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Village Trustee Matt Hartzog showing members of the Millerton community the Tighe & Bond map of Century Boulevard.
Photo by Colleen Flynn
MILLERTON — On Saturday, Feb. 1, a public information meeting was held to discuss the “complete street” plan for Century Boulevard.
Village of Millerton trustees Matthew Hartzog and David Sherman have been involved with the preparation of forming the new look along Century Boulevard.
“Matt Hartzog and I have been involved in relative to those boards and work that we do to see what we can do with Century Boulevard,” said Sherman, “We realize that in order to proceed into the future, we really need to have a good plan that everyone, most everyone, likes.”
The Village of Millerton is working with Tighe & Bond for this project, an engineering, landscape architecture, planning and environmental science consultant company.
Brandee Nelson, Vice-President at Tighe & Bond, ran the meeting with a presentation including renderings of what the Boulevard could potentially look like with their plans, as well as taking advice from local residents.
“I myself am a civil engineer with a land use planning and development background, and we’re here today to start a conversation,” said Nelson, “We’re here to talk about the community’s vision for Century Boulevard.”
According to Sherman, the Village has received funding from the Berkshire Taconic Northeast Dutchess Fund and from Hudson River Valley Greenway in their community planning funds, which will go toward the cost of this street renovation.
“From the 2018 Millerton Pedestrian Plan, one of the future projects in that plan was to re-envision Century Boulevard and make it a complete street,” Nelson said. “A complete street is serving a variety of needs to the community. There’s pedestrian movement along that street. We know we have limited sidewalks out here, parking, trees, perhaps lighting, perhaps stormwater management, there could be a lot of different things in a complete street.”
Nelson noted the importance of parking on Century Boulevard and how this plan can help pedestrians get to the shops in the Village safely. She also said planners need to lay out a certain number of handicap accessibility spots, electric vehicle chargers and also provide a crosswalk in their “complete street.”
Century Boulevard’s width ranges from 70 feet to 93 feet, which surpasses the average street width of 50 feet, according to Nelson. Though the extra room allows more offerings to be installed, keeping up with that much pavement can be continually costly.
“We want to think, ‘Can we accommodate some green space there? How can we allocate this space in a way that is economical for operation and maintenance in the future?’” Nelson said. “Look how big that paved area is and that it doesn’t have any kind of organizational framework. There’s no striping. Not even a center line striping ... The day we were down here, people were kind of parked everywhere, and they were parked at different depths. We should think about how we can organize a little bit better.”
A concerned resident brought up an issue of tractor trailers going in and out of Harrington’s.
“That’s why it’s 90 [feet wide] there, to make that turn. When they come in, they sit there until they can back in,” the resident said. “There’s nobody to back them in and there’s a car behind them, they have to wait until someone comes out to help.”
After a handful of community members agreed with this worry, Nelson expressed an interest in reaching out to Harrington’s specifically to help in finding a solution.
“We are going to take the information that you’ve shared with us today and go back and develop two concept plans for the complete street,” Nelson said. “We will come back and hold a second meeting, and we are hoping to do that in early March time frame, where we will take more feedback from that.”
After the second public information meeting, they will turn the community’s ideas into a preferred plan to present to the Village board, which is planned for April. This will show the specific cost plans and the ballpark of the low and high cost production.
“We’re not talking about changing the street in the next two years,” said Nelson. “We’re probably about changing the street in the next five years, if we are successful in getting the grant funds.”
The meeting ended with a table exercise of residents and community members writing on maps of the street, stating how they use the area or what they would like to see in the future.
“Feel free to mark them up,” Nelson said. “I’m happy to take notes from anyone who’s got thoughts on how this road can be used better.”
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Robert G. Grandell
Feb 01, 2025
CANAAN — Robert G. Grandell, 81, of Canaan, passed away peacefully on Jan. 29, 2025.
Robert was born in Waterbury, on Aug. 29, 1943, the son of Isabella (Brickett) and Art Perkins. He married Janet (Van Deusen) on June 27, 1964.
Bob worked at various factories throughout his career, retiring from Electric Motion Co., Winsted, in 2005. He enjoyed coaching Little League baseball and junior bowling. He also liked to watch the UConn Women’s Basketball team and the Green Bay Packers.
He and Janet liked to go on bus trips and vacation in Lake George, New York.
Bob is survived by two sons; Gary and his wife Laurie of Canaan, Dennis and his wife Carolyn of New Hartford, one sister; Anna Mae MacNeil of Arizona, one brother; Bill Perkins and his wife Candace of Torrington, and six grandchildren.
Bob is predeceased by his parents and two sisters, Joan Parsons and Eleanor Gurney.
Calling hours will be held on Sunday, Feb. 2 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at The Kenny Funeral Home, Sharon. All other services are private.
