Politics & Government

Town Looks to Lease Former French Lupone Property to Clinton Volunteer Fire Department

At the July 31 Board of Selectman meeting, the Clinton Volunteer Fire Department presented their request to lease from the town for $1.00 the land located at the end of Highland Drive, formally know as the French Lupone Property.

Plans are now in motion for the Clinton Fire Department to lease from the town the land located at the end of Highland Drive, formally know as the French Lupone Property. The CVFD would lease the property for $1.00, for a term of at least 25 years with the right to renew.

“The Fire Department would like to take the property over and clean it up, and make it usable for everyone,” said a representative of the Department at Wednesday night’s meeting. “We’re thinking of doing things like pasta dinners and the like at the location. We first came forward with this idea last September, so we’re ready.”

CVFD would like to clean up the property and make it a recreational area, similar to Old Saybrook’s Fireman’s Field. They currently have no plans to erect any shelters, but they did discuss the possibility of putting in restrooms or an overhead shelter of some sort.

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The Board of Selectmen discussed that the town may need the property at a later date, and agreed that in the lease agreement, it must be made clear that the town can break the lease at any time, provided they compensate the CVFD for any work they may have put into the property.

The selectmen approved, with one abstention from Selectman Pinder, to approve going forward with asking the Town Attorney to draft up a lease agreement and send to the proper boards and town meeting for approval.

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“This will still need to go to a town meeting and a public hearing,” continued Fritz. 

Selectman Carol Walters was adamant that the town have time to voice their opinion on the property. 

“I really want to hear input from the town on this,” Walters said at the meeting. “I think Fireman’s Field in Old Saybrook is a wonderful resource, and certainly this property isn’t doing anything for us now.”

Phil Sengle, who spoke at the start of the meeting on the issue, urged the Board to take their time to think over leasing the property to CVFD.

“The Fire Department has every right to ask for this property and develop their department,” Sengle said. “But asking for 25 years is a very long time. I can understand that with the election looming, their may be pressure to approve this. I ask you to think it over. Since this land was taken for a waste water solution, we should wait and see if we need it for that.” 

“If it is not needed for that, our next largest need is for grand list growth, so we should evaluate it for sale to a private development,” Sengle continued. “If eventually we decide to retain the property we should evaluate if it should be put under the control of Park and Rec for the enjoyment of all.” 

“We cannot sell this property because it was taken in by imminent domain, so we have to maintain ownership of the property,” First Selectman Fritz responded. “We approached Park and Rec about this property several times, but it never went further than that.” 


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