The future of the prayer center parcel on South Park Avenue in Easton, near the Mill River, will be the subject of multiple meetings this week.
Easton bought the former Running Brook Farm, a 29-acre property on South Park Avenue, in 2008 for $6.1 million.property after approval at referendum to protect it against dense housing development. It is zoned for three-acre single-family homes.
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Longtime Easton neighbor the Jewish Home for the Elderly in Fairfield is offering $6.1 million to the town for the former Running Brook Farm, a 29-acre property on South Park Avenue the town bought in 2008 for $6.1 million.
The idea calls for 260 units total, with 200 independent living apartments and a mix of assisted living and skilled nursing spaces. Ten percent of the rental apartments would be reserved for the affordable housing category and would count toward the town’s requirements to provide affordable housing, Banoff said.
Click here to read the full story in The Easton Courier.
Work has begun on the removal of contamination from the Mill River.
Click here to read an article in the Fairfield Sun.
The trout and salmon fishing is in full swing right now. We have received some much needed rain and the rivers are looking better. The Housatonic and Farmington Rivers are fishing very well with some large spawning browns being caught. Brook trout fishing has been excellent throughout the state and they are in their full spawn colors at this time.
The salt water fishing has been very good as well with great blackfish reports as well as a lot of stipers being caught. There is still a lot of bunker out there to kep the fish around but they’ll be gone soon.
I just returned from Pulaski, New York where the steelhead fishing is now in full swing as well. Lots of big steelhead in the rivers and a few fresh salmon still tricking in. If you’ve never been up to catch these fish, try it. It is a world class fishery only 5 hours away.
The chapter needs to take action on a serious problem which has recently occurred in the Mill. Apparently, some of Connecticut’s finest citizens parked in the lot on the Congress St. side of the Meritt Pkwy., dragged logs across the river to pool it, and then took a drag net though the stream netting all of the trout that they could take. The smaller trout were thrown onto the banks to die as they would have been too small to eat. This was told to me by very reliable witnesses and I was also told that this was not the first time that this has happened. Unfortunately, there were no photographs of this atrocity. As far as I know, the logs are still in place.
My suggestion is that the loggs be removed and camo cameras be installed such as deer cams to try and prevent this from happening again or to catch the people who are doing this. The chapter could also use river stewards to patrol the chapters streams weekly as there were many bait containers found along the Saugatuck Fly Area and anglers aren’t catching many fish there.
Our state has a serious problem with poaching and I believe that all anglers should unite at this point and demand better protection for our fisheries. Millions are spent each year raising and stocking trout, pike, walleye, salmon etc. but yet that investment is not protected. Maybe a petiton to the state legislators is in order.
Tight light lines
Ron Merly
Dredging more than 20,000 cubic yards of lead-contaminated soil from the Mill River is about to get underway now that a processing plant to clean the sediment has been installed on Exide’s 6.25 acres on the Post Road, according to the Fairfield Citizen.
TRC Environmental Corp. of Madison, Wisc., is doing the work for Exide, which is under orders from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, to clean up the river that was polluted by waste from Exide’s now-closed battery factory over the years.
A public information meeting on the cleanup will be held Oct. 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Board of Education conference room, 501 Kings Highway East.
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Easton could make creative use of the South Park property, abutting the Mill River, by leasing it to farmers, one of about 50 residents who attended an informational session members of the Board of Selectmen.
The property is in the news because the New England Prayer Center has until Oct. 8 to exercise an option to buy the property for $5.8 million. If the group does not buy the property, the town is looking for ideas on what to do with it.
The town bought the property to protect it against dense housing development. It is zoned for three-acre single family homes.
To read The Easton Courier story, click here.
Knotweed cutting along Congress Street in Fairfield is ahead of schedule after a major turnout Saturday, April 5.
That effort will allow the pickup of trash along the Mill River Saturday, April 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Those who can volunteer should leave a comment indicating what time on this story.
“Saturday’s cutting of the standing dead Japanese Knotweed stalks was a smashing success,” Nutmeg TU President Chuck Petrucceli said. “With the help of 9 members of the chapter and 4 members of the Beardley Zoo Conservation Corps, all the knotweed stalks were cut down. There was also some river clean up and several bags of garbage collected. We over achieved.”
Nutmeg members Dave Edgeworth, Bill Field, Phil Jacques, Gary Anderson, Chris Smith and his son Nick, Ed Grzedna, and Chuck MacMath and his son Jeromy, were joined by Thomas J. Altieri, Chavious Hall, Savannah Lewis, and Jamie Castro of the Beardley Zoo Conservation Corps.
“To the youths who joined us Saturday, Jeromy, Chavious, Savannah, and Jamie, it was a pleasure to meet you,” Petruccelli said. “It is good to see you feel strongly enough about conservation to get involved. Now and in the future we need conservationist minded people like you to continue the stewardship of what we preserve, protect and restore today.”
Nutmeg TU President Charles Petruccelli is scheduled to appear on Yankee Fisherman Friday, April 4, to discuss the Mill River Improvement Project and the chapter’s efforts to remove invasive knotweed from the banks along Congress Street.
The show, hosted by Nutmeg TU member John Kovach, airs live from 2 to 3 p.m. on hanradio.com, and is replayed throughout the weekend.
The second year of cutting is scheduled to be performed April 5 and 12. Click here for details, including how to volunteer.
Volunteers are again needed to help remove invasive species from the banks of the Mill River along Congress Street at the Easton-Fairfield line, near the Merritt Parkway.
Last year Nutmeg TU started a three-year invasive species removal project along the Congress St. section of the Mill River. This is the section that flows down stream from Sport Hill Rd. to where it flows under Congress St. If you drive by you’ll notice a lot of the knotweed is lower from the initial effort. It is time for the second year cutting, when volunteers cut the dead plants from the previous year’s fall spraying. The cutting is done early in the growth season so as not to cut down live plants from this year’s growth.
Volunteers are needed Saturdays, April 5 and 12, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you can volunteer, please post a comment indicating the day and hours you can help out.
Nutmeg TU will provide the weed cutters, face masks, water and snacks.
Plans for cleanup of the Mill River are once again moving forward. In a joint session on Aug 1, The Harbor Management, Shellfish and Conservation commissions all voted to end Fairfield’s intervention in planning the removal of contaminants left in the Mill River by the former Exide battery plant.
In January of this year, after an information session held by DEEP and Exide, both Fairfield’s Shellfish Commission and local advocacy group Fairfielders Protecting Land and Neighborhoods (FairPLAN) requested a public hearing on one of the permits required for Exide’s remediation activities. This delayed DEEP in approving Exide’s plan, and led to a new approach.
Click here for the Fairfield Sun story.