Author: kathrynwboughton@gmail.com

All roads damaged when a cell of heavy rain passed through Norfolk Sunday afternoon were made accessible by late Monday afternoon. The only exception is Route 272 from Estey Road to Parker Hill Road.

The Norfolk Public Works Department worked clearing away downed trees and installing detour signs to direct traffic around washed-out areas. Riiska said caution should be used when travelling, especially in South Norfolk on Smith, Old Goshen, Estey and Parker Hill roads.

“Although the water level is going down, the sides of many roads are weak,” he said. “Please drive slowly.”

Public Works Supervisor Troy LaMere contacted many of the town’s vendors to help start to restore the roads. Three bridges were inspected Monday with the help of Cardinal Engineering and the bridges on Smith Road and Old Goshen Road at the intersection of Route 272 will need to be completely rebuilt. 

“This is going to be a long process,” said Riiska. “Residents of Old Goshen and Smith roads will need to use Bruey Road to access Route 272. We ask for your patience while we work to get back to normal.”

A cell of hard rain hit Norfolk yesterday afternoon, dumping seven inches of water in South Norfolk and washing out roads in several areas or making them unstable. 

First Selectman Matt Riiska said Route 272 in South Norfolk is impassable from Old Goshen to Bruey roads and that numerous roads, bridges and culverts are washed out.

The bridges at Old Goshen Road and on Smith Road are gone. Public Works Superintendent Troy LeMere said Parker Hill Road is in bad shape with “a lot of water, trees and wires down and that several dirt roads washed out and impassable.”

LeMere said 2.5 inches of rain fell in the town center and that seven inches were recorded in South Norfolk. South Norfolk was further inundated when a beaver dam let go.

Riiska asked residents to “be smart and stay home,” not venturing forth to look at the damage.

The town has declared a state of emergency. The fire department manned the firehouse overnight to monitor rainfall. 

The agencies contacted many residents last evening who are isolated due to the road closures and will continue wellness checks today. Tobey Pond has been closed for the day.

LeMere said more rain is expected today and town crews are monitoring the state of the infrastructure. “More roads are being damaged as we speak,” he said, adding that rain was predicted for Sunday but that town officials had no idea of the intensity of the impending storm. “Within 90 minutes five inches was reported in South Norfolk,” he said.

It is the second time in nine months that Norfolk has declared a state of emergency. The massive gas spill last November caused disruptions that have extended to this day. “The fortunate thing is we all know the drill,” said Riiska, “and our Public Works and EMS are on it. I have no doubt we are in good hands.”

He has contact State Rep. Maria Horn informing her that the town will seek assistance.

Riiska said that it will take a long time for the town to correct all the damage to roadways and thanked residents in advance for their patience and cooperation. LeMere said he has contractors lined up for Tuesday to start to make roads passable.

The Book Group, which is sponsored by the Norfolk Library and facilitated by former professor Mark Scarborough, is reading “The Summer Book” by Tove Jansson for its August 10 session. All are welcome to participate. The group reads, then discusses the books via Zoom on select Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Participants can choose to attend either session. For more information or to register, click here.

Work will begin Monday on remediation of Maple Avenue following last November’s massive gas spill, according to First Selectman Matt Riiska.

He said work will begin near the Manor House where a wall will be removed and its materials stored for later reconstruction. Earth will be excavated, tested and removed when deemed necessary. 

Work will then move to installation of a headwall on Maple Avenue as part of the stormwater drainage system. With that in place, crews will move on to Pettibone Lane, where extensive excavation is anticipated to remove gas contamination.

Riiska said Maple Avenue will be closed to through traffic during the work because of the heavy equipment in the road. If necessary, residents in the region of the heaviest contamination will have alternate accommodations offered.

Remediation work has been completed on Route 44 and landscaping has been started. It is hoped that families displaced by the gas spill remediation will be back in their homes by July 1, but Riiska said monitoring of the area will go on for some time and will be addressed as needed.

Residents who have questions are asked to call the First Selectman’s office at 860-542-5829.

