CONREP Continuing To Fight Ouster From UConn Torrington

TORRINGTON, CT – The Connecticut Rider Education Program (CONREP) is vowing to continue fighting ouster from the UConn Torrington campus, despite getting an email Thursday from the branch’s interim director reiterating the university’s earlier decision that withdrew permission to use its parking lot as a motorcycle training range.

In that email, William J. Pizzuto wrote, “This is email is to confirm that we will no longer be making the UConn Torrington parking lot available…. I appreciate the efforts to find ways to continue classes here, but unfortunately, this won’t be practical.”

However, Nicholas Just, who oversees CONREP for the state Department of Transportation, responded Friday with a renewed declaration to fight the rejection. “I’m going to work it up the chain now and see if anybody can work it any further,” he said, referring not only to DOT officials but also at the state Department of Motor Vehicles. “I would think the DMV would have a vested interest,” Just added.

UConn’s reason for booting CONREP from the Torrington campus is planned new pavement for the parking lot. While the existing parking lot has lines for parking spaces as well as lines showing patterns that motorcycle students must navigate during on-bike training, UConn doesn’t want the new pavement marred by those same comingled lines.

“We currently have no confirmed timeline for when the parking lot will be repaved, and even when the work is complete, we will need to keep the entire space available for university use. Painting lines anywhere on the parking lot won’t be an option,” Pizzuto wrote in his email. Besides being interim director UConn Torrington, Pizzuto is also director of the Waterbury campus.

Just doesn’t view Pizzuto’s email to be the final word on the matter. “Not for me, maybe for them,” he said.

CONREP has offered courses at UConn Torrington for 26 years, enrolling roughly 3,000 students over the years. UConn receives $4,500 annually for the use of classroom space and the parking lot. For the past four years, Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury has administered those classes, with on-range instruction occurring on Saturday and Sunday between May and October.

The loss of UConn Torrington means aspiring motorcyclists in Litchfield County will have to travel to Waterbury, East Granby or Farmington to take the Basic Rider Course. That course is required by law and provides those who successfully complete it with a “M” endorsement on their driver’s license that enables a person to legally ride a motorcycle.

– By Bud Wilkinson