P.O. Box 381
Norwalk, CT 06852-0381

Board of Directors:

Board@WestNorwalk.org

Joel Zaremby
President
6 Old Rock Lane
838-7194
jzaremby@westnorwalk.org

Bob Wagman
Vice President
36 Morehouse Lane
852-9332
bwagman@westnorwalk.org

Galen Wells
Secretary
224 West Norwalk Road
866-9045
gwells@westnorwalk.org

Linda Forcellina
Treasurer
6 Betmarlea Road
838-3444
jforcellina@westnorwalk.org

Chris Potts
Corresponding Secretary
73 Nursery Street
847-5824
cpotts@westnorwalk.org

Candide Valadares
6 Styles Lane
858-2233
cvaladares@westnorwalk.org

Regina Krummel
21 Little Fox Lane
853-7147
rkrummel@westnorwalk.org

Ron Brown
89 W. Norwalk Rd.
Norwalk, CT 06850
853-4822
rbrown@westnorwalk.org

Jeff Danziger
282 Richards Avenue
Norwalk, CT 06850
203-838-6701
jdanziger@westnorwalk.org

Ron Paladino
14 Redcoat Road
Norwalk, CT 06850
203-849-9150
rpaladino@westnorwalk.org

Martin O’Connell
12 Coachmans Court
Norwalk, CT 06850
847-9824
moconnell@westnorwalk.org

Margaret Karl
19 Betmarlea Rd.
Norwalk, CT 06850
838-0770
No e-mail

Please Support Our Sponsors

Rent the West Norwalk Meeting House for your event. For information contact Kate Johnson – 838-3871. With the new interior renovation, new furnace, ample room for a band and group of 65, complete kitchen facility, this is the perfect place to host your next party or event. Parking along West Norwalk Road has never posed a problem to neighbors or the city. Your rental will help support the preservation of this historic gem in West Norwalk.Work we are hoping to start:Exterior painting/Window and door restoration. Donations needed and welcome: West Norwalk Meeting House Society c/o Thomas Aikenhead 82 Ledgebrook Drive, Norwalk, CT 06854

Autumn 2009 Newsletter

A Letter from the President

Happy Autumn Westnorwalkers! Two exciting events coming up!

#1-Our Annual Meeting at Dolce on October 18th, 3-6pm. Come hear Chief McCarthy discuss fire safety issues in West Norwalk and meet other city officials as well as those running for office this November.

#2-Our Annual Holiday Party at Dolce on December 15th, 6:30-9pm. Please reserve these dates for the WNA, we encourage everyone to attend both events.

We desperately need new Board Members! 5 of the 10 Board Members have reached term limits per our by-laws, including me, so We Need You!

Happily at the Sept.21st meeting we did welcome and voted to the Board Linda Forcellina, Ron Brown, and Jeff Danziger. Nominations for Board Officers will be announced at the Annual Meeting. Any interested members for these positions should make their nominations known to Jim Forcellina (see contact info to left). It has been an honor and pleasure to work with all of you these past 6 years and I will continue to volunteer my time. I encourage you to do the same. See you on October 18th!

Sincerely,
Peggy Yff

BOARD MEMBERS NEEDED

The West Norwalk Association was formed in 1947 to serve the West Norwalk community in preserving the quality of suburban life as Norwalk moved into an urban setting. Over the years, the Association has maintained a vigilant overview of the urbanization process and has represented the community in trying to maintain a balance between progress and blatant commercialization. Our interactions with the various city agencies have proven valuable as indicated by the continued upgrading of our roads and maintenance of the various garden areas of the community. The Board of Directors is the major impetus to the monitoring of those affairs that directly affect the West Norwalk Community.

In order to assure that the business of the West Norwalk Association can continue to move forward with new people and new ideas, the by-laws of the Association were formulated to limit board members terms of service. As a result, at the end of this session, September, 2009, 50% of the current board will leave office. Thus, this note to ask you to consider joining the Board. With some 1400 families in the West Norwalk area, surely there are some of you who could donate your time, expertise, and experience to the Board. The Board meetings are usually held once a month on the first Monday in the evening. The time commitment is small but the satisfaction can be extraordinary. Please consider becoming a Board member by calling any of the current Board members and indicating your willingness to join.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Submitted by Bob Wagman

I attended a meeting of the Darien RTM to listen to a presentation of the report prepared by Milone and MacBroom, the consultants hired by the town to study their flooding issue. Copies of the report were not available so I can only comment
on what I think I heard; furthermore, my understanding of the details was somewhat compromised because I’m not familiar with the streets and the areas of town that were frequently cited. Nevertheless, here’s what I understood:

The total cost for implementing all recommendations could be about $15 million, not chump change for any small municipality. Furthermore, the topography doesn’t lend itself to totally satisfactory remediation. According to the consultant, a reduction in water level of 1-2 feet is about all that might be expected; they had hoped for a greater reduction. Many good questions were asked by both RTM members and citizens; many of them had to do with the potential benefits of selecting only portions of the plan that might offer the most benefit. Of interest was that no time limit was placed on any of the questioners nor was there any limit on the number of questions that could be asked.

The town has established a flood mitigation team consisting of RTM members and private citizens. The team was charged with the task of reviewing the report and providing recommendations. West Norwalkers proposed a similar team at our town meeting at the Meeting House in November 2007. According to The Hour in an article on the following day,“We’re going to sit down with Bob (Wagman) and the conservation commissioners and see what we can do to come up with an acceptable plan to correct the situation,” Moccia said. “We need a coordinated effort. We don’t want to do it piecemeal.” That meeting has yet to take place.

