Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page B08

B8 FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2010 THE HARTFORD COURANT CTNOW WEBB MOUNTAIN PARK 136-Acre Preserve In Monroe Offers Great Hiking And Views FAIRFIELD COUNTY OASIS One of my favorite rides at the country fair was "The Scrambler." You would climb aboard, sit in the middle of the seat for a brief moment and then the carnival operator would push that green button and you would smash into the sides of the seat and twist and AN ABANDONED BOAT floats in the pond at the Webb Mountain Discovery Zone, an area adjacent to Webb Mountain Park in Monroe. The hiking area, in top photo, is about a quarter-mile from Webb Mountain Park off East Village Road. spin, all the while getting a lesson about the forces of gravity. That's what you feel like after a visit to Monroe's Webb Mountain Park, a 136-acre preserve high on the banks of the Housatonic River. You scramble up to the top of an overlook known as "Goat Rock," with a gorgeous view down Visit courant.

commarteka stream of the river whose name, translated from the Native American, means "beyond the mountain PETER MARTEKA prnartekacourant.com for more photos of Webb Mountain Park and for previous Peter Marteka columns. PATRICK RAYCRAFT PRAYCRAFTCOURANT.COM place." And if you travel slightly out of the park's boundary, you scramble up an imposing rock formation along the Connecticut Forest and Park Association's blue-blazed Paugussett Trail before passing more scenic overlooks and scrambling down the other side. This hike is a good journey through the natural world, and a good workout, with 4 or 5 miles of trails. My journey started along the fire road that brings visitors into the park. For those who want to experience the entire Webb Mountain, there is a parking area at the entrance.

Those looking for one of the easiest climbs to a lookout can park where the red trail crosses the road and follow the path to one of the largest free-standing boulders I've seen in the state. Visitors can then hike along the purple path to the lookout. The red path travels through the heart of Webb Mountain, along a picturesque stream filled with boulders covered with large mats of moss. Although only a trickle this time of year, the stream has multiple waterfalls during the wet season. So scramble off to Webb Mountain and enjoy a ride through the natural world.

The beauty of this ride is you don't need a ticket. Route 15 (Wilbur CrossMerritt Parkway) to Exit 58. Continue on Route 34 west, turning left on Bridge Street. Take a right on Route 110 and take a right at the light onto Maple Avenue, which turns into East Village Road. Follow the signs to Webb Mountain ParkWebb Mountain Discovery Zone.

Visit www.monroect.orgwebmountain.aspxforamapof the park. Questions or column suggestions are welcome. Peter Marteka may be reached by phone at 860-647-5365, by mail at The Courant, 200 Adams Manchester, CT 06040, by e-mail at or by fax at 860-643-8548. Visit courant.comcthiking for more adventures in Connecticut's natural world After the overlook, I followed the red trail to the fire road where a family was camping at one of the dozen sites offered by the town. At the last campsite, a trail takes visitors down to an old railroad line that runs along the banks of the Housatonic.

The tracks will take you past the Stevenson Dam on Lake Zoar, the fifth-largest lake in the state. The hydroelectric dam is an impressive structure with myriad power lines and transformers buzzing with electricity. A trail cuts down to the road, where hikers can cross the dam and see the huge, greenish lake on one side and a rocky chasm where the Housatonic starts its flow again on the other. Visitors can hook up with the Paugussett Trail along the tracks and return to Webb Mountain. The path offers some beautiful views of Lake Zoar as well as some imposing 100-foot rock outcroppings.

Be sure to keep an eye on the blue blazes because it can be a bit confusing; there are unnmarked trails. Robles "He's entitled to a fair hearing," he said. If Robles decides to go forward with a disciplinary hearing, it would be scheduled for Sept. 20, the internal affairs report states. The report detailed numerous occasions in which Robles wrote on his time card that he was working a regular shift when in fact he was working a private ob, collecting an identical amount to his hourly pay.

