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Hillsdale College’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom in Somers on Hall Hill Road includes this building modeled after Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. (John Brooks / Hillsdale College)

Hillsdale College’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom in Somers on Hall Hill Road includes this building modeled after Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. (John Brooks / Hillsdale College)

SOMERS — The Conservation Commission this week asked the Blake Center for Faith and Freedom to have the contractor who filled in a man-made pond on the Hall Hill Road property write a letter explaining how the pond was constructed and his role in its creation.

Labin Duke, executive director of the center on Hall Hill Road, met with the commission at its Wednesday meeting in Town Hall to discuss a notice of violation for filling in the man-made pond without a permit.

Chairwoman Joan Formeister said she issued the notice of violation after receiving a call from a resident who reported the pond had been filled in. She met with Duke before the meeting and learned he is new to Connecticut and was not aware a permit was needed to fill in the pond.

Formeister said there’s evidence of another pond on the property, but it was altered some time around 2016, well before the Blake Center opened.

The Michigan-based Hillsdale College operates the Blake Center for Faith and Freedom. The college bought the town-owned land in 2000, which includes the estate of Friendly’s restaurants co-founder, S. Prestley Blake, and his wife, Helen.

Duke, who lives with his family on the Blake Center campus, said the pond posed a safety risk. He said its man-made dock had a 16 to 20-foot drop, a potential liability, and mosquitoes swarmed the area when water ran out of the pond.

“It had been the practice of the Blake family to pump water into it but the pond couldn’t hold it,” Duke said. “A rubber liner was installed to hold the water but that didn’t remedy the situation.”

He said the rubber became slippery in the winter and deer got trapped in the pond. “And it turns out (the late) Mr. Blake fell into this pond and had to crawl out at age 102,” Duke added.

He believes the Blake family wanted to have the pond created as landscaping beautification.

Formeister said aerial photographs indicate a new pond was built on the property in 2016. At the time, the Blake family did not seek a permit, she said.

It’s difficult to determine the value of the man-made pond after the fact and whether its construction would have affected wetlands, she said.

“Nor do we know what was lost by this pond being filled in,” Formeister said, adding the commission could determine a resolution and provide instructions for how the Blake Center could resolve the violation.

Duke said the center is not trying to break rules or defy regulations. He said he didn’t know a permit was necessary before filling in the pond.

A lot of residents are not aware of when they need to come before the Conservation Commission for permits, several members said.

The commissioners asked Duke to get a letter from the contractor who built and filled in the pond stating how it was constructed and his role in the work.

Commissioners also advised Duke that the Blake Center sits on a lot of land with wetlands and, consequently, to run the details of any potential projects by Formeister. 

For more coverage of Somers and Enfield, follow Susan Danseyar on Twitter: @susandanseyar, Facebook: Susan Danseyar, reporter.

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Susan covers the towns of Somers and Enfield. She joined the JI in May 2021 and graduated from Skidmore College. She recently completed docent training for the Wadsworth Atheneum and hopes to start giving tours some time next year.

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