Helping hands in our towns Town Times photos by Stephanie Wilcox Adopt-a-Road chair Babby Nuhn hands out bags last Saturday at Allyn Brook Park to a road clean-up volunteer. More photos on page 7. Volume 17, Issue 1 Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall Friday, April 16, 2010 In this issue ... Calendar ...........................4 Durham Briefs ...........14-15 Middlefield Briefs......16-18 Obituary..........................23 Sports..........................24-27 Spring Fix Up .............10-13 Board of Education approves budget By Stephanie Wilcox Town Times Late in the evening of April 7, the District 13 Board of Ed- ucation (BOE) unanimously approved taking the proposed 2010-11 gross education budg- et of $34,826,872 to a district meeting on Monday, May 3, at 8 p.m. in the CRHS auditori- um. The budget meeting will adjourn to a referendum on Tuesday, May 4, from 6 a.m.-8 p.m. This decision came im- mediately after the budget was presented at a public hearing, where the board heard both support and oppo- sition from many fervent par- ents and taxpayers. “This is ridiculous with where it’s all going,” said Durham resident Roger Klee- man of the budget, which is a net increase of 2.5 percent over this year’s budget. “Cut it way down and let parents then come out and say what they want.” Middlefield resident Kath- leen Kokoszka added, “There seems to be a belief in the community that we can’t get quality education unless we see an increase (in the budg- et) year after year…Yes, chil- dren are important, but we’re all important and shouldn’t have to sacrifice.” According to the board, al- most all of the increases in the budget are due to salaries and benefits. Fiftysix percent of total expenses comes from salaries, and some spoke up about this, like Durham resi- dent Joan Zito, who said, “I think teachers should be giv- ing something back.” On the other hand, Durham parent Phuong Oanh Stephan was thankful the board re- frained from proposing teacher/staff cuts. “I felt you listened to us as parents … and teachers give a lot more back than they need to,” she said. Durham resident Melissa Liampo also supported the teachers and the budget as proposed. She said teachers these days do far more than was expected of them years ago, and “they deserve our support 100 percent.” During the hearing, board member Kerrie Flanagan ex- plained the district’s five- year Capital Reserve Plan that was designed to be a “timely, reasonably accurate schedule of maintenance and improvements to security, technology infrastructure, re- pairs and maintenance of ath- letic facilities, etc.” Some of the significant projects slated for fiscal year 2010-11 are the athletic facilities at Cogin- chaug, classroom lock down system at Lyman and Memor- ial, cafeteria equipment (for operating efficiency) in all schools and oil tanks at Memorial and Brewster. Board member Mary Jane Parsons explained the dis- trict’s fund balance, which will be $1,189,348 plus a carry- over of $600,000 on June 30. Durham resident Rick Parmelee had concerns with the fund balance being way too large, and he thought the five-year capital plan was “a big surprise.” He was also not fond of athletic expenses. “You pay to play basketball, then you pay to watch your kids play basketball? That’s morally wrong,” he said. But after it was all said and done and the board recon- vened to finalize the budget, there were no changes made in response to these issues. “No one really came through with ideas,” said board member Norm Hicks. “I didn’t get any meat tonight.” The $34.8 million budget will go to a district meeting on May 3. The next board meet- ing will take place April 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Korn School. Vic- caro briefly mentioned topics that were to be discussed at the April 28 meeting, includ- ing Race to the Top Funds, Scientific Research Based Ini- tiatives (SRBI) and the strate- gic plan, which the board will vote on at the same meeting. Viccaro asked the board to suggest meeting topics for the last four meetings of the school year, and technology, standardized test scores and Naviance were all proposed. Graduation was set for Fri- day, June 18, and the meeting ended after reports from the Fi- nance and Policy committees. Habitat for Humanity working on first Middlefield house By Judy Moeckel Special to the Town Times Renovations have begun on the first Habitat for Hu- manity house in Middlefield, located at 7 Ballfall Road. It is expected to be ready for its new owners — a mother and her six-year-old son — to move in by fall. The house was declared “surplus state property” when the state undertook to widen Route 66 in Middle- field and Middletown sever- al years ago. After two-and- a-half years of negotiations with the State Department of Economic and Communi- ty Development, Middlesex Habitat for Humanity of Ct., Inc. (MHFH) was able to purchase the property from the state for the modest price of $1. By state law, the surplus property was first offered to the town of Middlefield, which chose instead to sup- port MHFH’s application to purchase it for a renovation project. “Applause to Middlefield for endorsing our application,” exclaimed Joyce Yarrow, exec- utive director of the Middlesex Habitat affiliate. “Not only is this the first Habitat home in that town, but its deed stipu- lates that it remain affordable housing in perpetuity. No mat- ter who owns it in the future, they’ll have to meet income guidelines.” The family who will be mov- ing in next fall will have a no- interest mortgage through Habitat for Humanity. As with all Habitat projects, the mort- gage recipient contributes “sweat equity” to their new See Habitat, page 7 Photo by Stephanie Wilcox Habitat volunteers inside the home last Saturday.
Transcript
Helping hands in our towns
Town Times photos by Stephanie Wilcox
Adopt-a-Road chair Babby Nuhn hands out bagslast Saturday at Allyn Brook Park to a road clean-upvolunteer. More photos on page 7.
Volume 17, Issue 1 Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall Friday, April 16, 2010
In this issue ...Calendar ...........................4Durham Briefs ...........14-15Middlefield Briefs......16-18Obituary..........................23Sports..........................24-27Spring Fix Up.............10-13
Board of Education approves budget By Stephanie Wilcox
Town Times
Late in the evening of April7, the District 13 Board of Ed-ucation (BOE) unanimouslyapproved taking the proposed2010-11 gross education budg-et of $34,826,872 to a districtmeeting on Monday, May 3, at8 p.m. in the CRHS auditori-um. The budget meeting willadjourn to a referendum onTuesday, May 4, from 6 a.m.-8p.m. This decision came im-mediately after the budgetwas presented at a publichearing, where the boardheard both support and oppo-sition from many fervent par-ents and taxpayers.
“This is ridiculous withwhere it’s all going,” saidDurham resident Roger Klee-man of the budget, which is anet increase of 2.5 percentover this year’s budget. “Cutit way down and let parentsthen come out and say whatthey want.”
Middlefield resident Kath-leen Kokoszka added, “Thereseems to be a belief in thecommunity that we can’t getquality education unless wesee an increase (in the budg-et) year after year…Yes, chil-
dren are important, but we’reall important and shouldn’thave to sacrifice.”
According to the board, al-most all of the increases in thebudget are due to salaries andbenefits. Fiftysix percent oftotal expenses comes fromsalaries, and some spoke upabout this, like Durham resi-dent Joan Zito, who said, “Ithink teachers should be giv-ing something back.”
On the other hand, Durhamparent Phuong Oanh Stephanwas thankful the board re-frained from proposingteacher/staff cuts.
“I felt you listened to us asparents … and teachers give alot more back than they needto,” she said.
Durham resident MelissaLiampo also supported theteachers and the budget asproposed. She said teachersthese days do far more thanwas expected of them yearsago, and “they deserve oursupport 100 percent.”
During the hearing, boardmember Kerrie Flanagan ex-plained the district’s five-year Capital Reserve Planthat was designed to be a“timely, reasonably accurateschedule of maintenance and
improvements to security,technology infrastructure, re-pairs and maintenance of ath-letic facilities, etc.” Some ofthe significant projects slatedfor fiscal year 2010-11 are theathletic facilities at Cogin-chaug, classroom lock downsystem at Lyman and Memor-ial, cafeteria equipment (foroperating efficiency) in allschools and oil tanks atMemorial and Brewster.
Board member Mary JaneParsons explained the dis-trict’s fund balance, whichwill be $1,189,348 plus a carry-over of $600,000 on June 30.
Durham resident RickParmelee had concerns withthe fund balance being waytoo large, and he thought thefive-year capital plan was “abig surprise.” He was also notfond of athletic expenses.
“You pay to play basketball,then you pay to watch yourkids play basketball? That’smorally wrong,” he said.
But after it was all said anddone and the board recon-vened to finalize the budget,there were no changes madein response to these issues.
“No one really camethrough with ideas,” saidboard member Norm Hicks. “I
didn’t get any meat tonight.”The $34.8 million budget
will go to a district meeting onMay 3. The next board meet-ing will take place April 28 at7:30 p.m. at Korn School. Vic-caro briefly mentioned topicsthat were to be discussed atthe April 28 meeting, includ-ing Race to the Top Funds,Scientific Research Based Ini-tiatives (SRBI) and the strate-
gic plan, which the board willvote on at the same meeting.
Viccaro asked the board tosuggest meeting topics for thelast four meetings of theschool year, and technology,standardized test scores andNaviance were all proposed.
Graduation was set for Fri-day, June 18, and the meetingended after reports from the Fi-nance and Policy committees.
Habitat for Humanity working on first Middlefield houseBy Judy Moeckel
Special to the Town Times
Renovations have begunon the first Habitat for Hu-manity house in Middlefield,located at 7 Ballfall Road. It isexpected to be ready for itsnew owners — a mother andher six-year-old son — tomove in by fall.
The house was declared“surplus state property”when the state undertook towiden Route 66 in Middle-field and Middletown sever-al years ago. After two-and-a-half years of negotiationswith the State Departmentof Economic and Communi-ty Development, MiddlesexHabitat for Humanity of Ct.,
Inc. (MHFH) was able topurchase the property fromthe state for the modestprice of $1.
By state law, the surplusproperty was first offered tothe town of Middlefield,which chose instead to sup-port MHFH’s application topurchase it for a renovationproject.
“Applause to Middlefield forendorsing our application,”exclaimed Joyce Yarrow, exec-utive director of the MiddlesexHabitat affiliate. “Not only isthis the first Habitat home inthat town, but its deed stipu-lates that it remain affordablehousing in perpetuity. No mat-ter who owns it in the future,they’ll have to meet income
guidelines.”The family who will be mov-
ing in next fall will have a no-interest mortgage throughHabitat for Humanity. As withall Habitat projects, the mort-gage recipient contributes“sweat equity” to their new
See Habitat, page 7
Photo by Stephanie Wilcox
Habitat volunteers inside the home last Saturday.
Town Times Community Briefs Friday, April 16, 2010 2
Index of AdvertisersTo advertise in the Town Times,call Joy Boone at 860-349-8026.
1150523
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Ace Oil .......................................20Adams Home Improvement ......17Addy & Sons .....................11 & 24Affordable Excavation ...............25Allan’s Tree Service ..................25Anderson Lawn Care .......12 & 24APEC Electric............................23Appraisal One Associates.........26Awning Place Inc.......................19Batters Box................................20Berardino Company Realtors3, 27Bruce Binge...............................26Boylin, Dr William ........................5Brenda’s Main Street Feed .......10Brick Construction .....................21Brockett Paving .........................24Bye Bye Pest ............................20Cahill & Sons.............................24Carlton Interior...........................18Carmines Restaurant ..................5Centurion Exterminating............23Chris Cotes Golf Shop ..............15Conroy, John DMD....................14Ct Home Additions & Remodel..23CV Enterprises ..........................22Dads Restaurant .......................18Daquila Law Office .....................7Daricek Landscaping ................23Dean Autoworks..........................2Durham Dental ..........................17Durham Farmers Market...........12Durham In Bloom ........................6Fairchild, Chris ............................6Family Tree Care ......................22Five Star Performance Horse ...26Fosdick, Gordon MD ...................7Fuel & Service .............................5Glazer Dental Associates............7Grosolar.....................................16Handy Man................................11Home Works..............................21Ianniello Plumbing.....................21J Randolph Kitchens .................21Jay Landscaping .......................23JC Farm & Greenhouse............15Ken Marino Sales & Service .......7
Lema, William J., D.M.D..............3Lino’s Market ...............................5Lyman Orchards........................19Lyon & Billard ..............................3Masonicare................................14Mhs Primary Care .......................7Micheli Unisex Styling Salon L....6Middletown Plate Glass.............22Midstate Tractor ........................13Mountain Spring Water ............26Movado Farm ............................24Neil Jones Home Imp................22Paint Spot..................................11Pet Stop.....................................22Petruzelo Agency Insurance.....18Putter’s Paradis .........................20Raintree Landscaping.......10 & 25Realty Associates......................27RLI Electric........................11 & 24Roblee Plumbing.......................23Rockfall Co ...............................25Rockfall Northeast ....................26RSDL Home Improvements .....21Rudolph’s Landscaping.............13Santi, Shirley ...............................5Sea Breeze Hauling ..................25Sharon Mccormick Design .......25Shemeth, Todd............................6Singles Alternative.....................17Sisters Cleaning Service...........24Split Enz ....................................26Stafford Motor Speedway ..........6T-N-T Home & Lawncare..........24Tile Renovators.................12 & 26Tony’s Masonry.........................23Torrison Stone & Garden,.12 & 21Turner, Elizabeth.......................27Uncle Bob’s Flower & Garden...11Used Hitchcock Furniture..........10VMB Custom Builders...............26Whitehouse Construction..........23Whitney Ridge Stables..............25Wild Wisteria .............................10Wildwood Lawn Care ................22Windows Plus..............................5
CorrectionsWe strive to bring you the
most accurate and up-to-dateinformation available eachweek, but if you see some-thing in Town Times that is-n’t quite right, give our newsdepartment a call at 860-349-8000, and we’ll do our best tomake things right.
In our Inland WetlandsAgency (IWA) Brief on April9, we wrote that the IWA hadpassed the proposed Kastnerand Calvanese developmentfor seniors on Powder HillRoad (the site of the formerHappy Acres), after closingthe public hearing. The IWAdid, in fact, close the Kasten-er and Calvanese publichearing, but the applicationthey passed immediately af-terwards was theTradewinds proposal for 1Lorraine Terrace (on thecorner of Route 66, the for-mer mini-golf course).
It is the Tradewinds siteplan that was not deemed asignificant activity but forwhich the IWA held public
hearings on Feb. 17 andMarch 17. It was approvedwith six conditions, mostlyabout erosion controls andstorm water management,as well as requests to notifyMiddlefield officials at settimes in the constructionprocess. The IWA noted thatsome of the plans would im-prove the property, such asremoval of invasive plantsand establishment of a per-manent native vegetativebuffer, and that the projectwould eventually be servedby Middletown public waterand sewer.
