WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — The West Hartford Town Council is set to meet Wednesday to discuss future plans for the former site of The Children's Museum on Trout Brook Drive, which is in the process of being sold. At the same time, neighbors are looking to address the elephant, or whale, in the room: what to do with the giant Conny the Whale statue in front of the old museum location that's become a community landmark.
A GoFundMe was started to save Conny by Cetacean Society International (CSI), the same organization that built the statue in 1976.
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CSI is an all-volunteer, non-profit conservation, education and research organization working on behalf of cetaceans - such as whales, dolphins and porpoises - and their marine environment.
“We built Conny by hand. 250 volunteers. 15,000 volunteer hours, all donated materials," said David Kaplan, President of Cetacean Society International. "Conny was built as a statement, a public statement that whales are being slaughtered needlessly and if a stop wasn’t made, if people didn’t speak up, whales would be extinct.”
Conny, a life-sized replica of a sperm whale, has sat outside The Children's Museum for almost 40 years. The sperm whale is Connecticut’s state animal.
Kaplan said his organization has identified a new, permanent home for Conny across the street from its current location on the Trout Brook Greenway.
However, Kaplan said the cost to safely and securely move, place and maintain Conny on the greenway is estimated to be about $250,000.
“If we don’t have a move to successfully save Conny, if we don’t successfully save Conny, Conny will be extinct. Conny will be destroyed. There is no plan B, in other words. The property sold. We have a beautiful development here in West Hartford. The museum has already moved. Conny needs a new home," said Kaplan.
As for The Children's Museum itself, it left the Trout Brook Drive location in September for a temporary site on Mohegan Drive.
According to the meeting agenda, the West Hartford Town Council will discuss a zoning application Wednesday night to redevelop the former museum site into an apartment building.
The GoFundMe page to save Conny can be found here.
Angelo Bavaro is an anchor and reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at abavaro@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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