Crossing guard says drivers continue to flout law

NORTH CANAAN — Town officials have begun addressing traffic problems in and near North Canaan Elementary School grounds.Among the issues is a significant number of drivers going the wrong way during arrival and dismissal times, when Pease Street is designated as a one-way street.A messy situation has long existed there that combines a difficult intersection and crosswalk with drivers (including parents and school staff) who seem unwilling or unable to follow the designated protocols. The potential hazards were called to the board’s attention when crossing guard Don Caranci was moved to the corner. He’d been assigned to a different corner, in the center of town, but was moved closer to the school when that crosswalk was “eliminated.” He has pointed out the problems and pushed for a solution.North Canaan Principal Rosemary Keilty reported to the school board May 12 that traffic issues are being addressed with new signage purchased by the town, including school zone and one-way signs.The selectmen rejected a recommendation by the school board’s transportation committee for an engineering study to determine if there is a better approach there, such as making the one-way designation full time.“The Board of Selectmen is not going to spend the money on an engineering study,” Keilty said. “But they are going to look at other options, such as lighting. The board and the resident trooper agreed that the crossing guard hours there should advance by 15 minutes. But since there is so little of the school year left, that probably won’t start until the fall.”Meanwhile, Caranci said an effort by the school and media toward awareness of the dangerous things drivers and pedestrians do has had an uneven effect. Resident State Trooper Jim Promotico has monitored the situation several times.When the trooper is there, Caranci said, the situation improves considerably. When he’s not, things return to chaos. He added that it has become clear to him that it’s not about people being unaware of the rules. For instance, wrong-way drivers turned around by the trooper one day have been coming back the next day to commit the same offense.He also said that some teachers and school staff continue to create their own parking spaces in traffic lanes in the Town Hall parking lot; drivers continue to ignore stop signs and the speed limit; and pedestrians continue to jaywalk.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less