The article on fall sportsplans on page one of theApril 9 issue said Cogin-chaug football players willlikely hold practice at thefield behind Strong Schooland Falcon Field in Meridenthis fall. However, FalconField is not part of the plan.In any case, plans are not yetsolidified for fall sports.
On page 24 of last week’spaper, the picture on the farright was of Nicki Stevenshugging Kayden Manzara.
Job workshopFirst Selectmen Laura
Francis of Durham and JonBrayshaw of Middlefield areinviting middle and uppermanagement professionalswho are currently out of workor underemployed to takepart in a special all-day work-shop on April 20. The re-em-ployment workshop is spon-sored by Workforce Alliance,the regional workforce in-vestment board for SouthCentral CT. Francis is on theexecutive committee of chiefelected officials that helpsoversee the board’s activities.
“We are pleased that Work-
force Alliance has created thisprogram geared to the needsof workers throughout its re-gion,” said Francis. “Many ofWorkforce Alliance’s pro-grams have served the needsof our inner cities. The pro-longed recession has createdthe need to offer career devel-opment programs in everytown and city, includingDurham and Middlefield.”
“Connecticut has uniqueeconomic challenges. Manytalented workers need to rein-vent themselves to prosper inthe new economy,” notedBrayshaw. “This workshopoffers residents a creativeway to approach the job
search. It will help them devel-op strategies to find compara-ble positions.”
The workshop is being ledby Laura Collins of CollinsGroup, a Human Resourcesconsulting firm that bringsover 20 years of corporate ex-perience to business leaders.She has held leadership rolesin staffing and development inboth the finance and pharma-ceuticals industries. She isalso an adjunct professor ofhuman resources at GatewayCommunity College.
“We developed this work-shop in response to an em-ployment crisis that has leftno town untouched,” saidWilliam Villano, executive di-rector of Workforce Alliance.“Being unemployed is trau-matic no matter where youlive. There is a rule of thumbthat it takes a month of search-ing for every $10,000 in incomeyou require from a new job,That’s 10 months for a$100,000-a-year earner.” Reac-tions to the first workshopwere very positive. Partici-pants said they “Appreciatedlearning how to network, useinternet job sites and bettermanage time.” Another notedthat, “Everyone remained en-gaged and enthusiastic.”
The workshop will coverjob search techniques, re-sumes, networking and theuse of social media like Face-book and LinkedIn. The work-shop will be held in DurhamTown Hall on Tuesday, April20, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Residents who are interestedin participating should [email protected] is limited, so respondquickly. All requests will re-ceive replies.
Electronic recycle The Connecticut Resources
Recovery Authority is hold-
ing a residential electronicscollections on Saturday, April17, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at theCRRA Transfer Station,Town Dump Road in Essex,for area towns includingDurham, Middlefield andRockfall. Paper shreddingwill also be available.
For more information, visitwww.crra.org/pages/links.htm.
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times 3
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Lake Beseck: From pasture to pond to proud neighborhoodBy Trish Dynia
Special to the Town Times
A popular playground forboating enthusiasts and fish-ermen, Middlefield’s LakeBeseck, along with BeseckMountain to the west, derivetheir names from the NativeAmerican word ‘Bessett,’meaning black, as in BlackMountain and Lake Black.Considering the lake area’sthoroughly colorful history,the name doesn’t seem to fit,but there it is.
Prior to 1848, the area wasswampy, spring-fed pasturewhere Benjamin Miller, a di-rect descendant of Middle-field’s founding family,grazed his cows. Then a damwas built to provide waterpower to a button factory, andseveral manufacturing enter-prises soon sprang up in thearea. Eventually, the powerharnessed from the newly cre-ated Beseck Reservoir serv-iced mills from Baileyville toRockfall.Location, Location, Location
According to Lake BeseckAssociation president DickBoynton, “By 1929 most com-panies in the area had con-verted to steam or electricity,with the Rockfall Pistol Shopbeing the last to convert in1940.” This cleared the wayfor a newly formed companycalled Mountain Lake Devel-opment to create and adver-tise for sale building lots 25feet in length starting at $95each. Said Boynton, “It was abit of a scam because the ad-vertisements didn’t mentionthat you had to purchase atleast two lots and those closerto the lake cost substantiallymore than $95.” Nevertheless,the strategy worked. Adver-tisements were placed in key
metropolitan areas wherewell-to-do families in searchof a convenient summer get-away quickly snapped up thelots. So between 1929 and 1940nearly 300 homes were builtalong the west side of the lake.Families often camped out intents until a modest homecould be built.
Until the mid-1960s, LakeBeseck was maintained as aprivate community with itsown general store and activebeach house near the presentday town beach, where nu-merous dances, picnics andother social events drew thecommunity together. SaidBoynton, “In the days beforeair conditioning, you camehome from work at the end ofthe day, threw on your swimsuit and went down to thebeach to cool off and talk toneighbors.” The easy social-ization which naturallyflowed from these events cre-ated a close knit, friendlycommunity where neighborsknew and helped each other, asituation which continues tothe present day.Rover’s Lodge and a Bucketof Blood
In 1934, New Haven resi-dent Albert (Babs) Babcockand his son Sam purchasedthe BB Lodge on BaileyvilleRoad and created a mecca for
area residents as well asSam’s hockey buddies fromNew York City.
The establishment was notnamed after a dog namedRover who wandered in oneday with a polite burp and felthonor bound to mark his ter-ritory. It was actually namedfor The Rovers, a farm teamfor the New York Rangersthat Sam Babcock played for.It became a full servicerestaurant and bar spreadover two floors. The businesshosted summer clam bakes,winter fishing derbies, swingband dances and Polish mu-sic festivals. “People camedressed in their best clothesand everyone had a wonder-
ful time,” said present owner,Sam Babcock Jr.
Lake Beseck Grill, or as itwas known to locals, “The
Bucket of Blood” operatedaround the corner from
See Lake Beseck, page 20
Locals enjoy a clam back on the back lawn of RoversLodge, overlooking Lake Beseck in the 1940s.
Inside at Rovers in the1940s.
Town Times Friday, April 16, 2010 4
FRIDAY
April 16Shabbat
Celebrate the joy of Shab-bat every third Fridayevening at CongregationAdath Israel in Middletown.Services will begin at 5:30p.m. followed by a traditionalShabbat meal at 6:15 p.m.,with conversation and songled by Rabbi Seth Haaz. Theevening is free of charge andopen to the public. Call 860-346-4709 if you plan to attend.Flowers, Art and Market
“Connecticut Barns andFarms; Their Beauty andTheir Bounty,” a flowershow, will be open to the pub-lic at the Barns at WesleyanHills from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.The Barn are located at 616Long Hill Rd. in Middletown.
SATURDAY
April 17Electronic Recycle
CRRA is holding an elec-tronics collection from 9 a.m.to 1 p.m. at the CRRA Trans-fer Station, Town Dump Roadin Essex for residentsDurham, Middlefield andRockfall. For info, visitwww.crra.org/pages/links.htm.
Connecticut DayCelebrate Connecticut-pro-
duced foods and beverages atLyman’s Connecticut Dayfrom 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thisevent features complimenta-ry tastings of Connecticutspecialties, foods prepared inthe Lyman farm bakery anddeli and samples of an over-sized Connecticut birthdaycake. For info, call 860-349-1793,or visit lymanorchards.com.
Benefit DinnerEnjoy a buffet dinner and
blues/American roots musicby Dan Stevens and ChrisD’Amato at 4 p.m. at the Mid-dletown High School, LaRosaLane in Middletown. All pro-ceeds to benefit Kleen EnergySystems power plant victims.For info or tickets, call 860-344-3552 or e-mail [email protected].
Tag SaleSt. James Episcopal
Church, 498 Killingworth Rd.in Higganum, will have a tagsale from to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.For information or to drop offitems, call 860-345-2445.
Atwater-Donnelly TrioThe American and Celtic
folk group, Atwater-Donnelly
Trio, will perform at 7 p.m. atthe United Churches ofDurham. Tickets for the con-cert will be available at thedoor for $10 per person. TheUnited Churches of Durhamis located at 228 Main St. Sende-mail to [email protected] or call860-716-5497 for information.
SUNDAY
April 18Pancake Breakfast
The Middlefield ExplorerPost 82 will be hosting a pan-cake breakfast at the Middle-field Firehouse from 8 a.m. to1 p.m. The cost is $5 for adultsand children over eight; kidsunder eight are free.
Four Seasons ConcertFour Seasons will perform
the works of Buxtehude,Bach, Haydn, Mendelsssohnand others at 4 p.m. at the Lit-tle Church in the Wilderness.Admission is $14, students$10, and children are free. Thechurch is located at 50Emanuel Church Rd. inKillingworth. There will be areception following the con-cert. For info, call 860-663-1109or visit www.churchinthewil-derness.org.
Choreography ProgramCongregation Beth Shalom
Rodfe Zedek, 55 East KingsHighway in Chester, willpresent set designer DavidHays and former soloist balle-rina Gloria Govrin, who willtalk of their collaborationswith legendary choreogra-pher George Balanchine at9:30 a.m. For info on this freeprogram, open to the public,call 860-526-8920.
MONDAY
April 19Free Movie
Every Monday the Middle-town Senior Center, 150William St., offers a freemovie at 12:30 p.m. Today’smovie is Precious withGabourey Sidibe, Mo’Niqueand Mariah Carey. Call 860-344-3513 for information.
Chamber BreakfastConnecticut state universi-
ty system chancellor, Dr.David Carter will be thespeaker at the Chamber ofCommerce breakfast at 7:45a.m. at the Crown Plaza inCromwell. For info, call 860-347-6924 or e-mail [email protected].
Memorial Parents
The Memorial School PTOwill meet at 7 p.m.
Arts Advocacy AwardsThe Middletown Commis-
sion on the Arts invites every-one to attend the Arts Advo-cacy Day awards ceremony at5 p.m. at First and Last Tav-ern, 220 Main St. in Middle-town. The event will honorMarco Gaylord and theGreater Middletown Chorale.Refreshments are offered. Forinformation, call 860-343-6620.
TUESDAY
April 20Street Musician
Roy Lisker will talk abouthis experiences as a streetmusician in Paris at 7 p.m. atRussell Library, 123 Broad St.in Middletown. For informa-tion, call 860-347-2528.
Meet Your GreensCome to Middlesex Coun-
ty’s networking event to ex-change news about environ-mental issues at the Tavern atthe Armory, Main St. in Mid-dletown from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
PFLAG MeetingGreater New Haven Shore-
line Chapter of PFLAG meetsat the Church of the Re-deemer, 185 Cold Spring St. inNew Haven, the third Tues-day of each month at 7:30 p.m.For more info e-mail [email protected] call 203-458-0493.
Employment WorkshopMiddle and upper manage-
ment professionals who arecurrently out of work or un-deremployed are urged to at-tend an all-day workshop atDurham Town Hall from 9:30a.m. to 3:30 p.m. [email protected] participate.
Anime FilmChildren ages 11 and older
are invited to see the moviePonvo from 4 to 6 p.m. at Rus-sell Library, 123 Broad St. inMiddletown. Light refresh-ments will be served. For in-formation, call 860-347-2528.
John Lyman ParentsThe John Lyman School par-
ent organization meets at 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
April 21TOPS
Durham TOPS Club meetsevery Wednesday at 6 p.m. onthe third floor of the DurhamTown Hall. For info, call Nao-mi Klotsko at 860-349-9558 orBonnie Olesen at 860-349-9433.
Computer RecyclingMiddlesex Community Col-
lege will hold a recycleingevent for all computers andelectronics (no TVs). Bringanything with a cord to thelower parking lot, 100 Train-ing Hill Rd. in Middletown be-tween 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
THURSDAY
April 22CRHS Parents
The Coginchaug parentcouncil will meet at 7 p.m. inthe school library. Studentsfrom EDGE will be present todiscuss the dangers of cellphone use and texting whiledriving. Board of Educationmember will be present to dis-cuss the upcoming budget.All residents are welcome.
The SoloistThe Soloist, starring Jamie
Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.,will be shown and discussedat 6:30 p.m. at Russell Library,123 Broad St. in Middletown.Richard Alleva, film critic forCommonweal magazine, willlead the discussion. For infor-mation, call 860-347-2528.Earth Day Concert and Expo
Celebrate the 40th anniver-sary of Earth Day with anexpo and concert at Cogin-chaug. At 6 p.m. organiza-tions and businesses willhave earth-friendly displaysor products from 6 to 7 p.m.The concert begins at 7 p.m.The event is free, but a free-will offering will be acceptedto support the “Earth’s Birth-day Project” through the Na-ture Conservancy.Earth Day Panel Discussion
Wesleyan University willhost a group of experts in apanel discussion on the roleof the arts and sciences in fa-cilitating awareness of envi-ronmental issues. Followingthe discussion will be theworld premiere of Connec-tions Within A Fragile World,a documentary detailing theexperience the first Feet tothe Fire project. The event be-gins at 8 p.m. in the CFA Hall,on the Wesleyan campus. Ad-mission is free. For more in-formation visit www.wes-leyan.edu/environmental-studies or call 860-685-3733.
FRIDAY
April 23Business Networking
The local chapter of Busi-ness Networking Internation-
al will meet in the UnitedMethodist Church, 24 OldChurch St. in Middletown, at7:30 a.m. Contact Kirk Hagertat 860-349-5626 for info.
A Nice Family GatheringLocal actor Don Bourret
will perform in East Hamp-ton’s Podium Player’s A NiceFamily Gathering. This veryfunny play is presented at theGoff House in East Hamptonbeginning tonight, with addi-tional performances April 24,30 and May 1, at 7:30 p.m. anda 2 p.m. matinee on April 24.Details, directions and ticketsare available at www.podi-umplayers.org and www.le-landerummel.com.
SATURDAY
April 24Opening Day
Little League opening dayat noon.
Recorder VirtuososQuartet New Generation
will perform at 2 p.m. at Rus-sell Library, 123 Broad St. inMiddletown. Performing onrecorders of varying sizesand shapes the Quartettransports the listener intonew sonic worlds, confirm-ing the recorder’s viability asa modern classical instru-ment. For information, call860-347-2528.
