What do the Mohegans want Norwich Hospital for?

The offer from the Mohegan Indians to buy the abandoned Norwich Hospital and its sprawling 393-acre campus in Preston seemed to drop out of the sky this week without warning.

The elaborate 17-page memorandum setting the legal parameters of the deal evidently has been in negotiations for some time, with remarkably tight lips on both sides.

And yet it arrived in the public domain with a very tight schedule.

Preston voters will be asked to weigh in on the deal at a town meeting on May 19, less than a week away.

The memorandum is very explicit on the details of the deal, laying out a plan for developing over the next six months an actual sales contract, which also would need voter approval.

At first blush, this looks like a great deal for the town.

At the end of five years, even if the tribe ends up doing nothing with the property, just banking it, the town should pocket about $5 million from the sale of the property, which would be on the tax rolls.

There is a schedule of timed tax abatements for built improvements.

For First Selectman Robert Congdon, crafting this deal must be what it feels like when someone stops waterboarding you.

Congdon initially went far out on a limb, getting voters to approve taking the contaminated property off the state's hands.

It has languished for years since, with no interested buyers in sight — the town's albatross.

But here comes a ready and willing buyer.

What puzzles me, as voters are being rushed to judgment, is that no one knows exactly what the tribe wants to do with the big property.

The memorandum voters are being asked to approve is really no help with this.

It includes a laundry list of things that could happen there, from a hotel to offices, housing or entertainment venues.

It is so broad as to be completely unspecific.

It suggests hundreds of jobs could be created and hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure built.

But for what exactly?

How can you promise how many jobs will be created or how much it will cost if you don't know what it is going to be?

Or do they know and are not saying?

The unveiling of the deal was odd, at best.

You would think the tribe might have staged a news conference, talked about their interest in the property and their plans, sold it to everyone.

Maybe they just want to explore possibilities of what to do with it, as the memorandum suggests.

But why not just say that?

It's a sprawling developable site across the river from their casino. It's within their budget, and it's natural they would want to own it.

Instead of explaining any of their thinking, though, the tribe has remained mum, not responding to requests for interviews from the newspaper.

The tribe apparently is planning to answer questions immediately before the vote on Thursday.

But that doesn't give voters much time to digest what they hear before making a decision.

Come on. It's a little town. These are neighbors, neighbors for centuries. Open a little dialogue.

Offer up a little more than a news release and a lawyer-written memorandum. Offer up some more coffee-shop fodder.

This deal is probably every bit as exciting as the first selectman has described it.

Other than submarines, it proves that the tribes are the principal generators in the eastern Connecticut economy. Who else has built a mall lately?

I think the public and the policymakers should help them grow and prosper, whether it is allowing them to build a satellite casino to the north or maybe an expanded resort development in Preston.

But they need to talk about what they want to do, especially when they need permission.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com