Warmer weather has brought a spate of activity to Norfolk. First Selectman Matt Riiska reports that several projects are currently underway with completion of some expected within the summer months.

“They will start to remove the old heating oil tank at Botelle School Monday and get the new one hooked up,” Riiska reported. “We have received approval for loans for Maple Avenue and the school roof and all the paperwork will be wrapped up next week. They are eager to get started on the school roof and we would like to get both the tank and the roof done before school starts again.”

Also at the elementary school, work is supposed to start Monday on the replacement of a broken 70-foot slide. “It was broken after years of exposure and abuse by some people who used it,” he said. “Insurance wouldn’t pay for it and some townspeople asked that ARPA funds be used to replace it. All the components are here.”

Work on refurbishing the tennis courts will start in the near future as well, and Riiska said he hoped people would soon be playing on resurfaced courts.

Only one area is lagging. “I’m still working on getting reimbursement for Mountain Road bridge, and the River Place bridge is on hold because engineering work is being done,” he said. “I’m not happy about that. It is dragging on way too long.”

This week’s flash flood damage has prompted the Norfolk Land Trust to shift the spotlighted trail to its 1.45-mile Stony Lonesome Trail. The trail begins at a metal gate on Ashpotag Road, a half mile from the road’s intersection with Route 44 and features deep woods, high embankments and three spectacular rock cuts.

The land trust is encouraging people to get outside this summer to hike its trails. A new trail is highlighted each week.

City Meadow is getting plenty of attention these days with two groups working for its preservation and improvement.

A “Friends of City Meadow” group is growing under the leadership of Economic Development Commission Co-Chair Libby Borden and Walter Godlewski. They are coordinating with First Selectman Matt Riiska and will be meeting with him Friday.

The Friends’ goals are to promote use of the meadow as an environmental/horticultural area and as a place to gather for music and other cultural events. This latter goal includes the newly enlarged Robertson Plaza. 

An additional focus is on the physical status of the Meadow. It is possible that work parties will be formed to assist professional horticulturalists or an invasive plant specialist to keep the Meadow functioning as a healthy wetland environment and keep it attractive and inviting. Further, the Friends hope to promote the Meadow with such attractions as a sculpture park, and to put up signage bearing information about the plants found there or about the Meadow’s history. Additional areas for seating would also be considered.

Finally, the Friends would address maintenance of boardwalks and plant restoration and raise funds to underwrite these endeavors.

The second group working for the Meadow consists of a few members of the original City Meadow Committee. Their focus is to establish a master plan for invasive control, plant placement and maintenance, wetlands and water course maintenance and the introduction of new plantings. The master plan will not only be used for Meadow maintenance and development, but will also serve as a guide for meeting the requirements of the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the Meadow as a wetlands area. This was a requirement when the Town accepted the funding from the State of Connecticut.

The ICC Mens and Women’s Clubs of St. Martin of Tours Parish are offering a scholarship for an active member of the parish who are continuing his/her education. The deadline is May 31. For more information, click here.

The Planning and Zoning Commission acted last week to approve a dog park on Westside Drive. Residents had presented hours of testimony and submitted 66 letters both supporting and objecting to the controversial park.

The Planning and Zoning Commission was guided by its regulations, which allow special permits for passive recreation facilities, according to PZC Chairman Thomas Fahsbender. 

“We attempted to balance the interests of the applicants and the concerns of neighbors,” he said, explaining that conditions were imposed. Interested persons can view the documents at Town Hall and on this site. Among the conditions were increased setbacks around the park and restrictions on signage to reduce its visual impact. Hours of operation were set for 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Discussion lasted more than two hours before the commission was content that it had devised conditions that “were appropriate and fair.”

“We took it very seriously,” Fahsbender said. “We had to make our best judgment. I feel the commission did a good job in taking everything into consideration.”

In December 2022 the Town Website Committee had a brilliant idea. We decided we would ask residents to submit photographs that illustrated what made Norfolk special to them.

Well, we received a flood of entries, more than 220, demonstrating that many citizens are acutely aware of the glories of their surroundings. Galleries of the photos can be accessed by clicking here.

