• 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

Working Toward a Low Salt Diet

  By Susannah Wood As winter started up in earnest in late fall, drivers around town began to see scatterings of greenish chunks on the roads before any bad weather had actually arrived. Was this something new? Why was it being applied before the snow and not after? Turns out, there’s a good reason, a […]

Creating a Comprehensive Support Net

  By Wiley Wood The village green in Norfolk, shaded by trees, its grass well tended, is a gracious space. Yet recent economic data puts the town’s poverty level at nearly 10 percent. Responding to this, a group of town leaders gathered at Battell Chapel recently, forming a loose coalition known as Norfolk NET, to […]

Multiage Classrooms Are Coming to Botelle School

  By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo If public school teachers are often wary of innovation after recent waves of federally mandated programs, that is not the case at Botelle School. Kindergarten teacher Deb Tallon and first-grade teacher Bea Tirrell have enthusiastically embraced plans for the first multiage classrooms in the fall. Tallon and Tirrell will be splitting […]

A Third-Generation North Canaan Dairy Adopts Cutting-Edge Technology

Freund’s Farm is first in state to install robotic milking machines   By Colleen Gundlach Driving through East Canaan, one can’t help noticing the bank of 500 solar panels alongside Route 44. These are impressive, but only a tip of the iceberg of the advanced technology actually at work at Freund’s Farm and the three […]

After Devastating Fire, Lone Oak Campsites Begins Reconstruction

East Canaan’s Brown family has invincible optimism   By Colleen Gundlach “In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer.” So said French philosopher Albert Camus, but it could also have been said about the Brown family of East Canaan. Less than a month after a fire completely destroyed their […]

Freshman Lawmaker Brian Ohler Heads to the State Capitol

Republican state representative to focus on state and local issues   By Ruth Melville On cold sunny morning in February, Brian Ohler, state representative for the 64th District, sat down at the Berkshire Country Store to talk with Norfolk Now about his first weeks in office. Ohler describes his first month as “a whirlwind experience.” […]

Thrift Shop in Winsted Gives $3,000 to Norfolk Ambulance

Director asks for donations of clothing and household items   By Wiley Wood The thrift store is behind a modest shop front on a side street in Winsted. The contents are the familiar assortment of men’s and women’s clothing on racks, children’s toys, hardback books, slightly battered sports equipment and delicate knickknacks. On a weekday […]

School Board Proposes Flat Budget as Costs Rise and State Aid Dwindles

Town ponders an increase in property taxes   By Wiley Wood If the town accepts the budget passed by the Board of Education on Feb. 8, it will be the fifth year in a row that the Botelle School has been flat-funded or seen an actual decrease in its funding. The Board of Finance, which […]

A New England Pastor, a Dutch Classicist and a Roman Stoic in One Book

Treasures From the Rare Book Room   By Lucy Mookerjee Plenty of Norfolkians know a rare bird when they see one. But many birders would be hard-pressed to identify the markings of a “rare” book. What makes a rare book rare? It depends—age, scarcity, market value. Whether you’ve spotted it or not, the Norfolk Library […]

View from the Green

Enduring Village Landmark in Limbo   By Michael Kelly Civic enrichment in Norfolk Town is humming right along: what with the library’s compelling new terra cotta roof, the impressive restoration of Alfredo Taylor’s railroad railing and lamps, the reassuring church bells ringing again on the Village Green, the ambitious reimagining of City Meadow, the budding […]

Norfolk Represented in Women’s March on Washington

Residents travel to D.C believing nation’s moral values threatened   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo At least 20 Norfolkians travelled to Washington, D.C.—by car, bus, train and plane—on January 21 for the Women’s March. Two separate, large groups of Norfolk women were never able to meet up at the march but shared a very similar experience. The first […]

Convenience Store and Deli Opens in Downtown Norfolk

Residents Offer Strong Show of Support   By Wiley Wood It’s not the Corner Store. The musty gray carpet is gone, the cave-like interior, the flat fluorescent lighting. The Berkshire Country Store—bright, cheerful and inviting—is something else. It opened without fanfare in the pre-dawn dusk of January 4. Within minutes, the grill was delivering hot […]