PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
STAMFORD, CT
PERMIT NO. 755
North Stamford
ASSO CIATION
North Stamford
P.O. Box 16830
Stamford, CT 06905
ASSO CIATION
Fall 2009
Newsletter
An Association of residents
dedicated to preserving
North Stamford as a
desirable place to live.
06903
North Stamford News
THE VOICE OF NORTH STAMFORD
Fall
2009
INSIDE
2 . . . Letter from
the President
3 . . . Loves Family,
Hates Taxes
4 . . . Insect Orchestra
5 . . . Trees
6 . . . Wins Beer,
Helps Neighbors
8 . . . Stamford’s
Schools
9 . . . Lakes and Ponds in
Officers • Board of Directors • Administration
Mo Glucksman
1st Vice President
Sunset Road
329-2521
329-8035
[email protected]
[email protected]
Marc Becker, Esq.
134 Brookdale Road
329-1038
[email protected]
Jeff Boal
132 Webb's Hill Road
609-0808
[email protected]
Stephen Cole
97 Gary Road
329-2513
[email protected]
Jack Halpert
2nd Vice President
77 Cricket Lane
[email protected]
North Stamford
Art Gelston
Treasurer
70 Mohawk Trail
322-8008
Helene Devin
322-4159
[email protected]
Ralph Loomis
Fairway Drive
329-0624
Mark Diamond, Esq.
West Trail
329-3714
Hiro Nakajima
32 Constance Lane
968-0036
[email protected]
Renée Kahn
78 Webb's Hill Road
322-6671
[email protected]
Mike Pavia
[email protected]
Paul Steed
173 Farms Road
329-0052
[email protected]
Gail Okun
Secretary
245 Erskine Road
322-7496
goerskine2@
optonline.net
11 . . . Letters to the Editor
Published by the
North Stamford Association
Mark Diamond
Editor
Alexandria Davis
NSA Office
PO Box 16830
at Long Ridge Firehouse
Stamford CT 06905
[email protected]
Art Director
Phone/Fax (203) 329-2498
Web Site: www.northstamford.com
E-Mail: [email protected]
Photo: Mark Diamond
Tom Lombardo
President
65 Hickory Road
10
North Stamford News / Fall 2009
North Stamford News / Fall 2009
3
He Loves His Family But Hates Taxes
Photo: Meg Tocantins
by Mark Diamond
The facts and opinions asserted in 06903 North Stamford News are those of the authors.
Mission Statement
The purpose of the Association is to protect, preserve and enhance the quality of life in North Stamford, identified as all areas north of the Merritt
Parkway and within the limits of the City of Stamford. The mission of the Association shall include, but not be limited to:
• seeking to ensure a fair share of city services commensurate with the
taxes paid for North Stamford;
• encouraging the enhancement of the quality and availability of
educational opportunities in North Stamford;
• protecting the integrity and seeking to ensure the appropriateness of
land use regulations and decisions, including, but not limited to, the
regulations and decisions of the Planning, Zoning, Zoning Appeals
and Environmental Protection Boards of the City of Stamford;
• promoting communication among the residents of North Stamford;
• maintaining the natural beauty of North Stamford, and;
• advocating the need to preserve, protect and defend the natural resources
and environment within North Stamford and its surrounding communities.
NSA MEMBERSHIP
NSA MEMBERSHIP - YEAR 2009
Join your neighbors who are already
working to help the community.
Please complete the membership
form and mail it to us with a check.
If you would like more
information, phone us at
(203) 329-2498 or e-mail us at
[email protected] .
Please send your
Letters to the Editor to:
NSA
P.O. Box 16830
Stamford, CT 06905
North Stamford Association Membership Dues
North Stamford
ASSO CIATION
Membership per
household:
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Please complete this form and mail it to:
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“It’s like drinking
from a fire hose.
There are so many
issues. So much
to learn, ” says
L. Scott Frantz,
state senator for
the 36th Senatorial District, which
covers Greenwich,
N o r t h e r n
Stamford, and most
of New Canaan.
Scott won a hardfought
election
in 2008, taking
over from Bill
L. Scott Franz is state
Nickerson, who
senator for the 36th
served in the state
Senatorial District.
legislature for 22
years. Scott serves on the commerce, transportation,
appropriations, and program review & investigations
committees of the Connecticut Senate.
the resources to continually expand at the current
rate. Some of our public hospitals costs upward of
$873,000 per patient per year. A private facility can
do it for up to 60 percent less. Whenever the state
gets involved in a function you have competitive
salaries of $60,000 to $120,000. And, benefits are a
killer. In the private sector, companies pay far less.
