Route 123 is closed in the area of the New Canaan Field Club for three weeks. Credit: Michael Dinan
Traffic volume on Canoe Hill Road has tripled from 500 to 1,500 cars daily due to the state’s temporary closure of Route 123 due to a culvert replacement, police said last week.
Officials also are finding that a “significant amount” of motorists are not using the Department of Transportation’s designated detour route on the east side of 123, and are instead using Parade Hill Road, Oenoke Ridge, Lambert Road and Country Club Road on the west side, according to New Canaan Police Deputy Chief John DiFederico.
Newly restored stone steps leading up into the Canoe Hill Cemetery. Credit: Michael Dinan
Perched on a hill off of the east side of Laurel not far from the intersection of Canoe Hill Road, the final resting place of 200-plus New Canaanites including the town’s (and possibly Connecticut’s) last living slave had fallen into disrepair over the years. With little dedicated parking and difficult to access even by foot, given a steep hill and crumbling stone staircase, the .69-acre cemetery grounds were largely covered in weeds and fallen branches, with broken and illegible gravestones scattered about.
Kristen Pace (R) with two of her daughters, Kayleigh and Ashlyn. The family took up a pandemic project in restoring the Canoe Hill Cemetery. Contributed
Route 123 will be closed in both directions next month for about three weeks, officials say.
Though town officials had asked that the work replacing a “box culvert” or bridge near the New Canaan Field Club be put off until next summer, the Connecticut Department of Transportation is moving forward with the work early next month, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“We asked for that to be changed to the summer, and while we had already gotten a delay from them back in November, because they couldn’t detail that they were actually going to finish before winter shutdown, they won’t budge it further,” Mann told members of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure during their regular meeting, held Monday via videoconference.
Louis Cruz. Photo courtesy of the New Canaan Police Department
Louis J. Cruz, of 302 6th Ave., Apt. 306, was charged with possession of burglar tools, third-degree criminal trespass, second-degree larceny, third-degree larceny, two counts of sixth-degree larceny, two counts of interfering with an officer and three counts of evading responsibility.
At about 4:46 a.m. on Jan. 27, officers were dispatched to Urban Street on a report of two men entering and searching vehicles on the street, according to police.
The men were operating a red vehicle with a loud exhaust, according to a police report. Responding officers saw the vehicle an older model Subaru with New Jersey plates driving northbound on Smith Ridge Road, the report said. Authorities later determined that the vehicle had itself been stolen out of New Jersey earlier in the night, it said.
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A 30-year-old man was arrested for burglarizing vehicles in Fairfield County, as well as stealing a BMW and later crashing it.
Lous Cruz, of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 27, after New Canaan Police were dispatched to the area of Urban Street on a report of two males entering and searching through vehicles on the street, said Lieutenant Jason Ferraro.
It was reported that the two suspects were operating a red vehicle with a loud exhaust.
Responding officers arrived in the area and the vehicle was spotted driving north on Smith Ridge Road bearing a New Jersey registration plate.