April 02, 2015

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Valley
530 Bushy Hill Rd., Simsbury • 860-651-7376
AVON • BURLINGTON • CANTON • FARMINGTON • GRANBY • SIMSBURY
IN SPORTS
Perfect 12
for Valley
hoop teams
PAGE 25
Vol. 7, Edition 14
Thursday
April 2, 2015
in the press
Tower proposal
draws concerns
from residents,
officials
A proposed 180-foot lattice cell
phone tower that would be located in a bucolic Farmington neighborhood has drawn the opposition from town officials and the ire
of residents. PAGE 13
Legislators fight
planned fire
school cuts
Proposed state budget cuts to fire
training schools could impact local taxes, force firefighters to pay
more or simply may mean that
firefighters are not trained adequately, officials say. PAGE 13
Photo by Lisa Brisson
Residents ‘spring ahead’ despite chilly weather
Dominic Carducci, 8, happily grabs his medal from East Farms School Principal Renee St. Hilaire after he crosses the 5K finish line with a time of
25:35.2 during the East Farms Spring Ahead 5K Road Race, Fun Run and 1-Mile Fitness Walk March 29. See more photos on page 6.
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Wild about animals
NEWS
THIS WEEK
A&E
4
The Buzz
7
Kids
8
Business
9
Town News
13
Editorial
22
Calendar 23
Sports
25
Home & Garden
29
Classifieds
33
Quotes
of Note
“[T]his highly
deceptive process in
which [Savino’s]
company has engaged
clearly establishes that
he is, in fact, a ‘bad
neighbor’ to both the
residents of the area, in
particular, but also the
town of Farmington as
a whole.”
-Kathy Eagan in “Officials,
Highlands residents...” on page 13
Courtesy photo
16
Simsbury reader Danielle D’Ermo had an unusual animal sighting – a squirrel and a barred owl in close
proximity, eyeing each other. If you have a photo of a critter that you’ve spotted locally, submit it for this
segment to Abigail at aalbair@turleyct.com. Include “Wild About Animals” and the animal spotted in the
subject line. Be sure to mention your town of residence as well. All submissions will be considered for
inclusion in a future issue.
THE DOCTOR IS IN.
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2
The
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
“We would have to find
the money. The
taxpayers throughout
the fire district would,
ultimately, end up
paying for it.”
-Fire Chief Jim Baldis in “A
‘devastating’ proposal” on page 13
Live Poets Society appeal kicks off with ‘eve of poetry’
By Sloan Brewster
Senior Staff Writer
A former Connecticut native
will read some of her poems at a
fundraiser for the Sunken Garden
Poetry Festival.
Sue Ellen Thompson, who
has lived in Maryland for the past
eight years but lived in Connecticut the 34 years prior, will read
from a collection of poems entitled “They” at Hill-Stead Museum’s
Live Poets Society’ “Eve of Poetry
in the Libraries,” an intimate evening of poetry and live music.
The poems in the book are
about the complex relationship
between her father, who passed
away in March 2012 and her
daughter, who was his favorite among eight grandchildren,
Thompson said.
Thompson created some of
the poems from postcards, which
her daughter regularly sent to her
grandfather when she lived in
Philadelphia and he had retired to
a farm in New Hampshire.
“She covered the entire back
with microscopic handwriting
that my father couldn’t read without a magnifying glass,” Thompson said. “When he died, he gave
those postcards to me, so a certain portion [of the book] consists
of poems I made from these postcards. It shows their relationship
through her words instead of just
mine.”
Thompson’s father, a World
War II veteran who was a pilot
and a prisoner of war, was very
traditional and conservative,
while her daughter is transgendered and identifies as male. Still,
they were extremely close and her
father, though not entirely aware
of all the subtleties of who his
granddaughter was, accepted her
for who she is.
Though being transgender
is not about sexuality, but about
the person’s identity, Thompson
let her father believe her daughter
was gay, she said. She felt that he
would understand it better if that
was what he thought, but mostly
she was surprised that he accepted it so well.
“He said, ‘Thomasan’s gay,
right?’ and I said ‘Yeah, Pop, I
think so,’” Thompson said. “He let
it all go.”
Part of the reason for the
book is to show people what it
means to be transgender because
so many people make the same
assumption that her father did
and think it’s about sexuality.
“It’s the person inside that’s
important, not how they dress or
present,” she said.
At the fundraiser, Thompson,
who read at the Sunken Garden
in 1992 and 1995, will read from
“They” and may also read from her
book, “The Golden Hour.”
Thompson has received numerous awards, including the
1986 Samuel French Morse Prize,
the 2003 Pablo Neruda Prize and
two Individual Artist’s Grants
from the State of Connecticut.
She is the author of five books;
most recently “They” (Turning
Point Books, 2014) and “The Golden Hour” (Autumn House, 2006),
which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
She works on her poetry in
a sunlit studio behind her home
in Oxford, Md., where she spends
several hours each afternoon
closing herself off to write.
The Eve of Poetry
will kick off the 2015 Live
Poets Society appeal, a
fundraising drive to
benefit the Sunken
Garden Poetry Festival, said Lisa Lappe,
PR and marketing
manager and Sunken
Garden Poetry Festival manager.
“It’s just a different way to
fund the event,” Lappe said. “We
need the money coming in from
all different directions.”
Connecticut Humanities has
contributed to the event with a
$50,000 grant that will help pay
for high-end, Pulitzer Prize winning poets, Lappe said. The grant
will help enrich the festival with
poetry workshops prior to each
performance and will benefit student outreach to young poets in
the state.
“Poets from all over the country want to be involved with the
Sunken Garden,” Lappe said. “The
fact that it happens here in Farmington is a big deal. ... This is going
to be our biggest year, between the
grant that we were awarded and
the caliber of poets.”
There will also be an Asian
Poetry Weekend Aug. 11 and 12,
an event that was designed to
serve a large segment of the poetry population that is underserved,
Lappe said.
The Eve of Poetry will be
held Friday, April 10, from 5:30 to
ed in the weekend of Asian art,
culture and poetry performances with Li-Young Lee, the author
of four books of poetry, and Tina
Chang, the poet laureate of Brooklyn will share the stage.
As part of its Open House
format during Asian Weekend,
Hill-Stead Museum will display its
This article is the first to highlight local events regarding
poetry as part of a series done in celebration of April as:
7:30 p.m., at the
Hill-Stead Museum
in Farmington. In addition to live
jazz music, wine and food, and the
poetry reading, Thompson will
also do a book signing.
This year’s Sunken Garden Poetry Festival will begin
Wednesday, June 24 with United
States Poet Laureate (2004-06)
and Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet
Ted Kooser.
On Sunday, July 12, Marie
Howe, the 2012-14 Poet Laureate
of New York State will perform.
On Wednesday, July 22, the
featured poet will be Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri.
On Sunday, Aug. 9, includ-
rarely seen
collection of original Asian woodblock prints, Chinese porcelain
and other unique Asian objects.
On Wednesday, Aug. 19 the
season will conclude with CT
Young Poet’s Day with the museum’s own Fresh Voices Competition and Hartford Poetry
Outreach. Participants will include students from Poetry Out
Loud, Connecticut Young Writers Trust, Connecticut Poetry
Circuit, Student Poets Laureate
at the Arts Café Mystic, OneWord
CT/National Youth Poetry Slam
Team and ASAP After School
Arts Program.
Following the Fresh Voices
reading, audiences will enjoy music and readings by poets Natalie
Diaz and Aja Monet.
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April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
3
PRESSARTS&ENTERTAINMENT
EWS students’ artwork on exhibit
Ethel Walker high
school artwork is on exhibit in the West Gallery of the
Simsbury Library, 725 Hopmeadow St., for the month
of April. The work includes
oil and acrylic paintings,
drawings and printmaking,
all classes taught at Ethel
Walker. Painting students
have focused on layering
several applications of colors and textures while de-
signing expressive, abstract
compositions. Painting class
students are also often inspired by independent art
history research to create
their art work. Chloe Silverman of Avon connected with the work of Roy
Litchenstein. She updated
a ‘60s image using her passion for a Starbucks delivery.
Her painting is on an art
room stool. Lyrica Yanaway
connected with Vermeer’s
painting of the “Girl with the
Pearl Earring.” Lyrica created
her self-portrait as a modern
day Vermeer girl by adding
her bandana and replacing
the earrings with earbuds.
Independent Studio student,
Ashley Hwang created an
expressive two-color block
print. Becky Xu, an art major,
created a pencil self portrait
for her college application.
Big Band concert with guest Jimmy Heath
Join the University of
Hartford Big Band with
featured guest artist saxophonist Jimmy Heath Friday, April 3 from 7:30-9:30
p.m. in Lincoln Theater,
UofH, 200 Bloomfield Ave.,
West Hartford. Heath has
performed on more than
100 record albums including seven with The Heath
Brothers and 12 as a leader.
He has also written more
than 125 compositions,
many of which have become jazz standards and
have been recorded by other artists including Chet
Guest artist
saxophonist
Jimmy Heath
Baker, Miles Davis, Dizzy
Gillespie and many more.
The performance is free to
the public.
Connect to another
outstanding physician.
Sowmya Kurtakoti, MD
30 Loeffler Road, Floor 4,
Bloomfield
Local native
and quartet
to perform
Man About a Horse, a
Philadelphia-based bluegrass quartet featuring
Simsbury’s own Matt
Royles on guitar and lead
vocals, will perform Saturday, April 4 at the Meetinghouse
on
Phelps
Homestead, 800 Hopmeadow St. The Simsbury
Historical Society welcomes Man About a Horse
to town for an evening
of unique versions of
popular tunes, heartfelt
original songs and traditional Americana and bluegrass. Audience members
will experience acoustic
music as it was meant to
be heard, and hear stories about the history of
bluegrass music in the
United States. The event is
free, with an optional donation. Music will begin at 7
p.m. Royles, who is the lead
singer for Man About a
Horse, was a member of the
Simsbury High School Concert Choir while attending
Simsbury High School. He
later sang with the Bates
College Deansmen in Lewiston, Maine, during his
college career. Their debut
studio recording, “The EP,”
was released in March.
Visit harthosp.org/seniors
or call 860.380.5150 to
make an appointment.
4
The
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
The exhibit is at the Unionville Museum until June 7.
‘These Are a Few of Our
Favorite Things’
The Unionville Museum has opened its 69th exhibit. Entitled “These Are a
Few of Our Favorite Things,”
it features a wide selection
of objects from the museum’s collection. “Our largest collection group is our
photographs of Unionville’s
past,” explains Patty LeBouthillier, board president,
“but this time we thought
we would focus on the
things in our collection.”
The new exhibit includes
Unionville-made
things such as furniture
and clocks, felt and knives,
bolts and nuts. In addition,
there are things that remind
us of Unionville’s past – of
buildings long vanished,
businesses of the 1950s,
and trolleys now replaced
by buses. Most importantly, there are the things left
behind by Unionville’s people – from personal diaries
to Purple Hearts to period clothing. Admission is
free. The museum is open
Wednesday, Saturday and
Sunday (holidays excepted)
from 2-4 p.m. “Our Favorite
Things” will be on display
until June 7. (860-673-2231)
Easter egg hunt at Farmington Miniature Golf
Follow the Easter
Bunny Saturday, April 4 to
Farmington Miniature Golf
& Ice Cream Parlor, 1048
Farmington Ave., Farmington. Kids can hunt for over
15,000 Easter eggs filled
with chocolate and prizes
with a $2 donation to the
Our Companions Domestic Animal Sanctuary. The
hunt is hosted by WRCH’s
Mike Stacy with start times
as follows: 11:15 a.m. for
kids 2 and under, noon for
3-4 year olds, 12:45 p.m. for
5-6 year olds and 1:15 p.m.
for 7-9 year olds. Everyone
can enjoy family fun from 11
a.m. to 2 p.m. including free
face painting with Fun-EFaces (donations appreciat-
ed), free bounce house from
Bounce About, $3 tie-dye
vanilla ice cream cones, pictures with the Easter Bunny
to benefit Our Companions
Domestic Animal Sanctuary
($3 your camera, $5 ours)
and more. For more information, give them a call at
677-0118 or visit www.faringtonminiaturegolf.com.
Two members of the Saw Doctors at Bridge Street Live
Ireland’s ever popular
band Saw Doctors will be at
Bridge Street Live, 41 Bridge
St., Collinsville, Thursday,
April 9 at 7 p.m. The band is
renowned for creating partylike atmospheres with their
Dr. Kurtakoti specializes in primary care and
consultative services for adults age 55 and over,
who seek help with medical concerns unique to
seniors.
Courtesy photo
blend of Irish roots rock.
Hailing from Tuam, County
Galway, the quintet’s principle players notched a string
of singles in their native land with “I Useta Lover,” “Bless
Me Father,” “N-17” in the late
‘80s and have been bringing
their energetic live shows
stateside for 25 years. In the
summer of 2013 they decided
to take some well deserved
time off. With The Saw Doctors taking a break from
touring, the band’s guitarist,
Leo Moran, and sax player
“Anto” Thistlethwaite have
put together an acoustic
show that includes different
takes on well-known Saw
Doctors’ songs, versions
of lesser-known and lessplayed songs, a few from
Anthony’s solo-albums and
new songs. They launched
their duo here in the U.S. in
the fall of 2013.
PRESSARTS&ENTERTAINMENT
Clockwise from left: Hanna Holcomb and Eric Carnes perform a scene from “An
American in Paris” at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington March 22; Lilley Hohl; Carlos
Laboy; Hannah Holcomb is lifted in the air by Eric Carnes during the performance; Rachel
Buder smiles during the scene from “An American in Paris.”
‘Pink Party’ brings art to life
through ballet
A
bout 50 people gathered at the Hill-Stead Museum in
Farmington March 22 for the 4th Annual Pink Party,
hosted by the Albano Ballet Company of Hartford. The
Pink Party was created by Christine Petit four years ago to expose children and adults to high-quality ballet at the Hill-Stead,
according to Albano Ballet Company student Eric Carnes. The
Pink Party also is used to connect and “bring to life” the famed
Degas collection housed by the Hill-Stead, including the painting
‘Dancers in Pink.’ These photos were taken of a scene performed
from “An American in Paris.”
Photos by Ted Glanzer
‘Bells Across the Land: A Nation Remembers Appomattox’
A special four-minute event will take
place in Avon Thursday, April 9 when bells
will toll at 3:15 p.m. from the steeple of the
West Avon Congregational Church to remember the four years of the U.S. Civil War.
Deacon of the Church David Whitney and
his son, Jack, will ring the bells much the
same way they did 150 years ago when the
Civil War ended. This occasion is being held
as a gesture to mark the end of the bloody
conflict in which more than 750,000 Americans perished.
For the past four years, the National
Park Service and many organizations, such
as the Avon Historical Society, have been
commemorating the 150th Anniversary of
the Civil War. On April 9, 1865, Union Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant met Confederate Gen.
Robert E. Lee to set the terms of surrender
of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. In conjunction with a major event at Appomattox
Court House National Historical Park, the
National Park Service and its partners invite
communities across the nation to join in this
commemoration.
The bells will ring first at Appomattox at
3 p.m. April 9. The ringing will coincide with
the moment the historic meeting between
Grant and Lee in the McLean House at Appomattox Court House ended. While Lee’s
surrender did not end the Civil War, the act
is seen by most Americans as the symbolic end of four years of bloodshed. After the
ringing at Appomattox, bells will reverber-
ate across the country precisely at 3:15 p.m.
for four minutes (each minute symbolic of a
year of war). The bell that hangs in the church belfry
at West Avon was cast in 1837. Its sounding
tone rang out over this community as it saw
the events that led to the Civil War unfold.
It rang as West Avon saw 26 of its men serve
in that conflict. Seventeen gave their lives in
the struggle. In 1892 it was reported that “No
other Congregational Church in Connecti-
cut suffered so severely from the war, and
these bereavements still weigh heavily on
the community.”
The Avon Historical Society encourages
its citizens to pause at 3:15 p.m. April 9 to
remember the Civil War and the more than
750,000 who died from it across our country. For more information on the national
bell ringing commemoration, visit: www.
nps.gov/gwca/learn/news/bells-across-theland.htm.
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April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
5
Above, left: Marc Robaczynski of Avon crossed the 5K finish line first past 196 other runners with a
time of 16:35.7. Rebecca Stephenson of Unionville was the first female to cross the 5K finish line
in 5th place with a time of 20:18.7; above, right: Farmington High School students Brianna Belisle,
16, and Jessica Witkowski, 17, of the InterAct Club cheer on the runners.
Ashley Guberman, 7, happily accepts her medal for crossing the Fun Run finish line
from East Farms School Principal Renee St. Hilaire.
Hundreds ‘spring ahead’
T
he East Farms School PTO followed up last year’s successful inaugural Spring
Ahead 5K Road Race, Fun Run and 1-Mile Fitness Walk with another held
Sunday, March 29. The event drew more than 400 participants, who were
accompanied by family and friends to cheer them during the fundraiser that took
place on the sunny but chilly spring afternoon. Last year’s race earned $10,000 that
was used to support technology purchases in the elementary school, including
SMART boards, in addition to the outdoor classroom and various multicultural
events for the school population, explained race publicity director Amanda Sirica.
Allie Stohr, 9, Lila Manton, 9, and Natalie
Lagosc, 8, goof around in between races
on the sunny but chilly spring afternoon.
Photos by Lisa Brisson
Right: Parent volunteer
Jennifer Albert instructs the
Fun Runners before they
take off.
Below: The Painter family –
Jessica and Eric and their
sons Justin, 7, and Nicholas,
3 – get ready for some fun
at the Spring Ahead race.
Above, left: Rowan Sirica (right) and her pal Katie Kowalchuk, both 5, are happy with the medals
they won for participating in the Fun Run; above, right: The Farmington High School InterAct Club
provided many student volunteers who helped the race day to run smoothly. From left are Kristy
Pan, 15, Nivi Nath, 16, Shruthi Voleti, 16, and Melissa Burgio, 16.
Above: East Farms School PTO President and Race Director Michele
Beaule brought her helpers along to the race, including daughters
Maddie, 11, Evelyne, 9, Vivianne, 6, and family friend Catarina Patrovic, 9.
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ComND GRlar St lebriti
A e Cel al ce
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“ME Bicycme loc
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Above, left: Matthew Rodrigues, 7, gets a hand pinning his
race bib from his father, Jorge; Above, right: Ian Manton, 6,
was the first runner to make it to the Fun Run finish line.
S AV E T H E D AT E !
RE35th
Anniversary
ALL VISITORS
RECEIVE
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APRIL 11 & 12, 2015 • 9AM-5PM
GRAND PRIZE DRAWING for a new Raleigh Bicycle
Hourly drawings for accessories including Thule and Yakima bike carriers for cars,
plus much more. All visitors receive a gift. No purchases necessary – chance to see
the new store and new products available at the Valley’s Best Bicycle Shop.
532 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury • 860.658.1311
The Bicycle Cellar supports all kinds of cycling and congratulates Simsbury on being the ONLY Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Community in CT
6
The
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
Efforts continue, pavers due for veterans memorial
In the spirit of support
and comradeship, the Gildo
T. Consolini VFW Post 3272,
Avon, donated $500 to the
Simsbury Veterans Memorial in March.
The Simsbury Veterans Memorial, to be built
on Hopmeadow Street just
south of the Simsbury Library, is designed to recognize and honor the 104
Simsbury veterans who
made the ultimate sacrifice
for the country from the
Revolutionary War to the
present.
In addition to the four
10-foot white granite columns, there will be a walkway and plaza of paver
bricks and benches. The
paver bricks are available for
purchase to list the names of
veterans only, of any town,
who served.
Simsbury Veterans Memorial Committee, which
comprises members of
Simsbury American Legion
Post 84 and Simsbury VFW
Post 1926, has signed an
agreement with Simsbury
Main Street Partnership,
Inc. that provides an opportunity for foundations and
large corporations to donate
to the Memorial through
SMSP, which is an IRS designated 501(c)(3) tax exempt
organization.
The VFW and Ameri-
Farmington Valley’s Newest Destination
Where Art Meets Entertainment
Courtesy photo
Presenting the donation, left to right, are Robert Skeels, past Commander Bill Newman and
Commander Lee Wilson of the Avon VFW Post 3272. Accepting the donation for the memorial
are, left to right, John Fox, senior vice commander, Metacomet VFW Post 1926, Simsbury,
and Bruce Elliott, commander, American Legion Tomalonis-Hall Post 84, Simsbury.
can Legion are designated as
501(c)(19), also a tax exempt
organization.
This agreement adds
another supporting partner
to those already actively
engaged in helping to bring
the beautiful Veterans Memorial to fruition: Landscape Architectural Design
Associates, PC (the key
contributors from inception
to design, facilitation, and
bid preparation); King, King
& Associates (providing
accounting services); and
Robinson & Cole LLP (providing legal services for the
project).
The SVM Committee
has initiated the preparation of the bid packages
for construction of the memorial. The goal is to have
the construction company
selected in time for ground
breaking on Memorial Day
and dedication on Veterans
Day this year.
Contributions from the
veterans, veteran’s organizations, and families of veterans have accounted for the
majority of the donations to
date and a large portion of
that are paver donations.
In order for pavers to
be part of the construction,
applications will need to be
received by April 15.
Visit simsburyveteransmemorial.com to learn more.
A paint and sip studio offering a relaxed and fun night out.
Combining step-by-step painting classes, music, beer and wine,
Scene Art Bar is a new alternative form of social-tainment
where you can laugh, socialize, and learn something new.
Grand Opening Specials!
Sign up to become a Scene Insider at
www.sceneartbar.com and receive $10 off public
classes. Receive 25% off all wine and beer
purchased during April classes.
•••
View our calendar of art classes and party offerings at
www.sceneartbar.com
Village Artisan Galleries, 29 Mill Street, Unionville
860.856.5880
www.sceneartbar.com
Read the paper online at turleyct.com
Your Child's Future Starts Here!
