City Meadow Park Development Cleared to Move Ahead
Linking City Meadow with a renovated Robertson Plaza by David Beers The next phase of construction to complete the City Meadow Park in downtown Norfolk was approved by the Planning and Zoning Committee (P&Z) at its Jan. 12 meeting. With approval already in hand from the Inland Wetlands Agency earlier in the month, the town’s […]
2020 Was Not Normal, and Neither Was the Weather
By Russell Russ Normal was not the norm for anything in 2020, and it definitely was not the norm for the weather. There were arguably four main weather themes that highlighted the year. The first was the lack of snowfall during the January through March winter months. After just three months into the year, Norfolk […]
How to Remove the Congregational Church’s Steeple — Very Carefully
Repairs to the clock tower and belfry can begin Text by Ruth Melville After years of planning, consultation and crossed fingers, the steeple on the top of Norfolk’s Church of Christ Congregational was successfully removed last December, enabling the much-needed repair of the tower and steeple. In 2015, during routine work on the clock tower, […]
Text Amendment Proposed to Planning & Zoning Regulations
by Susan MacEachron Tracy Hayhurst, farm manager for Husky Meadows Farm, appeared before the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) on Jan. 12 to request clarification of the special permit terms regarding who is allowed to participate in the country retreat, farm-to-table program Husky Meadows Farm is planning. All agreed that the current permit allows up […]
Board of Finance Hears Budget Input, Report on Fiber Optics
by Susan MacEachron At the Board of Finance (BoF) meeting on Jan. 12, chairman Michael Sconyers asked First Selectman Matt Riiska to report on the status of the selectmen’s budget. Riiska reported that the town is on target in most areas of the budget. He noted spending has been over budget on some of the […]
Berkshire Country Café is One of Five New Businesses in North Canaan
By Andra MossPhoto by Peter Chaffetz Norfolk’s own Berkshire Country Store is growing. Owner Ryan Craig has expanded his popular Norfolk location with the addition of the Berkshire Country Cafe on Main Street in North Canaan, serving breakfast and lunch Thursday through Sunday. But don’t worry, his four-year-old enterprise in Norfolk isn’t going anywhere. In […]
Board of Assessment Appeals, Budget Time, Covid Information
Selectman’s Corner by Matt Riiska For those of you who have questions regarding property values, your opportunity to appeal property values is coming up. In March, the Board of Assessment Appeals (BAA) will be meeting to hear appeals on real estate, automobiles (which includes trucks and trailers) and personal property. But you need to do […]
February Viewing
The Celestial Sphere By Matthew Johnson The five planets visible to the naked eye, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were present in our skies throughout the summer, fall and early winter of 2020, with Venus gracing the sky at dawn. The comet Neowise joined them briefly in July and August. But in January 2021, […]
Rick Schatzberg’s “The Boys” Combines Photography and Memoir
By Michael Selleck Looking at old photos from my youth is like eating comfort food. There‘s something about the brownish tint of the old color processing that’s like a magical haze. A recognition of people and places—some long gone—of a certain time. The friendships, the feelings of both invincibility and insecurity. A time capsule of […]
Annual Bird Event Counts on Norfolk Citizen Scientists
Text by Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto by Savage Frieze Over four days every February, people flock to the Internet to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). The GBBC is one of the most prolific citizen science projects in the world, with 268,674 participants from 194 countries in 2020. Started in 1998 by the Cornell […]
