Botelle School 6th Grade Fund-Raiser Is Crushing It

Photo by Marinell Crippen Keep those cans coming! The “big blue bin” fundraiser at the transfer station has already brought in over $650 in five-cent increments from the thousands of cans residents have left in the special collection bin beside the recycle dumpster. Botelle School PTO volunteer Marinell Crippen and her son, sixth grader Rex […]

Court Rules Against Proposed Third Wind Turbine in Colebrook

by Ruth Melville A suit to overturn the permission to build a third wind turbine in Colebrook has won its day in court.  The decision of the Connecticut Siting Council to permit the construction of a third turbine that would be both larger and placed on a different parcel of land than was originally approved […]

Local Group Hopes to Welcome an Afghan Refugee Family to Torrington

by Kelly Kandra Hughes The end of August 2021 saw the United States’ final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. During the withdrawal, over 75,000 Afghan refugees were evacuated through Operation Allies Welcome. Although many have now been resettled throughout the United States, there are still approximately 23,000 refugees living on six US military bases. Thanks […]

ZBA Approves Storage Garage on Route 44

Eye on Town Government by Susan MacEachron A proposed new storage garage across Route 44 from George’s Norfolk Garage was approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) meeting on Jan. 20.   George Auclair owns four acres across from his existing garage, and the land is zoned for commercial development. However, the zoning setback requirements […]

Wetlands Considers Above-Ground Pipe at Spaulding Brook

Eye on Town Government by Susan MacEachron At its Jan. 3 meeting, the Inlands Wetlands Agency (Wetlands) continued its public hearing to discuss the application by First Selectman Matt Riiska to allow use of the town farm by third parties for processing material.  The town farm is an area of approximately 180 acres owned by […]

A Look Back at Norfolk’s 2021 Weather

by Russell Russ Norfolk’s weather for 2021 was interesting. Isn’t the weather always interesting? What rightly first comes to mind when remembering 2021’s weather is how wet it was in summer and fall. What also might come to mind is the relative lack of snowfall. Digging deeper, Norfolk residents might recall how lousy the weather […]

American Recovery Act Funds and the 2022/23 Budget

Selectman’s Corner by Matt Riiska The Town of Norfolk has received $241,199.72 as part of the American Recovery Act Plan funding. We will receive another $241,199.72 next fiscal year. When the federal government first introduced the funding package, there were 66 expenditure categories for which these funds could be used. The main categories were public […]

Omicron Rates Starting to Come Down

The Body Scientific by Richard Kessin A few months ago, we were anticipating the reopening of public life. But events intervened. First, the protection of the two-dose vaccines started to subside. Second, unvaccinated patients, including children, were sickened by the furiously infectious Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. More patients survive the Omicron virus than Delta, many […]

Crêpes for Mardi Gras

Notes From a French Kitchen by Marie-Christine Perry The holidays are behind us, and after Epiphany and its traditional cake, galette des rois (cake of the kings), the next festive celebration on the French calendar is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. This is an important day for the French, who make crêpes and beignets that […]

Norfolk’s 2021 November and December Weather

A slow start for wintertime weather by Russell Russ The final two months of 2021 brought Norfolk closer to wintertime. There were glimpses of winter weather in November and December, but for the most part winter held off until after the ball dropped on the new year. What was very notable was the drop in […]