Lawmakers hear history, costs and wildlife concerns as Windsor prison property’s future is debated

Members of the House Corrections & Institutions Committee heard testimony April 24 on options for the former Southeast State Correctional Facility near Windsor, focusing on competing proposals to redevelop some parcels while conserving the adjoining Windsor Grasslands Wildlife Management Area.

The committee was given a timeline of past studies, a summary of current maintenance costs and a Fish and Wildlife presentation stressing the site'specific conservation issues that officials say would constrain large-scale housing near the WMA.

The property has about 945 acres associated with the former prison campus; roughly 826 acres were transferred to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department in an executive action in 2017, and the state retained about 118 acres around the fenced facility, testimony and maps showed. Wanda Manoli, commissioner of Buildings and General Services, told the committee the retained parcel continues to cost the state to keep in a minimal "mothballed" condition. "We estimated that it's about $250,000 to $300,000 a year to keep it in the mothball condition, which now has been well over $2,000,000 roughly," Manoli said.

John Austin, director of the Wildlife Division at the…