Stanek: Name Seymour Fish Bypass In Honor Of Paul Pawlak, Sr.

The Seymour Board of Selectmen is thinking about naming the town’s under-construction fish bypass and a park after the late Paul Pawlak, Sr., who represented Seymour in the state House of Representatives for 12 years.

The suggestion was made at a Selectmen meeting Tuesday by Karen Stanek, a member of the board, and was greeted warmly by her fellow elected officials.

The board didn’t take action on the idea Tuesday, but it could come up again at a meeting in two weeks.

The fish bypass is now under construction around the Tingue Mill Dam in downtown Seymour. It will allow fish to make their way around the dam in the Naugatuck River.

Perhaps equally important is the fact the project will better incorporate the Naugatuck River into the downtown Seymour business district, which is full of quaint stores, restaurants and a community center.

The park to be built next to the fish bypass will eventually include a walking trail along the river. That trail will extend around downtown Seymour.

Stanek said Pawlak, who died in February at the age of 96, played an important role in the creation of the state’s Clean Waters Act, a law that helped protect rivers such as the Naugatuck, which had been horribly polluted for generations, and was once considered among the most-polluted rivers in the U.S.

The Naugatuck River was once so polluted that it occasionally caught fire,” Stanek wrote in a letter to the First Selectman. Many of us remember the odor. As chairman of the Water Resources Committee, Paul helped to fashion and helped to enact the Connecticut Clean Waters Act which brought an end to the pollution of the Naugatuck River and many others.”

Pawlak’s environmental advocacy was recognized by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal during a speech in the Senate on April 9.

Paul also believed in the importance of public health and of strong and responsive public institutions to maintain it. He was the first chairman of the Lower Naugatuck Valley Public Health Department, as well as a member of the board of directors of the Public Health Nursing and Homemaker’s Services,” Blumenthal said. And he understood that all these institutions needed to work together and cooperate in order to accomplish their missions.”

Pawlak was also a founder of the Valley Council of Governments.

The lifelong Democrat also served as Seymour First Selectman for four years, second Selectman for eight years, and for 12 years as the chairman of the Seymour Board of Education.

He did all this while working as an electrician for the Farrel Co.

Pawlak and his wife, Millie, in almost 75 years of marriage, raised four sons. When Pawlak died he was survived by seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

The majority of the construction at the fish bypass is on track to be completed in late July.

An official opening could take place after Labor Day.

The $2.5 million project is being funded by grants.

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