All this behind closed doors negotiation leaves the impression that perhaps what is happening is not absolutely fair, an impression that has clung to this land swap from the very beginning.

So, it is early in the morning, but let me get this right.....the DEEP traded a piece of property for another, the supposed land owner did in fact not own the property but Liberty Bank does......you must pay off all loans before the bank will sign off on this....is any of this legal.......sounds like a lot of people will be going to court and again costing the tax payers money......does anyone have any brain power? It would appear not! Just call the whole thing off. Send everyone on their way and call it a day. This goes beyond ridiculous.

Isn't this how banks got into trouble--a $2.4 million loan secured by 87 acres that might at best be worth a few hundred thousand dollars? What is really going on here? This is beyond ridiculous, it stinks, it will cost us breadwinners money for nothing, and it should be just called off. Stop this nonsense.

Like I said before, read the land swap documents :

they state that Ct will trade all of the 17 acres for ALL OR PART of the 87

they are not going to trade the entire parcel or it wouldn't say that

Sounds like someone has alot to gain from this transaction, politics are playing yet another negative roll in a situation thats seems to be at odds with most of the town residents. Has this even been voted on by the towns people? What is the town getting out of this deal and why are the residents being left in the dark? SHADY if you ask me! Maybe if the facts of this deal were clearer, people wouldn't be so upset and warm up to this LAND SWAP...Wendy tooks the words right out of my mouth "is any of this legal"!!!!!!!

Don't worry, our elected official that gets paid with our tax dollars and works for us...Eileen Daily.........is on the case, making sure our tax dollars aren't squandered on the rich and connected and that truth, justice and the American way always prevail, like how land purchased with Conservation Funds which stipulate the land can never be anything but preserved OR the money has been misused, a federal offense, will be first on her list of "what is right and what is wrong".

That is why those Conservation Funds exist, it 's like a stop-gap so that no one can pull a fast one with public lands...........unless of course you're demented with greed.

If I were an executive at Liberty I would be scrambling right now. Banks are Federally regulated.....sounds like this kind of publicity will cause at very least an audit. As a customer of Liberty (commercial) I cannot tell you the hoops we jump through to satisfy their mortgage requirements (Federal). Who is involved in this to surpass these regs. States Atty should also be cancelling his lunch plans. Like I said before, everyone needs to walk away before this gets any nastier than it is.

Its interesting watching criminals tie their own noose.

This entire debacle just makes more and more questions and BS.

How can the state trade land that was purchased with Conservation Funds?

How can the state trade land that has in the deed it is to remain as open space forever?

How can the state trade land that has in the trade agreement that the 87 acres will be traded ALL OR PART, as opposed to ALL?

How can the state trade land that was used as collateral in a multi million dollar loan?

Why and what is the state hiding??

Why doesn't the State open the files according to FOI??

Anyone try to get a comment from Riverhouse or Sen. Daily on this new development? Id like to hear them try to explain this.

this is why I call our state Corrupticut

This whole land swap debacle certainly never passed the "smell test" and the odor gets more intense by the day.It takes an inordinate amount of Chutzpah to obtain a loan on land that you intend to swap to the state (read taxpayers) for extremely valuable property. It is time Eileen Daily and her corrupt cohorts in state government were held up to very close scrutiny. A little light on these proceedings would be a welcome albeit unlikely occurance.

Like Gene and the others who commented here, I am continuously disgusted by this debacle. Every single question asked by Gene is so very legitimate and we, the tax payers in CT, need to hear the answers! At some point, the poor legalities of the "swap" deal will bear down on Eileen Daley, Dan Esty, the Haddam officials, and everyone else who have supported and pushed it through peoples' throats! The lunacy of the deal is obvious to anyone reading the articles! Liberty Bank needs to carefully investigate these loans the way it does every other prospective commercial loan! Basic reasoning says that you can't use use something as colateral in a loan, that you are getting rid of in the same deal!! Duh! When will people make this "swap" a "no deal" and put this very stinky and corrupt idea to bed forever! It is wrong on so many levels!!!