Mooreland Hill
Grades K-9
36 Month
Certificate of Deposit
Mooreland Hill School is an
independent, co-educational,
non-denominational day school
that provides small class sizes,
arts and athletics, and social
enrichment to central
Connecticut students from
Kindergarten through 9th grade.
1.30% APY*
$1,000.00 Minimum Balance
What interests and talents
will the Mooreland community
nurture in your child?
Financial aid is available
Enrolling Now for Fall 2015
Personal Tours are
Welcome by Appointment
Mooreland Hill admits students of every race,
color, creed, ethnic & national origin
166 Lincoln Street, Kensington CT 06037
Easy proximity to I-84, RT 9, and I-91
Phone : 860.223.6428
www.mooreland.org
*APY=Annual Percentage Yield.
Upon your request we will change the interest rate on your account to the Collinsville
Savings Society 36 month interest rate that is in effect at the time of the request. There
can only be one request made during the term of the Certificate, the request can be made
at any time during the Inflate Your Rate certificate term. The rate may change after
account is opened if consumer chooses to inflate their rate. You may also deposit
additional funds at the time of the rate inflate request. You may not make withdrawals of
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The
Valley Press
7
PRESSKIDS
Area kids take part in robotics competition
By Ted Glanzer
Staff Writer
Katy Perry’s song “Firework”
blasted over the PA system as
high school students danced in
the stands at Hartford Public High
School during the FIRST Robotics
Northeast District Competition
March 28.
Combining loud pop music
with a robotics competition to
create a raucous atmosphere may
seem like an antithetical proposition, but upon closer examination, the message was clear: this is
a lot of fun.
High school students from
Avon (the Uberbots), Farmington (the Enforcers), Granby (the
Grunts), Simsbury (the FRC Wildcats of Ethel Walker) and West
Hartford (Athena’s Warriors) all
took part in the competition,
whose theme this year was “Recycle Rush.”
Unlike prior years, when
teams competed directly against
one another, this year the high
schools had alliances comprising
three robots each. According to
the FRC website, the students’ robots compete and score points
by stacking totes on platforms,
capping the stacks with recycling
containers and disposing pool
noodles – taking the place of litter
– in the containers.
“All the robot designs are
pretty far out,” Uberbot and Avon
High student Jack Clonan said.
“It’s really cool to see in the competition how everyone approaches [the challenge] differently.”
In the preliminary rounds,
Farmington, Avon and West Hartford enjoyed some success, while
the Granby Grunts struggled with
a mechanical issue.
At the Farmington prep
area, students worked feverishly
to repair an issue they were having with their robot – “The Claw,”
named after a claw machine in
“Toy Story” – after competing in
the first round. When they first
enter the arena, the six in total
robots operate autonomously –
without human direction – for
20 seconds following pre-programmed instructions.
The grasping claw of Farmington’s robot was damaged
during that mode, and students
worked to fix it in the hour they
had before having to re-enter the
arena.
“[The robot] did very well
actually,” FHS senior Lauren
Schneider said. “In our last competition, we made it to the semifinals.
In our first match today, we got 117
points, so that was really good.”
Over at the Avon station, students prepared to send O’Brien
into its first foray in the arena.
“We have been having a great
season so far. We’ve been doing
Photos by Ted Glanzer
Above, left: Christine Bae, Jack Clonan, Alex and Justin Niezrecki and Michael Fischler of the Uberbots prepare
to compete in the FIRST Robotics NE District competition at Hartford Public High School March 28. Above, right:
Members of the Granby Grunts (front) Katie Karabetsos and Jake Barrows and (back) Matthew Bradley and
Zachary Winslow cheer on their team at the FIRST Robotics NE District competition.
far better than we ever could have
hoped to do,” Uberbot team member Christina Bae said. “It’s a great
experience just to watch the robot
do so well in the field.”
The Uberbots, dressed in
their traditional Superman garb,
were looking to build on their success at the UMass district event,
at which they received the Quality
Award.
“Our team is almost like a
family,” Clonan said. “We spend a
lot of time with them, and they’re
just some of our best friends who
we get together with and build a
robot every year. It’s so cool how
you meet people from other teams,
too. We have a ton of friends we
talk to and send messages to. It’s
awesome sharing that common
love of robotics.”
Athena’s Warriors’ mentor
Renee Jurek had just finished
cheering for her charges when she
talked about the team’s 17 participants from Hall and Conard high
schools.
“We learned a lot from our
first event and now, at Hartford,
we worked out all the kinks in
our lifter and they did really well,”
Jurek said. The mood was a bit more
reserved in the Granby student
section, where team members
watched as their fellow students
worked on the robot after com-
peting in a qualifying round.
“Something happened with
the robot,” Granby Grunt Sydney
Cote said glumly.
Expectations were running
high after the Grunts won this
year’s NE District Pioneer Valley
Event.
Regardless of how the teams
performed, the most rewarding
aspects were the lessons learned
– engineering, marketing, communicating how to work collaboratively – as well as the enjoyment
of building something technical
and calling it their own.
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The
Valley Press April 2, 2015
Berlin
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PRESSBUSINESS
Getting a handle on finances
when you’re on your own
Whether
you’re on your
own because
your marriage
has ended or
Nancy
because your
Fellinger
spouse or significant other has died, being in the position of having sole responsibility for
the management of your
finances can be daunting.
Attending to some very
basic themes can help you
gain greater control of your
finances and with that more
confidence.
Cash flow: Know all
of your sources of income,
when it’s expected and how
much, and then do the same
for all of your expenses. If
you have to guesstimate on
any of it, err on the high side
with expenses. The information you get from doing this
will be enormously helpful
as you make other important financial decisions.
Debt: Pay balances
monthly to avoid high credit
card finance charges and, if
you have to carry balances,
use cards with the lowest
possible finance rates. Know
the terms of any other outstanding debt you may have.
If you find your expenses are
more than your income,
you’re going to want to
make some important and
perhaps difficult choices.
Credit:
Monitoring
your credit may help to alert
you to instances of identity
theft. Especially in light of
some high profile security
breaches of late, protecting
your identity and knowing
what steps to take before
you discover it’s been compromised can be enormously helpful.
Have a system: Decide whether it is best to pay
bills online or by check and
whether to pay them as they
come in or once a month.
Keep all of your financial
documents in an organized
and easy-to-access place.
Goals: If thinking
about long-term goals feels
overwhelming, start with
the short-term ones. The
important thing with setting
goals is to start somewhere,
and taking even small steps
can help you.
Assets: While having
accounts in multiple places
creates the illusion of being
diversified, it’s just an illusion. It makes it more difficult to get a handle on what
you really have and whether
or not the overall allocation
makes sense for you. Use
caution if considering adding to an illiquid financial
product, as it can limit your
access to funds. Know the
values of your other assets
as well – home, car and
other property.
Have an estate plan:
Documents such as a durable power of attorney, health
care proxy and living will
must be in place before a
disabling injury or illness. A
will or trust must be in place
before even an untimely
death. Estate planning is
something far too many
people put off and many until it’s truly too late.
Protect
yourself:
Review your risk management plans. As your life
circumstances change, so
your health, disability, longterm care and life insurance
needs are likely to change
as well, you want to be sure
you’re not exposed to unnecessary risk.
Nancy B. Fellinger, CFP®
Wellspring Financial Advisory
Partners with Coburn & Meredith, Inc. serves the investment
management and financial
planning needs of women who
manage their own or their family’s finances and couples who
are retired or want to plan for
retirement. Learn more at www.
WellspringFinancialAP.com or
contact her directly at 860-7842605 or at nfellinger@coburnfinancial.com.
Simsbury friends open Clementines Studio in Avon
By Sloan Brewster
Senior Staff Writer
Three friends with a love
for children will teach a variety of things at Clementines
Studio in Avon.
The studio, which
opened this week, will be a
children’s activity and learning center.
At Clementines, the
friends – Simsbury residents
Kristin Pomeroy, Erica Lubonta and Monica Quiroga
– will be offering a kindergarten readiness program, manners classes, acting and improvisation classes, language
classes, kids yoga and more.
Each of the women
brings different skills to the
endeavor, though they all
share a love for teaching,
they said in phone calls in
March.
Pomeroy, who previously owned Giggles Party and
Play in Avon and has worked
in Simsbury public schools
as an interventions teacher,
wanted to do something on
her own with children.
Over the four-week program called Shining Stars
Manners, she will teach children the ins and outs of manners in different situations,
including sticky situations,
being polite in public, table
manners, and being respectful and helpful at home.
They will even learn the
protocol for a tea party.
In addition to the fourweek program, Pomeroy will
also offer one-session options for groups such as Daisy or Brownie troops, who
will enjoy a tea party at the
end of the class.
Kindergarten readiness
programs will include lessons in social skills, puzzle
making, how to complete a
project within a time frame,
such as getting minutes to
build something with blocks
and other things.
Children will be taught
how to handle scissors properly and learn about objects
of different shapes and sizes.
There will be lessons in colors
and letters and words, and in
understanding how things
are the same or different.
Story time will go beyond reading a story to include understanding it and
demonstrating understanding through drawing pictures.
By the end of the program, the children will know
how to spell and write their
name and know their shapes
and colors.
Lubonta, who has acting experience off-Broadway
and on film, will be teaching
drama, which, in her mind, is
a way to impart much more
than just acting ability.
“Acting technically transcends into almost every vocation that there is,” she said.
“There’s not a principal in the
town that doesn’t have the
ability to act.”
The classes will help
children have a presence on
and off stage, will give them
leadership skills and will give
them a strong sense of self,
Lubonta said.
She will teach acting using visual aids and literature,
such as the story “Ferdinand
the Bull,” she said. In the
story, Ferdinand is different
from most other bulls.
“He loves to be lazy and
smell the flowers,” Lubonta
said.
When he learns he is to
fight in the ring with a matador, he wants nothing to do
with it.
After reading the story,
the class will discuss it and
talk about how it relates to
their actual lives, such as discussing times the children
have felt like they were different and highlighting personal traits. In the end, they will
act out the story.
Lubonta said she likes
to give the children freedom
when it comes to such things
as lines to see what they create on their own.
Often they prove they
remember the stories they
have learned much more
Torrington Main 129 Main Street
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* A $1,000 minimum required to open all accounts and earn the stated Annual Percentage Yield
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than one would expect.
She will teach drama to
preschool children and older elementary children, and
each lesson comes with a
broader one, she said.
Finally, the class would
develop characters based on
that newfound knowledge.
“It really gets them going and thinking,” she said.
“When they start realizing
that different people behave
differently with the same
emotion it becomes more
powerful for them. ... It really creates in-depth character
analysis.”
Drama classes will also
include costumes and set
design.
Quiroga, a native of Columbia who is a former ESPN
producer, will teach Spanish.
She gave up her gig at ESPN
to spend more time with her
daughters, now 7 and 9, and
has been working as a stylist and teaches Spanish to
friends and neighbors.
“I love to teach, I love
people,” she said.
She will also teach
hands-on courses in natural
arts.
Clementines Studio is
located in Riverdale Farms,
124 Simsbury Road, Building
6A, Avon. For specific class
details, visit the website at
www.clementinesstudio.
com. (860) 496-2152
Torrington North 635 Main Street
(860) 482-5421
Torringford 235 Dibble Street
(860) 482-2664
Burlington 260 Spielman Highway (860) 675-2601
Goshen 55 Sharon Turnpike
(860) 491-2122
Falls Village Routes 7 & 126
(860) 824-3000
New Hartford 518 Main Street
(860) 738-0200
April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
9
PRESSBUSINESS
‘The end of an era – our bar, our community, our friends’
Unionville institution McGillicuddy’s, aka Fat City, closes its doors
By Ted Glanzer
Staff Writer
Nobody from Unionville ever
called it McGillicuddy’s. It was, and forever will be to
the local populace, known as Fat
City, the seminal and iconic bar located at 81 S. Main St. that closed
its doors for good earlier in March
after 30 years of operation.
Owner Sandy Schoen sold
the property to Peter Ramchandani, owner of Liquor Square in
Unionville, for $390,000, according
to Town Hall records.
Fittingly, the tone from regulars on what was described separately as a bar, pub, meeting place,
political rallying point and community institution was more celebratory than mournful; they were
thankful to have had Fat City open
for as long as it was.
“We laughed, we cried, we
even got into fights,” Unionville
resident Tim Sheldon said. “It’s the end of an era – our
bar, our community, our friends,”
Rodney Johnson said. Indeed, friendships were
forged, couples met and eventually married, charitable drives were
hosted, local grassroots movements strategized and political
campaigns were informally run
out of Fat City.
“I could actually write a book
about our time spent there over
the last 25-plus years,” Doreen
O’Leary said of her and her husband John’s time at Fat City.
“We would catch up on
our day over a drink and socialize with the “happy hour” crew. We met many new friends,
some from the area and a few
from Germany and Wales. I remain friends with most to this
day.”
At the center of it all was
Schoen, the firebrand matronly
owner who was tough as nails and
had a heart of gold.
She took over the bar after
her husband, Augie, passed away.
“She is a second mother to every regular that ever walked into
that bar,” Sheldon said. “It was like
a small-town ‘Cheers.’ You knew
everyone who hung out there.”
“She was like a mother and
she loved to bust my butt,” Mike
Warner added.
And Schoen was so much
more. She organized annual turkey
and toy drives for Thanksgiving
and Christmas, respectively. “She raised money for people who just didn’t have it,” said
Unionville resident Sue Anne
Ward. “Every time there was an
occasion to give, she gave it, even
when she didn’t have it to give. But
she gave it. … There’s a lot of people who were better off than her.
Tons of people.”
Ward said that if Schoen put a
call out that the Food Pantry needed food, 150 people would show
up at Fat City to donate items.
“Unionville may have
lost a bar, but we will never
lose our memories.”
–Unionville resident Tim Sheldon
“It was her duty that no kids
starved in town,” Ward said. Travis Robinson of the band
Travis and the Carptones agreed.
“I always enjoyed playing
music there and probably played
there about 50 times, many of
which were for fundraisers or to
help someone who was going
through a tough time or [experiencing] the loss of a loved one,”
Robinson said.
“Sandy and family were always there when someone needed
a place for a function and were always caring hosts.”
One of those people was
Ward, whose husband passed
away unexpectedly in 2013.
Without skipping a beat,
Schoen covered Fat City’s pool
tables with plywood and laid out
a food spread for more than 100
people to comfort Ward and others in their time of grief.
“Her kitchen was about the
size of a closet; she had a little
stove and she could put out food
for 300 people,” Ward said. “And
this was all coming out of her
pocket. “When I walked in [after her
husband’s death], Sandy walked
up to me and she said, ‘You deserve this.’ That’s how she was. You
send her flowers, she would send
you flowers the next day. … She
just sent it right back out.”
Schoen and Doreen O’Leary organized a fundraiser when O’Leary’s
husband, John O’Leary, was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“Sandy was always very
thoughtful and willing to help her
patrons,” Doreen O’Leary said.
There were more than enough
good times, as well. Tradition also
called for Farmington residents to
make a beeline directly to Fat City
after the St. Patrick’s Day parade
in Hartford and the Unionville
fireworks.
“You couldn’t walk in there,”
Ward said of St. Patrick’s Day.
“There was kids and music and
food.”
Johnson said he went to Fat
City just after he had gotten divorced and moved to Unionville.
“I remember sitting there and
looking so sullen and [Schoen’s
husband] Augie came up to me
and said, ‘You look like someone
shot your dog,’” Johnson said, adding that Johnson told Augie what
had happened. “He said, ‘Well,
you know it’s going to get better.’
… Sandy came over and talked
to me. The next time I came in [a
month later], she remembered my
name.”
Fat City became McGillicuddy’s, in signage only, about 10
years ago to raise the bar’s image,
something that the regulars felt
was unnecessary. “It was Fat City. It always has
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10
The
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
Photo by Ted Glanzer
McGillicuddy’s, an inconic bar located at 81 S. Main St. and known to
locals as Fat City, closed its doors for good earlier in March after 30 years
of operation.
been,” Ward said. “It was an institution that only good things happened from,” Ward said. “People
would say to me, ‘I can’t believe
you would go in that biker bar.’
And I would say back, ‘How often
have you been in there?’ … It’s not
scary. It’s probably the safest place
that I’ve ever gone to. … It was a
lot of safe fun.”
Bob DiPietro, a former Farmington town councilor who represented the Unionville district,
agreed that the bar’s hardscrabble
image was unfair.
“It always had a reputation
as a biker bar,” DiPietro said in a
telephone interview. “I wanted to
prove people wrong.”
DiPietro regularly visited Fat
City and said he became “attached
to the people who went there.”
“It was a sounding board
for some people,” DiPietro said.
“People would tell me they liked
or didn’t like something that I
did. It was a way to gauge people,
particularly those who were supposedly disenfranchised and gave
them an opportunity to air their
concerns.”
DiPietro said he held $5 campaign fundraisers, including raffles and live music, at Fat City. “It was so much fun; they
were such fun people,” he said.
“One night I came in and my campaign fliers were hanging all over
the bar. [The patrons] are just salt
of the earth. They’ll do anything
for you. Sandy would do anything
for you.”
“Save the Ville,” the grassroots group formed in 2012 to preserve the character of Unionville,
was run out of the establishment.
For all of the history, most
greeted the news of the closing
with thanks and acceptance.
“Sandy isn’t just a bar owner;
she’s a friend,” Unionville resident
Jim Brady said. “It was time. Sandy
had owned the place for 30 years.
… Everything runs its course.”
The new owner declined to
disclose what will become of the
building, but Fat City’s legacy will
endure for years.
“We all have so many happy,
memorable and bittersweet memories of our days at [Fat City],” Doreen O’Leary said. “The love and
support we all offered each other
through good times and bad will
be with us always.”
“Unionville may have lost
a bar, but we will never lose our
memories,” Sheldon added.
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April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
11
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The
Valley Press April 2, 2015
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PRESSNews
Officials, Highlands residents cry foul over tower proposal
By Ted Glanzer
Staff Writer
FARMINGTON — A proposed
180-foot lattice cell phone tower
that would be located in a bucolic Farmington neighborhood has
drawn the opposition from town
officials and the ire of residents.
Northeast Towers is currently
seeking approval from the Con-
necticut Siting Council for the tower to be constructed on the property located at 199 Brickyard Road,
which is adjacent to walking trails
and near the Farmington neighborhood known as the Highlands.
The Siting Council is a
nine-member board that reviews
all applications for cell phone towers and has the authority to approve such applications provided
there is a landowner that is willing
to have a cell tower constructed on
its property.
While it is not unusual for
neighbors to oppose the construction of cell towers in their
communities for various reasons
– such as aesthetics, the environment and declining property
values – Farmington officials and
residents say that this is not a case
of “not in my back yard.”
According to documents and
testimony provided at Siting Council hearings, officials and neighbors
say Northeast Towers, which constructs communication towers
and antennas, is merely seeking
approval for a cell tower as a pretext to use the 180-foot structure
for the use as a training center for
its and other industry employees.
Farmington town Plan and
Zoning Commission Chairman
Phil Dunn, in pre-filed testimony
dated March 5, stated Northeast
Towers was trying to circumvent
the town’s approval process.
Northeast Towers initially
proposed the tower to the town’s
PZC without any communications
See TOWER on page 19
Legislators fight planned
cuts to fire training schools
Event will
showcase
innovation
By Sloan Brewster
Senior Staff Writer
By Sloan Brewster
Senior Staff Writer
REGION — Proposed state
budget cuts to fire training
schools could impact local taxes,
force firefighters to pay a much
bigger amount for their own training or simply may mean that firefighters are not trained adequately, officials say.
According to a press release,
included in Gov. Dannel Malloy’s
2015-17 biennial budget proposal are cuts to the state’s nine fire
training schools amounting to
$743,899.
The proposed cut to the Hartford County Regional Fire School,
where local fire personnel train, is
$160,000.
Collectively, the Farmington
Valley delegation represents the
towns of Simsbury, Farmington,
Canton and Avon.
Farmington Valley legislators oppose proposed cuts to the
state’s fire training schools, the
press release states.
Specifically, according to local firefighters, state Rep. John
SIMSBURY — Simsbury is
holding its first ever innovation fair.
The fair, a celebration of innovations present, past and future,
will showcase advances brought
to life in Simsbury and the area,
said Simsbury communications
specialist Stephanie Riefe.
Many things, including the
pay phone, were invented in
town, Riefe said.
Traffic patterns were created
by local man William Eno, and
Gifford Pinchot was the father of
conservation.
On the day of the event, various stations, or makers’ spaces,
will be set up around town where
different innovations and notable
advances or artistic creations will
be on display.
Joe Buda, Chris Rice and
Dennis Fallon have been working
on one of the displays that will
be shown on the grounds of the
Simsbury Historical Society.
They are creating a life-sized
chess board consisting of pieces
A ‘devastating’
proposal
See CUTS on page 20
Helping schools ‘bee’ prepared to educate
Pictured above: Rosie the Riveter was the theme for Barbara Deblowski, Allison Eiseman, Amy Haber,
Molly Lantagna and Jessica Voloshin.
T
he first-ever Trivia Bee, sponsored by the Farmington Public School Foundation, took
place at Farmington Gardens March
27. The event took the place of the
annual spelling bee held in previous
years. This year’s goal was to raise
funds toward a $95,000 total over the
course of three years for engineering
labs in grades five-12. Read a first-person account of the event on page 22.
Kim Harrell, Tom Miller, Ted Hornik,
Mearle Brockelman, Lauren English
and Jim English won the
competition at the Farmington Public
School Foundation Trivia Bee.
Photos by Ted Glanzer
Offer ends 4/10/15
See INNOVATION on page 20
Offer ends 4/10/15
April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
13
Residents take part in planning workshops for town center
By Ted Glanzer
Staff Writer
FARMINGTON — Hundreds
of people gathered at Miss Porter’s
School for three Farmington Center
planning workshops last week to
provide their input about how they
envision development of the area
between the former Parson’s Chevrolet and the Farmington River.