The state is a high cost provider of social services.
My question is, is this a job creation program or are
they genuinely interested in helping those in need?”
Scott will be fifty years old this year. He lives in
Riverside with his wife, Icy, his daughter, Brady,
age four; his son, Hunter, age thirteen ; and his twin
boys, McKinley and Hanley, age twelve.
installing border tolls! But people would just get off
to evade the tolls, clogging our local streets.
Scott grew up in Riverside. He graduated Princeton
University in 1982, then went to work on wall street
for two years at consulting firm Analytic Systems
Corporation. Scott returned to academia, obtaining
an MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
in 1986. That year, he went to work in the mergers
and acquisitions department of Banker’s Trust.
“On Christmas Eve of 1990, I asked myself, is this
what you really want to be doing in light of all
that is going on in the world, especially the fall of
the Berlin Wall?” Scott remembers. “This profound
international event affected me in a strong way.
I knew there would be amazing opportunities in
“It’s amazing to me how many committees there public and private equities around the world as
are in the state legislature. So many commissions, more and more countries were free to emulate the
so many special interest groups. All of which cost United States. So I started a private equity company
money. Government,“ concludes Sen. Frantz, “is in White Plains, which I moved to Connecticut in
too bloated. The state budget has grown about 6.7 1998 called Haebler Capital. In the last nineteen
percent a year since 1984. That’s too high.”
years, we have been in everything from early stage
“When the income tax was instituted, spending venture capital investing to privatization programs
caps were also put into effect to make sure we to pre-IPO financing to the restaurant business.”
don’t increase the budget too much each year. But While Scott says that limiting government spending is
that hasn’t happened. The budget is growing 100 critical, he is also very concerned about transportation
percent too fast. At some point, the tax base becomes issues. “There was a very serious proposal to put in
disillusioned or flat out broke. I fear that we are border tolls,” he recalls. “These would have affected
losing a healthy portion of our largest corporate and our area in a big way. After this million dollar study
individual taxpayers to more competitive states.”
was done, they found that they could raise money by
“The deliberations went on forever. I asked the guy
who did the study, why are you proposing to put
“Social services take up a little more than a third of the tolls on the borders? That will create a massive
our budget. I want to spend as much as we can on logjam. Since the tolls will use transponders, you
those particularly in need, but we just don’t have can put tolls in several areas. The guy looked up and
* Continued on bottom of page 11
8
North Stamford News / Fall 2009
North Stamford News / Fall 2009
Stamford’s Schools
gap between the lowest achieving
groups and the highest. In
Stamford, this performance gap
e recently sat down has consistently been in the 40
with superintendent of percent range, as measured on
Stamford’s public schools Dr. standardized tests.
Joshua Starr for a free-ranging
conversation. Now in his fifth year Grouping by ability may not
as superintendent, Dr. Starr feels just lower certain students’ selfthat his administration’s efforts esteem but may also predispose
to centralize and standardize faculty to notions of what
individual students are capable
curriculum are well advanced.
of. Many teachers, particularly,
According to Dr. Starr, Stamford’s in the middle schools, support
public school curriculum had detracking.
not been revised in decades.
Consistency across Stamford’s In addition to eliminating lowtwenty schools and within all level classes, the Starr adminclassrooms makes it possible to istration has focused on the
more thoroughly and objectively following core areas: Supporting
evaluate curriculum and how it is professional development; reforming instructional methbeing delivered.
odology; and efficacy, which
One of the Stamford Public involves reshaping teachers’
Schools’ goals is to raise standards belief systems.
for all children. Dr. Starr says
he firmly believes that equity Dr. Starr points out that Stamford’s
among and within our schools is initiatives have been well received
the logical successor to many of by both the State and the GE
the important gains made from Foundation. Both have asked that
civil rights and desegregation equity and detracking be built in to
initiatives of fifty years ago. all of Stamford’s reforms. Stamford
The same curriculum should be has included detracking in its
Strategic District Improvement
available to all children.
