• Early Morning Fire Guts Norfolk Barn

    Forty firefighters respond from five towns By Avice Meehan Adair Mali often sleeps with earplugs but dispensed with them on the night of Aug. 18, tired after a night at Tanglewood with her husband, Antonio Guindon, and another couple. Thank goodness she did. At about 4:20 a.m. Mali awoke to a “loud crackling noise” and […]

  • Litchfield County Choral Union Closes 2026 Season

    Celebrating America’s 250th birthday By Jude Mead The Litchfield County Choral Union (LCCU) brought its 2026 summer season to a stirring close on Sunday, Aug. 2, with “From Roots to Promise: Singing America at 250,” an ambitious program that celebrated the country’s musical traditions while looking toward its future. The concert featured the LCCU anthem […]

  • Haystack Book Festival Returns to Norfolk

    Nationally recognized authors offer conversation and insights By Ann DeCerbo Book lovers, curious minds and anyone who enjoys a lively conversation about ideas have plenty to look forward to next month when the Haystack Book Festival returns to Norfolk Oct. 2–4 with events at Infinity Hall, the Norfolk Library and Great Mountain Forest. A program […]

  • Fire and Circus Arts on the Green

    By Jude Mead Matica Circus, a professional performing group based in Harwinton, Conn., brought an unforgettable combination of fire, acrobatics and circus arts to the Norfolk Village Green for the grand finale of the season of the Friday Nights on the Green summer concert series. The high-energy performance captivated the crowd with dramatic fire spinning, […]

  • Botelle Ushers in a New Year

    The first day of school dawned cool and cloudy, but no one seemed to notice. Students arrived at Botelle Elementary School on Aug. 26 via bus, car and firetruck (complete with siren). Some students, like Daphne Rutolo who walked her older sister to the bus, will have to wait for the start of the pre-Kindergarten […]

  • A New Year, New Pathways

    Northwestern Regional 7 expands opportunities for students By Virginia Coleman-Prisco As students and staff return to Northwestern Regional School District No. 7 (NWR7) middle and high schools for the 2026-27 school year, district leaders say the focus will be on strengthening student opportunities, preparing young people for an evolving workforce and building an even stronger […]

  • When Is a Check Really in the Mail?

    By Joseph Kelly The United States Postal Service (USPS), longtime target of many complaints and butt of numerous jokes, may seem an unlikely source of metaphysical speculation. But this year the USPS added a new wrinkle to an age-old question: When can it truly and truthfully be said that “a check is in the mail?” […]

  • Steady as She Goes

    Crews working on Norfolk’s new firehouse hoisted the “final” truss in place on Saturday, Aug. 29, as members of the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department, town officials and representatives of Newfield Construction watched from the sidelines. The truss, signed by key players in the major project, marks a symbolic milestone toward completion of the building. NVFD […]

  • Caring for Forests: Ethan Tapper’s Message of Stewardship

    By Jude Mead Ethan Tapper recently spoke at the Church of Christ Congregational on the green about his work as a forester, author and advocate for the natural world. The evening centered on his 2024 book, “How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World,” which explores how forests function and […]

  • IT’ S ONLY NATURAL: Putting the Brakes on Bittersweet: a September Strategy

    by Susannah Wood Over the last couple of years, Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) has increasingly taken hold on Norfolk’s roadsides. Anyone who has driven back and forth to New York City over the years has seen how, unchecked, the vines can envelope trees, girdle and kill them, and leave behind a wrecked woodland. A member […]

  • Woodman Spare that Tree—Or Don’t

    The somewhat lopsided Japanese Zelkova tree that once stood near the entrance to Nor-folk’s Post Office on Station Place is no more. Likely planted some 30 years ago during Ar-thur Rosenblatt’s tenure as first selectman, the hardy tree fell victim to progress and the need to replace the adjacent sidewalk. The planned removal of the […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    In the early 20th century, the Mountain Road bridge over Norfolk Brook had a rustic-style guard rail bordering the road and sidewalk. Characterized by the use of twigs, branches, and bark, the rustic style had been used in formal English gardens in the 1700’s and in this country was very popular in the second half […]

