House Republican Press Release

October 11, 2007

Press Office: 860-240-8700

Rep. Labriola: Oxford Awarded $50,000 Open Space Grant to Help Create Agnes Schiavi Tetlak Park

Oxford will be receiving a $50,000 state grant to help it acquire the 8.8 acre Cubberly Park property, which will enable the town to connect the 98-acre Tetlak open space property with another town-owned open space area to create a single 126-acre parcel along Eight Mile Brook that is expected to be named the Agnes Schiavi Tetlak Park, state Representative David K. Labriola said today.

The funding for the Oxford project was included in an omnibus open space allocation for 41 projects in 39 towns around the state totaling $9.9 million that was announced today by Governor M. Jodi Rell and state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Gina McCarthy.

Oxford was awarded an earlier open space grant amounting to $214,518 that was used to help the town purchase the Tetlak open space parcel. About one-third of the acreage in the original Tetlak parcel will be used for baseball and soccer fields and for a pavilion and parking area. The remainder of the new 126-acre park will be used for passive recreation, said Representative Labriola, R-131^st District.

“This is good news for Oxford, for our children and for generations to come,” Representative Labriola said. “I applaud Governor Rell’s commitment to open space preservation and the protection of our environment.”

The open space grants awarded today will help the state meet its goal of preserving 21 percent of its land – a total of 673,210 acres - as open space by the year 2023. It is the 13^th round of grants funded by the state Department of Environmental Protection through the Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program.