State Baking ContestThomas Wilt, chairman of
the Connecticut State BakingContest, will give a freedemonstration on how tomake the recipe at the UnitedChurches of Durham, 228Main St. in Durham, at 9 a.m.Seats are limited to 15 partici-pants. Send an e-mail to [email protected] or call 860-349-3237 to reserve yourspace. Information can befound at ctfairs.org web site.
PuppetSpeakThe Arts Center at Killing-
worth will host an evening ofpuppetry performances andworkshops in the Deep RiverTheater, 174 Main St. in DeepRiver from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30p.m. for 5-11 and again from6:30 to 9 p.m. for those over 11.For tickets call 860-663-5593.
Victorian TeaHeritage Quilters of
Wallingford will present aVictorian tea from 1 to 4:30p.m. at the First Congrega-tional Church, 62 Colony St.in Meriden. Victorian LadyKandie Carle will perform“1860’s: From Hats to Hoops”Tickets are $15 by callingSharon Burch at 203-238-7784.
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times 5
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DELI SPECIALSLand O’Lakes American Cheese.....$2.89 lb.Muenster Cheese ..........................$4.29 lb.Domestic Ham..............................$2.49 lb.Boar’s Head Black Forest Ham......$6.99 lb.Italian Mortadella..........................$6.49 lb.Carando Hard Salami....................$3.69 lb.Russer Cooked Salami .................. $2.99 lb.Willowbrook Smoked Turkey Breast....$4.99 lb.Mucke’s Pressed Ham...................$4.49 lb.
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P O S T M A S T E R: Sendaddress changes to TownTimes, P.O. Box 265,Middlefield, CT 06455.
1142953
Little interest by Durham residents in housing rehab programBy Stephanie Wilcox
Special to the Town Times
If any Durham residentswere even vaguely interestedin taking advantage of a hous-ing rehab program they havebeen hearing a lot about, hereis one last chance to get feder-al funds. At the April 12 Boardof Selectmen (BOS) meeting,First Selectman Laura Fran-cis proposed shelving thehome improvement programfor another year until there ismore interest from townspeo-ple, as recommended by theconsultant. Francis explainedthat a critical criterion for theprogram is to have 12 to 15 let-ters of interest from residents,and despite multiple an-nouncements, Francis has re-ceived only three.
“I’m not sure why, it’s a verygood program,” she said. “I’mdisappointed and surprised.”
Selectmen John Szewczyksaid he wanted to reach out tothe community one more timefor the sake of the three peoplewho showed interest. Othersinterested should contactFrancis for more informationor send a letter to
Brian Ferris asked theboard to grant him an exten-sion to complete the CrookedHill Road improvements.When Francis told him shehas received multiple emailsfrom residents wonderingwhy he wants an extension, hestated that the contract hadexpired, and he wanted theproject finished. Ferris pre-sented an encroachment per-mit to the board, which he ex-plained was the item that wasslowing everything down.
Ferris said everything is inplace, and the surveyor willstake the area next week so itwill be ready to be paved. Theextension will take the projectto May 31, and Ferris con-firmed that he is not asking
for the bond money. The se-lectmen approved the request.
Pension plan andlibrary copier
The selectmen approvedresolutions pertaining to thetown’s defined benefit plan.Francis explained that theresolutions are required bythe IRS to allow Durham topick up pre-tax contributionsof employees to the pensionplan, whereas the old planwas post-tax. The resolutionswill benefit both the bottomline for the individual, as wellas the employer who is payingless for employer taxes onpayroll books, she said.
The selectmen approved en-tering into a 60-month lease be-tween De Lage Landen Finan-cial Services and the town ofDurham for a Sharp MX-C311copier to be used at the DurhamLibrary. Francis applauded
Maryjane Malavasi, Beth Mon-cata and Valerie Kilmartin formaking sure the town got thebest deal from the vendors.
Local Traffic Authorityrequest
A resident requested a two-way stop sign at the intersec-tion of Haddam Quarter Roadand Johnson Lane. The select-men discussed how there is al-ready one stop sign and a two-way one doesn’t seem neces-sary. Francis thought that themanual only authorizes all-way and four-way stop signsin addition to regular stopsigns, but she will check withroad foreman Kurt Bober be-fore making any decisions.
Proclamations,resignations andappointments
The board accepted a
proclamation for Silver StarBanner Day recognizing thosewho serve in the armed forcesand their families. They alsoaccepted a resignation fromMark Laudano, an alternateon the Planning and ZoningCommission, and approvedGeorge “Chip” Williams andOna McLaughlin as alternateson the Historic District Com-mission.
Memorial Day festivitiesand Washington TrailRoad Race
The selectmen approved a
See BOS, page 14
Town Times celebrates another birthday, its 16th!Town Times Friday, April 16, 2010 6
Somewhere under theground at Peckham Park inMiddlefield, a Town Timestime capsule awaits. No onecan remember when it wasput there, what’s in it exactlyor when it was supposed to beresurrected. But it was putthere as a fun way to com-memorate the newspaper thathas been serving the towns ofDurham, Middlefield andRockfall since 1994 and has be-come very much a part of thecommunity.
Though they didn’t openthe capsule, the four foundersof the Town Times gatheredaround last Wednesdayevening for this story on thepaper’s 16th anniversary.While flipping through pastissues of Town Times and oldphotographs, there were a lotof “remember whens.”
Remember when Sue Van-Derzee bumped into PhyllisSheridan at a bagel store inMiddletown one morning?Phyllis approached Sue andsaid, “Hey, I heard youworked for a newspaper, and Ithink there should be a news-paper in our town.”
Sue, who in fact hadworked for a newspaper, alsothought the town was lackingone ever since the Gazette, thetown’s former paper, was
bought by Shoreline Timesand eventually disbanded. Suerecalls “much commiseratingamong folks in parents’groups” during the monthsthe town was paperless. So onthat morning in the bagel line,Sue and Phyllis came to the re-alization that they both wereinterested, and they both hadfriends who also wanted tomake it happen.
With Sue and her friendMarilyn Keurajian and Phyl-lis and her friend Bill Currlin,it was the real makings of ateam. Sue had newspaper ex-perience and wanted to write,Marilyn had experience de-signing and selling ads, Phyl-lis wanted to write but wasalso a good business personand Bill was great with com-puters and technology.
From then on, their liveswere consumed with the workit took to get all the news andevents out to the community,but what followed was an ex-citing and rewarding journey.
“The town needed it andparents wanted it,” said Mari-lyn. “It was like a missionproject for us, and no other lo-cal papers could serve thesetowns completely.”
From the time they got to-gether, it took a few months toget things going and to figureout who was doing what. Butthe big question was, “Can weactually do this?” They renteda space at Executive Officesin Middlefield, bought com-puters and spent $500 each tobe trained in PageMaker. Topay for the soon-to-be paper,Marilyn went around tryingto sell ads.
“Many businesses took aleap of faith with us,” she re-calls. In fact Uncle Bob’s, Mon-theis, Neil Jones, Alan’s TreeService, Golschneider Paint-ing. Dr. Bill Lema andDurham Dental were some ofthose brave businesses whotook that leap and are still loy-al advertisers to this day.Thank you all!
Marilyn used her artistictalent to draw the masthead,and it’s still the same one usedacross the top of every frontpage today. Though few peo-ple know this, in the drawingare all four of their houses, theMiddlefield FederatedChurch, Lake Beseck, LymanOrchards and a few otherhouses from town. One of theharder decisions was settlingon a name, and it came downto Town Lines or TownTimes. The corporate namechosen was Good Gnus, LLC.
The first thing that wassent out to townspeople was amailing that said “We’re Com-ing!” Shortly thereafter, onApril 22, 1994, the 20-page firstissue found its way to every-one’s mailboxes. The frontpage story was about DMI-AAB, and there was a pictureof construction going on at theUnited Churches of Durham.
“One thing that struck mewas how immediately we be-
came like stars,” said Mari-lyn. Bill remembers theproud feeling when he deliv-ered the bundles of papers —“It was like I was the hero.”
After that first issue, thefounders agree that the trustand dependence the town hadfor the newspaper was almostinstant.
Though the paper wasprinted out of Turley Publica-tions in Palmer, Massachu-setts, all the production wasdone right here in Middlefieldby these almost “rank ama-teurs.” Producing the TownTimes back then was as tech-nically advanced as the timesallowed, though today itseems archaic. For instance,some of the information forstories came from encyclope-dias on disks — remember,
this was before Google. Oncethe pages were designed us-ing PageMaker on the com-puter, they had to be tiled be-cause they were printed inquarters. Then what wasprinted was cut up andarranged on a piece of paperusing a wax machine. Onetime for a story on May flies,the creators found an actualspecimen and waxed it downfor use in the paper. Talkabout using your resourcesand creativity!
With these slow, meticu-lous methods of production,there were manyovernighters, but all felt therewas equal contribution. Infact, they worked four to six
Photo by Stephanie Wilcox
Bill Currlin, Phyllis Sheridan, Marilyn Keurajian andSue VanDerzee stand with the four clocks that usuallyhang on the walls at Town Times. The significance ofthe clocks? That’s a whole other story.
See Birthday, page 19
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times 71148096
UPSTANDINGFeet can be compared to thefoundation under a building. If thefoundation sags, so does thebuilding. As we age and gain morebody mass, the force that is appliedto our skeletal structure increases.That force must be supported byour lower extremities, including theankles and feet. Posture is theposition in which you hold yourbody upright against gravity.Keeping the feet in good, healthycondition is critical to achievingand maintaining good posture. Ifgood posture is not maintained,stress is placed on the body justfrom standing and walking. Intime, damage is done to joints,ligaments, and muscles. Goodposture also helps preventbackaches, muscular pain, andfatigue.Because your feet are thefoundation of your entire body,keeping them strong, healthy, andpain-free is fundamental to yourwell-being. When foot problems dooccur, correcting them early onoften leads to the correction ofaches, pains, and problems in otherparts of the body. Keep yourbody’s foundation in the best ofhealth by treating your feet to thebest of care – call us atAFFILIATED FOOT CARECENTER, LLC, for a consultation.Office hours in Middlefield areMon. 9-5, Wed. 3-7, and Fri. 9-5;Tues. & Thurs 9-5 in Wallingford.
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home, working on the renova-tions with the project volun-teers. The Ballfall Road househas been gutted and will benew from top to bottom, liter-ally. The renovations includea new roof and other specificsto bring it up to building code.
Much of the work takesplace on Saturdays, and dona-tions of refreshments as wellas labor are very welcome.For information, go towww.habitatmiddlesex.organd click on “Projects.”
Donors towards this reno-vation project include: Mid-dlesex United Way, FederalHome Loan Bank, LibertyBank Foundation, WebsterBank, Bank of America, FirstAmerica Title InsuranceCompany, Middlesex CountyCommunity Foundation andthe Thomas J. Atkins Foun-dation. MHFH is raising thebalance of the monies needed
to complete the project.Yarrow says that a family
had been chosen for this housein summer 2008, but they lostthem because of the delay.
“We had to have a new ap-plicant meeting, and the trans-fer of the property finally tookplace in the summer of 2009,”she explained.
She notes that more than200 families are on their “loglist” for future home projects;however, she says, anyonecan apply when a propertycomes up, as long as theymeet the Habitat guidelines.
MHFH is actively pursuinghousing opportunities, in-cluding donations of land anddwellings, in the towns ofMiddlesex County. Letters tothis effect will be going out toeach town in the county in thenear future.
Donations are one part ofthe Habitat equation; the oth-er part is the volunteers, whohelp provide the “AmericanDream” of home ownership to
Habitat (From page 1)partner families inMiddlesex Countycommunities. For in-formation aboutMHFH volunteer op-portunities, go towww.habitatmiddle-sex.org, or call JoyceYarrow at 860-343-9179.
Adopt-a-Road baggersLeft, Bar-bara Kauff-man and AlBradanini,w h opassed outbags, takea break topose withA d o p t - a -R o a d e r sDon andLisa Rawl-ing. Below,L y n nJ o h n s o nreceives a
bag to help in Saturday’s Adopt-a-Road clean-up.
Town Times488 Main St., P.O. Box 265, Middlefield, CT 06455
Town Times is published every Friday by the Record-JournalPublishing Co. and is delivered to all homes and businesses inDurham, Middlefield and Rockfall.
Sue VanDerzee, EditorStephanie Wilcox, Reporter
Brian Monroe, Advertising DirectorJoy Boone, Advertising Sales
Letters policyThe Town Times intends to present a forum for the lively
exchange of ideas and issues. To facilitate the publication ofyour contributions, several guidelines should be followed.Letters to the editor must be signed, with a phone numberincluded. The writer will be called to confirm authorship. Noanonymous letters will be printed. Contributions by any in-dividual or group will not be published more frequently thanonce a month. Every effort will be made to print all letters re-ceived. However, the selection and date of publication will beat the discretion of the editor. Finally, the opinions ex-pressed by our letter writers are not necessarily those of thisnewspaper. Deadline: Tuesday noon for Friday publication.
Town Times Opinion Friday, April 16, 2010 8
Letters to the Editor
FoundA dog’s leash was found in
the Strickland field openspace area. If you think it isyours and can describe it,call 860-349-8710.
Thank you,Laura andAliciaTo the editor,
The Durham Town Clerk’soffice participated in Pass-port Day in the USA on Sat-urday, March 27. The daywas very successful. Weprocessed 39 applicationsand made over $1,000 for thetown. I couldn’t have donethis without the help of First
Selectman Laura Francis,who took the passport pic-tures, and my assistant Ali-cia Willett, who helpedprocess the applications.
Thank you, Laura and Ali-cia, for making the processrun smoothly and efficiently!
Kim Garvis, Town ClerkDurham
Your recipesare needed
So many of our communi-ty events involve good cook-ing, such as the local volun-teers who serve up wonder-ful meals at the DurhamFair, the spaghetti supper atthe high school, the fullbreakfast at the firehouse tohonor Veterans Day and the
Middlefield Old Home Dayschicken barbeque. The resi-dents of Middlefield,Durham and Rockfall sureknow how to cook!
