Author: kathrynwboughton@gmail.com

The town waited for years to replace the highly popular Big Green Slide at Botelle Elementary School after it was vandalized and there was considerable rejoicing last August when a new, slightly shorter slide was finally erected in its place. 

But now the new slide is broken and off-limits to the children who enjoyed zipping down its 60-foot length.

First Selectman Matt Riiska reported to the Board of Finance this week that Creative Recreation of West Hartford, which installed it, did not put footings below the supports. The slide has shifted and several flanges are cracked. He is in contact with the company and predicted that its repair will not cost the town anything.The new slide cost $80,000. Replacement became an issue in town, and it was not until ARPA funds and private donations were dedicated to the purchase price that it was restored to its pride of place above the school’s playing fields

The Region 7 Board of Education gave town officials from the four member towns a preview of expected spending in the 2024-25 school year Wednesday night, detailing the biggest increases in a $21,937,589 adjusted budget. 

The total budget would increase by $850,140 or 3.92 percent if passed as presented. There are projected to be 750 students next year in the middle and high school. That is down sharply from the average of about 1,000 students in recent years.

While New Hartford, the largest of the four towns, pays more than half of the costs of the school, this year Norfolk will have the largest percentage increase at 19.12 percent. Each town’s assessment is based on the numbers of students attending as compared to the other towns.

“We are in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said First Selectman Matt Riiska. “We had a small class graduate from Region 7 last year and a big one come in.

This year, Barkhamsted, which has endured significant increases in the past few years, will see a reduction because 29 fewer students will attend. Colebrook will send eight fewer students, New Hartford is down 11 and Norfolk is up by eight.

“It’s a very significant increase, $345,000,” said Riiska. “The cost is ridiculous.”

Wednesday night he pleaded with the regional board members to do what they could to trim expenses. “I think it’s an excellent school,” he said, “but I looked at the budget, and after I fell out of my chair, I am here to plead with you to do that you can lower that.”

He told the board last year was “horrible” for Norfolk financially with about $1 million in unexpected costs, some of which he hopes to recoup through insurance. 

All the town officials at the meeting were concerned about falling enrollments, both in their local schools and at Region 7. “I understand you have to have a teacher, if it’s five students or 25,” Riiska said, “but I would ask you to look at that a little closer.”

New Hartford First Selectman Dan Jerram noted that the number of teachers still hovers around 135 despite the falling enrollment and said the region must look closely the issue. “How will you take on this challenge?” he asked.

Enrollments are expected to continue to decrease through the end of the decade.

Region 7 Board Chairman Molly Sexton Reed said that budget does not include any new programs and reflects a reduction in staff by 2.5 teachers. Staff reductions are being achieved through attrition. For example, the Chinese program was eliminated when its teacher retired.

She said the budget is “very preliminary” and would be reviewed at a budget workshop before being taken to the individual towns for presentations. 

Giving a “very broad-brush” overview of the increases, she said, “The two biggest drivers are special education, where we had one or two students that we hadn’t budgeted for this year, and two coming in that are currently outplaced. The other major driver is the health insurance increase, which is up 10.95 percent. There is a 2.47 percent increase from those two factors alone.”

Another factor is a decrease in revenues from fewer out-of-district students paying tuition and a reduction in vo-ag funding from the state.  Sexton Reed said the school is trying to market itself to neighboring towns, which send students on a tuition basis, and is opposing the change in vo-ag funding.  

The yearly cost per pupil at the school is $25,453, placing it fourth among the nine Berkshire League schools.

Thursday night the Conservation Commission hosted a talk on lighting levels, a matter of increasing concern nationwide, and a topic of discussion during the Planning and Zoning Commission’s consideration of a plan for the new firehouse.

Leo Smith, executive director of DarkSky International, told a gathering at the Norfolk Hub that his interest in the subject was piqued when the property abutting his Suffield home was sold to a developer. Concerned about glare from lighting in the development, he approached the builder and, in concert with the manufacturer of the light fixture to be used, came up with a solution that directed the light down, rather than outward and upward toward the heavens.