The problem is we weren't supposed to learn about any of this.

We are supposed to be obediant little tax payers and when told by Daily what a great deal this would be we were supposed to agree like most tax payers do on every other issue and go away, or maybe even become Parrots and repeat her ver batum, also as many tax payers/voters do on many issues.

But we are learning even though they try and try to keep it shuttered and away from scrutiny.

This is no different than the billions we give away yearly to UTC, Pfizer, UBS. CIGNA, etc etc, it's the same mentality.

Out of the kindness of my heart I have sent this story to some major news outlets to see if anyone bites.

Of course this pales with all of the corruption in Hartford and DC, especially the
"Insider Trading in DC" recently exposed. Did you know our lawmakers passed a bill years and years ago that makes it legal for them to do insider trading, all while making sure Martha Stewart went to jail. Talk about gall.

Here's an interesting question perhaps someone in banking could answer here--

What does it mean to the loan???

That land now has a lien on it for 2 million, if the state trades it and then Riverhouse defaults on the loan do the tax payers get to pay for that too??????

Will Malloy, Esty, and Daily pass out Preparation H to all taxpayers to soothe this transaction????

No, the land cannot be traded with any encumbrances. It will have to be paid off before transfer.

ok I got a private message that says

The "loan" is to establish "value" so that the DEEP can claim it's equal to the waterview property ....can you argue with all those smart bankers about property value?”

call me stupid but the loan actually devalues the 87 acres, its a lien against the 87 acres, I'm not seeing the increase in value in the real world, now could they "spin" it to make it sound or seem that way???

creative accounting???

of course I have to ask

where did the $2,433,000 go??????

if they need it to stay afloat then we should bail on this now, this would be a bad investment

this would indicate that the "hotel" "boutique" and "theaterrrrrr" (pronounced Ivy league with clenched teeth) are losing propositions, seasonal at best, will not create jobs and is a sham, a vision of grandeur but not reality

Ok maybe I get it now:

You take out a series of loans on land to somehow show that the land is worth more than it actually is, perhaps as valuable as some land that you want the state to give you.

"look we have 2.5 million in loans against this land, and the bank wouldn't do that unless it was worth that much, wink wink, nudge, nudge"

but at the same time I think having that much note on land that is really valued at 400k should bring into question the banks motives, why loan so much which could be a loss especially in this economy??

oh I forgot, no matter what we the tax payers get the bill

Maybe we should ask Liberty Bank where they got their appraisal on the property that made them feel they could lend so much $$$$...............oh, but then they are probably not at "liberty" to make that information public. I have an account at Liberty Bank......I'd like to make sure that my money is being protected.

For some of you who may be interested, listen to Esty's own words during an interview on WNPR....He now has a chance to 'right the ship'.....

WNPR Broadcast:
http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/content/wnpr/colin-mcenroe-show-esty-admits-mistakes-outlines-future-policies

I have typed some of his statements below, quickly, not verbatim of course since you can listen to them....

"The process that was followed was not a good…"

"Not how I would like to have had it done, but I wasn’t asked."

"It was 5 times as much land…on balance, it was not clear…it was not obvious it was a good deal, it was a bad deal and on that basis the Governor chose not to veto…."

"What I wish to have future land exchanges done in a more thoughtful way, following the process, absolutely…."

Would you please review, sign, and distribute this link to all of your friends and ask them to do the same? Many Thanks!

https://www.change.org/petitions/rep-philip-miller-stop-the-haddam-land-swap-make-the-deep-reveal-the-land-appraisals#

Remember Molly Katchpole, a 22 year old nanny working two jobs, successfully petitioned Bank of America to drop their new $5/month banking fee?

We can do it too!!!!!

Also, the LANDSWAP.org site continues to be updated.