This leads to a perfect op-portunity for you to show offyour culinary skills. TheMiddlefield Lions Club willbe publishing a cookbook ofthe best recipes fromDurham, Middlefield andRockfall. Certainly those inthe community have manygood recipes they would likepublished! Some residentshave served up such goodiesas vegetable stuffed mush-rooms; roast chicken withpotato and olives; Lowry’sfabulous chili; and chocolatebrownie cheesecake. Imag-ine having all those recipes,and many, many more in onevolume.
In order to make therecipe book a success, how-ever, they need your help!Each cookbook containsabout 350 recipes. They needto reach that goal in order topublish the book. You cansend as many as five recipesin total, and you will getyour name published in thecookbook with your recipe,for each one received. Tellyour friends, relatives,neighbors and communityorganizations you work
with: they can send us theirrecipes too!
Recipes are needed for ap-petizers, beverages, soups,salads, vegetables, side dish-es, main dishes, breads,rolls, desserts, cookies, can-dies and more.
E-mail your recipes byMay 31, [email protected] mail them to The Middle-field Lions Club, P.O. Box 1,Middlefield, CT 06455 Attn:COOKBOOK. Be sure to in-clude your phone number incase they have a question.
Middlefield Lions
Stella made ithome!
It comes with an enormousamount of happiness andpeace of mind that I am able totell you I found Stella! Afterseveral false alarms through-out last week, I decided tohead down to Connecticutfrom where we live in Ver-mont to look for her. I broughtdown objects with our home’sscent, and I even broughtdown used litter to spreadaround the outside of ourhouse. I also printed out 40more flyers to post aroundtown and neighborhoods.
On Saturday, April 10, I be-gan my search at 8 a.m., at
2:15 p.m. I headed home to eatlunch and to spread her usedlitter around the yard andwoods, hoping it would guideher way home. As I was doingthat, I decided to yell hername. All of a sudden, I heardmeowing! I was very excitedand butterflies were in mystomach, but I knew I neededto be realistic. I kept callingher, and the more I called hername, the louder and morefrequent the meowing was! Ifrantically followed hermeow through the woods andtowards a drain pipe! Andthere she was in the drainpipe behind a house on Route77 in Durham!
It was an awesome rescuewith the help of my brothersPhil and Chris and one that Iwill never forget! It felt amaz-ing to see her beautiful faceagain and know that she washome! I took her to Piper-Olsen where she was checkedout as being healthy! She didlose weight, but she is fine! Iwant to thank everyone forthe help and keeping a lookout for our dear Stella!
Cindi Faiella and Jeffrey Kenyon
We’re on the Web: http://www.towntimes.com
Seniors: Help keep yourself safe with these tipsLike most senior citizens,
you wish to maintain yourlifestyle and your independ-ence.
Being safe during the goldenyears only requires a few sim-ple steps:At home:
Remember to keep doorslocked at all times.
Use quality locks on windows and slidingdoors.
Do not hide keys around the outside of thehouse.
Never let strangers into your home withoutchecking their identification.
Be sure the number on your house is visibleand lighted so that emergency personnel canfind you quickly when you need help.
Know your neighbors and keep their phonenumbers handy for emergencies.
Trim trees and shrubs to eliminate hidingplaces for thieves.
Keep the exterior of the home well lit.Install motion detectors on exterior lighting.Install timers on several lamps, to create the
impression of an occupied home.If you arrive at home and suspect a stranger
may be inside, do not enter.Leave quietly and call 911 to re-port the crime.Out and about:
Inquire with your local Se-nior Service Group about trans-portation services.
Always tell someone whereyou are going and when you ex-
pect to return.Keep your car doors locked at all times.Be alert in parking lots or garages.Have your keys ready when approaching
your car or home.Do not carry packages that obstruct your
view and make it hard to react.Carry a cell phone with you for emergencies.If using public transportation, sit by the
driver or by an exit.Carry your purse close to your body; do not
dangle it.Place your wallet in the front pockets of
your pants or inside your coat.Do not carry large amounts of cash.Use direct deposit for social security and
other checks.Work out a buddy system with a friend,
and check on each other daily.
Frank DeFelice, forDurham Public Safety Com.
GuestEditorial
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times Columns 9
Common sense neededInstead of cutting
spending to responsi-ble levels in state gov-ernment, our state leg-islature has constantlyvoted to implementmassive tax hikes forthe residents of Con-necticut. Besides rais-ing taxes, however,our state legislaturehas also been raisinglicensing fees to unrea-sonable levels.
Possibly the mostnotable fee increaseshave been those re-quired to obtain fish-ing, hunting, or trap-ping licenses in Connecticut. Thesefees were increased by 100 percent injust this past year. The end resultcould have been predicted. The num-ber of licenses purchased has de-creased by over 50 percent, resultingin a net loss of income for the state ofConnecticut. Moreover, the industryas a whole has been hurt by a decreasein the number of individuals partici-pating in the activities and thereforenot buying the equipment needed.
The state legislature needs a returnto common sense. Massive tax hikes,increases in licensing fees and in-creases in spending are not the waysto improve our economy. These arenot the way to help businesses prosperand certainly not the way to decreasea state unemployment rate hovering
around 10 percent.What is needed is
common sense. Morespecifically, govern-ment can’t spend moremoney than it collects.Tough decisions haveto be made, and certainspending projectsmight have to get puton hold. The founda-tion of what govern-ment should do: pro-viding a quality educa-tion for our children,providing for the pub-lic safety of all our resi-dents, and maintain-ing a quality infra-
structure should be maintained andimproved.
However, all other forms of spend-ing must be thoroughly examined.There are numerous governmentagencies that replicate work and canbe combined to provide a savings tothe residents of this state. Programsthat have been proven to have no pos-itive impact or have a cost benefit fac-tor that is unreasonable need to beeliminated (even if the initial intent ofthe program was a good one). Pro-grams such as job training and jobreentry leading to self-sufficiencyneed to be improved upon and ex-panded, whereas government welfareprograms with no timetable to helpthe individual become self-sufficientneed to be eliminated.
John Szewczyk
From A DurhamSelectman’s
desk
A funny thing at CRHSA funny thing hap-
pened in Cogin-chaug’s auditoriumthis weekend. If youwere among the hugecrowds that attendedone, or in some casesall three, of the per-formances of the CRHS school musi-cal last weekend, you know exactlywhat I mean. A cast and crew ofaround 100 staged a three-night run ofA Funny Thing Happened On The WayTo The Forum, leaving huge crowdsin stitches every night.
Like anything worth doing, monthsof work went into making the showthe seamless success we all saw onstage. Roughly 75 student actors andmusicians and another 15 faculty,staff, and parents have been workingtogether since late January buildingsets, memorizing lines, choreographyand music, and trying to figure outjust how wild the Proteans could getbefore someone got injured jumpingon and off the stage. The week of theplay, an additional crew of helperssigned on to sell tickets and snacks,serve as ushers, and do whatever elseneeded doing the night of the play.
As anyone who attended the showcan tell you, it was all worth it. The au-dience had a great time, and it was ob-vious that the actors and pit bandmembers were having at least asmuch fun as the rest of us.
But some of the most interestingthings I learned came from just talk-ing to people in the lobby before theshow. For instance, in some schoolsthe performance arts kids and the ath-letes are different kids, but we hadmembers of every single sports teamat CRHS involved in the play. Not onlythat, but we had several multiple-gen-eration school play families with par-ents in the audience and kids per-forming, and even one grandfatherand grandson both involved in stag-ing the play this year!
That might soundsurprising, but every-where you turn in Re-gion 13 you run intothem – former stu-dents who value thecommunity so muchthat they return as
adults, raising their own familieshere and sometimes even takingteaching positions in our schools. Ihaven’t had the opportunity to hireany of my former students yet, but ourdeparting principal, Dr. Wysowski,has former students scattered aroundthe district, including a few here atCRHS. As a going-away surprise, Iasked a few of the district’s teachersfor their thoughts, and here are a fewof their Dr. W memories.
According to one younger teacher,“When I was a freshman here, Stevewas the assistant principal, and thekids were scared of him, for the mostpart… I remember that by the time Iwas a senior, everyone, for the mostpart, loved him.”
Another mentioned a surprise per-formance a few years ago, still avail-able on YouTube, featuring “his danc-ing at our Coginchaug Idol contest toYMCA” and the fact that “he has al-ways been a good sport about studentimpersonations of him during dramaclass productions, and he even ap-peared in one.” That offbeat perform-ance knack is something that notmany people outside of CRHS knowabout him, but here it is famous.
One of our English teachers re-minded me about “him walking intomy Shakespeare class and reciting aspeech from The Merchant of Venice,but doing it in his John Wayne voice.Steve is the master of voices!”
And that’s what it’s all about atCRHS, learning to become the masterof many talents, then using them tohelp the community and brighten oth-er people’s days. Have a great spring,everyone!
Andre Hauser CRHS Assistant Principal
A View FromDistrict 13
State Rep. Matt Lesser in Middlefield
State Rep. Matt Lesser, left, standing with John Er-lingheuser, Connecticut AARP’s advocacy director. Mid-dlefield residents Harry Aivano and Eleanor Melmer satwith Middletown residents Terry and Slim Kauczka at theMiddlefield Senior Center. Rep. Lesser was there speak-ing about electricity rates and their particular effect uponseniors.
Photo submitted
Patti Holden shared sever-al photos from A FunnyThing Happened... last
weekend at CRHS.
Town Times Friday, April 16, 2010 10
1154956
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Now Available• Crickets• Night Crawlers
& Trout Worms• Mealworms• Super Mealworms
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Licenses available at your local town hall
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A Specialty Gift and Floral Boutique
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Do you want to grow a giant pumpkin? By Stephanie Wilcox
Town Times
Growing a giant pumpkinis all about the glory of havingthe biggest, baddest pumpkinaround. They’re quite a spec-tacle around here as thou-sands of amazed spectatorsvisit the pumpkin tent at theDurham Fair to witness thesegoliath fruits; fruits that wereonce itty bitty seeds planted
right here in Connecticut anderupted into produce thattakes several bodies to move.And the weigh-in of thesefruits is an event in itself. Lastyear’s state record for heavi-est pumpkin was 1,449 lbs.Think you can beat it? Experi-enced growers Matthew De-Bacco and Bart Toftness, fromTeam Pumpkin, think youcan. They share their knowl-edge in giant pumpkin semi-nars in Durham; The first of
the season’s seminars was onMarch 28 when they ex-plained just how to get startedthis spring.
Begin first by establishingyour growing area andpreparing the soil. Eachpumpkin needs a minimum of300-400 square feet to grow,but 500 is ideal. When tillingthe growing area, keep inmind that the top six to nineinches of soil are the most im-portant to grow a big, healthypumpkin.
After tilling, get a one-cupsample for a soil test using ran-dom parts from the area. Whytest? It shows the potential lim-iting factors in the soil and ex-plains what nutrients and how
much of them toadd. DeBaccosuggests havingsoil tested at theUniversity ofMassachusetts,which takesabout a week toget results.
Around May 1,put the plant in apot and put thepot in a partially-closed coolerwith a light bulbto germinate the seed. Duringthis stage, keep the soil moist,not saturated; maintain awarm environment, about 85degrees Fahrenheit; and keepthe conditions constant 24/7.
“The goal is to get the plantbig as quickly as possible,”said DeBacco. “If the plant isnot big and healthy, you canforget about the pumpkin.”
As soon as you see the firsttrue leaf, it’s time to get theambitious sprout outside inthe ground. When positioningin the ground, consider thatwhichever way the tip of the“true leaf” is pointing, thevines will grow away fromthat. Tilting the plant on itsside while keeping this inmind will encourage the pri-mary vines to grow outstraight.
If necessary, Team Pump-kin recommends using ahand-made or store boughtcold frame, which acts as atemporary greenhouse, tokeep the environment desir-able for growth.
As the vines take off, usebamboo shoots to train themand to stabilize the leaves.Many people think they cansimply let vines run wild andcreate a big snarled mess, butfor better airflow and ventila-tion, keep them trained in aChristmas tree shape, that is,keep secondary vines growingstraight out from the primaryvine.
Pumpkins will grow off thefemale flowers, but male flow-ers will show up about 10 or sodays before. A few days afterfemale flowers appear, polli-nating will take place. Beeswill do the job or you can helpit along by using the maleflower to pollinate the femaleflower.
For fertilizer, use seaweed
With a 400-500 pound pumpkin, youcan go pumpkin boating, like Matt De-Bacco likes to do in autumn.
See Pumpkins, page 23
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times 111155076
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‘Connecticut Barns and Farms: Their Beauty and Bounty’ at the Wesleyan Barns “Connecticut Barns and
Farms Their Beauty andTheir Bounty,” a MiddletownGarden Club and GardenClub of America flower show,will be held at the Barns atWesleyan Hills on Friday,April 16. The events, includ-ing a farmers’ market, arefree and open to the publicfrom 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event will be a show-case for area flower arrangerswho will interpret originalart. The Middletown GardenClub has in its membershiparrangers who have exhibited
all over the country and theywill be joined by the bestarrangers from the state’sother garden clubs. There willbe a horticultural display offlowers and plants grown bythe exhibitors and a photogra-phy exhibit.
Included among the 16artists whose work will be fea-tured are Durham artistsMarilyn Bober and AletaGudelski and Mike Waller ofMiddlefield. All of the art isbarn- and farm-themed andwill be for sale. The LymanFarm is the honorary farm
and is also participating inthe Farmers’ Market.
The Middletown GardenClub is celebrating 95 years ofserving the community.Their show is dedicated to re-minding us of the challengesfacing our farmlands andsupporting our rural legacy.With funding from a Ct. Dept.of Agriculture grant, theclub’s conservation commit-tee has produced a DVDabout buying locally-pro-
duced food. The DVD will bemade available to schools, li-braries and organizationsand will be part of an infor-mational exhibit at the show.
WNPR’s Faith Middleton,host of the Faith MiddletonShow, is the honorary chairof the show. Call 860-632-0880for information about theticketed events. The Barns atWesleyan Hills are at 616Long Hill Rd. in Middletown.
“Garden Hayfield” byDurham artist AletaGudelski of Durham.
Town Times Friday,April 16, 2010 12
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has awarded grants for grass-roots environmental projectsto 14 groups in MiddlesexCounty. Local (Durham andMiddlefield) groups and
schools netted four of thosegrants. A total of $15,000 hasbeen distributed to county li-braries, schools and othernonprofit organizations.