It was the start of a career in activism for Smith that has led to legislation designed to reduce the intensity of exterior lighting and its effects on the quality of life for plants, animals and humans. In 2023, for instance, Connecticut passed legislation requiring commercial buildings to shut off non-essential lights in state buildings after 11:00 p.m. during periods when birds are migrating.

Smith said light pollution did not exist until 145 years ago when the incandescent light bulb was developed. It has worsened steadily, especially since LED lighting was introduced. “We don’t advocate not lighting,” said Smith, “but how do we design it so we light the pathway, but not the house next to it?”

He said Americans use 10 to 15 times the amount of light needed. If unnecessary lighting were to be eliminated, $3 billion to $7 billion dollars a year could be saved and 21 million tons of CO²  eliminated. “Ninety-nine percent of outdoor lighting is wasted,” he said. “Either it is not needed, or it doesn’t hit the target.”

He suggested common-sense solutions such as turning off lights when they are no longer needed and doing audits of street lighting in communities to eliminate lights not needed for public safety.

DarkSkies can send communities a template to use in creating a streetlight master plan.

In response to a question about car headlights, he said LED lights are more effective illumination, but also blind oncoming drivers. Europeans are now using a system that detects an approaching car and diverts the light temporarily toward the side of the road. “Three to five years from now you will see a lot of that in this country,” he predicted.

Another question concerned crime deterrence. Smith said that, counterintuitively, lighting around a home simply allows malefactors to get a blueprint of a property and makes home entry easier. Motion detectors that turn lights on when an intruder approaches are more effective, he contended.

He advocated for town ordinances that require professionally designed lighting plans to be submitted during the permitting process. “The key is to try to address this at the time the building permit is applied for,” he said. “That would be extremely effective because the developer would know it won’t be approved otherwise.”

—Newsletter Editor

Linda Filley, a Millbrook, N.Y., artist now exhibiting at the Norfolk Library, has always liked shoes.  “When I was 10 or 11, my mom stopped at a store that was having a sample sale. Because they were samples, all the shoes were in my size and she let me buy some two-toned flat shoes that I thought were the most wonderful thing in world,” she recalls.

Her passion for shoes has not dimmed, but today her shoes are not meant for walking. For the past 20 years, Filley has created fanciful footwear, whimsical artistic gems crafted from cardboard, bits of wrapping paper, old diaries, packaging materials and, yes, even the bright foil that wrapped candies brought home from Asia by her husband.

“I love going to estate sales and yard sales,” she said. “I pick up old wallpaper, maps, old sheet music … . My mother-in-law was a bookbinder, and I got a lot of her old marbling paper—I used that for the first shoes I made. It almost looked like denim with a waxy surface.”

In the deft hands of the self-taught artist, a couple of pages of old sheet music can turn into a long, pointy-toe slipper with roses, while a piece of discarded wallpaper may find new life as a high-heeled floral bouquet. 

Filley says her work is never predetermined and she finds inspiration everywhere. “I can’t stop,” she said. “I could be walking down the street and see a broken branch or a color out of the corner of my eye. Or perhaps it is a print or design. I can drive my family crazy.”

Each shoe is an original design and a one-of-a-kind creation, although each is informed by the character of the imaginary woman who will wear it. She works about five hours each day, surrounded by scraps of paper, odd bits of ribbon, mesh bags that once held onions and other commonplace items of modern life.

Filley always had an affinity for art but did not set out to be an artist. She left home at 16 and “wandered a bit….I did a bit of everything and wondered where it would all go,” she said.  Along the way, she enjoyed elaborately wrapping gifts for friends and family. Indeed, her first shoes were decorations made to top gifts she gave to two dear friends.

Before that, however, she spent many years crafting paper dresses that were signature elements in the windows of a store owned by her long-time friend, Maureen Missner. Missner had come home from a trip with a large wire mannequin. She turned Filley’s imagination loose on the mannequin, planning to use it as a window display. “I thought I could weave paper through it to make a dress,” Filley recalled. “I started doing dresses for the window seasonally and we had a nice following.”

