Kelo Report

[TackleTheWorld]

Hee Hee,
NLDC business as usual, under construction with nothing to show for it.

[Lloyd Danforth]

 

[Pat McCotter]

Hee Hee,
NLDC business as usual, under construction with nothing to show for it.

Wow! Irony just pours out of that! Thanks, Lauren!

The Wayback Machine shows the last update on Apr 2, 2006

[TackleTheWorld]

Well at least he moved out of New London

TheDay.Com

Putting It All Behind Him

By David Collins

Published on 4/25/2007
New London ? Life in an eminent-domain war has never been easy.

Byron Athenian, who fought long enough to watch all his neighbors disappear and most of their houses come down around him, knows that as well as anyone. Even Smith Street itself is gone in front of Athenian's home, which used to be number 78, replaced by a concrete berm and what may be the city's biggest empty lot, a big wide expanse of dirt and gravel.

On windy days during the demolitions and road-building, Athenian couldn't go outdoors because of all the dirt and dust in the air. On rainy days, the basement fills with water because the level of the land around him has changed so much.

People come and dump trash, old sofas and televisions in the cleared space next to his house, where for almost 25 years he leased a building for his auto body shop before it was torn down, too, five years ago. His decrepit little gray house, which he stopped repairing when the troubles began eight years ago, is the last thing standing in Fort Trumbull's Parcel 3c, surrounded by a few trees and an overgrown privet hedge.

Today, though, Athenian may be leaving it all behind. He's buying a double-wide trailer house on Old Colchester Road in Montville, and if the very last stretch of negotiations with the New London Development Corp. goes well, he will move out, the last of the residents/litigants in the landmark Kelo v. New London case, he said, to leave the neighborhood they all affectionately called ?The Fort.?

But even so close to the end, things haven't been easy for Athenian.

View a Fort Trumbull slideshow

Tuesday, he was still trying to work out a timetable with the NLDC for a settlement meeting in which he would receive his final payment and use that money to close on the new house in Montville. The closing was scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday, and Athenian was asking to remain in the house until 4 p.m. today, so he would have time to move out.

He didn't want to move twice and said he turned down an NLDC offer to put his things in storage and pay for a hotel because he didn't know what to do with his 7-year-old, one-eyed pit bull, Charlie.

?What's a day or two after eight and a half years?? he asked.

But the NLDC said no, Athenian said in frustration Tuesday afternoon. That led to the U-Haul incident.

One of Athenian's lawyers told him he'd have to get a moving truck, load his things into it Tuesday night and this morning, then leave it parked next to the house while he goes to the closing, collects his check and buys the new house.

The only truck he could find was an enormous one, in Groton, so big he had trouble handling it going over the Gold Star Memorial Bridge. Then on the way into Fort Trumbull, going under the Walbach Street Amtrak overpass, he heard a scrape. When he got home and opened up the truck, he discovered he'd ripped off the aluminum roof.

?I just hope it doesn't rain,? he said, adding that he did, at least, buy the insurance for the rental. ?Every hour today is an adventure.?

Athenian's house is in his mother's name, although he is the only one who has lived there in the 12 years they have owned it. They became the last to come to a resolution with the NLDC because, Athenian said, the NLDC unfairly settled for much higher amounts with other neighborhood residents last summer, after Athenian and his mother complied with what they say they were told was a final deadline to accept an offer.

They later filed a complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, claiming Athenian's mother, Thelma Brelesky, who is elderly, was discriminated against because of the wide discrepancies in settlements.

Athenian said Tuesday he was reluctant to disclose the final amount he expected from the NLDC today to complete the purchase of the $167,000 property in Montville. But he said it is small. He said another $174,652 in settlement and escrow for his house, after paying lawyers and a $22,000 mortgage, came to about $140,000.

?New London seized my house and all I got was this lousy sticker,? read big stickers pasted across the front and back doors of Athenian's house.

?If I were rich I would have told them to keep it all a long time ago,? he said.

NLDC officials did not return phone messages Tuesday inquiring about Athenian and his planned move today.

Athenian allowed himself a little nostalgia about The Fort Tuesday, remembering the summer barbecues neighbors used to share after fishing trips. Many people lived there their whole lives. The elderly man Athenian bought 78 Smith St. from had lived there for 60 years and raised a family in it.

?He would hate to see this,? Athenian said, predicting the plywood would go on the windows today, as soon as the closing is over.

