By Eric O’Connell Staff Writer Zip06 https://zip06.com/news/814282/ladder-hopes-to-restore-fish-to-indian-river Nov 19, 2025 12:05 PM The fish ladder at Branford Supply Ponds, a popular hiking and dog-walking area. The ladder will be a similar design to what is being proposed in Clinton. A local construction company has been working with the state to complete a new fish ladder…
GUILFORD — Olmsted Outlook is a place where passersby can watch ducks languidly glide in with the tide or spot the flash of a leggy heron spear a fish with its long, narrow beak.
Now, its most obvious feature is a hulking excavator sitting at the river’s edge, part of a $388,000 project to rebuild the crumbling seawall undertaken by the Guilford Land Conservation Trust.
Jim Lally is always looking for a challenge. From building an advanced septic system for the Madison Beach Hotel to developing fish ladders on the Quinnipiac River, Schumack Engineered Construction is certainly more than your average “pick-up truck with two shovels in the back.” Schumack tackles municipal (roads, dams, and bridge work, etc.), residential (drainage, septic, etc.), and commercial (drainage, water main work, etc.) projects with years of experience and expertise. It is, indeed, Schumack’s versatility that has enabled it to create a niche in the construction industry. Jim Lally, owner and president, took over the business in 1979 from his friend, Bill Schumack. Jim liked working on “Engineered Projects” as they are more of a challenge. He pursued these projects and then renamed the company Schumack Engineered Construction.
Russell Blair, Record Journal February 27, 2012 Harry Olav Haakonsen dedicated his life to fish restoration along Connecticut’s many rivers and streams, so former students and colleagues say it’s only fitting that the Wallace Dam Fishway be named in honor of the late environmentalist. “He died before it happened, but this was always his goal,”…