Plan and has been commended
A cornerstone of this philosophy by Hartford for having one of
is “detracking.” Stamford has the most transparent budgets in
defined tracking as the practice the state.
of grouping students based on
their achievement levels with Dr. Starr says he is especially
little opportunity for movement. proud of how hard all of his staff
Dr. Starr says he believes tracking works with a sense of pride and
does not benefit any student no for a common purpose. He feels
matter what his or her school his greatest accomplishment to
level. Currently, children are date has been institutionalizing
sorted into as many as five an education framework with
distinct academic groups. One of higher standards and greater
the biggest indictments of public access. His main regret is not
school education in the United having the resources available
States is the huge performance to institute world languages and
by Paul Steed
NSA board member
W
By Sally Sacks
M
Dr. Starr is superintendent of
Stamford’s public schools.
technology programs. Perhaps
his biggest surprise is how the
same set of educational data can
be interpreted in several different
ways.
While we were chatting with Dr.
Starr, my mind kept turning to
Roger Bannister. On May 6, 1954 he
became the first man to officially run
a sub-four minute mile. Nobody had
thought it was possible. Incredibly,
just 46 days later, another runner
broke Sir Roger’s record. Within
only three years, sixteen other
runners had broken the four-minute
mile barrier.
Telling a child something is not
possible can be a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Believing that all children
can have adequate educational
outcomes seems logical. But
it requires a paradigm shift in
thinking for many parents, teachers,
administrators, and public officials.
Sarah Arnold, Public Affairs Officer
for the Stamford Public Schools, was
extremely helpful and the NSA’s own
master teacher, Gail Okun, provided
special insight for this article.
arguerite Jordan, who
developed the road on
which we live and for whom it is
named, was a maiden lady of a
certain age when we moved into
this house. She was a charming
southerner, an early suffragette,
and a landscape architect. She
lived across the pond in back of
our house and continued to take
an active interest in Jordan Lane,
as though she still owned it.
Trees
It is to Miss Jordan’s credit that
she wanted to maintain the
natural look of the wild terrain.
All of the original houses had
to be painted in woodsy colors,
and as many as possible of the
original trees were left in place.
5
My
husband
becomes
extremely religious where
trees are concerned. He takes
to quoting Joyce Kilmer and
turns completely irrational.
“Those trees were meant to be
there,” he insists, “and they are
going to stay.”
True, I sneak around and chop
down the occasional sapling
when he isn’t looking, and he
never notices. I also had to
have someone take down a few
of the ill-fated apple and peach
trees that I planted: They never
did well because they were
shaded by native trees.
Trees have become an
obsession with me. Yes,
Ah, but that was 43 years
they are beautiful, but they
ago. Miss Jordan has long
have gotten out of hand. I
since departed, and several
finally managed to talk the
homeowners joyously burst
religious one into some sense
their bonds of color constraint
one spring, when a Japanese
with gray, white, even a blue
maple in front of the house
house on Jordan Lane. But all
died over the winter. There
of the trees have grown larger
was no question but that it
and larger. Sunlight, which
had to come down. I felt sad,
once streamed through our
having grown it from a mere
kitchen window each morning,
twig. But I cheered up as I
has become a dim memory. My
decided to replace it with a
vegetable garden has all but stopped producing. weeping cherry, or maybe a dogwood.
The north side of our house is strewn with moss.
After the tree men removed the maple, late-day sun
I am chagrined to admit that we are responsible
for several of the most shade-producing species.
We had worried about erosion on the naked hill
in back of our house and planted it with about a
dozen white pines, at the recommendation of the
local garden center. But, the center neglected to tell
us how tall and thick the pines would grow.
came splashing through my house. I stood there
almost in shock. One of the tree men said, “I know,
you want it back.”“No,” I cried, “I love it! Now I can
plant flowers or vegetables.” My husband came out
and I steeled myself against the expected comments,
but none came. “Hmm,” he said, “that extra light
should help the front lawn.”
All around us, neighbors started to have their trees
judiciously thinned and trimmed. But not us.
Success! Next year, maybe I could get some of those
unnecessary beech trees taken down.
North Stamford News / Fall 2009
North Stamford News / Fall 2009
Chris comes from a working class family. He
grew up in Elmira, New York. His mom was
a deaf education instructor in the local school
system. His dad was a school bus administrator
in Buffalo. Chris moved to Manhattan out of
college and got a job as a floor trader with Hull
Trading , which was acquired by Goldman
Sachs in 1997.
By Mark Diamond
I
n a recession, the first instinct of an equity trader
might be to hide in a room until it was all over.
But not for Chris Meek.
Chris has lived on Middle Ridge Road off of
Scofieldtown Road for two years with his wife,
Christine, and kids, Lexie, age six, and Cayla, age
three. He is a vice president of equity derivatives
for Goldman Sachs.
Chris is at work by 6 A.M. and home by seven.
Still, he says, he spends a few hours every day
on START Now!, along with his four board
members.