One other deadline looms for the final abandonment of the neighborhood. Susette Kelo has a June 15 deadline to move or lose her pink house, and a relative or friend is still staying in it now, Athenian said.

?This was a good neighborhood,? he said. ?I don't know what they meant when they said it wasn't a good neighborhood. There were good people here. But as they say, all things must pass.?

Athenian is also looking forward to his new home, which is on one acre, with plenty of room for Charlie to roam.

And life there, he said, might be easier.

New London

   

Byron Athenian with his dog, Charlie, on the porch of his home at 78 Smith St. in New London on Tuesday. Athenian is scheduled to move out of the house in the former Fort Trumbull neighborhood today.
 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[error]

I curse you all to hell.

[error]

Eminent Domain Symbol Spared
   
Eminent Domain Symbol Spared
Former Kelo House In Fort Trumbull Will Be Saved And Relocated
By Elaine Stoll
Published on 6/15/2007

New London — On the eve of today's deadline for Susette Kelo to vacate the Fort Trumbull cottage whose seizure by eminent domain she unsuccessfully fought all the way to the Supreme Court, the Institute for Justice announced that the house would be spared demolition.

The house will be preserved in its entirety and relocated to 36 Franklin St., Institute Senior Attorney Scott Bullock said Thursday. There, he said, it will stand testament to the struggle of Kelo and the neighbors who joined her in a lawsuit — Kelo v. City of New London — that sought to save their homes and prevent future seizures of private property for economic development.

Though the high court's June 23, 2005, decision upheld as a public purpose the distressed city's use of eminent domain to bolster its tax base by remaking the Fort Trumbull peninsula under a municipal development plan, 42 states have since enacted restrictions on the use of eminent domain powers for economic development purposes.

The Kelo house has become an important symbol in that battle for the property rights of homeowners and small-business owners, Bullock said.

"It really is a historic house," he said. "It's a house that has changed America so much for the better. It's a house that sparked a grass-roots rebellion against eminent domain for private economic development."

The house is too large to be moved intact to Franklin Street, about a mile away, and could not fit under the railroad trestles that separate the Fort Trumbull peninsula from the rest of the city, Bullock said. So in the next few months it will be disassembled "piece by piece," down to single studs and floor joists, trucked away, and stored in pieces. It will be reassembled on the new site, said Victor Wyatt, general manager of New London-based General Home Improvements.

That site is a vacant, landscaped lot owned by Avner Gregory of New London, who offered it for the Kelo house, Bullock said. The lot contains an existing foundation that will be modified to fit the cottage. It will be the house's third location — the building was moved from its original Pequot Avenue location to its Fort Trumbull address, 8 East St., in the 1890s.

The Kelo house will fit in with the other Franklin Street homes, and its new location is not far from the courthouse where the eminent domain lawsuit was fought locally, Bullock said.

Details such as who will hold title to the house and what purpose it will be used for upon reconstruction have yet to be decided, Bullock said.

"Our focus right now is on getting the house out of Fort Trumbull and getting it there (Franklin Street) as quickly as possible."

Kelo, who decorated the house Thursday in red, white and blue ribbon even as workers prepared the building for disassembly, said she was glad it will be saved.

"I'm really very happy about it, and I'm excited," she said. "The city won't be able to forget what they did. I hope they never do it again."

The fact that the house can be saved is one good development in what has otherwise been a difficult nine years, Kelo said.

Standing outside her house Thursday, which also happened to be her birthday, Kelo recalled buying the house in 1997. The woman who previously owned it had painted it beige inside and out and asked Kelo what color she intended to use.

The pink color Kelo chose — Odessa Rose by Benjamin Moore — would "liven up the neighborhood," the woman told Kelo. "I said, 'Yeah, and so will I,' " Kelo said. "Little did I know."

A settlement signed with the city and the New London Development Corp. last June gave Kelo until today to remain at the house, though she did not wait until the deadline to move to Waterford. The NLDC has agreed to give the Institute for Justice more time to move the house, though the extension will not be an indefinite one, NLDC President Michael Joplin said Thursday.

"We're going to expect a commitment on their part to move it by a certain date, and if we can be of help, we'll be of help," Joplin said.

NLDC Chief Operating Officer Gregory Coenen said he is pleased the Institute for Justice will be able to move the house.

