A 4-1 decision by the RTM Administrative Committee on May 14 will cause the committee to take no further action on requests to dig deeper into a possible need for more decisive environmental site testing on town land the Founders Village property. The committee’s lone Republican in attendance, Cynthia Nargi, made the dissenting vote.

Spurred on by a questions brought by a citizen, Wayne Cooke, the committee had been asked to look into the matter of how truthfully First Selectman Anthony “Unk” DaRos had delivered environmental report information to the RTM on March 14. The information was supplied by a Phase One report from Triton Environmental concerning the property’s potential contamination.

The RTM voted March 14 to accept the report, including a recommendation for no further testing; and authorize a transaction in which seven of 10 acres were given to the town as open space to include passive park use (with oversight by the Branford Land Trust); while three acres were approved for a private senior housing development.

At the May 14 meeting, RTM Administrative Services Committee  chairman David Baker (D) noted that the transaction and deeds are in progress and, in essence, nothing can be done to call back the RTM’s March 14 decision.

However, during the May 14 meeting, several area property owners still asked the committee to go back and review the information supplied to the full RTM, citing worries about future contamination issues arising which could be allayed now with further testing.

Republican RTM Minority Leader Frank Twohill was also at the May 14 meeting, where he told the committee that, in retrospect, the full RTM was not given all of the information to review.  He noted the environmental report was not provided to members to review before the meeting, but the day after the vote, so the RTM based its vote solely on the information read from the report by DaRos. DaRos brought the report to the March 14 meeting and disclosed the information there for the first time.

Cooke’s argument was that, after seeing the entire Phase One Environmental report, information not discussed by DaRos showed that further environmental testing was recommended by Triton Environmental. Cooke therefore felt the RTM was misled and the public could be at risk for future law suits against the town, should contamination on the property become an issue.

However, Baker pointed to another portion of a report from Triton which he said was not included in the summary Cooke had handed out on May 14. Baker said the information he had showed that no further testing was required.

“I don’t see any reason for us not to accept the property. I don’t see any reason there that would preclude us from taking the property. Of course there is some risk, there’s also going to be some risk, but the thing is telling us the risk is slight if you don’t do certain things,” said Baker. “For example it says we’re not going to put buildings on the property. The water supply is safe because it comes from the outside world. We’re not putting wells in.”