Home Care In Tariffville, CT

The town is awaiting FEMA to update its flood plain maps to see if the proposed site in Tarriffville is now longer in a flood area.

Patch Staff

SIMSBURY, CT — The town's recreation department is in a pickle ... make that a pickleball pickle regarding a planned expansion this year of pickleball court offerings.

And, as a result, local officials say they will have to postpone plans to add pickleball courts at Tariffville Park this season.

The situation came out of the Simsbury Board of Selectmen's budget workshop meeting March 11, as Simsbury Culture, Parks and Recreation Director Tom Tyburski spoke before selectmen to discuss budgetary requests for next fiscal year.

During those talks, the pickleball pickle came about.

Pickleball is the popular variant of tennis that is played on a smaller court using specially-made paddles for the sport as opposed to a tennis racquet.

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Its popularity is increasing as the game is seen as good exercise for those less athletically inclined but still seeking a vigorous workout, nonetheless.

But, according to Simsbury First Selectman Wendy Mackstutis, plans to expand Tariffville Park's pickleball offerings have hit a roadblock, at least for this year.

That's because current Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps place the proposed location in the park — located at Simsbury's Main Street extension in Tariffville — directly in a floodway.

It means, according to Mackstutis, the town cannot build pickleball courts where it wants to, for now.

The town is waiting for FEMA to update its flood maps this year, she said in a report to selectmen earlier this week.

"We've been saying that we would have them, potentially, next spring but chances are fairly nil that that's going to happen," Mackstutis said.

David W. Bush, the chairman of the Simsbury Culture, Parks and Recreation Commission, said FEMA's latest updates likely will place the pickleball site out of a flood plain.

Once those maps are done, then Simsbury can proceed.

"Unfortunately, we're waiting for the federal government," Bush said at Saturday's budget workshop. "It really looks promising that its going to be next year."

He said if the town forged on trying to build before the maps come out, then it would have to spend $50,000 to $60,000 on hydraulic studies, making the delay a more fiscally prudent move.

To compensate for the pickleball pickle, Tyburski said he's adding stripes at the tennis courts at Simsbury Farms Park at 100 Old Farms Road to give pickleball players more places to play.

Tyburski said the flood mapping issue is, actually, impacting other proposed projects at Tarriffville Park.

"We're in a holding pattern, as you know, about the flood mapping there," Tyburski said before selectmen at the March 10 workshop. "As soon as that gets settled we'll be having pickleball courts, a new playground, a new pavilion over there."

"It was kind of a kick in the teeth to get that bad news, but in the long term, we'll have picklball courts," Tyburski said later in the meeting. "It's just we have to be a little more patient."

For more information on Tarriffville Park, click on this link.

For more information on Simsbury Farms Park, click on this link.

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Planners are deciding how to best connect the Bloomfield Greenway to the roughly 50-mile Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, part of a longer-term plan to link Hartford and East Hartford to Connecticut’s premier bikeway and paved walking path.

Trail developers this month hosted Hartford, Bloomfield, Simsbury and East Hartford residents at informational meetings about the plan that could change the face of bicycle commuting in central Connecticut for decades.

As contractors complete a multipurpose trail link from Bloomfield into Simsbury’s Tariffville section, the next step is to figure out how to continue it to meet the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, which runs north-south about a mile to a mile to the west.

There is no simple and available east-west path, though, and designing the route requires accounting for private properties, high-traffic public roads, the Farmington River, steep changes in elevation and more.

So at information meetings this month, the Capitol Region Council of Governments is inviting residents to put forward ideas. The next sessions are April 18 at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the Keney Park Pond House, 323 Edgewood St., Hartford, followed by April 26 at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the Alvin and Beatrice Wood Human Services Center, 330 Park Ave., Bloomfield.

Planners from VHB, a consultant for CRCOG, are narrowing down more than a dozen options.

“It needs to be off road and connect to local amenities. We want it to be well designed and attractive so people use it,” said Mark Jewell, a senior planner with VHB. Affordability is also a concern, he said, since construction is largely funded through federal and state grants.

Currently the Bloomfield Greenway starts at Day Hill Road and runs mostly along Route 189. Contractors are extending it northward along Route 189 into Simsbury’s Tafiffville section, where it will end just short of the Farmington River crossing and just a couple of blocks east of Tariffville Elementary School.

Continuing it farther west to reach the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail is more problematic. Planners have already created and rejected options that would require two new bridges over the Farmington River, wetlands encroachment at Tariffville Park or long, winding routes that backtrack into East Granby.

Some of the options they’re still considering would connect to the Tariffville Park entrance, then either follow an old railbed southwest toward the main trail or pursue a different route toward the southwest.

At a public meeting in his town, Simsbury Public Works Director Tom Roy emphasized that the ultimate solution must work for a variety of users.

“This is a multipurpose trail for walkers, cyclists, joggers, runners, dog walkers,” Roy said. “It’s meant to be a multipurpose trail, its not specifically for bikers or walkers. It’s for everybody.”

