• 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

A New Foundation Aims at Downtown Hub

  By Janet G. Mead “Our dream is to make Norfolk the vibrant place we all would like it to be,” said Samuel (Pete) Anderson, president of the newly established Norfolk Foundation. “We want to make Norfolk a center for art and natural recreation.” To work toward this goal, Anderson and three other founding board […]

Historical Society Weekend Celebrates Today’s Norfolk Collectors

  In conjunction with their exhibition “A Farmer, a Sportsman and a Diplomat: The Romance of Collecting in Norfolk,” the Norfolk Historical Society is sponsoring a weekend in February devoted to today’s collections. On Friday, February12, a cocktail party at the Historical Museum will feature a group of Norfolk collectors who will share their collecting […]

Torrington’s Five Points Gallery: Art Mecca and Tool for City Revitalization

Out and About   By Ruth Melville Five Points Gallery, located in a historic building at the corner of Water and Main Streets in Torrington, has been in existence for less than three years, but it has already played a significant role in the revitalization of the city’s downtown. With its high ceilings and big […]

Aija Ends Its Run on Station Place

Pop-up planned for spring   By Ruth Melville For four and a half years, Bella Erder’s shop Aija, selling jewelry, accessories, tableware and other gifts, has been a lively and colorful part of Station Place. But last December Erder reluctantly decided it was time to close her doors. Erder and her family first bought a […]

Local Author Sees the Funny Side of Norfolk Life

Tony Thomson’s Second Career   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo A glance at Tony Thomson on paper (he was educated at Deerfield and Yale, served in the army during Vietnam, obtained graduate degrees from Oxford and Stanford and had a 30-year career in various investment management firms in London) doesn’t tell the whole story. While Thomson […]

Plantin’ Seeds in North Canaan Celebrates Farming

  By Ruth Melville Plantin’ Seeds Farm Kitchen, a new café and gathering place in North Canaan, is not your traditional restaurant. For one thing, it doesn’t charge money for its meals. Instead, it is a community resource, a mission and a project still taking shape. Plantin’ Seeds is the brainchild of Dale McDonald, a […]

Gearheads Working on New Robot

Northwestern robotics team receives grants from The Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut   By Julie Scharnberg FIRST Robotics Team NRG4055 – better known as The Gearheads – from Northwestern Regional High School will build their robot this year with a new set of tools, thanks to a grant from the Ruth and Robert Cron Endowment […]

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. […]