Since April, he has been running a program called
START Now! (at www.startnowct.org). Its goal is
to get lenders to modify their mortgages for folks
behind on their payments in order to keep them out
of foreclosure.
“People call me at my house all the time asking
for help. That’s fine. I don’t mind it,” says Chris.
“It started as a bet,” recalls Chris. “Some friends
and I were sitting in a bar. I was complaining that
a lot of people were going to be forced out of their
homes or, at least, were about to have a very tough
time of it. Some of my friends said yeah, that’s
true, that’s tough, but nothing can be done short of
a government bailout. I said that wasn’t true, we
could do something about it. And one of my friends So Chris and his friends held a second event on
May 30. This time, Bank of America and JP Morgan
bet me a beer that I couldn’t.”
showed up, along with Webster Bank, People’s
So the following week, Chris met with the United Bank, New Alliance, and other banks, along
Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) a with the Housing Development Fund, CHFA, the
state-run agency, contacted a bunch of banks in the Urban League, and the Mutual Housing Association
area, and distributed flyers. His goal was to arrange of Southwestern Connecticut. A third event was
a sit down between borrowers in trouble and their held in Hartford on August 15th in the Capitol
lenders to hammer out loan modifications in light Building for mortgagees in that area, with 200 people
of the economic downturn, rising unemployment, attending and 42 loan modifications negotiated.
and decreasing property values.
The program got so popular that Chris found
“At first, the banks were reticent,” says Chris. he needed help. So he started a not-for profit
“Then, the Regionals budged. HSBC followed, and and put together a board. “One of the board
then more banks signed on.”
members suggested that we expand our goals to
HSBC alone sent 5000 letters to their mortgagees. help unemployed people get jobs. We got human
Over 100 people showed up at the first meeting resources at GE Capital and RBS, as well as several
held on April 18 at the Yerwood Center. It led to 36 temp agencies, to agree to give strong consideration
to the resumes we send them.
loan modifications.
“We got some good press coverage in The Advocate.
Afterward, the reporter had about 150 calls from
people in Stamford looking for a way to renegotiate
their loans. They all said that they had little success
dealing directly with their lenders,” notes Chris.
job readiness workshops at the Yerwood Center,
where we can physically get potential employees
and employers together.”
Photo: Abby jenkins Boal
Wins A Beer, Helps His Neighbors
7
“We collect resumes from anyone looking for work
in our area. We collect no fee to do this. We searched
the web for the 100 largest employers in Fairfield
County. So far, about two-thirds have said they
would participate. We plan on holding a series of
“We’re also talking to daycare centers in the area
with the goal of creating a mayoral-controlled
facility similar to the Bloomberg plan in New York
City. The United Way did a needs assessment for
Stamford and found that daycare is a top need.
We are in talks with Chase Bank about some
foreclosed properties they have on their balance
sheet. Our goal is to have them donate the
property to the city of Stamford and have the
facility managed by a third party.”
START Now! recently formed a subsidiary–
SoldierSocks.com (www.soldiersocks.com). Chris
got the idea from a former Marine staff sergeant
currently serving in Afghanistan. “Lack of water
in the region makes it hard for the soldiers to
shower or clean their socks,“ says Chris. “So, we
partnered with the Athlete’s Foot at Ridgeway
Shopping Center and the Hope Street Pharmacy
to obtain the socks and wipes at cost to send to
the soldiers. We are in talks to get a corporate
sponsor to handle the shipping costs, which are
almost as much as the items we’re sending.”
Chris says that in the first shipment sent in
August, SoldierSocks.com sent 900 pairs of socks
and 29,000 baby wipes. “Twenty dollars gets a
soldier six pairs of tube socks and a case of 704
wipes. That’s all it takes.”
All of which begs the question: If North
Stamfordite Chris Meek is willing to perform all
this work for a beer, what, one wonders, will he
do for a martini?
Photo: Abby jenkins Boal
6
North Stamford News / Fall 2009
North Stamford News /Fall 2009
The Insect Orchestra
by Frank T. LaFauci
By Harriet Gayle
T
he insect orchestra that
plays outside my window
on a warm, late summer night
sure can make a racket. The
balmier the night, the noisier
the players.
Like a symphony orchestra
with its various instrumental
groupings,
this
outdoor
ensemble has sections: the
rasping, the clicking, the
buzzing, the droning, the
chirping, and the twanging sections.
The instruments the insect musicians
play are their own body parts, mostly
wings, sometimes abdomens.
