Thomas Broderick’s Feb 3rd op-ed for We-Ha.com connects the “Morley Moms” of the early 1970s with current demands that West Hartford town leaders improve safety for pedestrians. He recounts how these mothers organized their neighborhood and “planned to blockade Trout Brook Drive if the Town of West Hartford didn’t make it safer for their children to walk to school” by hiring a crossing guard for the 174 children who crossed the intersection at Fern Street every school day. Although the West Hartford police chief initially rejected the request, and the mayor did nothing, the town manager eventually approved it, but warned that “assigning the guard could establish an expensive precedent. Parents could demand guards for other intersections with walk lights.” Read Broderick’s full op-ed for We-Ha.com.
See also full article he references, “Blockade is Planned by Morley Mothers,” Hartford Courant, February 11, 1971, by entering your West Hartford Library bar code into their Hartford Courant Historical database.
