Volume 18, Number 22
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
www.berlincitizen.com
Private railroad crossing was site of horrific crash
Thursday, July 3, 2014
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA
By Jesse Buchanan Special to The Citizen
The gate near the railroad tracks at Norton’s Crossing in Berlin is the scene of a 1960 accident in which a woman and seven children were killed. | Jesse Buchanan / For The Citizen All eight were killed in the Lagosz said his father decrash, including 12-year-old scribed the bloody scene, not Mary Ann DeCruz, who babysat Lagosz and his siblings. See Crash / Page 6
Police station project discussed By Charles Kreutzkamp The Berlin Citizen
Town Council heard a presentation from architect Brian Humes from Jacunski Humes Architects LLC regarding the new police station project at the council meeting June 17. Humes has been working with the Public Building Commission since last winter and has also met with the Police Commission to ensure the new station will meet the Berlin Police Department’s needs. The building is “incorporated as part of a master plan,” Humes said, for further development in the Farming-
ton Avenue area. Councilor David Evans asked if renovating the current police station had been considered. Director of Public Works Arthur Simonian explained that this had been discussed by the building commission, and that the commission had investigated whether it was possible to expand the current space with an addition. Unfortunately, parking is already limited at the current location, which shares the municipal complex with the Town Hall, Board of Education, and the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library, and further reductions to parking would be unfeasi-
ble. “There is limited space to expand,” Simonian said. Additionally, the space needs assessment greatly exceeds the additional space available to expand. “It was looked at,” Simonian said. Councilor William Rasmussen said that it was worth considering that “Middletown relocated their police station downtown several years ago and I think if you talk to any business owner they will tell you… it has been the key to the revitalization of downtown Middletown. I think this is a great opportuSee Project / Page 10
The bronze eagle atop the obelisk at Berlin’s War Memorial greets the morning sun. The Memorial is located at the corner of Worthington Ridge and Farmington Avenue. | Photo by Lee Roski
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Joe Lagosz was 12 years old in 1960, listening in to his father recounting to his mother the scene of a train accident at Norton’s Crossing that killed a woman and seven children earlier that day. Emily Whitaker lived and worked on the Lagosz farm at the end of Norton Lane, a dead-end road near Silver Lake surrounded by forest. The only way in and out of the farm crosses the railroad tracks. On March 8, 1960, Emily Whitaker was taking her seven foster children to school when her station wagon was hit while crossing the tracks. Parts of the station wagon, and its occupants, were thrown around the tracks and into a frozen pond on the Lagosz’ property.