The “My Norfolk” Photo Contest filled our coffers with beautiful images and challenged our judges, local photographers Savage Frieze, Katherine Griswold, Christopher Keyes, Christopher Little and Babs Perkins, to select only six—one winner and five runners-up.

The judges did two rounds of selection, unanimously choosing six finalists. These were then painstakingly ranked after an hour of debate.

Long-time resident Elizabeth Hilpman emerged victorious. Her picture of a perfect summer day at Tobey Pond seems to epitomize the essence of Norfolk life.

“I couldn’t believe it when I got the email saying I had won,” she said this week. “We had house guests that day and we were taking them around town to show them different sites. It was one of those beautiful perfect afternoons—not too hot, not too cold, not too humid—just one of those opportunities that come along.”

While she takes many pictures, she termed this shot “serendipitous.” She owns a high-quality Nikon digital camera, but that afternoon she had only her iPhone with her, a device she finds herself using more and more.

Sean Iceton, a transplanted Brit, was more deliberate in his pursuit of what became the second-place picture. The craftsman, who creates design-built carpentry and cabinetry, studied design in England. He says his photography is strictly “amateur,” a way to shrug off life’s tensions.

On the day he found the barn and stone wall on Ashpohtag Road, he was indulging in a relaxing walk with his camera. “I was just struck by the light,” he said. “It was kind of overcast so the colors weren’t washed out the way they would have been in bright light. It was just a nice, old barn and I was very taken with the stone wall because I have built stone walls around town.”

Making the image “pop” is a splash of autumn-red vine twining across the top of lichen-grey stone wall. That detail was what initially drew his eye to the scene. 

Bill Ticineto, who is also a designer, took his spectacular third-place picture from the top of Beech Hill on a freezing winter morning. He was hiking in Barbour Woods in an area he frequents, when he came upon a scene of sparkling beauty, with traceries of ice forming along the branches of beech saplings.

“I do have a nice digital camera with a great macro lens that I used for my other submission of tulips in the snow. Where but Norfolk do you see tulips growing in the snow? But that morning, all I had was my iPhone. I tend to take it along in case I see something.”

The couple, originally from California, have lived in town for six years now and Ticineto has recently joined the Conservation Commission. “The town is so interesting,” he said. “it is just beautiful, and it has a lot of art, music, writing. We feel so at home here.”

Chef Tom Daly also finds relaxation in his amateur photography and is sometimes intentional in seeking images, such as the one he took for his fourth-place submission. “I don’t usually carry my camera around with me, but I knew it was going to be a full moon, so I had driven around a little bit looking for a shot.”

What he found on that early-spring evening was a peaceful composition of a gnarled old tree, silhouetted in a graceful sweep against the twilight and a rising moon. The scene was shot near Husky Meadows Farm. “I had been up there before,” Daly said. “I actually took it out of my car window.”

Daly termed himself “a lifetime Norfolk resident,” but put a fine point to it by recognizing that he is not a native. “I didn’t get here until I was three,” he said wryly.

Taking fifth place was Daniel Girolamo, who took a panoramic image of Wood Creek at sunset on an autumn evening. This image, too, was taken with a phone. 

“I just do it as a hobby,” he said, “although people tell me I have a good eye.”

Currently a custodiam, he has lived in Norfolk two-and-a-half years, drawn here by the town’s affordable housing. “I have a great apartment and the people here are wonderful. And there are a lot of cultural events.”

Daniel Wuri, a medical technician, is, again, a hobbyist but shares his photos with friends through postings on his Facebook page. He, too, resorted to his phone to take his pastoral picture of a snow-covered field on Mountain Road one crisp evening. “I took this picture with an iPhone 10,” he said, adding that he has just upgraded to an iPhone 14 Plus. “There is quite a bit of difference in the quality of pictures you get,” he reported. 

Thrilled with the success of its first photo contest, the Town Website Committee is contemplating future competitions. It offered special thanks to the judges and to all who submitted photos.

Editor’s note: Another article by Kathryn Boughton on the photo contest appears on Berkshire Style; click here to read it.