At the Saturday, March 28
session, a crowd of more than 150
people gathered to continue discussions following the first session
March 26 and a walking tour of the
area March 27.
“The turnout has exceeded expectation,” explained Town Councilor Jeff Apuzzo, who helped spearhead the efforts. “It just tells me that
so many people in town share a
common goal, which is to make sure
our town is developed in a way that’s
suitable to us as residents and not to
a developer.”
Landscape architect Harry
Dodson showed a PowerPoint presentation of various towns that
engaged in similar development or
redevelopment projects, including
Danbury, South Hadley, Mass., Concord, Mass., Celebration, Fla., and
Newburyport, Mass. Such projects
included creating pedestrian connections to enable greater walkability, parking lots that were offset
from the development to encourage
pedestrian traffic, and buildings that
fit within the character of the community.
A variety of common themes
resulted from the first planning
sessions, according to John Mullen,
a consultant hired to facilitate the
meetings.
The three-acre parcel, which
formerly housed the Parsons
Chevrolet dealership, “stands on
high ground,” Mullen said, noting,
“Parsons is a gem.” The land, which
the state currently owns, will likely revert to the town, according to
Apuzzo.
One important theme was primacy to pedestrians. “People accept
[Route 4], but there are options to
make it more walkable,” Mullen said,
such as traffic calming-measures
and putting utility wires underground.
Residents also said that structures must be “linked” with others to
make a more cohesive unit.
“What you’ve got are separate
gems that need to be connected,”
Mullen said.
Noting the Bank of America
building, design standards should
be developed to protect the center
in the future, residents said. Also,
curb-cut policies should be adopted
to ensure the proper flow of traffic,
and prevent the creation of small
parking lots.
Another piece of feedback was
that the Farmington River is difficult
to see.
“There is an opportunity just
sitting there,” Mullen said.
“I really like the idea of bringing
back a New England-type setting for
retail and mixed use, first, because
there are historic buildings in the
area so those new buildings can
blend in with the historic buildings,”
Apuzzo added. “Two, we can use
the historic buildings, and once the
buildings are being used they can
properly be maintained. Some of our
historic buildings are not. And three,
we’ve seen a desire for Farmington
to re-establish itself as a community
with a lot of character. We can capitalize on that with the new development.”
Apuzzo said that Farmington
had, to some extent, lost some of its
identity. The planning workshops
were part of a process to regain that
identity, he said. “I’m really happy with the Parsons RFP – that there should be a
proposal to put it out to developers,”
Town Planner Bill Warner said. “It’s a
critical piece: three acres right at the
gateway [of town]. If you look at that
area and the Norton Lane area, you
can really start to see a higher-density development as you come into
the gateway.”
Photo by Ted Glanzer
Residents gathered at Miss Porter’s School Saturday, March 28, the last
day of the planning sessions.
With the planning workshops
concluded, the consultants hired by
the town will gather the information
provided by residents, prepare a report and present it to the town.
“Once they present it, I’m hoping they can have it at the community center,” Apuzzo said. “After the
wrap-up report by the consultants,
we’re going to have a discussion and
a hearing on that.”
Apuzzo said the town would
receive three conceptual drawings
taking into account residents’ input.
Another hearing at the community
center could be held again to have
people endorse one or more of the
plans, Apuzzo said. “Once we get a consensus on
the plan, then we’re going to move
on to Phase 2, which is probably hiring architects to do full-scale drawings, helping us with design implementation and zoning changes,” he
said.
Apuzzo, a member of the Town
Council’s Future Private/Public
Land Development Initiatives subcommittee and the town’s economic
development commission, said that
organizers would like to move the
process forward, “but not rush it.”
“I’m looking to have this process completed and presented to
the Town Plan and Zoning Commission for inclusion in the Plan of
Master Development sometime by
the end of this year,” Apuzzo said. new loCation, more serviCes.
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The
Blood drawing
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
Come celebrate with us
Witness the Easter miracle with us.
April 2 - Maundy Thursday
10 a.m. & 7 p.m.
Traditional music and communion service
Join Us Easter Weekend
April 3 - Good Friday Tenebrae Service
7 p.m. series of readings and music as we walk
through the last moments in Jesus’ earthly life.
Good Friday Service — April 3, 7:00pm
Sunday, April 5 - Easter
6:15 a.m. Sunrise service begins in the sanctuary and proceeds
to Simsbury Cemetery. Services at 9 & 11 a.m. are identical celebrations
of the risen Christ with choirs, brass, bells, and organ.
Easter Egg Hunt – April 4, 10:00am
Granby High School Grounds, For kids ages 1-10
Easter Sunday Celebration — April 5, 9:30am
Simsbury United Methodist Church
799 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, CT
www.simsburyumc.org (860)651-3356
www.valleybrook.cc
April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
15
Survey reveals opinions on economic development
By Alison Jalbert
Assistant Editor
CANTON — Canton residents expressed a preference
to see more light industry
and more job opportunities
in town, as discovered in a
recent survey by the Canton Economic Development
Agency.
According to a press
release, the EDA designed a
four-question survey to collect residents’ views about
economic
development,
which were distributed at
town hall on Election Day.
Out of the 500 surveys handed out, 136 were completed
and returned.
The survey is part of the
strategic plan outlined by the
EDA, as presented in October
2014. The three-year plan defines its missions, goals and
the strategies and tactics the
agency will utilize to help promote and advance economic
development in Canton. The
EDA figured the survey results would set a baseline as
it moves forward with a marketing plan, Bob Bessel, EDA
chair, said.
The four questions asked
residents to identify what
types of businesses Canton
needs and the types it does
not, as well as the advantages
and disadvantages of attracting businesses or growing
current businesses. Bessel
said for the latter two ques-
tions, examples were offered,
as well as a space for residents to write in their own
responses, which a few did.
For the first question,
there was a “very strong” interest in seeing light industry – such as a microbrewery, computer repair shop or
bakery – with 81 percent of
respondents choosing that
option. Only 24 percent felt
Canton should pursue heavy
industry, such as printing and
manufacturing.
Conversely, heavy industry was what most respondents felt Canton did not
need, at 49 percent.
“We did not get anywhere near the overall responses to that question as
we did from the first,” Bessel
said. “This is a positive group.”
In looking at advantages
of attracting businesses and
growing the current business
base, 76 percent of respondents chose reducing the
overall tax burden as the biggest benefit. The second most
popular advantage surprised
the EDA, Bessel said, with
66 percent choosing greater
employment opportunities
in Canton as the best advantage. More services available
was the next highest chosen
advantage at 46 percent.
“People really seized on
greater employment opportunities. It seems like people
want to have a more complete experience here,” Bessel
said. “They don’t want to just
sleep here and send their kids
to school here. They want to
live here and work here. …
We’re changing our thinking a
bit as we go forward with the
branding effort.”
When looking at the disadvantages, 65 percent of respondents believed increased
traffic would be the biggest
drawback to an increase in
economic development, with
possible adverse effects on
the environment next at 56
percent.
The EDA is looking to
attract visitors to all areas of
town, not just the Shoppes at
Farmington Valley, as well as
new businesses.
“We’re looking at what
do we have in town, and [will]
start crafting some messages
accordingly. If we can do that,
then we’ve got a much richer
experience for everybody. The
kinds of retail opportunities
will be a lot more satisfying
to the people who live here.
We’ll, hopefully, be able to attract more people like them.”
Those who partook
in the survey were given a
chance to offer general comments. Bessel said 15 percent,
or 20 respondents, asked that
the EDA avoid bringing in big
box or national chain stores.
“People are saying yes
to smart commercial development and starting to shift
their thinking as to what
commercial
development
looks like.”
The adopted suburban
model, for many years, has
been to put housing in one
area and businesses in another. He said there is a growing
trend toward places like Blue
Back Square in West Hartford, which has businesses
on the ground floor, and residences and offices above.
“It helps pay for town
services. That’s the kind of
thing we’re looking for,” Bessel said of that environment.
“Hopefully, if we can encourage a developer or two to get
down that road, we can get
community support and understanding.”
The results of the survey
feed into the EDA’s branding
and market messaging efforts. Bessel said a Request
for Proposals went out three
weeks ago for those services,
and a committee has been
formed to evaluate those proposals. He expects to be into
the work no later than May 1
and have something to show
people mid-summer, then “really get to work” in the fall.
The EDA is “very excited” about things to come in
Canton, including the Collinsville streetscape project
and opportunities in Canton
Village and the Collins Company factory.
“We’re working with other groups so it becomes more
of a community effort and
just not one organization.”
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The
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
Courtesy photo
Alley, a golden retriever, was found using specific tactics.
Lost and found techniques
Presentation will offer tips on preventing dogs
from being lost and finding them when missing
By Sloan Brewster
Senior Staff Writer
SIMSBURY — When
Alley, a golden retriever from
Simsbury was lost, it took a
community and certain tactics to find her.
Karen Moulton, owner
of Secret Lake Dog Training
in Simsbury, shared those
tactics and helped with the
rescue. “I was out there helping look and I was there the
day they found her,” Moulton
said. “They did everything
right.”
Moulton credits the
community with finding the
dog after 11 days.
Simsbury Animal Control Officer Mark Rudewicz
and Moulton will teach
techniques on finding lost
dogs in a presentation entitled “Preventing your dog
from becoming lost and
what to do if your dog is
missing.”
Among the ideas they
will teach will be those used
to help find and rescue Alley
and other dogs Rudewicz
and Moulton have found.
The techniques they
will present will help people not only in rescuing lost
dogs, but also in keeping
them from getting lost in the
first place, Rudewicz said.
Keeping them from getting lost may be simple, but
some of the best ways to get
a dog back go against the
grain, contradicting what
people instinctively want to
do, Moulton said.
When dogs are on the
loose, even for a short time,
they go into survival mode,
she explained. “What they
are looking for is food, water
and safety,” she said.
People running after
them, or even calling them
by name can trigger fear and
keep them running, thus defeating the purpose.
“That’s not safe,” Moulton said of what a dog
thinks. “These people are
trying to grab me.”
One of the best ways to
get a dog back is to ignore
it when it’s close and avoid
the temptation to call to it
by name.
“Some people don’t
understand [and think], ‘My
dog will come when it sees
me,’” Moulton said. “In general, lost dog behavior says
they’re going to bolt.”
One way to lure back a
lost dog is with another dog,
a method Rudewicz and
Moulton use, and which was
the way Alley was finally retrieved.
Alley had been adopted
a few weeks prior to her being lost. Before that, she was
a breeder’s dog and had had
puppies. The breeder was
very helpful in her search
and regularly came, with one
of her puppies, to the golf
course where Alley ran off.
On the day she was
found, Alley spied the pups
and breeder and emerged
from the bushes.
Moulton
developed
some of her techniques for
finding lost dogs from her
experience as a search and
rescue canine handler.
“I used to search for
lost humans with a canine,”
she said. “To me [ finding
lost dogs] is very much like
search and rescue for humans.”
In the presentation,
Rudewicz and Moulton will
also talk about predators
and preventing dogs from
getting into their clutches.
The presentation will
take place Wednesday, April
8 at 6 p.m. at the Simsbury
Public Library.
For help finding a
lost dog contact Moulton
through Farmington Valley
Lost Pet Recovery at www.
fvlostpets.com.
Lost Pet is not an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit,
but Moulton will voluntarily help find lost pets free of
charge.
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Renbrook School welcomes students of every race, color, national and ethnic origin.
April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
17
Farmington Board of Ed reduces budget by $320,000
Full-day kindergarten and World Languages program for younger grades survive cuts
By Ted Glanzer
Staff Writer
FARMINGTON — Fullday kindergarten in Farmington survived another round of
the budget process.
The Board of Education reduced its requested
2015-16 budget March 23 to
$60.71 million by making six
reductions totaling $320,000
to meet the figure set by the
Town Council weeks ago.
Full-day kindergarten
and the World Language
program for kindergarteners
and first-graders, two new
programs proposed by Superintendent of Schools Kathy
Greider and passed by the
school board, remained in the
budget.
Instead, the school
board reduced the budget
with recent and anticipated
teacher turnover ($75,000)
and cuts to special education
transportation ($36,148), the
Noah Wallace carpet project
While the Board of Education approved making
every reduction that Greider
recommended, not every
school board member supported them.
“I don’t agree with reductions at all,” school board
member Bernie Erickson said
on the vote concerning teacher retirements. “It should be
up to the voters to make the
decision on budget. It should
not be up to us. … We set a
budget, so I vote no.”
School board member
Mark Blore was also a vocal
opponent of the reductions,
particularly in the areas of
technology. At one point,
Blore, who voted against every reduction, sought unsuccessfully to table the vote on
the Chromebooks. Blore said the Chromebooks are part of an existing
program that is now being reduced in favor of a new World
Language program, full-day
kindergarten and the addi-
($9,249), Chromebooks for
the high school and Irving
A. Robbins Middle School
($90,000) and major facility
projects ($60,335).
The school board also
agreed to move the Web redesign project to capital projects ($50,000) and splitting
the virtual desktop infrastructure project into two years, reducing the 2015-16 request by
$50,000.
Greider presented the
school board with recommended reductions, categorizing them into Tier 1
(teacher turnover, special education transportation), Tier
2 (Noah Wallace carpet and
the website redesign) and
Tier 3 (Chromebooks and
facility projects), with Tier 1
being the least impactful on
students and Tier 3 being the
most impactful.
Greider said that she
attempted to keep the cuts
as far away from students as
possible. tion of an ELL teacher that
did not exist.
“Those combined would
cover the cost of [all of the
reductions] and do not affect
the kids,” Blore said, requesting that those programs be
deferred for one year.
When the motion to
table failed and the school
board reduced the Chromebook budget by $90,000, Blore
moved to remove the World
Language program from kindergarten and first grade for
$134,000.
Blore said with full-day
kindergarten being implemented, the World Language
program should be delayed a
year before adding to the kindergarten schedule.
“We haven’t gone to a full
day and we’re already adding
[World Language],” Blore said.
“The idea [behind full-day
kindergarten] was to make it
easier for kids: longer breaks,
rest to absorb the material
that is taught to them. Free
play. I feel like we just got to
that point where we put this
in and no sooner do we do it,
then we are firing a pistol for
the race to get going and saying, let’s throw a program on
top of it.”
But Assistant Superintendent of Schools Kimberly
Wynne said the kindergarten
schedule had been updated
to reflect more time built in
for “more engaged, more exploratory play-based learning
activities.”
Further, Greider defended the World Language program, saying the benefits to
overall learning were akin to
that of those in the strings
program.
“There are great benefits;
we have to move forward in
Farmington,” Greider said.
Blore’s motion failed 5-3,
with Blore, Christopher Fagan
and Bill Baker voting in favor.
When the cuts were
made, the board passed the
budget in a 7-1 vote, with
Blore casting the only dissenting vote.
School board Chairwoman Mary Grace Reed
said she, too, was disappointed with the cuts.
“I feel the same way,”
Reed said. “It’s lower than
we would have wanted. But
I couldn’t vote no as a result
of that. ... I have learned there
is give and take. The Town
Council has its role. We have
different jobs. … There are
compromises. I don’t always
get my way, I don’t always
feel good when I go home,
but together we have done a
very good job. The budget we
have passed is moving education forward. I can’t say that’s
always been the case, like the
year we cut 27 teachers.”
The Annual Town Meeting is scheduled for April 20
at Farmington High School at
7 p.m.
The referendum on the
entire budget is scheduled for
April 30.
All three questions passed by voters at bond project referendum
By Sloan Brewster
Senior Staff Writer
BURLINGTON — Burlington voters have said yes to
three referendum questions.
The Capitol Bond Project Referendum took place
March 24 with 518 ballots
completed and all three
questions passed.
To the question on the
replacement of the Lake Garda Fire Station, which would
cost the town $1.6 million,
there were 346 yes votes and
169 nos.
The State Bonding
Commission has awarded
the town $1 million toward
on the addition, improvements and renovation to
the public library, a $2.6 million proposal that calls for a
3,500-square-foot expansion
to the 9,000-square-foot existing building.
The Library Board has
received a $1 million State
Public Library Construction
Grant toward the project.
Barbara Joslin of Techton Architects gave a brief
description of the plan for
the addition at the meeting.
It would contain a
community room, a dividable meeting room with restrooms and a separate night
time entrance from the main
the project with the condition that the town supply the
balance, First Selectman Ted
Shafer has said.
At the Annual Town
Meeting March 10, at which
all three projects were discussed, only one person from
the public spoke, according
to the minutes.
Marcia
Wahl-Flynn
asked if the design would
include enough space for future trucks.
Acting Fire Marshal Tim
Tharau replied that there
would be 14 bays to accommodate any future equipment.
There were 293 yeses
and 225 nos to the question
library, she said. The plan
also includes increased children’s space, a teen room and
other improvements.
The final item, a request
to approve up to $2.18 million for the future purchase
of active recreational land
purchases and improvements, garnered 264 yeses
and 252 nos.
Director of Parks & Recreation Tricia Twomey explained the need for fields at
the town meeting.
The town would like a
piece of land between 18 and
24 acres for a 90-foot baseball
field, lacrosse field, softball
field and football field, she
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The
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
that the amount is an unknown and must be put before voters in a town meeting
or referendum, the landowners tend to back away, fearing
the process will take too long
or that in the end the town
may not get the go ahead to
spend the money.
“This makes it more attractive for a large landowner
to want to engage the town
in a conversation about their
land,” Shafer said. “Over the
years we have been seeking
out or attempting to identify
recreational parcels around
Burlington and we feel that
this is a useful funding mechanism. This is a funding
mechanism being used by
other communities.”
It would also save money in the long run by reducing bond costs, Shafer has
said.
NOTICE OF DISTRICT MEETING & REFERENDUM
REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT #10
TOWNS OF HARWINTON AND BURLINGTON
It’s Spring and Time
to Clean Your Septic Tank
10
said. The funding would be a
placeholder and there would
be a vote by townspeople if,
in fact, a property is located.
In previous conversations Shafer has said there
were no plans to buy any
land at this time. The funds
would merely make it easier if a piece of land comes
into consideration and they
would not be accessible
without additional approval
from voters.
The Parks & Recreation
Commission and Department have long decried the
need for at least 15 acres
more land for ballfields, Shafer said. When town officials
have put out feelers, asking
landowners about available
parcels, the landowners usually ask how much money
the town has to spend. As the
answer, invariably, has been
OFF
SEPTIC SERVICE
www.subsanserv.com
A meeting to discuss the 2015/2016 Regional School District #10
Estimate of Expenses will be held on Monday, May 4, 2015 at 7:00
p.m. in the Har-Bur Middle School Learning Center.
A referendum for the electors and citizens qualified to vote will be
held at the Burlington and Harwinton Town Halls on Tuesday, May
5, 2015 from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. to vote on the acceptance of
the 2015/2016 Regional School District #10 budget in the amount
of $37,990,504. Absentee ballots will be available at the town halls
starting April 16, 2015
Copies of the budget will be available at the office of the Town Clerk
in both Harwinton and Burlington.
Dated in Burlington this thirtieth day of March, 2015.
Joseph Arcuri, Chairperson
Regional School District #10
Board of Education
TOWER
from page 13
process for this type of structure and this
type of training use.”
antennas, Dunn said in the testimony. The
In testimony before the Siting Countower sought is a lattice structure, rather cil on Feb. 2, Stephen Savino, president of
than a monopole, which is what is now the Northeast Towers, disagreed that the comnorm when cell towers are constructed.
pany was attempting to circumvent any
The proposed tower is 40 feet taller town authority, but instead happened to
than the communications industry’s norm partner with AT&T around the same time
for cell towers and the cell antenna would that Northeast was looking to construct its
be placed at the 140-foot level, rendering training center.
the additional 40 feet superfluous for the
“I did come to the town and talk to
purposes of the cell coverage, he said.
them about an idea of creating a training
Dunn said Northeast Towers first ap- tower and wanted to know the procedure,”
proached the town about the possibility Savino told the Siting Council. “It was a
of constructing the tower, without any cell courtesy to the town. As I was working my
phone antennas, in 2013.
way to get everything in place to put this
The company subsequently withdrew together, we heard, because we’re in the inits interest in 2014, after it learned of the dustry, that AT&T was in need of coverage
town’s 40-foot height restriction on com- in this immediate area. And yes, indeed, we
mercial buildings, he said.
investigated and we put the
The company then floattwo together.”
“Now that a
ed a balloon at 200 feet only to
AT&T, in a legal docutraining tower is ment dated March 9, agreed,
subsequently deny ever having
being discussed, stating that its service in that
done so due to windy weather.
According to Dunn, it then
area was lacking and that a cell
there is a flurry
notified the town that it was filtower was a necessity. Further,
of activity in the
ing an application with the SitAT&T said that it had discusneighborhood.
ing Council, claiming that the
sions with Northeast Tower in
facility and use as a training People are worried.” early 2013, prior to Northeast’s
center was solely within the jumeetings with the Town Plan
–Nelson Reis
risdiction of the Siting Council
and Zoning Commission.
because it was installing AT&T
But, in that same legal
cell antennas at a level of 140 feet. Informa- document, AT&T said it did not have any
tion from the floated ballon that Northeast plans to attempt to construct a cell tower
Towers denied having done was submitted for additional coverage in the Highlands
to the Siting Council, Dunn said.
area if the current application before the
“While a 140-foot monopole consistent Siting Council is denied.
with prior Siting Council approvals might
Residents who live near the Northeast
well be appropriate, should sufficient need Towers property say they have no problems
be established and other location options with their AT&T cell phone coverage.
be explored, the proposed 180-foot lattice
“We have four AT&T phones in our
tower and training center is inconsistent house,” former state Rep. Demetrios Giwith both the Farmington zoning regula- annaros of Basswood Road said in a teletions and the town’s Plan of Conservation phone interview. “I have three or four bars
and Development,” Dunn wrote. “The de- inside. … It’s nonsense.”
velopment of a training school and a 180Nelson Reis, also of Basswood Road,
foot lattice training tower that residents said he and his wife searched for years for
will have to look at on a daily basis is in- the perfect house before settling in the
consistent with [the town’s regulations and Highlands.