The majority of the grants
for the 2009-2010 grant yearwill support environmentaleducation and conservationinitiatives involving childrenin elementary grades throughhigh school. The grant recipi-ent schools and libraries rep-resent communities through-out the county, includingDurham, Middlefield, Middle-town, Essex, East Hampton,Haddam, East Haddam andDeep River.
“We are particularlypleased that a number ofgrants will help enrich schoolscience and natural history
curricula,” said Anthony P.Marino, chair of the founda-tion’s Grants Committee.“These awards are a tributeto the dedication and creativi-ty of our county’s teachers, li-brarians and volunteer edu-cators.”
As in previous years, thefunded projects stress hands-on learning and exploration,through tending organic gar-dens, creating interpretivesigns for nature trails, and en-joying supervised encounterswith live animals. Studentswill share their experiences
and learning on the web.“Most of these projects helpbuild and nurture communi-ty among students and adultsboth in and outside of theclassroom,” Marino adds.
Educators at MemorialMiddle School are partneringwith the Regional School Dis-trict 13 Outdoor EducationCenter, Connecticut Forestand Park Association (Rock-fall) and Long Hill Estate(Middletown) to create a stan-
See Rockfall, next page
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times 13
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dards-based curriculum fortwo Wadsworth Legacy prop-erties, Wadsworth Falls StatePark and Long Hill Estate,which were once owned byRockfall founder, Clarence S.Wadsworth.
“Due to their location, theWadsworth legacy propertiesare easily accessible to schoolchildren in six Middlesexcommunities,” according toKevin Brough, principal ofMemorial School. The proj-ects materials and docent pro-
gram will enable more classesto visit and explore these re-markable parks of naturalbeauty and ecological signifi-cance. “This initiative has thepotential to bring students ofdiverse backgrounds togetherto explore the outdoor world.”
A complete listing of thegrant recipients and projectdescriptions are available onthe websitewww.rockfallfoun-dation.org. Grants are award-ed by the foundation annually.Application information andschedules are available bycalling the office at 860-347-0340 or visiting the website.
Rockfall (From page 12)
Local Rockfall Foundation Grants 2009-2010Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Rockfall
“WalkCT Program - Middlesex County Representation onWalkCT Website” to collect and publish trail information fortowns in Middlesex County on this statewide walking locationsand healthy lifestyles website.
Independent Day School, Middlefield“School Garden and Empty Bowls Projects” to cultivate an
organic school garden and support food pantries in MiddlesexCounty as part of an interdisciplinary standards-based curricu-lum project for students in kindergarten - 8th grade to learnabout organic, sustainable food.
Memorial Middle School, Middlefield“Stewardship of the Natural World Through Education and
Experience at Wadsworth Legacy Properties” to create a stan-dards-based curriculum to get students and families outside forhands-on education about the natural world so that they can be-come stewards of the environment; initiate a docent program toencourage area schools and families to come to the properties.Regional District 13 Outdoor Education Center, Durham
“Interactive Website for Wadsworth Legacy Properties” tocreate an interactive website where it will be possible to click ondifferent map locations to learn about local plants, trees, animals,ecology and history; and where teachers, docents and the publiccan print out information, curriculum and suggested activities.
Durham Town Briefs Friday, April 16, 2010 14
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traffic plan for Memorial Dayfestivities on May 31, 2010,and Francis noted the plan isthe same as in previous years.They approved a request fromthe Durham/Middlefield Ex-change Club for permission tosell snacks and hot dogs from10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at AllynBrook Park on May 31 in con-junction with the WashingtonTrail Road Race. In addition,
they approved a request fromthe same club for the annualWashington Trail Road Raceson May 31 at 11 a.m. startingat Coginchaug High School.
Other businessIn old business, Francis
said there was a meeting forBOMB (Bring Our MusicBack) Fest with the DurhamFair Association, promotersand safety officials. She saidthe fest is gaining interestquickly.
Durham Government Calendar(All meetings will be held at the Durham Library unless
otherwise noted. Check the town Web page at www.townof-durhamct.org for agendas and last-minute changes.)
Tuesday, April 207 p.m. — Board of Finance at Town Hall
Wednesday, April 217:30 p.m. — Planning and Zoning Commission
Monday, April 267 p.m. — Board of Selectmen at Town Hall followed by
special town meeting at 8 p.m. of just over $145,000 fromreserve funds to three accounts.
Tuesday, April 277 p.m. — Ethics Commission
Monday, May 37:30 p.m. — Board of Education at CRHS; annual budget
meeting adjourns to a referendum on May 4Tuesday, May 4
6 a.m.-8 p.m. — School budget referendum; Durham vot-ers cast ballots at Korn School; absentee ballots available
at the town clerk’s office in Town Hall.6:30 p.m. — Public Safety Committee
7 p.m. — Board of Selectmen’s annual town budget meet-ing at CRHS; your chance to vote on town budget.
7:30 p.m. — Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency
BOS (From page 5)
The town’s SupplementalEnvironmental Project wasapproved by DEP, and thefirst event is an Earth Day cel-ebration at Coginchaug Re-gional High School.
In new business, the townapplied for almost $60,000 forstorm damage from the recentrain storm. FEMA came totown to inspect the damage onWhite’s Farm, HigganumRoad, Haddam Quarter Road,Pickett Lane and ParmeleeHill Road. She is waiting tohear if there will be a disasterdeclaration from the federalgovernment and hopes therewill be money to fix damages.
Public Comment
A few residents spoke dur-ing public comment, includ-ing Joan Zito, who had issueshaving to do with the need fora senior center in dire timeslike these and why taxes werenot decreased when the townhall building was completed.
P&Z refineshome businessregs and hearsabout “surprise”concert onfairgrounds
The Planning and ZoningCommission met on Wednes-day, April 7, to discuss imple-menting a new set of regula-tions for a home occupationpermit. These regulations aremeant to make it easier forlow-impact home businessesto operate legally in the town.The proposal splits the permitinto two categories, with thefirst requiring that a home
business have no non-resi-dent employees, no customerparking and no physical ex-pansion of the home for thebusiness. The other categorycovers all remaining home oc-cupation permits.
During their discussion onthe permits, the commissionwanted to clarify whether ornot a renter could apply for apermit. They decided that solong as the renter and theowner of the home agree, arenter can run a home busi-ness. However, the permitwould go with the person run-ning the business. As such,the permit would go with therenter rather than the home-owner.
Retail sales were anotherconcern of the commission, asthey saw the potential for abusiness such as a hair salonto sell shampoo or other itemsrelated to the business. Townplanner Geoff Colegrove ex-plained that such sales shouldbe fine so long as the productsaren’t advertised and so longas they are not the primarypurpose of the business. Asfor products sold over the in-ternet, he explained that theyaren’t functionally differentfrom wholesale and shouldn’tqualify as retail sales.
The proposed regulationsalso include a provision thatwould prevent a home busi-ness from reapplying for anew permit for a year shouldthe business lose its permitdue to violating the homebusiness regulations. Com-mission member Ralph Chasefelt this was too restrictive, assome people might maketheir living from their homebusiness. In light of this, theproposal was changed to al-low an applicant to reapply
before a year has passed, al-though the commission canchoose not to review the appli-cation.
With these changes made,Colegrove agreed to revise theproposal and bring a finalizeddraft to the commission’s nextmeeting.
Another major item thatcame before the commissionwas brought up by Jan Mel-nick, who informed them thatthere is a concert planned forMay 30 on the fairgrounds.She told them that the eventwill run from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.and that it’s expected that12,000 people will attend theevent. When Melnick askedwhether or not the concertneeded zoning approval, Cole-grove informed her that it’sthe first time that he evenheard of the event. After re-viewing what the fair can andcannot do, the commissiondisagreed over whether or notthe Fair Association needed tocome before them for permis-sion. Member Frank DeFelicepointed out that the concertshould qualify as a recreation-al use, while member JosephPasquale noted that it lacks anagricultural or educational as-pect. Pasquale felt that thecommission should reviewthe matter a little further.
The commission also dis-cussed meeting with theBoard of Selectmen and thePublic Safety Committee inorder to see what problemsmight arise from the DurhamFair running for four daysrather than three. However,no formal plans have yet beenmade for the discussion.
Greenland Realty was an-other item that the commis-sion discussed, with memberCathy Devaux and residentDiana Cruise reporting thatthere were trucks going in andout of the site all day on PalmSunday. They also reportedthat a wall of large cementblocks is getting built on thesite. Commission chairmanGeorge Eames stated that theywill look into the matter. (Inattendance/Chuck Corley)
Voterregistration atthe high school
A voter registration drivewill be held at Coginchaug Re-gional High School on Tues-day, April 20, from 10:30 a.m.
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to 1 p.m. by the Registrars ofVoters of Middlefield andDurham. A town residentmust be a U.S. citizen, but doesnot yet have to be the age of 18in order to register to vote.
A registrant can choose tobelong to a political party orcan choose to be unaffiliated.Persons wishing to vote inany party primary, such aspresidential, senatorial orstate primaries, must be a reg-istered member of the partyholding the primary. Unaffili-ated voters cannot vote in aparty primary.
While U.S. citizens owningproperty in town appraised atmore than $1,000 are entitledto vote in the upcoming Mayschool budget referendum, eli-gible town residents shouldregister to vote so they alsowill be entitled to vote in thisyear’s primary or elections.
DurhamRecreation jobopenings
Durham Recreation will beaccepting applications forpart time summer work forthe Durham Recreation De-partment. The applicationsare at the Durham Town Hallon the first floor outside theRecreation Office. Applica-tions must be handed into theRecreation Office no laterthan May 21. Interviews willtake place in the month ofMay, pending job openings.For more information, callthe recreation office at 860-343-6724.
Spring fling forseniors
All Durham seniors arewelcome to attend the thirdannual spring fling at theDurham Firehouse on Fri-day, May 7, from noon to p.m.There will be refreshmentsand Bob Mel will provide en-tertainment. There is no feefor this event. For more infor-mation, call 860-343-6724.
Durham LibraryHours: Regular library
hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.Mondays through Thursdaysand 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays
and Saturdays. Visitwww.durhamlibrary.org tosearch the catalog, reviewyour account, register for aprogram or renew your mate-rials online. For informationor to register for a program byphone, call 860-349-9544.
PALS Book Sale: The an-nual book sale is scheduled forFriday, May 21, from 6 to 8p.m. and Saturday, May 22,from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday’shours are a preview with anadmission fee. Book loversshould not miss this sale,since there is always a terrificselection of titles for adults
and children, as well as tapes,CDs and DVDs. The library isnow accepting donations ofbooks and media in good con-dition. No textbooks or period-icals please. All proceeds go tosupport library programs andnew initiatives.
The Mystery Book Dis-cussion Group will meet onTuesday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m.to discuss The Full DarkHouse by ChristopherFowler. Copies of thebook are available atthe library. Everyone isinvited to join this in-formal discussion.
Voter(Continued from page 14)
Troop 27 holds pinewood derbyThe cub scout pinewood derby finals were held at the Raccoon Club onSaturday, March 27. Below, winners for the Webelos 1, included first place,Ryan Lau, of Middletown, car 122- 241.4 mph; second place, ConnorSchaefer, of Durham, car 117 - 238.6 mph; third place, Sam Frosty, of Mid-dletown, car `107 - 238.3 mph. Right, Connor Schaefer with his trophy.
Submtted photos
We’re on the Web: http://www.towntimes.com
Middlefield Town Briefs Friday, April 16, 2010 16
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Middlefield Government Calendar(Unless otherwise indicated,
all meetings are held in the Community Center.)Tuesday, April 20
7 p.m. — Conservation Commission7 p.m. — Board of Selectmen
Wednesday, April 217 p.m. — Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency
Tuesday, April 277 p.m. — Zoning Board of Appeals
Wednesday, April 286:30 p.m. — Planning and Zoning
Monday, May 37 p.m. — Board of Selectmen
7:30 p.m. — Board of Education at CRHS; annual budgetmeeting will adjourn to a referendum on May 4.
Tuesday, May 46 a.m.-8 p.m. — Referendum on the proposed Region 13
school budget; Middlefield residents vote at the Commu-nity Center; absentee ballots available from the town
clerk’s office.7 p.m. — Levi E. Coe Library Association at the library
Middlefield park and recre-ation is proud to announcethat the concession stand is
open at Peckham Park. Comedown for a hot dog, burger,salad and more, Mondaythrough Friday evenings. It isa great way to feed the familywithout breaking the bank.Now no more rushing to getthe kids fed before or havingthem wait till after baseball
and soccer practice, grab aquick bite to eat at the park.With the warmer weatherand later days coming, whynot bring the kids down to thepark in the evening for a littledinner and then let them runaround on the playscape.They will sleep like babies.
The good folks from Dad’sRestaurant in Wallingfordcan also cater birthday par-ties for you down at the Pavil-ion contact Chrissy [email protected] more information.
Board ofFinance adjustsfirst selectman’sbudget
The Board of Finance heldspecial meetings on April 8and 13 in order to work on thebudget for fiscal year 2010-2011. During this time, resi-dent Marianne Corona pro-vided a number of figures shereceived from the finance di-rector regarding the grandlist and the balance of the cap-ital budget that failed to
match up with the figures theboard currently has in theirproposed budget. Due to thesediscrepancies, the proposedmill rate may be as high as28.6 mills. This is 2.91 millshigher than the present millrate of 25.69 mills. Based onthe board’s own figures, how-ever, the mill rate will be clos-er to 27.51 mills. Regardless,the board felt that they needto speak with finance directorJoe Geruch directly to ensurethat they have the most accu-rate numbers possible.
Whether it is accurate ornot, the 27.51 mills representsa .99 mill increase from the se-lectman’s proposal for 2010-2011. However, this is due tothe board cutting out certainrevenue items that they feltweren’t appropriate to in-clude in the budget. Theboard chose not to include thesale of town property as rev-enue in the budget due to theuncertainty of when the landmay be sold.
The board also chose to in-crease the funding to a num-ber of capital items, with theboard increasing the proposedfunding for a new pumper
from $25,000 to $50,000, thefunding for a 1996 tanker re-placement from $25,000 to$40,000, and the funding forcommunication equipmentfrom $2,500 to $5,000.
