NORTH CANAAN — In recent years, downtown North Canaan has welcomed new businesses, infrastructure improvements and spruced-up building facades.
In an effort to continue the positive momentum and identify funding options, First Selectman Brian Ohler toured Railroad Street with state officials Friday, April 4.
The group included State Senator Stephen Harding, R-30, Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto and Transportation Engineering Administrator Mark Carlino.
Ohler relayed a number of ideas for innovation on Railroad Street regarding pedestrian walkways, power line relocation and railroad track upgrades.
“Canaan is the welcoming committee for Connecticut with Route 7, all the travelers coming down,” Ohler said. “We want to roll out the red carpet, but the carpet really isn’t what it should be aesthetically right now.”
A Railroad Street crosswalk abuts a tall curb.photo by riley klein
Ohler pointed out a crosswalk on Railroad Street that abuts a seven-inch curb. “There’s no ADA consideration,” said Ohler.
Eucalitto explained that while the state does not directly fund sidewalk construction, DOT supports municipalities seeking grants for such projects. He noted the Community Connectivity Grant Program and Transportation Rural Improvement Program as two potential avenues for funding.
Eucalitto said grant applications approved by CCGP and TRIP typically fund construction, but municipalities are expected to pay for an engineer to design the project.
Eucalitto said TRIP applications can receive up to $800,000 and CCGP applications can receive up to $1.2 million.
With the help of Northwest Hills Council of Governments and Mark Carlino at DOT, North Canaan can itemize the specific work required to improve the pedestrian infrastructure, enabling the town to apply for grants.
The group addressed the dated power lines and utility poles along Railroad Street. Ohler suggested moving powerlines behind the buildings or underground.
Carlino said the cost of relocating powerlines is immense. He suggested the town partner with Eversource to install new utility poles and clean up some haphazard wiring.
Newer utility poles — like the ones nearby on Main Street — are taller, allowing for wires and tranformers to be placed above building facades.
Ohler agreed that would be an efficient option, but said he still plans to research the cost to relocate power lines to the municipal parking lot behind the buildings.
The group considered upgrades to the railroad and how to achieve varying levels of improvement.
Ohler noted ongoing efforts to extend passenger rail from Danbury to New Milford, as well as a desire on the Massachusetts side of the border to connect passengers from Danbury to Pittsfield.
Eucalitto said the existing railroad track that runs through North Canaan is graded for freight trains and would require considerable upgrades to permit passenger trains. He said there is a third rail option: “holiday trains,” such as the scenic and historic train rides between Thomaston and Torrington on the Naugatuck Railroad.
While a passenger railroad requires full-length electrification for signaling and equipment, a holiday train “is much easier to accomplish by investing in a freight railroad,” said Eucalitto.
Ohler and Harding envisioned a “foliage train” for the autumn season.
“Then you kind of get the tourist feel to it,” said Harding, who compared it to another holiday train in Essex, Connecticut. “They bring in hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of people per season.”
“We have funds that can help a freight railroad upgrade their tracks,” said Eucalitto, adding the money can be used to build a passenger platform where people can onboard.
The group identified a potential landing spot for a platform north of the auto dealer on Railroad Street. Utilizing Union Deport for onboarding was also considered.
To be awarded funding, Housatonic Railroad Company would need to apply to DOT and the federal government for track upgrades.
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Izzy Fitch at Battle Hill Forge in Wassaic.
The giant metal mantis, built by artist Jim Hackett, is now part of a summer contest Fitch devised. He’ll strap it to the roof rack of his car and drive it around. When people spot it, they can take a photo, post it on social media and tag @battlehillforge, @lakevillejournal and @themillertonnews. At the end of the contest, names will be drawn at random and gift certificates to Battle Hill Forge will be awarded.
“It’s just for fun,” said Fitch, whose work often blurs the boundaries between art, utility and play. “Who couldn’t use more fun these days?”