Memorial contributions may be made to the North Canaan Ambulance, 15 East Main St., Canaan, CT 06018 or to the North Canaan Volunteer Fire Department, 4 East Main St., Canaan, CT 06018.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.
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Jan 30, 2025
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The Millerton News
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Frozen fun in Lakeville
Jan 29, 2025
Hot-tub style approach with a sledge-hammer assist at the lake.
Alec Linden
While the chill of recent weeks has driven many Northwest Corner residents inside and their energy bills up, others have taken advantage of the extended cold by practicing some of our region’s most treasured — and increasingly rare — pastimes: ice sports.
I am one of those who goes out rather than in when the mercury drops: a one-time Peewee and Bantam league hockey player turned pond hockey enthusiast turned general ice lover. In the winter, my 12 year-old hockey skates never leave my trunk, on the chance I’ll pass some gleaming stretch of black ice on a roadside pond.
Last winter, when ice was hard to come by, was a massive disappointment for me, as it was for the other ice-obsessed among us. I was delighted, then, when I arrived at Lake Wononscopomuc on a comparatively balmy (26°F) Saturday afternoon to find recreators strolling, skating, fishing and fat-biking across the frozen expanse of its surface.
Grabbing my camera and stepping out onto the ice with the intention of chatting with some of the merry-makers, I gauged the uneven — but passable — surface below my feet and decided to run to the car and switch my boots with skates.
The going was rough at times, contending with intermittent snow layers and slush crusts, but even so the skates were vastly more efficient than my boots as I made my way from group to group.
I stopped to chat with David Bain, who was just starting to set up his fishing station after getting a late start. I asked him the depth under the hole he had just drilled, and he said it was about five feet, despite being 200 yards from shore on the deepest natural lake in Connecticut.
He explained that he had situated himself over a weed bed, and was hoping to catch some brown trout lurking off its shelf. A Norfolk resident, he said he was glad the ice was back after a season or two without it. He said the last time he had fished out on Wononscopomuc’s ice – 2023, he reckoned — he had caught two sizeable brown trout (about 10 and 8 pounds) within 15 minutes of each other at a spot just yards away from this one. I wished him luck for a similar outcome, and skated off to some distant figures hunkered over their ice drills.
I found Kyle Carso of Glastonbury and Andy Sabetta of Berlin, who are long time fishing friends, huddling over their holes as they hoped for a bite. They had been moving around the lake since 7 a.m., and had only pulled up a couple of perch so far, Carso said. Echoing Bain, Carso told me that Wononscopomuc is known for big brown trout though, and the duo had proof: Sabetta had caught a 14-pounder in June.
Carso said he was grateful for the ice conditions this season, which have been difficult to come by in several recent years. He said the ice was generally solid, about eight inches in most places, but encouraged caution as they had found some variability in the holes they drilled, with some spots thinner than others.
Brothers Eamon and John McNiff, who I found with beers in hand just offshore of Eamon’s lakefront property, similarly urged caution for those looking to explore the ice. He said that the frozen lake provides a valuable wealth of recreation, made more special by its seasonal transience – “as long as you’re being smart about it.” With the right caution, though, he said time spent on the ice is “magical.”
The kids get to skate around the lake – close to shore, he specified – and for the adults? “There’s nothing better than an ice beer.”
His brother John had just fat biked — essentially a mountain bike with huge, deeply treaded tires for traction on snow and ice — across the lake from his own property on the other side. Upon arriving at Eamon’s house, he slipped out and sprawled on the ice, pulling a muscle in the process. He said he was better now, though, enjoying a “recuperation beer” provided by his brother.
My final stop of the afternoon found a different type of cold-weather health practice — hanging out hot-tub style in a sledge-hammered hole in the ice. Danny Tieger and Tyler Spofford, both local to the area, are avid cold water swimmers they explained, and try to submerge themselves a few times a week during the winter months.
Tieger said that taking regular cold dips has been transformational after starting about five years ago: “It changed my relationship with my health and brain.”
The two stayed in the water, with apparent calm, for a remarkably long time. Spofford said that once you get over the shock, the water can actually feel a bit warmer than the air, because it actually is at about 34°F compared to the air temperature in the mid 20s.
As they finally climbed out and did some post-dip exercises, I looked out over the lake, dim silhouettes of anglers and fat bikers speckling the white expanse in the soft blue light of the late afternoon. Pulling off my skates for the day with numb and fumbling fingers, I felt grateful for the ice and the unique joy it brings to an oft-maligned season.
With cold weather growing less consistent with each passing winter, days like these can feel a little melancholic and fragile, as if those of us who take to the ice are salvaging for something already almost in the past. Perhaps we are, but it comforted me to be in good company as I scanned the lake’s surface for the last few hold-outs as the clock neared five. If it freezes, we will come.
Any lake ice recreation is inherently dangerous as the ice can be inconsistent. Anyone venturing out onto the ice must consult experts before doing so and follow town guidance.
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