East Lyme to Buy The Samuel Smith House

Residents of the Town of East Lyme voted overwhelmingly in favor of buying the Samuel Smith House, a more than 300-year-old farm house at 82 Plants Dam Road that will now be preserved. 

There was an unusually large turnout for last night's Special Town Meeting. Every space in the Town Hall parking lot and every seat in the meeting room was taken, forcing people out into the lobby to watch First Selectman Paul Formica's presentation on video feed.

The Friends of Samuel Smith House, which has been pushing for the town to buy the historic farmhouse since 2009, turned out in force, as did members of the Niantic Sportsmen's Club, which has agreed to buy 9 1/2 acres of the 17-acre property as a buffer zone for its shooting range. 

Although the Niantic Sportsmen's Club will be kicking in $125,000 toward the sales price, voters had to authorize a special appropriation of $425,000 from the town's Capital Non-recurring Fund to cover the total sale price first. The deal with the Sportsmen's Club, however, was the tipping point for many of those who voted in favor of the deal.  

"I will be voting in favor of this tonight," said East Lyme Selectwoman Holly Cheeseman, who was the one member of the Board of Selectmen who voted against it when it was the board's turn to vote last month.

That the Sportsmen's Club had agreed to buy half the property, she said, was the deciding factor for her although on a more philosophical note, she added that she'd rather have seen the Friends of Samuel Smith do more of their own fundraising before coming to the town.  

"There are many demands on the public purse," she said. 

No one was surprised that Ron Rando was one of the few members of the public who spoke. Rando attends nearly all of the Board of Selectmen and Special Town Meetings, invariably speaking out against any expenditure. Last night's meeting may have been a first, however, because he surprised everyone by saying he was going to vote in favor of buying the house. 

Rando, who owns Ron's Guns in East Lyme, is a member of the Niantic Sportsmen's Club. Normally, he said, "if it costs taxpayer dollars I don't vote for it—we have a huge bond debt. But I belong to the club so I had to make up my mind." 

"It's a good deal for everybody," said Niantic Sportsmen's Club President Matthew Fleisher, who brought about 65 club members to the meeting. The club also has the right of first refusal to buy the rest of the property on the off chance that it becomes available in the future.

The club has given the Friends of Samuel Smith, a soon-to-be-formed nonprofit organization that plans to restore the farm house and run it as a museum, free rein to use its half of the property in any way the group sees fit.

Marvin Schutt, who is the main spokesman for Friends of Samuel Smith, was overjoyed by last night's vote to buy the property. "I'm beside myself!" he said.

The closing date for the sale is set for March of 2013, April 30 at the latest. Formica said the town intends to apply for a state grant that could cover up to half of the purchase price, but the town won't find out until January whether it has the grant and how much it amounts to, and then it takes about six weeks for the Attorney General to ratify the agreement.