Mountain Road, where construction is already underway to replace one bridge, now has another problem looming. The culvert that carries Mountain Road over Toby Pond Brook developed a sink hole this week. “It washed out and a portion of the culvert failed,” said First Selectman Henry Tirrell.
Steel plates have been placed over the sink hole while the town considers what to do about the repair. There were no issues with motorists traveling over the span.
Plans are in place and lifeguards have been hired for the summer season at Tobey Pond but
because Memorial Day is early this year the opening date for swimming has been pushed back
to June 17, the last day of school.
The beach area is private and is maintained by the Town for the benefit of Norfolk
residents under a contract with Great Mountain Forest. Residents who use it must buy a yearly
sticker from the Town Clerk’s office and place it permanently on their vehicle’s windshield.
Stickers are available at the beginning of June.
The beach area includes spaces for swimming, picnicking and fishing. For more information
about yearly stickers, call the Town Clerk’s office at 860-542-5679. During the season, hours are
posted on this website as soon as they are available.
The Norfolk Conservation Commission needs volunteers Saturday, June 6, for the next phase of restoring native plants at Botelle School.
Last fall, volunteers removed invasive plants across the property. This spring the Department of Public Works cleared invasive honeysuckle along the playground edge, and that area is now ready for planting.
Commission member Nash Pradhan, owner of Ginger Creek Nursery, has arranged a donation of native shrubs from Lime Rock resident Holly Kempner, who has invited volunteers to her property to dig up healthy shrubs under Pradhan’s guidance. Volunteers will be rewarded with a shrub and a good feeling about supporting efforts to restore biodiversity at Botelle.
The workers will leave Norfolk between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. and work until about noon. Participants should bring a shovel, sun hat and water. Snacks will be provided.
To join, email nccinvasives@gmail.com or leave contact information at 860-542-6995. Details will follow.
The weather forecast for Monday is uncertain, but Memorial Day observances will go on rain or shine.
“Some years, when it has rained, the bands haven’t marched and the parade is somewhat more subdued,” said First Selectman Henry Tirrell, “but there is always the ceremony and the reading of names at the Memorial Green.”
The parade is slated to start at 9:00 a.m. and proceed down Maple Avenue to the village green where the honor guard fires a salute. The procession then continues down Route 44 to Memorial Green, opposite Immaculate Conception Church where there is a brief ceremony.
Following the observances, the fire department invites townspeople to come to the firehouse at 20 Shepard Road from about 9:45 to 11:00 a.m. Visitors can enjoy light refreshments while connecting with neighbors and members of the department.
The construction area for the new firehouse is fenced off for safety, but a glimpse of the worksite will be made available through the open bay doors of the current facility.
The holiday events do not end there, however. The fire department’s annual five-mile road race, which benefits it scholarship fund, will kick off at noon. This year’s race course has been modified because of construction on Mountain Road. The road race will now start and finish at the Village Green in the center of town and will follow an out-and-back route down Litchfield Road.
The first runners are expected to reach the village green at 12:30 p.m.
The speed of traffic on Norfolk’s highways and byways has been a concern for years and now town officials are implementing measures to slow drivers, whose speeds have been clocked at more than 100 miles per hour.
The Public Works Department has installed speed bumps on Laurel Way, Aetna Lane, Ashpohtag Road and Old Colebrook Road, and four speed feedback monitors are being used to assess traffic flow around town.
The monitors are currently placed have been placed on Ashpohtag Road, near the intersection of Westside Road and Sunset Drive, Maple Ave and Loon Meadow. First Selectman Henry Tirrell said the feedback monitors can be moved to give town officials information about different parts of town.The Connecticut Department of Transportation began distributing speed monitors in 2020 to help control speeding in rural communities. The program was expanded in 2022 to include all 169 Connecticut municipalities.
These signs detect and display oncoming vehicle speeds, encouraging drivers to slow down without issuing traffic tickets. “Every town got four monitors. They just paint a picture,” Tirrell explained. “They are different than automatic speed ticketing, which is a much more intense process.”
He said the town has some preliminary feedback a traffic volume and speed analyzer—which is different from the feedback monitors—was placed for six days on Greenwoods Road below Infinity Hall. “In six days, 24,000 vehicles passed it and more than 13,000 were traveling at 10 miles an hour or more over the speed limit. Three of them were going more than 100 miles per hour,” Tirrell reported.
He said efforts are being made to assess speeding near Botelle School, where a truck carrying 8,200 gallons of gasoline overturned in 2022.
Town officials looked at the possibility of installing an automatic ticketing system last year, but no action was taken. “It’s a conversation we will have to have at some point if we want to get people to slow down,” Tirrell said. “These analyses will hopefully help the town decide if they want to do that.”
One of the town’s favorite summer attractions, Friday Nights on the Green, returns May 29 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. with an inaugural event featuring the Norfolk Nature Alliance.
The alliance is a collaborative that unites local environmental organizations to champion habitat restoration and biodiversity. It will host family friendly activities, present educational exhibits about native plants and pollinator paths, hold a plant exchange and more.
The series of Friday night programs continues until August 21 with live music and entertaining programs presented each week. The Norfolk Hub will provide a free mix of community barbecues and local food vendors throughout the summer, and transportation is available for those who need it by contacting the Hub to sign up in advance.
Of particular note this year will be the Friday, July 3, celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s birth, co-sponsored by the Hub, the historical society and the town. That night will include a parade, live music by Kettle Creek, demonstrations, family activities, a pie baking contest, a community barbecue and an ice cream truck. The baking contest will be held an hour earlier than usual, at 5:00 p.m. Those wishing to show off their culinary skills are urged to register here and bring their favorite pie to share.
