The New Tobey Pond Shed Has Arrived
Norfolk Benefits from Eagle Scout Project By David Beers Only 4 percent of scouts ever achieve the highest rank—Eagle Scout. Ethan Perlman is now part of this select group by completing his community service project: a new Tobey Pond lifeguard shed. A year ago, Perlman had hit a roadblock in getting town wetlands and zoning […]
New Accordion Museum Has a Tight Squeeze on History
by Andra Moss “Whoa!” This is the delighted response of visitor after visitor upon stepping inside the New England Accordion Connection & Museum Company (NEACMC), newly opened in the historic Canaan Union Depot railroad station alongside the railroad museum and Great Falls Brewing Company. The word does pretty much capture the experience: the museum’s large […]
Mapping the Future of Norfolk’s Public Trails
Project will consolidate data on every hiking path in one online site Text by Andra MossPhoto by Dawn Whalen Looking for a great public trail in Norfolk? Hikers are definitely spoiled for choice, with dozens of miles of wooded paths, former carriage roads, logging trails and railway beds silently beckoning. Whatever one’s perambulatory mood, be […]
Freund’s Farm Offers Stroll & Graze for Enjoyment and Education
by Colleen Gundlach Combining the beauty of 200 contiguous acres of cropland with an understanding of how this land can be part of the climate change solution, Freund’s Farm in East Canaan is an example of how local farmers work for farmland preservation while protecting the environment. To share both the beauty and the science, […]
New Gateways Welcome Visitors to Town
By Doreen Kelly “Village Improvement Together!” is the motto of the Norfolk Community Association (NCA), and there couldn’t be a more fitting description of its most recently completed undertaking—the Welcome to Norfolk beautification project, made possible by a grant from The Evan Hughes Charitable Trust and in partnership with the Norfolk Economic Development Commission (EDC). […]
Winchester Youth Services Bureau Assists Young People in Area Towns
Health and Welfare in Town Budget by Colleen Gundlach Through the town budget, Norfolk residents support several nonprofit social service organizations, some of which have been featured in past issues of Norfolk Now. With pandemic-related lockdowns and social isolation, these agencies have proved to be more important than ever before in maintaining the mental and […]
Suffragists Hit the Road to Norfolk
by Andra Moss Something special was in the air in August 1911. It was the sound of women’s voices rising, once again, to demand their right to vote. Decades of unsuccessful advocacy for women’s suffrage in Connecticut had left many discouraged at the turn of the 20th century, but by 1911 fresh winds were blowing. […]
Combating the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
by Mattie Vandiver The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) is an insect native to Japan that was first noted in Connecticut in 1985 when a foliage sample was brought to the research station in New Haven. Since then it has been an ongoing issue in Connecticut as well as many other states, although Norfolk has barely […]
Tom Hlas Has Signed, Sealed, and Delivered with Mail Art
Text by Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto by Tom Hlas Tom Hlas always knew he wanted to be an artist. Born and raised in Elberon, Iowa (population at the time about 100 people), Hlas remembers being four years old and playing with cars on his parents’ chenille bedspread. When his oldest sister, home from college, asked him […]
The Healing Nest Is a New Center for Wellness and Community
By Ruth Melville When Dianna Hofer was young, she was fascinated with the placebo effect and startled to learn that people normally use only 5 percent of their brains. In college, as she studied more about the mind, she began to think of it as “the greatest new frontier.” Four decades of continuing investigation into […]