"When the settlement agreement was formulated, we acknowledged the opportunity to relocate the house," he said. "At his point, I'm certainly pleased to see that provision coming to fruition. It has always been our expectation, and I think theirs, that the house would be moved."

City and state officials also welcomed Thursday's announcement.

"I'm pleased that Susette will be able to carry through with her plans to move the house," City Law Director Thomas J. Londregan said.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell, whose office was involved in negotiating settlements a year ago that compensated Kelo and the other plaintiffs for giving up possession of their former properties, "has consistently fought for the accommodation of the Fort Trumbull residents," Rell spokesman Adam Liegeot said. "Today's announcement is further proof that working together and negotiating in good faith can benefit everyone involved — the City of New London, the state of Connecticut and the residents of the Fort Trumbull peninsula."

The relocation of the house, funded with money raised by the Institute for Justice for that purpose, will not cost the state or NLDC, nor will it delay progress on the Fort Trumbull project.

[TackleTheWorld]

Eminent Domain Symbol Spared
   
Eminent Domain Symbol Spared
Former Kelo House In Fort Trumbull Will Be Saved And Relocated

That site is a vacant, landscaped lot owned by Avner Gregory of New London, who offered it for the Kelo house, ...

That's Avner Gandhi Gregory, a very saintly guy.

[error]

Oops! Newspaper regrets advocating eminent domain

Fort Trumbull Growth Stalled By Hard Times 
By Morgan McGinley
Published on 6/15/2008 in Home »Editorial »Editorial Columns

Eight years have passed since the New London Development Corp. reorganized and in short order produced Pfizer's Global Research and Development offices. The city anticipated a vibrant research and office park in Fort Trumbull with a high-quality hotel.

Pfizer's development has given a much-needed shot in the arm to the local economy. But a time-consuming lawsuit over eminent domain blocked the NLDC's other goals and now the Fort Trumbull project is mired in the national recession.

With Lehman Bros. the latest big-name banking house to face a loss of billions of dollars, the evidence suggests that the worst is not over. The banking crisis has damaged development projects and crippled the housing industry, with no relief in sight.

As a result, the city is unlikely to get much new tax revenue anytime soon in Fort Trumbull and a hotel is at least five years away, if at all.

The national Coast Guard Museum plans there are progressing, but Pfizer, once interested in a fine hotel to house its visiting scientists, has to concentrate on its own difficult, internal problems. Pfizer stock has tumbled to about one-third its former value and is hovering at about $18 a share.Changed position

Initially, I supported the ideas the NLDC was projecting, for without a dynamic leveraging of New London's assets, the city was destined to face an ever-more-demanding struggle to pay its bills with a paltry tax base. But in retrospect, I believe the Rowland administration's and the NLDC's take-no-prisoners approach in Fort Trumbull prevented a workable compromise. Such a proposal could have produced the Pfizer project and generated new tax revenues, while leaving most people in their homes.

John A. Steffian, former dean of the architecture department at Rhode Island School of Design, offered such a reasonable compromise. He even drew a model of his idea, but the Rowland administration and the NLDC weren't interested. As a result, Steffian and his wife Sarah E. Steffian, became prime movers in resisting the forced eminent-domain takings. They supported the Institute for Justice's lawsuit for homeowner Susette Kelo that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

By clinging to such an intractable stance, the city and NLDC missed the opportunity to take advantage of a red hot housing market and abundant credit.

Instead the project is floundering, stalled by the collapse of the real estate market and the resulting tightening of credit.

The NLDC has dismissed Corcoran Jennison, a Boston firm, as prime developer. But the company, after paying just $1 for the building, still is able to develop a modern office structure formerly occupied by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. Among the prospective tenants is the Coast Guard Research and Development Center. And, though no longer prime developer, Corcoran Jennison could compete for housing contracts or build an extended-stay residence inn at the Fort, catering largely to Pfizer employees assigned to the area for an extended period.

One has to wonder, though, who will develop housing there in this climate? President Michael Joplin says financing may be obtainable if a developer gets tax credits for providing work-force housing for about 10 percent to 20 percent of some 66 apartments. Those would be occupied by people whose income was 80 percent, or less, of the median income in the region.

In essence the plan would bring back to Fort Trumbull the type of folks ousted by eminent domain - working people.

"This is a slap in the face to the people who lived there. You're going back to what it was," noted one veteran real estate agent.

