Groton Democrats, who control the Town Council, announced a council slate that did not include incumbent Portia Bordelon, though she received endorsements for Board of Education and Representative Town Meeting.
Republicans put forward a slate with both newcomers and people long involved in town politics, and are vying to reestablish two-party rule on the Town Council, which has been all-Democratic for the past two election cycles.
Democrats on Wednesday announced a slate that included council incumbents Juliette Parker, administrative assistant to the Groton City police chief; Rachael Franco, business manager at Norwich Family Dental Associates; Juan Melendez, who also has served on the RTM and Water Pollution Control Authority; Aundré Bumgardner, a city Planning and Zoning Commission members and former state representative; and Democratic Town Committee Chairman Conrad Heede.
Mystic Scott Westervelt, who has lived on Boulder Court at the bottom of the hill from the former Mystic Oral School for more than 35 years, is concerned a large mixed-use development on the property would add traffic to narrow roads and disturb the neighborhood and environment.
“An overly dense population moving into this area would destroy the quiet solitude that we have down on Boulder Court,” he said.
He is a co-chairperson of the Mystic Oral School Advocates, a group of about 125 people in the surrounding neighborhoods and Groton, which he said is working to restrict the proposed mega development or prevent the zoning that would allow it to move forward.
Groton Opponents of a project to redevelop the former Mystic Oral School property into a mixed-use village made their case this week to The Day’s Editorial Board about why they propose the project should be scaled back or scrapped altogether.
Members of the Mystic Oral School Advocates, a group trying to eliminate or scale back the proposed project at 240 Oral School Road, raised concerns about traffic and the potential impacts from blasting, and that the large development would be out of character with the surrounding neighborhood.
Respler Homes, which was selected in 2019 as the preferred developer for the state-owned property after a Request for Proposals process, is proposing to make the main Oral School building a commercial space with shops and offices and build about 931 housing units. Respler Homes said the idea is to provide a “live, work and play” environment and more housing as large employers, such as Electric Boat, expand.
Groton Town Manager John Burt said the town recently became aware, through a letter it received, of charges from 2004 involving the developer of a proposed mixed-use village at the Mystic Education Center when he was operating a plumbing company in New York.
Burt said at this point, the misdemeanor incident from more than 15 years ago does not impact the project.
“Of course, we take any known impropriety seriously,” Burt said. “We looked into it. I had a long discussion with Mr. (Jeffrey) Respler. He answered all the questions I had satisfactorily.”
“I have all the faith in Respler Homes and Mr. Respler,” added Burt, who said he wouldn’t want an old misdemeanor to derail the project.