Waterford Times

Back to School, 2008

Stephen Chupaska — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:40:37 GMT

By Stephen Chupaska
Senior Staff Writer
The first day of school. The words seem to land on the page with a thud.
“The summer went by much too fast,” Don Macrino, Waterford High School’s principal, said.
Although students came back on Tuesday, the town’s six schools were busy last week preparing the buildings for returning students.
Below is a quick tour around the district.
Note: The Waterford Times will feature stories about the new Quaker Hill School in our Sept. 11 edition.

Waterford High School
The 51-year-old building began its face-lift this summer as construction crews performed an asbestos removal at the school.
“It’s been buffed up and looking ship-shape,” Macrino said.
The high school will also be welcoming 12 new staffers this year.
“We’re very excited about them,” Macrino said. “We spent the spring and summer going after the best and the brightest.”
WHS will also see more students in the hallways this year, as the school population has inched over 1,000.
Macrino said that the school will be offering an 11th-grade American Studies program, an interdisciplinary class that will be taught by both an English teacher and a history instructor.
“By combining literature and history we’ll be able to give students a full, intensive study of a time in American history,” Macrino said.
Also, WHS has changed its grading software from MyGradebook to PowerSchool.
“We’re excited about that,” Macrino said. “It will allow us to better communicate with parents.”

Clark Lane Middle School
A new program at Clark Lane hopes to ensure that sixth grade is not a tangled web.
Instead, WEB, or Where Everybody Belongs, is a program where 48 eighth-graders served as mentors for the incoming students at Clark Lane.
“The eighth-graders did a tremendous job,” Principal Michael Lovetere said.
WEB is a collaboration between Clark Lane and Waterford Youth Services.
The incoming eighth-graders underwent training over the summer and oversaw a day-long orientation last week.
Lovetere said the school population will be down this year.
“The bubble that we had for three years has moved on to the high school,” he said.
Hence, Clark Lane will share teachers with the high school in core subjects such as English.
The building, which underwent an extensive renovation in the past two years, is finally complete.
“We had to fix the boiler and a few odds and ends,” Lovetere said. “It looks great.”

Oswegatchie
Elementary School
The first day of school was the last one for Oswegatchie in its current building.
Principal Nancy Macione said the school staff and students are looking forward to moving into the new facility set to open in August 2009.
“They are finishing the parking lot as we speak,” Macione said.
Macione said that most of the “underground work”—the water pipes and electricity—has already been completed.
But the old school isn’t out of
commission yet.
Macione said Oswegatchie will welcome 10 new staffers to the school this year.
The school population is down to 275.
“That’s less than in recent years,” Macione said.
Macione said that the school will be expanding its student newspaper started last spring and hopes to publish once a month.
Southwest
Elementary School
Southwest and Great Neck are schools, not Fortune 500 companies, but it looks like they have pulled off a merger that should pay dividends for students and teachers alike.
“We’ve doubled the school population,” Principal Patricia Fedor said.
This will be the penultimate year for Southwest, which will remain open until the new Great Neck School opens in August 2010.
Fedor said the town has added a portable classroom to its Daniels Avenue site to accommodate the new students.
Even though the students from the two schools will have many new classmates, administrators from Great Neck and Southwest started a pen pal program for the children. “They wrote back and forth last year,” Fedor said. “That way they won’t be strangers this year.”
Although the school has ballooned to 500 students, the district has hired more staff to keep class sizes small.
“We’re ready to go,” Fedor said.

The Friendship School
Principal Kathy Suprin said the first day of classes at The Friendship School is a little different than at the town’s other schools.
“Our kids are between 3 and 5 years old,” she said. “So, they’ll have name-tags with the names of their teachers available.”
For many of the students it is their first time away from home, so Suprin said they want to make the process go as smoothly as they can.
The Friendship School, a landmark urban-suburban magnet school that includes children from New London, is now in its fourth year of existence.
Suprin said the school reaches out to parents and had them attend a “practice session” to help kids get on and off the buses.
Also this year, Friendship School will expand its student gardens, so that the pre-k and kindergarten students will be able to plant flowers and vegetables.

Skate Waterford

Stephen Chupaska — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:08:12 GMT

