By Janice Sina
(February 5, 2025) — Higganum Town Garage, January, 1935. Snow blankets the ruts in the road as the Ford pickup, plow attached, rumbles into the bay. It’s a 350 horsepower, V8 engine with manual transmission and chains on its tires but it does the job clearing the snow on the dirt roads in town. The worker downshifts, maneuvers into a clear space among the wagons, carts and tractors waiting for warmer weather, and cuts the engine. Exhaust fumes follow him through the door that joins the garage and office space. He greets the other workers, and ambles up three wooden steps with no handrails for support and into a small bathroom in the corner.
Fast forward ninety years to January, 2025. The old Ford trucks with their ancient plows and carts have been replaced by modern, turbocharged mega-trucks weighing as much as 33,000 pounds with ten-speed transmissions and the ability to carry tons of salt, clearing miles of paved roads on a winter’s night of snow. They’ve outgrown the garage space, so they are housed in an unheated, poorly lit storage building nearby, covered, but damp from the salt and ice brought in on the trucks. The garage still houses the smaller pieces of equipment: detached plows, a backhoe, landscaping equipment, trailers. An old couch and reclining chair draped in blankets line one wall. A kitchenette and picnic table, official “office” space area, and the bathroom with its three wooden steps complete the picture. It is clean and bright, but worn.
Questions about a new town garage, including what it should look like, its functionality and location, have been under discussion for years.
The wheels are already in motion at the Planning and Zoning Commission. There are many considerations and probably the most important is location. In a 2020 study by the Public Works Department provided by Bill Warner, Haddam’s Town Planner, Haddam is 46.7 square miles and has 93 miles of town-owned and maintained roads. Mr. Warner pointed out that though strategically located in Higganum Center, the present town garage, built in 1934, has outgrown its 1.5 acres. It is bordered on two sides by the Candlewood and Ponset Brooks and the associated flood plain. The study also stated that its location makes it difficult to conduct efficient and environmentally safe operations.
Per discussion with Warner, the town has been renting and currently owns the adjacent Rossi property and building to store its trucks and other equipment and materials. The building has a solid steel frame but is not the ideal space to store approximately two million dollars worth of equipment. The underlying ground is contaminated. An investment in adequate storage will allow for better maintenance and a longer lifespan of the equipment.
A project schedule has been determined in a formal Request for Qualifications and Proposals (RFP) by the Town of Haddam. The goal of the RFP is that the Planning and Zoning Commission will submit three top sites to the Board of Selectmen for inclusion on the November 2025 ballot. To make this happen, the Planning and Zoning Commission will analyze possible sites, whether they are town-owned or offered up by private land owners, and will identify the top five sites for further consideration.
A consulting firm will prepare preliminary site layouts for the five sites. At this point, the Planning and Zoning Commission will conduct a public hearing to take input and select the top three of the five sites. Watch for information about this hearing in late summer. The consulting firm will then further refine the final three site layouts. According to the plan laid out in the RFP, these selected sites will then be forwarded to the Board of Selectmen for inclusion on the November ballot.
Town officials agree that this is a long overdue undertaking. But it has so many benefits for Haddam economically, environmentally and culturally, in addition to a safer, more efficient workplace for the employees of the Public Works Department.