Fitch moves through his sprawling workshop spaces like an enthusiastic museum guide leading visitors through a collection he forgot he owned. Every few steps, something catches his attention. A hand-forged daffodil. A dragonfly. A prototype trellis. A powder horn his great-grandfather taught him to make. A concrete toad inherited from his grandmother.
“Oh, this is cool,” he says, veering off course.
A few minutes later:
“Oh, I forgot to show you this.”
Then:
“You want to see something really cool?”
The tour never quite follows a straight line.
Neither does Fitch.
Long before Battle Hill Forge became known for custom gates, garden structures and sculpture found everywhere from private estates to major cultural institutions, Fitch was a child building armor for toy animals.
“I had a Black Panther that was this big and I armored it,” he says, holding his hands a few inches apart. “I made all my little people and creatures, and I armored them all up and I made all the weapons for them.”
Fitch’s father was a logger. Tools were plentiful. Toys were not.
“He wouldn’t buy us toys really, so we would have to make our own.”
The family business, if there was one, was making things.
Izzy FitchNatalia Zukerman
His great-grandfather was a master craftsman who made Windsor chairs in collaboration with his uncle, Bert Fitch. His father supplied the raw materials, Bert made the chairs, his great-grandfather carved the spindles. His relatives were renowned woodworkers. People would travel from far and wide to have his great grandfather make handles for them.
“I really learned a lot from spending time with my grandparents and my great-uncles,” he says.
Today, that inheritance is visible everywhere inside the forge.
Giant steel pumpkins wait beside elegant peony supports. Honeycomb sculptures support an endearing bee also made by Hackett. Giant orbs loom playfully. Metal mushrooms, used in classes Fitch teaches to children, line the windowsills.
Many are prototypes Some are commissions. Some exist simply because Fitch thought they might be fun to make.
“I just think of something cool,” he says. And then he makes it.
“Most of the metalworkers that I work with don’t want to talk to people,” he says. “They’re like, ‘Just tell us what you want. Give me the plans and I’ll make it.’”
Fitch is different. Part craftsman and part translator, he enjoys helping clients discover what they want before it exists.
Unless, of course, he’s distracted by a frog story.
The previous Battle Hill Forge location, in Millerton, included a small pond where Fitch often ate lunch.
“There was a dead mouse out there one time,” he recalls. “This frog was so clever. He would sit near the dead mouse and when flies came down, he would get a fly.”
He watched the frog for an entire lunch break.
The story arrived somewhere between explanations of Japanese patinas and custom railings.
It also explains a lot. Fitch notices everything: plants, insects, old tools, odd solutions, clever engineering tricks. His work is filled with observations gathered from gardens, forests, old European designs and conversations with other makers.
A peony support isn’t just a peony support. It’s an opportunity to improve something. A trellis isn’t just a trellis. Maybe it can come apart for shipping. Maybe it can help a plant grow differently. Maybe it can do something no one has considered before.
“I’m not really inventing anything new,” he says. “I just tweak it a little bit.”
After its beginning in Falls Village, moving to Millerton and eventually settling in Wassaic, Battle Hill Forge has become one of the region’s success stories. The shop is booked months in advance. Projects range from garden ornaments to monumental railings weighing hundreds of pounds. Designers seek him out. Gardeners collect his work.
Yet Fitch remains most animated when discussing collaboration.
The intern helping in the shop first met him as a student in one of his metalworking classes. Local glass artists add to his sculptures. Garden designers have helped refine his plant supports. For Burning Man this summer, he’s joining a team of fellow artists to build an installation featuring an oculus and a pair of metal sphinxes.
“We’ll have a little party,” he says.
The phrase could describe half the projects in the shop, especially the praying mantis. Technically, that sculpture belongs to Hackett.
“He makes all this cool stuff,” Fitch says. “I sell them for him because he’s one of those artists who doesn’t want to deal with the public.”
Fitch laughs.
“Which is totally smart.”
Outside, a dog wanders through the yard. A timber framer works next door. Metal rusts into beautiful shades of brown. New ideas wait in various stages of completion and there’s just a little magic around every corner.
To contact Battle Hill Forge, visit battlehillforge.com.
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