Zach Perry, a skateboarder of some local distinction, gave a mostly positive review to the newly opened Waterford Skate Park.
“It’s a good park,” said the 15-year-old, clad in a T-shirt heralding the ’80s punk band The Misfits. “It’s a little small, but that makes it easier to skate.”
The Waterford Skate Park officially opened its ramps and rails to the public last week, capping a process that took nearly 10 years to complete.
“It had to go through plenty of approvals, and there were a lot of concerns,” said First Selectman Dan Steward, who was on-hand to witness the opening.
Steward said the park, located behind the Waterford Youth Services Bureau in what was originally to be an overflow parking lot, was funded by a combination of public money and donations.
WYSB coordinated the planning and construction of the $29,382 skate park, with design ideas from local skaters such as Perry.
The town hired Jeff Paprocki, a Mystic native who has either designed or collaborated on skate parks in Westerly, Groton, and Norwich, as well as on Martha’s Vineyard.
“It’s a basic, small skate park,” he said.
The park, in its present configuration, features two quarter-pipe ramps, a ziggurat-looking ramp with both metal and concrete rails for grinding, and a Hubba Ledge—a concrete slope.
Paprocki said the apparatuses in skate parks are meant to mimic objects traditionally used by skateboarders, such as stair railings, usually to the consternation of property owners.
Also, the quarter pipe is an outgrowth of Southern California skateboarding origins, when skaters would use empty in-ground swimming pools as venues.
Skate parks were first built to try to prevent skaters from using public buildings and private property as places to perform tricks. But, according to an article written by skateboarding virtuoso Tony Hawk in skatepark.org, early public skate parks were often ill-conceived by city planners.
“I’ve watched some cities pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into skate park projects, only to be misled by inexperienced ‘low-bid’ contractors,” he wrote. “In short: a city designs a park to fulfill the demand of local skaters, then hires a company to build it; that company has no experience with skate parks, employs no skaters who understand the nuances of skate park features, and yet completes the project on time, under budget, and with self-congratulatory press.”
Many of the early skate parks, due to the lack of insight from skaters, became unpopular.
The modern skate park, with smooth concrete, rather than plywood ramps, became the norm in the early 1990s.
Mike Gallie, 16, said the town had previously set up a wooden ramp in the WYSB parking lot.
“It wasn’t very good,” he noted. “It had holes in it.”
Fortunately, Paprocki, 32, has been a skateboarder since his teens, and focused on the skate-ability of the park, noting his design centered on being, to use some jargon, “transition oriented,” meaning an emphasis on ramp skating.
“It’s small, but it’s unique,” he said. “It’s sort of like golf, you don’t want to play the same course over and over again.”
Paprocki said that many area skateboarders travel to each of the local skate parks.
According to Sue Radway, the director of WYSB, there was a local demand for a skate park.
“There are a lot of middle school [students] and teenagers who were skating in the street and in the sidewalks,” she said.
Radway said the site is readily accessible by the public and in a good spot safety-wise.
“It’s next to the police station and youth services,” she said. “That way, if anyone needs help it’s not far away.”
Radway hopes to involve some of the town’s older skaters to teach clinics on skateboard techniques and safety.
Also, Steward said the town is hoping skaters develop a sense of investment and pride in the park.
“They need to keep it clean and follow the rules,” he said. “Otherwise we’re shutting the gate.”
Radway said the park is a work in progress, and given the small space, she hopes there will be room to expand, albeit with private money.
“We are looking for between $20,000 and $30,000 in donations,” she said. “We’ll be talking about different ways to fund-raise in the coming months.”
Skateboarding Quick Facts

A 2002 report by American Sports Data reported that there are 18.5 million skateboarders in the world.

The International Olympic Committee is considering adding skateboarding as a sport for the 2012 Summer Games in London.

Male and female skateboarders competed in three different events in ESPN’s X Games 14 in Los Angeles in July.

Skateboarding’s signature trick, the “ollie,” was invented by Alan Gelfand in 1976. In 2001, Gelfand opened up a skateboard park in Hollywood, Fla., called Olliewood.

Walk Across SECT; RTM Notes

Stephen Chupaska — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:06:48 GMT

By Stephen Chupaska
Senior Staff Writer
The Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation is looking for volunteers to help out with its annual marathon-length Walk Across Southeastern Connecticut.
According to marketing director Shawna Constantine, organizers are hoping to have people distribute water to the participants and help register runners and walkers.
The Walk Across Southeastern Connecticut, which will take place on Oct. 4, will see some changes this year.
Constantine said the walk will allow relay teams to enter the walk, so that one person does not have to walk, or run, the entire marathon route.
“It is a way to get more sneakers on the ground,” she said.
Those interested can either sign up as a two- or five-person team.
The route has remained the same. It will start in Monument Park in Old Saybrook, then it will take walkers across the Baldwin Bridge to Route 156 in Old Lyme through East Lyme before finishing at Harkness Memorial State Park.
Constantine said the TBBCF decided to discontinue its fund-raising post-race concert at Stash’s in New London.
Instead, the foundation, named for the Waterford native who died of breast cancer in 2005, has been hosting smaller fund-raisers such as golf tournaments and a “bra art” auction.
For more information on the walk, visit www.tbbcf.org.

RTM Notes
The Representative Town Meeting voted unanimously to appoint Lauris J. Schwietzer to fill a vacancy on the Senior Citizens Commission. The term will expire April 6, 2010.
Also, the RTM appointed Kristen Pfefferkorn to the Ethics Commission, a term that will expire on Feb. 1, 2010.
The RTM also extended the collective bargaining agreement with the Waterford Police Union through June 30, 2011.
A total of $29,530 is RTM-approved for improvements to Spithead Road. The RTM also appropriated $472,000 from the Capital Improvement budget for the continuing renovation of Waterford High School.

A Doggie Delight

Stephen Chupaska — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:36:58 GMT

