Alert Middletown Officials Stamp Out Wigwam!

Who knows, if wigwam building had spread the homeless would be building these huts all over town. Thankfully, alert police, fire, and sanitation officials recognized the imminent danger and ordered the Harbor Park wigwam destroyed. “It’s a tinderbox” said Deputy Fire Marshal Allen Santostefano. But city Health Department officials were concerned that the structure would attract the homeless; Chief Sanitation Officer Sal Nesci said “It had the makings of an unsafe abode.”  Housing Inspector Dennis Murray said, “It was absolutely beautiful. It was a beautiful structure.”  “They flattened it,” said George Frick, the artist who built the structure.

Source: Middletown Press  (11/06/07)

Middletown Press (10/10/07)

Photos below taken several weeks ago show the offending wigwam and several dugout canoes also part of the interesting project which involved local youth in Native American crafts. Dugout canoes were used in a trip across L.I. Sound to Greenport and a more ambitious Middletown to Florida trip is planed for Spring ’08 . More article about these projects here, here and here.

Tags: george frick,dugout canoes,middletown ct,wigwams,long island sound dugout crossing,