• 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

Art Meets Nature In New Commission for City Meadow

By Patricia Platt “There is an ability for sculpture to move people in a unique way when they’re engrossed in looking at it and everything else falls away. It’s called the silence of sculpture,” commented Norfolk’s Jon Riedeman when he unveiled his sculpture of a Great Horned Owl on Sept. 17 at an event for […]

Board of Ed Examines Turnover at Botelle

By Colleen Gundlach At a Board of Education (BOE) meeting held in August, a delegation of parents and other concerned citizens urged board members to address several issues that had been raised in light of the departure at the end of the 2021-22 school year of four of the five Botelle classroom teachers, as well […]

Woodland Stewardship Training Helps Them See the Forest and the Trees

Program creates a state network of land stewards Text By David BeersPhotos by William Carter   For many years, the third weekend of September at Great Mountain Forest (GMF) has been devoted to an intensive training for Connecticut woodland owners and land trust stewards. This year, 26 students from across the state were ensconced at Yale […]

Veteran Teacher to Offer Afterschool Violin Lessons in Battell Chapel

The Sounds of Music Text By Ruth MelvillePhoto Courtesy of Meg Hill In 2018 the Norfolk Board of Education reluctantly decided, for budgetary reasons, to eliminate the strings part of Botelle School’s music curriculum. But thanks to the talents of Meg Hill, a professional violinist and experienced teacher, children—and adults—will soon be able to again […]

Caught Between Two Worlds: A Neighbor Shares His Immigrant Story

By Kelly Kandra Hughes  The Norfolk Library will celebrate National Immigrants Day a little early this year when they welcome Birol Bahadir, Norfolk resident and German immigrant, to the library on Monday, Oct. 24 at 5:30 p.m. Bahadir, who recently published his autobiography, “Between 2 Worlds,” will speak about his dream of living in the […]

Exploring the Northwest Corner’s Live Music Scene 

Out and About By Michael Cobb With the end of summer, Yale’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival goes dormant until next season. Fortunately for fans of live music, there are plenty of other options—from folk to rock—scattered throughout the northwest corner.  In downtown Norfolk, Infinity Hall seems to be picking up programming, although the exact relationship […]

Iron Strong for 175 Years

Text By Andra MossPhoto By Jen Pfaltz The 1840’s in the United States was the decade of the telegraph, the Mexican War and the Gold Rush. America’s rail network began its rapid expansion westwards as technology and investment took off. In 1847, Thomas Alva Edison was born; so was Jesse James. The United States was […]

Norfolk Hub Talk Focuses on Drone Use at the Front Lines of War

By Andra Moss Dozens gathered in the Norfolk Hub, with many more watching via Zoom, on Saturday, Sept. 24 to hear from Ian Miller and Evan Platt of the non-profit organization Zero Line on their view of the war in Ukraine and how Zero Line is supporting the Ukrainian citizens in their battle against the […]

GoodWorks to Turn Infinity Hall Building Over to Town of Norfolk

One more act in the life of the historic theater By Ruth Melville “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” sang Bob Dylan, and if you lived in Norfolk you didn’t need a crystal ball to know that change was coming to Infinity Hall. A glance at the venue’s diminishing […]

Campaign to Slow Speed of Traffic Through Town is Long and Frustrating

Keeping the Roads Safe By Colleen Gundlach The first letter to the editor about slowing down traffic traveling through Norfolk was published in Norfolk Now back in 2017. The writer, Barry Webber, encouraged townspeople to make a concerted effort to travel the speed limit when driving around town. He wrote, “If each of us pledges […]

Local Conservation Groups Work to Protect Connecticut’s Bat Population

Friends Not Foes Text By Avice MeehanPhoto By Pamela Velez Don’t be surprised if you see a strange-looking vehicle with an antenna on its roof crawling along Goshen East Street late at night. It’s a scientific bat mobile, deployed by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to assess Connecticut’s bat population. Moving […]

The Connecticut-Asian Cultural Center Opens on Westside Road

Celebrating Art and Culture Text by Patricia PlattPhoto Courtesy of The CT-Asian Cultural Center Celebrating its motto “Love, Mutual Support and Peace,” the Connecticut-Asia Cultural Center held its grand opening on Aug. 6 at 207A Westside Road, the large stone estate built by Dr. Michael Pupin in 1907. For many years, the site was occupied […]