By Michelle Royce Williams
Special to the Times

Kerry Sullivan used to see a lot of Waterford residents at Groton’s dog park.
And so in January 2007 when a few of them began approaching her about trying to open one in town, she wasn’t too surprised.
But because a dog park is something that would only benefit a select group of Waterford residents, Sullivan, program coordinator for Waterford Recreation and Parks, wanted to make sure she investigated the idea properly.
Later that year, an ad hoc committee was formed to see if there was a need for the park. And when approximately 75 people showed for a public hearing on the matter, overwhelmingly in favor of a park, Sullivan and about a dozen other residents formed a committee to further advance the project.
More than a year later, on May 17, Waterford’s dog park at Stenger Farm has opened.
About an acre of the property, adjacent to Clark Lane, is fenced in with areas for both smaller and larger dogs. In total, the property spans nearly 100 acres and includes a number of dog- and people-friendly trails. Maps of the property are available at the Recreation and Parks office and are also posted on signage around the site.
While the park was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission as well as the Board of Selectmen, it was funded entirely by donations. To date, the committee has raised $16,000, which has funded among other things, trash receptacles, two grass seedings per year, and a two-year supply of doggie waste bags.
Other donations to the park have included picnic tables, fencing, and memory bricks. The Waterford Rotary donated funding for the park’s
signage.
The committee is currently raising funds to plant more trees on the
property.
As the property was already mowed and maintained by the town prior to the park’s opening, the town will continue basic maintenance.
Rabbi Aaron Rosenberg, a member of the steering committee that helped to open the park, said that before the dog park, the Stenger Farm property was a hidden gem that went unnoticed by most residents.
“Now I’m glad to see that it’s actually being utilized more,” he said.
He’s been one of the residents to start enjoying the park. He and his yellow Lab, Caleb, have visited the park a handful of times since its opening.
“It’s big enough that [the dogs] get good exercise,” he said, adding that it’s “a great place to take [the dogs] to meet other dogs.”
MJ Marcks and her boxer, Fender, and shepherd mix, Zildjian, agree.
“It’s been just an unbelievably great experience,” Marcks said. She and her dogs had been traveling to dog parks in Groton and Norwich prior to the Waterford park’s
opening.
Not only do her dogs enjoy it (she says one of them knows as soon as they drive onto Clark Lane and gets excited), but dog owners and other residents have reaped many of the same social benefits as the dogs.
“It’s a great social thing for the people as well as the dogs, which we hadn’t thought about when we opened the park,” she said. “People have met their neighbors.”
Marcks also sits on the committee and said that she hopes the park will grow in popularity as more amenities such as additional trees, seating, and a pavilion are
added.
The park seems to be taking off on its own in the meantime.
“There are people there all the time,”
Sullivan said.
She, Marcks, and Rosenberg have noticed steady traffic of about five to 10 visitors at any given time of day. Rosenberg also said that nearly 100 people and about 50 dogs turned out for the park’s grand opening on May 17.
But Waterford’s dog owners and their pooches are not the only ones enjoying the park.
Adjacent to Fountainview Care Center, many of the clients there can see the dog park from their windows, and can visit with the canines and their owners.
Across the street, Clark Lane Middle School students have also been able to enjoy the park while doing writing exercises for class.
For Sullivan, perhaps the most rewarding part of opening the park hasn’t been the rave reviews from those enjoying it, but the lack of criticism against the park.
Since its opening, “we haven’t received one complaint yet,” she said.
For more information on the dog park, for maps of the property, or to purchase a memory brick, visit the Recreation and Parks Department at 24 Rope Ferry Road, or 860-444-5881.

50 Years of I-95

Stephen Chupaska — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:39:01 GMT

I-95 in the summer.
Normally, that’s something that a meteorologist would mention when describing say, the average temperature of Phoenix.
Here, though, “95 in the summer” is usually accompanied by a grumble and one’s go-to profanity.
Every summer in Connecticut, Friday afternoons from Greenwich to Clarks Falls, exits 3 to 93, are a procession of hiccupping cars, trucks, and SUVs with New York and New Jersey plates all slouching toward Rhode Island.
Then, on Sunday, the same hodgepodge of hybrids and gas hogs go back from whence they came, like a school of steel-plated salmon.
There has got to be a better way, you think, sitting in your car, wondering what the kids in the back seat of the Escalade to your left are watching on their airplane-style flip-down TV screens.
“There must be a better way,” you say out loud, after wondering what possesses people to get vanity license plates.
Nope. As it turns out, when confronted with our nutmeg-flavored stretch of I-95, there isn’t a better way, just a longer way.

From Turnpike to Interstate
I-95, or, as it was once called, the Connecticut Turnpike, has been part of life on the shoreline for 50 years.
The turnpike, with tollbooths erected to help pay down the bond on the highway, opened on Jan. 2, 1958 with Gov. John Davis Lodge doing the honors.
In fact, after the state removed the tolls in 1985 two years after a lethal tractor trailer pile-up at a booth in Stamford, the legislature renamed the turnpike after the governor.
Actually, Lodge faced a revolt among Fairfield County Republicans over the construction of the road, and it eventually led to his ouster from
office.
The turnpike stretched from the New York line in Greenwich to the state’s town with the best name—the near-adverb Killingly.
Why Killingly? Because originally, the Connecticut Turnpike was meant to link up with U.S. 6, the route that connects Hartford with Providence. Long-term plans called for a highway between the two state capitals, but that was only partially constructed. You can see the vestige of the interchange, as I-395 north veers off toward the Massachusetts line, Route 6 then heads east.
Similarly, the entrance to I-395 at Exit 76 near the East Lyme-Waterford border is where the turnpike took its northward bend toward Montville and Norwich. That’s also why the exit numbers jump from 76 to 80 when continuing on I-95 toward New London.
The prodigal Route 11 was also supposed to spill out near there, but let’s all breathe regular on that one.
The Connecticut Turnpike was, as most people over age 35 will recall, a toll road, with booths all along the route.
It was 15 cents to pass through each booth, or you could purchase tokens with the rather spiffy looking CT Turnpike logo. My parents kept a stash of them in a little drawer in their old brown Oldsmobile station wagon.
And tolls are perhaps the reason for the little compartments near steering wheels that are now de rigueur in cars.
The fact that drivers had to pay to use the turnpike ran headlong into a classic Yankee trait—our, shall we say, parsimonious nature.
That’s right, we’re cheap.
The tolls led to the practice of shunpiking, that is, finding free roads in order to avoid shelling out the 15 cents.
Now, bringing the tolls back has been a political shuttlecock in Hartford; just last month former Speaker James Amman, who has his eye on Jodi Rell’s job, criticized any plan to charge for use of I-95 in the state, using the accident nearly 25 years ago as the linchpin in his argument.
He did not, however, mention there have been significant improvements in toll collecting since then, such as E-Z Pass express lanes.
State Sen. Andrea Stillman, who represents New London, Waterford, and Montville, has discussed reintroducing tolls at the Connecticut borders. For the sake of argument, let’s say the legislature brings back the tolls on I-95; what would the new shunpiking look like?
I decided to take a road trip to Greenwich from my home in New London without using 95, on a Friday.

