BY ANDREAS YILMA
citizens news
PROSPECT — The town has now achieved a long-term goal to acquire nearly all of the property at the center of town.
Residents in June 2023 approved the purchase of 27 New Haven Road from Gaetano Mauriello and Geraldine Mauriello for $245,000. The property lies between New Haven Road and Center Street. The roughly half-acre plot has a two-story, 2,591-square-foot house which was built in 1932. Town officials had the closing on July 19 when they filed the deed.
“It’s been mine and the council’s goal since 1988 to buy all the property on Center Street so it’ll be owned by the town of Prospect,” Mayor Robert J. Chatfield said.
The town obtained property on that street from the Petrauskas family in the 1930s, including where the Community Center is at 12 Center St., and, more recently, the site where the library is, at 17 Center St.
The municipality and the Prospect Congregational Church now have under its ownership property from the home at 3 Center Street all the way up to small stone structure, known as “the meeting place” at 68 Center Street which was originally built in 1904 as the library before the current library was built in 1990. The home at 21 Church Street next to the Community Center is still private ownership.
“We completed that goal,” Chatfield said.
In total, the town acquired five pieces of property from the Petrauskas family in the area, Chatfield said. The town purchased the home at 3 Center St. from the Brundage family about 25 years ago. The home is currently used for storage such as for Public Works and Boy Scouts.
Town officials now have a bid to tear down the house that was recently closed on. The bid is opening in August. They expect to tear down the house before the fall. In the meantime, the Volunteer Fire Department of Prospect members will use the house for fire training but will not have any live fires, Chatfield said.
After the home is torn down, the town will be more available space for possible future town buildings and won’t have to worry about someone outside of town purchasing it.
“Now all the land around the center of town, the green is either owned by the town of Prospect or the church,” Chatfield said.
Town officials are also bidding to tear down the portable classrooms behind the Community Center which haven’t been used in 15 years. They are currently used as storage. Once they are taken down, the existing land underneath will be converted to additional parking spaces.
“The center around the green won’t change unless the town votes to change it,” Chatfield said. “The people have control of what’s built around the center of town.”