Norfolk is hungry for a new restaurant. That was clear Thursday night when applause erupted in Infinity Hall as David Rosenfeld, co-founder of the GoodWorks Entertainment Group promised to reopen that concert hall’s dining area.
The move comes two months after the Norfolk Pub, the town’s only evening dining venue was closed. “The minute [the Pub] closed, it was, ‘We are opening a restaurant,’” Rosenfeld told the near-capacity crowd of Norfolk residents who gathered to hear his plans.
Rosenfeld and partner Tyler Grill purchased the hall and its sister location in Hartford in 2019. They then experimented with operating music festivals in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maine, but found them unprofitable. Now the entertainment group is refocusing on its concert halls. “The festivals didn’t meet our original mission,” he said. “Now, we are excited to re-engage here.”
Originally, both the Norfolk and Hartford sites had restaurants, but running full-service restaurants at both venues was “almost guaranteed to lose money,” he said. Rosenfeld commented on the frustration patrons experienced when up to 300 people flowed into the building, all wanting to eat within 60 to 90 minutes before the show. Long lines for drinks at intermission were another logjam that left people dissatisfied.
Then Covid hit and restaurant service was never fully restored after that. Currently the venue does not serve food at all, having yielded that portion of its business to the Norfolk Pub.
The new restaurant, which he hopes to open in mid-June, would offer a small, readily adaptable American bistro menu and would be open Thursdays through Sundays. “It might be casual fare, but we want to upgrade the wine list,” he added. “All will have four-star ratings.”
He predicts that even on concerts nights, introducing a simpler menu and modern technology will ease the pressure points. Patrons will be to order online and pay electronically. They will also be able order take-out or carry their own meals to the mezzanine level, again reducing wait times and frustration.
In other changes, Rosenfeld said the number of shows presented will be increased to 50 a year with broader diversity and the venue will be available to host events.
About 30 townspeople gathered Monday night to pass the $9.4 million 2026-2027 municipal budget.
The meeting generated little discussion and was completed in about 12 minutes, according to First Selectman Henry Tirrell. “Everything passed,” he reported. “There were a couple of questions about the Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR) for the school that [Superintendent Kevin Case] explained, and a couple of people wondered about the gas spill settlement—but that was all.”
The MBR requires towns to fund their schools at no less than the previous year. This year, because Botelle School had fewer special education expenses, Norfolk’s budgeted amount was less than in 2024-25. The state Department of Education objected, threatening to withhold future Education Cost Sharing funds.
Case and town officials negotiated a settlement with the state by adding some $58,000 to the current budget to meet the MBR. The money will not be expended and will be returned to the town surplus account at the end of the fiscal year.
Tirrell explained the final settlement for the gas spill, which was set at $585,000 and covered less obvious expenses incurred by the town during the reclamation process. It is in addition to monies the insurance company paid during the actual construction phase.
Tirrell told the audience that part of the settlement will be used to pay legal fees incurred while trying to reach an agreement with the insurance company. The remainder will be budgeted to pay $270,000 for a second plow truck next year and pay $130,000 toward the growing fund for a new fire truck. The fire truck is expected to cost over $1 million dollars.
The Board of Finance did not have a quorum and could not set the mill rate after the meeting. It will meet in special session next Tuesday, May 19.
The City Meadow Committee focused its discussion on appearances when it met in special session Tuesday evening—the appearance of Robertson Plaza and of City Meadow.
Members noted that First Selectman Henry Tirrell is going to remove the Town Crier board on the front of the Hub and that he would like to relocate it to the plaza. Even though the committee is not in charge of the plaza, it overlooks City Meadow and he sought the opinion of the committee members.
Members were leery of this relocation, however, remarking that the bulletin board announcing town events often becomes unsightly even within days of being organized.
It was suggested that a kiosk be placed on the plaza that could display the Town Crier notices on one side and signage on the other describing why wetlands such as the City Meadow are important.
Some members commented that there are already two other sites in the town center where notices are posted and questioned whether another is needed on the plaza.
The rehabilitation of the City Meadow wetlands, which has been overrun by invasives, was reported to be “progressing appropriately” with more invasives being removed last week. The invasives must be eradicated before native plants can be installed.
Co-chair Libby Borden referred to the dead trees that have fallen in the meadow and the importance they have in wetlands. But she suggested that they are not attractive as currently situated and suggested that their straight boles could be arranged to spell out “Icebox,” the sobriquet applied to the town.
It was estimated that replacement of deteriorated boards in the meadow’s boardwalk will cost about $2,000.
The committee hopes to activate an independent website for the City Meadow within weeks.
The committee has received requests from groups who wish to visit the meadow, but have declined, saying “we are not yet ready for guests.”
Housatonic Heritage and Great Mountain Forest will offer a three-day environmental writing retreat from August 7 through 9 at the Yale Camp on Canaan Mountain.
This retreat is inspired by the life and legacy of longtime New York Times nature columnist, prolific author and outdoorsman Hal Borland, who lived in Salisbury. The courses will emphasize accurate and evocative description, encouraging writers to tap into their scientific and environmental concerns and their personal involvement in the landscape and its history.
Enrollment is limited to foster deeper engagement between participants and presenters. Participants will have the opportunity to submit work developed during the retreat to an online anthology to be published in the fall.
To get early pricing for the retreat, fees must be paid in full by May 31.