The Road to Greenwich
Despite the fact I’m an ardent believer in mass transit who thinks it is shameful there is no commuter rail in southeastern Connecticut, I am a sucker for the road trip.
In the same way I get weak-kneed for all the saccharine romanticism of baseball, the same American-boy humor over-secretes at the thought of getting on the road.
I’ve done the cross-country trip on both I-40 and I-10.
I went up the California and Oregon coasts and have driven around the Mojave.
I spent two weeks a few summers ago driving around Ohio and Pennsylvania checking out Major League ballparks.
A week after my 30th birthday in 2006, I flew to Las Vegas, rented a Mustang, and drove at unmentionable speeds to San Francisco, a sort of preemptive strike on a midlife crisis.
And despite some guilt over the price of gas, I’m writing this after driving two days to a townhouse near Tampa where my girlfriend and I are spending a week.
But this would, in fact, be my first road trip in my native state.
Instead of ticking the “avoid highways” box on Google Maps, I decided to wing it and count on my sense of direction.
I started out on Broad Street in New London, or Route 85, headed toward Route 82.
Why not just follow Route 1, the Boston Post Road, and the colonial-era path that the Connecticut Turnpike replaced? Well, Route 1 and 95 are the same road in certain places, such as over the Baldwin Bridge.
I took 85 to Salem Four Corners, and then went west on 82 until it splits off to a lane that ends at the Hadlyme ferry landing.
It is $3 for a ride across the Connecticut River. How is it shunpiking if there is a fee to cross the river, you might ask.
Well, I decided not to be so pedantic and enjoy the excellent view of Gillette Castle and the even better one of the British racing green Maserati in front of me on the ferry.
I asked the Maserati guy how he would get to Greenwich without using 95. “Take Route 80 into New Haven, then take the Wilbur Cross,” he said.
Why argue with a guy with such a gorgeous automobile?
After disembarking the ferry, you get a quick peek into Chester, which recalls the fictional Connecticut town of Stars Hollow from The Gilmore Girls. (Nine out of every 10 boyfriends have seen at least one episode of The Gilmore Girls, and I’m not ashamed to admit I have a crush on that jittery Paris chick.)
I then headed west on Route 148, thought about going south on 145, but kept on until the intersection with 80 in Killingworth, a close second in the best-Connecticut-town-name sweepstakes.
I know the state has taken the trouble to note “Scenic Roads,” but Route 80 doesn’t get enough credit.
From Killingworth to East Haven, the road is an abstract expressionist painting of yellow blotches of sunlight along the asphalt. There are all sorts of deciduous trees to see in full summer glory.
The scene changes when you get to East Haven, as strip malls and intimidating intersections return.
But even then you get a splendid view of New Haven, which looks so much more inviting as a distant cluster of buildings viewed from a stoplight, rather than zooming by after surviving the Q Bridge.
I picked up Route 1 in the Elm City, and then promptly lost it.
I found myself on Church Street, with its wonderful collection of 19th-century homes, going toward
Hamden.
Once in Hamden, the hometown of Scott Burrell, the UConn basketball star who passed the ball to Tate George in the greatest moment in the history of Nutmeg State sports, I found, through sheer luck, the Wilbur Cross Parkway.
The Wilbur Cross is the warm-up act for the Merritt Parkway. Though they are both Route 15, the Wilbur Cross does not have the same cool-looking road signs, but does feature some of the same lovely overpasses that mark the state’s most famous road.
I exited back onto Route 1 through Milford, Stratford, and into Bridgeport, where I drove for a while on Route 113.
This was the first time I’ve driven through Bridgeport on surface streets. I never had any reason to go to Bridgeport before.
Like all of the state’s cities, it looks like it could really be something one day. Like New London, it has potential on one corner and crushing poverty on another.
I thought about stopping in South Norwalk, or, ahem, SoNo, but decided to keep on trucking through Stamford, where there seem to be condos going up at every street corner and commuters coming in from New York.
I stayed on the Post Road until it dumped me off in Greenwich.
The journey took me about three and a half hours.
I wanted to go shopping for Ferraris while in Greenwich.
“Do you have one in metallic gray?” I would ask. “How’s the resale?”
But I needed to get back to New London to run some errands.
So, my challenge over, I hopped onto 95.
There was a delay getting onto the entrance ramp to the northbound lanes.
Once on the highway, the electronic signs said there was traffic from exits 7 through 17.
I began to scan my fellow motorists to commiserate.
They looked like they had already said their favorite swear word.
Nearly four hours later, I limped into New London, after avoiding traffic near the old Turnpike-95 fork in East Lyme, by hopping onto Route 1, like maybe a disgruntled motorist would have 50 years ago. I stayed on Route 1 until it morphs into Bank Street, where there are signs reminding you
“To 95.”
The Connecticut Turnpike, or 95, is like the state itself. It was once the future, paving the way for what became representative government, and with the mills a jump-start to American industry.
But now the highway, with its quaint and congested two lanes each way, is a relic.
The future, as it happened, changed.
Now 95 is a problem, not a solution.
It must be strange for those who remember the gung-ho optimism that greeted this most modern way of moving people and goods, to see the highway as a stumbling block, a political minefield.
As the state plans on investing more into rail infrastructure and gas stays at a permanent high, I-95 looks like a road taken and an idea forsaken.

