Community News

The Conservation Commission has been working with the town crew to remove invasives and to replace them with native species. To that end, a donation of wild roses will be planted along the playground embankment at Botelle School on Saturday November 21, at 9:30 a.m., and volunteers are being sought to help with the work.

It is a steep slope and may not be appropriate for those with mobility issues, but those who can help are asked to bring shovels and water. The Conservation Commission will supply a snack.

This is the fifth in a series that looks at the various departments, boards and committees that make the town function, offering thumbnail sketches of their duties and responsibilities. This week: The Assessor.

It is said nothing is surer than death and taxes. But to tax people fairly, you must first have an accurate appraisal of property values and that task falls to the assessor, who is responsible for compiling the annual Grand List of real estate, motor vehicle and personal property, such as equipment used in businesses and some motor vehicles.

Rae Ann Walcott, a 38-year veteran on the job, has occupied the Norfolk office for the past three years. “When I first started, everything was pen and paper,” she said. “But now everything is built into a computer. It’s important to make sure the data you put into the computer is good.”

Assessments are continually updated as residents improve their homes or as tax laws change. Currently, the Town uses Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) software that puts the data into different models. The online viewer displays property cards, ownership records, sales details and parcel values reflecting the Grand List and can be accessed through the Terreno GIS Norfolk Property Viewer.

Assessors use three primary methods to estimate a property’s market value, depending on the property type. Residential properties are often compared to comparable properties that recently sold in the neighborhood. Adjustments are made for differences in square footage, lot size, number of bathrooms, age, condition and features such as garages or decks. 

For new construction, they often calculate how much it would cost to rebuild the structure from scratch at current labor and material prices, then subtract physical or functional depreciation.

Income-producing properties such as apartment complexes, office buildings or retail stores, are assessed by taking the net operating income the property generates and applying a capitalization rate to determine its value.

Once the fair market value is calculated, the assessor multiplies it by a state or locally mandated rate to arrive at the assessed value, in Connecticut often 70 percent of fair market value. 

The annual property tax is then calculated by multiplying the assessed value the property by the local mill rate.

Every five year, the Town conducts a town-wide revaluation of property. These revaluations can sometimes be shocking to residents who experience significant increases in the taxable value of their properties. Those who wish to contest the valuations have recourse to the Board of Assessment Appeals, which meets several times each year.

“The part that is hard is that every year there are more laws that change existing laws,” she said. “You must be up on what the legislature is doing—if you don’t keep up, it can be a real mess.”

For instance, two years ago, taxation of motor vehicles was changed to use the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) and straight-line depreciation. “You take the sticker price when you buy the car, then do straight line depreciation. In the first year, you are taxed at 95 percent of its worth; if your car is 20 years old, it’s 10 percent or $500,” she explained.

Prior to adopting the MSRP-based depreciation system, Connecticut municipalities valued motor vehicles at 100 percent of the average retail price using pricing guides compiled by the National Automobile Dealers Association.

Among the assessor’s other responsibilities are administering tax relief programs for the elderly and disabled, veterans’ exemptions and motor vehicle exemptions.

It is all very detailed oriented and Walcott said it is hard to attract new candidates for the job. “It’s a great job,” she said. “There is always something to do, but to become an assessor you have to take five courses, pass a six-hour test and have at least three years of experience as an assistant.”

Following certification, there are continuing education classes and assessors are recertified every five years.

Walcott works full-time in Woodbury and has helped Plymouth transition to its new assessor. She is assisted in the Norfolk office by Sandra Anasoulis.

The assessor’s office is located in Town Hall, 19 Maple Avenue. Anasoulis is in the office Mondays and Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Walcott is there Thursdays, 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. and Friday by appointment. For information, call 860-542-5287 or email assessor@norfolkct.org.

School security has been an important issue for officials for decades, but now a new wrinkle has been introduced. During the regular meeting of the Board of Education Monday night, School Superintendent Kevin Case said “swatting”—a fake threat called in to a business or a school—is “becoming increasingly prevalent in the state.”

