Community News

The Botelle Elementary PTO will hold auditions for its winter production of “Moana Jr.” on January 12, 13, 15 and 16 in the school’s Hall of Flags. Botelle and Colebrook Consolidated School students between the third and sixth grades can participate.

Appointments are necessary for the 10- to 15-minute auditions and parents should plan on waiting for their children to complete their auditions. The children can leave after the auditions and will be notified if needed for a call-back. Every child who auditions will receive a role.

Rehearsals start January 26 and performances will take place the first weekend in May.

For more information and to make an appointment, click here.

Young thespians who have advanced to Northwestern Regional School No. 7 have an opportunity to perform as well. Norfolk resident Ann DeCerbo is directing the production of “The Addams Family Musical.” Rehearsals started this week and the show will be staged March 27 through 29.

Students in Botelle School’s upper intermediate class are raising salmon this winter, planning to release them into the Farmington River come spring. 

Tom Stanton of the Connecticut River Salmon Association (CRSA) delivered 300 Atlantic salmon eggs to Botelle School Thursday in an environmental education program, Salmon in Schools. 

CRSA operates its program in approximately 65 Connecticut public schools. Students participate actively in all phases of the program, from rearing salmon eggs in the classroom to stocking the river. CRSA provides guidance and teacher education, technical assistance and materials, as well as links to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The eggs are harvested from salmon that have previously returned to the Connecticut River. They will hatch about mid-February as alevin, small fish about one to one-and-a-half inches long that are supported by a yolk sac on their stomachs. The yolk sac is their sole food source. 

By the end of April or early May, these creatures reach the stage where the sac has been absorbed and the fish look like a small minnow.

A specialized incubation tank was set up at the school for their arrival and students will monitor the eggs on a daily basis as they develop. When the salmon reach the stage where they can no longer remain in the tank they will be released into the cool waters of the Farmington River.

The tank is set up in math specialist Shilo Garceau’s room and she will help the students monitor temperatures and growth every day.

The Farmington River is a crucial part of the Atlantic salmon restoration effort in the Connecticut River watershed, offering significant spawning habitat. Although wild populations are still recovering, biologists have found salmon nests and eggs in the Farmington, indicating a return of its former populations.

After her car was burgled in Salisbury on December 31, a Norfolk woman (who wishes to remain anonymous) wants to alert other residents to a mini crime spree that took place that day so they can be vigilant about their own security.

She reports that a burglar or burglars struck in two towns, breaking into victims’ cars and stealing wallets, checkbooks and other personal items. 

Her locked vehicle was parked in Salisbury at the time of the incident. The thief or thieves attempted to use her personal identification to cash checks at different branches of her bank but the bank had immediately enacted its security protocols and no money was lost. 

The thieves reportedly broke into cars in Goshen and Salisbury (including at a hiking trail in the Lakeville section of town). They attempted to cash checks in Washington, Cornwall and Sharon.

The police have yet to issue a report on the incidents.

Hate Mondays? Now there is a reason to look forward to them. The Norfolk Library invites everyone to come and enjoy the warmth of a blazing fire Monday nights during January. The fireplace in the Great Hall will be lighted from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. creating a convivial environment for visiting or reading.

The City Meadow Committee (which recently changed its name from “Friends of the Meadow Committee”) has set a goal of August 2027 as the time when the nature preserve in the center of town will achieve its optimal visual appeal.

The meadow sits next to the fire department property, and the firefighters will celebrate their 125th anniversary that month.

The committee has been working for years to restore the meadow, a wetland that became overgrown with invasive, as an attractive centerpiece for the town.

At its December meeting, the committee received a financial update from co-chairman Libby Borden. It has two financial accounts, one funded through donations and grants, and the other the town’s City Meadow account. Last spring, the selectmen included a $40,000 allocation in its 2025-26 budget to further the committee’s work. 

Borden reported that at the half-way point in the fiscal year, the committee’s account has a balance of more than $70,000 and the Meadow’s Town account has a balance of more than $25,000. The committee’s account is used for invasive eradication and new plantings, and the Town account is used exclusively for maintenance, such as replacing boards in the boardwalk.

In an effort to clarify Botelle School’s budget reduction, Superintendent Kevin Case is in discussion with officials from the state Department of Education about its Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR), he told the school board at its last meeting. The MBR prohibits local districts from budgeting less for education than the previous year. 

Because Botelle had one fewer special education outplacement in the current fiscal year, its budget was reduced by about $103,000 from the 2024-2025 numbers. The state is asking for additional information about the reduction.

