PORTLAND, Connecticut (30 August 2004) -- Town officials have scheduled a meeting with a consultant conducting a study of the growth potential of the North Quarry. First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said she intends to meet Tuesday with the consultant, Arthur Hayes, in the company of several town officials, including the parks and recreation director, the director of public works, and the town planner. A certified professional diver, Hayes is advising the town on the quarry's potential for development as a scuba park. In a preliminary report he submitted to the town earlier this month, Hayes said the quarry has the opportunity to become "a world-class water exploration and discovery park." Bransfield said meeting is being held to "determine the economic viability of the proposal." Hayes' report summarized the results of a mass underwater inspection conducted by some 20 professional divers that took place in the quarry over the weekend of July 31-Aug. 1. In 1999, the town bought the two quarries which had supplied brownstone to urban builders and developers on at least two continents for over two centuries. The quarries, which were flooded in the mid-1930s, are a designated national historic landmark. A volunteer group, the Brownstone Quorum, has developed hiking trails in the woods that surround the quarries and conduct monthly tours of the quarry in canoes and kayaks. But almost since she took office, Bransfield has been casting about for a way to further develop the quarries' potential. If the quarries can be developed, it is hoped that will serve as a goad for the revitalization of Main Street. | | "It has been our intent since the town purchased the quarries to develop that area for some positive result for the town, including some economic development initiative," she explained. Then, in a report that was presented to the town earlier this year, a consulting firm suggested that the quarry might be developed as a dive center. That could in turn lead to the development of cafes and shops and ultimately to more restaurants along Main Street, the report suggested. There is a popular dive center near Bethlehem, Pa. But no such center exists in New England. If the quarries could be developed, Bransfield has said, they could lure many divers who must now go to Pennsylvania to engage in underwater activities. She sees the meeting Tuesday as "the next step" toward developing the quarry as a scuba center. However, she said it is her intention that the scuba center "would exist in harmony with the historic and educational opportunitiesas well as canoeing and kayaking." In his report, Hayes discusses developing a science center at the quarry as well as an education center that would highlight the history of the quarries and of the successive waves of immigrant who worked in the quarries, and who, as Hayes said, "made it all possible." SOURCE - Middletown Press |