Consultants have done about 95 percent of the design work on a connector from the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail to Simsbury’s Curtiss Park, a large recreation area on the opposite side of the Farmington River. So one option for the Bloomfield connection would be designing a trail link between Curtiss Park and Route 189 in Tariffville, where the Bloomfield Greenway will end after this year’s construction, Roy said.

Before construction bids go out, planners want to hear from walkers, cyclists, homeowners along the route and others about their reactions to various options.

First Selectman Wendy Mackstutis praised Roy, CRCOG and the East Coast Greenway leadership for progress.

“They have been working hard to connect Bloomfield to Tariffville to Curtiss Park to Route 10, to connect everybody together so we can bike and walk and get places from here to there,” Mackstutis said.

Roy said the bike trail system serves a variety of needs.

“The East Coast Greenway brings people to Simsbury. When they come to Simsbury to ride, they come with money to shop, to buy coffee, they come with money to go to restaurants,” Roy said.

Bruce Donald, regional manager for the East Coast Greenway Alliance, said the long-term goal is an active transportation corridor for the region, a local amenity, and a source of economic development.

“The stated intention 30 years ago was to be the urban Appalachian Trail to go through the cities and connect the population centers,” he said. “This was always called the Hartford Connector. That’s really what is it, we’re connecting the capital city and so much more.”

Donald’s organization envisions linking the Airline Trail and other smaller trails on the eastern end of the state to the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, which links about 15 towns between New Haven and Suffield. A s a connector the Greater Hartford would open extensive commuting, riding and hiking options.

On January 25, 2019, Tariffville Elementary School families came out in droves to the school cafeteria to participate in the school’s first annual “Empty Bowls Ice Cream Social.” And it wasn’t about the ice cream and sprinkles—it was about helping people.

Empty Bowl gatherings were begun by Michigan art teacher John Harton as a creative way to help with food drives. Donations were collected at the door by Tariffville School Principal Steve Matyczyk. Each guest selected a handmade ceramic bowl, which they could keep to bring home as a special memento and a reminder of the need to fight hunger. The bowls were then filled with ice cream scooped by fifth and sixth grade volunteers. The $592 that was raised that night will be donated to the Hartford-based charity House of Bread, which provides food, shelter, and housing to those in need.

Approximately 130 bowls were sculpted and glazed by the members of the Fifth Grade Exhibition Committee and Sixth Grade Design Team over the past four months. The pieces were then fired in the school kiln in preparation for the big event. Ice cream and toppings to go in the bowls were the result of the generosity of Tariffville School’s Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO).

Art teacher and coordinator of the effort, Dan Rosenthal-Baxter(“Mr. R-B”), selected House of Bread because of a prior school-community connection and because he and his students wanted to raise awareness about food insecurity. On such a frigid night, ice cream might be perceived as an odd choice, however, Mr. R-B asserted that considering the large number of student volunteers participating, “ice cream is manageable!”

Besides managing the menu for the evening, Mr. R-B has also managed to elevate art and teaching since he came to Tariffville six years ago. In his very first year as an art teacher there, he implemented an after-school program called Design Team, later joined by Exhibition Committee. The motto for both groups is “Art in Service to the Community,” a force that has driven many community service projects at Tariffville School. Said Mr. R-B, “This is part of my larger practice as a teacher. Learning communities are more effective when the community is more effective.”

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Mr. R-B is passionate about projects like these because they create unique opportunities to not just teach art, but use it to “connect to each other and the world.” He concluded, “This was an authentic experience of raising money to help the community.”

In the cafeteria, tables were set with either art historical games for families to play or a variety of materials with which to create artwork. So even though the ice cream treats were quickly served and consumed, many families lingered for the duration of the event, spending quality time with friends, neighbors, and family.

Toward the end of the evening, Matyczyk addressed the families and thanked them for their support. He also noted, “This doesn’t happen without Mr. R-B. Long days after school, but he saw a need.”

Added Matyczyk, “What a great turnout… we may have to get a bigger venue next year!”

It has been almost a year since an emergency closing, but now the decision is final.

Patch Staff

|Updated Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 9:28 pm ET

The appeal before the Postal Regulatory Commission was closed Monday, when the final decision to keep the post office shuttered was made. But the decision was not unanimous, as the chairwoman of the commission wrote a dissenting opinion was part of the decision.

"Of course we are disappointed by the news," said Deputy First Selectman John K. Hampton.

He said state and local officials and members of the Tariffville Village Association worked tirelessly — especially TVA members — to keep a local post office. He said now the effort will shift to instituting a village post office concept. This entails offering some postal services within an existing business. There would not be a service counter, but stamps and post office boxes would be available.

On August 9, 2011, the U.S. Postal Service issued a “final determination” to close the Tariffville Post Office, but residents and town officials appealed the decision.