There are exceptions to MBR requirements that allow districts to reduce their appropriations. These include such things as a decrease in enrollment, a decrease in Education Cost Sharing aid, closure of a school or increased efficiencies. These need to be approved by the Commissioner of Education. 

Alliance districts (Connecticut’s lowest-performing public-school districts) cannot decrease their appropriations, while, conversely, a district that ranks in the top 10 percent of all school districts is exempt from the MBR for that given year.

Numbers are currently being developed for the 2026-2027 budget proposal and will be presented to the school board in February. 

In other business, the school board elected officers at its December meeting, with John DeShazo being named chairman;Virginia Coleman Prisco, vice chairman, and Amy Bennett, secretary.

Now that winter is firmly entrenched, plans for this year’s Winter Weekend in Norfolk events are emerging. 

According to WIN’s steering committee, kids’ movies and popcorn, a fly-tying workshop, a pop-up bookstore and another mending cafe are already scheduled. Dates are Saturday and Sunday, February 21 and 22. The committee invites readers to send their ideas to win@earthlink.net.

First Selectman Henry Tirrell is not expecting the road maintenance problems his predecessor faced last year even though 2025 dealt up a real winter in its last two months with low temperatures and frequent little storms.

Despite the series of little storms and last week’s more significant ice and snow, there have been no serious problems and no shortage of road maintenance materials. 

“The town crew has been putting in the hours,” he said Wednesday. “They were out Friday night into Saturday and then they were back on Sunday, but considering how windy it was, there were no big problems.”

Last February when ice coated the entire state, the town ran out of salt because its supplier was serving larger communities first. Normally, salt is delivered within 10 days of when Public Works foreman Troy Lamere puts in an order to Morton Salt of New Haven. But despite two orders and repeated calls, the town’s supply was not replenished for two weeks.

Norfolk can store only 500 tons of salt and, since it uses between 100 and 160 tons per storm, each delivery prepares the town for only four or five storms.

Following the Presidents Day debacle, state legislators instructed the supplier to find solutions to the gridlock. “I think the supplier is on top of it this year,” Tirrell said. “That was a larger supply chain issue.”

Problems with salt deliveries started in 2021 when the Connecticut Port Authority prepared to use the State Pier in New London for wind turbine development. New London and New Haven were the only ports in the state that could receive shipments of salt, and the New London salt supplier was forced out of business by the move. All salt deliveries were then routed through New Haven and contractors waited in long lines to pick up their deliveries.

Even though deliveries to towns are now more regular, Tirrell said the town crew will be conservative. “It snows, we plow it, then the sidewalks and roads melt and freeze again when the temperatures drop and we have to go out again,” he said. “We will be more conservative and mix our sand and salt. I’m hoping it will be milder in January.”

At its December 9 meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend
that the Selectmen take acceptance of Haystack Woods Road as a town
road to a future town meeting.

The short road leads to the new affordable housing complex off Old Colony Road that is being developed by the Foundation for Norfolk Living.

Kate Johnson, president of foundation and the architect who designed the energy-efficient dwellings, said the road into the 10-house complex was recently paved. She noted that the patio associated with one home encroaches on the road’s right of way and asked whether the commission would recommend leaving it as is or cutting off a portion of the patio. After discussion, the commission said the encroaching portion should be removed.

The favorable recommendation carried the condition that a $10,560 bond be imposed to ensure the encroachment is corrected and all other work is completed satisfactorily.

In other business, the commission postponed a public hearing on an application from George Auclair until its January 13 meeting. Auclair wants to build a 50-foot-by-80-foot storage shed on the parcel of land he owns across Route 44 from his service station. 

Zoning Enforcement Officer Stacey Sefcik advised that an approval is needed from the Torrington Area Health District because the septic system is being moved. She also said the Zoning Board of Appeals will have to give the project its imprimatur before Planning and Zoning can act.

Are you an aficionado of Christmas stories? Residents will get a chance to prove their knowledge of these tales during the second trivia night sponsored by the bookstore Les Renards & Co., which is in the Royal Arcanum Building adjacent to Robertson Plaza.

The event will be held at the Norfolk Curling Club, 70 Golf Drive, on Monday, December 22, at 6:00 p.m. 

The Trivia game begins promptly at 6:30 p.m.

There will be a cash bar and Mike Cobb & the Crevulators will provide Christmas music. There is no entry fee, but tips for the band are welcome.

Twelve teams of up to five persons each can be accommodated. Solo players can join a team upon arrival if space is available. Participants are advised to arrive on time to secure a table.