The silo off Caroline Street after it was knocked over.
Brian Goncalo was there in 1980, fresh out of high school, about 100 feet off the ground to measure how much bird seed was left in the giant can.
He was there in the late 1980s, when the new owners pulled the plug on the place.
And he was there Tuesday, when heavy machinery pulled the legs out from it, sending it toppling over onto its side. Giant scissors picked apart the metallic rusted corpse.
“It” was the silo once belonging to Derby Feed off Caroline Street.
Goncalo understands why the 45-year-old structure had to come down (video below courtesy of Mayor Rich Dziekan).
It hadn’t been used in decades, and it had become an unofficial and ugly “Welcome to Derby” symbol because of its high visibility to thousands of people traveling on Main Street and Route 8.
But Goncalo said the silo was the last local remnant of Derby Feed, a powerhouse of a company in the 1970s and 1980s.
Goncalo grew up on Park Avenue in Derby. He could walk to his job at Derby Feed after graduating high school in 1978.
Brian Goncalo
Part of Goncalo’s job when he started was to scale the four-story silo and drop a rope into it in order to measure how much bird feed was inside.
A train would roll up to the silo to drop birdseed off, and Derby Feed would distribute three tractor-trailers full every day to companies all over the place, Goncalo said.
The company also sold lawn care products and animal feed to locals, and the company stored and sold chlorine to area pool stores.
“It was a major company,” Goncalo said.
Derby Feed was owned by the Litzsky family, then of Derby. Herman owned the business, then his son, Robert, took over.
“They were great businessmen,” Goncalo said.
Things went south when a new group of investors took over.
Fast forward some 20 years, and the limited liability company owning the property sued they city, saying the property’s value had been decimated by a string of unfilled promises by city to government to breathe new life into Caroline Street.
The silo before. The white building in the distance is Derby City Hall, Main Street side.
The lawsuit was settled out of court, with Derby eventually paying $452,354.95 to purchase the property. That happened under Mayor Anita Dugatto’s administration.
There is no immediate plan in place to redevelop the former Derby Feed property and the surrounding properties. Derby city government has a conceptual plan born out of resident input to redevelop the property with a variety of uses.
The city is checking that plan with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who control the levy system along the nearby Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers.
Mayor Rich Dziekan said getting rid of the silo is good for Derby. At the least it rids the city of what had become a symbol of the lack of visible progress in the city’s redevelopment zone along the Housatonic River.
“It’s a first step to get things moving. This is progress,” Dziekan said.
Chase Waste Material of New Haven knocked the silo down at no charge. They also agreed to chop it up and truck away the scrap metal.
It could have cost Derby taxpayers $15,000.
Owner Jim Arcangelo said that his company does a lot of work in Derby, and was happy to help out. He hopes the end result is a redeveloped property that brings more jobs to Derby and bolsters the tax rolls.
Second Ward Alderman Ron Sill withstood the freezing temperature to watch the silo fall.
“Thousands of people go through this city every day and see that as our center of town,” Sill said. “Now it’s gone. They’ll see it no more.”
Chase Waste Material owner Jim Arcangelo with Derby Mayor Rich Dziekan (right).