Only the males rasp out their jangle;
the females are silent. Twenty-four
hundred years ago, a male chauvinist
Greek dramatist wrote, “Happy the
cicadas lives, for they have voiceless
wives.” And a good thing, too,
because cicadas emit a shrill hum
that can drive you crazy.
All the commotion serves a primary and
essential function: to attract a female’s
attention. In the dark, noisemaking is an
effective announcement of availability.
Strangely, the female Field Cricket has
her ears in her legs, and the female
Snowy Tree Cricket can’t hear at all. But
when the male Snowy Tree Cricket’s
wings are raised and scraped together
in melodious pulses, he secretes a drop
of sweet-smelling liquid that the female
loves. She pounces on his back and laps
up the nectar, while the male fulfills his
role in creating another generation.
All the sections of the nighttime din
seem to blend together in one highpitched, continuous note, but with careful
listening, you can separate out the parts.
as “wolffia,” it can make a lake
very unappealing even though it
is otherwise completely harmless.
Wolffia is not technically an
algae but the smallest flowering
plant known to exist. It is made
up of tiny floating plants, called
“fronds,” which split to reproduce.
In ideal conditions, they split once
a day, so it is easy to see why this
material spreads so quickly.
In the rasping section, sounding from
treetops, the grasshoppers scrape
their forewings together. Two scrapes
sound like “Katy,” three scrapes like
“Katydid.”
cricket
grasshopper
9
Lakes and Ponds in North Stamford
So, the Longhorned Grasshopper is
sometimes called a katydid. Another
grasshopper, lower down in the
tree, sounds as if someone were
running his fingers over the teeth of
a comb, “Tzeet, tzeet, tzeet.”
The chirping of the Snowy
Tree Cricket can be used as a
thermometer. Count the number
of beats he produces in fifteen
seconds and add forty to the
count. The total number should
approximate the air temperature.
The cooler the air, the fewer the
beats, until cold weather silences
him forever.
Ms. Gayle is a North Stamford
resident who lectures and writes
on natural history topics. She was
a teacher/naturalist at the Stamford
Museum and Nature Center.
water meal. The poison dissipates
rapidly, leaving most of the other
living organisms intact. Although
this is a popular solution, it is not
one that I prefer. Although I use
Sonar when desperate, I feel that
it does not get to the root of the
problem.
Instead, we have installed an
aeration system in our lake.
This consists of six submerged
The two problems we have “diffusers” connected to a central
aving a lake or pond on addressed at Shelter Rock Lake air compressor. The diffusers
your property can be one are the removal of the sediment produce thousands of air bubbles
of the most beautiful elements that accumulates at the
of your property when the water bottom and control of the
is clear and the surface is algae water meal. Removing the
free. But a lake can be a detractor sediment often requires
to your property if surface water more than using rakes
becomes covered in green plant and other tools. Often
material and algae.
it is necessary to hire a
How do you maintain a pond or backhoe operator as the
lake so that fishing, swimming, amount of sediment
and other activities add significant can really build up over
the years, particularly
value to your home?
if there are many trees
If you share your lake with other surrounding the lake.
homeowners, it is essential to get
all the residents to agree on a There is also a potential
program to care for the lake. I took natural alternative. Varithe lead in forming the “Shelter ous products exist that
per minute, which help keep
Rock Lake” cooperative in my break down sediment. Generally the lake healthy by circulating
community and the results have termed “beneficial bacteria,” this the water, leveling out the water
is an organic solution which we
been marvelous.
have not yet put through the temperature, and creating surface
A lake’s health naturally paces but appears to be effective. ripples. In addition, we physically
deteriorates over time, due mostly We will be pursuing this solution remove the water meal from the
surface of the lake with modified
to the annual accumulation of in coming months.
pool skimmers.
sediment at the bottom of the
lake. This is caused mostly by The second problem is caused in For further discussion , please feel
fallen leaves and other organic large part by the first. Water meal free to call me at 203-329-9494.
debris that sink and become food feeds on the nutrients in the water.
The more nutrients, the more Mr. LaFauci lives in North Stamford
sources for algae.
prevalent the water meal. The most with his wife Joelle, and children,
Perhaps the most common common way to annually treat David and Virginia. He sold his
and difficult kind of algae is a water meal is with poisons like accounting firm in 2006 and is
floating surface material called “Sonar,” which is sprayed over the developing a bulletproof fabric.
“water meal.” Formally known
H
The loudest performers
are the crickets. They are
the chirpers. On each of
the male Field Crickets’
forewings is a round, rough
spot and a tiny, toothed file.
