Author: kathrynwboughton@gmail.com

The majority of discussion at last week’s budget hearing centered on dissatisfaction with $40,635 being budgeted for the continued restoration of City Meadow. That concern carried over to the Board of Selectmen’s meeting Wednesday when Ken Ludwig asked if the money is being cut from the budget. 

“A lot of people felt it has been stated many times [over the years] that the taxpayers would have nothing to do with paying for it,” he said. “I would hate to see the entire budget voted down because of that.”

First Selectman Matt Riiska said he has not been instructed by the Board of Finance to cut the funding. He said there is no reason to believe town funds will be needed every year.

Townspeople can make a motion at the town meeting to reduce the budget’s bottom line by the amount of the City Meadow funding. That would not guarantee that the money would be taken from that line item, however.

Since 2011, thousands of dollars in state and private funds have been invested in the site to create a stormwater collection system and to turn it into a natural landscape connecting Station Place and Shephard Road. But over the years, the meadow has become overrun with invasive plants. The Friends of the Meadow Committee is working to reverse this trend and enhance the Meadow’s role in the social life of the community. 

Last year, a $110,000 private donation was dedicated to invasives removal and developing a restoration plan. Many invasives were cleared and 400 woody plants of 21 different species were installed. 

Planting costs are estimated at $304,220, with three years of maintenance estimated at $33,600. The Friends of the Meadow Committee anticipates having to raise $150,000 to $250,000 to complete and maintain the work being done.

“Up to this point, including $500,000 from the state for the initial work, we’re looking at $1.5 million plus, all of it from private funds,” First Selectman Matt Riiska said. “Do the townspeople want to abandon it and let it rot? It’s up to the people.”

—Kathryn Boughton

A series of workshops will be held from May through September at Great Mountain Forest (GMF). The series features several curriculum modules of GMF’s Woodland Academy and will be held at the Yale Forestry Camp in Great Mountain Forest. 

The first workshop, a full-day session on strategies and funding opportunities, is slated for May 22. GMF will host “Game of Logging I and II” sessions June 12 and 13, during which chainsaw skills will be taught. And on August 8, Star Childs of GMF and Dave Beers of the DEEP will teach land navigation and mapping skills. 

A three-day intensive course is scheduled for August 1, 15 and September 12, beginning with tree and shrub identification and moving on to creation of wildlife habitats. The workshops conclude with an exploration of management resources such as technical assistance programs, cost-share opportunities and tools of the trade. Each workshop combines classroom learning with field experience.

Visit the GMF Woodland Academy website page for more information and to apply for a spot.

—Kathryn Boughton

On April 17, Tarpon Towers and Cellco Partnership (d/b/a Verizon Wireless) officially filed an application with the Connecticut Siting Council to construct a telecommunications facility at 78 Goshen East Street. The siting council has until September 14 to decide the issue.

The tower, which would serve a portion of south Norfolk and Goshen that has no current cell service, would be located on a secluded parcel of land. Two weeks ago, a balloon float was conducted to determine the visibility of the proposed 186-foot-tall tower in the surrounding study area.

The tower, according to the application, will be located in the western portion of the 41-acre parcel and has few residences nearby. The closest house is 680 feet away and the surrounding terrain is hilly and densely forested.

Areas of potential concern included the northern end of Goshen East Street, which abuts the property, and is a locally designated scenic road. Route 272, which runs through the eastern half of the study area, is a state-designated scenic highway. The Amos Baldwin house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is about a half mile southeast of the proposed site and there are several municipal, state and private open-space parcels located throughout the study area. 

The company used both computer modeling and the balloon test to assess the visual impact of the tower throughout the study area. The data was manipulated to indicate “visible cells” where the tower might be glimpsed at an average eye height (5 feet from the ground). The report cautions, however, that computer analysis cannot predict all variables such as vegetation, structures and the variability of topography. 

The report concluded that visibility will be restricted to a few locations along an approximately half-mile section of Estey Road, to an open field on the northeast and to North Pond on the south. Visibility on Estey Road will be primarily seasonal, and the site will not be visible from any other roads in the study area.

There will be no visual impact on the Amos Baldwin House or on the open space properties or trails. 

The siting council will hold a public hearing where they application will be reviewed and discussed. Residents can formally request party or intervenor status from the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) and submit evidence, present witnesses and question other participants in the proceeding. Residents can also choose to make a limited appearance at the hearing, which allows them to provide input without becoming a formal party or intervenor.

A request for intervenor status must be made at least five days before a public hearing. For more information and an intervenor form, click here.

While residents can participate in the process and provide input, the CSC ultimately makes the decision on whether to grant the certificate for the tower.

