By: Cali Kees
Yesterday, Quinnipiac President John Lahey presented North Haven First Selectman, Michael Freda, with a check for $700,000 in Memorial Town Hall.
With this $700,000, Quinnipiac has now given the town of North Haven $1.6 million over the past three years.
“This voluntary payment is our way of showing our appreciation for all that the town has done to support our efforts to develop the North Haven Campus,” Lahey said.
The state of Connecticut offers a PILOT program, “Payment in Lieu of Taxes,” on colleges, hospitals and non-profits in any city or town. Since Connecticut exempts higher institutions from paying property tax, the town of North Haven does not receive any property tax from the many acres that Quinnipiac University owns from Quinnipiac directly. The state will reimburse a portion of what the full taxes would have been, but they do not reimburse the town the full amount.
“Roughly the state reimburses…40% of what the full taxes would have been [from colleges, hospitals and non-profits],” Freda said.
Over the past three years, the university has matched the amount of money that the town would normally receive in property taxes.
The breakdown of the allocation of the money given yesterday, as Freda explained at a press conference, is that $134,000 is for the tax payments for the properties that Quinnipiac owns. The money matched from the PILOT payment program is about $340,000, leaving an extra $200,000 the town plans to spend on two playscapes.
Freda explained that they never expected a matching payment. He also explained that the $200,000 will be going to two playscapes he has been working on and the difficulties that both PTA’s have faced while trying to build these playscapes.
“In our Montowese school, the Parent-Teacher Association there is trying to raise money, and it’s always a struggle, with steep grants no longer available at the state to fund these projects. In addition to the money they’re raising…some of this check will go towards the completion of helping them build that playscape,” Freda said.
The money will also go to a project at Ridge Road Elementary School where they have been trying to build an inclusive, handicap accessible playspace.
These are not the first North Haven projects that have been funded by Quinnipiac. Others include the installation of lights at the town’s softball field and construction of a new playscape at Green Acres Elementary School.
“It would be almost impossible for any PTA to raise the funds, or the North Haven girls softball league to have raised the funds, or for the town to have contributed to funding for these projects,” Freda said.
With Quinnipiac’s five of their nine schools located on the North Haven campus, Lahey noted how important the Quinnipiac and North Haven relations are for the University.
“We have a huge part of our operation here–our medical school, our nursing school, school of health sciences, school of education and our school of law is also,” Lahey said. “So we enormously appreciate the support we get from the town of North Haven.”
Although Lahey is finishing his final year as Quinnipiac’s president, he and Freda are sure that under the leadership under Judy Olian in the next year and years ahead the positive “town and gown” relationship between North Haven and Quinnipiac University will continue.
“I’m sure no matter who the president is, the university will be presenting a check to Mike and the town of North Haven,” Lahey said.