Art 'n Image Studio and Gallery Expands its Niche in Niantic

Suzanne Thompson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:04:00 GMT

It’s not just another art gallery and studio in Niantic. Maribeth Stone plans to make the Art ‘n Image Gallery and Studio, at the corner of Hope Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, a supportive place for aspiring and accomplished artists in the area, as well as a place to buy local art.

The studio, which opened in May, brings together all of Stone’s passions, including her business savvy. The 800-square-foot space is home for art classes taught by Stone, display and retail space for a growing little local artist’s cooperative, and an inspirational haven for creative types in general.

Stone had an art studio in Massachusetts and taught students for about 22 years, including in Canada, England and France. She and her husband John used to summer in Niantic and moved here fulltime about four years ago. After refinishing their beach community house, they both decided retirement wasn’t exactly for them.

“I found I missed teaching terribly, and when John founded Black Point Ventures Consulting, LLC, I decided to start over as well,” she said. “I love to paint and have had the opportunity to teach many students in the U.S. and overseas – it is my true love.”

Stone started out at Once Upon a Cottage in Niantic and quickly outgrew the available space. She selected the corner location, a former pottery studio, for its natural lighting, ample space for classes, sitting room, library, retail space and nooks for displaying artworks.

In addition to her art classes, Stone rents the space by the hour to other creative people to teach courses. This can be anything from arts to languages, computers, photography and beading to yoga, she said. The space can seat 30 to 40 people.

“Short of the library or community center, there really isn’t any space available for people to do this sort of gathering. Just come in and do your thing in a safe, quiet environment,” she said. “You can come in and have a cup of tea before class, enjoy the comfortable, friendly community spirit of the room, the cozy chairs, the relaxing atmosphere in the library/research room.”

Stone believes she has found a niche of artistic instruction that complements and differs from the courses offered by established art associations along the shoreline by helping students with specialized learning.

“Basically, I think a lot of the success of my teaching is because I interview my students so thoroughly. I find out what they want, and I gear all of my classes toward what my students want to learn, not what I necessarily think they should learn from a traditional standpoint of learning,” she said. “I don’t want them to feel like they have to keep learning the same stuff over and over, but from a different teacher.”

She admits it can be pretty scary to open an art studio in the shadow of an esteemed art college.

“I don’t want to keep painting circles, cylinders and triangles over and over again,” interjected Cricket Murphy, Niantic, looking up from her oil painting. She signed up for Stone’s classes to perfect her painting of trees after taking a semester at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme.

“There’s an integrity Maribeth brings,” Murphy said. “This is her passion, and her passion ignites her students.”

“My father wouldn’t pay for me to go to art school,” Stone said. “So I majored in business and minored in art. And I drew plenty of circles over the years.”

Stone offers daytime and evening classes in watercolor and oil painting for adults with all levels of experience, starting with beginner watercolor. She also is available for private instruction of adults and youth.

“I have mixed levels of students in each class because I think they learn from each other that way,” said Stone. “They really do want to help each other, and they can offer good, constructive criticism to each other.”

Stone also wants to help other local artists gain visibility and promote their works through an artists’ cooperative. She has already lined up at least seven artists, most local to the area, and is looking for about that many more. Works currently on display and for sale include beading by Christine Watson, stained glass by Karen Thissell, painting on glass by Margit Hartil, jewelry by Mary Vetel, photography, turned pens and bottle stoppers by Giselle Styron, as well as Stone’s watercolor and oil paintings.

“I’d like it to be Connecticut artists,” she said. “I’d love it if they were all from East Lyme.”

Stone has developed a side specialty of designing and painting stylized watercolor maps of the coastal shoreline and scenes of local beach community signs. Prints of her originals are popular as vacation mementos for visitors and guests, as well as framed art.

Another example of her business sense, Stone has teamed up with the Inn at Harbor Hill Marina to offer artist’s weekend packages. The stay includes an art class and one of Stone’s prints.

She also offers small, private cubicles, as well as non-instructional ‘do-it-yourself’ space for someone who wants to draw or paint.

“The best part is when you’re done, you can leave your supplies and personal items in the locked storage area,” she said.

For more information, call the studio at 739-5500. After taking a break in August, fall classes will start in mid-September.

Big Dog Therapy at York Correctional: Waterford resident offers pet therapy to York inmates

Interactive Desk — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:15:29 GMT

When Margaret Ormond, assistant principal at Norwich Technical High School, adopted an English mastiff named Porter four years ago, she became inspired by a friend who owned a therapy dog she would take into the Janet S. York Correctional Institution in Niantic and by a book Wally Lamb wrote about teaching writing skills to the female prisoners at York.

After Margaret read Lamb’s book, she was so touched by the plight of the inmates at York she decided to approach the administrators to see about bringing Porter into the prison as a therapy dog.

Margaret, a Waterford resident, was first introduced to the English mastiff breed back in the 1990s when her son, who’d just gotten married, bought a mastiff puppy. When he and his new wife came to visit with the dog, Margaret says, “They walked in with what appeared to me to be a full-grown dog. Her name was Miss Remington, and she was a beautiful brindle color. As things go, I ended up with the dog.”

When Miss Remington passed away in 2003, Margaret found herself in an empty nest.

“So I put in for a mastiff rescue and I received a call from a family in Coventry who had two mastiffs named Nora and Porter. They were looking for a home at the time just for Porter, because he was more feisty. They brought him down, he took over and got up on the couch, I gave him a piece of cheese, and he was mine forever.”

A year later Margaret took Porter to classes to become a therapy dog for convalescent homes. While Porter made his weekly visits to cheer up the confined senior citizens, Margaret remembered a friend who had the first and only therapy dog at the mental health unit at York. When that German shepherd died, the dog therapy program ended.

“I remember my friend, Ellen, telling me how fulfilling it was,” Margaret says. “Here I was with Porter, a therapy dog, so I decided to approach York and see if they were interested.”

