Following on from last Wednesday’s (Sept. 19) meeting attended by approximately 75 Old Lyme residents, the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen has announced that a Special Town Meeting will be held Monday, Sept. 24, at 7:30 p.m. to vote on both the proposals that were discussed at Wednesday’s meeting. The meeting will be held in in the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School auditorium at 53 Lyme Street,
Around a dozen questions were asked at Wednesday’s meeting. Many residents left after the end of the first hearing.
At tonight’s Special Town Meeting, residents will be asked to vote on the proposed lease of a portion of the Town-owned property at 72 Portland Ave. in Old Lyme. The lease, which was presented by First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder on Wednesday, includes access rights to the following:
- the leased area
- the Miami Beach Association,
- the Old Lyme Shores Beach Association
- the Old Colony Beach Association
- each of their respective Water Pollution Control Authorities (the “Tenants”)
The lease will be for an initial term of 40 years from its commencement date, for the purpose of the construction, operation, and maintenance of a sanitary sewage pump station, underground piping, and related facilities by the Tenants.
The proposed lease terms and a map showing the proposed lease area are available on the WPCA page of the Town website at www.oldlyme-ct.gov.
Residents will also be asked to approve a resolution that the first selectwoman, on terms and conditions deemed by the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen to be commercially reasonable and in the best interests of the Town, and subject to the approval of the Town Attorney as to legality and form, is authorized to negotiate and enter into a Memorandum of Agreement and subsequent lease for an initial term of up to 25 years with a solar energy generation firm.
This firm must be legally qualified to produce and distribute solar energy in the State of Connecticut for the purpose of allowing the tenant to install, own and operate solar photovoltaic generation equipment (“Solar Facilities”) on some or all of the capped portion of the former landfill on the Town-owned property at 109 Four Mile River Road in Old Lyme, together with and for the term of the lease:
(i) an easement over, across and through Town Property outside the leased area as reasonably necessary to allow the tenant, its employees, invitees, agents, contractors and subcontractors to access the leased property and the Solar Facilities by vehicle, foot or otherwise, in such location(s) as shall be reasonably determined by mutual written agreement of the Board of Selectmen and the tenant;
(ii) an easement on Town property outside the leased area, as reasonably necessary for the sole purpose of servicing the solar facilities, to build, maintain, upgrade, install and relocate electrical lines, conduits, and disconnects running to and from the solar facilities and other equipment and communication facilities, including without limitation utility meters and switches, transformers, inverters, disconnects, reclosers, poles and switchboards, all of which shall be reasonably needed to operate the solar facilities, and all of which shall be located where reasonably determined by mutual written agreement of the board of selectmen and the tenant;
(iii) the right, license and privilege to use, as reasonably necessary, up to 15,000 square feet of Town property outside the leased area as a temporary workspace for the placement and storage of equipment and materials during the construction and the removal of the solar facilities, the specific location of such temporary workspace to be agreed upon by mutual consent of the selectmen and the tenant prior to construction of the solar facilities.
Read more on this story in an article by Kimberly Drelich published on the day.com, Sept. 18.