Wage increases for electedofficials and non-union em-ployees were another concernfor the board. Although boardmembers such as RebeccaAdams felt that these individ-uals are doing fine in theirjobs, they thought that electedofficials should not receive araise during their terms. TheBOF chose to eliminate theraises for all elected officials,as well as the proposed in-crease in the pension contri-bution for the First Selectman.However, they also agreed toeventually put together a planthat will decide at what pointelected officials should receivean increase in wages.
As for non-union employ-ees, the Finance Director, An-imal Control Officer, FireMarshal, and the Park andRecreation Director all had2.5 percent raises included inthe selectman’s proposed
See BOF, next page
Friday, April 16, 2010 Middlefield Town Briefs 17
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Animal Control Officer, FireMarshal, and the Park andRecreation Director all had 2.5percent raises included in theselectman’s proposed budget.While the board wanted to ad-dress the fact that these indi-viduals didn’t receive a raisein 2009-2010, they also felt itnecessary to acknowledge thecountry’s current financialcrisis. As such, they struck acompromise by reducing theproposed raises from a 2.5 per-cent increase to a 1.5 percentincrease. This is almost a$1,500 reduction in the budget.
Another item that came be-fore the board was who shouldbe updating the town website,as this may require adding$12,000 to the budget to pay forsomeone to update it. The as-sessor, the town clerk’s assis-tant, the first selectman’s as-sistant and the town clerkwere all noted as people whomight be able to update thetown website. Rather than payfor additional work hours,though, the board felt that thetown clerk should be able tohandle putting up legal no-tices, while the various boardsand commissions should beable to update the site withtheir own information.
Bernadette Basiel andSharon Quirk from Durham-Middlefield Youth and FamilyServices also were in atten-dance on the 13th to discusstheir budget. The board’smain concern about DMYFSbudget was whether or not itwas meeting its requirementsby state statute to take care ofat-risk children and keepthem out of the court system.DMYFS addressed this by stat-ing they plan on re-imple-menting a Juvenile ReviewBoard that would work withthe school and the police de-partment in order to inter-vene when a kid gets into trou-ble. Rather than putting themthrough the court system,they might instead do commu-nity service at the behest ofthe review board. Basiel andQuirk also explained thatDMYFS helps keeps kids outof trouble by giving themsomething to do.
Board member Alice Mal-colm also wanted to know howmany children ages 12-15 par-ticipated in the program, asshe felt that is the age groupthat DMYFS should most con-cern itself with. DMYFS was
unable to provide hard num-bers on how many familiesparticipated in their pro-grams, however, due in part tothe lack of a program directorat present. While the boarddiscussed possibly reducingthe service’s budget, Adamsrecommended against it untilthey know more about the pro-gram and how much use itsees, as well as how its activi-ties compare with Park andRecreation. The DMYFS budg-et went unaltered, at least un-til the board knows more
about the program and thenumber of people that use it.(In attendance/Chuck Corley)
Homeowner taxrelief program
The state of Connecticut of-fers tax relief to elderly anddisabled homeownersthrough a program adminis-tered locally by the assessor.Eligible applicants receive areduction to their real estateproperty tax bill, based upon
their level of income.In addition, the town of
Middlefield offers a matchingprogram. In order to qualify,you must be over 65 as of Dec.31, 2009, or eligible to collectpermanent social security dis-ability benefits (proof of dis-ability is required); you mustreside in the house for whichyou are applying; your overallincome for 2009 must be lessthan $32,300 for a single per-son and $39,500 for a marriedcouple; all income is counted,including wages, pensions, in-
terest, Social Security, andany other taxable and non-tax-able income; you must applyon or before May 7.
Bring proof of 2009 income,
BOF (From page 16)
See Tax, next page
Middlefield Town Briefs Friday, April 16, 2010 181153840
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including a copy of your 1040 ifyou file with the IRS, and yourSSA-1099. Applications may bemade at the assessor’s office,town hall, 393 Jackson HillRd., Middlefield, each work-day from 9 a.m. until noon andfrom 2 to 4 p.m. (Fridays to 3p.m.). If you are houseboundbecause of disability or illhealth, a representative canapply for you, or the assessorcan arrange to meet with youat your house.
If you have any questionsabout the program, or toarrange a house visit, you maycall the assessor, Steven Hod-getts, at 860-349-7111.
If you were approved lastyear, you do not need to re-apply until 2011 unless yourincome has changed signifi-cantly.
Middlefield now also has atax freeze program. The sameincome limits apply, and youmust be 70 or over as of Dec. 31,2009. Full details are availableat the assessor’s office.
Zoning Boardof Appeals
At the March 30 Zoning
Board of Appeals (ZBA) meet-ing, the board discussed a re-quest from Lisa Godbout for avariance to construct a garageand an addition to an existinghouse at 25 WoodlandHeights. John Godbout saidthe variance would allowthem to go closer than 20 feetfrom the property line into theside yard, and Lars Selbergstated he would need a six-and-a-half-foot variance.
Godbout explained the areais 132 feet from the front set-back line and the additionwould be less than 35 feet tall.
ZBA member Chris Cham-pagne requested a more de-tailed sketch of the additionover the garage, including theheight and grade to the roofline. Godbout said the heightof the garage and additionwould be the same as thehouse.
Slope was discussed as be-ing a hardship, and Selbergtold the applicant to be pre-pared to discuss the slopehardship at the public hear-ing on April 27. He then en-couraged the applicant tohave neighbors send supportin writing.
In a discussion on boardprocedures, Champagne sug-gested they come up with ageneral guideline for publichearings. They discussed thelanguage in the applicationfor variances; specificallythey want to make sure it’sworded so applicants knowenough to put their applica-
tion in the best possible waywithout implying that if theyfollow all guidelines, they willautomatically get their vari-ance.
The board also discussedhow, under the MiddlefieldZoning Regulations, a SpecialExemption and a Special Per-mit are not the same thing.The former is a modificationto the regulations approvedby the ZBA and the latter is amodification of the ZoningRegulations by the Planningand Zoning Commission.They briefly discussed thefunction of ZBA and vari-ances, what happens if deci-sions are appealed and whatalternates who are not seatedat a meeting can and cannotdo. (From minutes/StephanieWilcox)
Free rain barrelsDurham and Middlefield
are sponsoring a free com-munity rain barrel program.Join them on Thursday,April 22, “Earth Day 2010,” atCoginchaug Regional HighSchool’s Earth Day Expo,from 6 to 7 p.m., and find outhow you can get a free rainbarrel for your home.
Beverly O’Keefe, certifiedmaster gardener and certi-fied trainer on storm watersolutions will be available todemonstrate and educate onthe importance of residentialstorm water management.
Tax (From page 17)Levi Coe Library new titlesHours: The library is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays
through Thursdays, and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.Visit www.leviecoe.com or call the library at 860-349-3857 forinformation or to register for any program. You can also re-new, reserve and check your library record on the website.
New Titles: No One Would Listen by Harry Markopolos,The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear,The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason, Deceptionby Jonathan Kellerman, Son of Hamas by Mosab HassanYousef and Fireworks over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff. Newyoung adult and children’s titles include Silver by EdwardChupack, Whip It by Shauna Cross, How to Say Goodbye inRobot by Natalie Standiford, Chasing the Bear by Robert B.Parker, Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Geor-gia Byng, Sir Francis Drake: Slave Trader and Pirate byCharles Nick, Crocodile Safari by Jim Arnosky, When JackGoes Out by Pat Schories and Fox and Hen by Eric Battut.
New DVD Titles: Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chip-munks: The Squeakquel, A Call Girl, American Sign Languagefor Kids and Adults, Planet 51, Precious, Where the WildThings Are and more.
Carve your own walking stickOn April 17, the Connecticut Woodcarvers Association will
help you learn a new skill and demonstrate how to safely carveyour own walking stick. Watch demonstrations of wood carv-ing methods and safety techniques. It’s a fun, free programhosted by the Ct. Forest & Park Association. Wood sticks willbe supplied, but bring your own knife with which to carve.
The event will run from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM in CFPA’s com-munity room at 16 Meriden Road, Rockfall. Drop in any time.The program is geared toward adults and families with chil-dren 10 years and older. Registrations are appreciated – pleasecall 860-346-2372 and for directions go to www.ctwoodlands.org.
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months for free, and after thatthey began paying themselvesa small amount.
There was hardly a weekwhen Sue, Bill, Phyllis or Mar-ilyn didn’t have their childrenor dogs at the office duringworking hours. Even so, it wasa saving grace that, at the start,the paper was only publishedevery other week.
The location of the TownTimes’ office has changedtwice in its 16 years from Exec-utive Offices to a still-vacantspot next to Middlefield Pizzato the spot it currently holdsnext to Liberty Bank, also onMain Street in Middlefield,where it moved after beingpurchased by the MeridenRecord Journal in 2002.
Much has changed in theproduction and appearance ofthe paper — includingprintingwith more color and publish-ing weekly — but much has re-mained the same. Things thatwere there in the first issuesare still around today, includ-ing letters, babies, sports, spot-light, Town Times and Places,news releases, briefs, townmeetings, Design-An-Ad, cre-ative arts, inquiring photogra-pher, Devil’s Advocate,columns and even Mark Czaja— yes, Mark was a columnistfrom the very beginningthough now he is a frequent let-ter-writer.
Over the years, manystories have stuck in thecreator’s minds, likewhen the specialOlympics came throughand many local familieshosted kids. The flood of’95 that almost washedtheir office away and all
the tragedies in the communi-ty that were crippling to reporton. The scariest experience,everyone agrees, was “thelawnmower man.” They haveno further comment otherthan they feel badly to thisday.
From a business perspec-tive, Sue, Bill, Phyllis andMarilyn think that part of thesuccess of Town Times wasthat they held meetings regu-larly and learned how to sharethe work. The rest of the suc-cess came from the relation-ship that was built betweenthe paper and the community,a relationship that continueseven after all but one of thefounders has moved on andthe paper was bought by theRecord-Journal, whose pub-lisher Eliot Whitewas a Durham res-ident for manyyears.
“The communi-ty got to see itselfthrough our eyes,”said Phyllis. Howtrue! Who hasn’thung on to a signif-icant past issue orseen their photo inTown Times? (Co-incidentally, theauthor of this sto-ry found herself onthe front page ofthe Dec. 30, 1994 is-sue during this in-terview.)
On the first an-niversary of theTown Times, the
four creators let themselvespublish with two colors in-stead of one. This, of course,made it more expensive, so,“We splurged,” said Sue. “Itwas a big deal.”
These days, the anniver-sary is recognized by hidingcandles throughout the pagesof the issue. Today, Sue is stillTown Times’ editor and theothers remain close to the pa-per they founded, and it is al-ways brings a sense of pridewith each anniversary.
“The Town Times made thecommunities much closer,”said Bill. And, all agreed,they’re happy they did it, andthey would do it all again. Hap-py birthday, Town Times!Now, when can we open thattime capsule?
Birthday (From page 6)
Half the Town Times original team — SueVanDerzee and Phyllis Sheridan — posewith then-Durham First Selectman HankRobinson and then- Middlefield First Se-lectman Dave Webster for the ribbon-cut-ting at Executive Offices in 1994.
Korn kids light housesIn conjunction with their electricity unit, all fourth gradestudents participated inbuilding electric houseson Wednesday, March 21.An instructor from the EliWhitney Museum facilitat-ed the workshop, alongwith parent volunteersand staff. Students wereable to apply their knowl-edge of the componentsof a complete circuit tomake their houses lightup. Peter Onofrio, right,and Kenny Douglas andAndrew Heath, below,work hard to get the lights on in their houses.
Photos submitted by Eileen Chupron
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Town Times Friday, April 16, 2010 20
Rover’s on Lake Road. As itsnickname would suggest, arearesidents considered the es-tablishment to be a bad boybiker destination. Dick Boyn-ton recalled that one day in1957, he and his wife stoppedthere with another couple tohave a quick drink. “Myfriend was wearing Bermudashorts and a guy dressed inbiker gear made fun of him.”Apparently Biker Guy pickeda fight with Bermuda ShortsNerd without realizing thatsaid nerd was once the captainof the Yale football team. Longstory short, nerd knocks outbiker dude in one punch. Bik-er’s friends jump to his res-cue. Nerd and friends skedad-dle.
Sam Babcock Jr. recalled,“The owner of The Bucket had
a pontoon boat and he gavepeople rides around the lake.”The boat also stopped atRover’s to pick up more pas-sengers and by the end of theday there was much confusionas to where people had startedout. Said Babcock, “Peoplewould debark at Rovers onlyto realize their cars wereparked at The Bucket, andvice versa.” The owners ofboth establishments were of-ten busy transporting peopleback to their original venues.“Captain Jack Will Get YouHigh Tonight”
No, this is not a story aboutdrug dealers, Jack Daniels orBilly Joel’s hit song from the1970s.
Captain John “Jack” Sibleywas a World War I veteranand United States Air Forcepilot who established the Mid-dlefield Air Cadets, a fresh aircamp for inner city kids withan aviation theme. The campwas adjacent to the southernend of Lake Beseck on PowderHill Road. For many years,Captain Jack provided guests
with scenic air-plane ridesover Middle-field’s lake andfarmland.
During the1940s, CaptainJack furtherdeveloped theproperty to in-clude a pool,sauna, tenniscourts, dancehall and diningvenue. It wasadvertised in the New YorkCity area as a summer desti-nation for singles looking forrelief from the heat and an op-portunity to meet new people.According to Captain Jack’sson, Pete Sibley, “For whatev-er reason, the advertisementsbrought in mostly women, sothe joke around town is thatmy father was out recruitinglocal men to work at HappyAcres and meet women.” Itshould come as no surprisethat many volunteers an-swered the call.
From the ‘50s through the‘70s, Happy Acres was a fami-ly vacation destination, aswell as a venue for companypicnics and family reunions.But the buildings were get-ting old and in need of costlyrepairs. Reservations weresparse because air travel wasbecoming less expensive, al-lowing vacationers to travellonger distances to more exot-ic venues. So Sibley and hismother Lorraine decided toclose down the resort, and thecabins were converted tomodest one bedroom apart-ments.Fall and Rise of Lake Beseck
By the mid 1960s, the Mid-dlefield Reservoir Company,which had maintained thedam and lake since the water
power days, found that thesystem was too costly to main-tain and also make a profit.After lengthy negotiationswith residents of the privateassociation, the town of Mid-dlefield and state of Connecti-cut, Lake Beseck’s roads be-came town roads, the lake anddam were maintained by thestate, a public boat launchwas built on Baileyville Road,and the beach house, whichhad been vandalized numer-ous times, was torn down.
