• Work to Resume on Route 44 and New Firehouse

    Warmer temps ensure concrete quality By Avice Meehan Two significant Norfolk projects that were put on hold because of below-zero temperatures this winter are expected to resume by mid-March: Reconstruction of two retaining walls along Route 44 and the construction of a new firehouse for the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department. Engineers for the state Department […]

  • Richard Byrne Retires as Active Firefighter

    After 58 years, veteran status By Joseph Kelly He was a young Navy veteran, about to be married and ready to start a family in his hometown when, in February 1968, his older brother convinced him to join the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD). For Richard Byrne it was the start of an association that […]

  • Rock ‘n Roll House Party Circus Will Benefit Local Food Banks

    Three Grammy nominees to perform at Infinity Hall By Colleen Gundlach On April 11, Infinity Hall will be the setting for Rock ‘n Roll House Party Circus, a concert that will benefit Stock the Shelves, an outreach of United Way of Northwestern Connecticut. The Rock ‘n Roll House Party Circus will feature three Grammy nominees […]

  • Rom-Com Curling Film Released With Olympics

    To get the ice just right, filmmakers tapped Norfolk expertise By Joseph Kelly The underdogs who battle the odds—the washed-up boxer, the outclassed football team, the aging baseball slugger with one last homerun in him—are all Hollywood standbys. Ronald Reagan may be remembered as much for “win one for the Gipper” as he is for […]

  • How Botelle (Carefully) Uses AI for Learning

    By Avice Meehan For more than three decades, children visited the fictional town of Frog Creek, Penn., home to two children named Jack and Annie. With the help of a magic tree house, the pair are whisked away to distant places where they have adventures, solve problems and, perhaps, learn a thing or two. Like […]

  • Choral Singing Meets Bluegrass

    LCCU welcomes all ages to sing new styles By Andra Moss The Litchfield County Choral Union (LCCU) is entering its 127th concert year with decidedly youthful energy. Under the direction of Music Director Dr. Gabriel Löfvall, the LCCU will convene a youth choral festival in Norfolk in late spring; offer a series of choral seminars […]

  • Winter Weekend In Norfolk

    It was a cold and blustery weekend, but that didn’t stop the hardy from coming out on Feb. 21 and 22 for Winter WIN, the weekend for enjoying all things Norfolk in the winter season. The photos below show a story of a town that came together to strut its stuff for the world to […]

  • From Freeze to Flow: Extreme Temps and the Maple Syrup Season

    Reaching that ideal mix of natural conditions By Jude Mead The extreme cold and heavy snowfall this season has raised some concern among maple syrup producers. Reports of loud, cracking noises in wooded areas have set the stage for a phenomenon called “frost cracking.” During these periods of intense cold, the water and sap inside […]

  • Sit Right Back and You’ll Hear a Tale

    With Jude Mead at the guitar and with great enthusiasm, members of the Isabella Eldridge Club defied a threatened winter storm and entered Battell Chapel on Feb. 10 for a memorable performance of an episode of “Gilligan’s Island,” a daft 1960s television comedy. Despite the best efforts of the Professor (played by Marinell Crippen, left) […]

  • Cook For Goodness Sake

    America The Melting Pot By Linda Garrettson In celebration of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, it seems appropriate to dedicate my food column this year to America, who we are, and what we eat. Get ready for some history lessons, and perhaps surprises that might enlighten you to what we call American […]

  • Be Careful, Very Careful

    An expert team from the Glass Source Stained Glass Studio spent nearly six hours in cold mid-January weather care-fully removing a cathedral stained glass window from Battell Chapel at the United Church of Christ before transporting it to their studio in Seymour for restoration. In this photo, Michael Skrtic balances one section of the window […]

  • The Week that Was

    First, frigid temperatures forced the relocation of Norfolk’s valiant Post Office staff to Winsted because of scheduled asbestos remediation, leaving box holders temporarily puzzled. Then, the big snow arrived on Jan. 25 and 26. Estimates vary widely: Russell Russ reported the official tally at the Great Mountain Forest weather station as 15.2 inches, but others […]

