• 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

History Repeats Itself in Norfolk Quilt

Community quilt to be auctioned a second time Text and Photo by Jude Mead Quilting and quilting circles have a long history in Norfolk. Twenty-five years ago a group of 19 women from the community gathered together and made a quilt as a fund-raiser for the Church of Christ Congregational. The quilt was raffled off, […]

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 […]

Boards of Education and Finance Join Forces on Botelle Committee

Goal is to improve quality of education by improving communication by Ruth Melville After years of wrangling over the annual budget for Botelle School, Michael Sconyers, chairman of the Board of Finance, felt it was time to try something new. “It’s no secret,” he says, “that there’s been a lot of tension between the Board […]

Maple Syrup Makers Experience Unusually Early Sap Season

Text by Jude MeadPhoto by Winter Mead The Farmer’s Almanac, a periodical that has provided long-range weather predictions since 1818, was right again. It predicted above normal temperatures in our area this winter, and most maple syrup producers agree that it was spot on. Many producers took advantage of the warm weather. I was one […]

Addressing Norfolk’s Diverse Housing Needs

Creating a mix of rental units to grow the community by Allysia Ruggiero On Monday Feb. 3 at 6 p.m., over 30 people weathered the cold evening air so that they could be in attendance at the Norfolk Hub to hear Jocelyn Ayer, community and economic development director of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments […]

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 […]

Making a Safe Space for Lakota Children in South Dakota

Text by Tina OlsenPhoto by Erick Olsen In the summer of 2021, a group from Norfolk’s Church of Christ UCC will travel to the Cheyenne River Reservation to spend a week with the Lakota Sioux tribe in South Dakota. From June 20 to 26, participants will work with the organization Simply Smiles to serve the […]

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 […]

Photos From Winter Weekend in Norfolk 2020