The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
The rotting of an agricultural lab
WINDSOR — The 80year-old building upon which the state is depending to defend us against the next tree-killing bug, while supporting craft beer brewers, tobacco farmers and the $260-million annual nursery-and-greenhouse industry, is a dump.
It’s also probably dangerous and is thoroughly noncomplaint for the disabled.
The scary slate roof leaks, and its supporting soffits are rotting away. There’s black mold in at least one of the lab ceilings. The plumbing system is failing. The septic tank needs replacing. After heavy rains, leaks in basement labs send researchers with Ph.Ds scurrying for the shop vac and mops.
When the vacuum cleaner goes on, the chances are good that it will blow ancient electric circuits and send computers crashing. Water stains are in nearly every room occupied by the 13 scientists who are making do in poor, unprofessional conditions, all in the name of science and Connecticut’s $4 billion agriculture economy.
It’s an example of neglect that can only be perpetrated by Connecticut’s government. It’s really a textbook case of bureaucracy. The project, first approved in 2015, is languishing in Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget office, which could do Connecticut a big favor and approve the full funding before the building falls down.
When the scientists at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s (CAES) Valley Laboratory found two new types of fungus growing on Christmas trees — a big industry in the state — and another on hop plants the lab is cultivating to possibly develop a hybrid to give beer some tasty local tang, they had to take the samples down to the main lab in New Haven to test the DNA.
The 50-acre farm and forest around the dilapidated, three-story brick edifice that’s in dire need of repointing (Did I say the cupola on the roof line with the tobacco leaf wind vane is flaking chunks of paint and looks like it could fall down?) is on the cutting edge of science.
“We do things but we’re doing it with duct tape and paper clips, instead of the correct way, so it makes it a lot harder to do,” said James LaMondia, the chief scientist here, whose work as a plant pathologist and nematologist could be crucial to understanding — and combating — a coming infestation of nematodes, little worms that can kill beech trees and are invading Connecticut’s southwest, slowly but surely from New York State via Ohio.
About 60 percent of the lab’s work is for the state’s agricultural industry, with annual sales of $500 million. The 50-acre site, including extensive test gardens, dates back to 1921 when its former building — the foundation is still there — was an outpost for the local tobacco industry, which is still worth about $60 million a year for the 200 growers of some of the world’s best wrappers for cigars, thanks to the Connecticut River Valley’s Windsor loamy sand.
Any state resident can bring their soil samples and insects for identification, for free. There were around 5,000 soil tests last year. The lab conducts weed and insect management programs. Its 8-yearold wild hop program established by LaMondia has grown into a half-milliondollar operation on about 40 acres throughout the state, for now. He’s using some of the wild hops and cross breeding them to see what can work in Connecticut’s climate to give craft beer a special, local ingredient.
A massive renovation and an addition have been budgeted since 2015, so of course, the price has now increased from the original $12.5 million to $17.8 million.
Jason C. White, director of the experiment station, said in a phone interview from the CAES’s New Haven headquarters that he is amazed at the quality of the science that emerges from the old, sick, 8,000-squarefoot building in Windsor.
Part of the funding problem was the acquisition of one acre that dated back nearly 100 years, when the tobacco farmers created a board of trustees. That delayed the project while the price of construction kept going up. In its usual turtle speed, the State Properties Review Board didn’t approve the project until December 2018, three years after then-Gov. Dan Malloy proposed it. Malloy, a big fan of agriculture, was less than a month away from leaving office by then.
So at this point, if Lamont wants to do the right thing for the state’s agricultural industry, he should approve the extra money and give the scientists (aren’t we big on science these days?) what they need. A downsized building isn’t worthy of the research that emerges from the lab, and its value to Connecticut’s economy.