Is anyone missing a crane?
If so, call Derby City Hall.
A very large construction crane has been sitting on city-owned property next to a municipal parking lot off Caroline Street for about 15 months.
No one seems to know for sure who owns it, why it’s still there — and whether it’s haunted.
OK, the haunted part is hogwash, but the crane — and the city’s seeming inability to do anything about it — has been on the mind of Alderman Art Gerckens.
He represents the city’s second ward, and he’s also involved with activities at St. Mary-St. Michael’s, a Catholic school in Derby.
Last year Gerckens was involved in a St. Mary-St. Michael’s community event that took place near the crane. The crane was ugly, unwelcoming and out of place. And it was on city property, so he raised the issue at a Board of Aldermen meeting on July 25, 2013.
He also asked why a tractor-trailer being used as a billboard for the nearby Jacobs & Son scrap yard was sitting next to the crane. He didn’t get an answer about the tractor-trailer, but then-Mayor Anthony Staffieri told Gerckens the crane had been moved there to make room for the annual Derby fireworks show.
Then-Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley said contractors doing work on the Derby Greenway — the walking trail along the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers — “may” have had trailers there.
Gerckens has been raising the issue at Aldermen meetings ever since.
Long story short — the crane is still there.
Is the crane Moby Dick to Gerckens’ Captain Ahab?
Not really, but Gerckens is annoyed.
“These are not the greatest issues facing the city, and it seems very easy to resolve. It amazes me that people can’t act on these little issues swiftly and decisively,” Gerckens said in an email to the Valley Indy.
At the Sept. 25 Derby Board of Aldermen meeting, Gerckens raised the issue once again.
“You can’t park a car on a roadway for years and not have it towed away,” Gerckens said. “I’d like to see a little more action on it, because I have been bringing it up for months and nothing seems to be getting done.”
His persistence may finally be paying off.
Barbara DeGennaro, the president of the Board of Aldermen, directed the corporation counsel last month to find out who owns the crane and what “remedy” the city has to get rid of it, and investigate whether they need to involve the police. The Aldermen all supported DeGennaro’s motion.
Alderman Ron Sill asked if the police can “red tag” the machine and then have a tow company get rid of it.
“I don’t think you can move that thing without taking it apart. Have you seen that thing?” Derby Police Chief Gerald Narowski said.
“Challenge accepted,” Alderman David Lenart joked.
Gerckens expects to revisit the issue when the Aldermen meet again Oct. 23.
Valley Indy editor Eugene Driscoll contributed to this report.
