MONROE, Conn. — A red Monroe Public Works truck was parked on the side of Bug Hill Road last Thursday afternoon. Behind it, men wearing baseball caps and orange T-shirts used a road saw to make an even cut across the street in an area marked off with a cone.
“We’re cutting the trench,” Crew Leader Josh Krize explained. “On Monday, we’ll replace the pipe that failed.”
Krize gave an update to First Selectman Terry Rooney, who did a drive through town to see the status of several projects underway this spring.
Rooney said the Public Works project will improve drainage on Bug Hill.
“All the drainage was replaced on Crescent Place,” Krize said of another job, in which pipes were either failing or in need of replacement due to a deteriorating condition.
“Once the pipes are changed, the drainage will be good for a long time,” Rooney said.
Krize said Crescent Place now needs to be repaved, and Public Works Deputy Director Bill Phillips said that work should begin by mid-July.
Extensive drainage work has also been underway on Old Zoar Road.
“It took a while to get a contractor,” Rooney said. “We put it out to bid, but there were no bidders. Eventually, we put it back out to bid and got a contractor who’s getting the drainage done.”
He later showed a marked off area on Sentry Hill Road where drainage work is planned. “We’ll be out soon,” Rooney said.
“The weather’s been great,” Phillips said. “We’ve got a lot accomplished, but are still catching up from over the winter, when curbing was damaged from plowing snow.”
Aquarion Water Co. did utility work on Cross Hill Road and was required to repave half of the street when it finished. Rooney said the town negotiated with the contractor, Burns Construction, to pave the entire road.
“I personally felt it was not right to pave only half the road,” he said. Of the way the road came out, he said, “that’s the quality of paving you want to consistently achieve.”
On Judd Road, work has been going on to replace the bridge near the Easton town line. An orange and white “Bridge Out” sign was set up across the roadway, along with stop and do not enter signs. From what could be seen, among the work that still needs to be done, railings had yet to be installed and the area needed to be repaved.
Nagy Brothers Construction, a Monroe firm, won the bid for the bridge replacement project, agreeing to do it for $1,321,960, a cost fully funded by a Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program (LOTCIP) grant.
Town Engineer James DiMeo said the project was first on the town’s radar in 2020. “There were some scouring concerns,” he had said of erosion under the bridge in a previous interview. “It’s not a true safety concern at the moment, but because it was a joint project between Monroe and Easton, it was prudent to do this work before it became a safety issue.”
Rooney said bollards will be installed at the intersection of Cutlers Farm and Cross Hill roads, by Wolfe Park, for safety, because a car had driven through the intersection in an accident a while back.
Wolfe Park pool building, fields …
The first selectman’s SUV made its way to Wolfe Park on Cutlers Farm Road, where brickwork in front of the pool building was redone. Though an outside contractor was used after it was put out to bid, Rooney said the town saved money by having its DPW do the prep work, so the contractor only had to lay the brick.
“We use our own staff as much as possible to save a lot of money,” Rooney said. “We’re gonna do this walkway and redo the island,” he added of the sidewalk area in front of the pool building. “We want our park amenities to make an impression on the people that use them.”
The pool bathrooms will also be upgraded, Rooney said.
A wood split-rail fence to the left of the pool building will be made into a three-rail fence and continued, according to Rooney.
A sprinkler watered the new field being prepared near the Wolfe’s Den Playground. The field, which has yet to be played on, is now blanketed by a carpet of thick green grass.
“We are anticipating an opening for the next sports season,” Rooney said. “We call it the Field of Dreams. It’s had soil tests and we aerated and over-seeded it multiple times. It looks fantastic. We’re gonna do a grand opening and have people come. We’re waiting until it’s 100 percent, but everybody thinks it’s ready to go.”
“There’s not a weed in this field,” he said. “That’s big without the chemicals used in the 80s and 90s. I think it’s fantastic. The park maintainers have done a great job of getting that done. We need to take some of the pressure off the fields at Great Hollow Lake.”
Rooney took a ride to the Great Hollow Lake side of the park.
“We’re looking into what it will take to dredge and clean the lake,” he said. “We brought some sand in. There’s a big focus by me on these parks.”
Overgrowth on a hill to the left of the Great Hollow Lake driveway has been cut, according to Rooney.
“Wolfe Park is in good shape. Great Hollow needs some love,” he said. “It looks good. We want to make it better.”
The first selectman drove through the camp area. “We went through all the trail systems and cleaned it up. It’s never looked better,” he said.
Rooney stopped by a playing field on the hill behind the pavilion, which showed wear and tear. The field had a baseball diamond and nets for soccer and lacrosse, a sport that has grown in popularity.
“This is an example of a field that’s overused,” he said. “It’s not a lack of maintenance. We used up the land’s minerals. The grass gets pummeled, it dies and clover takes over.”
Housatonic Rail Trail, Judd Road bridge
Work is well underway for the trails project that will connect the Housatonic Valley Rail Trail to the Pequonnock River Trail, completing sections two and three, by extending a 10-foot-wide stone dust trail by approximately 4,600 linear feet, creating an off-road connection from Maple Drive to Wolfe Park.
The trail will extend from the southerly side of an existing pedestrian bridge over the West Pequonnock River — just south of Maple Drive — going north to the public works facility. The trail will continue across Purdy Hill Road and through portions of Wolfe Park, until it reaches the existing segment of trail at the north end of the park entrance drive off Purdy Hill Road.
The project includes installation of the trail, retaining walls, protective fencing, a mid-block crossing at Purdy Hill Road, tree removal to necessitate trail placement and enhancement landscape plantings, including trees, grass restoration and some directional and control signage.
The construction is completely funded by a LOTCIP grant.
Rooney said the crosswalk at the entrance to the beach side of the park on Purdy Hill Road will be heavily marked for drivers.
“For whatever reason, people don’t want to slow down,” he said. “We have to make it very visible. It will be an animal friendly trial. It won’t be a dog park, but you could walk your dog there.”
“We’ve got something going on everywhere in town,” Rooney said of the various projects. “There are a lot of things I wanted to do when I took office. We’re making progress on a lot of it, which makes me happy.”
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