When Missner saw the shoe on her present, she perceived another opportunity. “I started making shoes to complete the outfits,” Filley said. When Missner mounted a retrospective of Filley outfits, every shoe sold in one night.

Filley is no sentimentalist and readily parts with her creations. “They are all for sale,” she said. “I do have a couple of small ones that I like and that are not for sale. One of them I made out of an old diary with a roll of old stamps that became the strap.”

This is a return visit to Norfolk for Filley, who last showed her work at the library in 2017. “The people at the library are pretty special,” she said, “and the library is just beautiful.”

The show opened March 2 and will continue during regular library hours through April 4.

—Newsletter Editor

Garet&Co returns to Battell Chapel March 9 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. to present “Interior,” four works that portray human emotion. 

The performance will be “in the round,” allowing the audience to witness the dancing up close and from all sides. All four pieces were first showcased in late January at Garet&Co’s “Eclipse” at the Warner Theatre, but have since been refined, adjusted and extended. 

The show will be followed by a Q&A and reception with dance artist, educator and choreographer Garet Wierdsma and the company. The dance performance is presented in partnership with the United Church of Christ Congregational.

There will be two dance classes presented Friday, March 8, also at Battell Chapel. From 4:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. a beginner’s class will offer a first introduction to contemporary dance. From 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. there will be an intermediate class in Contemporary Storytelling, structured similarly to Garet&Co’s open company classes. Wierdsma will lead dancers through an improvisational warm up, focusing on control and balance. The class culminates in a short combination where dancers explore storytelling in contemporary dance. The class is appropriate for dancers of many ages and skill levels.

Click here to register for the classes or for tickets to the Saturday performance.

Garet&Co is a professional contemporary dance company based in northern Connecticut. Wierdsma’s choreographic work deals with themes of struggling mental health and the search for peace within chaos. She first pulls from her own experiences and then collaborates conceptually and in movement with the dancers in hopes of giving audiences the opportunity to fully experience the joy, devastation and catharsis of contemporary dance. 

—Newsletter Editor

Young thespians at Botelle School flitted around the stage in the school’s Hall of Flags Thursday afternoon, following the directions of choreographer Michelle Padua as they practiced for the upcoming production of Disney’s “Frozen Jr.”

“Frozen Jr.” is based on the 2018 Broadway musical and features all the memorable songs from the original animated film.

The play will be performed exclusively for fellow students March 21 at 10:00 a.m., but families, friends and townspeople are invited to attend subsequent free performances on March 22 at 7:00 p.m. and March 23 at 2:00 p.m.

Parents Becky Keyes and Megan Schneider are directing the play, which has a cast not of thousands, as in a Cecil B. DeMille extravaganza, but rather of 15 youngsters.

Schneider likened the rehearsals, which started in January and continue twice weekly, to “herding cats.” “You think they aren’t listening to you, and then at the end it all comes together,” she said.

Similarly, she and Keyes felt apprehensive when they undertook their directorial roles. “We were told that a lot of [volunteers] weren’t doing it this year. We thought, ‘What have we gotten into?’ Then people started signing up—moms, husbands and grandmas.”

Indeed, it has turned into a family affair. Michelle Padua’s entire family has pitched in, with her husband, mother and grandmother all helping. “Even my little son has helped,” she said.

Grandmother Teri Padua was working on costumes with Amy Bennet and Theresa Padua. Asked how many costumes were needed for the production, she sighed and said, “thousands.” She later admitted that to be an exaggeration but said some children had up to five roles with costume changes to match. 

The amateur seamstresses hit the Goodwill shop in Torrington last week to find garments that could be altered to fit the children and were busy trying them on the little actors, pinning here and tucking there as they tried to envision the finished products.

Other parents were busy painting scenery, while all the time the children danced, following their mentors around the stage.

—Newsletter Editor 

The drainage upgrades to Maple Avenue are expected to be complete March 1, according First Selectman Matt Riiska. Grading and removal of the remaining asphalt on the road will follow in preparation for putting down the binder course of paving in early April.

