Newtown Not Asking Enough Questions

To the Editor:

Our town government is not asking the DOT enough questions about the Hawleyville transfer facility for food that has been proposed by the DOT and the Housatonic RR Co. Nor is the town government considering the consequences that it might face if this pilot project is successful. The projection for the number of trains  mentioned in The Bee’s article is merely for the pilot project and not for a full-scale operation.

Why hasn’t the town questioned the DOT about its project summary (Project #0096-0187) in which the project manager of this project has not been a DOT employee for approximately 2-3 years – and who is the project manager now? The project summary has no plan, and it should have one. In fact, the Housatonic RR  has no plans, schedule, maps, or projections for this terminal.

Will this transfer facility mushroom like the lumber station, which now produces 30 tractor trailer trucks per day?

Has the town thought about accidents on I-84 and the DOT’s upcoming reconstruction of I-84, which will surely cause traffic tie-ups? With traffic jams on I-84, the drivers of the trucks from the terminal and lumberyard will undoubtedly bypass 84 and use Route 6 to Danbury via Bethel or Route 25 to Brookfield and most assuredly Route 25 through the center of Newtown via Main Street.

Why did our town work so hard to get the bypass road (Wasserman Way) constructed to alleviate heavy truck traffic in the center of town only to chance having heavy truck traffic happen again?

How much noise and disruption will the residents along the railroad from Hawleyville to Botsford experience as freight cars are shuffled back and forth?

Why isn’t the town insisting that the DOT construct railroad crossing gates to insure safety?

Will this transfer station be the demise of the Hawleyville plan that the state, HUCEO, and our town worked so arduously to produce and which as been amended to our Newtown Plan of Development?

Has anyone discussed the potential spillage of food products and rodents?

Does the town really think that this terminal will be in just Hawleyville’s backyard when it will actually affect a goodly portion of our town with traffic and noise if it becomes a full-scale operation?

Penny Meek

40 Butterfield Road, Newtown                                    August 16, 2000