—Kathryn Boughton

An informational meeting about why Norfolk needs a new firehouse and how much it might cost prompted only two questions Thursday night, one about whether the proposed plan will meet future needs, and the second about whether solar panels were included in the plan.

The new structure would provide adequate space for training, storage and parking of the today’s much-larger fire engines, according to First Assistant Fire Chief Matt Ludwig. And the solar panels cut from the plant to save costs.

Ludwig said the current firehouse, which originally housed three fire trucks, was “perfect” 54 years ago but that, with seven trucks measuring up to 33 feet in length, the building is now inadequate.

He painted a picture of quarters so cramped that the doors of trucks parked side by side, cannot be opened simultaneously. Modern building codes require at least three feet of open space around fire trucks. Trucks have to be pulled out of the firehouse when meetings and training sessions are held.

“Firefighting has changed drastically over the last 50 years,” he said. “Because we are held to such high standards, we are continually training, about 20 hours a month.”

The current building has numerous building code violations and does not have a ventilation system to mitigate exposure to toxic fumes such as diesel exhaust. 

Ludwig said the design for the new firehouse addresses the current and future needs of the community even though the building committee “trimmed the unnecessary fluff.”

Barry Roseman, a member of the building committee with extensive experience in developing financing for nonprofit projects, said construction costs have escalated from 6 to 7 percent annually in four-plus years since Covid. “We have had to navigate the tension between cost, design and function,” he said. 

He described efforts to reduce the cost of the proposed firehouse. Preliminary estimates came in at $9.5 million. After deep cutting, the estimate was reduced to $8,263,000. Soft costs and a contingency fund pushed the cost back up to $9,263,000.

Funding will come from a $2.5 million grant from the state; $3,000,000 in private donations; $500,000 in town funds, and bond financing of $3,263,000. A federal grant of $1.25 million was caught up in the Washington budget cuts, but the town will reapply next year. 

Roseman said the town should not delay construction to a later time because it could lose the state grant and costs continue to rise. 

The issue will go to a town vote on May 12. Ludwig urged everyone to support the fire department.

—Newsletter Editor

The Norfolk Historical Society is preparing for its 2025 season with the launch of a new website and announcement of its summer exhibition. 

“We’ve added a few new features like ‘Architecture’ to the website,” said Director Barry Webber. “We’re planning to expand on that, especially about the 18th-century houses, for the 250th anniversary of the country in 2026.”

“I’m starting public access to the portal for the collections database,” Webber said. “The database lists documents that people can come research.”

The new site allows visitors to explore a number of sections, including one focused on the town’s rich Colonial past. A downloadable walking tour includes descriptions of historic buildings and the families that once occupied them. There are other sections on the town’s early history, historic personages, historic maps from 1853 to 1902 and genealogy. “The maps are new, and users can zoom in on them and see where their house was in 1853,” Webber said.

Also included is a section summarizing the deeply researched exhibitions created each summer and displayed at the historical society’s headquarters on the village green. This year’s exhibition, “A New Birth of Freedom: Norfolk in the War of the Rebellion,” looks at Norfolk’s participation in the Civil War and the attitudes toward slavery in the community. The exhibit will be on view weekends, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., June 7 through October 12. 

—Newsletter Editor

Crews were putting the finishing touches on River Place bridge this week, getting ready to pave the little street on Monday. That will put paid to a project that began in the summer of 2022 and stalled in November of that year when it was discovered that one headwall was not sitting on a firm foundation.

Construction did not begin again until last year after the bridge was redesigned. “They will pave on Monday and then it’s cleanup and landscaping,” said First Selectman Matt Riiska. The foreman on the work site predicted that finishing touches will take a month after the road is again completely open to traffic.

One of the workmen commented on the gracious quality of a neighborhood that has been inconvenienced for three years. “They have been so patient with us when we had our equipment in the way and one lady up the street even brought us cookies,” he said.

A few hundred feet away, on Route 44, crews continue to move forward on the massive project to reconstruct a century-old rubble retaining wall. The multi-year project still has two years to go before it will be complete. 

Riiska said that the DOT plans a public meeting in May at Town Hall to describe the progress of the project. Details about the meeting will be announced soon.

Finally, engineers from Cardinal Engineering are still working with DEEP to get approval of plans for a temporary bridge to replace the one washed out on Smith Road in summer 2023. 

—Newsletter Editor

Things have not gotten better for the Earth and its creatures since the first-ever Earth Day celebration in 1970, but the fight for environmental health continues. Next week, from April 25th through 27th, Norfolk will host its second Earth Day Forum focusing on “Our Glorious Northwest Corner: Celebrating the Connectedness of All.”

The three-day, eight-event, forum, initiated in 2024 by Norfolk’s Church of Christ Congregational, offers activities that bring together experts, artists and community members to address biodiversity challenges facing this region. 