New London residents have been hit by the loss of many dozens of homes in the eminent-domain takings at Fort Trumbull and the state pier. Hard as it is to swallow, taxpayers are going to have to wait for this bad economic time to pass. That is the reality.

Morgan McGinley is a former editorial page editor for The Day, now retired.

[David]

Thank God there is such a law as cause and effect.   

[TackleTheWorld]

The green shirted police officer near the end of Lauren's porch arrest video has been accused of horrible horrible things

http://archive.theday.com/re.aspx?re=00fb36df-f4b5-44ce-8b96-e73b2bd27b7a

New London police officer charged with sexual assault
By Karen Florin


Published on 1/23/2009 in Home
William R. Edwards Sr., a well-known New London police officer, has been charged with sexually assaulting a young child and suspended from the force.
State police charged Edwards, 45, with third-degree sexual assault for allegedly compelling another person to submit to sexual contact by use of force. He also was charged with second-degree unlawful restraint, tampering with a witness and two counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Edwards was booked at the state police Troop E barracks in Montville early Thursday and appeared in Norwich Superior Court at about noon. He is free on $100,000 bond and is forbidden from having contact with the alleged victim, a 12-year-old boy. The Day does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed also ordered Edwards to cooperate with The Family Institute, a Hartford psychiatric institution.

According to the arrest warrant, Edwards did not deny the sexual assault allegation and admitted that he engaged in "inappropriate behavior" with the victim about four or five years ago during a "dark period" in his life.

Edwards, the warrant stated, became increasingly despondent during an interview with police Dec. 3 at Troop E. Detectives determined he was a threat to himself and took him to The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich to be evaluated. Edwards admitted to the detectives that he had been depressed for years and had a substance-abuse problem.

His estranged wife, who was interviewed during the investigation, told police her husband had been using cocaine and that he threatened to shoot himself in the head if he was arrested and the charges appeared in the news media.

New London Police Chief Bruce Rinehart suspended Edwards without pay Thursday following his arrest.

The suspension was effective immediately, Rinehart said, and will remain in effect until the resolution of the court case. Because Edwards was hospitalized, Rinehart was unable to suspend Edwards until he was arrested.

The chief and New London police Capt. Margaret Ackley met Edwards at Troop E to formally suspend him.

"It's an unfortunate thing,'' Rinehart said. "Law enforcement is one big family, and when these things happen to our brothers and sisters, these things affect us all.''

He said the department is also conducting an internal investigation.

Edwards, wearing a blue button-down shirt and tan slacks, appeared in court with his brother, former city police Capt. Kenneth W. Edwards, and defense attorney Paul Guernsey. He seemed calm as he stood before the judge. His case will be heard in Windham County, since he and his family are so well known in New London County. His next court date is Feb. 11 in Danielson Superior Court.

The arrest warrant detailing the charges portrays a different Edwards than the 20-year police veteran who tirelessly worked with community groups, including children, business owners, the elderly and neighborhood alliances.

Edwards, a lifelong city resident, told state police he has been depressed "since 1967" (when he was 4 years old), and his wife told investigators he had sought inpatient treatment for a cocaine addiction. Edwards has been married since 1987 and has two children. Court records indicate that Deutsche Bank foreclosed on the family home at 68 Cedar Grove Ave. in July and that the bank repossessed the house.

The state police began investigating Edwards in November after receiving a report from the Department of Children and Families. A child who knows the alleged victim had disclosed the allegations to a counselor. The child said the alleged victim had told her about the allegations. The alleged victim was then interviewed by a DCF investigator and state police.

The victim said when he was between 5 and 7 years old, he had four or five encounters of a sexual nature with Edwards. The victim said he was afraid to tell anyone because he was frightened of Edwards.

DAY STAFF WRITER KATHLEEN EDGECOMB CONTRIBUTED TO THIS STORY.

[KBCraig]

Roughing up tiny harmless women, and raping young boys.

I bet he feels like a real man. 

[AntonLee]

punks, all of them.  God help me if I had my way. hehe

[Russell Kanning]

depressed since age 4 .... makes a good cop thug

[David]

Roughing up tiny harmless women, and raping young boys.

I bet he feels like a real man. 

I would love to know how many people he has arrested for cocaine possession.  Just another dirty cop.  I am curious why the 'good' cops didn't bust this 'bad apple'. 

[Lloyd Danforth]

Thin Blue morality............... concern for the public................ Line!