Last week, he and business manager Kathy Lippincott attended a webinar designed to help officials differentiate between false calls and real emergencies. False calls are “very prevalent in many businesses now, and especially in schools, [calls] saying there is an emergency or a stranger on campus when there really isn’t … or worse, [that there is] an active shooter on campus,” Case said. “In schools, of course, that creates chaos and disruption.” 

The webinar discussed ways that police experts believe will help school personnel to identify false calls. “It was very helpful,” Case said. “It’s been done enough so the state police have noticed patterns with people doing this. We will receive forms to have at our desks so people answering the phone have specific questions to ask and are educated about suspicious comments that a person doing this might make.”

He said the training will continue. “Hopefully, that will never occur here,” he said, adding that most of the incidents have occurred in Fairfield County.

During the meeting, the board also amended a policy addressing the use of Generative AI in the school. The amended policy specifically prohibits the use in school postings of identifiable information about students, including photographs, images and likenesses.

When war broke out with the 2022 Russian invasion of the Ukraine, Norfolk sprang into action, founding nonprofits such as Assist Ukraine, which sent more than $1 million in medical gear, and Art to Assist Ukraine, a show by local artists that raised money to help the country meet the crisis.

The town’s humanitarian efforts did not end there, however, and this week, as another harsh winter closes in, the Norfolk Knitters donated 30 hats, 18 pairs of gloves or mittens, eight pairs of socks and three other items to Common Man for Ukraine, a New Hampshire-based nonprofit founded four years ago. 

Items were knitted and contributed by many members, including two part-timers based in New Mexico and Massachusetts. Jenny Frost, a member from Winchester Center, made labels depicting the U.S. and Ukrainian flags and expressing the hope that the knitted items may be worn in safety and warmth.

The Knitters met Pam Caldwell, Common Man for Ukraine coordinator, and her sister, Marjorie Dewey, who are driving through New England to pick up knitted items, at the library on Tuesday to hand over their items and share a Ukrainian honey cake baked by Hartley Mead. Caldwell reported that knitters from 34 states, the District of Columbia and Australia are contributing to a shipment slated to leave New Hampshire on December 5. 

After the pick-up, Caldwell sent a message of appreciation. “Each of your handknit gifts is a treasure and will be so appreciated,” she wrote.

Common Man makes four journeys to Ukraine each year, working with Rotary International and Polish contacts, to bring food and other supplies to the besieged country. In four years, it has delivered more than 4.5 million pounds of food, hundreds of generators, sleeping bags and warm clothing to frontline villages, orphanages and child safe houses in Ukraine. 

This week has delivered a shivery foretaste of winter and sent thoughts scurrying toward closets filled with warmer clothing. Perhaps as clothes are retrieved from summer storage, their owners will notice small problems that were remarked before but never remedied—a snag in a sweater, a zipper that is starting to come loose, a slipped hem … . 

Help is at hand. The Mending Café sponsored by the Green Committee of the Church of Christ returns Saturday, November 14, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Norfolk Hub. Community members can bring simple mending jobs for volunteer menders to fix. The service is free, but donations to support church missions such as the Food Pantry and the Clothes Closet are welcome. 

The Mending Café cannot accommodate jobs requiring professional alterations or projects that take longer than café hours. It does, however, accept donations of sweaters that the menders take home to upcycle by repairing a moth hole or by applying a whimsical patch. Some of this work will be on sale at at the Mending Café and sales will again benefit charitable goals.

Mountain Road was finally reopened to through traffic Wednesday. “We’re ending the season on a high note,” said First Selectman Henry Tirrell.

The road was blocked off for months between Route 272 and Westside Road while a culvert was replaced and traffic was detoured around it. It was the second culvert on the road to be replaced since 1922 and a third remains to be addressed.

Tirrell said he has not heard from the Army Corps of Engineers or DEEP about his request to make an emergency repair to the third bridge so he can keep it open this winter. “We are trying to come up with a plan to keep it open, perhaps by paving over the plates,” he said.

