Anne Beverly

I have to pause and say THANK YOU to the company that Ansonia so wisely hired to replace the horrid Winter Bros. to collect resident's trash each week.

Finally, our garbage is picked up at a normal time, emptied trash cans are no longer thrown down the street, across the lawn, etc. They are actually placed right back where they were found and ALL garbage is taken away instead of "selected" as Winter Bros was famous in my area for leaving a random bag or two behind they seemed to decide they didn't want that week.

Best move Ansonia has made in a long time. APPLAUSE!

I realize this was probably on the plans but now that it's real I have to wonder whose WONDERFUL idea it was to construct an roundabout on Westfield Avenue directly in FRONT of the new Route 8 north ramp?!

As completed, this roundabout not only causes cars to almost come to a complete stop to navigate it before entering the ramp.. it is so oddly placed the state has had to put up temporary reflective "cones" on one side.

Why? Because no driver after dark is going to expect a stone roundabout in front of a highway entrance ramp and is going to drive right into it over and over unless something is changed.

Shall we add lighting? Flashing signs? $8 million dollars to build this ramp and the state created a major safety hazard with how they cut off Westfield. Amazing!

This weekend I took a friend down to the Greenway / Riverwalk off Division Street. Honestly, because it's longer I often will walk the Derby/Shelton side but we decided to start on the Ansonia side to see how far it goes (not nearly far enough..)

That said, we were stunned that the Ansonia side of the greenway is covered with dog poop. It's scattered all over one end to the other. We had to keep walking around it. We assumed this was an issue the greenway was having universally. WRONG!

We then crossed Division to walk the Derby/Shelton end. SPOTLESS! There wasn't even a piece of trash on the Derby or Shelton portions of the greenway. Ansonia, trash and dog droppings!

I know it's the owner's responsibility to clean this up, but clearly it is not happening at all. How Ansonia offices have not noticed it's greenway is filthy and Derby's is spotless escapes me but my hope is this message will get perhaps Public Works to add cleaning up the greenway to it's list of projects regularly. No, it shouldn't have to... but we can't let "our" side of the greenway look like this. No wonder so few people were on it and Derby's was packed!

I was driving down Main this morning when I got to 115 (the address I keyed is approximate) when I noticed that someone has had the bright idea of painting the concrete "features" around some of the windows of one of the rundown, beat up and ready to demo Farrel buildings red. Seems to be a work in progress.

Whose bright idea was this? If we throw some red paint on a building that looks like it's about to collapse it makes everything all right?

Is the building being remodeled? Are the windows being replaced and "FARREL" sign that is decades old getting repainted also? Are we cleaning the brick façade? Replacing the roof? Bringing in a new tenant to fill the space? NO.

This is one of several buildings that has been discussed for DEMOLITION for years because it's a horrid eyesore detracting from the progress being made on Main.

Is the owner thinks slapping some red paint on a few places is going to make that building suddenly acceptable they are mistaken. This is a waste of money.

So much is being done to fix up buildings on that end of Main Street for a PURPOSE. This building shouldn't even still be standing.

Take the building down and redevelop the site!

I have seen the flood of complaints here and elsewhere about the growing number of what WERE single family homes (or even two family) being bought by out of area "investors" and then turned into as many rental units as possible... often without permits.

The idea is to take a home designed for one family, buy it on the cheap and slice it into as many apartments as possible. Not only was the house not designed for this use, the driveway can't hold the cars of multiple residents so vehicles of renters spills onto the streets making it impossible to plow, more and more children from these apartments that used to contain one family flood into the schools, etc.

The owners? They often don't live in Ansonia or near the properties. They just cash the rent checks. Who cares what they did to the neighborhood.

While I can not confirm that permits were not pulled, HERE is a recent example. This is an older photo from Google but since it was taken the front of the house has been "modified".

NOW, there is a metal spiral staircase on the right side of the front porch that brings you to a new entrance on the third floor where the attic window was. Sure enough, the owner found a way to rent out the attic as yet another unit... and modified the front of the house however possible to create an entryway to this space.

EXACTLY what Ansonia doesn't need!

Feel free to tell me permits were pulled, there is nothing wrong with this, etc. but when you see a metal spiral staircase and doorway on a third floor slapped onto a house... you begin to see why Ansonia has become too densely populated.

If the owner followed the rules, I applaud them... but the City should have NEVER allowed this. It's the root of our problems!

As an Ansonia resident my entire life I can't let this issue slide....

I believe about a year ago someone posted a similar photograph to, in one photo, show the disgrace and embarrassment to the city that Ansonia’s Blight Ordinance and Blight Officer area to the community.

Here we are again. I’ll call this home “Ansonia’s Salute to Blight”. Thousands of vehicles a day travel down Division Street past this home and often sit in traffic waiting for the light at Cumberland Farms and get to marvel at this wonderful “WELCOME TO BEAUTIFUL ANSONIA” postcard.

I know there are examples downtown of run down factory buildings, the embarrassment that is Healey Ford’s ruins and numerous other homes and businesses in disrepair as good people try to rebuild downtown with places like Crave, Antonio’s, KOI, Copper City Grill and so many other reasons TO visit Ansonia… even while blight surrounds many of them.

(I wonder how much Healey Ford has been fined so far? I bet ZERO!)

I have seen posts about blight here followed by the VERY unhelpful and rude “Contact the Blight Officer” response. REALLY?

Unless Ansonia’s Blight Officer is a part time volunteer he/she should be hanging their head in shame! They should be fired and be embarrassed to collect a paycheck as they waste taxpayer’s money while having no accomplishments to show for it.

It isn’t up to residents to do the job of the blight officer and tell them where the blight is and how it violates the ordinance. THEY should be taking STRONG action and, in fact, putting our press releases monthly to detail what recent efforts were made to clean up Ansonia. List the addresses of the properties, what happened, etc. The public is paying, the public deserves to know.

In the meantime, myself and others will continue to look at this poster child for Ansonia’s rampant blight. One that is seen my many more people than other examples. A single home in such disrepair it has a TREE growing out of its roof and a piece of plywood nailed over a window!

If THIS home is not blighted, the blight ordnance has to be re-written NOW.

I wonder how long until someone FINALLY contacts this homeowner and say “CLEAN THIS UP!”. I’m betting never. The mayor doesn’t seem too concerned and you can’t tell me every employee of Ansonia hasn’t driven by this nightmare 100 times.