Town Sanitarian Steps Down After 11 Years

By Jan Howard

Martha Wright is looking forward to a part-time job, travel with her husband, and more time with her grandchildren when she steps down from her position as Newtown’s senior sanitarian on Friday, October 15.

As of October 14, she has been an employee of the town for 11 years. The position in Newtown was her first full-time job. She was appointed as senior sanitarian in 1994.

“It’s time to leave. I don’t have time enough to take trips with my husband,” Mrs Wright said this week. “I want to see more of my grandchildren.”

 Mrs Wright and her husband, James, a retired pilot, are planning a trip soon to see one of their daughters. They have four adult children, Kathryn, 38; Christa, 37; Robert, 36; and Kary Ann, 32; and three grandchildren.

Mrs Wright went to college when her youngest child was in high school. She earned a bachelor’s degree in geology in 1988 and a master’s in oceanography and limnology in 1994 from Western Connecticut State University.

Originally from Tennessee, she has been a resident of Newtown since 1965.

Mrs Wright has seen many changes in her 34 years in Newtown, but the biggest change is in the number of houses being built, she said.

“I live on a dirt road. Cows used to get out and run down the road,” Mrs Wright said. Now, she added, Mercedes and Jaguars run down the roads because the farms have become housing developments.

There have been changes in her job, also. “The rules and regulations are being clarified and expanded to assist us and developers,” she said.

 She loves her work because of its diversity. “There’s something new all the time,” she noted. She intends to seek a part-time position in the same field.

 Her position involves fieldwork, review of plans, collecting water for analysis, studies, gathering data for the state, and other duties.

“Originally I took the job hoping I could make a difference. I hope I have,” she said.

There is something left undone by the town that Mrs Wright feels strongly about, however: the town has not as yet adopted an ordinance addressing underground oil storage tanks. The ordinance should call for removal of an oil tank after a certain number of years, she said.

Mrs Wright and other town employees have been researching the topic for several years. “I’ve gone through several ordinance committees, but it has never come to pass,” she said.

“Our putting forward the case of leaking oil tanks has gotten more people to remove them,” she said. “People should get them out before they become a problem. The longer you let it go the more potential there is for oil to end up in someone’s well.”

She said without an ordinance there isn’t much that can be done. “Testing was inconclusive,” she noted. “It didn’t seem to be the answer.”

She said homebuyers or banks sometimes require removal of an underground fuel tank during real estate transactions. She pointed out that the state has set up a fund to help people remove leaking oil tanks.

 Mrs Wright said she chose her profession because she wanted to protect water. “You have to make people aware that clean water is something you have to work hard to keep,” she said.

Meanwhile, while she hopes to continue to do that in a part-time position, she will also be enjoying more free time.

 She is looking forward to a future trip to England with her husband, spending more time with her children and grandchildren, carving porcelain creations, and hiking. A woman of many talents, she said she might also do some sail plane piloting, which she has done in the past, as well as go back to school, adding, “I like to do things that are interesting.”