The culvert under the road collapsed last summer and has been covered by steel plates since then. Tirrell said plows would catch the edge of the plates during winter road maintenance if no adjustments are made. 

In other bridge business, nine bids—ranging from $5.3 million to $8 million—were opened this week for the replacement of two South Norfolk bridges washed out in flash floods in 2023. DOT engineers will go through the bids to ensure that everything meets specifications and, if they do, assign the contract to Dayton Construction, the low bidder. 

Work on the first of the two bridges is expected to start next April. 

Finally, state DOT crews are doing finish work under the road next to the massive wall project on Route 44 west of the village center. “They will do the finish work on one side and pave it, and then go to the other side, do the work there and pave it,” Tirrell reported. “They hope to have both lanes open by mid-December.”

The Lions Club is preparing to participate in National Wreaths Across America day on Saturday, December 19. It will be the second year that the club has worked to commemorate veterans who have served the country throughout the years. 

Wreaths will be placed on graves Friday, December 18,^, at St. Mary’s cemetery on North Street, with a ceremony at noon on the following day.

Residents are encouraged to purchase one or more wreaths, at a cost of $17 each. Checks payable to the Norfolk Lions Club can be dropped off at the National Iron bank or mailed to P.O. Box 399.

The Lions have identified 239 veterans buried in Norfolk’s five cemeteries.  Sandy Evans, one of the organizers, remarked that many of them no longer have family or friends in the area. It is the Lions’ hope that sufficient funds can be raised to ensure all who have served are remembered and thanked for their service with a wreath.  

Local groups such as the Lions can register with Wreaths Across America to become a “Sponsorship Group” and receive a portion of the cost of each wreath to use for local programs.

For more information, contact Evans at 860-866-7923, or Grant Mudge at 203-470-0189.

During November, residents can support the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department by shopping at Stop & Shop in Canaan and purchasing a reusable $2.50 Community Bag. For each bag purchased, $1 is donated directly to the fire department.

During their meeting Wednesday afternoon, the selectmen discussed a request from Save CT Wildlife to end the use of anticoagulant rodenticides on town properties.

Rodenticides poison vermin but also endanger other species such as domestic pets and raptors. The unintended victims bleed to death internally after eating the contaminated rodents.

Save CT Wildlife recently brought the issue to Winsted’s governing body, which developed a policy and in early October passed an ordinance prohibiting their use. Other communities who have joined the cause include Bethel, Newtown, Litchfield and Southbury.

“We don’t use rodenticides on our properties so there isn’t any great urgency,” First Selectman Henry Tirrell said, “but we felt it is a good point for conversation. It seemed something we would be totally fine with doing.”

Two Norfolk residents, John DeShazo and Ann DeCerbo, are co-directing Northwestern Regional 7 High School’s student thespians in “Peter and the Starcatcher,” the prequel to “Peter Pan.” It will be staged Friday, November 20, and Saturday, November 21, at 7:00 p.m., and Sunday, November 22, at 2:00 p.m.

Each year, the high school and middle school stage a fall play and a spring musical. “Peter and the Starcatcher” combines elements of both genres with music threaded through the storyline.

The theater program, whose casts and crew have earned several Halos—Connecticut’s high school theater award—is co-directed by DeCerbo and DeShazo in collaboration with costumer Sue Zygmont of Colebrook, musical director Dylan Pedersen of New Hartford and choreographer Kristin Mudge, also of Norfolk.

The award-winning play tells the tale of an orphaned boy with no name who becomes the boy who won’t grow up. “It is comedic but takes a somewhat darker look at Peter’s life as an orphan and the journey from youth to adulthood,” said DeShazo.

While the play has a few sets, the company creates their imaginary world using ropes, simple props and their own bodies and voices to become ships, doors, waves and even the jungle. 

Students are involved in every part of the production. Student crews built the sets, created and manage the props, and run the lighting and sound, with Norfolk’s Harry Bennett serving as stage manager.

The show will be staged at Northwestern Regional 7 High School, 100 Battistoni Drive, Winsted.

Tickets are available at the door or online.