The Old Lyme-Valley football team trounced Haddam-Killingworth 49-7 to win the Principal’s Cup and complete their second sequential unbeaten season.
Congratulations, Warriors … and now on to the play-offs!
Click here to read a full report by Ned Griffen and published in The Day today or this article on GameTimeCT.com by Jimmy Zanor: Football: Valley Regional/Old Lyme caps perfect regular season or view video footage of the game by Tim Devlin.
Beavers are causing a bit of bother in Essex.
There’s a small storm brewing in our near-neighbor Essex about – of all things – beavers! The Essex Conservation Commission voted unanimously at a Nov. 6 meeting to pursue the possible lethal trapping of beavers in a pond at Viney Brook Park. The proposed trapping, which would be carried out by a state licensed trapper who had worked with the commission previously, has drawn an outcry from Essex residents.
As a result of complaints to the Essex Board of Selectmen, the conservation commission will now discuss the trapping at its next regular meeting on Dec. 4. The meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall.
Click here to read our sister online newspaper ValleyNewsNow.com, which is packed with Letters to the Editor on the subject.
Someone once said: “Judge me by my actions, not my words.” So let’s do just that, comparing recent rhetoric to reality when it comes to Metro-North.
EXPANDED SERVICE: During the election campaign much was made of a promised expansion of off-peak train service, growing from one train an hour to two. But when the new timetable came out Nov. 9, riders found that the 14 newly added weekday trains don’t stop at five stations: Southport, Greens Farms, East Norwalk, Rowayton and Noroton Heights.
Despite pleas from the CT Commuter Rail Council, the Connecticut Department of Transportation chose to skip those stations to save 10 minutes’ running time between New Haven and Grand Central Station. There was never an expectation that the new trains would be semi-express, just a promise of expanded service. What happened?
ADEQUATE SEATING: Though we now have more rail cars than ever before, thanks to delivery of the new M8s, many trains still don’t have seats for every passenger. The railroad’s own “Passenger Pledge” promises every effort to provide adequate seating, and Metro-North’s statistics claim that 99.6% of all trains have enough cars. So why the standees?
ON TIME PERFORMANCE: Yes, safety should always come first. But October saw only 86.7% of trains arrive “on time” (defined as up to six minutes late). In the morning rush hour, On Time Performance was only 82%. And this is despite three timetable changes since the spring, lengthening scheduled running times to reflect new Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) speed restrictions. They keep moving the ‘target’ and still can’t get a bulls-eye.
SAFETY: After taking its lickings from the Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, Metro-North has proclaimed it’s a new day at the railroad, that a new “culture of safety” is ingrained in its employees. But in early November, a collision was avoided by seconds after track crews erected bridge plates in front of an oncoming train at Noroton Heights. And there have been at least three incidents of conductors opening train doors that were off the platform where commuters could have fallen and been injured.
RELIABLE SERVICE: The new M8 cars are performing well. But diesel push-pull service on the Danbury and Waterbury branch lines has been unreliable. September saw several locomotive fires and break-downs, stranding passengers or forcing “bustitutions” (bus substitutions).
COURTEOUS EMPLOYEES: Most Metro-North staff do a great job under often-times difficult circumstances. But there are clearly some employees who either hate their jobs, their customers or both. Hardly a week goes by without The Commuter Action Group hearing complaints about surly conductors snapping at passengers. Yet it’s hard to complain because these staffers violate railroad rules requiring them always to wear their name badges.
It’s been a year since a sleepy engineer drove a train off the tracks in the Bronx, killing four and injuring 70. As Metro-North President Joe Giulietti himself acknowledged, the railroad has lost the trust of its customers. Rebuilding goodwill, like the infrastructure, will take years.
Jim Cameron
JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 23 years. He is the founder of the Commuter Action Group and also serves on the Darien RTM. The opinions expressed in this column are only his own. You can reach him at CommuterActionGroup@gmail.com For a full collection of “Talking Transportation” columns, see www.talkingtransportation.blogspot.com
Richard Taylor Blair, 85, died on Nov. 19 of complications from a stroke. The son of Vernon R. Blair and Sara Taylor, he grew up in White Plains, N.Y. and graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1950. He was married to the former Diana Nebauer for 58 years. They lived in Armonk, N.Y. for 30 years where they raised their family and pioneered the local recycling program. Following in his father’s footsteps, Richard was a sales representative for the Heywood-Wakefield Co. and later became an independent rep. for various furniture manufacturers.
In 1991, he and his wife moved to Old Lyme where he had an active retirement. Richard shared his loved of the out of doors with his family and continued to grow a large vegetable garden and fish with friends on Long Island Sound in his boat. At the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, he and his wife started an environment committee and he also served as a deacon there. In his eighties, inspired by his love of music, he joined the church choir and took private singing lessons. He was also the treasurer of the Old Lyme Land Trust for two terms. Richard was an accomplished duplicate bridge player, well known in local bridge circles.
He is survived by his wife, two children, Linda Sargent and James Blair and their spouses, John Sargent and Joanne Blair, two grandchildren, Sara and Eric Sargent and his mother-in-law Evelyn Nebauer.
He will be missed by his loving family and his many friends. He was a man of integrity and lived his life with great appreciation, generosity of spirit, love and enthusiasm. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Old Lyme Land Trust, Box 163 or the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, music fund, 2 Ferry Road, Old Lyme, CT 06371 or The American Chestnut Foundation at www.ACF.org. There will be a memorial service at the church on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 2 p.m.
A kind reader has told us that he has become aware of a cat (see photo at left) hanging around his home at 382 Hamburg Rd. in Lyme for the past few days.
The cat is a black and gray tabby, friendly, and looks healthy.
Contact robkan@sbcglobal.net for more information.