Date: Fri 25-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Housatonic-bridge-protest

Full Text:

GENNEWS

Residents Take To The River

To Protest State Bridge Plans

People in boats, tubes, and rafts took to the Housatonic River below the

Stevenson Dam last Sunday to demonstrate their concern about the possibility

of state construction of a bridge across the river.

MONROE - On August 20, about 100 people assembled for a "float" on the

Housatonic River to publicize their opposition to the possible construction of

a new bridge in a new location to replace the bridge atop Stevenson Dam.

"It went great," said Oxford resident Richard Kopf. Mr Kopf has been

spearheading efforts to have the bridge atop the dam remain in use. He is the

spokesman for the ad hoc group known as Concverned Citizens for the

Preservation of the Housatonic River Basin.

Participants in non-motorized watercraft, such as rafts, canoes, and inner

tubes, floated two miles downriver from the dam to the Seymour town beach.

The Seymour Dive/Rescue Team, a unit of the Seymour Police Department,

monitored and escorted the floaters with rescue craft.

Mr Kopf said the event raised approximately $1,000 in donations for the

citizens group's campaign to prevent the state from constructing a bridge

elsewhere.

Mr Kopf said the group hopes to talk to high officials at the state

Departrment of Transportation to make its case for having the bridge atop the

dam continue as Route 34's Housatonic River crossing.

The ad hoc group believes that building a new bridge at a new location would

be too expensive, would result in traffic safety problems, and would pose

environmental hazards. The citizens group wants the state reconstruct and

improve the existing bridge atop the dam.

The DOT has been studying building a new bridge either upriver of the dam or

downriver of it, renovating the existing bridge or possibly building a new

bridge atop the dam. DOT officials have said they would like a new bridge in

use by the year 2000.