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caption:
Groundbreaking
Kids, town officials, Audubon members and others broke ground last week for the new Grassland Bird Conservation Center off Day Road in Pomfret. More photos on page 6. Linda Lemmon photo.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
The Audubon Grassland Bird Conservation Center took its first fledgling steps out of the nest last week, and it's getting ready to soar.
After much fund-raising, ground was broken last week for the new 5,000-square-foot education and conservation center. The center will look very much like the 1895 barn it replaces on Day Road.
Sarah Heminway, director of northeast corner programs for Audubon in both Pomfret and Hampton, said officials hope to have a weathertight and closed-up structure up by November so that work can proceed during the winter. Hopes are to have the center ready for the summer camp programs in June. About 80 percent of the $2 million for the project has already been raised, almost exclusively through donations. The group received a small state Department of Environmental Protection grant to help construct handicapped accessible restrooms and another $10,000 grant from The Last Green Valley. She hopes that the balance of the price tag, $300,000, will be raised by the time the center opens.
The northeast corner's Audubon programs started "working out of a truck and garage," Heminway said. "We celebrated when we had lights and heat," she said.
In 2000 the current center, on Route 169, opened and long ago outgrew its quarters. Heminway estimated that there is about 2,000 square feet of usable space and there's not enough room for a school bus to navigate. She called the new center, designed by husband and wife architects from Guilford, Russ Campaign and Maryjo Kestner, twice as large and "much more efficient." The design honors the working barn it replaces.
Heminway said general contractor Rose Construction of Pomfret will try to reuse and recycle parts of the barn. "Unfortunately, because it was a working barn, we couldn't save much of it." The center will look very much like the barn that was there and will be the same color and occupy the same footprint, she said.
The new center sits in the society's 700-acre Bafflin Sanctuary which was established in the mid-1980s, "thanks to the vision and generosity of Lois Orswell." Heminway said the group offers more than 350 environmental education programs annually for children, school and Scout groups, families and adults. She added that during 2009 the group "touched more than 10,000 people with our programming, facility and wildlife sanctuary."
She said the new center will allow the group to "more than double our public program, school program and summer camp capacity." The Grassland Bird Habitat in Pomfret, she said, is one of the largest remaining privately owned tracts of scarce grassland habitat left in the state. She added that the number and variety of grassland dependent bird special in the state is "seriously declining."
Looking at a broad base of support, Heminway said those wishing to donate should contact her at 860-928-4948 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
"This is a wonderful resource for the northeast corner of Connecticut, and beyond --- not just Pomfret," she added.