Meet and Greet held at Norfolk Hub

By Patricia Platt

Norfolk residents braved a late-July rainstorm for a conversation at the Hub with representatives of The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News to learn about the Journal’s plans to expand coverage of Norfolk. 

“The idea of this meeting is to connect with you, let you know where we’re coming from, and gather ideas from readers in Norfolk about topics of interest,” said John Coston, a longtime East Canaan resident and editor-in-chief of both papers. 

The Lakeville Journal, in print for 127 years, was on the brink of closing during the Covid pandemic, but managed to survive with renewed community support in the form of donations, advertising and increased circulation. Tom Carly, now the chief operating officer, helped design a new strategic plan that resulted in the creation of a non-profit organization.    

‘We have had enough success to make investments in the newsroom to strengthen and expand our core coverage. In some cases, this means diving deeper into an issue and in others, adding or resuming coverage that’s been lost – as in the case with Norfolk,” said publisher James Clark. 

Coston highlighted six areas of news focus: government, healthcare, education, environment, housing and youth sports. Coston, who sits on the board of the non-profit Norfolk Now, said the two publications complement each other and that the Journal will not be covering local government and education. 

Jennifer Almquist, a journal reporter and Norfolk resident for a decade, has already been covering Norfolk news, culture and arts. For example, Almquist wrote an in-depth article about speeding on Route 44, a problem shared by other towns. Almquist’s reporting showed that Route 44 passes through about 25 towns and none have succeeded in getting the speed limit reduced. “What I have enjoyed is that we have lived here for 10 years and have only touched the surface of this town,” she said. Riley Klein, managing editor of The Lakeville Journal, covers youth athletic teams, including athletes from 11 towns, among them Norfolk.

On the lighter side, the paper has covered such Norfolk events as the pet parade and the pizza party on the green. They also have a summer intern who is researching the etymology of the pronunciation of the town’s name

The small but engaged audience contributed to the discussion and expressed interest in topics including comics, the police blotter, the obituary, letters to the editor and features on issues that include the proposed firehouse. Community members are invited to send their ideas to the Lakeville Journal via the website, https://lakevillejournal.com/