Volume 20, Number 44
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
www.TownTimes.com
Concern over Main Street crosswalk By Mark Dionne
push buttons on either side of Main Street for a pedestrian crosswalk. A push button The long awaited stop- crosswalk is a standard comlight has been installed, but ponent when a traffic light is not activated, at the inter- installed at an intersection on section of Main Street and a busy street with legal pePickett Lane in Durham. It destrian traffic. At the Feb. 10 Board of is scheduled to be turned on just as Pickett Lane is closed Selectmen meeting, the in the spring for a months- Durham selectment voted long construction project. unanimously to remove the Along with the stoplight, the push button controls and Connecticut Department of prevent a crosswalk from Transportation installed two going in at that intersection. The potential crosswalk would have connected the sidewalk on the eastern side of the street with the western side, where there is no sidewalk, not A newly installed pushbutton call signal much of a for a crosswalk at the intersection of Main walking lane in the road, Street and Pickett Lane is surrounded by and a steep snow.| (Mark Dionne/Town Times) Town Times
embankment on the other side of the curb. “I don’t think it’s the right design for that area,” said Durham’s Emergency Management Director Francis Willett at the Feb. 10 meeting. “My recommendation is to have that area deemed a no pedestrian zone with the exception of the sidewalk.” At recent Durham Board of Selectmen meetings, town officials have expressed concern that the walk signal would encourage pedestrian traffic to an area not safe for pedestrian traffic. According to First Selectman Laura Francis, eliminating the push button controls is not as simple as it sounds. “We can choose to eliminate that crosswalk, but it would require us to make a decision as the local traffic authority to make pedestrian crossing at that intersection illegal,” Francis said at the See Crosswalk / Page 7
Friday, Februar y 14, 2014
WELCOME TO DISTRICT 13
Brewster Elementary School students rolled out their version of the “red carpet” for Dr. Kathryn Veronesi, District 13’s new superintendent recently. Each student signed their name and made a small picture to welcome Veronesi to the school. Pictured with the superintendent are second grade students, who rolled out the red carpet: Abby Meliso, Julia Marino-Sekoll, Erin O’Connell and Clayton Wiseman. | (Submitted by Patti Checko)
Help Middlefield celebrate its big birthday A message from the First Selectman It’s party time — in 2016 Middlefield will celebrate its 150th birthday. It’s called a sesquicentennial. The fact is that our town is quite young by world standards where many towns are thousands of years old. So, what’s my point? It’s time to get ready to celebrate
We need to start planning for the party of all parties. We need a representative from each and every organization and board in Middlefield/Rockfall. Churches, library, fire department, historical society, old home days committee, sports, scouts, Lake Beseck, parks and rec, k club, business and indus-
try, garden club, Red Hatters, senior center, DMYFS, our commercial and industrial inhabitants — let’s get everyone on board. It is never too early to start planning. Usually Old Home Days is celebrated every two years and is next scheduled for 2015, so we’ll have to discuss
how this will fit in with plans to celebrate the 150th. It’s not out of the question to have a week or two of celebration with a wide variety of venues. Nothing is off the table. Soon, the board of selectmen will pass a motion to pledge See Celebrate / Page 6
from the desk of First Selectman Jon Brayshaw