Articles

Brett Ellis Strives to Care for the Land and the Community

New Famer at Husky Meadows By Tracy Hayhurst Husky Meadows Farm is getting ready for the upcoming growing season with their new farmer Brett Ellis. He comes to Norfolk with his wife Rebecca and baby Andre from The French Laundry, an award-winning French restaurant in Napa, Calif., where he was the grower for their four […]

Norfolk CTDOT Crew Manages 50 Miles of Roadways

Local team handles the state’s toughest weather By David Beers The state highways of Connecticut are the arteries of its road network. Most drivers use them daily and generally take them for granted. It is not until one is stuck behind a snowplow or delayed by a construction lane drop that any thought goes to […]

NVFD Welcomes Gleaming New (Plastic!) Tanker

By Brian Hutchins In late December 2022, the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD) took delivery of the largest, and some would say the most important, truck in their fleet. Some may have already caught a glimpse of the 25-ton piece of fire apparatus on town roads as the firefighters familiarize themselves with the characteristics of […]

Ralph Nader Champions Revival of Winsted Newspaper

The Winsted Citizen to publish first issue Feb. 3 Text By Colleen GundlachPhoto Courtesy of American Tort Law Museum More than 100 people turned out on the evening of Jan. 24 to hear plans for Winsted’s new monthly print newspaper, The Winsted Citizen.  At a reception held at the American Museum of Tort Law on […]

Prepare Now to Combat the Next Spongy Moth Season

Defending Norfolk’s Trees By Susannah Wood Last year an outbreak of spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) caterpillars arrived in the Northwest Corner, defoliating the trees and turning entire hillsides back to early spring again. Norfolk forests suffered significant damage from these exotic pests, formerly known as gypsy moths. Towns to the west were even harder hit. […]

Noi Salon Turns Heads on Station Place

Around Town By Andra Moss People walking along Norfolk’s Station Place are doing a particular two-step these days when they pass the doorway east of the Hub—two steps past, then two steps back, a peer in the window, then a hand on the doorknob. They have discovered Noi Salon, the new full-service hair salon opened […]

A Norfolk Frog Makes Successful Hop to Sheffield

Out and About By Patricia Platt Longtime Norfolk natives who drive through Sheffield, Mass., might recognize a stylishly dressed frog on a sign outside a new business. Justin Vagliano has named his recently opened farm-to-table restaurant The Frog after a men’s haberdashery in Norfolk once owned by his father. Inside, you can see the original […]

Eversource Price Hike LEads Many to Seek Alternate Suppliers

By Avice Meehan Asking someone what they pay per kilowatt hour of electricity is more likely to generate a confused stare than spark a lively conversation. At least that was true until November, when local energy provider Eversource announced it would seek a 50 percent hike in the cost of supplying electricity to residential and […]

Stone Walls – Built to Last the Test of Times

It’s Only Natural By Jude Mead If stonewalls could talk, they would have centuries of stories to tell and would reveal a wealth of history. According to Susan Allport, author of “Sermons in Stone,” stonewalls date back to the agricultural era of the late 1700s. “Stonewalls have a checkered past in terms of how they […]

Dawn Whalen Retiring as Executive Director of Norfolk Foundation

Text by Leila JavitchPhoto Courtesy of Dawn Whalen Dawn Whalen became the first executive director of the Norfolk Foundation (NF) in November 2016, arriving after three years as executive director of Habitat for Humanity for Northwest Connecticut. Mark Burke, a Norfolk resident and former member of the Habitat board, urged her to apply to head […]

Two First-Time Playwrights Explore Lives on Stage

Text by Andra MossPhotos by Adam Heller Two one-act plays, written by Norfolk-based playwrights Sara Heller and Marinell Crippen, will premiere on Feb. 25 at the Norfolk Library. Both women are actors who have trained and worked in New York City, and Crippen is house manager at the Sharon Playhouse. Although neither had ever seriously […]

Norfolk Swimmer Olivia Olsen Changes Lane

High school senior recruited to row for Syracuse University Text by Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto Courtesy of Syracuse University Norfolk’s Olivia Olsen has spent her whole life swimming. Now a high school senior she had planned to swim competitively in college, and the SwimCloud coaching platform has her ranked 82nd in Connecticut in terms of recruitment. […]