Author: kathrynwboughton@gmail.com

Have you noticed that the historic directional sign on the northwest corner of the Village Green is missing? The sign was removed and refurbished this summer by artist Madeline Falk and is now awaiting improvements to the frame and the posts that support it, said First Selectman Matt Riiska.

“Madeline’s work is done, and we received the sign back three or four weeks ago,” Riiska said. “Now we are talking with a local contractor about how to install it. It needs a couple of things—bracketing and better poles. It also needs to be sealed better.”

Currently, round posts support two rectangular panels set at a 90-degree angle to one another. In addition to giving the mileage to nearby communities, the panels bear the likenesses of a jackrabbit and a stag. An early photo of it from 1917 shows it in place on the village green with a soaring elm tree close behind it.

The decorative painting was originally done in the 19th century by an unknown artist and was replicated in 1965 by Raymond Dowden, then the director of the Yale summer school of art at Norfolk. The original is in the Norfolk Historical Society’s collection. 

Riiska said the sign is vulnerable to motorists and has had to be restored more than once. “That thing has been hit so many times,” he said. Granite pillars now form a protective triangle in front of it. 

The sign, which is removed from its site every winter to protect it, will not be put back in place until next spring.

—Newsletter Editor

The Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday night approved both a definition of a dog park and the regulations that would govern it.

The issue came before the commission when the Friends of the Norfolk Dog Park, Inc., petitioned for a text amendment reducing the required acreage from 20 acres to two acres. 

A dog park was approved for Westside Road in March 2023 following a long public hearing that elicited hours of testimony and more than 60 letters supporting and opposing the park. Plans for that park fell through, however, and the Friends are seeking a new location. They argued it will be easier to identify a new site if only two acres are required.

When the dog park was first proposed, the zoning regulations did not include “dog park” specifically and the application was considered under the rules for recreational facilities, which require 20 acres. 

The first order of business was to define a dog park. Members settled on a simple declarative sentence: A dog park is a parcel of land with an enclosed area for the off-leash exercise of dogs under the supervision of their guardians.

Discussion then turned to parking and signage, with members deciding that the commission did not have the authority to regulate parking on public streets and that park rules and regulations should be clearly posted. 

The most difficult question was a setback regulation. Some members felt a 50-foot setback would be the minimum needed to minimize the impact on neighbors. Jordan Stern argued that such a deep setback would be too restrictive on a two-acre lot, but Edward Barron wanted the 50-foot setback to be off-limits altogether for animal owners and their on-leash pets. “If they are allowed to run around in the setback there is no setback,” he said. He asserted that the regulations should restrict the animals only to off-leash exercise within the fenced-in area.

The final vote approved the 50-foot setback (for both the parking lot and the fenced enclosure), struck the on-street parking prohibition, established signage regulations and directed that dogs must be leashed except within the enclosure.

—Newsletter Editor

First Selectman Matt Riiska has begun the DEEP paperwork needed to get permission to install a temporary bridge on Smith Road, where the existing span and another nearby were swept away by a flash flood in 2023.

Left with a narrow, twisting road with several steep hills as the only access for fire trucks and ambulances,South Norfolk residents have been petitioning for a temporary structure to ensure their safety. The town wants to install a three-culvert bridge to serve until the state starts to make permanent improvements starting in 2026.

Riiska said CHA Solutions, a firm hired by DEEP, forwarded the wetlands study it did for the state to the town. The first selectman will forward the study to the Army Corps of Engineers, which must also approve the temporary bridge.

He said he will meet with state senator Lisa Seminara and state representative Maria Horn to see if they can help expedite the application.  

—Newsletter Editor

Downes Construction Co., construction managers for the new firehouse project, presented a $9.3 million cost estimate to the Firehouse Building Committee Wednesday night. The estimate is the first of two and still included items that fire department members had already considered removing.

Downes representative Jeffrey Anderson, vice president of preconstruction, led the committee through the estimate, saying the figure would be refined after the building committee decides which items it will remove or change.

A list of 13 areas for possible reduction was presented, but no price tags were attached. 

First Selectman Matt Riiska said, “We’re still hammering everything out. We removed the stone veneer and some windows—originally the whole back part of the building was glass—and we’ve talked about changing the flooring in the meeting room. The architects put in a lot of costs for kitting out the kitchen and some of the guys are looking at used commercial equipment.”

Another cost reduction would come from removing the windows at the top of the hose tower, replacing them with siding that gives the illusion of windows. The committee also nixed a decorative drop to the roof on the back side of the building to lessen labor costs.

“One of the big things is the three-bay garage,” Riiska said. “We are looking at a Morton Building, which is basically a prefabricated steel building that you can dress up. Most industrial buildings are built that way.”

He said Downes will go over the possible reductions with the architects next week and the building committee will meet to discuss them late in the month or in early October. 

Anderson warned that contractors are extremely busy and that it might be difficult to find the various kinds of equipment needed for the firehouse. The town wants to go out to bid after Thanksgiving. 

—Newsletter Editor

A game that has survived since the days of Ancient Egypt certainly has staying power. Bocce, which spread from Egypt to the Roman Empire to all the lands that Caesar conquered, has now come to Norfolk (minus Caesar, of course).

The sixth annual Bocce Tournament will be held on the court behind 10 Station Place Sunday, October 6. Warm-ups begin at 2:30 p.m. and brackets will form at 3:00 p.m. Balls will start rolling as soon as a couple of teams have formed.

Because of the large turnout in recent years, organizer Lindsey Boucher asks that competitors contact her with teams ahead of time if they want a guaranteed spot. There will be eight teams again this year with four people on each team to let as many people play as possible while also not making the event too long. Teams with fewer than four people can merge with another small team.

