Community News
A Forgotten Impressionist: Mary Rogers Williams Arts writer Eve M. Kahn gives a Zoom talk on her recent book about an extraordinary woman and long-forgotten Impressionist artist, Mary Rogers Williams (1857-1907) on Thursday, March 3, at 5:30 p.m. A baker’s daughter from Hartford, Conn., Williams biked and hiked from the Arctic Circle to Italy, trained at New […]
Norfolk Then…
One of the earliest photographs of Norfolk was taken in 1878 from the location of the present post office. It shows a barren village center. Visible in the background are familiar Norfolk landmarks: the Congregational Church and Whitehouse. On the far right is the stone building, still standing, that housed the Norfolk Bank. To its […]
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 […]
