Four local sites have made the shortlist of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which plans to build a new training center in Middletown. While support seems to be coalescing behind one of the sites on the list—Cucia Park—the Army’s continued consideration of a property on Boardman Lane has done little to ease the concerns of many opposed residents and officials.
Residents of Freeman Road may have reason to breathe easier now that the U.S. Army has moved away from its original plan to locate a 31-to 45-acre Armed Forces Reserve Center there. Middletown residents remain concerned, however, since the Army is now investigating a total of nine sites—all within the city—for the planned facility.
On Sunday, the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) passed a resolution in opposition to the proposed United States Army training base on Freeman Road, in the Maromas section of Middletown. The resolution passed by a vote of 28 to zero, with two WSA members abstaining.
Students are joining the battle against the U.S. Army’s plans to build a training base in the rural Maromas section of Middletown, located five miles southeast of campus. Local officials attended Sunday’s Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) meeting to voice opposition to building the base at the proposed location.
Residents, city officials and state representatives are at odds with the U.S. Army’s plans to build a vast new training center in Middletown. At the heart of the issue is the Army’s choice of site: an area of woods and grassland along Freeman Road, which residents and environmental advocates say would mean the end of one of the last remaining parcels of rural land in Middletown.