The Hub is hosting an exhibition, “Imperiled Species in Our Community: The Biodiversity Crisis at Home,” on view at the Norfolk Hub through April 30th. The exhibit, on loan from the Salisbury Association, focuses on local endangered species. 

Forum festivities officially begin Friday, April 25, 4:00  to 6:00 p.m. at the Norfolk Hub with an opening reception and lecture by Tim Abbott, conservation director of the Housatonic Valley Association. The evening continues from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Norfolk Library with a screening of “A Road Not Taken,” a documentary on Jimmy Carter’s solar energy initiatives.

Nature enthusiasts can participate in three events on Saturday, April 26. A Books & Boots nature walk, inspired by Peter Wohlleben’s “The Hidden Life of Trees,” 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., will be led by Bina Thomson and Hartley Mead to explore the lives of trees in the South Norfolk Woodlands, 220 Bruey Rd.

At 1:00 p.m., Dr. Mike Zarfos, executive director of Great Mountain Forest, will lead a Spring Ephemeral Wildflowers Walk to observe ephemerals such as trillium and bloodroot emerging from the forest floor. Participants should meet at the Chestnut Grove, Undermountain Road, Falls Village.

Finally, at 4:00 p.m. at the Norfolk Library, Craig Repasz from Lights Out Connecticut will describe the Connecticut Bird Atlas project and the urgent need for bird conservation.

On Sunday, April 27, families can create toad houses, followed by a program on reptiles and amphibians, 1:00  to 2:00  p.m. at the Norfolk Library.

The weekend concludes with Paul Winter’s concert, “This Glorious Earth,” at the Church of Christ from 4:00  to 6:00 p.m.

Visit norfolkhub.org/norfolk-earth-forum for more information and registration details. 

—Newsletter Editor

Residents are reminded of the information session about the proposed new fire house scheduled for Thursday, April 24, at 6:00 p.m. at Botelle School. Members of the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department; the architect, Silver Petrucelli & Associates; First Selectman Matt Riiska, and representatives from the Fire House Building Committee will all be on hand to provide information and answer questions about why the town’s 50-year-old fire house should be replaced.

A vote to approve the firehouse plan will take place in conjunction with the annual Town Meeting in May.

An information booklet, paid for by donations has been mailed to everyone in town. 

To get the latest updates online, click on “New Fire House Updates” at the top of the homepage.

—Newsletter Editor

Two Norfolk organizations were among 30 area nonprofits that received grants from the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation. The 30 grants totaled $164,450.

Great Mountain Forest received $6,350 from the Carlton D. Fyler and Jenny R. Fyler Fund to support development of Next Generation Science Standards-aligned programs for K-12 students. The programs will be used for hands-on outdoor learning. 

Next weekend’s 2025 Norfolk Earth Forum will be all the richer for a $1,500 grant to the Norfolk Land Trust. The funds will be used to underwrite the free two-day event, which will explore a variety of conservation and outdoor/local environment topics and was provided by the Keroden Endowed Fund.

—Newsletter Editor

The Foundation for Norfolk Living has long worked to create a 10-house affordable housing development off Old Colony Road. Now it has the opportunity to add an 11th home nearby.

Foundation president Kate Briggs Johnson said, “The Foundation owns a single lot at the base of Haystack Mountain and we want to put a modular house on it. We’re just drawing it all together. It has not been officially permitted yet.”

While the 10 houses in the Haystack Woods complex have been designed to produce as much energy as they use, this new house will not be “net zero,” according to Johnson.

The Foundation for Norfolk Living is one of four Northwest Connecticut nonprofits joining in the Litchfield County Affordable Homeownership Program. Construction of this single affordable home in Norfolk and those in other towns belonging to the program, is funded through the Connecticut Department of Housing as well as through town and non-profit contributions. Program facilitation and construction loans are being provided through Capital for Change.

It is expected that the Norfolk house will be constructed in the fall or winter.

The program and application process were described at a Zoom meeting held last week to describe the program and the application process. Applicants’ total gross annual household income must be at or below 100 percent of the Litchfield County Area Median Income ($80,000 for one person up to $132,500 for six persons). Applicants must have had no ownership interest in a principal residence during the previous three years. There will be a strong preference for households of three or more people.

The homes are three-bedroom, Cape-style structures and will sell for between $250,000 and $280,000, including a forgivable downpayment assistance loan of approximately $25,000. Purchasers will own the building, but the land under it will be owned by the local housing non-profit and leased to the homeowner. 

“This is called shared equity,” Jocelyn Ayers, director of the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunities, told those attending the Zoom meeting. Each house costs about $500,000 to construct, about twice the selling price. 

Those wishing to apply can download and complete the pre-application form here and submit it by emailing project manager Lindsay Larson.

—Newsletter Editor