From the start Porter was a big hit with the inmates in the mental health department, and it was not long before correctional officials asked Margaret if she’d take Porter for visits into the long-term maximum security building, otherwise known as Zero South.

“The lieutenant in charge at the time thought the women needed more stimulation and positive activities,” Margaret says.

After a year of just Porter and Margaret’s visits to York, Margaret ended up adopting Porter’s older sister, Nora since her owners were relocating to Virginia, and she now had two therapy dogs on her hands.

Inside Zero South

On the day the Times had exclusive access to follow Nora and Porter on one of their visits to York, Margaret says, “Each time I pull into the front security gate Nora and Porter get so happy. They know where they’re going.”

It’s a hot sunny Saturday when we enter the sterile prison, officially known as the Janet S. York Correctional Institution. The expansive compound is the only prison in the state to hold female inmates, nearly 1,400 of them, and most of them adults. The facility also holds youthful offenders (ages 16 and 17) and some juveniles (ages 9 to 15).

It’s a long walk for the dogs on such a hot day from the entry area of the main compound to Zero South—the Level 4 maximum security building where long-term inmates are housed—and we are escorted by Counselor-Supervisor Erin Murphy-Pelletier.

The walk is made harder by the fact that Nora and Porter are senior citizens. Porter at 7 1/2 years and Nora, his senior by a year, are both approaching their 10-year life expectancy.

Once the dogs enter the common area outside the cell block tiers, several inmates become excited as they wait on the other side of the cell block doors. One inmate waves in anticipation from behind the glass wall.

A corrections officer at the duty officer’s desk opens the doors from behind a large console panel, and the doors to each of the four cell tiers open and seven young women enter the common visitor’s area. The rest stay behind, paying no regard to the canine visitors.

There is a rush of smiles and hugs among the women as they greet Margaret and her mastiffs.

The dogs finally have a chance to rest and immediately lie down on the cool, white-speckled linoleum tile floor beside one of four fixed tables and chairs (there is nothing in the room that is not bolted down). Two of the inmates immediately fetch bowls of water for the panting dogs.

Corrections Officer Conrad and Murphy-Pelletier are seated at the duty desk. The inmates become so focused on Nora and Porter it is as though the officers have vanished into the background, or they are not there at all.
While the inmates are seated on the floor with the dogs, Margaret shares stories of Nora’s and Porter’s latest adventures.

“I took the dogs to the beach and Porter jumped right in but Nora didn’t want to get her toes wet,” Margaret says, and the women laugh.

On one recent visit Margaret told the women she’d just gotten engaged so they wanted to know how her fiance, Larry, likes the dogs. “I told them, I think Larry is the right man because he showed up on the first date with two humongous dog bones.”

The inmates get to live vicariously through Margaret’s personal stories about the world outside their sterile confines—a world they otherwise only get to glimpse through a television or the pages of magazines.

While they talk more, huddled around the dogs, Kim and Jessica take turns painting red nail polish on Nora’s toenails, front and back, which complement the pinkish flower on her collar and her white pearl necklace.

Porter, sporting a U.S. Marines emblazoned bandana around his neck, lies on his side while Jennifer runs a small brush through his fur. Nicole directs others to bring more water for the dogs.

After a few more laughs, Margaret says, “Who shares a birthday with Prince Charles and my brother?”

The women look quizzical.

“Porter!” she answers. Plans are then made among the women to make a meatloaf birthday cake for Porter’s Nov. 14 party.

Near the end of the visit, Jessica runs off to bring back a paper bag filled with apples and small plastic cups of peanut butter the women have saved up over the past two weeks. Porter has no trouble getting to his feet when he smells food, and Fernanda joins Jessica in feeding the dogs the peanut butter and apples.

For an hour and a half, any misdeeds of the past that have brought these seven young women to this prison seem to be forgiven if not forgotten, and Porter and Nora, two canine ambassadors of unconditional love, clearly hold no malice, no vengeance, no judgment whatsoever toward these prisoners.
Lockdown comes at 2:30 p.m.—in preparation for the officer’s shift change at 3—and Porter’s and Nora’s fans are ordered back to their cell tiers.

During the long walk from Zero South back to the administration building, Nora is the one who is tired this time and lingers behind, puffing along like an old train engine.

We stop at the back door to the kitchen, by Porter’s choice.

“He always knows where the food is,” Margaret says.

One of the eight or so women to emerge from behind the solid double doors asks if she can be in the program to receive a visit from Porter and Nora. There is some discussion about the limits of the dogs’ weekly visits so the short answer is, unfortunately, “No.” Margaret and her dogs could not possibly visit every building in the compound.

Back at the main exit, more than two dozen corrections officers file out, heading for home. Lt. O’Hanlon has a cheeseburger for each dog, a treat he has waiting for them on each visit.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my life,” Margaret says. “I came from a good family. I grew up in a time when things were simpler. I don’t know why any of these women are here. I don’t ask any questions and I don’t want to know. You don’t look at them as prisoners, you look at them as human beings, as women.”

Knowing that most of these women will one day return to the outside world, Margaret says, “The dogs allow me to bring some change to their lives,” to help them on their journey.

