Coronavirus: How We Got Here

Text by Richard KessinPhotos Courtesy of the CDC The March 12 issue of Nature has two dense scientific articles on the discovery of SARS-CoV-2. Though most of the data were already available, the narrative, all in one place, is gripping. The first article describes a 41-year-old man who was seen in The Central Hospital of […]

Cleanup Day is Now Cleanup Month

Month-long individual effort replaces one-day gathering By Doreen Kelly The Norfolk Community Association (NCA) was looking forward to another rousing success for Clean Up Day 2020, which was scheduled for this April 25th. They had good reason to be so optimistic after the event participants last year collectively retrieved over 100 bags of trash from […]

Technology Works Hand in Hand with Tried-and-True

Congregating in Norfolk in the time of COVID-19 By Christopher Sinclair To congregate means to come together in a group or an assembly, particularly in large numbers, derived in part from the Latin root grex, meaning crowd or flock. While the physical act of congregating is currently and foreseeably off the table, the power and […]

Norfolk Joins Fight to Bring Back Railroad Service to New York City

The Train Campaign By Sue Frisch and Colleen Gundlach The town of Norfolk is isolated by lack of affordable long-distance public transportation within a reasonable distance (up to a half-hour drive). People who want to go to New York City must either drive an hour to get on the train at Wassaic or pay $45 […]

All Kinds of Hoopla Going on at the Library — and Kanopy, Too

EMedia services offer relief from stresses of social distancing By Kelly Kandra Hughes Even though the Norfolk Library is closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, your Norfolk Library card can still give you access to thousands of eBooks, movies, television shows, and more. This access is thanks to the library’s recent addition of two new media […]

Design of Replacement Bridge on Mountain Road Raises Controversy

Text and Photo by Wiley Wood When the stone bridge on Mountain Road was declared in poor condition by the state’s Department of Transportation (DOT), First Selectman Matt Riiska resolved that the replacement bridge would be exactly the same, down to the stone parapets and the embedded planters at either end. No stretch of road […]

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 […]

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 […]