• Sweets on the Green

    A Decade of Decadent Desserts By Andra Moss How is your naughty versus nice rating? Those needing to influence Santa with an especially impressive treat should grab their stockings and head to the Norfolk Historical Society (NHS) for the 10th Annual Cake Auction on Saturday, Dec. 7.     Now a Norfolk holiday tradition, the event was […]

  • Artist Tom Burr Brings His Torrington Project to an End

    Performances celebrate studio closing By Stephen Melville Norfolk resident and artist Tom Burr organized a day of performances and exhibition at his studio in Torrington on Oct. 26, marking an end to what he has called “The Torrington Project.” For the past three and a half years, Burr has rented a vast—15,000 square foot—former industrial […]

  • New Meanings for a Monument

    Light Shines on the Memorial Green By Joe Kelly On Monday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day, a crowd of about 100 gathered for the rededication of Norfolk’s World War 1 memorial, artfully restored under the auspices of the Norfolk Community Association. It was sunny. Temperatures in the low ‘60’s. Another day of no rain. Everyone talked […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This 1920s postcard shows Memorial Green just after the War Memorial, designed by Alfredo Taylor, was built. It was Taylor’s wife Minna who first proposed that a memorial “heroes grove” be planted on the small lot of land known as the Triangle opposite the Catholic Church. The lot had been left empty with the demolition […]

  • Restored war memorial to be celebrated on veterans day

    plaque now honors all who served By Patricia Platt A World War I monument, designed by Alfredo Taylor and erected on Norfolk’s Memorial Green in 1921, bears the inscription, “for those who gave and those who offered their lives for liberty, the people of Norfolk have built this monument and crowned it with the Liberty […]

  • NLT Tail Ablaze with Runners

    More than 120 runners enjoyed perfect fall weather as they wound their way through picturesque Barbour Woods in the 11th Annual Norfolk Land Trust Trail Race. Some chose to add a challenging loop over Haystack Mountain, while the half-marathoners just kept moving on up—topping out at over 2,000 feet of elevation gain. *photo by June […]

  • Can you spot the Real Curler?

    There was movie magic ice to be made, and the pros of the Norfolk Curling Club were the first to get the call. In October, NCC’s Jon Barbagallo, Lou Barbagallo, Rachel Barbagallo, Mark Walsh, Harvey Chalmers and Phill West were hired by a production company to make curling ice at a Rhode Island hockey rink […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This 1917 photograph is a timely reminder of the long struggle fought by many dedicated women for basic civil liberties, including the right to own property, hold public office, sit on juries, participate in public assemblies and vote. The group of 25 suffragists—20 women and five men—gathered on the porch following their meeting with Congressman […]

  • The chicken who wanted to be a star and other tales from a norfolk movie set

    By Andra Moss Secrets and small towns don’t often pair well, and Norfolk is a small town. Yet, for eight weeks this summer, a crew of nearly 100 people quietly transformed Tim and Paula Webster’s 1908 Norfolk farmhouse into a film set for a feature-length production, all the while staying under the local radar.  It […]

  • great blue heron rookeries

    working together to provide sustainable breeding habitats By Jude Mead Great Blue Herons are a familiar sight in Norfolk and are one of the largest of all North American herons, standing up to four feet tall with a wingspan of close to six feet. They are most noticeable in flight as they soar across the […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    Tennis at Town Hall? The building we know as Town Hall was originally the Eldridge Gymnasium, built in 1892. Located within easy walking distance of hotels and boarding houses in Norfolk at the turn of the last century, the Gymnasium was a popular gathering place for both residents and visitors. People played croquet on the lawn […]

  • Looking Back Over the Years

    The End of an Era for Norfolk Now By Colleen Gundlach After 10 years and over 30 issues, Ruth Melville has put on her Norfolk Now editor’s hat for the last time. In June, the paper marked the end of an era with the publication of Ruth’s final issue as one of the executive editors […]

