Spring Street To Get Lights, Cameras, Sidewalks

Danbury is promising $50,000 in sidewalk repairs on Spring Street, in part to compliment efforts by the Jericho Partnership to improve life on Spring Street.

Spring Street is home to the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality, and Sixto Rodriguez has owned a home on the street since 1985-86.

"I like the neighborhood," Rodriquez said. "What I don't like is this," he said, pointing to a number of people lounging on his front staircase before 4 p.m. in front of the Dorothy Day House. He said those people and others on the street are frequently selling drugs.

Rodriquez said sometimes the police give him a hard time because his sidewalk has trash on it from the vagrants. "The police officer gives me a hard look, and I tell him, 'This is my house. You think I want trash in front of it?'"

Rodriquez said he likes the city's talk about fixing the sidewalks and the talk about brighter street lights and police cameras, but he said in the Dominican Republic, where he came from, politicians make those kind of promises all the time. Nothing happens.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said the work on the sidewalks won't start immediately, but depending on the winter weather, it could start in the winter. This year and this winter, most of the repairs and sidewalk replacements will take place on the New Street end of the street.

Boughton said he is allocating $50,000 in this year's Community Development Block Grant program to Spring Street sidewalks. He said he is commiting $100,000 in CDBG money next year to Spring Street, assuming the CDBG money comes in at about the same level from the federal government.

Connecticut Light & Power is planning to improve and realign street lights to help luminate the sidewalks. Marty Coladarci of CL&P said the new lights will be brighter, and they will also be aimed at the sidewalks. The goal is to help police monitor people on the street.

Boughton said the street has been the center of numerous drug complaints over the years.

Carie Amos, executive director of the Jericho Partnership, said the partnership is looking forward to the city's proposed improvements. She said partnership volunteers have been working on cleaning up the trash on Spring Street.

After some engineering issues are resolved, Danbury will install security cameras on Spring Street connected to the Danbury Police Headquarters. Police will monitor those cameras to curtail drug dealing and other crimes frequently occuring on the street.