POCD].”
“Our dream turned into a nightmare,”
Town Manager Kathleen Eagan was Reis said, noting that had he known of the
even more blunt in pre-filed testimony to possibility of such a structure being built
near his home, he wouldn’t have purchased
the Siting Council dated March 7.
“It is abundantly clear … that the pri- it. “This neighborhood is a nice neighbormary purpose of the lattice tower is for hood. We waited a long time before a house
training purposes rather than cellular com- opened up, because people don’t move
munications,” Eagan wrote to the Siting out. Families go there and stay there a long
Council. Eagan noted that the town had time. Now that a training tower is being
never before opposed the construction of discussed, there is a flurry of activity in the
a cell tower and that four town buildings neighborhood. People are worried.”
Reis, who also has an AT&T cell phone
currently have at least one cellular carrier
and would work with AT&T to find another and said he’s never had a problem with covlocation for a monopole. “The [application] erage in his home, described the proposed
clearly circumvents the local regulatory tower as “a monstrosity.”
Savino testified that he would like to
have the tower used by Farmington first responders and those from other municipalities for training purposes.
But Eagan, citing the dangers of such
towers and the possibility of putting town
employees in harm’s way, said the town had
no interest in such an arrangement, instead
calling Savino and Northeast Towers “bad
neighbor[s].”
“[T]his highly deceptive process in
which [Savino’s] company has engaged
clearly establishes that he is, in fact, a ‘bad
neighbor’ to both the residents of the area,
in particular, but also the town of Farmington as a whole,” Eagan said.
Residents have until April 17 to offer
their opinions of the proposed tower to the
Siting Council. A decision likely won’t be
rendered for several months.
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The
Valley Press
19
from page 13
Hampton (D-Simsbury), chairman of the Farmington Valley
caucus, and 17th District state
Sen. Kevin Witkos, a Republican,
have been leading the fight to
overturn the cuts.
“The Hartford County Regional Fire School provides vital
training to first responders in
Simsbury,” Hampton said. “The
training they receive prepares firefighters for real-life emergencies.
Our volunteer firefighters save
our communities hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Their work is
vital to our public safety. We have
an obligation to make sure that
they are trained properly to not
only prevent injury to themselves
but to others.”
Simsbury Fire Chief Jim Baldis, who is also a training officer at
the Hartford regional school, said
local volunteer firefighters receive
between 180 and 200 hours of cerINNOVATION
from page 13
formed from lightning rods and
other elements.
The lightning rods are accented with articles that would
have been used in the Revolutionary War such as cannons, swords,
drums and fifes, made from materials including brass and copper
and wire mesh.
One side of the board will be
English red coat soldiers, shining
with weapons new in their day.
The other side will be American Revolutionary War soldiers in
tification training. That training
mirrors training given to career
firefighters.
The paid and volunteer firefighters are instructed in the same
materials and must pass the same
tests, Baldis said.
“The regional fire schools
provide training for our new and
existing firefighters. Our recruits
learn the basics of firefighting,
which is the Firefighter I class,
at the regional schools,” said
Mary-Ellen Harper, Farmington’s
director of fire and rescue services. “Our current firefighters
take continuing education classes
as well as attending their annual
live fire training evolutions at the
schools.”
Firefighters also receive advanced training at the schools and
are prepared for helping out in local and state emergencies.
“We are involved more and
more and more with different
types or emergencies and res-
cues,” Baldis said. “The fire department is always involved.”
With the funding as it currently stands, Simsbury’s fire district and the towns of Farmington
and Canton pay approximately
$650 per student, which covers
the cost of tuition and books.
Without the funding, the cost
would go up to between $700 and
$2,700 per student.
In most municipalities, taxpayers would bear the brunt of
the expense.
“The fire district provides the
funding for training because it’s
obviously in the fire district’s best
interest to have well-trained firefighters,” Baldis said. “The fire district is committed to that training.
... We would have to find the money. The taxpayers throughout the
fire district would, ultimately, end
up paying for it.”
Mike Yacovino, assistant
fire chief for the Town of Canton
Volunteer Fire & EMS, called the
proposed cuts “devastating” to the
department’s training. Because
of its location, Canton has sent
recruits to the Hartford, Wolcott
and Burrville schools.
The Canton Volunteer Fire
Department gets around four recruits annually.
“We look at an annual training budget of about $10,000,” he
said. “It’s training of all types – not
only initial recruit training, but
ongoing training and sending people to outside training.”
The increased cost of training
will have to be passed on to Canton taxpayers, Yacovino said, explaining that firefighters need to
attend at least a minimum of Firefigher 1, so the department would
have to ask for additional money
in its next budget.
“If our training budget is limited to $10,000 and we don’t see
an increase, it would be eaten up
by sending recruits to Firefighter
1 and those who want to go on to
Firefighter 2. That would be the
extent of our budget.”
In Farmington, Harper said
she expects her costs to triple.
Not all volunteer firefighters
are fortunate enough to live in
towns that pay for training, Baldis
pointed out. In those towns, the
volunteers will have to dig deeper
into their own pockets.
“I have students that will
come to class and they will hand
me a $650 check,” he said.
He doubts if they will all be
able to afford $2,000-plus in cost.
Some towns would simply cut
back on training, Baldis warned.
“As a uniform group, we testified at the appropriations budget
hearing that what it could mean
that town fire departments who
don’t have the funds may have to
cut back on their funds, send less
people to training,” Baldis said.
Malloy’s proposed cuts are
ultimately a safety issue, Yacovino
said.
their homespun garb with what
weapons they were able to garner,
used and worn.
“We’re actually going to have
the chess game being played here
on the green,” Buda said.
Buda was also part of the
team that worked to organize the
fair from its beginning stages.
“We started to look at space
itself, giving people space, having
space, tradesmen, woodworkers,
artisans, for things made rather
than mass produced,” Buda said.
“It’s really focused on, now, more
of the past, present and future, not
just the past.”
The four stations will each
focus on different types of innovations. The public library will focus
on technology and cutting edge
innovations.
At the historical society, the
chess board will be one of many
items on display, including innovations in pedal power.
There will also be a display of
workbenches and tools from the
1800s, Buda said. The functioning
equipment will be used to make
modern creations.
There will also be a marsh-
mallow catapult from which children will be able to shoot marshmallows.
In the North Village, in the
former Wagner Dealership, innovations in transportation will be
set up, including two carriages – a
buckboard, and a high end carriage
– a horseless carriage, a Model T
and a Model A.
There will also be an early hibrid and a Tesla electric car as well
as a display on the Sibley Curtiss
Automobile. The Curtiss Auto was
built in Simsbury in 1911 and 1912.
“It was a pretty short life,”
Buda said of the model.
“Only two were made, and
then Mr. Curtiss was killed in a car
accident,” historical society member Ieke Scully explained.
Other innovations and creations on display will include robotics, metallurgy, jewelry and a giant painting made of flower petals.
The townwide Innovation Fair
will be held April 25 at the various
locations around town from 10
a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information about
the fair check out simsburyideas.
com.
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The
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April 2, 2015
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PAGE 26
Vol. 6, Edition 35
Thursday
August 28, 2014
in the press
Septemberfest
weekend
coming up
in Simsbury
Mark your calendar
for Sept. 5, 6
and 7, which will usher
in the annual Septemberfest.
The three-day
event held on the
grounds of the
Simsbury Meadows
Performing
Arts Center features
food, trick
shows, a business
expo, entertainment, bouncy
inflatables and
more. For those looking
for a contractor for a home
project,
can stop by the Simsbury they
Chamber of Commerce
Home Show
that will take place
Saturday, Sept.
6. For all the details,
schedules and
other valuable informatio
Photo by Alison Jalbert
n about
this year’s celebratio
n in Simsbury,
look inside for the
official guide.
The Dream Ride brought
PAGE 37
together motorcyc
Pictured above, riders
le enthusiasts last
weekend for a ride
waved to the crowd
as they prepared to
through the Farmingto
depart from the grounds
n Valley to benefit
the Special Olympics
of The Farmington
Club. See more photos
.
on page 12.
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Residents give feedback to Lost Acres Vineyard operation expansion plan
By Ted Glanzer
Staff Writer
GRANBY — More than
100 people packed the Granby Planning and Zoning Commission’s meeting March 24
for a public hearing on a plan
by the owners of Lost Acres
Vineyard to expand its farm
store’s operations. The plan calls for Lost
Acres, a boutique vineyard
located at 80 Lost Acres
Road that produces 11 wines
and hosts special events and
farmers markets, to open seven days a week year-round, as
well as operate from 10 a.m. to
9 p.m.
The vineyard currently
closes from January to March
and, when it is in operation, is
open six days a week – Tuesday through Sunday – from
noon to 6 p.m.
Under the plan, no more
than 20 events could have 100
guests and only two events
per year could have more than
200 guests, with a cap at 225
guests for those events.
The expanded hours
are necessary because local
farmers need to diversify if
they want to stay in business,
according to attorney Mark
Fiorentino, who represents
vineyard owners Kevin Rigott
and Michelle Niedermeyer.
“We don’t live in Iowa,”
Fiorentino told the commission. “We don’t have thousands of acres to farm. If
we want to preserve locally
owned, small business farms,
then they have to have creative ways for them to sell
their products.”
The vineyard produces
30,000 pounds of grapes per
year and 5,000 gallons – or
2,000 cases – of wine, Fiorentino said. Lost Acres Vineyard
derives about 90 to 95 percent
of its revenue through the sale
of wine, Fiorentino said.
The plan, according to
Fiorentino, took into consideration four concerns: privacy
and security for neighbors,
noise and parking.
The plan calls for increased fencing where there
are gaps to prevent vineyard
guests from accidentally
wandering on to neighbors’
properties, Fiorentino said. In
addition, parking is not permitted on the street.
There are no plans to do
anything with the parking lot,
Fiorentino said. The lot will
not be graded or paved.
The vast majority of
the 22 people who spoke at
the hearing backed the plan
because it bolsters Granby
agriculture and, more specifically, it helps Rigott and
Niedermeyer, who have been
prominent and active members of the community, particularly in the areas of farming,
business and the arts.
Rich Worlick, president
of the Granby Land Trust, and
Jennifer Burkhart, the president of the Granby Chamber
of Commerce, both threw
their support behind the plan.
Artist Laura Eden submitted a letter signed by
88 people in support of the
amendments.
“We greatly appreciate
Lost Acres Vineyard’s support
of the arts in Granby,” Eden
said, noting that the vineyard
hosts exhibits from Granby Memorial High School,
the Granby Land Trust and
the Winter Wonders Show,
among others. “Lost Acres
supports writers, musicians,
painters and poets. I rely on
[Lost Acres Vineyard] for the
sale of my artwork.” Ginny Wutka of Lost
Acres Orchard, a separate
business from the vineyard,
said there was a need for
farms to not only diversify, but
to support one another.
“We all need each other
to be sustainable,” Wutka said.
“If [Lost Acres Orchards] was
to just rely on fruit sales, we
could not be in business. We
could not sustain ourselves.”
Several neighbors of the
vineyard also expressed their
support for the application,
stating that Niedermeyer and
Rigott have been good, sensitive community members.
Tom Kelly of Lost Acres
Lane said he was most disappointed that there won’t
be any more fireworks at the
vineyard.
Fireworks were cleared
with local authorities, but
were excluded pursuant to
the plan because of a complaint from at least one neighbor.
Not everyone supported
the proposed amendments.
Simsbury resident Paul
Jenkins, speaking on behalf of
his parents, John and Linda
Jenkins of Lost Acres Road, requested that the commission
deny the application.
Paul Jenkins submitted
letters from an attorney and
an ecologist/limnologist who
said the proposed amendments would violate town
regulations as well as increase
storm runoff due to higher
numbers of visits from guests.
John and Linda Jenkins
have two trout ponds on their
property, which would be
jeopardized by the potential
increased contaminants from
storm runoff, Paul Jenkins
said.
“These two ponds are
downhill from the Vineyard’s
proposed outdoor event area
and from the proposed additional parking,” attorney Janet
Brooks wrote in a letter on
behalf of the Jenkins and was
read into the record by Paul.
“The Vineyard’s application
for [an] amended special permit fails to protect the environment of the area because
it fails to specify the details of
its plan and fails to offer any
management of the anticipated changes to the stormwater
from the changed uses of the
land.”
Others took a more measured approach to the application.
Attorney Mark Branse,
speaking on behalf of Lost
Acres Vineyard neighbor Carole Day, said that Day does
not object to most of the
proposals within the plan,
though she would like to keep
the days of operation to six
days a week.
“She would like one night
a week when the place is quiet,” Branse said. “That’s not
unreasonable.”
The hours also could use
some fine-tuning, Branse said,
noting that the 9 p.m. cutoff doesn’t include cleanup,
which could extend to 10:30
p.m.
“That’s too late,” Branse
said.
Branse said that a time
should be picked – such as
9:30 p.m. – for all activity to
cease.
“I’m not asking you to
deny the application on Carole’s behalf,” Branse said. “We
just want to show some balance. She’s willing to accept
a lot.”
Commission members,
for their part, requested additional information on the
schedule of events in the past
and when amplified music
was played outdoors.
The public hearing was
continued until the commission’s next meeting scheduled
for April 14.
Budget proposal cut again
to under 1 percent increase
By Sloan Brewster
Senior Staff Writer
SIMSBURY — Additional slashes to Simsbury’s proposed 2015–16 budget have
brought it to $18.8 million, an
increase of less than 1 percent
over last year.
The Board of Selectmen
made the cuts at its March 23
meeting, an act mirroring one
made at the previous meeting, when the board cut the
budget to $19.004 million.
That cut brought the
increase over last year to 1.6
percent, a slight reduction
over First Selectman Lisa
Heavner’s initial proposed
increase of 1.7 percent. The
latest reduction brings the increase to .84 percent.
“We actually captured
some savings,” Heavner said
in a phone call Friday, March
27, of how the new reduction
was achieved.
The savings were realized
by moving $3 million from the
Internal Service Fund to the
OPEB Trust, which reduced
the town’s contribution to
major medical insurance
by approximately $149,000,
Heavner said.
According to the minutes from that meeting, the
move also reduced the police
pensions line item by just
over $8,000, and the town
pensions line item by just below $9,000
Both selectmen and
the Board of Finance recommended the move. The move
not only reduced the contribution to the pension fund,
but also reduced the overall
budget, Heavner said.
Selectmen also approved
a transfer of $400,000 from the
general fund to the Pension
Trust. The transfer of funds
also allowed selectmen to
add $45,000 to the Simsbury
Farms line item.
In making the changes,
selectmen reduced the overall budget by approximately
$17,000 in pension costs and
$148,000 in major medical insurance costs.
“We were very pleased to
bring the residents of Simsbury a budget below 1 percent,” Heavner said.
At the March 23 meeting, selectmen also approved
an approximate $416,000
Capital and Non-Recurring
Fund Budget for the 2015-16
fiscal year.
As of press time, the
Board of Selectmen was
scheduled to present its budget to the Board of Finance
March 31.
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The
Valley Press
21
PRESSOPINION
Letter to the
EDITOR
A ‘thank you’
from the
Community Fund
To the editor:
By Jean Miller, Granby
Community Fund Board Member/Favarh
Representative
Letters policy
Letters to the editor should be 400
words or less in length. Political letters
should be 250 words or less. Guest
columns will be published at the discretion of the editor and should be no
more than 650 words in length. No unsigned or anonymous opinions will be
published. We require that the person
submitting the opinion also include his
or her town of residence and a phone
number where they can be reached.
We authenticate authorship prior to
publication. We reserve the right to edit
or withold any submissions deemed
to be libelous, unsubstantiated allegations, personal attacks or defamation of
character. Send opinion submissions to:
our editor, Abigail, via email at aalbair@
turleyct.com or via mail to 540 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury, 06070. Deadline
for submissions is Friday at noon for the
following week’s edition. Call our office,
860-651-4700, with questions.
22
The
Valley Press
PRESS
VALLEY
The members of the Granby
Community Fund’s Board of Directors
would like to thank the Granby community for their support with contributions to the 2015 Annual Community
Campaign. Celebrating 55 years as a
501(c)3 organization, the Granby Community Fund meets monthly throughout the year, preparing for a townwide
mailing to help support the many valuable programs and services offered to
our local citizens. The Granby Community Fund consists of an all-volunteer
Board of Directors either living in town
and/or representing one of the community organizations they support.
The success of their campaign relies primarily on donations from residents and
businesses in the town of Granby.
Organizations supported this
year include: American Red Cross; Boy
Scouts of America/Granby; Favarh;
Girls Scouts/Granby; Granby Land
Trust; Granby Senior Van; Granby Social Services; Holcomb Farm; Marquis
of Granby; Meals on Wheels (McLean);
Parents for a Safe Graduation; Salvation
Army-Granby Service Unit; Waste Not
Want Not Community Kitchen; YMCA-Farmington Valley.
On behalf of our member agencies, thank you for supporting the
community with your donations to
the Granby Community Fund. Donations are low this year, so if you are still
interested in donating to the Granby
Community Fund, at a level that reflects your belief in the organizations
serving the Granby community, please
mail your check today to the Granby
Community Fund, PO Box 94, Granby,
CT 06035 or visit our website at www.
granbycommunityfund.org to make an
online donation. All donations are tax
deductible and very much appreciated.
GUEST COLUMN
A night at the Trivia Bee
By Ted Glanzer
Staff Writer
Well that was fun.
It’s the morning after I took part in the first-ever
Trivia Bee, sponsored by the Farmington Public School
Foundation, at Farmington Gardens March 27.
The trivia bee was held in place of the annual spelling bee and, because I live in town, I figured this would
be an easy sell to take part in the event and write about
it later. Aside from all the great work the foundation
does, what with donating more than $138,000 in grants
to educational efforts in the town’s schools, this year’s
big push was to raise $95,000 over the course of three
years for engineering labs in grades five through 12. In
total, $14,500 was raised at this year’s bee.
I decided to form a team after one of the editors
in the office said she always wanted to take part in an
event like the trivia bee. I’m always game, so I figured
we could get a team from The Valley Press. Little did
I know, I’d end up being the only one without a prior
commitment the evening of the bee.
By the time the event rolled around, my team
comprised Phil Dunn, his daughter, Grace, and me. I recruited Phil for two reasons. First, he’s a very bright guy.
Second, he’s a lot of fun. Good enough for me.
We pulled in Grace when we realized that, between the two of us, we had almost no knowledge
of current pop culture. I mean, I know Taylor Swift is
a thing right now. And that “The Walking Dead” show
seems to be popular with the younger set. Other than
that, I’m pretty well clueless.
What I didn’t realize was that, while the minimum
was three people on a team, every other entrant had six
people. We tried to pair up with other teams at the last
minute, to no avail. We were stuck at half a team.
Because of the number of teams that entered, the
competitors were separated into waves. The winning
team of each wave moved on to the championship
round.
I immediately began to feel better when the first
wave of teams passed. The questions seemed reasonable (“In which fairy tale did the character Maleficent
appear?” I know my recent Disney reboots, so “Sleeping
Beauty” it was.)
The problem with trivia is, well, you only know
what you know.
We felt confident about the categories in the first
wave. We felt even more so about the categories in the
second wave, which were Cell Phones, Shakespeare,
Farmington Schools and Food. Heck, I eat food. I use
a cell phone. I read Shakespeare a few times in high
April 2, 2015
school and I cover Farmington schools. We figured
Grace, who is still in college, would rock the cell phone
and schools categories.
Then they started asking us - the team with the
appropriately named moniker “What? This Isn’t a Spelling Bee?” - questions. Who really knows that egg nog isn’t currently
made of 25 percent raw eggs? That was a true/false
question that Grace insisted was false. Her all-knowing
elders disagreed, however, and had her answer (we had
key pads to answer the multiple choice questions - a
running tally was kept via computer) ‘True.’ Naturally,
we got the question wrong and we listened to Grace
rightfully say “I told you so” the remainder of the night.
We acquitted ourselves well in the Shakespeare
category, nailing how many plays he wrote (38) and
what work the quote ‘’tis the winter of our discontent”
appeared (Richard the III). Incidentally, if there ever was
an argument for taking AP English, it’s this: 26 years later
you could find yourself embroiled in a vicious trivia battle and you’ll be called on to answer that Shakespeare
was known as The Bard of ___ for 400 points. You’ll answer Avon and your team will rejoice, basking in maximum points as your competitors wallow in despair. We dropped points in the Cell Phone category - I
had no idea how heavy the first cell phone was, but
credit Phil for talking me down from 4 pounds down
to 1.4. (The answer was 2.8). We still got it wrong and
it cost us.
We ended up coming in a respectable second
in our wave to a team that was stacked with, among
others, Superintendent of Schools Kathy Greider, Town
Councilor John Vibert, and trivia savant Zalman Nakhimovsky.
By the end of the evening, the winning, and ironically named, team of “And in Last Place…” - Kim Harrell,
Tom Miller, Ted Hornik, Mearle Brockelman, Lauren English and Jim English - took home the trophy.
Regardless of where our team placed, the money spent entering was completely worth it. Before the
questions started flying, the several hundred attendees
heard a presentation from Danielle Swanson of Farmington High School, who is currently taking engineering
courses. Swanson said that sometimes she’s the only girl
in those classes and how she would like not to be.
She described some of the remarkable things that
she was doing in those engineering classes. She also
noted the importance of funding her effort so eloquently and passionately, she deservedly got a standing
ovation when she finished speaking.
All of a sudden, my search for trivia glory seemed
a bit, well, trivial. Which isn’t to say I won’t be trying to
win it again next year.