By Jason J. Marchi
Times Correspondent

Life Lessons at Camp Harkness

Stephen Chupaska — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:44:00 GMT

There’s no place like Camp Harkness.
It’s not just the setting, though its location on 102 verdant acres on Long Island Sound is certainly stunning.
No, it’s the people who spending their summers working as counselors, lifeguards, and cooks there, all for the benefit of the 34,000 disabled people a year who visit.
“It’s the only place like it that I know,” said Cecelia Roberts, a nurse who has worked at the camp every summer since 1977.
There are two aspects to Camp Harkness: the camps that cost between $300 and $700 and the parts that are open for people who just want to use the beach.
Several organizations, including United Cerebral Palsy and ARC of Southeastern Connecticut, run week-long vacation camp programs at the site with its four “villages” of cabins and bungalows.
Campers arrive on Sundays and stay through Friday, days during which they can garden and take part in basketball and legendary kickball games.
There are also boating classes, cooking, a bonfire or two, and day trips to the mall. Every Tuesday evening there is a dance, and every Wednesday a carnival.
And, of course, there’s the beach.
Vicki Severin, the camp director, said the beaches are all wheelchair-accessible, and the camp has a fleet of chairs with all-terrain tires for easy mobility on the sand.
Severin said many who aren’t taking part in a camp program often come to just go to the beach.
“There’s freedom here for the people that come,” she said. “For instance, if you bring an autistic child to a regular beach, some people might stare; here everyone understands.”
It’s the beach that drew lifeguard Megan Vandenbosch, a Waterford native who is now a teacher in New Hampshire, to Camp Harkness.
She was looking for work the summer before she went to college, when a friend told her there was a lifeguard opening at the camp.
That was eight years ago.
“I love it here,” Vandenbosch said. “Just seeing everyone here enjoying their vacation...it’s a really cool place.”
Vandenbosch said working at the camp changed the direction of her career; when she got to Plymouth State College in New Hampshire, she decided to study special education.
Bonnie Sullivan, Camp Harkness assistant director, said that working at the camp can be life-changing.
“It’s amazing how much it can change your life,” she said. “You grow up and get a better idea of what’s important in life.”
Sullivan, who was helping to scoop ice cream at the Wednesday carnival, said she just likes watching the campers enjoy themselves.
Ann Marie Wellman has been coming to the camp since she was 5 years old.
“I was a camper, a counselor, and now a director,” Wellman said.
Wellman has slight cerebral palsy, but now helps others with the condition to enjoy themselves during their week-long stays.
Wellman is also a wellspring of Camp Harkness lore.
“We used to camp out and tell each that Mr. and Mrs. Harkness would come by to eat our toes,” she laughed.
Also, Wellman relayed the tall tale of the Silver Saint.
Apparently, there was a counselor who waded out to rescue a camper from the Sound during a horrific storm. The camper made it, the counselor, unfortunately, did not.
“But we said he came back as the Silver Saint,” Wellman said. “We would paint rocks and blankets silver [to keep the myth going].”
Wellman, who now lives in Merrimack, N.H., also got married at the camp.
Camp Harkness was originally part of the Harkness family’s summer home. In the 1920s, the philanthropic Mary Harkness would invite children with polio to summer there. The state inherited the property in 1952 and put it under the auspices of the Department of Environmental Protection—later, in 1977, the Department of Mental Retardation, and still later to be called the Department of Developmental Services, which assumed control of the property.
While Camp Harkness originally started as a destination for children, Severin said the number of kids that
attend has decreased in recent years.
“Children are more main-streamed these days,” she noted.
Wellman said that some of the main-streamed children are “missing out” on a great camp experience at the park.
Even the person who works the gate at the park’s entrance comes back every year.
Nina Maryeski, a theater student at Laval University in Quebec City, said this is her 10th summer at Camp Harkness.
“It’s the smiles you see on the campers,” said Maryeski, whose parents live nearby in Waterford.
Maryeski said her mother stopped by on carnival night to say hello.
She added, “My mother looked around and told me, ‘This is the nicest thing [she’s] ever seen.’”

Motor Vehicle Safety Campaign

Interactive Desk — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:18:45 GMT

The Waterford Police Department is joining more than 13,000 law enforcement agencies in a nationwide crackdown on driving under the influence violators. Waterford Police are participants in the Comprehensive 2008 DUI Enforcement Program. This program will put two additional Officers on patrol this week through the July 4th holiday weekend, to bolster DUI enforcement assets.

Waterford will also put additional Officers on patrol again, in mid-August 2008, and during the week leading up to Labor Day holiday weekend.

During this DUI enforcement wave, the officers will target DUI, as well as seatbelt, speeding and all other motor vehicle violations. Officers may also be conducting future DUI checkpoints. An emphasis is placed on DUI enforcement between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.

This campaign is part of the Federal Highway Safety Program in accordance with the 2008 Fiscal Year Connecticut Highway Safety Strategic Plan.

The Waterford Police Department urges all motorists to voluntarily participate in safe responsible motor vehicle operation, and remember – DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!

Officer David Anderson

Traffic Officer

Waterford Police Department

Waterford High School’s 49th commencement

Stephen Chupaska — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:35:38 GMT

