Feast Time! St Roch’s Church Seeks Road Closure with “Path” for Construction Vehicles to Hamilton Ave School

At Thursday’s Board of Selectmen meeting the new pastor from St. Roch’s Church in Chickahominy, Father Peter Lenox, presented a request made by feast chair Frank Cortese on behalf of the church for a temporary road closure on Friday, August 15, Saturday, August 16 of the abbreviated three-day feast.

The feast is set to run Aug 15-17, which is a day shorter than their typical feast.

The Hamilton Avenue School campus across the street from the church is closed for a major reconstruction of the school’s parking deck and garage, so the church will not have access to the school fields or parking deck for rides as in the past.

Typically the church asks the Selectmen for evening road closures from 6:00pm to 11:00pm. (The Selectmen serve as the town’s traffic authority.)

“It is a historied tradition to have the St Roch’s feast in Chickahominy for the sake, not simply of only our own parish community and its longevity, but also in offering a wonderful moment for the community to get together and have some summer fun,” Pastor Lenox told the Selectmen.

“This year, as you know, has been a little complicated due to the construction happening at Hamilton Elementary with the closure of the parking deck. And we are unfortunately not able to use the fields. So we have condensed the project into that which pertains to our parish footprint,” Father Lenox said.

“Traditionally we have had road closures take place in a very small strip directly in front of our property,” he added. “That’s why we are requesting, instead of the traditional four days of closure, we are requesting two days: Friday evening and a good portion of the day on Saturday.”

First Selectman Fred Camillo said Greenwich Public Schools Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Ben Branyan had reached out earlier in the morning.

“They are grateful to the church for amending the feast this year to scale it down. They do need access as the contractor needs to drive to the site. As presented now, they said there is no vehicle access. They need the road for access.”

“Depending on the progress of the contractor, they’d be working past 4:30 on Friday and all day on Saturday,” Camillo said. “They can’t stop work.”

“We’re not looking for them to stop working,” Father Lenox said.

“Is there a way for us to use the road and have it in a way so those trucks have access?”  Camillo wondered. “If we could just leave a path for the trucks?”

“We’re active collaborators in the community,” Lenox said. “Typically what I see from my rectory is the work seems to stop at 6:00pm.”

“We can vote to close the road here now and I’ll circle back with Frank (Cortese) and Jackie (Budkins) and the committee to make sure there’s no hiccups,” Camillo said.

Democratic Selectwoman Janet Stone McGuigan noted            the request was a first read.

“I’m wondering, if, for the public, if we can just elaborate a bit more,” she requested.

“You’re going to get the approval,” Camillo told the pastor. “But normally we do a second read, unless it is time sensitive.”

“If it was time sensitive we’d vote now, but because of this little hiccup, which is easy to fix, if you can circle back to the schools and let them know how you’ll present this,” Camillo said.

Camillo noted the need for coordination between church and the Board of Education and their contractors.

“Have you or Frank (Cortese) come back. They just need some access to and from. Two weeks from now, we will approve it, but if you can just contact Ben Branyan,” Camillo added.

“We have a good relationship with Hamilton Elementary,” Pastor Lenox said, adding that the church opened their basement to the construction workers to cool off, use the lavatories and eat lunch.

“We need to make our thinking visible, so it’s clear to everyone what we are approving,” McGuigan said.

“We’re not looking for anyone to get hurt, but if we can give them a path so they can enter and exit,” Pastor Lenox said.

According to the July 13 church bulletin, the feast starts at 5:00pm on Friday and runs 11:00am to 11:00pm on Saturday.

The July 13 bulletin was edited from the previous July 6 bulletin.  “Thrilling rides” was changed to “rides for kids.”

Other details that will be important include input from Greenwich Police, feedback from the public, and risk management requirements.

There was no mention of whether there is a liquor permit for a beer & wine garden or whether there will be a detour for dump traffic on Saturday.

See also:

Plans Announced for August Three-Day St Roch’s Feast 2025

July 3, 2025