When the cricket scrapes
the file over the rough spot,
the wings vibrate and give
off a chirping sound. The
warmer the weather, the
faster the wing movement.
The faster the wing movement,
the louder the sound.
Photos: Fotolia
Photos: Fotolia
4
North Stamford News / Fall 2009
North Stamford News /Fall 2009
B
Thomas A. Lombardo
y the time this newsletter arrives, many of you will have attended our annual Candidates
forums and made your choice for mayor and members of the Stamford Boards of Finance
and Representatives. Fortunately, both candidates for mayor are residents of North Stamford and
members of the North Stamford Association, which means, hopefully, that they will be sensitive
to the issues of our area.
The problems that lie ahead for our new chief executive are daunting, not the least of which
is resolving the water contamination problems caused by a purportedly leaching dumpsite at
Scofieldtown Park. Recent studies have focused attention on nearby properties with polluted
wells, but no one at this point knows the full extent
of the problem or the final solution. How much of
North Stamford’s water supply is contaminated
still must be resolved.
We immediately appointed a committee of
board members with knowledge of the field of
environmental science to assess the problem.
Last fall, after hearing from concerned neighbors,
members of the NSA Board contacted several
experts in the field, met with them, and allocated
up to $15,000 for a study which is currently being
conducted by AECOM, a leading authority in the
field. Its staff will be analyzing data provided
by state and local agencies such as EPA, DEP,
and DOH, and will report back shortly. We will
share the results with you as soon as they become
available.
In the meantime, we are dealing with the many
other issues of concern to residents of North Stamford, including zoning and signage violations,
as well as school and fire department problems. We plan to discuss them in a series of “Hot Topic”
forums to take place in the Spring. We continue to publish our informative newsletter, answer
your phone calls and e-mails, and monitor developments with an eye to retaining the quality of
life that attracted us to the area in the first place.
A few weeks ago, recognizing the budget crunch faced by our local institutions, the NSA donated
$2,000 to the Harry Bennett branch of the Ferguson Library to purchase much-needed books.
I am honored to continue to serve as president of the organization. If you with to contact me
personally, please leave a message at (203) 329-2498 or e-mail me at [email protected].
I
few weeks ago, I collected seventeen
small water bottles and beer cans;
eleven empty cigarette packages; and
filled a large garbage bag with Styrofoam
and paper cups, straws, two t-shirts,
and a pair of men’s jockey shorts along
Mayapple Road Rockrimmon Road. I
continue to pick up trash weekly from
these streets, usually collecting at least
dozens of water bottles, beer cans, and
cigarette packages.
A
ronically, had the owners of the much-disputed luxury
housing development at Lake Windermere on Erskine
Road gone for the conventional two-acre zoning instead of
seeking additional density by means of a cluster zone, they
might have avoided the current real-estate meltdown. The
endless round of hearings and environmental reviews set
off by the use of a controversial communal septic system
delayed construction long enough for the recession to set
in. In the almost two years since construction began, only
three out of 24 houses have been built and none have sold,
despite a recent price reduction of 35 percent.
I’ve noticed, of course, that other streets
in North Stamford are as heavily littered.
Residents of North Stamford should
provide their workmen with receptacles
to throw away the paper goods, beer
cans, and empty cigarette packs (Newport
seems to be the most popular brand) from
their lunches. Joggers and walkers who
carry water bottles should also not throw
the empties on the road but dispose of
them once they return home.
At last Sunday’s open house for realtors, visitors were
greeted by pickets from “Shawn’s Lawns,” which claimed
to be owed close to half a million dollars for services
rendered. In the meantime, despite claims of “green-ness,”
much of the 75-acre property has been clear cut. And,
to add insult to injury, the 25 acres set aside to provide
“open space” (which was an inducement to city boards to
approve the project) until recently bore a sign that said,
“No Trespassing,” until complaints were received and the
sign was removed.
I would prefer that you not include my
name as walkers and joggers may retaliate
adversely.
Renée Kahn
Renée serves on the board of the North Stamford Association.
Anonymous
* Continued from page 3
said, ‘That’s a great idea!’ So, although
ultimately there may be tolls in our future,
especially once the federal stimulus
spending is over, they would be more
intelligently implemented.”
The good news for transportation, says
Scott, is that the additional cars on Metro
North that are overdue are now coming
on line. “In total, we have 360 cars coming
on line at a rate of four to six per month.”
Photo: Abby jenkins Boal
Letter From the President
11
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Photo: Abby Jenkins Boal
2