Farmington Plans to Renovate Fisher Farm House

Before the new chosen tenants can officially move into Fisher Farm in Farmington, they need to sign a lease and the town needs to renovate the home. 

The town's Farm Committee, which includes some Avon officials, recently selected Roger and Isabelle Phillips of Hartford after a lengthy search process. 

The town and the Phillips family are in the process of negotiating a lease that will sync up with Avon's separate lease for the farm land along Tillotson Road where the cornfields are currently located, Town Manager Kathy Eagen said at a Town Council meeting last Tuesday.  Previous tenant, Ron Simmons' lease with Avon expires in January 2014. Eagen said that the plan is for the Phillips to sign the lease in October.

In the meantime, the town also put out a request for proposal for restoration companies to do upgrades necessary to bring the house on the property up to code. The estimated cost is $120,000 to $180,000.

The bathroom and kitchen, for instance, need to be redone and the roof and floors need to be replaced. The house is about 2,000 square feet.

“The entire house has to be updated," she said.

The house was built in the '50s and hasn't had any improvements done to the infrastructure since then, so Eagen said "that's not surprising."  

“There’s quite a bit of work that has to be done," she said.

There have been discussions about knocking down the home and building a new one, but no decision has been made on that option at this time.