Volume 10, Number 19
www.northhavencitizen.com
Friday, August 12, 2016
Police join campaign to curb distracted driving By Ken Liebeskind Citizen staff
The North Haven Police Department has unmarked cars out in the community in an effort to catch distracted drivers in the two-week “U DRIVE. U TEXT. U PAY.” campaign, running Aug. 3 to Aug. 16.
“We received a state of Connecticut grant that reimburses the town 75 percent of the cost of putting extra officers on the road, similar to DUI,” said chief of police Thomas McLoughlin. Connecticut has received more than $6.8 million in federal funding to enforce distracted driving laws. This is the second phase of
the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Office campaign this year. “We did something similar in April and we had increased numbers of arrests for distracted driving due to cell phones,” the chief said. “There was a 34 percent uptick in arrests compared with 2015.”
percent of driving fatalities, according to a study by AAA.
Distracted driving is incredibly dangerous, causing 10
Under Connecticut’s cell phone and texting law, vio-
McLoughlin said a few unmarked cars have been dispatched to different parts of town. Unmarked cars are being used because drivers alter their behavior in view of marked police cars and drop their cell phones.
lations involve heavy fines, ranging from $150 for a first offense, $300 for a second violation, and $500 for each subsequent violation. “We’re going to be concentrating on the violations, and distracted driving will decrease slightly,” McLoughlin said. “But it’s almost like a status offense. Seventy percent of teenagers admitted to violating the law.”
Volunteers trim back low tree limbs to make the Quinnipiac River in North Haven easier to navigate for paddlers. | Richie Rathsack, Record-Journal A Veterans for Veterans meeting. The support group was formed in September 2013. | Courtesy of Rev. Don Rivers
Still making a difference Veterans for Veterans group celebrates three years By Alexis Koukos Special to The Citizen
A few years ago, Rev. Don Rivers, pastor of the Mount Carmel Christian Church in North Haven, became strikingly aware of the types of challenges veterans face when his daughter’s friend
asked if he could talk to the woman’s fiancé, who completed two tours in Iraq. “I got on the phone and he just wasn’t in a good spot,” Rivers explained. After that call, the reverend spoke with two of his veteran friends, and learned that the Iraq war veteran’s troubles are not unusual among military personnel. “I am a member of the Viet
Volunteers work to help improve Quinnipiac River By Ken Liebeskind Citizen staff
Nam Veterans Motorcycle Club and know firsthand the struggles vets go through and the help that comes from just talking to and being with other vets,” said Michael Szarmach, one of River’s veteran friends.
Volunteers from the Meriden-based Quinnipiac River Watershed Association and the North Haven Volunteer Fire Department teamed up recently to clean up a section of the river as part of an ongoing effort to improve conditions along the waterway, which runs from Farmington to New Haven.
Soon, Veterans for Veterans was born. The group came to fruition in September 2013 on a cool morning which
Two volunteers equipped with a chainsaw and pruning shears paddled up the river in a rowboat to clear tree limbs and other debris. On shore, volunteers drove a tractor and another all terrain vehicle alongside the boat,
See Veterans, A15
See Clean-up, A14