Developing Views 2026 – Vol. 2

Submitted January 13, 2026 by Newtown ECD Director John Voket 

It’s been a busy January so far for the Economic and Community Development (ECD) office.

We learned that we qualified for no-cost assistance from the UCONN TAB (Technical Assistance for Brownfields) Municipal Assistance program for a project we hope to support on Glen Road, just northeast of the Village Center.

Their work here in Sandy Hook will be led by a UConn student intern and overseen by the UConn TAB team. Each project deliverable will include a summative report put together by the UConn student Interns.

The project will involve helping the ECD identify the highest, best uses for the parcel at 28A Glen Road that has already seen some initial environmental clean-up and the demolition of several unsustainable structures at the site of this former residence and industrial facility.

As reported in The Newtown Bee, a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment was done by EnviroAudit in 1992. The site, owned by R.S Watkins & Sons, was residential until the Watkins family added industrial buildings and began metal machining operations on cast iron and steel in the early 1930s.

From 1974 to 1990, R.S. Watkins & Sons added welding, and brass wire drawing and annealing operations. Wire drawing operations required the use of acid baths to remove scale and lubricants during the drawing process. A 2016 Phase II Environmental Site Assessment by GeoDesign Inc. found that four buildings had numerous hazardous substances in them that required remediation and removal.

After additional remediation and demolition of all the structures that occurred between 2024 and last year, the ECD office in collaboration with the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG) qualified for an additional $70,000 brownfields grant that further assessed the site.

Those results, as well as prior documentation will play an important role as the TAB students get to work this spring to help educate local decisionmakers on where we can go from here regarding that town-owned parcel.

The Newtown ECD office’s goal is to determine its highest, best use – and to speedily and creatively determine how to return the site to best benefit local taxpayers. More to come on this, so stay tuned!