Community News

With no zoning applications before it, the Planning and Zoning Commission took the opportunity to address the planning portion of its mission Tuesday night, considering proposed text amendments governing family campgrounds and a draft regulation addressing blight.

Discussion focused primarily on provisions for campgrounds, storage of unregistered vehicles and blight. ZEO Stacey Sefcik reported there are five locations in town where she has observed significant numbers of unregistered vehicles or boats and accumulations of junk.

Sefcik provided a proposed regulation prohibiting junkyards anywhere in town. Outdoor storage of “inoperable, immoveable, improperly parked and/or unmaintained” recreational vehicles would constitute a junkyard.

The regulation also prohibits outdoor storage of more than two unregistered vehicles and accumulations of debris, rubbish, construction, landscaping materials and the like in situations characterized by “conditions of disrepair and deterioration.” 

Currently included in the list of prohibitions are “amusement devices,” such as roller coasters, merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels unless sponsored by a local charitable or nonprofit organization. Members discussed whether private individuals with sufficient space who want to have a “lavish party” should be allowed to have such equipment temporarily. 

Sefcik said the provision could be covered under recreational uses. She copied the wording “wholesale” from regulations in other towns but said “I am not married to it.”

Proposed text amendments for family compounds/camps defines them as lot(s) under the same ownership that may have one or more sleeping structures and perhaps shared recreational amenities. Such compounds would be restricted to rural residential zones and would require a special permit.

Maintenance of existing compounds would be allowed with appropriate permits and the ZEO could issue permits for modifications if the number of sleeping units remained the same and square footage would not increased by more than 10 percent. Additional structures or larger increases in square footage would require P&Z approval.

Five acres was suggested as the minimum acreage. One member worried that this would prohibit people from using smaller parcels for sheds, boathouses or changing rooms, but member Jonathan Sanoff said the issue was becoming muddled. 

“If someone buys a property and builds a modest structure and there is a dock, I don’t see that as a family compound,” he said. “For me, the connotation is multiple somethings.” 

Other members agreed.

No decisions were made and the discussion will continue next month. 

Norfolk taxpayers may get a rare treat this year—a flat budget.

The budget presented to the Board of Finance Tuesday night totals $9,426,851 and includes all three budgetary components—general government, Botelle School and Region 7. It is 2.5 percent, or $189,281, higher than last year.

New First Selectman Henry Tirrell reduced the amount that would be allocated to the positive fund balance by $100,000 to lessen the tax burden and Board of Finance Chairman Michael Sconyers asked Tirrell to adjust it further to keep the mill rate at its current 22.49.

Sconyers praised Tirrell, terming his first  first budget “one of the finest pieces of work I’ve seen in a while.” 

Tirrell explained after the meeting that the town usually allocates $150,000 to the positive fund balance but will reduce that amount this year to about $50,000. He told the Board of Finance that the positive fund balance will remain at about 25 percent of the total budget, which he considers to be “robust.”

The balancing act comes in the face of extraordinary expenses, including construction of a new fire house, acquisition of a $270,000 plow truck this year and establishing regular deposits of $130,000 in a fund to purchase a new $1.1 million fire truck in coming years.

This year’s deposit for the fire truck and $270,000 for the first plow truck (to be delivered in late fall) are being drawn from funds remaining from the closure of the town’s defined benefit plan. A second truck is funded at an additional $270,000 in the 2026-2027 budget.

While the town is spending down $400,000 from the remaining benefit plan funds, it is anticipated that interest revenues from town investments will remain at $65,000. This will be generated by town accounts and the interest paid on the $4 million bond anticipation note for the firehouse now sitting in the bank. 

The proposed budget includes $14,000 to assist with the reclamation of City Meadow, where work is being done to remove invasives and replace them with native plantings. This amount is $26,000 less than was included for this purpose last year and Tirrell said future allocations will be much less. 

Tirrell told the finance members that the town has received a $10,000 reimbursement from the town’s insurer to offset legal expenses from a lawsuit filed against a Planning and Zoning Commission decision. He also hopes to hear within a week or two whether the town will receive $500,000 in an insurance settlement to offset the expense of cleaning up after the 2022 gas spill on Route 44.