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After an emergency suspension in February 2011 due to structural concerns with the building at 39 Main St. — the building was later deemed safe to reoccupy — the U.S. Postal Service moved out and did not reopen a branch in Tariffville. The 166 post office boxes and all equipment were removed from the location. The post office boxes are now in the main post office at 932 Hopmeadow St., which is 3 miles away. Residents can have delivery to their homes with a mailbox.

Since February, residents have been fighting to save their post office. There was a meeting with Postal Service officials in April, a petition, letter writing, comments on the proposal, survey responses and a rally in July.

Town officials were also involved in the efforts to save the Tariffville Post Office, as was U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy.

Petitioners and the supporting commenters opposed closure of the Tariffville Post Office stating it adversely affects the community, the proposed service through the Simsbury Post Office does not provide them with effective and regular mail service, and that the economic savings projected by the Postal Service does not justify closure of the Tariffville Post Office.

The Postal Service asserted that it had given these and other issues serious consideration and concluded that the determination to discontinue the Tariffville Post Office should be affirmed.

The Postal Service explained that its decision to close the Tariffville Post Office was based on several factors, including emergency suspension of the facility, the postmaster vacancy due to reassignment after the emergency suspension, a minimal workload and declining office revenue, a variety of other delivery and retail options (including rural delivery and retail service), minimal impact on the community and expected financial savings.

The Postal Service said it will continue to provide regular and effective postal services to the Tariffville community and that it followed all statutorily required procedures and addressed the concerns raised by petitioners regarding the effect on postal services, effect on the Tariffville community, economic savings, and effect on postal employees.

Ruth Y. Goldway, chairman of the United States Postal Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC, wrote a dissenting opinion on closing the post office.

In part she wrote: “I dissent because the Administrative Record is inaccurate or insufficient with regard to economic savings.” She wrote that the post office maintained an appreciable amount of walk-in revenue each year, and questioned whether the Simsbury office can handle the added business.

“If Simsbury is staffed appropriately to meet the needs of its existing customers, and the additional customers from Tariffville, then the savings will be significantly less than that projected by the Postal Service,” she wrote.

The Postal Service not long ago announced a moratorium on post office closings, she added.

Despite the news, some residents still have hope that a post office may come back to the village.

Wanda Colman, who appealed the decision and is a member of the Tariffville Village Association, said “some day the right building might become available in Tariffville and we can petition the USPS to open a branch in our little village.”

Two questions are going to Simsbury voters: One on extra funds for an elementary school project, the other on trails and sidewalks.

Patch Staff

|Updated Fri, Jan 6, 2023 at 3:22 pm ET

SIMSBURY, CT — Voters have some weekend homework to do, with a referendum planned Saturday to decide extra funds for a school renovation, as wells as funding for three infrastructure projects.

The good news for taxpayers, however, is much of the funding is within already-approved revenue streams, with the referendum requirement only necessary given the size of the appropriations.

Town officials say both questions to be decided Saturday, Jan. 7, will not impact taxes at all.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday at Simsbury Town Hall, 933 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury.

Latimer Lane Elementary School Funding

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While voters said "yes" to a $36.7 million appropriation for a building expansion project at Latimer Lane Elementary School in 2021, the supply chain/inflation bugaboo has bit the town.

As a result, local officials say in order to build the project approved more than a year ago, the town needs to spend another $2.26 million.

While the dollar figure initially stood at $1.8 million, the higher figure, ultimately, is being sent to voters to try and ensure any contingencies are covered in the project.

If approved, the secondary school project appropriation will come from the town's capital reserve fund, meaning no cash would be borrowed and taxpayers will not be impacted, especially since some of the project is being reimbursed by the state.

Apart from a roof replacement, Latimer Lane Elementary School hasn’t received any major upgrades since it was originally constructed in 1962, according to the town.

According to the town, the 68,500 square feet of additions and renovations will allow for programmatic changes and address Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility issues, building envelope and structural systems technology as well as new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

It will also feature upgraded food service, library/media center and nursing/health services.

Town officials said it will be constructed in conformance with Connecticut’s High Performance Building Standards.

The project was designed by Tecton Architects, of Hartford. O&G Industries of Torrington is the construction manager.

Though not linked to this referendum, the groundbreaking for the project — slated for last month — was twice postponed due to weather. It has yet to be rescheduled.

Infrastructure projects

Meanwhile, voters Saturday will also decide on some $3.96 million in funding as part of a three-project infrastructure package covering trails and sidewalks in town.

According to town officials, these project won't impact taxpayers, either, as they're tied to finalized revenue sources such as government grants.

But because of the size of the dollar amount, local leaders say this package must be approved by voters as well.

Project to be decided Saturday include:

• Bloomfield to Tariffville Multi-Use Trail: $1,254,200 from the Local Transportation Capital Improvement Grant Program.

• North End Sidewalk Construction: $913,072.12 from the Local Transportation Capital Improvement Grant Program.

• Firetown Road Sidewalk Construction: $1,200,000 from the Local Transportation Capital Improvement Grant Program.

• $594,000 for the Community Connectivity Grant Program.

For more information on the referendum proposals in Simsbury, click on this link.