WEST HARTFORD -- What was supposed to be a meeting to inform residents quickly turned into a vent session on the part of angry neighbors who let their frustrations out on officials with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The meeting concerns a the strip of state-owned wooded land that runs along the banks of Trout Brook in West Hartford. DEEP crews have been clearing it in order to dredge the brook to bring it back up to federal standards for flood control. Consequently, a number of trees must be cut down and foliage must be cleared out.
"There are limits of what you can do within the flood way, you can't have large vegetation in the floodway because in a flood it falls over, it causes a dam and causes backup and buildup," said Robert Klee, Commissioner of CT DEEP.
Neighbors agree that the work being done is important, but say DEEP should have done a better job informing them about the changes coming to the wooded property.
"There's noise and visual," said Dick Fair, a neighbor. "You can see the traffic on Trout Brook and you can hear it more so it was a good buffer and now it's gone."
Neighbors were originally furious over the trees being cut down, but now are upset over the process and fate of the cleared out land. The clearing will serve as a staging area for equipment and a dumping ground for the dredged sediment. Once the material dries out, it will be hauled off.
At one point during Wednesday night's meeting in West Hartford Town Hall an environmental representative was forced to sit back down after he was shouted down by neighbors who made it clear they didn't care about the history of why the dredging was necessary in the first place.
"It's more than just trees," said Mary Anne Geertsma of West Hartford. "It's a total disregard of the environment by DEEP and of the residents."
The commissioner apologized to neighbors about the lack of proper notice and has pledged transparency, but also says the work must be done and some trees will have to come down. He added that the cleared land may be turned into a green space for the community once the project is completed.
Similar work is scheduled to begin soon along the waterways in Hartford and Newington.