There will be a plethora of opportunities for Norfolk residents to honor Mother Earth next week in events surrounding Earth Day.

Saturday, April 18, at 10:30 a.m., the Norfolk Conservation Commission presents “Compost Tea for Gardeners,” at the Hub. Participants will learn about the benefits of—and how to make—nutrient-dense compost tea for their gardens. Monique Bosch, soil health manager for the Connecticut Northeast Organic Farming Association will lead the program. 

Great Mountain Forest features in yet another event when Michael Zarfos, Great Mountain Forest’s executive director, leads a Spring Ephemeral Walk on Saturday, April 25, at 10:00 a.m. The walk starts at GMF’s West Gate, across from 181 Canaan Mountain Road, and will last about 90 minutes.

That presentation will be followed Saturday, April 25, at 6:00 p.m. at the Hub by Bridghe McCracken, founder of Helia Land Design, discussing how to use native plants to transform lawns into biodiverse meadows. Her program is also sponsored by the Conservation Commission as part of the Norfolk Nature Alliance’s yearlong focus on supporting pollinators.

Register for both program on the Norfolk Hub ‘s website. [https://www.norfolkhub.org/events]

Pollinators are on the minds of Northwestern Regional School #7 agriculture students as well. They invite all to participate in creating a pollinator garden at the town hall Sunday, April 26, at noon. Flowers and shrubs for the garden will be donated by Norfolk Nature Alliance, and pizza from Icebox Cafe will be provided.

The Church of Christ Congregational will also focus on native pollinators when it holds its children’s Earth Day event on Sunday, April 26, at 10:15 a.m. There will be nature-themed activities such as making pinecone bees. The program, presented in partnership with the Norfolk Nature Alliance and Great Mountain Forest, requires registration. [greatmountainforest.org/events].

All creatures deserve a boost around Earth Day and David Gourley has continued his tradition of building bluebird houses and giving them to the community. They are available at the Hub while supplies last.  

Then mark your calendars for a Saturday, May 4, talk at 1:00 p.m. at the Hub, to learn more about the fisher cat from wild-life biologist and master wildlife conservationist Ginny Apple. She will describe the secret life of this remarkable forest predator and the conservation efforts that have helped restore them to our forests.

Botelle School has resolved the differences with the state Board of Education that grew out of a reduction in the school’s current budget.

The state has a Minimum Budget Requirement regulation mandating that school districts cannot budget lesser amounts than they did in the previous year. Because Botelle had a sharp reduction in special education services this year, the budget was lower and the state threatened to withhold Education Cost Sharing funds in the 2027-2028 budget year.

School Superintendent Kevin Case and school board Chairman John DeShazo, accompanied by Representative Maria Horn, BoF chair Michael Sconyers and First Selectman Henry Tirrell, were able to negotiate a deal by which the town will allocate another $58,000 to the school for this year’s budget. The money will not be used and will be returned to the town’s surplus fund in July.

“We need to submit this to a town meeting and allocate the funds before the end of the [fiscal] year,” Sconyers told his board Tuesday.

With no zoning applications before it, the Planning and Zoning Commission took the opportunity to address the planning portion of its mission Tuesday night, considering proposed text amendments governing family campgrounds and a draft regulation addressing blight.

Discussion focused primarily on provisions for campgrounds, storage of unregistered vehicles and blight. ZEO Stacey Sefcik reported there are five locations in town where she has observed significant numbers of unregistered vehicles or boats and accumulations of junk.

Sefcik provided a proposed regulation prohibiting junkyards anywhere in town. Outdoor storage of “inoperable, immoveable, improperly parked and/or unmaintained” recreational vehicles would constitute a junkyard.

The regulation also prohibits outdoor storage of more than two unregistered vehicles and accumulations of debris, rubbish, construction, landscaping materials and the like in situations characterized by “conditions of disrepair and deterioration.” 

Currently included in the list of prohibitions are “amusement devices,” such as roller coasters, merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels unless sponsored by a local charitable or nonprofit organization. Members discussed whether private individuals with sufficient space who want to have a “lavish party” should be allowed to have such equipment on their properties temporarily. 

