By Russ Morey
Times Staff Writer
At a referendum on Aug. 25, North Stonington voters approved the purchase of the Mystic Seaport-owned Hewitt property by a margin of 430 to 262, settling a process that began last December.
Located along Rte. 2, the property is roughly 104 acres, and barring any last-minute issues, it will be purchased for $814,590. North Stonington First Selectman Nicholas H. Mullane, Jr., explained the process.
“The Seaport first approached me and asked if we’d be interested in possibly considering a purchase of the property,” Mullane explained. “I let them know that it would need to be a topic for a town meeting. So they had documentation forwarded to us, and we started in the process of how we would go about it.
“The first issue we considered was, can we purchase this with the deed restriction? Then we looked at all the questions like, what exactly are we going to get, and how are we going to use it? What’s the condition of it? How would we use the buildings? Can we have it insured? Basically a whole bunch of questions came up. So we spent many months finding thorough answers to these questions so that when we brought this to a town meeting, we would be able to answer most any reasonable questions.”
Following the aforementioned town meeting, town officials began inspecting the property, which, among other features, has a large pond, stream, and dam. With significant damage to the dam discovered, the $814,590 price tag will include the $180,500 needed for repairs. In addition the property includes four structures; the circa-1750 house, a circa-1900 schoolhouse, a small cottage, as well as the Dew Drop Inn (currently being renovated), all of which were scheduled to be professionally inspected following the referendum.
With financing already in place and final inspections nearly complete, Mullane pointed to Sept. 15 as a tentative date for the final closing of the purchase. Possible future uses for the land include a variety of recreational parks, with current uses including fishing, hiking, horseback riding, biking, and other outdoor activities excluding the use of any motor vehicles. With the closing date fast approaching, Mullane briefly explained how the land will be a benefit to the town.
“We had established a land fund with about $110,000 in it, and the intent was to purchase lands that would be in strategic locations that would benefit the town in its land conservation and development plan and the conservation and recreation plan,” Mullane said. “This property does fulfill both of the plans’ intents, and it provides roughly 104 acres of land that is centrally located and in and around the village that can be used for parks and recreation...If you take a look at trying to go out and buy 104 acres of land that is as diverse as this, it is really a very good value. It has the pond on it, it’s got the stream that runs through it, it’s got fields, a historic cemetery—we thought it was pretty great and obviously so did the voters.”