540 Hopmeadow St.
Simsbury, CT 06070
Phone: 860-651-4700
Fax: 860 606-9599
www.TurleyCT.com
The Valley Press
is a publication of
TurleyCT
Community Publications
Delivering local news,
sports, entertainment
and more to the
Farmington Valley
community
Keith Turley
Publisher
Abigail Albair
Editor
aalbair@turleyct.com
David Heuschkel
Sports Editor
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Advertising Director
860-978-1345
Melissa@turleyct.com
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Classified Sales
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AVON––––––––––––-
Avon Senior Center, 635 West Avon Road,
860-675-4355: Current Events Thursdays, April
2 and 9, 11 a.m.; closed Friday, April 3, Good
Friday; Foot Care Monday, April 6, 9 a.m.-noon,
call to make appt.; Technology Learning, Monday,
April 6, 2:30 p.m.; free blood pressure screening
Tuesday, April 7, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.; Story of
My Life Tuesday, April 7, 12:45 p.m.; Shuffleboard
Wednesday, April 8, 10 a.m.
Avon Congregational Church services for
Holy Week and Easter:
• Maundy Thursday, April 2, 7:30 p.m. – celebration of Lord’s Last Supper and the Office of
Tenebrae
• Good Friday April 3, noon – joint service between West Avon Congregational Church and
Avon Congregational Church led by the Rev.
Martha Chenault, pastor of Avon Congregational
Church, and Dr. Brian Hardee, pastor of West Avon
Congregational Church
• Easter Sunday, April 5, 10 a.m. – Resurrection
celebrated through words and music of the choirs,
handbells and brass – join in to sing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah”
Avon Police Department and Fire Department “Battle of the Badges” blood drive
Friday, April 3, 9 a.m.-5:45 p.m., at Fire Department
Company 1, 25 Darling Drive, appts. online at www.
RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-733-2767
Senior Citizens of Avon Organization meeting at 635 West Avon Road Monday, April 6, 10:30
a.m. board meeting, noon pizza and salad, dessert
followed by bingo; tag sale April 25, crafters wanted, call 860-404-5436 or 860-225-7124
Rosalind Wiseman, author, educator and
speaker, coming to Avon High School Wednesday,
April 8, 6:30-8 p.m., followed by Q&A, free admission
(860-404-4740) – author of “Queen Bees and Wannabes” and “Masterminds & Wingmen,” books to help
parents and teenage girls and boys navigate realities
and complexities of contemporary young adulthood
“Bells Across the Land: A Nation Remembers Appomattox” Thursday, April 9, 3:15 p.m.,
at West Avon Congregational Church – four-minute
event when bells toll to remember the four years of
the Civil War
Avon Rec and Parks Department upcoming
adult programs beginning in April, register at
www.avonrec.com: men’s softball, tennis adult –
learn to play beginner class and doubles class, bus
trip to NYC to visit the 911 Memorial and Museum,
TAZ’s low impact aerobics, TAZ’s Fitness Challenge,
yoga and Yoga for Wellness; upcoming children’s
programs: field hockey clinic, soccer shots
Tuesday Crafters group meeting weekly on
Tuesdays at 10 a.m. at the Avon Congregational
Church, 6 West Main St., noon bring-your-own
lunch, beverage and dessert provided, for people with
all levels of experience, drop in to do simple sewing
and knitting projects benefiting those in need
(1st Monday of month) and Wednesday, April 8,
10-11:30 a.m. (1st Wednesday of the month) at
Canton Community Center, 40 Dyer Ave., info at
860-693-9310 or 860-371-8111
Farmington Valley VNA blood pressure
screenings Tuesday, April 7, 9:30-11 a.m., at
Walglreens at Canton Village, and Wednesday,
April 8, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Canton Community Center, 40 Dyer Ave.
BURLINGTON––––––-
Registration being taken for Burlington
Parks & Rec programs at www.burlingtonctparksandrec.com:
• Health Coaching Workshops – Harnessing
Sugar Craving April 12, Creating Mind/Body
Awareness April 19 and Sustainable Weight Loss
April 26
• Spring Vacation Soccer Camp Monday-Friday,
April 20-24, at Malerbo Rec Complex, ages 4-6
from 9-10:30 a.m., $79 per person, ages 7-9 from
9 a.m.-noon, $109, and 10+ years from 9 a.m.noon, $109, registration deadline April 13
• Bus trip to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory
April 29
• Toning and Shaping ongoing thru June 22,
7:15-8:15 p.m., fee $45, at Town Hall auditorium
or Senior Center, walk-ins $4 per class at the door
with signed waiver
• Total Body Fitness Tuesdays and Thursdays thru
June 25, 6:15-7:15 p.m., at the Senior Center, $45
one class per week, $85 two classes per week, $4
per class at the door
Last day for free income tax preparation
Wednesday, April 8, at the Canton Community Center, Room E, with AARP volunteer tax counselors,
call 860-693-5811 to schedule an appt.
Canton Senior Center looking for folks 55+
to participate in intergenerational series,
Days of Our Lives, with the 6th-grade class of
students from Canton Intermediate School for
one-on-one interviews of storytelling on Fridays,
April 10, 24, May 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, 10:25-10:55
a.m., if interested call 860-693-5811 for info
Canton Dollars for Scholars 2015 accepting
applications thru April 15; must live in Canton, but
attend public, private or home school; to apply and
submit go to www.canton.dollarsforscholars.org
East Hill Writers’ Workshop with Anne
Batterson and Chivas Sandage meeting six
Mondays April 20-May 25 from 7-9 p.m., in Collinsville, space limited, cost $400 for series, www.
easthillwriters.com (860-693-0504)
CANTON––––––––––-
At Roaring Brook Nature Center, 70 Gracey
Road, 860-693-0263:
• Eggs, Eggs and MORE Eggs! Scavenger Hunt
Friday and Saturday, April 3 and 4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.,
and Sunday April 5, 1-4 p.m., with “eggs” scattered on trail and in nature center, scavenger hunt
map sold for $2 to find eggs
• Vernal Pool Walk Thursday, April 9, 7-8:30
p.m., for adults and older students, cost $7,
pre-register – vernal pools are temporary wetlands that hold water for only a few months each
year, temporary fish-free wetlands where amphibians lay their eggs
• April Vacation programming: Wildlife Wakes Up!
April 13-17, 9 a.m.-noon, for grades K-5, daily
rate $35/$40, weekly rate $150/$175, pre-register
w/payment – activities about spring’s arrival, bring
snack and dress for outdoors
• Adventure Story Time April 13, 1-2 p.m., ages
2-5, pre-register
Canton Senior and Social Services Department offering AARP Smart Driver Safety
Course April 20, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Canton
Community Center, call 860-693-5811 to sign up
Canton Parks & Rec Boston Bus Trip May 9,
tickets $55, register at www.cantonrec.org
Favarh Thrift Shop, Route 44, weekly sale
of clothing and household items for $1 and 50
percent off, 860-693-6662, ext. 128, hours: Mondays, noon-6 p.m.; Tuesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-6
p.m.; and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; volunteers
and tax deductible donations needed
FARMINGTON–––––--
At the UConn Health Center, 263 Farmington Ave.:
• Free IVF Information Session Thursday, April 2,
6-8:30 p.m., Cell and Genome Science Building,
400 Farmington Ave., register at 860-679-4580
• Bladder Cancer Support Group Saturday, April 4, 2-3
p.m., Onyiuke Dining Room, 860-679-4410 for info
Canton town offices, Transfer Station/
DPW/library/community center closed Friday, April 3; transfer station/library re-open
Saturday, April 4
Support group for parents of children with
behavioral and mental health concerns offered by NAMI Monday, April 6 from 7-8:30 p.m.
Tunxis Seniors bingo game Wednesdays,
April 8 and 22, 1-3 p.m., at Farmington Senior
To submit an event for the calendar,
e-mail Sally at
sedwards@thevalleypress.net
Center, 321 New Britain Ave., buy boards between
12:30 and 1 p.m. (860-404-0737)
Farmington Valley VNA blood pressure
screenings Monday, April 6, 11 a.m.-12:30
p.m., Senior Center, 321 New Britain Ave., Unionville, and Thursday, April 9, 9:30-11:30 a.m., at
Middlewoods of Farmington, 9 Middle Road
Women’s Association of First Church of
Christ Congregational 1652, 75 Main St.,
semi-annual used clothing sale Friday, April
10 from 5-8 p.m., $5 admission, and Saturday,
April 11, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., admission $3
Farmington Land Trust’s annual meeting
and awards dinner Thursday, April 16, 5:308:30 p.m., at the Porter Memorial, 75 Main St.,
reservations at 860-674-8545
Support group for adult children caregivers who care for seniors Tuesdays thru April
28, 5:30-7 p.m., at Staples House, 1 Monteith
Drive, info or sign up by contacting Martha Taylor,
elderly outreach coordinator, at 860-675-2390
Registration for Farmington Bank/Vantis
Life 2015 Baseball League thru May 7, info
at fbvlbaseball.com
Five Corners Thrift Shop at First Church of Christ,
61 Main St., Unionville, open Saturdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
GRANBY––––––––––
At the Granby Senior Center, 15 North Granby Road, 860-844-5352:
• Dental Care Clinic Friday, April 3 by appt.
• A Matter of Balance Mondays and Wednesdays
beginning April 6 at 10 a.m., four-week program
on how to overcome obstacles, strengthen muscles and make one’s home safer
• iPads Simplified with Elin Centerwall Tuesdays,
April 7, 14 and 21 at 1 p.m., $15
• Excursion: American Clock and Watch Museum
in Bristol Wednesday, April 8, 9 a.m., cost $8
• Lunch for the Mind: First Aid for Mental Health
Wednesday, April 8, 12:30 p.m., with AnnMarie
Cox, youth counselor
• Shopping, $3 for each out-of-town trip: Ocean
State/Big Y Thursday, April 9, 1:45 p.m.
• Last day of AARP tax assistance Wednesday,
April 8, call for appt.
VNA blood pressure screenings Tuesday,
April 7, 9-10:30 a.m., Farmington Valley YMCA,
97 Salmon Brook St.
Lunch for the Mind series Wednesday, April
8, 12:30 p.m., at Granby Senior Center, register
at 860-844-5352: First Aid for Mental Health with
AnnMarie Cox, Granby youth counselor
SIMSBURY–––––––--
Holy Week/Easter services at First Church of
Christ, Simsbury:
• Maundy Thursday Communion & Tenebrae Service April 2, 7 p.m., Sanctuary
• Good Friday Service April 3, noon, chapel, all
welcome
• Easter Sunday April 5: 6:15 a.m. Sunrise service
with Communion at Simsbury United Methodist
Church and moves to Simsbury Cemetery, followed by a Pancake Breakfast in Palmer Hall at
First Church; 8:30 a.m. uncommon Easter Service
with Holy Communion in the sanctuary; 10:30
a.m. Easter Festival Service with Holy Communion in the sanctuary
At the Simsbury Senior Center, Eno Memorial Hall, 754 Hopmeadow St., 860-658-3273:
• Final Thursdays April 2 and 9, between 9:30
a.m. and 3 p.m., for AARP tax aid at the Simsbury
Library, call to make appt.
• No Lunch Café Friday, April 3 – Senior Center
closed
• Jump on Board trip Monday, April 6, 10:15
a.m.-2:30 p.m., State Capitol tour and lunch at
Legislative Office Building cafeteria
• Foot Care Clinic Tuesday, April 7, appts. starting
at 8:30 a.m., cost $29
• Lunch at Eno Wednesday, April 8, noon, chicken parmesan with pasta, sign up for lunch the
Friday before (April 3) by noon
• Travel meeting with Sandy Delin from Friendship Tours Wednesday, April 8, 2-4 p.m.
• LGBT Discussion Group Thursday, April 9,
5-6:30 p.m., drop in
Simsbury Land Trust events:
• “The City Dark”: a film about “light pollution”
chronicling the disappearance of darkness Thursday, April 2, 6:30 p.m., at the Simsbury Public
Library, followed by a discussion with a panel of
experts, RSVP to 860-651-8773
• Cathles Property Hike Sunday, April 5, 1 p.m.,
meet at North Saddle Ridge cul de sac, moderately
difficult hike not suitable for young children, RSVP
• Annual Dinner Thursday, April 9, 6-9 p.m., at
The Riverview in Simsbury, $50 per person, guest
speaker: Eric Lehman, author of “Afoot in Connecticut,” among other books, RSVP by Thursday,
April 2 to Simsbury Land Trust, Box 634, Simsbury, 06070
“Paint & Prosecco” Thursday, April 2, 7-8:30
p.m. at Metro Bis with artist Deborah Leonard
guiding painters in the creation of their own work
while enjoying a glass of Prosecco and light fare,
reservations at 860-651-1908
At the Simsbury Historical Society, 800
Hopmeadow St., 860-658-2500:
• Music in the Meetinghouse Concert Series
At the Library
Avon Public Library,
281 Country Club Road, 860-673-9712,
www.avonctlibrary.info:
• Shakespeare-Inspired Movie Matinees
Thursdays, 1:30-3:30 p.m.: April 2, “West
Side Story” and April 9, “Forbidden Planet”
• Open Art Studio Thursdays, April 2 and
9, 2:15-4 p.m., drop in
• Free Blood Pressure Screening Thursday, April 2, 12:15-1:45 p.m., walk in
• Kids Choice Book Club Thursday, April
2, 4:15-5 p.m., “The School for Good and
Evil” by Soman Chainani grades 4-6
• Evening Shakespeare Film Series April
2, 6 p.m., “Romeo & Juliet” and April 9, 4
p.m., “As You Like It”
• Insider’s View of College Admissions
Thursday, April 2, 7-8 p.m., sign up
• Shakespeare Workshops for Teens
Wednesday, April 8, 6 p.m., Intro to Shakespeare, grades 9-12, sign up; Soliloquy
Class Saturday, April 11, 10:30 a.m.; Setting the Stage Tuesday, April 14, 6 p.m.
• Junior Explorers Thursday, April 9, 4:155:15 p.m., Insects & Arachnids, grades
K-3, register
• Family Game Night Thursday, April 9,
6:30-8 p.m., ages 7 and up
• Shakespeare: A Festivus for the Rest of
Us Thursday, April 9, 7 p.m., Dr. Humphrey Tonkin, professor of humanities at
University of Hartford discussing “As You
Like It,” part of partnership with The Hartt
School and Hartford Stage
• Evening Book Club Thursday, April 9,
7-8:30 p.m., “Defending Jacob” by Wil-
liam Landay
• AARP tax aide service Wednesdays at
12:30, 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. thru April
15 and Saturdays at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m.
and 12:15 and 1:15 p.m. thru April 11, call
860-673-9712, ext. 4 for appt.
Burlington Library,
34 Library Lane, 860-673-3331,
www.Burlingtonctlibrary.info:
• Adult Writing Group Monday, April 6, 6
p.m., bring writing samples, register
• Making Book Talk Videos Saturday, April
11, 2 p.m., grades 6 and up, register
• Story Times, register for as many dates
as one wants: Toddler T(weens) Mondays
thru April 27, 10:30 a.m., ages 2-3 w/
caregivers; Nature’s Kids Mondays thru
April 27, 1:30 p.m., ages 4-6; Rhythm &
Rhyme Wednesdays thru April 29 at 10:30
a.m., ages 9-35 months with caregivers;
Newbies Thursdays thru April 30 at 11
a.m., ages birth-9 months with caregivers
Canton Public Library,
40 Dyer Ave., 860-693-5800:
• Library closed Friday, April 3, Good Friday
• Coffee And… Monday, April 6, 10 a.m.
• Drop-In Story Time: Let the Garden
Grow! Tuesday, April 7, 10:30 a.m., with
Heather Baker and Sue Tarinelli, ages 3
and up with parent/caregiver
• Teen Advisory Group meeting Tuesday,
April 7, 4-5 p.m., register
• Teen Book Club Tuesday, April 7, 5-6
p.m. to discuss “Infinity” by Sherrilyn
Kenyon, grades 7 and up
• Young Writers Club Tuesday, April 7, 7-8
p.m., grades 6 and up, register
• PJ Story Time: Monkeys Wednesday,
April 8, 6:30 p.m., ages 3 and up, registration required
• Underground Gallery Artists, exhibit of
art work from artists of Underground Gallery, thru April 30
• Registration underway for Friends annual Crossword Puzzle Tournament May 2,
room for 40 participants
Farmington Library,
6 Monteith Drive, 860-673-6791, ext. 1,
www.farmingtonlibraries.org:
• Afternoon at the Bijou Thursday, April 2,
“The Moon Is Blue”
• Daddy and Me Saturday, April 4, 10:3011 a.m., ages birth-3
• Make It & Take It Monday, April 6, 10:4511:30 a.m., ages 3-5
• Teen Movie Monday, April 6, 2:30-4:30
p.m., grades 7-12, theme: spy movies
• Pajama Storytime Monday, April 6, 6:307:15 p.m., ages 3 and up
• Friends Book Sale Thursday, April 9,
9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Friday, April 10, 9 a.m.-7
p.m.; Saturday, April 11, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.,
3-5 p.m. bag sale ($6 each)
Granby Library,
15 North Granby Rd., 860-844-5275:
• Crafternoon for Kids Thursdays, April 2
and 9, 4 p.m.
• Libraries closed April 3 and 4
• SATA: Carol Shields Monday, April 6,
1:30 p.m.
• Evening Writers Group at Cossitt Library, 388 North Granby Road, Tuesday,
April 7, 6 p.m.
• Parenting: Autism 101 Wednesday, April
8, 6 p.m.
• Guest Chef: Katering by Karen Thursday,
April 9, 5 p.m.
Simsbury Library,
725 Hopmeadow St., 860-658-7663:
• Photography Series – Photo Restoration, Scanning and Repairing Monday,
April 6, 6:30-8 p.m., with Anatoly Plaks of
Simsbury Camera Club
• Social Media Series: Totally Twitter Monday, April 6, 6:45-8:15 p.m. (rescheduled
from March), pre-register but walk-ins
welcome
• Simsbury Camera Club Seminar:
Through a Lens – Naturally with Ford
Parker Tuesday, April 7, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• Simsbury Police Department program:
Preventing Your Dog from Becoming Lost
and What to Do if Your Dog Is Missing
Wednesday, April 8, 6-7:30 p.m., followed
by discussion
• The World’s Most Haunted House: The
True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist
on Lindley Street Thursday, April 9, 7-8
p.m., with presenter and author William
Hall
• Simsbury Adult Book Discussion Group
Thursday, April 9, 7-8:30 p.m., “Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegarde von Bingen”
by Mary Sharratt
• Last day for AARP free tax-aide program
Thursday, April 9, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., book
appt. ahead of time
• Night of 1,000 Stars Thursday, April 23,
7 p.m., call for reservations
• Art Quilt Exhibit in the Program Room,
Ethel Walker student artists grades 9-12
in the West Gallery, Alan Bugbee’s wood
turnings in the display case and Simsuby Camera Club photographs in the East
Gallery
Teen programs
• Teen/Tween Movie “Big Hero” Thursday,
April 2, 12:30-2:30 p.m., grades 5 and up,
drop in
• Minecraft Party Thursday, April 2, 3-4:30
p.m., grades 5 and up, RSVP
• Teen Advisory board meeting Thursday,
April 9, 7-8 p.m.
Children’s programs
• Baking, Thursdays, April 2 and 23, 4-5
p.m., grades K-2 making “S” cookies April
2 and peanut blossom cookies April 23,
register
• Lego Mania Saturdays, April 4, 11, 18
and 25, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., ages 5 and up
• Please Touch! Saturday, April 4, 2-4
p.m., ages 2-5 with adult, drop in
• Chess & Go Club Tuesday, April 7, 3:454:45 p.m., ages 2-6, drop in
• Music with Marie Wednesday, April 8,
10:30-11:15 a.m., ages 1-4 with an adult
• Baking Thursdays, April 9 and 30, 4-5
p.m., grades 3-6, April 9 sweet and salty
cookies, April 30 pee wee cookies, register
April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
23
check it out
featuring bluegrass band Man About a
Horse Saturday, April 4, 7 p.m., donations at door – one of the band members,
Matt Royles, is a Simsbury High grad
• “The World’s Most Haunted House:
The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street” Thursday, April
9, 7 p.m., in Simsbury Public Library,
with presenter and author William J. Hall
Road, West Simsbury, $8/6
tunxis.edu/cesched, 860-314-4700
Simsbury Culture, Parks and Rec
accepting applications for summer positions and camp counselors-in-training, deadline for summer
positions Sunday, April 5 online only,
CIT by April 30, 860-658-3836, www.
simsburyrec.com
Simsbury Chamber Music Festival,
Chamber Music Masterworks Series with
members of Hartt School faculty, Hartford
Symphony and guests, Monday, April 6,
7:30 p.m. at Eno Memorial Hall, 754 Hopmeadow St., $15 suggested donations
– Mozart Piano Quartet in E flat, Arensky
Piano trio in D minor and movements
from Schubert’s “Trout Quintet”
Nominations sought for Simsbury
“Hometown Heroes,” submitted by
April 23 to Simsbury Hometown Hero Selection Committee, Town of Simsbury, P.O.
Box 495, Simsbury, 06070, forms available
on town website at www.simsbury-ct.gov
Red Cross blood donation opportunity during National Volunteer
Month Friday, April 3, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.,
UConn Main Building Academic E
Wing, 263 Farmington Ave., Farmington, to schedule appt. visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-733-2767;
Red Cross volunteer orientation Monday, April 6 and Tuesday, April 14 at
209 Farmington Ave., Farmington
VALLEY & BEYOND–
Events at Tunxis Community College, Farmington:
Public Safety Career Fair Thursday,
April 2, 1 p.m., in the 600 Building
hallway, info at 860-773-1646
• Jazz performance Wednesday, April
8, 7 p.m., Cyber Cafe
• “Behind Closed Doors: Juvenile
Court in Connecticut, An Honest Discussion of Child Abuse and Neglect
in Our State” Thursday, April 9, 11:30
a.m., in Founders Hall, panel including
Assistant Attorney General Sherelyn
Labowski and Attorney Scott Sandler,
moderated by Angela Fierro
• Professional Development Workshop:
Change Your Career: Change Your Life
Friday, April 10, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., $45,
Farmington Valley VNA blood
pressure screenings Wednesday,
April 8, 11:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m., at Eno
Memorial Hall, 754 Hopmeadow St.
