John Oliver paid a visit to Danbury last week.  Mayor Mark Boughton was coy at the Chamber of Commerce annual meeting when he said the comedian would cut the ribbon on the newly renamed wastewater treatment facility, but that the details were still being worked out. 

The City Council voted on Oct. 8 to give the plant the honorary name of The John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant.  Decked out in gloves, a plastic bag over his shirt and a bubble on his head, Oliver announced the visit on his show last night. 

(Photos: HBO, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)

He commended the City Council, residents and banks for stepping up to name the facility, and donating to food banks.

Boughton came up with the idea after the comedian slammed Danbury over the summer at random as part of a joke. Oliver offered $55,000 to Donor's Choose teacher projects, the Connecticut Food Bank and ALS.  Local banks offered to match the money, for the United Way's Danbury Food Collaborative.  They also launched a donation page for others to contribute as well. 

Oliver said he visited the City "home of the Danbury Railway Museum, their self-proclaimed world’s tallest Uncle Sam and, now, the single greatest sewage plant in the continental United States.”  Boughton cut the ribbon and Oliver cheered. He said the sewage plant represented everything the country needs most right now.  "This place takes the worst that humanity can produce, and transforms it into something that we can live with.  And now more than ever, there’s something inspirational in that, because at the end of this awful, awful year, what could be more important than evidence that, if we want to, we can come together, overcome our differences and sort our [expletive] out,” he said.