Articles

Havemeyer Receives Doctorate

A degree 30 years in the making By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo There’s a new doctor in town.  Not a general practitioner, but tireless Norfolk Historical Society Curator Ann Havemeyer, who received her Ph.D. from Yale University at their graduation ceremony on May 21. Her 250-page dissertation, “An Architect of Place and the Village Beautiful: Alfredo […]

More Healthy Life Choices Open to Norfolk residents

Joel Howard Norfolk is undergoing a fitness craze. From Pilates to yoga to Zumba at church, people have more venues to pump it up and shake it out than seen in the recent history of this town. A unique link in this chain is 7day recreationalists, a holistically designed exercise program devised by partners and […]

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Well, Almost

Town budget promises an inconsequential hike in taxes By Lloyd Garrison Norfolk’s Board of Finance Chairman, J. Michael Sconyers, may be no Santa Claus, but with a creative shift of funds from one column of the budget to another, he has given the town something to cheer about come tax time in 2012. The budget […]

New Arrest Warrants Issued in Curling Club Arson Case

Defendants charged with tampering with pump station valves By Lloyd Garrison There was supposed to be another hearing last week in Litchfield Superior Court to advance the case of the State vs. Mathew Carey and Kyle Majewski, but nothing went right for the two 19 year olds accused of multiple felonies that led to the […]

Lecture Offered on Conservation of Sandy Brook

An ambitious plan to protect the Sandy Brook watershed, a 17-mile expanse of land that crosses northeastern Norfolk as well as parts of Colebrook, Sandisfield, and other surrounding towns, is being spearheaded by Aton Forest. A broad coalition of land-preservation groups, municipalities, and landowners will be called on to bring this effort, known as the […]

Curling Club Starts to Rebuild

Fundraising Gears Up as Plans for New Curling House Go Out to Builders By Wiley Wood The rubble is gone. A long slab of concrete, painted with targets on either end and lying in a vacant lot on Golf Drive, is all that remains of the Norfolk Curling Club, which was torched by arsonists last […]

Colebrook-Norfolk School Merger Gets a Fresh Look

Joint Study Committee Holds First Meeting By Bob Bumcrot With primary-school enrollments projected to decline and per-student costs expected to rise over the next decade, a study committee has been formed to examine the possibility of a merger between the Norfolk and Colebrook schools. A first public meeting was held on April 10 at the […]

Stopping the Cycle of Abuse Through Communal Effort

Susan B. Anthony Project Serves Northwest Corner Towns By Colleen Gundlach When geese fly, their formation allows each individual member to be pulled along and uplifted by the drafts of air created by the bird flying in front. When a goose is sick or injured, other geese leave the formation to provide assistance. These simple […]

Norfolk Farmers Market Starts Season

Several New Vendors and Many Old Favorites By Wiley Wood There’s always a reason to go to the Norfolk Farmers Market on a Saturday when the sun is shining. It’s a place to walk a dog where it will be admired, to commission a copper weathervane or to buy a crusty loaf of sourdough and […]

Lily Bernstein Wins National Writing Award

Norfolk resident Lily Bernstein, a sixth-grader at Botelle, entered a national essay contest this winter at the urging of her homeroom teacher, Kim DeDominicis. More than 1900 other students from around the country joined the competition, which is sponsored annually by the BIC Corporation. Bernstein won a runner-up prize. For her 200-word essay, she will […]

Robotics Team Travels to International Championship

Northwest Regional’s Gearheads Win Major Award By Joel Howard Winning is as much a journey as it is an end objective, as the Gearheads have learned over the past four months. Just three month ago, Northwest Regional High School’s robotics team was meeting after school almost every day to get their new club organized and […]

Spring Turkey Season in Progress

Hikers on or near state hunting lands should consider that the 2012 Connecticut spring wild turkey season, which started on April 25, continues through May 26. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection advises hunters to avoid the colors red, white, and blue when walking in the turkey woods, as these colors are associated with […]