According to the report, on a date that Robles was working private road jobs for Connecticut Natural Gas, he submitted time cards indicating he worked a regular shift. During those 14 hours he was paid $410 by the department and $410 by CNG. In June 2009, Robles worked a private road job for the Metropolitan District Commission and indicated on his time card that he was working a regular shift at the same time. The MDC and the department each paid Robles about $205. During some occasions that Robles said he worked his regular police assignment, he was working private jobs for the Flow Assessment Construction the report states.

The department and Flow Assessment each paid him $380. For other instances that Robles submitted time cards indicating he worked his regular shift, Robles was in fact working at a private job for the Seaboard Drilling Assessment Construction according to the report. For a nine-hour period, Robles was paid $321 by the department and $321 by the construction company. In total, Robles cheated the department out of about 360 hours of work for a total of $9,223.56 between Aug. 1, 2008, and Oct.

10, 2009, according to the report. Robles was interviewed by investigators in June. When asked if he gave Lt. Edwin Dailey his supervisor, accurate said that Robles was also disciplined recently for working as a legislator at the Capitol while he was thought to be on duty. Robles won his party's nomination in the primary election Tuesday, defeating Hartford resident and activist Alyssa Peterson by a 2-1 ratio.

"I'm very upset that voters didn't have knowledge of this before the election," Peterson said Thursday. Robles, a freshman legislator, also was unanimously endorsed by Democrats at their nominating convention in May. "I'm beside myself," said Janet Appel-lof, a spokeswoman for the Hartford Democratic Town Committee's 6th District. "We're going to call the Democratic State Central Committee to find out how to proceed from here." Members of that district held a special meeting in July after word of a pending internal investigation into Robles spread. Appellof said Robles attended the meeting, but did not discuss details of the probe.

"He kept saying it was administrative" rather than criminal, she said. "We gave him the opportunity to speak and he chose not to." Allison Dodge, executive director of the Democratic State Central Committee, said Thursday that while it was too early to tell if there would be anything for the party to act on, it has no policies or rules in place that would require taking action. Richard Rodriguez, president of the Hartford Police Union, declined to comment. The union endorsed Robles who is a member before the primaries. "I have not been able to review the investigation, so I cannot comment," Rodriguez said.

Calls to Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra were not immediately returned Thursday. "Officer Robles constantly for over a one-year period is shown to have been working private duty jobs while still getting paid for his regular assignment. He intentionally gave false work times to his supervisor and wrote false times himself on his weekly time card." Internal affairs report records, Robles answered "no," the report states. When investigators suggested that he was "double-dipping," or taking from both sides, Robles responded "uh-huh." He also nodded his head in agreement when investigators said that the overlapping of hours amounted to larceny, according to the report. The Hartbeat system indicated that of the 285 days during the period of time Robles was scheduled to work, there were only 59 days on which he logged into the system meaning he was in contact with the department while working his beat.

The investigation also found that Dailey failed to actively supervise Robles or ensure that he complied with departmental directives. Dailey was charged with failure to properly supervise subordinates, making negligent entries into any department record and intentional failure to comply with lawful orders, procedures, directives or regulations. A source within the police department Continued from Page 67 At least one of his charges carries the possibility of termination. Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts last September ordered the department's internal affairs division to investigate alleged improper documentation in Robles' weekly time cards and the conflict between Robles' regular work schedule, private duty jobs and overtime hours.

Robles was employed on private duty road construction jobs in addition to his police work. The investigation stemmed from a police captain's review of the Hartbeat dispatch log system, which records officers' activities during their shifts. "It became apparent during this review that Officer Robles was not placing himself on-line with the Hartford Police Dispatch Center during his shifts and that his activities during the shifts that he was signed on failed to reflect his response to calls for service or self initiated activities," the report states. Robles said Thursday that he had not yet seen the report. He said he has no plans at this point to resign from the police department.

"I'll have to check with my union," he said. Subsequent phone calls to Robles were not returned. Robles, who works the overnight shift, makes a base salary of about $49,000 a year. Roberts said he considers the charges against Robles to be very serious. "We are accountable to the public," he said.

Roberts declined to comment on Robles' future with the department..