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	Diocese Agrees to Sell Lakefront Camp for $4.5m WPTZ July 22, 2011 http://www.wptz.com/r/28639205/detail.html The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington announced Friday it has agreed to sell its 26-acre property along the lakeshore in Malletts Bay to the Town of Colchester for $4.5 million. At a news conference at the site, members of the Colchester Selectboard hailed the contract which said came after a year of "often difficult" negotiations with the Diocese. "What a gorgeous property this is, and what an opportunity this is for the town of Colchester and its residents," Nadine Seibeck said in outlining terms of the deal. Ultimately, however, town residents must approve the agreement in a special election to authorize a bond to pay for the purchase. The election is scheduled for October 4. Church leaders announced in March, 2010 that they would sell real estate holdings in Colchester and Burlington to raise money to pay the $20 million settlement reached with priest abuse victims. Bishop Salvatore Matano initially hoped the camp property would fetch $10 million dollars. In recent months the land has attracted interest from several developers, said commercial real estate agent Steve Donahue. But Matano preferred to steer the deal toward a public entity. A statement released by the diocesan press office Friday read, in part, "The Diocese of Burlington is pleased this property potentially will be used for purposes that hopefully will be of benefit to the community for many years into the future." The Diocese earlier sold its headquarters and adjoining lakefront property in Burlington to Burlington College. For decades the Colchester parcel was home to Camp Holy Cross and other summer camps for boys and girls. An archive photograph on the Middlebury College web site shows the property was also home to Camp Barnard as far back as the 1920s. More recently it also hosted Camp Ta-Kum-Ta for children touched by cancer. The sale includes the land, several outbuildings and cabins, a chapel, and perhaps most notably, 1600 feet of soft, sandy beach. "Colchester has 28 miles of lakefront," noted Selectboard member Marc Landry. "The town controls less than 1% of that. As we look down the road toward 2050, when we'll have a sizeable population growth, we'll need more frontage and this is an opportunity to bank it for the future." Though Selectboard members called it a rare opportunity, they also pledged a slow, careful planning process to determine the best long-term benefit to the community. Officials said they were committed to building a major park in Colchester Village section of town first.
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