Sefcik said the provision could be covered under recreational uses. She copied the wording “wholesale” from regulations in other towns but said “I am not married to it.”

Proposed text amendments for family compounds/camps defines them as lot(s) under the same ownership that may have one or more sleeping structures and perhaps shared recreational amenities. Such compounds would be restricted to rural residential zones and would require a special permit.

Maintenance of existing compounds would be allowed with appropriate permits and the ZEO could issue permits for modifications if the number of sleeping units remained the same and square footage would not increased by more than 10 percent. Additional structures or larger increases in square footage would require P&Z approval.

Five acres was suggested as the minimum acreage. One member worried that this would prohibit people from using smaller parcels for sheds, boathouses or changing rooms, but member David Sanoff said the issue was becoming muddled. 

“If someone buys a property and builds a modest structure and there is a dock, I don’t see that as a family compound,” he said. “For me, the connotation is multiple somethings.” 

Other members agreed.

No decisions were made and the discussion will continue next month. 

A roomful of residents quickly passed four items at last Monday town meeting, with only a handful of votes being cast against making Haystack Woods Road a public thoroughfare maintained by the town.

The road, which connects Haystack Woods to Old Colony Road, has been constructed to town specifications, graded and paved, according to First Selectman Henry Tirrell.

Also approved at the meeting was the allocation of $270,000 for the immediate purchase of a new plow truck for the town’s fleet. Tirrell said Thursday that he has entered into a verbal contract with a supplier for an International cab and chassis. That should be ready in July, when it will be sent to be fitted with the truck bed and body. “We hope it will be complete by November,” said Tirrell.

Connected to that same item on the call was $130,000 for the initial deposit in a fund that will build toward the purchase of a new $1.1 million pumper truck for the fire department. Future allocations will be made in subsequent years. Once ordered, it can take up to two years to have a truck built and delivered.

Tirrell said the town has a Capital Reserve Account that can be used for emergency expenses, but that he would like to make that fund more comprehensive to plan for such large-ticket items as trucks.

Residents also approved entry into the Northwest Hills Council of Government’s new Northwest Regional Resource Authority (NRRA), which would collect municipal solid waste from about a dozen Northwest Corner communities. Other towns in the region have the NRRA on the agendas for annual town budget meetings.

The COG is pushing for a transfer of the Torrington waste collection site to NRRA to stabilize services in the region after the closure of a major burn plant in Hartford.

According to Tirrell, a house bill allowing the transfer has been reported out of the Government Oversight Committee and now faces action in the legislature.

A new farmers market is set to open May 20 on the border of Norfolk. Dubbed Northwest Farm to Fork, it will be held from May through October on the third Wednesday of each month, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., May to October at Norbrook Farm Brewery, 204 Stillman Hill Road, in Colebrook.

Devin Grosso has joined with former Norfolk Farmers Market board members Lisa Auclair and April Carter to form a new nonprofit that will run the market.

“I have only lived here about a year,” said Grosso, “and when I came to town, I was so excited to find a farmers market—and then I learned it was shutting down. I knew I was new to town, but I wondered if there was a way to bring it back. Then I met Lisa through the Botelle Garden Committee, and she put me in touch with all the vendors.”

The women are excited about the new location. Norbrook Brewery is a popular gathering place that also sells food and has animals to pet, live music and outdoor sports facilities. They anticipate the brewery’s clientele, and local foodies, will ensure the success of the endeavor.

“They have a pavilion, so we don’t have to worry about weather,” Grosso observed.

For the first year, the market will focus on food. “We’ll have microgreens, mushrooms, eggs, sourdough bread—our goal is to be a one-stop-shop for groceries. Everything will be local, fresh and homegrown,” Grosso said, adding that flowers and plants will also be available.

The board members are also reaching out to neighboring states for additional vendors to expand variety. Area residents can follow the market on its website, or Facebook page.

The long wait is almost over. The town crew is expected to do final landscaping around the popular Big Green Slide at Botelle School next week, once again opening the 60-foot slide to area children.

After long negotiations with the supplier, Creative Recreation, the slide has been restored and is ready for use at no cost to the town.

