Wilton, Conn., Coffee Shop to Get Running Water With New Well

By Jared Newman, The Hour, Norwalk, Conn.

Oct. 28–WILTON — After six years of business without a drop of running water and no bathrooms, Cafe Au Lait, the coffee shop next to the Cannondale train station, will be hydrated by March or April.

Next week, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) is scheduled to start drilling a well and digging a septic system in the station’s parking lot, said John Waleszczyk, a DOT project manager.

The project will cost roughly $367,000 and could begin Nov. 1.

“I don’t know if there’s going to be shovel in the ground, but that’s the anticipated official start date,” Waleszczyk said.

Instead of using the bathroom of a nearby business, commuters and cafe customers will be able to use a free-standing men’s and women’s restroom near the shop’s north side. Cafe Au Lait, 22 Cannon Road, will connect to the water and septic system as part of the project.

“We’re very excited,” said Deborah Symons, who operates Cafe Au Lait and whose boyfriend, Tom Hill, owns it. “We want everyone to come have a lot of lattes and cappuccinos.”

Symons and Hill led a push for state funding of the project last year after getting fed up with using bottled water to make coffee and wash the floors.

They wanted a sink and a restroom for their customers, but the building — an antique commuter shelter built in 1892 — wasn’t connected to any sewer or water lines. This also prevents the cafe from serving sandwiches and hot food.

“I can’t do anything else with my business because I can’t survive with just bottled water,” Symons said.

Symons and Hill tried appealing to the town and to the department of transportation, but those groups resisted connecting the station to a main water and sewer line on Route 7.

A local architect, Kevin Quinlan, agreed to help after meeting Hill at a job in Stamford. While brainstorming with a local septic designer, they realized drilling a well and digging a septic tank would be much simpler, Quinlan said.

After hearing about the coffee shop’s plight, Rep. Toni Boucher offered her assistance as well.

“I took that on as a personal campaign to make sure that we could bring water to that particular station,” Boucher said.

In March of last year, Quinlan and Symons spoke before the state assembly’s transportation committee. They lamented the expense of using bottled water and questioned why a wealthy community with a historic train station and lots of commuters didn’t have a bathroom.

They also gathered 120 signatures in support of the project.

“There’s so many people that take the train and they can’t even go to the bathroom, that was my point,” Symons said.

Boucher, along with Reps. John Hetherington and John Frey, co-sponsored a bill to fund the project. It was supported in the house, Boucher said, but an actual allotment wasn’t necessary because the DOT agreed to provide funding.

Though Boucher wished the project had started sooner, she’s glad it’s finally coming to fruition, for the commuters and the cafe.

“We are lucky right now to have tenants there that are making that a nice and pleasant experience first thing in the morning,” she said.

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