neal Cavallaro was also on hand for the announcement and thanked Yale for its commitment to helping improve the school district’s science programs.

Presenting an oversized check to Picard, Morand praised the mayor as “visionary” and noted that the excitement generated by the new campus is “extraordinary.”

The new campus last month named its first vice president for West Campus planning and program development, evolutionary biology professor Michael Donoghue. Donoghue is a former director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven.

The tax-exempt university has agreed to make a voluntary payment of either $250 per full-time employee on the new site or $600,000, whichever is larger. The payment, which will be adjusted annually for inflation, will be shared by West Haven and Orange because the new site straddles the border, with the majority of the space in West Haven.

The first payment from Yale will be made in October. Both towns also are also eligible for the state’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes program.

In July, the West Shore fire district reached a deal with the city, securing a portion of Yale’s voluntary payments for the fire department, which covers both the West Haven and Orange sides of the campus in case of a fire.

The separate $150,000 gift will help cover the cost of a new 77-foot firetruck that combines the features of a pumper and ladder truck. The bulk of the cost for the $645,000 truck was covered by a federal grant, leaving taxpayers to foot only a small part of the bill.

Abbe Smith can be reached at asmith@nhregister.com or 789-5615.