The slide has a tortured past. The original was vandalized by teenagers in 2019. The teens came to the playground, failed to gain entrance to the slide itself because of its gated entrance, and opted instead to jump up and down on top of the green plastic segments. Attempts were made to repair it, but it was soon discovered that the wooden supports were rotted and needed to be replaced as well.

Replacement became a controversial topic in town, with some residents objecting to the $80,000 price tag. Money was eventually taken from ARPA funding and private donations, but it was not until 2023 that the slide was replaced and opened up to young children. 

Then catastrophe struck again. Almost immediately, the replacement failed due to cracked flanges and improper footings, rendering it unsafe. It lay abandoned as efforts were made to get Creative Recreation to make an adjustment.

“Public Works tried to get all the landscaping finished before winter set in but obviously the weather did not cooperate,” reported First Selectman Henry Tirrell. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Norfolk Artists and Friends (NAF) has a new leader, sculptor Jon Riedeman, and he wants “shake things up” to instill new energy in an organization he believes “is in a rut.”

NAF is a membership organization made up of professional artists living and working in the 

Norfolk area. Its members produce a wide variety of visual arts including painting, sculpture, photography, jewelry and decorative arts. 

For the past 19 years, NAF has put on a summer show in the Art Barn on the Battell Stoeckel estate. Riedeman believes that the format has started to stagnate—”same show, same artists, same space, same format.”

“Attendance at the exhibitions has been either flat or declining,” he said, “and the energy has not been as strong as it was in the past.” He wants to create more excitement about it this year by changing the format to invite 15 artists from the New Marlborough area to exhibit in a joint show called “Norfolk vs. New Marlborough.”

In addition to hosting the annual show, he further wants to expand the scope of NAF’s activities to setting up workshops, presenting guest speakers, creating pop-up shows, sponsoring trips to museums and galleries, and the like.

To build momentum Riedeman wants to undertake a vigorous and expanded promotional campaign advertising the organization’s new endeavors. At the Economic Development Commission’s Thursday night meeting, he asked for a grant, arguing that it would directly assist 30 Norfolk residents with their art careers while increasing the visibility of Norfolk’s strong artist community.

EDC members were enthusiastic about Riedeman’s plans to invigorate NAF and expand its activities. He was encouraged to develop a budget and come back to the May meeting.

“I love the idea of the helping you promote art,” said member Libby Borden. “It’s a huge identity for the town. It’s part of our heritage.”

Next Monday’s town meeting, planned for 7:00 p.m. at Botelle School has taken on new urgency as state legislators weigh the future of Torrington’s waste facility. 

Item 4 on the agenda is to discuss whether Norfolk will designate the Northwest Regional Recovery Authority (NRRA) as the town’s resource recovery authority. [please keep the strong “has taken on new urgency” as the lead and then say why.]

First Selectman Henry Tirrell has said that designating the NRRA as the town’s waste management authority will strengthen the NRRA’s position with the state legislature as it debates the future of the Torrington site.

The NRRA is the Northwest Hills Council of Government’s response to the solid waste crisis in Connecticut created by the dissolution of the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) in Hartford. COG has sought control of Torrington recycling site for use as a central collection hub for Northwest Corner towns since 2022, when MIRA—which served 72 Connecticut municipalities—was closed.

Last year, lawmakers scuttled the attempt of USA Waste, a private hauler, to purchase the Torrington facility, passing legislation that required it to remain in the public domain. But area town officials were stunned in March to learn that the Department of Administrative Services, which has operated the plant for the last year, plans to shutter it on June 30. 

It is expected that USA Waste would renew its offer to buy the facility and the NRRA does not have the staff or the budget to compete with the company’s $3.25 million offer. 

In response, a bipartisan group of area legislators has raised a land conveyance bill that would transfer ownership of the facility to the NRRA at no cost other administrative expenses. A hearing on the bill was held Wednesday in Hartford with much comment supporting the land conveyance. 

If successful, the bill would require the NRRA to operate the transfer station in perpetuity, as a public facility for handling municipal waste. The facility processes 25,000 tons per year of waste, recyclables and bulky items, and has a capacity to expand that to 60,000 tons.