Connecticut Postings

The Town Council has joined with community activists after waiting nearly two decades, and is demanding  the federal Environmental Protection Agency clean up most, or all, of the remaining Raymark toxic waste from Stratford.

 Tom Smith, a co-founder and president of the SaveStratford grass-roots group that has fought against consolidating Raymark waste — which includes asbestos, lead and PCB’s — at a single Stratford site, said residnets are getting ”very impatient” with any clean-up plans now at a virtual standstill. 

Smith made an impassioned plea Monday night to the council that it try and convince the EPA to come up with some kind of new remediation plan.

“This toxic waste is a serious health hazard and stigma that keeps families from moving here, and impacts property values,” Smith told the council. “We need your help in getting the federal government moving on a final (clean-up) plan.”

Later, the council voted unanimously to demand the EPA establish a fully-funded clean-up effort to remove most of the remaining Raymark waste from more that 20 private and commercial Stratford properties.

Laura Hoydick got the royal treatment when she was sworn in Monday as the General Assembly’s newest member.

The Stratford Republican, winner of a special election last week to fill the vacant seat in the 120th District of the state House of Representatives, took the oath of office at the Capitol as three of the state’s highest office holders looked on. The seat became vacant when its previous occupant, John Harkins, resigned to serve as Stratford’s mayor, a job he won last November.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell, herself formerly a state representative from Brookfield, and Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, both fellow Republicans, were on hand to congratulate Hoydick, as Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz formally administered the oath.

Also on hand for the ceremony were Hoydick’s husband, Paul, and daughters Brooke and Paige.