Danbury, Fairfield County | featured news

BETHEL—Firefighters battling an early morning fire on Diamond Avenue were tipped off by a newspaper delivery driver, officials said.

Around 4 a.m. Saturday, the driver called Bethel 911 to report a structure fire at a commercial building on Diamond Avenue.

The Garden Club of America recently presented a Zone Civic Improvement Commendation to the Lake Waramaug Task Force.

The award was presented for “The Lake Waramaug Task Force’s dedicated commitment to a restoration program to maintain the ecology and water quality for the future.”

Molly Butler Hart, the task force’s chairwoman, accepted the award from Karen Marche, a representative from the Garden Club of America’s Conservation Committee, at a luncheon at Hollister House.

RIDGEFIELD—A local business owner has been appointed to the town’s Parking Authority Commission.

The Board of Selectmen appointed Ellen Burns, owner of Books of the Common, to the commission earlier this month. In addition to her Main Street business, Burns’ has served on the Schlumberger Citizen’s Committee and volunteered in town.

Burns told selectmenshe has seen parking issues as a resident and merchant. She discussed several potential strategies to address parking issues, such as expanding the CVS parking lot.

NEW MILFORD - A loan shark whose business dealings led to the brutal beating of a client by members of a Hells Angels motorcycle club has been sentenced to two years in federal prison. The beating — with hammers and other instruments — was so severe the victim lost one of his eyes, his jaw was “pulverized” into minute fragments and his cheekbone was shattered to the point and became “disassociated with the skull,” documents state.

DANBURY - Two people were sent to the hospital late Thursday after police responded to a reported stabbing at the La Quinta Inn on Newtown Road.

Police said they were called to the hotel around 11:30 p.m. Thursday where witnesses said there a fight between two people who both received stabbing, slashing injuries. Both were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, authorities said.

The matter remains under investigation.

NEW FAIRFIELD—School board members discussed Superintendent Alicia Roy’s evaluation and contract in a closed executive session for nearly two hours Thursday, but ended the meeting without a decision.

The previously-scheduled special meeting was meant to continue a private conversation of Roy’s annual evaluation, a numerical version of which was approved two weeks ago.

A bend in Metro-North’s tracks — possibly caused by excessive heat — led to the May derailment of commuter train near Rye, N.Y., federal investigators said in a preliminary report.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Metro-North was aware of a bend in the tracks prior to the May 18 derailment at about 5:30 p.m. and lowered the speed limit in that area several times, eventually dropping it to 10 mph.

[...] when an officer approached the motorcycle, the driver got back onto the bike and fled the scene with a female passenger.

Police said they broke off the pursuit when they realized the individual wasn’t going to stop and that a high speed chase could have been dangerous considering there was a passenger on the motorcycle.

The application, which proposed a lighted field with a 60-spot parking lot and a concession stand for the lot on the Ridgefield-Redding line, passed by a vote of 8-1 with the Inlands and Wetlands Board and 7-2 with the Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday.

Consultants commissioned by the Little League have said the field will produce even less noise than required by noise regulations, will not generate excessive light, will not disturb nearby wetlands and will not significantly increase traffic in the area.

Most commission members said Tuesday they trusted the experts’ opinions and t

NEWTOWN - The country’s largest gun organizations and the largest gun-owners group in Connecticut are rallying behind the nation’s oldest gunmaker in fighting a wrongful death lawsuit brought by families of 10 Sandy Hook shooting victims. The National Rifle Assocation, the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Connecticut Citizens Defense League are among the groups intervening in state Supreme Court on behalf of Remington, the maker of the AR-15-style rifle used in the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook School.