Boards of Education and Finance Join Forces on Botelle Committee

Goal is to improve quality of education by improving communication by Ruth Melville After years of wrangling over the annual budget for Botelle School, Michael Sconyers, chairman of the Board of Finance, felt it was time to try something new. “It’s no secret,” he says, “that there’s been a lot of tension between the Board […]

Maple Syrup Makers Experience Unusually Early Sap Season

Text by Jude MeadPhoto by Winter Mead The Farmer’s Almanac, a periodical that has provided long-range weather predictions since 1818, was right again. It predicted above normal temperatures in our area this winter, and most maple syrup producers agree that it was spot on. Many producers took advantage of the warm weather. I was one […]

Addressing Norfolk’s Diverse Housing Needs

Creating a mix of rental units to grow the community by Allysia Ruggiero On Monday Feb. 3 at 6 p.m., over 30 people weathered the cold evening air so that they could be in attendance at the Norfolk Hub to hear Jocelyn Ayer, community and economic development director of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments […]

Inn Owner Withdraws Zoning Request for Bakery and Cafe

Bows to neighbors’ objections Text and Photo by Colleen Gundlach The Gilded Age home located just south of the Norfolk’s Village Green has been a local landmark, where patrons have been served food for more than 60 years. When Felix and Clara Klauer purchased it from Erastus Johnson in 1951, the Mountain View Inn welcomed […]

Tree Cutting at Haystack Mountain State Park

Text and Photo by David Beers A century ago, the Stoeckel family’s generosity provided to the state both the land and the tower that now make Haystack Mountain State Park the icon of Norfolk. Back then, most of the forest on the lower slopes of the mountain was young saplings. That fledgling forest is now […]

Making a Safe Space for Lakota Children in South Dakota

Text by Tina OlsenPhoto by Erick Olsen In the summer of 2021, a group from Norfolk’s Church of Christ UCC will travel to the Cheyenne River Reservation to spend a week with the Lakota Sioux tribe in South Dakota. From June 20 to 26, participants will work with the organization Simply Smiles to serve the […]

French Choir Joins Salisbury Sinfonietta for Norfolk Performance

by Marie-Christine Perry The weekend of April 26 will see the return of what might well become a tradition, the joint concert of a Parisian choir with the regional Salisbury Sinfonietta Festival Choir. Two years ago, the collaboration of Jack Bowman, the Salisbury choir director, and Dominique Fanal, the conductor of the Sinfonietta de Paris, […]

Turning Garbage Into Electricity Gets More Expensive

State reaches a decision point on funding MIRA by Wiley Wood “Shipping our garbage out to Pennsylvania, Ohio, or West Virginia is not an option,” says Matt Riiska, Norfolk’s first selectman. “It’s our problem, we should be taking care of it.” Right now, Norfolk’s garbage, about 800 tons of it a year, is hauled by […]

Photos From Winter Weekend in Norfolk 2020

A Knack for Finding Family

Text and Photo by Kelly Kandra Hughes Imagine finding out you’re related to a witch who was accused at the time of the Salem witch trials. Or that your family heritage links back to Benjamin Franklin. Both discoveries happened during research by genealogy expert and history enthusiast Laurie Foulke-Green. In the former instance, Foulke-Green discovered […]