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A Sad and Sorry History

The history of the Tabor property is a sad and sorry one. I'd like to give your readers a sense of the full story as background for the current discussions on placing Branford's Public Works at Tabor.

This land was farmed for years, then Daniel Cosgrove and Joseph Cegelski bought it as part of a larger parcel in 1958. They sold a section of this to the Town of Branford in 1977 for use as a landfill.

In 1975, Cosgrove stripped several feet of surface soil from the Tabor property and supplied it for construction projects, digging deep enough to form a pond. Later, blacktop, concrete, boulders, and all kinds of debris from the installation of the Branford sewer system and street work were dumped on the site, leaving a series of "goose bumps" that still dot the land. The next owners who bought the land from Cosgrove allowed contractors to dump building debris on the property. In the years since, nature has softened the scarred land, but with invasive plants that crowd out plant life native to the area.

This is what the residents around the Tabor property have lived with for many years. The property is by no means the pristine "natural forest, streams, and marsh with rolling hills" described in a recent publication.

In my opinion, the placement of Public Works in this area gives the best chance for the town to begin the process of remediating the entire 77-acre property back to environmental health. Branford needs a new Public Works facility, and residents around Tabor, increasingly exposed to severe storms and flooding as a result of global warming, can only benefit from having Public Works so close by.

In sum, placing Public Works at Tabor is best for Branford and best for the Tabor property.

Chet BlomquistBranford