Articles

Wind Turbine Neighbors Report Adverse Effects

Green Energy, Sick Neighbors   By Wiley Wood It was mid-October, and Peg Papanek was thinking how lucky she was to live on Schoolhouse Road and bask in Norfolk’s beautiful weather and fall colors. She had built a fabulous patio during the summer. Now she was packing for a trip to Asheville, N.C., where she […]

Art Show in Norfolk’s Downtown

Aija, the gift store in Norfolk’s Station Place, will host an exhibition of ten local artists during the month of December. The artists sre Katherine Griswold, Tom Hlas (left, above), Fay O’Meara, Babs Perkins, Gary Rawson, David Roelofs, Turi Rostad, Susan Rood, Harmony Tanguay, Castle Yuran and Robin Yuran. Photos by Bruce Frisch.

Sue Dyer Wins Re-Election in Close Race

Voter Turn-Out Is 58 Percent   By Wiley Wood In an off-year election that drew 58 percent of the electorate to the polls, Sue Dyer, Norfolk’s incumbent first selectman, defeated first-time challenger Matt Riiska with 53 percent of the votes, winning 317 to 286. The other positions on the Board of Selectmen were uncontested. The […]

Norfolk’s Pension Plan Judged ‘Actuarily Solvent’

  By Susan MacEachron Only a few years ago, it was widely circulated that Norfolk’s pension plan for town employees was underfunded by $1 million and that the town would have to borrow to cover the shortfall. The market crash in 2008 had put the town’s plan in serious straits, according to Michael Sconyers, chairman […]

Onward and Upward With Botelle School

A Conversation With Superintendent Mary Beth Iacobelli   With the effort to consolidate the Norfolk and Colebrook primary schools defeated, Norfolk Now’s Wiley Wood visited Superintendent Mary Beth Iacobelli for a discussion of the present and future of Botelle School. The following interview has been edited and condensed.   NN: So Botelle School continues on. […]

Norfolk Resident Bob Gilchrest Guides Redesign of Falls Village

New Paving and Lights Make Main Street Safer for Pedestrians   By Ruth Melville   Thanks in large part to the efforts of Norfolk resident Bob Gilchrest, the town of Falls Village has a newly redone town center, designed to be both safer and more attractive. The Falls Village project was instigated by safety concerns. […]

Photographing a Long and Winding Road

Route 22 North   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo Part-time Norfolk resident Rick Schatzberg was interested in photography as a collector for decades, but didn’t start taking photos himself until five years ago. He spends a lot of time on a bicycle, in Brooklyn, where he and his wife, Marilyn, also have a home, and in […]

United Coalition of Northwest Connecticut Combats Drug Abuse

  By Colleen Gundlach Drug addiction is a problem that knows no class. It affects the rich as well as the poor; the educated and the illiterate; the mentally ill and the healthy. It is a growing problem in Connecticut, where 306 citizens died from heroin overdose in 2014—that’s triple the rate from 2012. Several […]

A Family Effort for the Win

Racing Champion in Our Midst   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo One should never question a parent’s intuition about their child. Keith Goring, who has run Alfas Unlimited, Inc. on Greenwoods Road for 40 years, knew that his son was meant to be a race car driver long before the kid even had a license. Jonathan […]

Wind Turbines in Colebrook Start Up

Ribbon cutting ceremony held on Flagg Hill site   By Wiley Wood On the clear blue morning of October 15, the vanes of BNE Energy’s wind turbine No. 2 faced motionless into a moderate breeze from the northwest. A small crowd of company executives, state legislators, bankers and regulators gathered on the hilltop above Flagg […]

Going Electric in Colebrook

A Carbon Negative Family   By David Beers The Eckert family in Colebrook is more than just carbon neutral, they are carbon negative. Instead of paying for energy, they are making money from the energy that they produce at their home. Bill Eckert, a C.P.A. and retired software company executive, has been keeping detailed records […]

Obituary–Bruce Hanke

  Surrounded by family and close friends, Bruce Hanke left this world on Monday, October 12 after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born at Plunkett Memorial Hospital in Adams, Mass. on November 3, 1958 to William and Mildred (Kryston) Hanke. Growing up on East Road in Adams, next to his grandmother’s farm, Hanke spent summers and […]