Darien is considering the establishment of a public-private partnership to address repairs to some private properties. No decision has been reached but it is on the table.

The consultant commented on silting, a normal occurrence in any river but which is exacerbated by such human interventions as road sand and removal of pervious surfaces such as new roads and other construction. Over time, tons of silt consisting of anything from small pebbles to larger rocks and back to small particles which cause a muddy, brown appearance after storms. Failure to remove silt periodically is what causes wetlands. Continued reluctance of Norwalk’s administration to address this issue may one day enable us to replace our “Welcome to West Norwalk” signs with“Welcome to the Five Mile Wetlands.”

5 Mile River Watershed Study

On August 25th the WNA sent the following email letter to Mayor Moccia:
We have been aware for some time that a draft of the watershed study for the 5 Mile river commissioned by New Canaan was presented on April 30th by Milone and McBroome. This was confirmed in a discussion with Jim McBroome. According to Jim, the report was sent back for editing which will take a couple of months. He would not disclose anything in the report and NC has not offered any details either. I know that you are counting on the details of this report to be of benefit to Norwalk but have you heard anything that you'd care to share?

Within 5 minutes the Mayor responded that he had not heard anything yet and would check with New Canaan. The WNA will continue to follow up on the results of this study.

OUR MISSION AND THE COST($)

Submitted by The West Norwalk Board of Directors The West Norwalk Association’s mission is to maintain the quality of life in the geographical area know as West Norwalk. Concerns of overdevelopment in our area and, indeed in all of Norwalk are:

• Flooding
• Green space and sidewalks
• Traffic
• Schools’ staffing and overcrowding
• The city’s infrastructure
• Zoning regulations and enforcement
• The city’s master plan for the next 20 years
• Road paving
• Future development of the Norwalk Community College
• Oak Hills and its impact on our area

Over the next decade, developers have close to 1000 condos, retail, and commercial ventures planned. We, the West Norwalk Association, need to play a major role in part of the planning process because it will surely impact on the quality of life in our area.

The Board of Directors currently interacts with the various city agencies about these projects and will need to continue to monitor future events. As the voice of West Norwalk, the Board will continue its vigilant pursuit of items of interest and concern to the residents of West Norwalk. To do this requires money so that we can maintain an open communication with the residents. We cannot solely rely on the Internet to contact you. Thus, periodic mailings are necessary for information haring. It costs about $600 to send out one mailing to all of the 1400 residents of West Norwalk. Currently, only 168 families have paid their 2009 dues.

We need your financial support! Please complete the 2009 application form in this newsletter and mail it in as indicated.

PONUS JHS STUDENTS RECEIVE AWARDS

At its June 16th meeting, The Board of Education announced the winners of the Connecticut Association of Schools’ annual awards. These awards are granted to
two graduating students from each of the middle schools for excellence in scholarship and leadership. We were pleased to learn that the winners from Ponus
Junior High school were two West Norwalk residents, Lauren D’Arinzo from Morehouse Lane and John Vincent from Huckleberry Lane. Congratulations to both of them for their outstanding achievement and we wish them good luck and continuing outstanding performance in high school and beyond.

Norwalk Tree Advisory Committee Donates Tree to WNA

Submitted by Gay Mac Leod

On the corner of Scribner and Richard's Avenue, a new tree Cornus kousa (Dogwood) has been staked and planted in the field. It has been donated by the Norwalk Tree Advisory Committee. In addition, the city has been approached by the AJ Landscape Company asking if they could adopt this field. The company will follow all city guide lines for signage. The West Norwalk Association will see the ideas for the landscaping, before it is implemented. This represents the continued efforts of the WNA to continue to keep our area green and beautiful.

RESULTS OF THE WEST NORWALK ASSOCIATION SPRING SURVEY

Submitted by Chris Potts

Earlier this year the WNA distributed a survey to the members by email. (NOTE: if you did not receive a survey it is because WNA does not have your current email address. We will be very happy to add your email address to our list. All you have to do is email us at board@westnorwalk.org) The survey results will be combined with those from other neighborhood organizations by the Coalition of Norwalk Neighborhood Associations (CNNA) and presented to Norwalk’s Redevelopment Agency. The Agency will take this information into consideration as it works with the Planning Commission to craft Norwalk’s next Plan of Conservation and Development, also known as the “Master Plan”. The West Norwalk Association is proud to have set the example that prompted the CNNA to ask the other neighborhood associations to conduct similar surveys of their members. Before too much more time passes, the WNA wants to let you, the members, know the results of the survey in West Norwalk and the preliminary results from the surveys of Norwalk’s other neighborhoods. We were pleased to receive a 12% response rate, which is several times the usual rate for surveys of this kind. The response rate reflects the keen interest we West Norwalkers take in our neighborhood. It will probably come as no surprise that the top areas of concern in West Norwalk are (in this order):

• Flooding
• Traffic (eg. Speeding)
• Green space and Sidewalks

We also were made aware of other concerns, such as the absence of fire hydrants throughout West Norwalk and how that might affect Norwalk's ability to fight fires in our area.

The WNA presented these results to the Coalition of Norwalk Neighborhood Associations (CNNA). It turned out that West Norwalk was the only neighborhood association to ask for its members' opinions. On seeing our report, the CNNA decided to have each of the other neighborhood associations conduct similar surveys. For complete survey results please visit www.westnorwalk.org