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Approvals completed!
New Morning has gotten all the necessary approvals for building its permanent home at 129 Main Street North in Woodbury. Many thanks to all for the expressions of support- especially those who came to the public hearings and spoke in favor of our project. This includes our staff and the town of Woodbury- who worked closely with us throughout the months it took to resolve the important issues. We couldn’t have done it without you!
 Ground breaking.
New Morning’s new property at Main Street North has a history not uncommon to small town commercial properties- sequential and unrelated businesses that come and go. Originally farmland, the property evolved into a gravel operation and later became a home to the Woodbury bowling lanes in the 1960’s. A series of businesses followed, the last being Puddleducks Daycare Center- that fell into disrepair after it closed. In January 2007, the abandoned structure was demolished and as much of the material that could be, was recycled. A protective fence was then installed along the perimeter of the proposed building location.
Protecting local water resources.
Building a permanent home for New Morning has been a vision of John’s for many years and he’s determined to build one that’s sustainable–practical and eco-friendly with a long, useful life. Significant time is spent during the engineering phase (NOW) researching materials and systems, and designing floor plans and interior layouts that will work well together. So, even though you can’t see anything yet -there’s a lot of work going on so we can hit the ground running.
The building site is environmentally sensitive because it’s in an aquifer protection area, part of which is in the 100 -year flood plain. New Morning sees this as an opportunity to install a storm water management system that protects local water resources and also serves as a model for how others might approach a challenge like this in the future. The NEMO project, initiated in 1991 at UCONN offers builders and municipalities’ support in understanding and managing local water issues. We found this site helpful: http://nemo.uconn.edu.
What’s the new building going to look like and how big will it be?
The rendering at the top of this page is the only visual we have so far! Presently, we can say that the building will have two floors accessible to the public. The second floor will serve as expanded classroom space, in addition to some as yet undetermined opportunities. The design and layout of the building interior is being worked on right now. The footprint of the new building will be 14,700 square feet. The retail floor will be approximately 10,000 square feet-up from 4,000 square feet at the current location at Middle Quarter Mall. We’ll post an update just as soon as we can, but things change often as new factors surface- not the least of which is John’s mandate to choose green solutions whenever possible. Check out an online resource for green building that we consult: http://www.buildinggreen.com/menus/builderCategories.cfm
Move-in date.
We hope we’ll be moving sometime in the middle of 2008- if all goes according to plan. We’re too far this side of construction to really know if that’s realistic. We sure hope so! Check in with us at the store or right back here! - We’ll post updates when we have them.
Tell us what you want to know!
Photos: Kimberly Bouton | 