Potential players can also take a chance on joining a team when they arrive if there are spots available. “This is a fun fall afternoon, and you might end up on our Fence of Fame!” Boucher said. 

Pizza will be served. Fans make the afternoon fun and those who want to just come, cheer and eat pizza are welcome. 

RSVP by texting 860-309-1505 or emailing  lboucher@norfolkmgmt.com.

—Newsletter Editor

The state DEEP and the Army Corps Engineers have come back with conditions for a temporary replacement of the South Norfolk bridge at Smith Road, but First Selectman Matt Riiska told his board Wednesday, “I don’t know where it is going, I really don’t know.”

He said he has met with the DOT, but that by the time he gets an answer from the two agencies about putting in the temporary span, the DOT may be ready to start permanent replacement of the bridge, which is on the state calendar for 2026 or 2027.

The Smith and Old Goshen bridges were swept away in a July 2023 flash flood and South Norfolk residents, who have been cut off from direct access from Route 272 for 14 months, have lobbied for a temporary bridge. They worry about their safety as the only emergency access to their homes is over a long detour and difficult span of road. 

Riiska said the town is ready to go if the two agencies sign off on the temporary structure.

In other business, Riiska told his board that attorneys for the town are still compiling a list of expenses on Maple Avenue related to the November 2022 gas spill. He estimates that $752,000 was spent to clean up the saturated soils and to rebuild the infrastructure after the spill. The attorneys for the insurance company representing the trucking firm responsible for the spill have been notified of the impending claims. 

—Newsletter Editor

A first glimpse of a proposed plan for the restoration of City Meadow was presented Tuesday night to the Friends of the Meadow Committee by Beth Roemaker of Meadowscapes, a division of Matt’s Landscaping of Falls Village.

Roemaker had conducted a botanical survey of the meadow, which had become overgrown with invasives, and taken an inventory of the plants there before putting “the puzzle pieces together to make a plan,” she said.

The center of City Meadow is a marsh, intermingling with a wet meadow that transitions up the basin to upland meadow and woodland. The marshland is wet all year as opposed to the wet meadow, which is dry for periods. The plan proposes a transition from woodland to wetlands with plantings that highlight a diversity of shrubs.

Over the summer, Matt’s Landscaping and Native Habitat Restoration of Stockbridge, Mass., mowed woody shrubs and cut invasive phragmites and non-native cattails. Herbicides were applied, but subsequent applications are needed. 

Areas of mugwort will be removed next spring and “something vigorous that does well with all conditions” will be planted in its stead. 

Roemaker predicted it would take three seasons to subdue the invasives and establish native plants. “We want to create legibility in a defined ecosystem, a sense of calm,” she said. “Now it feels a little chaotic.”

She wants to “to make a beautiful spot to invite people to walk down into it” using native plants with long bloom times. Included in the plan is a bird habitat corridor.  

Few plantings would take place directly in the marsh. “We don’t want to plant in a super-delicate ecosystem,” Roemaker said, adding that boxes along the boardwalk could be used to introduce plants. “They are easier to maintain and can seed into the marsh,” she explained.

If the plan is accepted, at least three years of post-project maintenance will be needed to keep invasives from regrowing. “We would really keep an eye on resurgence and keep an eye on our plantings, but, because City Meadow is a basin, there’s always going to be some maintenance,” she said.

Planting costs over three seasons are estimated at $304,220. Three years of maintenance is estimated to cost $33,600. A private donor has provided $110,000 to help with the restoration. 

—Newsletter Editor

The jury is still out on when work can start to install a temporary bridge on Smith Road in South Norfolk. Direct access for residents to Route 272 has been interrupted at Old Goshen and Smith roads since flash flooding in July 2023.

Area residents are concerned about safety issues because of the long detour to their homes. Learning that the state will not replace the bridges until more than a year from now, the selectmen began planning a temporary structure in August. First Selectman Matt Riiska had hoped to get DEEP and Army Corps of Engineers approval to start construction in early September, but the state’s reaction to recent severe flooding in southern Connecticut has delayed action by the agencies.

Riiska has a meeting with the Department of Transportation Tuesday and hopes to have more information after that. “I am pushing the health safety angle,” he said, “but the other problem right now will be getting the components we need for the work because of all the flooding elsewhere. You get more than rain when it pours.”

The River Place bridge reconstruction continues despite the flooding in southern Connecticut. That project was shut down for more than two years and work only resumed this month. Riiska said the town’s loan for its portion of the cost of the project must be renegotiated. “Because it was delayed so much, we have to close out the loan that originated with Salisbury Bank & Trust and open a new line of credit with NBT—at a higher rate of interest, of course,” he explained. Salisbury Bank was purchased last year by NBT.

—Newsletter Editor

Beth Roemaker of Meadowscapes will present a plan for the City Meadow during a meeting of the Friends of the Meadow Committee Tuesday, September 3, at 6:00 p.m. at the Norfolk Hub. This is a special meeting of the Meadow Committee so there will be some limited committee business.

The committee is working toward the restoration of the meadow through the removal of invasives and plantings of native species. Roemaker has  been tasked to present a vision of what that will look like.

—Newsletter Editor

The Democratic Town Committee will also host a “Meet the Candidates” event on Sunday, September 15, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Norbrook Brewery in Colebrook. State Representative Maria Horn and Paul Honig, candidate for the 8th Senatorial District, will be on hand to greet the public. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, is expected to attend.

Admission is free and refreshments will be provided. All residents are invited to attend.

—Newsletter Editor