Thank You Highways & Bridges

On Friday August 24th a good neighbor called in a report of an oil spill on the newly completed section of the RecPath off Oak Valley Lane.

Do these things always have to happen on Friday afternoons?

This generated a flurry of calls with the Conservation Agent, CT DEEP, Shelton Highways & Bridges Department, and a cast of dozens.  Long Story Short it looks like rather than dispose of it legally someone backed up a truck and dumped waste oil, sludge, and crud on the RecPath when they couldn't get past the locked gate.

Because it wasn't an imminent hazard the spot was roped off, and cleaned up by the Shelton Highways & Bridges Department on Monday.  They took away the oil, sludge, and stained dirt for legal disposal.  They came back on Tuesday and filled in the excavated hole with fine processed aggregate (aka crushed stone mix) and re-rolled the RecPath as you can see in the photo below.  The good part is that the public works folks did a fine repair.  The bad part is that they had to put something else off in order to clean up this mess.

A Big THANK YOU to the Highways & Bridges guys - nice job.

It takes a lot of people to take care of miles of trail and thousands of acres of open space.  If you see somebody doing illegal dumping please write down a description of the people, vehicle, license plate, etc. and call the Shelton Police Department at (203) 924-1544.  You help is appreciated.

There is an upcoming Trail Work Party this Saturday, 9/8/12 at 8:30 to do clearing work on the RecPath.  We'll meet at 8:30 at the Pine Lake parking lot on Rt. 108 near downtown.  Bring gloves, water, shovels, tampers, weed whackers, pole saws, and rakes.  We are trying to clean up the RecPath prior to the Grand Opening Celebration on October 6th.  The more the merrier.

The City will be holding the Annual Hazardous Waste Collection Day downtown at the City Garage on October 20, 2012.  You can clean out the old waste oil or paint thinner from your garage or basement legally.  Plan ahead and take advantage of this opportunity, don't dump goo on the trails.