Simsbury Free Library offering
Chick Austin House Tour, “Cardboard House” on Scarborough Street,
Hartford, Thursday, April 9, 3 p.m.,
$25/$30, advance payment required,
RSVP to 860-408-1336
Simsbury Volunteer Fire Company’s annual Fisherman’s Breakfast
Saturday, April 11, 4:30-10 a.m., at the
Firefighters Clubhouse, 30 Town Forest
Chabad House Seder Friday, April 3,
7:45 and 8 p.m., at Chabad of Farmington Valley, 141 Hopmeadow St.,
Weatogue
NAMI Family Support Group meeting
Monday, April 6, 7-8:30 p.m., at the
Simsbury Senior Center in Eno Memorial Hall, 754 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury
(860-803-4139, 860-299-5705)
Benefit for National Ovarian Cancer
Coalition Tuesday, April 7, 5-9 p.m., at
Flatbread Pizza Company, 110 Albany
Turnpike, Canton – live music, raffle,
prizes and silent auction
Spring Plant and Seedling Sale to
benefit the North Central Conservation District Friday, April 10 in
the afternoon and Saturday morning
April 11 at Auerfarm, 158 Auer Road,
Bloomfield
Arts & Events
At Bridge Street Live, 41 Bridge
St., Collinsville, 860-693-9762: April
2, 8 p.m., Carolyn Wonderland w/
special guest Shelley King; April 3,
8 p.m., Comedy Night: The Laff Guru
(aka Spanky) w/special guest Dave Casey; April 4, 8 p.m., The Duke Robillard
Band; April 5, 7 p.m., Steve Katz: Blood
Sweat and My Rock-n-Roll Years Tour;
April 9, 8 p.m., Leo Moran & Anthony
Thistlewaite of The Saw Doctors
At the Hartt School, 200 Bloomfield
Ave., West Hartford, 860-728-4428:
• Hartt Orchestra Thursday, April 2,
7:30-10:30 p.m., Lincoln Theater
• Hartt School Big Band with special
guest Jimmy Heath Friday, April 3,
7:30-9:30 p.m., Lincoln Theater
• Public Works Wednesday, April 8,
8-9:30 p.m., Berkman Recital Hall
• “She Stoops to Conquer” Thursday-Saturday, April 9-11, 7:30-10
p.m., and Sunday, April 12, 3-4:30
p.m., Handel Performing Arts Center,
HPAC Roberts Theater, 35 Westbourne
Parkway, Hartford, tickets $20/$18
• An Evening with Guitar Thursday,
April 9, 8-9:30 p.m.
Strawberry Machine at Lisa’s
Crown & Hammer, 3 Depot St., Collinsville, Thursday, April 2, 9 p.m., and
Greg Zigmont, Saturday, April 4, 9:30
p.m.-1 a.m.; Happy Hour Tuesdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4-6 p.m.
At Maple Tree Café, 781 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury, live music at 9 p.m.,
cover charge, 860-651-1297: Friday,
April 3, Avenue Groove, and Saturday,
April 4, Balkun Brothers
At Infinity Music Hall and Bistro:
20 Greenwoods Road North, Norfolk, 860-542-5531: New York City
Comedy Night (replacing Yardbirds)
April 3, 8 p.m.; Southside Johnny &
The Asbury Jukes April 4, 8 p.m.
32 Front St., Hartford: Moondance
“The Ultimate Van Morrison Tribute
Show” April 3, 8 p.m.; Boston Comedy
Festival April 4, 8 p.m.; Rubblebucket
with Vacationer April 10, 8 p.m.
24
The
Valley Press
Mark Twain House Museum Center, 351 Farmington Ave., Hartford,
860-280-3130:
• Book/Mark event: “Plato at the
Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go
Away” with author Rebecca Goldstein
Thursday, April 2, 7 p.m., in Lincoln
Financial Services Auditorium, reservations recommended
• “A Year without God” with Ryan Bell
Tuesday, April 7, 7 p.m., Bell, a former
Seventh-day Adventist pastor, in discussion with Jacques Lamarre, $10
suggested donation, reservations recommended
• “The Trouble Begins” Wednesday,
April 8, 5:30 p.m., with Kevin MacDonnell, independent scholar and collector
of Mark Twain, unveiling a new girlfriend for Mark Twain, wine and pasta
reception at 5 p.m. in Hal Holbrook Hall,
$5 donation requested, reserve at 860280-3130
Easter Egg Hunt and the Easter
Bunny at the New England Air Museum, Windsor Locks, Friday, April 3,
museum admission, 860-623-3305;
egg hunt 11-11:30 a.m. for ages 1-10
(children 1-6 accompanied by adult
with a limit of 5 eggs per child); Easter
Bunny posing from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Comedy Night at Playhouse on
Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford,
Friday, April 3, 8 p.m., featuring Ray
Harrington, Aaron David Ward and Mike
Drena, emcee, tickets $15, all seats reserved, go to www.playhouseonpark.org
or call 860-523-5900, ext. 10
At Trinity-on-Main, 69 Main St.,
New Britain, 860-229-2072: April 4,
noon, Easter Egg Hunt & A Show with
Vic & Sticks, tickets $5; April 4, 8 p.m.,
Magic, Comedy & F$#R Letter Words
with comedy magicians Jim Spinnato
and David Garrity, doors open at 7 p.m.,
tickets $17 general admission/$28 VIP;
April 8, 11 a.m., Rod Stewart Tribute
featuring Rick Larrimore, lunch at 11
a.m., show at noon, $10 show only,
$20 lunch and show (RSVP for lunch
by April 4)
April 2, 2015
Lunchtime Lecture: Solomon’s Wisdom: Recreating the Whitman Library,
Wednesday, April 8, noon-1 p.m., Stanley-Whitman House, 37 High St., Farmington, reservations at 860-677-9222
Jazz performance Wednesday,
April 8, 7 p.m., in Tunxis Cyber Café at
Tunxis Community College, Farmington, part of Vitrano Family Jazz Series
UConn Greater Hartford Campus
Maxwell Shepherd Memorial
Concert Series presenting Judy Handler & Mark Levesque, “Rhythms of the
World,” Thursday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.,
in UConn Hartford Library Auditorium,
1800 Asylum Ave., West Hartford, free
“Still Lifes: Echo/Shadow/Reflection” by Janette Maxey, a Tunxis
alumna and University of Hartford art
school graduate, thru Thursday, April
9 in the Wallace Barnes and Barbara
Hackman Franklin Art Gallery at the
entrance to the 600 Building, Tunxis
Community College, Farmington,
open Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Third annual Shad Derby Trivia
Contest Thursday, April 9, 7-9 p.m.,
at Windsor Historical Society, 96
Palisado Ave., Windsor – team registration by Tuesday, April 7, cost: $10/
contestant and $5/onlooker, forms at
www.windsorhistoricalsociety.org/trivia_registration­­_form_ 2015.pdf
Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty”
Thursday-Sunday, April 9-12, in Belding
Theater at The Bushnell, tickets starting
at $38.50, $10 for students with ID, 860987-5900 or ww.hartfordsymphony.
org – Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and
Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m.
A Spring Shower for “Winter Flowers” Saturday, April 11 in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre, Main St., Torrington
– 7:30-8:15 p.m. hors d’oeuvres, beer
and wine reception, showtime 8 p.m. –
fundraiser to support Warner Stage Company team representing New England in
National Festival in Michigan in June
School board passes budget
Proposal restores third-grade section, preschool fees remain the same
By Ted Glanzer
Staff Writer
GRANBY — At its March 25 meeting,
the Granby Board of Education unanimously approved to transmit a $28.71 million
budget for the 2015-16 school year to the
Board of Finance.
The budget calls for a 2.39 percent
spending increase over current levels.
The budget restores a third-grade
teaching position for approximately $45,000
that would have been eliminated had the
board acted on a previous budget proposal
at its March 18 meeting. That budget called
for a 2.29 percent spending increase. Instead, due to the impact eliminating the teaching position would have had
on class sizes, the school board instructed
Superintendent of Schools Alan Addley to
return with a budget that had restored the
third-grade teaching position.
To offset the increase in cost, Addley
said he was reducing a technology data and
software consultant’s time as well as moving the Ultimate Frisbee team to the Quality
and Diversity fund.
“I’m glad you were able to keep [the
third-grade section] as well as keep the budget at 2.4 percent,” school board member
Lynn Guelzow said. “Hopefully, the Board of
Finance will support us on that.”
While no target was set, a consensus
from the members of the finance board
indicated that the mill rate increase for the
2015-16 fiscal year should be around 2 percent. The proposed 2.29 percent spending
increase – which would have been $28.6
million – appeared to be in line with the
finance board’s request, while the 2.39 percent spending increase passed by the board
slightly exceeds that target.
The only resident who spoke at the
packed meeting, Valorie Hollister, expressed her concern that reinstituting the
third-grade section could have a negative
impact on the World Language program.
Hollister said that adding the section
would mean an extra class for just two
teachers who divide their time between
three schools.
“I like that we are growing the program
and I am excited about it,” Hollister said of the
World Language Program. “We need to do a
better job staffing it. I get the constraint. Next
year, hopefully, we’ll have one [World Language] teacher in each school.”
The school board also took up the debate
about the fees the school district charges for
its preschool program.
School board members Guelzow, Melissa
Migliaccio and Rosemarie Weber all said in
some fashion they would like to increase the
tuition as soon as possible.
The school district currently charges
$1,500 per year for preschool, which is below the nearly $2,000 average of neighboring
towns that offer similar programs. Private programs in the area charge about $3,000 per year.
“I say very respectfully and sensitively, I
understand that preschools are struggling and
it means reducing services,” Addley said. “But
as a board, we’re laying off teachers. … While
we understand we don’t want to impact other
people’s jobs, the decisions you’re making are
impacting our teachers’ jobs.” But Guelzow said that raising the tuition
would make a case in the eyes of the finance
board that the school board was doing everything it could to raise revenue.
School board member Mark Fiorentino
said there was a possibility that, by increasing
tuition, some parents could pull their children out of the program, which could lead to
increased special education costs if children
needing services replaced the current students. Further, Fiorentino said that commitments were made to parents that the tuition
would be $1,500.
School board member Jenny Emery
agreed.
“Our primary responsibility is to the children and the taxpayers,” Emery said. “ My understanding is we have a certain model which
we thinks works best to attract a ratio of students to preschool. We’re right on the edge of
not achieving that range and could have severe ramifications on taxpayers.”
The school board ultimately agreed to
have its finance subcommittee examine the
issue along with other fees it charges families,
such as pay-to-play in sports.
PRESSOBITUARY
Dorothy Weibust, 95
Dorothy (Eastman) Weibust, 95, of Simsbury, died March 18, 2015. Born September 22, 1919 in North Providence, RI, she
was the daughter of the late Estelle (Farrar)
Eastman and Arthur Eastman of Worcester, MA. She was a graduate of Commerce
High School, Worcester, MA and Worcester State Teachers College of Worcester,
MA. She taught school in South Lancaster,
MA before moving to Portland, CT with
her husband when he got out of the Coast
Guard. They moved to Simsbury in 1954,
where she lived in the same house for 59
years. She moved to McLean Home in September 2013. She received the Simsbury
Citizen of the Year award in 1972, for her
15 years of dedication to the senior citizens
of the town. She also was a babysitter “par
excellence” for 12 years. Many of the now
grown “children” have stayed in touch with
her to the present. Everyone with whom
she came in contact knew her to be a
sweet, kind, gentle lady.
She is survived by her son Richard of
FL; two grandchildren, Eric Weibust of Boston and Kristin Weibust of Burlington, VT;
and her sister, Jean E. Whatmore of Vero
Beach, FL. She was predeceased by a son,
Stephen Weibust, and two sisters, Madaline
Eastman and Marion Healy. She is also survived by several beloved nieces and nephews.
The family wants to thank Companions and
Homemakers and the kind people at the McLean Home for their wonderful care of Dot
during the last few years, especially Ivarine
Thompson, and her support system of friends
Rose Sottile, Laurie Robinson, Steve and Barbara Lee, Andrea McGarry, Jane Preskenis,
Donna Page, her nieces Debbie Pankonin and
Lisa Whatmore and her cousin, Julie Verney,
and her husband Guy.
Graveside services will be held at Hillside Cemetery in Townsend, MA, with her
nephew, the Rev. Gil Healey of North Conway,
NH officiating., at a date to be determined.
Contributions in her memory may be made
to The Humane Society and the Shriners Hospital in Boston. Services will be provided by
Anderson Funeral Home, Townsend, MA.
PRESSSports
Gray
Winter sports review
Matters
By Scott Gray
1,000 point club
Photo by David Heuschkel
Photo by David Heuschkel
Photo by Brendan Driscoll
Farmington senior Sophie Borg (left), Simsbury junior Rayon Christie (middle), and Granby senior Julia Mazzotta (right) each surpassed
1,000 career points this winter, just three of the highlights of the 2014-15 winter sports season in the Farmington Valley.
A perfect 12 for Valley hoop teams
By David Heuschkel
Sports Editor
It was a good winter for high school
basketball in the Farmington Valley. For
the second straight season, all 12 teams –
six boys, six girls – qualified for the state
tournament. Buzzer beaters were made,
tournaments were won and milestones
were reached.
No team went as far as the Canton
girls. Led by second-year coach Brian Medeiros, the Warriors won a share of the
NCCC regular season championship and
advanced to the Class S final for the first
time since 1999.
Once there, the Warriors, the top-seed
in the bracket, lost 52-50 to No. 3 Thomaston. The Bears repeated as Class S champion.
Canton won its first 15 games of the
season before going 4-4 over its next eight
games. The Warriors finished fourth in the
NCCC tournament and some thought the
team might get knocked out early in the
state tournament. Canton beat Kolbe Cathedral, Old Lyme and Notre Dame of Fairfield to advance to the final.
In the final, things were not looking
good as Canton trailed by eight points
with 1:30 remaining. But the Warriors cut
the deficit to within two points, only to fall
short.
“There was no quit. I think that’s why
we’re here,” Medeiros said afterward.
Jacquie Grabowski, Gabby Rose and
Katie Walker – the three seniors on the
team – didn’t dare to dream of playing for a
state championship in a WNBA area three
years ago. All three were freshmen on the
varsity team that won two games.
“I’m really proud of everyone,” Rose
said after the loss to Thomaston. “We
played as hard as we possibly could and we
just couldn’t pull it off.”
The Warriors could make it back to
Mohegan Sun Arena next year. Canton will
have a terrific tandem in Emily Briggs and
Maggie Treacy. Both were named all-conference this winter.
“Now we know what it takes to get
here,” Medeiros said.
The Farmington girls had a historic
season, setting a team-record with 26 wins,
winning the CCC Tournament championship for the first time. However, the Indians had their perfect season end with a 6961 loss to juggernaut Capital Prep in the
Class L semifinals.
Capital Prep and Farmington were the
top two teams in the state coaches poll.
The Trailblazers, who went on to win their
third straight state title, only played 19 regular season games – one game against a
team from New Jersey was canceled and
never rescheduled – which precluded the
teams from meeting in the final.
See PERFECT 12 on page 28
Hockey: Rink ‘cats in Granby win state title
By David Heuschkel
Sports Editor
The town of Granby is more associated with field hockey than ice hockey for
obvious reasons. From a historical perspective, it’s not even close.
But, for four seniors at Granby and a
handful of other hockey players in town,
it doesn’t get any better than celebrating
with other players from two rival high
schools in an odorous locker room at Yale’s
Ingalls Rink in New Haven.
The Elm City will always be a special
place to Jake King, Shane Kertanis, Ryan
Ohannessian and Isaac Stevens. They
reached the pinnacle of their high school
athletic careers by playing on the Suffield/
Granby/Windsor Locks Wildcats co-op
team that won the Division II state title.
King scored two goals in a 4-1 win
over North Branford, icing the win with
an empty net goal in the closing minutes.
Kertanis, the starting goalie, stopped 23
of 24 shots.
As the final seconds began
to tick away, Kertanis
began to hop up
and down on his
skates. When
the final horn
sound,
he
threw his stick
and gloves in the air
and threw off his goalie
mask. Players piled on
top of each other along
the rear boards.
“There were so
many people here. The
best venue I’ve ever
Granby’s Isaac Stevens
salutes the fans
been to,” Kertanis said. “The
biggest moment of my athletic career. I cherish every second of it.”
There were more fans
from Granby at the game
than there were in 2000,
the last time the coop team won a state
title. Only one player from Granby
was on that team.
This
year,
there were seven players from
Granby listed on
Photo by
David Heuschkel the CIAC tournament roster
along with nine players
from Suffield and seven
See RINK ‘CATS on page 28
A couple of things. First, the name the Rock Cats will
assume in Hartford. Despite wide spread criticism I’m
giving it the benefit of the doubt.
I was there when the Bristol Red Sox became the New
Britain Red Sox. A decade later, I fought the public relations battle against Boston Red Sox General Manager
Dan Doucette to keep the team from moving to Springfield and was overjoyed when Joe Buzas opted to stay in
New Britain, though I was disheartened that the decision
cost them their affiliation with Boston. The ensuing affiliation with the Minnesota Twins, however, lasted nearly
two decades and was one of the most successful and
productive in baseball.
The image of a punk cat dressed in leather strumming an electric guitar when the name was changed
to “Hardware City Rock Cats” was a hard sell at first.
Eventually, “Hardware City” was dropped because the
home town was lost in the translation. The cat himself,
“Rocky,” became a beloved image and a favorite of kids
who attended the games.
“It’s about what you can market and what appeals to
kids. We can do a lot with this name,” said New Britain
General Manager Tim Restall when the new name, “Yard
Goats,” was revealed last week.
While I would have preferred “Hartford Dark Blues,”
as a tribute to the city’s charter National League team,
it didn’t make the cut to the Final 10, of which my preference would have been “Blue Frogs,” incorporating the
“Blue” with “Frog,” a tribute to the section of town known
as “Frog Hollow” and to the short story that originally
brought renowned Hartford resident Mark Twain to national attention.
I like “Yard Goats” as a tribute to the railroad yard that
for decades occupied the new stadium site.“Yard goats”
were engines that moved trains into position to hook up
to locomotives. I have a particular fondness for the name
because John Nasin, who was an important part of my life
at the time, worked the tower on the site, retiring from the
railroad when the yard was shut down. I expect, as with
Rock Cats, the name will catch on in time.
Second. The men’s NCAA basketball tournament. The
women’s is a foregone conclusion through next year.
UConn won’t lose another game until after Breanna
Stewart graduates as the number one pick in the 2016
WNBA draft.
As for the men, I’m batting .500 plus. I predicted Kentucky and Wisconsin would be the only #1 seeds to reach
the Final Four. I had Duke out in round three. The Blue
Devils are dancing all the way to Indy. I had Villanova out in
round three. Wrong again. The Wildcats went out in round
two. I was pretty sure, however, that the weakness of the
new Big East would become evident once the postseason
began. Even the “bracketologists” had to learn the “mystique” of the league left with Syracuse, UConn, Pittsburgh,
West Virginia, Louisville, et al.
I stand by my suggestion that if any team causes
enough matchup problems to beat favored Kentucky, it’s
Wisconsin. We’ll find out Saturday when they meet in the
semifinals.
I do have a favorite. Kentucky coach John Calipari is
my horse in this race. He takes a lot of deserved criticism
for recruiting tactics that put the NBA first and education
way down the list, and violations that cost his two previous schools, Memphis and UMASS, tournament wins.
The “win at all costs” exterior doesn’t put him in exclusive
company among college coaches, but I know that beneath
that exterior beats the heart of a caring human being.
The year after taking UMASS to the Final Four Calipari
agreed to be the guest speaker for my longtime friend Ray
McKenna, the late, great sports editor of the East Hartford
Gazette, at his annual East Hartford Explorers Tap-Off Club
Hall of Fame banquet. A family emergency caused Calipari
to scratch at the last minute, but he promised to make good
a year later, at no charge. He was better than his word.
As co-chair and emcee for the event, Calipari kept in
regular contact with me throughout the year, calling me at
home, not just to continually reaffirm his commitment, but
to get updates on the type of audience he’d be addressing
and any old friends who might be there so, when he did
address the gathering, he added many personal stories
that made the evening special. He put a lot of extra time
and effort into making good on his commitment to Ray,
which I greatly appreciated.
Cal’s Wildcats have already been involved in the best
game of the tournament, the two-point win over Notre
Dame; now they’re likely to face their stiffest challenge. If
they win, I think they’ll finish it off and go unbeaten. Warts
and all, I’m rooting for Cal.
April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
25
Strong season for Avon
Photos by David Heuschkel
Left: Senior Trey Witter did the bulk of scoring for Farmington, helping the team earn a berth
in the Class LL tournament. Right: Avon 6-foot-6 sophomore Nate Laszewski (34) showed he
can score in the paint or from the perimeter.
Boys hoop: Nice stretch for Simsbury
By David Heuschkel
Sports Editor
Despite losing four starters from the previous season (16-7), Simsbury managed to win
two more games and advanced to the Class LL
quarterfinals for the first time in 30 years.
Greg Stillman’s team finished 18-6 and
has gone 52-18 over the last three seasons.
Most of the scoring burden fell on the shoulders of juniors Rayon Christie and Luke
Gorkofsky. Christie surpassed 1,000 career
points, reaching the mark in a loss to Hartford
Public in the quarterfinals. Gorkofsky also
showed he can score from anywhere on the
court, making buzzer shots from half-court
and beyond in consecutive games.
Two years removed from its first state
championship, Granby (19-6) had designs on
winning its second in three years. The Bears won
11 straight and finished the regular season in
thrilling fashion, beating rival Suffield in overtime
on senior David Eke’s three-pointer at the buzzer.
