Patton Brook Well Proposal Passes
By Robin Vinci | Editor at August 11, 2023 | 2:15 pm | Print
Despite a coordinated rally by the Democratic Town Committee, the Common Council approved the sale of the Patton Brook Well to the Southington Water Department for not less than $1 million by an 11 to 4 vote Wednesday night.
During Public Audience about 25 people spoke, many with misinformation about the well. Most spoke passionately about saving the well for a variety of reasons.
Once the meeting started Councilmen attempted to lay out the real facts about the well.
“The options on the table is to keep the well or sell the well,” said Ald. Jamie Giantonio. “Southington has not been actively drawing water from the well, other than to test it, since the year 2000 due to the condition of the well.”
Giantonio also addressed accusations that this process was done behind closed doors. He said this was proposed at a Council meeting probably three months ago and there have been at least four meetings since then.
“The meetings are live on Nutmeg TV and they are available online,” Giantonio said. “There is nothing funny going on. I don’t get a commission if I sell this well to Southington. We are here because we love our City.”
Ald. Robert Smedley said there is a fixed asset schedule from the State that shows the value of the property to be about $60,000.
“We will take the $1 million and reinvest it in the water department,” said Smedley. “There was a previous administration that attempted to sell the entire water department for $36 million.”
The four Councilmen voting against the sale were Ald. Carlo Carlozzi (D), Manny Sanchez (D), Shirley Black (D) and Jim Sanders Jr. (R).
“Once we do the sale, there is no undoing. You can’t go back a year or two or three from now and undo it,” said Ald. Carlozzi. “This is very insulting for the City of Southington to come to us and say it is only worth $1 million now after offering us $1.3 million two years ago.”
Carlozzi said no one has better water than New Britain.
“I don’t know what the future will be. I can’t sell something that I don’t know what the true value is because we don’t have an appraisal on it,” added Carlozzi. “We have documents that so contradict statements that were made to us.”
“I think this warrants an independent evaluation. We need a feasibility study,” said Ald. Sanders. “That would help me make a decision.”
The Patton Brook Well is located on 0.6 acres of land and is not part of the New Britain safe yield plans if something goes wrong at the reservoir. It hasn’t been used by the city in more than 4 decades. It was disconnected from New Britain’s water system in July 1979 and tied into Southington’s network.
Two years ago Southington offered $1.3 million for the well and the Council at that time turned it down. It was led by the Democratic party majority in 2014 and by the Republican Caucus majority this time around. The lease ($106,924 annually) with Southington ended June 30, 2024 and the well is not part of the city’s water plan and has not been since at least 1987.
New Britain has a safe yield capacity of 17.64 million gallons of water per day. New Britain averages just under 10 million gallons of water per day—about 55 percent of what we could draw from our total supply. At its maximum, the Patton Brook Well would only yield 1.2 million gallons per day.
Southington officials said they have no interest in renewing the lease and was looking to purchase the well to secure its long-term water needs.
Mayor Erin Stewart will now negotiate the sale of the property.
