• 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

Early Automobilists Find Their Way to Norfolk

By Andra Moss Just when travel seemed so modern—the Mountain Express train barreled along from Hartford to Canaan at speeds up to 37 miles per hour—something new came clanging, hissing and rattling over the hilltops. It was 1900. American automaking was still in its infancy, but change was coming fast (“fast” being a relative term; […]

100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

This month sees the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. The amendment was adopted after Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on August 18, 1920. One month later, on September 18, 1920, two hundred Norfolk women went to Town Hall and […]

“This Shouldn’t Happen to Anyone”

Residents and activist group appeal council’s decision on new turbine By Wiley Wood On March 6, the Connecticut Siting Council approved the construction of a new turbine on Flagg Hill. Considerably taller than the two existing ones, and generating roughly as much energy as the other two combined, it will sit just within the Colebrook […]

Church in the Time of Covid-19

Bringing the Church Family Back Together By Kelly Kandra Hughes Norfolk is home to three different churches within the town limits: The Church of the Transfiguration (Episcopalian church), Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and Norfolk Church of Christ Congregational (UCC). As the town slowly opens up and returns to a new kind of normal, the question […]

Payroll Protection Program Lending Period Is Over

Additional legislation relaxes terms for paying back loans By Ruth Melville The Payroll Protection Program (PPP), part of the $2 trillion stimulus bill passed to help businesses weather the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, has come to an end. The deadline for the second round of funding was June 30, and National Iron […]

A Beautiful Piece of Norfolk History in the Woods

The bridge at Campbell Falls By Andra Moss During pre-Revolutionary War days, an early Connecticut entrepreneur, John Campbell, operated a grist-mill alongside a powerful cascade that he may never have imagined would still bear his name three centuries later: Campbell Falls. Today, those falls are part of the Campbell Falls State Park, although some might […]

Norbrook Brewery, a Place of Refuge from Stresses of the World

Food trucks are now an added feature By Doug McDevitt In March we went into a lockdown. Boarded everything up. Donned our masks and only ventured out for necessities. Many thought well, it’ll only be for a couple weeks, it’ll pass soon enough. Over three months later, we’re still grappling with a new way of […]

International Art Exhibition Has Two Locations in Norfolk

Re-creation of a 1990 sculpture is made out of hundreds of fortune cookies  By Ruth Melville The Cuban-born artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres died of complications from AIDS in 1996, when he was only 38 years old. But this spring, inspired in part by the coronavirus pandemic, the Andrea Rosen and David Zwirner galleries, working on behalf […]

Botelle Garden Continues to Provide Hands-on Learning

It’s a small garden after all by Virgina Coleman-Prisco Over a century ago, local gardening was still the norm in rural areas and encouraged during World War I to supplement regional food supplies. Afterward, during the Great Depression, community “depression gardens” sprang up. World War II saw the rise in “victory gardens”. A decade ago, […]

Connecting to the Internet in Norfolk – Part 2

What we do with it By Dave Beers Most of us use the Internet in many aspects of our life. The pandemic is making some of those uses more vital to our health and livelihood. Many of us are now working from home more and working from Norfolk more, rather than in the city.  Starling […]

National Iron Bank Processes Around 200 Loans From the Payroll Protection Program

PPP helps small businesses stay afloat By Ruth Melville On March 27, President Donald Trump signed into law the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act. At $2 trillion, it is the largest stimulus bill in U.S. history and is intended to counteract some of the worst economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. A […]

Norfolk Reopenings Follow State of Connecticut Guidelines

Individual businesses face a complex set of decisions By Jude MeadPhoto by Savage Frieze When Covid-19 struck, most places shut down or scaled back to stop the disease’s spread. The state allowed the reopening of some sectors of the economy on May 20, but the challenges continue, and those challenges are real for many of […]