Seen and Heard in Norwalk: Quips, public and private

NORWALK, Conn. – Here are some items of interest that were seen or heard recently in Norwalk:

Life went on without Mayor Alex Knopp

Members of the Common Council Planning Committee (and Councilman Bruce Kimmel) waited to begin their July 15 meeting because Chairman Nick Kydes was late.

There was chit-chat. Councilman Matt Miklave recalled a similar incident.

“I remember when Alex was mayor,” he said. “Fred Bondi started the meeting without him. That went over well.”

After laughing, Councilman Doug Hempstead took charge. Kydes didn’t make the meeting.

No crime in the vehicle, other than a pun

Heard: a conversation in the smaller of the two Mark and Nancy mobiles on Friday, July 19, as it headed south on Connecticut Avenue.

Editor: They should have a cul de sac down Ferris Ave., Wheel Circle. Corner of Ferris and Wheel.

Reporter: That would be cute – OK, maybe I’ll put that in Seen and Heard.

Editor: And having it as a cul de sac and making it Wheel Circle would just be apropos.

Reporter (pulling a forgotten recorder out of a shirt pocket): In fact, I recorded your comment.

Editor: Uh, eavesdropping.

Reporter (laughing): It’s legal when you’re the person in the conversation.

Watch it when you dial that number

Town Clerk Rick McQuaid was having a busy Thursday recently as a reporter sat in his office, looking over campaign financing reports.

He took a phone call from someone who wanted him to perform a wedding. In the process of setting that up, he gave the bride or groom his cell phone number, saying he isn’t always in his office. The number ended in the digits 8882, he said, warning the person on the other end that his wife’s number is only one digit different, 8883.

That would be Alice McQuaid, a divorce attorney.

“Don’t hit the wrong button,” he said. “You’re going one step further than you have to – you want to call 8882, you don’t want to go one up. If you call 8883 you skip the whole process, you go right to the second step.”

Speeding to the beach

On July 11, at 6:47 p.m., this reporter was absent-mindedly going down Calf Pasture Beach Road, when a Norwalk Police cruiser passed her, only to be trapped behind another car in the passing lane, not quite far enough ahead to allow the cruiser to come into the outside lane and squeak by in what is now a sharrow, marked to be shared with bicyclists.

This reporter looked at the speedometer. The little Chapmanmobile was doing 30.

In a few moments, the other vehicle pulled ahead enough to allow enough room for the police cruiser to pull to the right. The police cruiser zipped ahead.

The cruiser went down to the beach, turned around in the break, and came back up the road.

The speed limit on Calf Pasture Beach Road is 25 mph.

Take that BJ’s dirt where it’s needed

On July 11, the Zoning Committee was considering an application to build a BJs Wholesale Club at 272 Main Ave., named as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in 1984, where remediation has been in progress for years. Dirt would be removed from the site in the process of construction, the applicants said.

Commissioner Mike Mushak said there was a possibility that the soil would still contain contaminants, and asked where it would be trucked to.

Commissioner Joe Santo had a suggestion. “Send it to Washington,” he said.

Can’t happen soon enough

At the July 11 Board of Education Curriculum Committee meeting, interim Superintendent Tony Daddona came back into the room after an executive session and sank into his chair with a sigh.

“Three more days,” he said, looking at a teacher, causing laughter with his reference to the imminent arrival of Superintendent Manuel Rivera.

“Don’t you have to be acting superintendent until his certification comes in?” the teacher asked.

“Yes, but it’s different,” he said.