As in the story of HappyAcres, the ability of folks totravel more cheaply by air todistant vacation destinationsbecame a factor in depreciat-ing property values in thelake area. Summer residentsabandoned their cottages andsubsequent owners attemptedto live year round on proper-ties designed, from a septicpoint of view, to be seasonal.Some of the properties werecompletely abandoned, andby the early 1980s, 50 percentof the wells were contaminat-ed due to septic overload ande-coli was flowing into thelake itself, causing the town ofMiddlefield to close down thebeach on a regular basis dueto health concerns.
In 1999, then MiddlefieldFirst Selectman Charlie Au-
gur and Boynton were keyplayers in negotiating and ob-taining funds for a new sewerconnection with Meriden.Said Boynton, “It was difficultconvincing residents that thiswould be a good thing. Afterall, they would have to pur-chase the connections and buyinto this.” But since the sewersystem went on line 10 yearsago, the area has experienceda true renaissance. Propertyvalues have gone up substan-tially, home improvementsare the norm, and many build-ings have been removed andreplaced with beautiful newhomes. “It’s changed thewhole look of the communi-ty,” said Boynton. “I’ve al-ways said that Lake Beseckwould become THE place tolive in Middlefield, and it isslowly living up to my expec-tations.” Coming Home
Although Dick and NancyBoynton are recent trans-plants to Middlefield, havingmoved there in 1984 fromMeriden, their roots in thearea go back to an earlier timeBoynton was living in Meri-den with his wife Nancy whohad lived in a house on LakeBeseck until her familymoved in 1935 when she wasjust two years old. Over theyears they had tried to find thehouse, but Nancy’s father wasunable to pinpoint the loca-tion as the area had changedso much.
Said Boynton, “I was driv-ing around one day and hap-pened upon a house for salethat I thought might be nice.”Subsequently he brought his
Lake Beseck (Continued from page 3)
The beach club house.
Nancy Boynton, age two,at the house on LakeBeseck.
See Lake Beseck, page 21
Mr. and Mrs.John Sommers, ofMiddlefield, an-nounce the en-gagement of theirson, MichaelJoseph Bufano,also son of Mr. andMrs. Frank Bu-fano, of NorthHaven, toStephanie Angeli-na Brochetti,daughter of Mr.and Mrs. StephenBrochetti ofBerlin.
The bride-to-beattended BerlinHigh School andCentral Connecti-cut State University whereshe earned a Bachelor of Sci-ence degree in elementary ed-ucation in mathematics. Sheis currently pursuing a mas-ters in mathematics for ele-mentary education teachers.She is employed by Ruth L.Chaffee Elementary School in
Newington.The groom-to-be attended
Mark T. Sheehan High Schoolin Wallingford and holds is E2license. He is currently anelectrician for IBEW Local 90in New Haven.
The couple is planning aJuly wedding.
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times 21
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wife to see it, and she fell inlove with it. Shortly after pur-chasing the home on FowlerLane, Nancy’s father came tovisit and realized it was thehouse they had lived in so longago. Said Boynton, “He pulledout some pictures and wewere able to determine fromthe foundation and other ex-isting landmarks that it wasindeed the same house.”
Who says you can’t go homeagain?
Lake Beseck(Continued from page 20)
Brochetti and Bufano engagedScouts go to ‘college’The United Churches of Durhamhas hosted a merit badge collegefor Troops 27 and Troop 33 over thepast four weeks. Scouts were ableto complete merit badges that theywere interested in. The counselorswho volunteered their time were ex-perts in their fields. There were 13badges to choose from and eachscout was able to do up to threebadges each. I chose first aid, fami-ly life and American labor, otherbadges offered were fishing, emer-gency preparedness, communication, hiking,citizenship of the Nation, computing, electri-cal, reading/scholarship, soil conservationand collections. The merit badge collegewould not be possible if adults did not volun-teer their time and effort to help the scouts.Troop 27 and Troop 33 would like to thank thefollowing people who helped with this eventthis year: Mrs. Tausta, Mrs. Gribko, Ms Beck-ert, Mrs. VanSteenbergen, Mrs. Staddon, Mr.Yusza, Mr. Alderate, Mr. Villwock, Mr. Pietrzyk,Mr. Smigel, Mr. Meiman. Mr. McGuinness andMr. Rupacz. By Alexander Staddon, Troop 33
Free rainbarrels
Durham and Middlefieldare sponsoring a free commu-nity rain barrel program.Join them on Thursday,April 22, “Earth Day 2010,” atCoginchaug Regional HighSchool’s Earth Day Expo,from 6 to 7 p.m., and find outhow you can get a free rainbarrel for your home.
Beverly O’Keefe, certifiedmaster gardener and certi-fied trainer on storm watersolutions will be available todemonstrate and educate onthe importance of residentialstorm water management.
In Our Schools Friday, April 16, 2010 22
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Local students on honor rollsVinal Technical HighSchool
From Durham, earninghigh honors are, ChristopherGasior, Jacob Bogdanski,Matthew Glidden, BriannaGasior and earning honorsare Brandan Kauffman,MaryLynn Clark, AlfonsoCaturanoj, Brandon Joslyn,Christopher Ziemba,Matthew Amendola, AmandaRogers, Mark Pavlinko andSteven Koerber.
From Middlefield, earninghigh honors, are Robert CarleAshleigh Schmaltz, Saman-tha Misenti and StephenWyskiel and earning honorsare Richard Parker, BrittanyGervais, Thomas D’Orvilliersand William Mazo.
From Rockfall, earninghigh honors, Lauren Bradley,Heather Zambrello and LisaBradley and earning honorsare Ben Majewicz and ShanePhenicie.Independent Day School
From Middlefield, earninghigh honors, Michael Eliza-
beth Gasior, Patrick Kubiakand Elizabeth Smith. FromDurham earning honorsRicky Murphy, WarrenHadley and Jordan Santiago.
Earth Day atCoginchaug
ECO and the music depart-ment at Coginchaug RegionalHigh School are teaming up tosponsor an Earth Day ConcertExpo. The event will be heldon Thursday, April 22, the40th anniversary of EarthDay. From 6 to 7 p.m. variousorganizations and businesseswill have earth-friendly edu-cational displays to view orproducts to sell. The music de-partment will then performmusic celebrating the envi-ronment at 7 p.m.
The event is free to the pub-lic. A free-will offering will beaccepted to support the“Earth’s Birthday Project”through the Nature Conser-vancy.
There will be a variety ofparticipants in the expo. Thetown of Durham is going topromote residential storm wa-ter management and kick offtheir rain barrel promotion.They are also hosting mastergardener Beverly OKeefe,who will be doing presenta-tions on gardening and theuse of rain barrels. TheDurham Farm Market, Con-necticut Light and Power,Durham-Middlefield CleanEnergy Task Force, Perk-on-Main, the environmentalclubs from Memorial andCoginchaug, and more busi-nesses and organizations willbe there to celebrate EarthDay together and spread theword on how to live more en-vironmentally friendly lives.
ECO is still accepting appli-cations for table space at theEarth Expo. Do you grow andproduce a local food product?Do you make something out ofrecycled or reused products?Are you artistic and create“earthy” designs? Do you likegardening and have someplants to give away? ContactECO for a space! If you havean earth-friendly message youwould like to display, or anearth-friendly product to sell,please contact Susan Michaelat 860-349-7215 ext. 235 [email protected].
Memorial student scores perfect on WordMasters By Stephanie Wilcox
Town Times
Lilian Zhou, a sixth graderat Memorial School, recentlyearned a perfect score in thisyear’s WordMasters Chal-lenge — a national languagearts competition entered byapproximately 220,000 stu-dents. In the entire country,only 128 sixth gradersachieved at this level. Thechallenge is an exercise incritical thinking where stu-dents complete analogies ex-pressing various logical rela-tionships.
This was the second ofthree meets, where 50 wordswere to be mastered. Compet-ing in the Blue Division of thechallenge, Zhou won highesthonors during the Februarymeet. Other Memorial stu-dents who earned outstand-ing results were fifth gradersSeth Azevedo, Tabitha Gable,Brian Jubelirer, Ricky Soren-son, Jack French, EmilyLeibiger, Sam Marteka,
Rowan O’Connell, NicholasPitruzzello and KatelynRichardson; and sixthgraders Lauren Badin,Patrick Holden, Gillian Mur-phy and Shaun Witaker. Stu-dents were coached by theirfifth and sixth grade Integrat-ed Day teachers.
The WordMasters Chal-lenge is an exercise in criticalthinking that first encour-ages students to become fa-miliar with a set of interest-ing new words (considerablyharder than grade level), and
then challenges them to usethose words to completeanalogies expressing variouskinds of logical relationships.Working to solve the chal-lenge analogies helps stu-dents learn to think both ana-lytically and metaphorically.Though most vocabulary-boosting and analogy-solvingactivities have been createdfor high school students, theWordMasters materials havebeen specifically designed foryounger students, in gradesthree through eight. They areparticularly well suited forable and interested childrenwho rise to the challenge oflearning new words and en-joy the logical puzzles posedby analogies.
Zhou, who said the chal-lenge was definitely hard,was also quizzed on the wordsat home by her mom. “Wespent a lot of time practicing,”she said. For the third and fi-nal meet still to come, with 75words, Zhou said she’s al-ready just a bit nervous.
Lilian Zhou
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times 23
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Edna (Crowley) Hewes, 81,of Middlefield, wife of thelate Peter Buckeley Hewes,passed away on Friday,April 9, 2010, at MiddlesexHospital.
Born in Bennettsville, SC,she was the daughter of thelate Colon G. and Hattie(Driggers) Crowley. Edna
lived in Middlefield for thepast 56 years and was a long-time member of MiddlefieldFederated Church. She was amember of the MiddlefieldGarden Club and volun-teered at Middlesex Hospital.
Edna is survived by hertwo sons, Samuel D. Hewesof Middletown and John B.Hewes of Middlefield; abrother, Carroll Crowleyand his wife, Vivian, of Ben-nettsville, SC; five grand-
children and several niecesand nephews. Besides herhusband and parents, shewas predeceased by herdaughter, Gayle HewesThody.
A memorial service will beheld on Saturday, April 17, at10 a.m. at the MiddlefieldFederated Church, 402 MainStreet, Middlefield, with theRev. Dale Azevedo officiat-ing. Burial will be at the con-venience of the family. There
will be no calling hours andin lieu of flowers, friendsmay make donations inEdna’s memory to the Bookof Remembrance of Middle-field Federated Church, 402Main Street, Middlefield, CT06455. Messages of condo-lence may be sent to the fam-ily at www.doolittlefuner-alservice.com. The DoolittleFuneral Home, 14 OldChurch Street, Middletownis handling the arrangements.
ObituaryPumpkins(Continued from page 10)
or kelp powder, but stay awayfrom Miracle-Gro as the saltbuildup can reduce your yieldover time. For weeds, TeamPumpkin recommends usingweed block and laying blackor clear plastic over yourpatch.
But this is getting a little bitahead. About the time you getyour plant in the ground,Team Pumpkin will be hold-ing their next seminar. Cometo the Medical Building onCanfield Rd just off of TownHouse Rd. (Durham Fair-grounds) on May 2 at 1 p.m.They’ll talk more about how togrow your pumpkin and howto complete an isolated polli-nation so that you can pro-duce your own pure-breed gi-ant pumpkin seeds. Noviceand experienced growers areencouraged to attend.
In fact, no matter how bigyour pumpkin masterpieceends up, the Durham Fair willgladly display it with no entryfee.
“Everybody likes pump-kins,” said Toftness. “It’swork (to grow them) but it’sworth it, and it’s always fun inthe pumpkin patch.”
In the meantime, for moreinformation, visit www.team-pumpkin.org.
A new Connecticutstate record was setby this giant last yearat the Durham Fair.
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Town Times Sports Friday, April 16, 2010 24
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Benchwarmers congratulate the five winter sports athletes of the monthBy Chris Flanagan
Special to the Town Times
Audtey BiesakWearing #14 and playing
shooting guard for fourth-year coach Tony Calcagni,Audrey was one of a trio of“super-sophs” on the CRHSgirls basketball team, a piv-otal player who was instru-mental in the Lady Blue Dev-ils outstanding season.Biesak typically scored 12 to14 points per game and playedgreat defense, adding assistsand rebounding with speedand athleticism.
“No one expected us to bethis good, but I was confidentright from the beginning of
the season,” said Audrey. Sheexplained that this is a groupof players who have compet-ed together since middleschool, playing as a unit onvarious travel and AAUteams.
“I think that this is a bit dif-ferent group than in recentyears. We’re committed andwell prepared; we’re good ath-letes and we go all out, evenon defense. And coach got usinto shape and kept us there,”she commented.
It’s hard to argue with theresults, for sure. The teamwent 7-0 before losing a game
and finished the regular sea-son 17-3. Seeded first in theShoreline tourney, they lostagain to Portland in the semi-final game and were stungagain by the Highlanders inthe semi final game in ClassS. So revenge is on Biesak’smind, no doubt.
“Next year, coach will havethe returning players ready. Iexpect nothing less than to goto the finals in the conferenceand to go to the Mohegan Sun(the state finals).”Tayler Dontigney
A senior cheerleader,Tayler is being recognized for
the third year in a row, morethan any other student sincewe started this series six yearsago. Captain of the Bluesquad, and generally recog-nized as the leader of thegroup, Tayler mentioned thatit was a “really good seasonwith a lot to cheer about, espe-cially the girls b-ball team.”
Dontigney mentioned thatthe girls recently finished aNew England regional compe-tition, finishing third overallin the non-tumbling divisionand winning a trophy and acash prize that will be utilizedfor cheering camp this sum-mer. Tayler choreographedand picked all the music forthe routine.
“I’m really proud of myteammates. They put all-outeffort into the season. Theyworked hard, and it’s appreci-ated.” For her own effort,Tayler made first team All-Shoreline again this year.
