Madison News Roundup

The Connecticut Siting Council will hold public hearings at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. today (Jan. 5) on a 100-foot T-Mobile cell phone tower proposed for 15 Orchard Park Road, Madison, CT. The hearing will be conducted in the upper level of the Memorial Town Hall, 8 Meetinghouse Lane, Madison, CT. The purpose of the hearing is to hear evidence on the T-Mobile’s contention that the public need for the facility outweighs any adverse environmental effects that would result from the construction, operation, or maintenance of a tower, ground equipment, and access road. The proposed tower is intended to enhance coverage along the Amtrak rail line, and would also provide additional coverage along Route 1, Neck Road, Mungertown Road and Interstate 95. Area residents, not surprisingly, have expressed opposition to the location of the tower, which is on Orchard Park Road off Mungertown Road, not far from Hammonasset Ford-Lincoln Mercury. (Click the map at right for more details.) The 3 p.m. hearing session will provide T-Mobile and other parties and intervenors an opportunity to cross-examine their positions. T-Mobile will be allowed a final rebuttal. The 7 p.m. session will be reserved for the public to make brief statements into the record. Cross-examination of the parties and intervenors will resume, if necessary, after all statements have been heard. More information is available here.

An arrest appears imminent in the July 2008 armed robbery of five people at Paul C. Lirot Jewelers on Wall Street, in which the robbers made off with at least $100,000 in merchandise. Robert Nolan of the Madison Police Department told the Register that a warrant for one man has been submitted to the New Haven state’s attorney’s office, and that once the warrant is signed, an arrest will happen “immediately.” The case is atypical for Madison not only because of the brazen nature of the crime and high value of the items stolen, but also because authorities used DNA testing in an effort to solve the crime. Madison was stunned on July 2, 2008, when two men wearing ski masks tied up and sprayed Mace at workers and customers inside Paul C. Lirot Jewelers at 73 Wall St. Police later found a silver Mercedes station wagon with Massachusetts plates that they were seeking in connection with the robbery parked in the lot at the senior center on Old Route 79. That car had been stolen in East Longmeadow, MA. Read Amanda Pinto’s story in the Register.