Riiska said the road will be unpaved for three to four weeks while other work is done, including installing the framework into which cement will be poured for the sidewalks.

“They will work on the wall in front of Manor House and there will be excavation to clean up the sides of the road,” he said. “All that will happen depending on the weather.”

—Newsletter Editor

As the plan for a new firehouse nears the end of the land use permitting process, attention is shifting to the capital campaign that will help to fund its construction.

The current cost estimate for the new building and site development is $6 million.

First Selectman Matt Riiska revealed to the Board of Finance Feb. 22 that two residents—Tony Kiser and Carlene Laughlin—have each pledged $250,000 to the fund drive.

“We are unbelievably lucky to have that, Riiska said after the meeting. “It’s a big commitment on their part. The goal is to kick off the capital campaign with the $500,000 they have committed, and to get another $500,000 from additional contributions. The more money people contribute, the less we will have to borrow.” 

The town has already been assured of a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. “If we can get another million dollars from the capital campaign, $3.5 million will make a big dent in the cost.”

Riiska told the Board of Finance that he is investigating other available grants.

The generosity of town residents has not stopped with the firehouse. Riiska said about $110,000 has been donated to help fund work envisioned for City Meadow, where the removal of invasives and plantings of native plants are planned.

“We’ve had some very generous contributions to City Meadow,” he said. “We have such generous people who are so dedicated to the town.”

City Meadow has been an ongoing project for the community since 2011. It was first envisioned as a stormwater collection system to prevent pollution from reaching the nearby Blackberry River. But a more inclusive vision unfolded as residents imagined the area as a passive recreation area connecting Station Place and Shepard Road. A stormwater treatment plan was developed, invasives were removed and handicap accessible boardwalks were established. More recently, Robertson Plaza was expanded with stairs leading down to City Meadow walkways.

But invasives are hard to eradicate and now further work is needed. Riiska said the contributions will be used to again remove invasives and replace them with native vegetation.

“We’re in the process signing contracts with the remediators, a Massachusetts firm called Native Habitat Restoration,” he said. The first stage of work will cost $25,000, but much more is to follow. “There will be a lot going on. The idea is to get it tidied up so we can develop a planting plan.”

He said the town did not go to bid in hiring the firm because the town’s consultant had previously worked with this firm. “We chose this person a long time ago,” Riiska said. “Not many people apply herbicides.”

The first evidence of progress will be when the Meadow is mowed to remove mature phragmites and cattails. “That way, when they start to grow back, we can see them and herbicides can be applied,” Riiska said.

Additional work will remove trees and woody invasives. 

—Newsletter Editor

First Selectman Matt Riiska revealed to the Board of Finance Feb. 22 that the town is being sued for a “slip and fall” incident that occurred three years ago on the slate sidewalk in front of Battell Chapel. 

“It’s not our property, but state statute says we have to maintain sidewalks in the town,” he told members. 

The issue will go to a jury trial next week.

Riiska predicted changes in town procedures as a result. “We will have to have an ordinance for snow clearing and to do some work on more sidewalks,” he said. “At some point, I need to get together with Troy [Lemere, DPW foreman] and talk about walks.”

He said the town had already planned to work on the walk between Berkshire Country Store and the National Iron Bank. The sidewalks soon be installed on Maple Avenue will be brushed concrete and will not present a problem, he said.

Being sued is not opportune for a town that is already trying to save every dime to recover from the havoc of 2023 when a series of natural disasters strained municipal coffers. Riiska said the town’s 2023-24 budget is “okay,” but added that he has instructed town departments “not to spend anything unless it is absolutely necessary.”

“We have enough salt for three more [weather] events. After that, don’t go out,” he said, eliciting laughter from finance members. “Usually, if we have money toward the end of the fiscal year we try to do a couple of things—tree cutting by our crew and drainage work along the roads. But the plan this year is not to do anything unless we absolutely have to.”

The town retrieved $208,000 from its state LoCIP account, which Riiska said “put a good dent” in the town’s $567,000 out-of-pocket expenses for flood recovery.

