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Do Not Need or Want It

I have read with much concern articles published in The Sound on Dec. 3 [“DEEP Bills North Branford $5,894 for Ongoing J.J. Sullivan Review”] and 17 [“Updates on Dog Park, Town Center, Bulk Propane, Sportplex Fields Deal”]. I am hoping that the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection decides to not let [bulk storage of propane] happen here. The towns of Clinton, Madison, and Guilford all made the right choice not to do this to their communities. North Branford, being a smaller town than the three other towns, does not need or want it here.

A voluntary, eight-member panel of the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) made the decision to change the zoning code on a property owned by a member of the Town Council without the vote of the North Branford taxpayers. We were allowed to attend meetings and voice our concerns. At each and every meeting, the PZC asked numerous questions of an explosion expert and attorney hired by the townspeople. Should they have not done research into all of the questions they asked before deciding to change the code to begin with?

I am hoping in publishing this letter that it gets to the people who are now in control to make the only decision that should have been made from the very beginning—that being no propane in North Branford.

I reached out to Channel 8 News with numerous telephone calls and got no return calls (so much for “We have your back”) as well as State Senator Ted Kennedy and U.S. Congressman Rosa DeLauro. I wonder who really does have the backs of the people in this little town of North Branford.

We are just asking that our town remain without the worry of a propane explosion and our children and wildlife stay safe.

Pattie Bailey

North Branford