From the Ridgefield Press, January 21, 1999
by Donna Bertoli
If town officials have their way, Ridgefielders may soon grow richer by one pond -- a "great " one.
Officials hope to buy the 25-acre Great Pond and about two acres of its shoreline -- the beach part of Martin Park -- from the Gilbert & Bennett Company. The pond straddles the Ridgefield/Redding border and is accessible from Picketts Ridge Road, also known at its western end as Great Pond Road. The pond also supports a small private beach, the Great Pond Club, at its southern end, whose members have launched a campaign to help protect the pond from development.
The town has been quietly talking to the company about the possibility of purchasing the beach and lake property for some time, said First Selectman Abe Morelli. Recently, however, the plans hit a snag when the company declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy this September.
"Up until September, we were making some progress in working out a deal…" Now, said Mr. Morelli, instead of dealing with the company, the town is talking with bankruptcy coordinators in Atlanta about the possibility of buying the property.
"We have made an offer, and I am hoping to have some more information toward the end of the month," he said.
Why buy?
"We own the property around it and it is our town beach, which we've used for years and years," explained Mr. Morelli. The town had a 25-year lease to use the pond, which expires at the end of 1999, "which is the reason we've started negotiating," he said.
The public beach at Great Pond was created in 1953 under the stewardship of the late Francis Martin, for whom the park is now named. He raised money and formed the Great Pond Holding Corporation, which got a long-term lease on the property from Gilbert & Bennett and purchased other land around the pond. In 1970 the corporation deeded the property to the town, but the part owned by Gilbert & Bennett remained under a long-term lease arrangement. Under the terms of the deed, the beach is run as a "self-supporting" operation by the Parks and Recreation Department.
Continuing the tradition from when it was run by Mr. Martin's holding corporation, townspeople can become members for a modest annual family fee that covers the cost of lifeguards and maintenance.
Part of why the town wishes to buy the pond is for its environmental value. The subject of ecological studies in 1988 and 1995, Great Pond also reportedly holds 200 million gallons of some of the purest lake water in Connecticut. Its total watershed is about 175 acres and it measures 41.2 feet at its deepest point.
Environmental threat
Most of the pond's watershed is currently protected as Ridgefield and Redding open space. However, last year the one building lot within the watershed, in Redding, received development approval for a five-bedroom house and garage apartment. Access to the lot crosses one of Great Pond's three feeder streams, disrupting the wetlands that keep salt runoff from Great Pond and Great Pond Lane, according to Dr. Nelson Gelfman, speaking as a member of the Great Pond Corporation. Also, the building lot slopes toward the pond and members of the Ridgefield and Redding Conservation Commissions believe nitrogen and phosphorus from the septic system would eventually leach into the water body.
Solution?
These concerns led the 110 members of the Great Pond Corporation -- owner of the private beach on the pond, The Great Pond Club -- to obtain exclusive buying rights from developers. These expire in June of 1999. The purchase price for the property is $300,000. Development rights are valued at $110,000 and the club is working on an arrangement under which it would buy the property and recover a portion of the price by selling development rights to the Redding Land Trust.
Consequently, the Corporation, which has an income and operating budget of about $20,000 annually, is asking Ridgefielders and Reddingites for donations to help obtain these development rights.
Those who wish to make a pledge toward this purchase can contribute to a tax-deductible fund set up by the Redding Land Trust. Purchase by the trust would ensure the lot could remain in its natural state in perpetuity.
Those interested in donating money toward purchase of development rights to the land can call Dr. Gelfman at 438-4107 or 438-3091; Helen Kovacs at 438-8096; Winnie Kenyon at 438-5536; or Ellen Panish at 438-6739. Interested people may also visit the Website at http:\\www.chromian.com\greatpond or send a fax to 739-8079
Buying Great Pond! Now there's a good idea.
Town officials are negotiating for the purchase of Great Pond -- the land under the water body itself, as well as the property that makes up Martin Park Beach.
The pond is owned by Gilbert & Bennett, which for years held it as a means of storing water for release to refill another pond further down the Norwalk River. The second pond, in Georgetown, was the source of water used by the company in the manufacture of wire fencing at its big mill there. The town has a 25-year land lease on the pond, which expires in December. The company is in bankruptcy, so town officials see an opportunity to buy the pond and beach outright. They expect the price to be reasonable, since the beach doesn't seem like it could make a building plot, the rest of the land is under water, and presence of the dam poses potential repair bills and liability concerns for any owner.
Also of interest, The Great Pond Corporation, which owns the private beach club on the pond, is hoping to buy the last privately held parcel along the water's edge -- which is an approved Redding building lot. The club hopes to raise enough money to buy the lot, and is working on an arrangement to get some money to pay down a mortgage by selling development rights to the Redding Land Trust.
Most of the other land around the pond is held as open space by either the Redding or Ridgefield Conservation commissions. If the Great Pond Club's plans work out, it would mean that all the lakefront and the vast majority of the pond's small drainage basin are safe from development. That's important to protect the pond's clear, clean water. An environmental scientist who studied the pond in 1989 ranked it in the top 10% of lakes in Connecticut for environmental health.
Ridgefielders should do what they can to support both purchase efforts. The town has no environmental and recreational asset so worthy of protection. Great Pond with its clean spring-fed waters, its public and private beaches, its drainage basin of wooded hillsides, is, simply, a gem to be guarded and treasured.
by the Ridgefield Press Staff
First Selectman Abe Morelli is excited and optimistic to be negotiating on behalf of the town to buy Great Pond, where Martin Park -- on land held in a 25-year lease -- has long provided the town with a public beach. He fondly remembered his own days going there as a youth, before there was a formal town beach.
"I used to go there when I was four or five years old," he said, "and that wasn't yesterday… It was an absolutely great pond even then. There wasn't too much sand though -- it was pretty rocky. But the water was crystal clear."
Great Pond in the Fall
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