On a positive note, he reported that Botelle School’s two aged boilers are working without further mishap after each went down on successive days early in the winter. Now considered past permanent repair, their replacement cost is expected to be about $164,000.

Finance Chairman Michael Sconyers said budget work will begin in earnest in April but Riiska, who said his budget “has been on my screen every day for months,” asked that finance members direct questions to him in March so he can have answers in April.

The Grand List is not yet complete and cannot be accurately factored in. “That makes a huge difference,” he said.

Sconyers noted that this is not a revaluation year and there “are not a lot of mansions being built,” but Riiska expects an increase because of the number of homes being remodeled. 

The final budget—which will include Region 7, local education and municipal expenses—will go to a hearing in late April and a May 13 town meeting. 

—Newsletter Editor

NORFOLK—The Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday night closed three public hearings on various aspects of the new firehouse proposed for Shepard Road. The commission okayed a plan to excavate materials on the site but decided to discuss the facility plan and a proposed lot line change that would trim a 45-foot-wide strip of land off City Meadow at its March 12 meeting. 

The P&Z has been accumulating information about the firehouse proposal since November. The plan calls for the fire department to retain its current firehouse while a second, larger building is constructed on the western portion of the lot. 

The lot line change, which amends the City Meadow special permit, is needed to allow the building to be constructed on the tight lot, but it would also change the usage of the land. Some members wanted to further discuss allowing a generator and transformer on that parcel.

Included with the application is a map dating from 1988, provided by the Town Clerk, that shows the strip of land in question was proposed back then for use by the fire department. Riiska said he did not know what the reasoning was 36 years ago. “One could speculate,” he said, “but they put everyone on notice by filing this map that this parcel was proposed for use by the fire department.”

Later, however, the parcel was included in City Meadow when that special permit was granted in 2021. Riiska said the lot line change would, in effect, change that special permit. 

In response to a question about who would maintain the City Meadow parking area and the walkway across the strip of land leading to it, Riiska said all the land belongs to the town and it will maintain it.

Turning their attention to the proposed plan for the firehouse, commissioners had few remaining questions. Some discussion centered on lighting levels around the firehouse, with P&Z member Jordan Stern saying the lights around the Town Hall are 3,000 lumens, while some of the proposed lights at the firehouse are brighter at 7,000 lumens. He also questioned what the low-wattage lights on the proposed boardwalk would look like. 

Stern noted that there are existing light poles on the firehouse lot and asked if they would be removed when new ones are installed. Will Walter of Benesch, the engineer for the project, said streetlights will be left in place but those on the lot would be replaced by modern lighting. The firefighters will determine the amount of light they need on the lot when the construction is finished. “We won’t know what it will look like until they are using the lot,” he said.

The firefighters have argued that they intend to be good neighbors but stress that they need enough light so they are safe when working there or responding to fires.

Use of the siren on the firehouse was questioned and the firefighters said that it is sounded daily to test it because it is a public safety alarm. It cycles once, which takes about one minute. It is also used for fire calls, of which there were approximately 115 last year, amounting to about 120 aggregate minutes over the course of 12 months.

The final hearing, on excavation of earth products, lasted only minutes. Walter explained that the lot slopes so levels will have to be adjusted to create a flat surface for the floor of the firehouse. About 1,200 cubic yards of onsite soil will be pushed around and another 1,300 cubic yards of fill will be imported. Approximately 850 cubic yards of demolition debris will be removed when the old firehouse is dismantled.

He predicted that 20 to 25 truckloads would be needed to remove the material and that the excavation work would be relatively short. 

“The whole project will take up to a year,” he said, “but the site prep might be a month or two.”

About six to eight trucks could be expected to enter and exit the lot on any given day.

The excavation application was approved without demur. 

Commission Chairman Tom Fahsbender suggested that deliberations on the primary application—the site plan—be deferred for a month to allow members to think about potential conditions that might be imposed. 

A motion was made to approve the lot line change, but that was withdrawn because of concerns about whether its approval would include all the infrastructure provisions as well.  

—Newsletter Editor