Granby, the No. 4 seed, won its first two
games in the tournament before losing to Notre Dame of Fairfield. Seven of the 14 players
on the tournament roster were seniors, including all-conference players Tanner Gibson and
Eke. But coach Wally Hansen will have an experienced core to work with next winter headed by Ben Eke, Connor Field and Fred Moffa.
Like the girls team, the Avon boys
grabbed a piece of hardware to remember
their final year in the NCCC. The Falcons won
the conference tournament, rallying in the
fourth quarter to beat Hartford’s Sport and
Medical Sciences Academy.
Avon nearly erased a 13-point deficit
against Windsor in the opening round of the
Class L tournament. The eighth-seeded Falcons
scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter
before losing to the No. 25 Warriors, 75-70. The
game was a preview of sorts for Avon when the
Falcons move into the CCC next season.
“This proved that we can play with
these teams,” Avon coach Chris Vozzolo said
afterward.
Avon went 1-1 against CCC teams in the
regular season, beating Farmington to win
the Taft Cup and losing to Glastonbury. Nate
Laszewski was among the best sophomores
in the state and freshman Jordan Williams
showed he belonged on the varsity squad.
Laszewski and senior Alex Zacchio represented the Falcons on the All-NCCC team. …The
late-season surge buoyed by the play of senior guard Trey Witter carried Farmington
into the Class LL tournament with an 8-12
record, marking the 17th time the team has
qualified in the last 18 years. Witter averaged
31.3 points in a four-game win streak that
clinched a postseason berth. In his final high
school game with the Indians, Witter poured
in 38 and dished out seven assists in an 8276 loss to host Ledyard in the first round.
His season total of 532 points (25.3 avg.) accounted for 44 percent of his team’s scoring.
The two-time All-CCC guard broke the school
record by making seven three-pointers in his
44-point performance against Hall Feb. 17.
He finished with 101 career threes. …Lewis
Mills went 17-7 and won the Berkshire League
tournament, beating regular season champion
Northwestern in the third meeting between
the teams this winter. Northwestern won the
first two. …Canton went 13-7 in the regular
season for the second straight year and qualified for the Class S tournament for the third
year in a row since coach Craig Archambault
took over. Senior Cam Daley was named to the
All-NCCC team. The Warriors lost to Cromwell
in the first round of the Class S tournament.
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26
The
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
Photo by Deborah Mundair
The Avon swim team, a co-ed squad with no seniors this winter, had its highest
finish in a state meet since moving into Class M in 2008. The Falcons finished sixth
at the M championships, the third straight year the team improved on its finish. Avon
finished 13th in 2012, placed 12th the following year, and was ninth last winter. Junior
Riley Strassner won the 200 freestyle at the Class M meet (1:42.53) and was runner-up
at the State Open (1:41.77). The Falcons finished with an an 8-6 record in dual meets,
including wins over Farmington, Conard and Hall. From left to right: team captains
Megan Foley, Ryley Higgins, Michael Oliver and Strassner.
Record-setting
diver
Photo by Rich Kowalski
Simsbury diver Cameron Schoffstall continued his
excellence on the board. The Boston Universitybound senior won every diving event during the
dual meet season, going undefeated for the third
straight year. He won the CCC West championship
for the second year in a row and set a pool record at Westminster School, Simsbury’s home.
Schoffstall finished fifth among 28 divers in the
Class LL Championships and was 13th at the
State Open.
Male Athlete of the Year
Canton native Michael LeDuc will
receive the Bill Lee Male Athlete of the
Year award by the Connecticut Sports
Writers’ Alliance. A Canton High graduate
(Class of 2010), LeDuc won the NCAA
Division III steeplechase championship as a senior at Connecticut College
last spring. He also won the national
championship in cross country in his final
collegiate year. LeDuc, who is a high
school biology and horticulture teacher
in Glenville, Ill., will be honored at the
CSWA 74th Gold Key Dinner April 26 at
the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.
Photo by David Heuschkel
All-CCC Boys Team Wrestling: Simsbury updates wall
Photos by David Heuschkel
Photos by David Heuschkel
Simsbury juniors Rayon Christie (top photo) and Luke
Gorkofsky (bottom left), and Farmington senior Trey
Witter (bottom right) were named to the All-CCC boys
basketball team for the 2014-15 season. Witter was also
named to the all-conference team as a junior.
All-CCC Girls Team
Photos by David Heuschkel
Four players on the Farmington girls basketball team and
one on Simsbury were among the 12 individual named to
the All-CCC West for the 2014-15 season. Clockwise from
top left: Farmington junior Cheray Saunders, Farmington
sophomore Mary Schoenherr, Simsbury senior Katie Martensen, Farmington senior Hannah Friend and Farmington
senior Sophie Borg (middle) were named to the All-CCC
girls basketball team for the 2014-15 season. It was the
third year Borg earned the honor and the second year for
Saunders and Martensen.
Simsbury senior Jacob Feldman, left, and Farmington senior Vincent Stevens, right, finished their high school wrestling
careers as state champions. Feldman won the Class LL title in the 195-pound division and Stevens won the Class L
championship at 285 pounds.
By David Heuschkel
Sports Editor
It had been six years since a name
was added to Simsbury’s Wall of Champions in the school gymnasium. There
will be two additions from this winter:
Keith Fernandes and Jacob Feldman.
Fernandes, a 145-pound junior, became the first wrestler at Simsbury to
win both the Class LL and State Open
titles in the same year since Lawton Arnold (215 pounds) in 2009. Arnold was
also the last Trojan to win a state title,
also in ’09.
Senior Jacob Feldman added his
name to the wall by winning the Class
LL championship at 195 pounds. Six
other Simsbury wrestlers placed at the
LL meet and the Trojans finished third,
one spot higher than last winter. Their
fourth-place finish at the State Open a
week later was three positions better
than 2014.
Feldman was runner-up at the
State Open. Lukas Stone, Keith Penney
(138) and James DeMaio (220) were
runners-up in Class LL. Feldman and
Penney both reached 100 career wins.
In the State Open, Fernandes won
a 5-3 decision over Class L champion
Emett LiCastri, a junior at Joel Barlow.
Fernandes beat Newtown’s Alex Stavola 7-0 in the Class LL final.
Fernandes was the only wrestler
from the Farmington Valley to place in
the New England Championships, finishing third. He is one of 12 wrestlers at
Simsbury to win a State Open championship. Next winter, he will attempt to
become just the second to do it backto-back years. Joey Martin won three
straight in 2003-05.
Farmington senior Vincent Stevens won the Class L title at 285
pounds. Stevens, Simsbury’s Stone and
Avon’s Gino Bonalumi were three of the
top heavyweights in the state. Bonalumi was runner-up in Class M and took
third in the Open. Stone won a 3-2 decision over Stevens for fifth place.
That was not the first time Stone
and Stevens went on it at the mat. In
late January, Stevens won the title at
the Doc Myers Invitational with a 7-1
decision over Stone. In the final dual
meet of the season, Stone won a 2-1
decision over Stevens and Simsbury
beat Farmington 42-24 to clinch the
CCC West title. …Granby had its best
season since Nick Watson, a former
state champion at the school, took over
the program three years ago. The Bears
had two runners-up in Class S – freshman Cooper Fleming (126) and senior
Steffen Janser (160) – and finished tied
for seventh with 113 points, its most
since scoring 125 in 2006 when Watson
won the state title at 135 pounds. …
Avon won its eighth straight and final
NCCC championship. According to
state wrestling historian Gerry deSimas
Jr., Avon ended its run in the NCCC by
winning 60 straight conference dual
meets, a school record. The Falcons are
responsible for putting 21 NCCC championship plaques in the trophy cases at
the high school.
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27
PERFECT 12
from page 25
Farmington senior Sophie Borg, who
played on the state championship team as a
sophomore, became the fifth female in team
history to score 1,000 points in her career. She
finished with 1,218 and she was a four-year
starter on teams that went a combined 81-12.
Borg and Hannah Friend, who transferred to Farmington for her senior year, were a
dynamic due for the Indians all season. Friend
will play at Maryland and Borg at Union.
Granby senior Julia Mazzotta also surpassed the 1,000-point mark in her final regular season home game, becoming the first
female player in school history to reach the
milestone. She was named all-conference
along with Krista Iwanicki. The two seniors
led the Bears to a 14-10 season that includ-
ed a first-round win in the Class M tournament. …Avon lost to Farmington in the
state quarterfinals but left the NCCC on
top, winning the conference tournament
for the 12th and final time. The Falcons,
who are moving into the CCC next year,
finished 21-5 overall. Seniors Shannon
Curry, Michaela Marcus and Olivia Welter
were named all-conference. …Simsbury
went 16-7 in Sam Zullo’s second season as
coach, winning one more game than his
first season (15-7). The Trojans, who were
6-14 the season before Zullo took over,
were led by all-conference forward Katie
Martensen. …Led by seniors Natalie Ruel
and Ruta Martisauskaite, the Lewis Mills
girls went 17-7 in what looked to be a rebuilding season. The Spartans went 19-6
the previous winter.
Route 44 Champs
Photo by David Heuschkel
Holding up the Division II state championship plaque, Granby senior Jake King and his
teammates on the Suffield/Granby/Windsor Locks co-op hockey team celebrate a 4-1 win
over North Branford at Yale’s Ingalls rink. King scored two goals in the game.
RINK ‘CATS
Submitted photo
The HYSA A travel team, with seventh and eighth grade players from Burlington and
Harwinton, won its third consecutive Route 44 Basketball Championship with a 54-46 win
over Middlebury March 15 at Wamogo High in Litchfield. The team finished 24-2 and has
won 83 games over the past four seasons. Front row from left to right: Bo Arndt, Cooper
Mattiello, Lukas Dudzik, Matt Geissler, Grayson LaBerge. Back row: Coach Dean Cowger,
Holden Cowger, Colby Norton, Alex Gallagher, Josh Schibi, Nate King, Quin Kirsten, Coach
Steve Schibi.
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The
Valley Press
April 2, 2015
from age 25
from Windsor Locks. In addition to the
four seniors, the other Granby players
were junior Zach Ziemnicki, sophomore
Guy Badeau and freshman Dan DeGagne.
Ziemnicki’s mother, Terri, is the field
hockey coach at Avon and girls lacrosse
coach at Granby. But she was a proud (and
nervous) hockey mom at Ingalls, especially in the semifinals when the team held on
to beat Branford 5-3 in the semifinals.
A 4-1 win over Branford in the regular season was in the middle of a nine-game winning
streak by the Wildcats. But a 3-0 loss to North
Branford in January started a three-game
losing streak, dropping the Wildcats to 5-4.
But coach Nick Boorman, who played
on the Newington team that lost to Suffield/Granby/Windsor Locks in the 2003
Division I tournament, said that was a
different team from the one that played in
the final.
“We have incredible seniors that led
the way,” Boorman said. “We just got better
and better as the season went on. We got
motivated. We always said we want to play
our best hockey come tournament time.”
Co-champion Trojans
The Simsbury girls hockey team
repeated as state champion, sort of. The
Trojans and East Catholic/Glastonbury/
South Windsor co-op played to a 2-2 tie at
Terry Connors Rink in Stamford.
With the start of the FCIAC boys tournament final between Darien and Greenwich running late, the coaches of both girls
teams were informed moments before the
start of the second OT that they would be
declared co-champions if neither team
scored. The OT periods were 15 minutes.
The teams met four times this winter with each winning once, losing once
and tying twice. Simsbury beat EC/G/SW
in the Southern Connecticut Conference
(SCC) championship game.
Sisters Katie and Maggie Grigely and
Nathalie Melanson were named to the allstate team. All three players, along with
Simsbury goalie Mackenzie DuBois, were
selected to the All-SCC team.
Home & Garden
Preparation is the key
to spring home renovations
Home improvement projects can turn
a house into a home. Homeowners plan
scores of renovations to transform living
spaces into rooms that reflect their personal tastes and comforts.
Homeowners going it alone may find
things do not always go as planned. In fact,
a Harris Interactive study found that 85
percent of homeowners say remodeling is
a more stressful undertaking than buying
a home. But homeowners about to embark
on home improvement projects can make
the process go more smoothly by avoiding
these common pitfalls.
Failing to understand the scope
of the project
Some homeowners don’t realize just how
big a commitment they have made until
they get their hands dirty.
But understanding the scope of the
project, including how much demolition
and reconstruction is involved and how
much time a project will take can help
homeowners avoid some of the stress that
comes with renovation projects.
For example, a bathroom renovation may require the removal of drywall,
reinforcement of flooring to accommodate a new bathtub or shower enclosure,
and the installation of new plumbing and
wiring behind walls. So such a renovation
is far more detailed than simply replacing
faucets.
Not establishing a budget
Homeowners must develop a project budget to ensure their projects do not drain
their finances. If your budget is so inflexible that you can’t afford the materials you
prefer, you may want to postpone the project and save more money so you can eventually afford to do it right.
Without a budget in place, it is easy to
overspend and that can put you in financial peril down the line. Worrying about
coming up with money to pay for materials
and labor also can induce stress. Avoid the
anxiety by setting a firm budget.
Making trendy or overpersonal
improvements
Homeowners who plan to stay in their
homes for the long run have more free
reign when it comes to renovating their
homes. Such homeowners can create a billiards room or paint a room hot pink if they
so prefer. However, if the goal is to make
improvements in order to sell a property,
overly personal touches may make a property less appealing to prospective buyers.
Trends come and go, and improvements
can be expensive. If your ultimate goal is
to sell your home, opt for renovations that
will look beautiful through the ages and
avoid bold choices that may only appeal to
a select few buyers.
a realist. Knowing what potentially could
go wrong puts you in a better position to
handle any problems should they arise.
The project might go off without a hitch,
but plan for a few hiccups along the way.
Forgetting to properly vet all
workers
Overestimating
do-it-yourself abilities
It is important to vet your contractor, but
don’t forget to vet potential subcontractors
as well. Failing to do so can prove a costly
mistake. Contractors often look to subcontractors to perform certain parts of a job,
and it is the responsibility of homeowners
to vet these workers.
Expecting everything
to go as planned
Optimism is great, but you also should be
Overzealous homeowners may see a renovation project in a magazine or on television and immediately think they can do
the work themselves. Unless you have the
tools and the skills necessary to do the
work, tackling too much can be problematic. In the long run, leaving the work to a
professional may save you money.
Home improvements can be stressful,
but homeowners can lessen that stress by
avoiding common renovation mistakes.
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April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
29
The relationship between paint and mood
Painting is one of the easiest and
least expensive ways to transform
the look of a space. The colors homeowners choose for their walls can give
rooms their own unique feel and even
affect the moods of the people within
them.
Finding the right shade for a bedroom or kitchen involves more than
just selecting the first color that catches your eye. Design experts and psychologists alike say it may be worthwhile to choose a color that helps you
feel good rather than just following
design trends. The paint color you pick
may add energy to a space or create a
tranquil retreat where you can unwind
at the end of the day.
Blue
To create a spa-like environment
and a more serene space, look to
shades of blue in soft variations. Cool
blues are soothing colors that can help
lower stress levels and promote sleep.
That’s why blue is a frequent fixture in
bedrooms and bathrooms. Just be advised that too much blue can make a
room appear cold and stark, so balance
out blue with some warmer accents.
Orange
Many people do not immediately
consider bright orange for their homes,
but when used as an accent shade, orange can really brighten up a home.
Orange is considered a shade that expands creativity and imparts a youthful
appeal to a space. Consider an orange
accent wall or a burst of color with orange throw pillows. If pumpkin orange
is a little too bold for you, tone it down
by choosing a more pastel, peachy hue,
which is equally warm and energizing.
Red
Red stimulates energy and appetite, which is why the shade is so popular in restaurants and home dining
spaces. Red is a good choice for social
gathering rooms but may not be the
wisest choice for a bedroom, as the color may prove overstimulating.
Green
Green can evoke composure and
tranquility and works in any room of
the house. Since green is the primary
color of nature, it also works well for
those people who want to bring some
of the outdoors inside and work with
the fresh starts and new growth that
green can inspire. To make green feel
less subdued and sleepy, work with its
complementary opposite, red, by using
a few bold red accents here and there.
Purple
People have long related purple to royalty, and this dramatic
color can add a formal, regal aspect
to a home depending on the hue.
Purple also may help stimulate the
creative side of the brain. In paler shades of lavender, purple can
seem almost ethereal and spiritual.
Some designers suggest avoiding
purple in a bedroom because that
is a place you want your brain to
rest rather than be stimulated.
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April 2, 2015
Yellow
Few colors are more vibrant
than yellow, which can help stimulate conversation and make
thoughts more focused. A luminous shade of yellow is an ideal way
to make any space more welcoming and bright. Just use it sparingly,
as too much yellow may not be a
good thing. Yellow accents mixed
with touches of purple can offer
the balance needed to prevent yellow rooms from overwhelming residents and guests.
Home decorators should keep
in mind that colors can be blended to create the desired environment. A color scheme based on
complementary colors, or
those opposite on the color
wheel, may fit. Otherwise,
analogous color schemes,
or those colors that are
next to one another on the
color wheel, can create a
variation that suits your
design needs.
Seeding and fertilizing will get
your lawn looking lush again
Restoring lawns and gardens
back to their pre-winter glory is high
on many a homeowner’s landscaping
to-do list. In much of the country, the
best times to tackle lawn projects are
when temperatures are moderate, like
in spring and fall.
These seasons also mark the best
time to seed and fertilize.
Planting and fertilizing new grass
seed should be done when frost is no
longer a concern and before frost arrives if you are planting in autumn.
According to Roger Cook, a landscape
contractor and contributor to This Old
House magazine, sowing lawn seed
should be done when the soil is warm,
the daytime temperatures are moderate and you can keep the new seeds
quite moist at all times.
While grass seed can be applied
in the summer, it is more challenging
to get the seeds to take root and thrive
at this time, as water is more likely to
evaporate under the hot sun.
Also, many weeds germinate in
the heat of summer. As a result, the
weeds can infiltrate areas of the lawn
where you planted, compromising the
look of your lawn.
The process of reseeding and fertilizing your lawn is relatively similar
if you decide to do so in late spring or
early fall.
• Rake the parts of the lawn you
plan to seed and remove any debris or
rocks.
• Apply fertilizer to the cleared
planting area. Use a rake or tiller to
break up the soil and distribute the fertilizer to a depth of roughly two to four
inches. Speak with a landscaper about
which type of fertilizer you will need
depending on where you live. Many fertilizers contain extra phosphorous to
stimulate root growth in the lawn.
• Moisten the prepared area and let
the soil settle. You want the soil damp,
but not so wet that it causes the newly
applied fertilizer to run off.
• Begin to sow the grass seed according to the rate indicated on the
seed bag for the type of grass you will
be growing. Choose a grass seed that
will thrive in your climate. Certain
seeds are more tolerant of drought and
sunlight, while other species are better
for shady areas or damper climates.
Again, if you have any questions, consult with a lawn and garden center.
• Spread the seed with a broadcast
spreader. Some lawn experts recommend spreading the seed in parallel
rows and then repeating the process
again in rows set at a right angle to the
first series of rows for the best chances
of seed coverage. The seeds then can be
raked into the soil, covered with a little
See SEEDING on page 32
Seed and fertilize
when temperatures
are moderate and soil
is warm. Remember
to keep new grass seed
moist with frequent watering.
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Valley Press
31
INNOVATION
from page 31
more soil and patted down.
• Water to keep the seeds damp. This may require
watering twice or more per day until the seeds begin
to germinate. Covering the seeds with about 1⁄4 inch
of straw also can help keep the seeds moist, deter seed
scavengers and prevent soil erosion. Remove the straw
once the grass begins to grow.
• Roughly four weeks after the seeds have started
to grow, apply another round of fertilizer to replenish the top layer of soil with nutrients that may have
washed away from the constant watering.
Homeowners can employ a similar process to
overseed a lawn in the hopes of producing a thicker,
more attractive landscape.
Any thatch and debris should be raked away, and
the top layer of the lawn surface can be gently aerated.
Top dress the lawn with a very thin layer of new soil
and compost.
Broadcast the seed over the prepared lawn and
lightly rake the new seeds to help them settle into the
soil. Apply fertilizer and water the lawn frequently to
keep the new seeds moist.
Once the seed has established itself, you can
water the lawn for longer periods and less frequently to
help develop strong roots. Wait for the lawn to reach a
height of three to four inches before the first cut of the
season.
Many homeowners like to take on the challenge of
seeding and preparing their lawns. But some may find
the task is best left to the professionals.
Sowing lawn seed should be done
when the soil is warm, the daytime
temperatures are moderate and you
can keep the new seeds quite moist
at all times.
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Apply Online Today At
www.caregiverjobsct.com
or call 888-844-4442
DCP HCA 0000101
Part-Time Position: Manager on
Duty (MOD) Applicants must have a
professional image appropriate for a
family environment reliable, punctual,
and able to politely and professionally communicate on the phone and in
person with guests, parents, managers, coaches and all other staff. The
ability to work in a team environment
and take and 2-years prior customer
service supervisory experience in a
fast paced environment. Experience in
a health facility, fitness center, or retail
store directly working with customers
is preferred.
Submit your resume to kris@valleysportscenter.com or apply in-person at Valley Sports Center 310 Albany Turnpike, Canton CT 06019.
I BUY houses
AS-IS. Cash.
Call TODAY
860-674-9498 or
Email:
john@boucherbuilding.
com.
CT.REG.# 530518.
Seeking FT auto detailing and wash
attendant. Must be a motivated, reliable, detail oriented individual to join
our growing team. Applicants must
have experience in the field, be able
to work in a fast paced environment
and possess attention to detail. Compensation based on experience level.
CT Auto Spa, 39 Albany Turnpike,
West Simsbury, CT, Rt 44 across from
Hoffman Auto Group (formerley Valley
Car Wash)
HAIRSTYLIST-CHAIR RENTAL available in well established upscale Avon
salon. All inquiries will be kept confidential. Please call Clyde St.Amand’s
Hair Design at 860-674-8400.
