Hearing tonight on banning use of pesticides on fields

MIDDLETOWN » The Common Council will be asked to approve an amended ordinance that prevents the use of pesticides on city-owned playing fields.

According to the charter, public works personnel have the power to regulate illicit discharges, including herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides.

Members of the Jonah Center for Earth and Art have asked citizen supporters to consider speaking during the public hearing session tonight to “insure that the ban is actually complied with and to give the council members voting for passage confidence that the public backs them,” according to a email sent to stakeholders Wednesday, “Call To Action on Lawn Chemicals.”

The nonprofit, city-based organization works at “protecting waterways such as the Coginchaug River and Floating Meadows, planning and advocacy to make our communities more bike and pedestrian-friendly; promoting state-sponsored energy efficiency programs; preserving open space and trees; improving parks and other public spaces, and using artistic expression to connect people to the natural environment,” according to its website.

The amendment, approved by the public works commission May 17, extends the ban of EPA-registered pesticides at kindergarten through eighthgrade schools and day-care centers to all public recreational playing fields in Middletown, according to the Jonah Center. Middletown participates

in Project Green Lawn, a public awareness campaign run through the Recycling Services office to encourage residents, businesses and municipal officials and staff to maintain healthy lawns free of chemicals that are harmful to people, pets and the environment.

“Our programs are geared to eliminating, or at least reducing, the use of toxic lawn-care chemicals,” according to Recycling Coordinator Kim O’Rourke.

Also on the agenda for the meeting will be an ordinance authorizing $87.35 million in bonding to construct a new Woodrow Wilson Middle School complex and sending a feasibility study to referendum in November.

At the June council meeting, members unanimously passed the measure for the construction of a structure that would incorporate the city’s sixththrough eighth-graders.

The three-story building, which would be erected where the field in front of Woodrow Wilson Middle School is now and set very close to Hunting Hill Avenue, also would house Keigwin Middle School students.

Hartford-based TSKP Studio design firm is designing the project.

Tonight’s meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at Middletown City Hall Council Chambers on deKoven Drive. For information, see cityofmiddletown.com.

FILE PHOTO A measure that extends the ban of EPA-registered pesticides at kindergarten through eighth-grade schools and day-care centers to all public recreational playing fields in Middletown will be acted upon at Monday’s Common Council meeting.