Tayler also competed in vol-leyball and softball, but hasdecided to take the spring sea-son off to enjoy her last fewweeks of high school, hangingout, working out and workingpart time until she starts hersummer job at a restaurant.She has concentrated on busi-ness studies as a student andwould like to attend WesternNew England College or Quin-nipiac University and majorin marketing. She would liketo continue to cheer, as well, ifshe can balance that with herstudies. An ideal career forher would be in sports market-ing for ESPN.Garri Saganenko
Garri is a senior who hasjust completed his indoortrack career for coach MartyRoberts. In only his secondyear, he was able to breakthree school records in run-
Tayler Dontigney
Audrey Biesak
See AOM next page
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times Sports 25
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ning events this year, both in-dividually and as a relay teammember. Saganenko im-proved the school record forthe 600 meter run with a 1:27.8
time, and he was part of tworelay teams that establishednew marks for the school, thesprint medley and the 4x400relay.
The team made a goodshowing at the Shorelines thisyear, finishing second to OldSaybrook. If it were not for atechnical gaffe which caused adisqualification, the Blue Dev-ils would have won the meet,losing the championship by amere two points.
The indoor team also madea good showing at States, fin-ishing in the upper third, 10thout of 31 teams. Garri set hispersonal best time in the 600and finished seventh overall,just out of the medal group. Itwas a very competitive fieldwith the new Class S recordset in the same heat.
The outdoor season has al-ready begun, and Saganenkois encouraged with both per-sonal and team prospects. Hewill compete in the 400M, the4x400 relay and the 4x800 re-lay, a new event for him.
“I would like the team towin the Shoreline meet handi-ly; I don’t want it to be close. Iwould also like to set theschool record in the 400 and goto the State Open on the 4x400team. Also, I think we can betop five in the States,” he said.
Garri will take a year off af-ter graduation to work, travel,gather himself and mature.Once in college, he will studywriting and journalism.Hannah Malcolm
Senior Hannah Malcolmhas just completed an enjoy-able second season on thegirls’ indoor track team, com-
peting in multiple events forcoach Dave Bellemere. Previ-ously, she spent two seasonscheering on the White squadbut came to realize that “I’mnot really the cheerleadingtype.” She thought it was fun,but wanted to try somethingnew during the winter sea-son.
Malcolm practiced at anumber of events such ashigh jump, long jump and the55m dash, but expressed afondness for 55m hurdles, noteveryone’s first choice. “It’sfun, and I didn’t get boredwith it,” she said. At theShoreline meet, the team did-
n’t finish very well. Hannahmentioned that a number ofinjuries hurt the cause, andsome seniors did not comeback this year. “For nextyear, it would be good if thelevel of involvement picksup,” Hannah added
Hannah also was on thevolleyball team and one ofthree captains this season.She also was on the softballteam for three seasons buthas decided to stretch hertrack season a bit further bycompeting in the outdoor sea-son. She will try the two hur-dles, the 100 and the 300, thelong jump and the javelin for
something altogether new.Malcolm has been accepted
to two colleges as a special ed-ucation major, but she is alsoconsidering making her loveof history a core concentra-tion. Keene State and Easternare in the mix, and Hannah’sthinking that the Willimanticschool may get the nod so thatshe can remain close to fami-ly and friends.Erikson Wasyl
Sophomore Erikson Wasylplayed point guard wearing#23 for coach Todd Salva this
AOM(Continued from page 24)
Garri Saganenko
Hannah Malcolm See AOM, next page
Town Times Sports Friday, April 16, 2010 26
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season, another successfulone for the CRHS cagers. Atthe one spot, perhaps the mostpivotal single position in b-ball, Erikson broke throughas an underclassman, keepingup with the more experienced,older players and enabling theBlue Devils to compile a 16-8record overall, including tour-nament games. Erikson ad-mitted that he felt “lucky to besurrounded by older qualityplayers” and said it was a bigfactor in both personal andteam success.
As playmaker, scorer anddefender, Wasyl proved hewas up to the task time andagain. But another factor isthe experience he has gainedby competing in the AAU pro-
gram during the off season,which he feels is a high levelof competition, somewhat be-yond league play. He alsomentioned that he got startedplaying the game very early atmaybe two or three years ofage. He still remembers theFisher Price set his parentsbought for him years ago.
Erikson is looking forwardto a really good season nextyear. Though there are somespots to fill “in the paint,”Wasyl sees a good returningcore along with up and com-ing JV players. His personalcommitment is to work onhis defensive pressure, forcethe action and create offense.The AAU season is alreadyunderway, and he will fur-ther his conditioning nextfall by competing in socceronce again.
His wish is to play in Divi-sion II or III in college someday, but he realizes that hiseducation comes first. Sportsmarketing and coaching arepossible career choices, butright now, that seems ratherfar away to a kid having funmaking good plays.
AOM (From page 25)
Erikson Wasyl
The climax to the in-tramural basketballseason at Korn Schoolis the student vs staffgame. Students fromthe top two teams de-feated the Korn staff 53to 51.Photo submitted by Eileen Chupron
Middlesex golf tournamentThe Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce Golf Tour-
nament will be held Friday, May 7, at the Portland Golf Clubin Portland. The fee is $165 per golfer. The proceeds of thetournament supports the activities of the chamber.
Registration is from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. with a continentalbreakfast in the clubhouse. The tournament begins at 9:30a.m. Lunch and refreshments will be served at 11 a.m. From3 to 4 p.m. the results will be recorded during a cocktail hourin the pavilion. Dinner is at 4 p.m. and awards at 5 p.m.
One of the things that make this tournament such a well-received event is their great “after the game” festivities, in-cluding cocktails, dinner and prizes for all. Minimum prizevalue is $30, and in response to the increasingly generousgifts being received, all gifts worth more than $100 will beprinted in bold type in the program. To donate a prize for thetournament, contact Johanna Bond at [email protected] at your earliest convenience.
Friday, April 16, 2010 Town Times Sports 27
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PARKING IS PERMITTED IN HUBBARD PARK FOR ALL EVENTSON SATURDAY, APRIL 17TH AND SUNDAY, APRIL 18TH
Refreshments for purchase will be available to all park visitors Saturday and Sunday
SATURDAY, APRIL 17THTAG SALE CONNECTICUT’S LARGEST!
Under the Festival TentHubbard Park, West Main Street, Meriden, CT
9:00 AM to 2:00 PM rain or shineCome by to browse & buy at the area’s largest tag sale...and while you’re at it, take
a stroll through historic Hubbard Park among the 600,001 blooming daffodils...
SATURDAY, APRIL 17THFISHING DERBY AT MIRROR LAKE
10 AM UNTIL 11:30 AMThe derby is open to anyone age 15 and under. Children are encouraged to bring theirown rods (a limited number of rods will be available for use). Live bait will be available. Prizes will be given for heaviest fish & longest fish. All participants will have
the opportunity to win raffle prizes at the conclusion of the Derby.
SATURDAY, APRIL 17THCASTLE CRAIG CHAMPIONSHIPS
Under the Tennis Court TentPresented by Beat the Street Community Center, Inc.
First Bout Starts at 1:00 PMAdmission: Adults $15.00 Students $7.00 Age 6 and Under FREETickets Available at the Door. Call 686-1639 or email: [email protected]
SUNDAY, APRIL 18, 2010MERIDEN ROTARY DAFFODIL FESTIVAL 5K ROAD RACE
10 AM RAIN OR SHINEREGISTRATION 8:00 - 9:45 AM
1/2 MILE KIDS FUN RUN AROUND MIRROR LAKEAGES 12 AND UNDER
SUNDAY, APRIL 18FAIRVIEW PAVILION/HALFWAY HOUSE DEDICATION CEREMONY
Parking available on Tower Road12:00 PM
SUNDAY, APRIL 18THAugusta Curtis Concert Band plays Concert at Hubbard Park
The Augusta Curtis Concert Band will be playing a benefit concert for theAugusta Curtis Cultural Center on the tennis courts under a large tent inHubbard Park. This 42 member band featuring community residents fromages 13 to 80 will perform for your listening pleasure.
3:30 PMUnder the Event Tent at Hubbard ParkAdmission $5.00 Children under 7 free.
PARKING IS PERMITTED IN HUBBARD PARK FOR ALL SATURDAY, 17TH &SUNDAY, 18TH EVENTS
Refreshments for purchase will beavailable to all park visitors Saturday and Sunday
Children’s Carnival Rides Rides will be open Saturday, April 17
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Durham’s Men’s Basketball League, round twoBy Scott Stange
Special to the Town Times
Once again Torrison Stoneused a strong second half toovercome a slow start in a 55-40 victory over Tim Schuler’sOrange team. With the win,Torrison (2-0) advanced to thetournament championshipplayed April 8. Pete Donceker(14 pts) provided most of theOrange offense as they led af-ter the first half, 23-22, but Tor-rison took the lead early in thesecond half on the scoring ofMark Pfister’s nine points (10total) and cruised the rest ofthe way. Adam Poturnicki ledTorrison with 13, and TylerGerry scored 10. Dave Blairand Ryan Donecker picked upseven each for Orange (1-1).
Mark Fong’s 14 first-halfpoints and Paul DeFlippo’s 13second-half points (15 total) ledRed (1-1) to an upset victory 58-49 over the Young Gunz (0-2) inthe loser’s bracket game. AlexSchade did most of the Gunzscoring in the first half, but gotinto foul trouble, fouling outwith 10 minutes remaining inthe game. Red took a six-pointlead into the half and nevertrailed in the second half, buthad to rely on great free throwshooting by Paul and FrankDeFlippo to hold on at the end,shooting 18 of 23 for the game.Frank and Mark Fong led Redoverall with 16 each, and MattSullivan scored nine. GregBereski scored nine, and EricSumpter had eight for theYoung Gunz, whose seasonends with the loss.
Matt Sullivan was simplyoutstanding as Red shockedOrange 63-53 to advance to theleague championship. Sully’s33 points, including eightthree-pointers, was the top sin-
gle performance in either cat-egory this year. Mark Fongwas also impressive on theboards, and Red never trailed.Ryan Donecker had a big sec-ond half for Orange, and theybriefly tied the game at 44, butit was Sullivan, Mark Jungelsand Paul DeFlippo who led thelate scoring to secure the win.Despite winning four of theirprior five games, the two loss-es brings their season to anend. Donecker finished with14, while Dave Blair added 13,and John Szewczyk had 10 forOrange. Team captain FrankDeFlippo scored 10 and RoeGranger picked up six in thevictory for Red.Torrison claims title inclassic two OT Mens LeagueFinal
Torrison Stone sufferedthrough a lethargic start, andthen watched a 20-point sec-ond-half lead evaporate, butheld on to complete their un-defeated season with a 64-60double overtime win overFrank DeFlippo’s Red team inthe league championshipgame.
Torrison did not look like a12-0 team early. They wereout-rebounded by the smallerRed lineup, and committednumerous turnovers. A MattSullivan three-pointer mid-way through the first halfcapped a 12-5 run to give Red a17-10 lead. Following a time-out, Torrison came out withstifling defense by Tyler Ger-ry and Mark Pfister out front,and constant feeds down to
league MVP Adam Poturnickiin the post. Poturnicki wenton a tear, scoring 16 of Torri-son’s 30 first half points. JasonTroiano’s three-pointer mid-way through the second halfcapped a 33-10 run by Torri-son, during which Red tookvirtually no shot uncontested.The second half lead built to 20points with just over six min-utes remaining.
After a Mark Fong three,Ryan Cove dumped in an off-balance three-pointer and wasfouled on the play, giving Reda quick seven points and start-ing the unexpected comeback.Again loose balls started toend up in Red players’ hands,and uncharacteristically Tor-rison was often out of positionon defense. Cove was againfouled attempting a three-pointer, and made two of threeat the line. Pete Lynch gotcalled for a lane violation on amade free throw that wouldhave put Torrison up by two.Sullivan tied the game at 57with the first of two foul shots,but was unable to make thesecond, and regulation endedwith the score 57-57. Cove andPoturnicki each added a bas-ket, to make it 59-59, as theteams went to a second over-time. Poturnicki took over therest of the way, finishing withfour of Torrison’s five points,all at the foul line, to wrap upthe championship. Cove fin-ished with 26, and Sullivanhad 15 to lead Red. Poturnickifinished with 27, and JeremyLobo had 13 for Torrison.
Town Times Friday, April 16, 2010 28
transparent and represent a secure third partywho has nothing to gain from any notice.Connecticut’s recent ethical lapses shed a glaringlight on the full meaning of this problem. It’slike putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
Every bidding notice, which runs in aConnecticut daily newspaper, is automaticallyuploaded to that newspaper’s web site andCTPublicNotices.org.
Newspapers are your watchdogs. Don’t let thatrole be changed now. Voice your opinion.
To keep your notices in the newspaper,contact your local elected officials or call:
Pending legislation (substitute bill #365) mayremove bidding notices from newspapers,moving them from the public domain togovernment controlled web sites. We’reconcerned. And you should be, too.
Bidding notices like public notices are animportant tool in assuring an informed citizenry.They have helped develop America into aparticipatory democracy for hundreds of yearsand where it counts the most: how your taxdollars are spent, how policy is made and howour futures are charted.
They are located in easy-to-find sections ofyour newspaper. And they are fully accessible to
everyone - unlike the internet, which is notaccessible to everyone.
Less than 10% of the U.S. population views alocal, state or federal government website daily,according to the May 2009 release of U.S.Census Bureau, Annual Estimates of ResidentPopulation.
This means more than nine out of ten peoplemay never see a given notice.
This compares dramatically to the fact that83% of adults read a community newspaperevery week, according to the NationalNewspaper Association.
Furthermore, a bidding notice printed in thenewspaper produces a permanent record. Theinternet does not, nor does it assure timeliness.And a newspaper is archived for years; notsubject to computer crashes and hackers.
Newspapers are easily verifiable, fully
KEEP THE BIDDINGPROCESS OPEN!
Visit www.ctdailynews.com to contact your legislator today
1154257
DON’T LET CONNECTICUT OFFICIALS REMOVEBIDDING NOTICES FROM THE NEWSPAPER.
NO BIDDING?NO KIDDING.
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