QA & Testing Managers: Bloomfield,
CT. Manage, plan & oversee all testing
phases for complex applics & projects.
Reqs MSCS or related & 2 yrs managing testing for complex applics &
projects (or BS & 5 yrs exp). Exp must
incl planning tasks in Agile & Waterfall
testing processes w/ MS Project. Drug
screen & b/ground check. Res: W. Roell, Cigna HLIC, 900 Cottage Grove
Rd, Bloomfield, CT 06002.
COINS, paper money, &
collectibles bought, sold,
and appraised for over 36
years.
Call Bob Kevorkian for an
appointment.
Higleyville Coin
1418 Hopmeadow St
Simsbury, CT
(860) 658-1344
A Dept of Simsbury Pharmacy
Business Opportunity
WEBSITES
Websites done right
JCWeb makes professional business
websites and gets you listed on Google and up to 90 different directories.
Call James at 860-940-8713 or visit
www.jcweb.org
GUITAR LESSONS
in your home. I am a Hartt School of
Music graduate with thirty years of
teaching and recording experience.
I have helped many students prepare for Jazz Band music auditions,
improvise, and learn to play their
favorite songs. All styles, levels,
and ages with references available.
Tom Tribuzio, 860-673-1210.
6he5ct@sbcglobal.net
Preset Restaurant/ Cafe/ Deli
Excellent Opportunity to Establish a
New Business or Open Additional
Location. Contact Irina Comer
at 646-596-1789
or irina@larsonassociates.com
TRAVELING MUSIC
TEACHER
Music lessons in the comfort of
your own home. Musician Billy
Romanos offers piano and
guitar lessons for all levels,
ages, and styles of music. Over
40 years experience.
Graduate of Berklee College of
Music in Boston.
Billy 860-978-3333
At Your Service
Pet Sitting in Your Home • Full Service Pet Care
HOUSE CLEANING
SPECIALIZING IN MEDICAL, NUTRITIONAL
& BEHAVIORAL NEEDS
POLISH /ENGLISH SPEAKING
WOMAN CAN CLEAN
YOUR HOME.
3RD CLEANING - 50% off.
Satisfaction guaranteed.
Insured. Bonded. Call 860-538-4885
HOUSE CLEANING
Polish lady is looking for houses to
clean. Insured, reliable, many years
of experience, excellent references.
Second cleaning 50% OFF.
Please call Mariana
860-748-3172
HOUSE CLEANER
Reliable, experienced, Polish lady
will clean your house at a great price.
Free estimates
860-830-4750
Flexible schedule
HOUSE CLEANER
Residential/commercial cleaning.
References available.
Competitive pricing. First cleaning
comes w/a free plate of homemade
Polish pierogis!
Call Regina 860-869-5021.
At Your Service
Mid-Day Walks Available
First Aid Certified
Transportation for Pets
References Available
Sandy Roberts, Owner
Serving Connecticut since 1999
860-673-2152
Does Health Insurance confuse you?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Affordable Care Act plans
Medicare Supplement Insurance plans
Medicare Advantage Plans
Prescription Drug Plans
CT Exchange plans
Dental/Hospital/Cancer plans
And more!
“We do Obama care and
the Affordable care act
plans!” Call us to make
it easy! 860-922-2005
Come see why people say “I have my health insurance with Dylan!”
Free no obligation no pressure consultation at my office in
Farmington or home visits available upon request! 860-922-2005
Call Dylan Cowen at 860-922-2005 today, to make the confusion go away!
Your local licensed independent Health Insurance Broker. dylanjcowen@gmail.com
There is no extra cost when purchasing insurance through a Servicing Agent
Give the
Gift
of Time
End of Winter Special
3 hours for $99.00
First time customers only. Expires 3/13/15.
.Daily, Weekly and One-Time Rates Available
Bonded & Insured, Gift Certificates
BBB Accredited and Angies List Approved
MORAWSKI CLEANING LLC
A Super Service Award Winner
Call Sandy at 860-651-4601 • MORAWSKICLEANING.COM
morawskicleaningllc@msn.com
April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
33
Home Improvement
BUSINESS & SERVICE DIRECTORY
$150- 6 weeks $300-13 weeks Add WEST HARTFORD Press for 1/2 Price!
$29-1 week
BATHROOMS
BATHROOM
Remodeling Your Bathroom?
Bathroom
Pros
Suffield
668-8000
West Hartford
232-8002
bathroompros.com
BATHROOMS
REMODELING
Baths & Tiling Our Specialty
Full & Partial Remodels
Also...Kitchens, Floors, Painting,
General Repairs & more
DO IT NOW Affordable Remodeling
203.434.0021
860.505.8537
HIC #613103
CT’s Bathroom Remodeling Experts
CT LIC #0673079
CEILINGS
CEILING EXPERT
F
U
L
L
Y
CEILINGS
Water Damage
Repair • Plaster
Sheetrock
L
I
C
E
N
S
E
D
28 years experience. Free Estimates. Insured.
860-890-6704
6
2
8
0
5
4
Texture Spray ~ Painting
Call Robert
by Todd Malinosky
specializing in
We knock out
CT License #557873
Call
Home of the
HIC 0638889
CHIMNEYS
$99
DECKS
LLC
• We specialize in wood and
composite decking/railing
• Professional craftsmanship
• EARLY SPRING SPECIALS
• Free design/consultation
CHIMNEY SWEEP!
With Full Safety Inspection
NEW CONSTRUCTION • REBUILDING • REPAIRS
CAPS • CHIMNEY LINERS • WATER PROOFING
F R E E E S T I M AT E S
HIGH QUALITY WORK
Get inspired at www.decks-r-us.net
G R E AT P R I C E
860.209.1485 craftsman@decks-r-us.net
CHIMNEYS
CHIMNEYS
IS YOUR CHIMNEY UNSAFE?
$20 OFF
CLEANING
& SERVICING
Pro Installer
Elite
CALL TODAY 860-594-8607 www.chimneychamps.com
CALL TODAY FOR A FREE
Specializing
in restoration
NO OBLIGATION CHIMNEY INSPECTION
Chimney Relining • Rebuilds & Water Leaks • Chimney Cleaning • Stainless Steel Caps
Offer Expires 2/28/15
VALLEY CHIMNEY SWEEP LLC
Mortar Deterioration? Cracked Crowns? Bad Flues? Liner Deterioration? Loose Bricks?
These problems can cause water damage to your roof and inside your home
and result in bad ventilation for your furnace and fireplace.
860-623-5359
Email: hardysmason@gmail.com
OVER
OVER2928YEARS
YEARSEXPERIENCE
EXPERIENCE
220 Albany Tpke., Rte. 44, Canton Village, Canton, CT 06019
Since 1984
860-693-3404
HIC License #0674006
WWW.VALLEYCHIMNEYSWEEPLLC.COM
DRIVEWAYS
EQUIPMENT REPAIR
ER PA
EWSince 1958 VI
Call For Free Estimates
Pick Up & Delivery
Available
Kyle
INC.
CIZEK ELECTRIC INC.
Additions * New Homes
Service Up-grades * Service Calls
* Generator Hook Ups * Prompt Service
155 Brickyard Road, Farmington
860-269-3103
860-673-0747
www.advancedequipmentct.com
Brannack Electric Inc.
ELECTRICAL
HOME IMPROVEMENT
AVALLONE
CONTRACTORS
Residential * Commercial * Industrial
860-242-6486
35 Peters Road
Bloomfield
34
The
Valley Press April 2, 2015
24 Hour Emergency Service
• Generator installations
• Interior & Exterior Lighting
• Remodeling & Additions
• Service Upgrades
• Telephone, Cable TV, &
Computer Network Wiring
• Repair & Upgrades
• Pool & Spa Wiring
License #103858 & 103859 • Fully insured
www.brannackelectric.com
ROOFING
SIDING
REPLACEMENT WINDOWS
GUTTERS
ADDITIONS
TOTAL REMODELING
INTERIOR & EXTERIOR
In business for a blessed 29 years
Lic.#514976
Call today
for your
FREE, no
obligation
consultation
& estimate.
with any chimney repair
work done
Over 30 Years In Business
LIC. #104659
SPRING TUNE-UPS!
ELECTRICAL
FREE
CHIMNEY CLEANING
ELECTRICAL
EQUIPMENT SERVICE & REPAIR
CPA REG. #593039
ELECTRICAL
EQUIPMENT REPAIR
EQUIPMENT
860-521-6942
Senior Citizen Discounts • Insured & Guaranteed
Visit Our Website:
www.hardyschimney.com
LICENSED & INSURED • CT LIC. #564099
ADVANCED
G
COMMERCIAL &
RESIDENTIAL
✔ Driveways
✔ Parking Lots
✔ Excavating
Darrell
N
BR
Insured • Prompt Service
SPRAY-TEX
for
FREE estimate
860-749-8383 • 860-930-7722
Call 860-706-2565 Today,
for a FREE quote!
the Competition
CLEANING OF ONE FLUE PELLET STOVE
Offer Expires 2/28/15
• Textured Ceilings • Drywall & Plaster Repair
• Ceiling Painting • Interior & Exterior Painting
& Refinishing
• New Ceiling Installation
• Bathtub Reglazing
Custom Design Tiling with
Mosaic, Stone, Marble,
and Porcelain materials.
CHIMNEYS
CHIMNEY REPAIR
& CLEANING
Specializing In: Cracked And Water
Damaged Ceilings
*R*US
CHIMNEYS
CHIMNEYSDECKS
DECKS
CHIMNEY
CHAMPS
You Dream It, We Build It!
CHIMNEYS
$20 OFF
CEILINGS
Custom Bathrooms CEILINGS
CHIMNEYS
&
I
N
S
U
R
E
D
BATHROOMS
(860) 582-0712
Fax: (860)410-1190 or (860) 583-2183
PO Box 9656, Bristol, CT • Fully Ins. Worker’s Comp & Liability
Email: avallonecontractor@att.net
Home Improvement
$29-1 week
BUSINESS & SERVICE DIRECTORY
$150- 6 weeks $300-13 weeks Add WEST HARTFORD Press for 1/2 Price!
HOME IMPROVEMENT
We canCHARLIE’S
rebuild stone walls
HOME IMPROVEMENT
We can rebuild stone walls
860-653-4677
HOME IMPROVEMENT
A Full Service Building Contractor
• Kitchens
• Basements
• Dormers
• Barns
• Offices
• Designs
• Additions
• Media Rooms
• Garages
• New Homes
• Restaurants
• Consulting
860-740-2161
203-819-1612
Over 25 Years Experience
www.accentbuildingco.com Licensed & Insured | HUD 203K & RRP Certified
HOME IMPROVEMENT
860-738-1502
John T.Yacawych
860-483-1912
DESIGN AND REMODEL YOUR HOME
Fully
Insured
BARRETT ENTERPRISES LLC
Home Improvement Contractor
So Many Amateurs . . . So Few Professionals!!
Replacement
•Windows & Doors
• Siding • Decks
860-589-2267
Pat Collin
djzshrake@cox.net
Lic#0621710
• Complete Basement Renovations
• Kitchen & Bathrooms Updated
• Windows/Doors Installed
• Pre-Finished Floorings • Custom Ceramic Tile
• Maintenance-Free Decks • Finish Carpentry
• Complete Painting Service • Custom Countertops
- COMPLETE MAINTENANCE & REPAIR • Siding
• Decks
• Kitchens
• Bathrooms
• Remodeling
• Improvements
Jim Barrett, Owner
SMALL OR LARGE • WE DO IT ALL!
HOME IMPROVEMENT
Visit us at www.dhradomski.com
LOW
PRICES
HOME IMPROVEMENT
CT REG.
ROOFING
#509749
SIDING • WINDOWS
DOORS • GUTTERS • DECKS • AWNINGS
D.H. RADOMSKI, INC.
HOME IMPROVEMENTS
High in Quality and Dependability
CT. LIC. #602130 • Office (860) 796-0131
www.berkshirewoodsmiths.com
Licensed & Insured
860.738.4931 or 203.232.9114
Lic. #HIC0625936
HOME IMPROVEMENT
860-250-1715
HOME IMPROVEMENT
Since 1988
Remodeling
•Additions • Baths
•Kitchens
Carpentry • Roofing
Decks • Siding • Porches
Windows • Masonry
Landscaping
Custom Ceramic Tile
Lic#
0631459
www.JPCountryBuilders.com
Old Fashioned Quality You Can Live With
HOME IMPROVEMENT
ROCKY
CONSTRUCTION
HOME IMPROVEMENT CONTRACTOR
ACCENT BUILDING, CO.
ACCENT KITCHENS, LLC
CONSTRUCTION
• Site Work
• Backhoe Service
• Bobcat, Wood Chipper For Hire
• New Lawns Installed
• New Septic Systems & Repairs
• Small Demolition Work
HOME IMPROVEMENT
FREE ESTIMATES
HOME IMPROVEMENT
860-296-3405
HOME IMPROVEMENT
NICK
Home Repairs
Serving the Farmington Valley
for over 10 years
All Type Home Repairs
CONSTRUCTION
35 Years Experience
Quality Work • Free Estimates
Reasonable Rates • Professional Service
* Concrete * Stone Walls * Patios
* Bricks * Belgium Blocks * Chimneys
* Wood Fencing
PLUS INTERIOR FINISH CARPENTRY
CUSTOM TRIMWORK & BUILT-INS
WWW.JOHNVALISWOODWORKING.COM
203-206-2839
John Valis Woodworking
860-485-9420 Reg. #550090
Email: adaleta99@hotmail.com
CT License #HIC0616677
Insured
HOME IMPROVEMENT
HOME IMPROVEMENT
JUNK REMOVAL
LANDSCAPING
Junk Removal
$149
For single truck load up to 1 Ton
PINNACLE
MAINTENANCE,
LLC.
Price includes dump fees,
labor and fuel cost. We will
remove junk from basements,
attics, and garages
Mattress & Box Springs
$50 extra.
“Building Trust By Doing Jobs Right!”
P.O. Box 791
pinnaclemaintenance@comcast.net Farmington, CT 06034
www.pinnaclemaintenancellc.com T 860-284-8975 Fax: 860-255-7900
LANDSCAPING
LANDSCAPE
CONTRACTORS
• Pool Patios
• Poolscapes
• Lawn Installation
• Tree & Shrub
HYDROSEEDING
Planting
EROSION CONTROL
• Pruning
Based In & Serving The Farmington Valley • Walkways
For Over 18 Years
& Patios
Fully Licensed & Insured
• Walls & Steps
• Yard Drains
• Excavating
• Grading
cell: 860-250-2908
• Snowplowing
• Bucket Loading
LANDSCAPING
FallMowing
Clean-ups
Weekly
• Mulching
Aerating
• Overseeding
Hedge
Trimming
& Pruning
• Mulching • Weekly Mowing
Powerwashing
•
Stump
Grinding
Pruning • Hedge Trimming
Complete
Landscape
Services
• Powerwashing • Stump Grinding
• Complete
Landscaping
SENIOR
DISCOUNTSServices
LANDSCAPING
LANDSCAPRING
Arboretum
LANDSCAPE & DESIGN, LLC
Spring Cleanups • Mulching • Mulch Deliveries
Stone Work • Patios • Retaining Walls
Sidewalks • Fire Pits • Pruning • Plantings
CT LIC# 0630444
FULLY INSURED
860-906-6736
Tree Removals
Expert Tree Climbers & Crane Service
Land Clearing • Brush Clearing
Shrub Removal • Hardscaping
New Lawn Installations
April 2, 2015
The
Valley Press
35
MASONRY
KC MASONRY
Quality Workmanship
Free Estimates • Lic#0604514
Ken (203) 558-4951
STONE MASON CONTRACTOR
860.225.3077
cell 860.839.8971
30 Years Experience • License #0630165 • New Britain, CT
SPECIALIZING IN:
Stone Wall Patios & Veneers • Patio Walls - Walk Ways
Chimney Rebuilding - Brick & Block Additions - Partition Walls
Basement Waterproofing - Drainage Work - Pre-Cast Retainer Walls
Pre-Cast Artificial Stone Veneers - Ceramic Tile Installed
Bobcat Service - Snow Plowing - Trucking
MASONRY
MASONRY
Free Estimates
Booca
Masonry Company
•
•
•
•
Stone/Brick Walls
Side Walks/Steps
Fireplaces/Chimneys
Firepits/Outside Living
(203) 263-0109
Cell: (203) 558-8019
boocamasonry@live.com
WWW.BOOCAMASONRY.COM
PAINTING
PAINTING
In need of having a couple of rooms painted?
Let
Speedy Pride Painting
beautify the inside of your home.
Scheduling interiors as well as exteriors.
If you sign within the next 2 months, receive $25 gift card to Starbuck’s
860-459-6705 speedypride@gmail.com
lic. #0623272
We also offer general handyman/repair services.
Our success is based on your satisfaction. Since 1986.
MASONRY
F&R MASONRY
ALEX EUROPEAN MASON
All work done by Father and Son
• Stonewalls
• Sidewalks
• Steps
• Chimneys
• Patios
• Repairs & more
Lic #0637257
Over 30 years experience
Retaining Walls, Chimney Repair,
Steps, All Masonry Services
Free Estimates • Fully Insured
203-232-0257 Lic. #0580443
860-810-4196
Insured
For Free Estimates
203-805-9114
PAINTING
PAINTING
ZB PAINTING
Interior & Exterior
HIC#0629057
Pro Quality
Painting & Home
Repair, LLC
860-201-7788
www.pqpainting4u.com
Aluminum, Vinyl & Wood
Siding & Shingles
• Good painting preparation
• Trim, Window Painting & Glazing
• Shingle Repair • Power Washing
INTERIOR WORK: repair ceilings, walls, trim,
moldings, baseboards, doors, windows
EXTERIOR WORK: Small Masonry Repair
• High Quality interior/exterior painting
• Remodeling • Interior/exterior restorations
• All home repair • Fully licensed and insured
Free estimates. You can count on us for a precise & excellent job!
20 year experience. HIC #0575928
Call: Zenon 860-518-0630
Bodgan 860-518-2625
The best decision you’ll ever make
PAINTING
PAINTING WALLPAPERING
& PAINTING
PROFESSIONAL HOME
IMPROVEMENT-REMODELING
INTERIOR SPECIALS FOR
THE NEXT TWO MONTHS
2 rooms plus a 1/2 bath
785 includes materials
$
Any 3 rooms plus a 1/2 bath
$
includes materials
978.67
Refer a friend, you both receive 10% OFF
ZIBBY DRZAZGOWSKI
(860) 675-4025
Farmington
KITCHENS - BATHROOMS - WALLPAPER
TILES- BASEMENTS - ATTICS
ALUMINUM SIDING
drzazgowski@sbcglobal.net
CONN. LICENSE NO. 536406 COMPLETE INSURANCE
Hanging • Removal
Interior Painting
Wall Prep • Skim Coating
Guaranteed Quality
28 years experience. Free Estimates. Insured.
860-890-6704
PAINTING
PAINTING
PAINTING
WATER DAMAGE REPAIR
PAINTING &
PAINTING -ALL PHASES
CEILING REPAIR
• Ceilings – Textured or Smooth –
Repaired, Repainted, or Replaced
• Woodwork – Crown Molding, wainscoting,
etc – Installed, Repaired or Replaced
• Drywall & Plaster Repairs
• Wallpaper Removal & Hanging
Olde Tyme Service
Call Andrew at 860-930-0392 or 860-659-1296
I will respond to all phone calls and will be present on all jobs.
Over 25 years experience. Insured • Free estimates • 24 Hour Message Center
CT LIC. #621995 • RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL
www.OldeTymeServiceLLC.com
PLUMBING
ROOFING
Small renovations,
home repair, carpentry
& painting.
Complete prep.
ROOFING
Reg #0562179
EPA
CERTIFIED
860-673-7280
ROOFING
HARMONY
Call now.
Roofing
& Siding
Sale!
Creating HARMONY
between customer,
contractor & community
STUMPS
STUMPS?
G OT
Call
VALLEY STUMP
GRINDING, LLC
SIDING
VINYL SIDING WINTER SPECIAL
Ranches/Capes start at $7300 (1000 SQ. FT)
Raised Ranch/Colonials start at $9000 (1200 SQ. FT)
Free estimates. Absolute lowest prices possible!
Deal direct with owner.
860-614-1173
Lic. #0639246
Ct Lic. #547581. Fully licensed & Insured.
Hann’s On Home Improvement
860-563-2001
Fully Insured
FREE Estimates
Lic. #604200
TREES
When It Comes To Tree Service
We Run Rings Around The Competition.
TREE CARE OR TREE REMOVAL
Grimshaw Tree Service
and Nursery Company
Call 860-658-4420 for a free
estimate or for more information
ntral Connectic
on how we can
h Ce
ut s
ort
inc
help your trees.
gN
e
n
i
Smartwood available
grimshawtreeco.com
68
19
Valley Press April 2, 2015
25 years of experience
in Farmington Valley
Home Improvement (860) 645-8899
REPAIRS/GARAGES
The
Power Washing,
Deck Staining, Light Carpentry
Lic #:HIC0607969
ROOFING
36
Interior & Exterior Painting
Cell 860-916-6287
Free
Estimates Home 860-523-4151
Call today and we will
show you quality still
makes a difference!
Lic. #0639246
BRECHUN PAINTING
ROOFING • SIDING
• WINDOWS • & more...
Old fashion, honest, reliable
service at a reasonable price.
All residential plumbing, repairs
done from leaky faucets to
snaking your main drain.
60-614-1173
PAINTING
T.C. Home Improvement
ANDY WOTTON
PLUMBING &
HEATING, LLC
(860) 833-8153
OT STUMPS?
ll
VALLEY STUMP
GRINDING, LLC
PAINTING
rv
Fully Insured
Dennis Volpe
MASONRY
Se
Stonewalls • Brick Walls
Bluestone • Steps
Fireplaces • Chimneys
Patios • Sidewalks
We can also do all
Masonry Repairs!
MASONRY