Public Meeting Notes
Point Stratford Renewal
A public meeting was conducted at the Baldwin Center on Monday, March 31st, for updates on the Tidal Flats project, along with the former Stratford Army Engine site. The information was provided by both Point Stratford Renewal (PSR), the organization that now owns the property, and ENTACT, the environmental remediation contractor for the Tidal Flats portion.
This update, in addition to hosting a website, was required of the developers, as well as to meet regularly with Mayor Laura Hoydick’s office to address any concerns about damage to Lordship Boulevard and Access Road from the scores of heavy trucks that are expected to visit the property.
The company was also required to provide a report to town zoning officials each month for the duration of the work, documenting any issues the developers faced and how the problems were resolved.
Jim Cabrera, a partner in PSR, announced that a team from Connecticut DEEP were also available to answer questions, and members of PSR’s public relations team were there to assist with any media requests.
Cabrera’s co-managing partner, Ted Lane, secured the property under contract twelve years ago. Cabrera had partnered with Lane in the middle of 2021 to work the closing on the property, which occurred April 2nd of 2024. They are now in the planning stage.
Cabrera said that in their last plan, “… what we told you we were going to do was basically remediate the buildings, demo the buildings, and bring in fill. Those were the three things we said we were going to do. We don’t know what we’re building yet. … But that’s what I said we were going to do, and that’s what we’re doing.”
He said the abatement of the hazardous material in the buildings is underway, as is the demo of buildings. A million tons of fill is being imported to bring the site elevation to FEMA requirements for building.
Once they “figure out what we’d like to build”, they will bring it to the town for discussion, but this meeting was to be about the tidal flats.
There were years of difficulty getting agreement between federal and state authorities regarding remediation of the contamination in the mud flats along the river. Once that was resolved and the property was transferred, in September of 2024 PSR signed an Environmental Services Cooperative Agreement (ESCA), which is a grant mechanism that enables the Army to provide funding to a local governmental entity.
Cabrera said the Army is responsible for remediating the tidal flats, which involves dredging over 230,000 tons of sediment. PSR, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, ran a competitive bid process and selected ENTACT as the contractor to do the remediation. The sediment with the lightest impact of contamination will be moved to the upland area of the property, and that will all be placed under an engineered cap, which is the solution determined by PSR in conjunction with Connecticut Deep.“This will reduce truck traffic in the area by about 10,000 trips,” Cabrera said. “So, we think that’s a pretty significant thing, and the Army would not have been able to do this project if we didn’t decide to partner with them on it. The Department of Defense is responsible for the remediation, and the Army Corps of Engineers has developed the remediation plans alongside of ENTACT, and ENTACT has a project engineer called Arcadis.”
Cabrera listed additional governmental agencies and companies involved in this project, from legal issues to the actual physical labor, selected for their expertise in environmental concerns.
Brady Bonsted, project director from ENTACT, was introduced and spoke to more specific, technical aspects of the remediation. He answered several questions from the audience before the 30-minute recorded meeting closed. There was time afterwards for attendees to speak to the representatives of the various entities.
We invite you to watch the meeting by going to:
You can also go to the PSR site for information, or if you wish to contact them with questions: https://www.formersaepinfo.com/
Updates are also available at the Town of Stratford website under Economic Development: www.townofstratford.com