Though the forecast for Thursday called for brilliant sunshine and temperatures in the 70s, Principal Don Macrino was fearing the worst.
The night before Waterford High School’s graduation day, a series of violent thunderstorms slashed through the region.
Macrino, an English teacher at heart, was remembering something Mark Twain reportedly said: “If you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a few minutes.”
“Hopefully this holds up,” Macrino said, about an hour before the commencement.
It did, and on a lovely summer evening last week, 207 WHS seniors got what they have been waiting four years for—a diploma.
“I’ve gotten to know this class,” Macrino said to the 1,000 people sitting in the stands at Alumni Memorial Field. “You’re smart, you’ve got a sense of humor.
“As you go into the future, I hope you make it better.”
The class of 2008 valedictorian, Tianchi Xu, dipped into the familiar language of American history to bid his classmates goodbye.
Referencing Abraham Lincoln, Xu emphasized the “mystic chords of memory,” that bind the class together.
Xu also defined the pursuit of his classmates’ dreams as “happiness.”
Class salutatorian Anthony Chang gave a lighthearted address, giving the school administration some stick for “being one of the schools that didn’t close” during the early June heat wave.
“But we sweated it out like true Lancers,” he said.
Chang also touted the dedication of the class of 2008, noting the 80-plus hours of community service its members contributed to the community.
First Selectman Dan Steward, a WHS alumnus, reminded the graduates of the rapidly shifting world ahead of them, but gave the class a vote of confidence.
“You are the success we hope for,” he said.
As Steward concluded his remarks, a train whistle blared.
“That is your salute from Amtrak,” Macrino told the graduates.
Before the commencement, the school’s 49th, classmates assembled in the gymnasium to take pictures and exchange final hugs.
“It will be strange not seeing the same people every day,” Felicia Richard, 17, said.
Li Mei Zhang, the alphabetically penultimate name on the roster of graduates, said graduation night was “bittersweet.”
Her friend Emily Salzer was wrapped around in what looked like a permanent hug.
“It will be sad, losing contact with friends,” Salzer said. “But I’m not afraid [of the next step].”

Last Bell: Two Waterford Teaching Legends Retire

Stephen Chupaska — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:27:45 GMT

Class One: June 2, 2008, 12:40 to 1:40.
Michael Cannamela stands in the doorway of his classroom toward the end of one of Waterford High School’s dimly lit corridors, like he is waiting for a late-arriving student, only this time it’s a tardy reporter without a hall pass.
“It’s all right,” he said. “Come on in.”
All around Cannamela’s classroom are pictures and banners of mouth-watering red Ferrari sports cars. There are so many, you almost miss the pictures of the fish.
“Yes,” he laughed. “Ferraris and fish—two of my favorites.”
Cannamela is overseeing a study hall and a small group of students is huddled at the back of the classroom, presumably doing homework, but then again, it’s June.
Cannamela pulls out a chair to the side of the desk, offering me a seat in the manner he must have for dozens of students who stayed after school for extra help, that mostly likely morphed into one of those conversations where you really get to know your teacher and find out they are flesh and bone—not some red-penned grading machine.
I noticed behind him a copy of the late Jeff Buckley’s album Grace, a record that meant plenty to the high school me back in 1994.
“I was playing my students his version of ‘Hallelujah,’” he said. “It’s part of our unit on poetry.
“It’s a spectral version of a haunting song by Leonard Cohen, with lines such as, ‘All I’ve learned from love is how to shoot somebody who outdrew you.’”
Cannamela then repeated the song’s most gripping line, “Love is not a victory march, it’s a cold and broken Hallelujah.”
“Plus the song was in Shrek,” he said with a smile.
“Hallelujah” illustrated the point he wanted to make to his students: “Poetry is words sewn together.”
It’s one of the last classroom lessons he’ll impart. Cannamela is retiring this month after 35 years of teaching in the Waterford public schools.
He spent 32 years at Clark Lane Junior High and then Middle School, before spending the last four at WHS.
And come this August, Cannamela and his wife, Joan, a Clark Lane history teacher who is also retiring, will be driving the Maine coast in search of lobster rolls and ice cream.
Cannamela realized teaching was for him when he was attending elementary school in Waterford.
“I was in the sixth grade and we had to read stories to the first-graders,” he said. “It was then I realized the power of language.”
Plus, he repeated the “Internationale” of English majors: “I have no math ability.”
He studied literature at Central Connecticut State University, developed a lifelong love of Ken Kesey and Kurt Vonnegut, and began teaching in Waterford shortly after he graduated.
Cannamela said some of the books he admired as a student, such as S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, still resonate with today’s teenagers.
But today’s students, he noted, are different from yesterday’s.
“Books aren’t as important to them,” he said. “Nobody reads fiction anymore.”
Also, the manner in which teachers hold court in the classroom has changed.
“Testing is such a phenomenal part of it now,” he said. “It’s a constant pressure; sometimes I think I’ve trained them, but not educated them.”
It’s that sort of candid talk that no doubt earned him the admiration of students such as Anya McCarthy, who e-mailed him to see if he’d like to help Habitat for Humanity build homes in New Orleans.
Or this one: A former student of Cannamela’s, who is now in college, e-mailed him recently and referred to her former English teacher as her “conscience.”
This particular student was out sick during the time her professor gave a review of the class in preparation for the final exam.
The student contacted her professor shortly thereafter to see if she could get the review notes.
The professor agreed, but accidentally sent her the actual final exam.
“It was then,” Cannamela said, “she pictured me over her shoulder like Jiminy Cricket.”
The student immediately sent back the final and deleted it.
“I got one of my students to make a moral decision through literature,” Cannamela said. “My work here is done.”

Class Two: June 3, 2008, 9:15 to 9:50.
Trying to enter Clark Lane Middle School makes you appreciate what it must be like for a UPS delivery person outside a Soho walk-up.
Because the door is locked, one must push a button, wait for someone to answer, and then as a sign advises, “State your business,” after which, presumably, you are buzzed in.
Once inside, I got a visitor pass and attempted to locate Joan Cannamela’s classroom in the labyrinthine school.
All the while, a security guard eyed me and followed a few steps behind.
The guard immediately became suspicious when I took a right when I should’ve gone left, and became lost.
“Why don’t you follow me,” he said, as he escorted me to the intersection of two hallways. “Room S113 is toward the end of the hallway.”
The guard then watched me as I walked down the hall and knocked on Cannamela’s door.
After apologizing for being a tad late, I mentioned the guard’s fastidiousness with my presence.
“That’s what has changed the most in schools since I started,” she said. “It’s what happened after Columbine.”
Cannamela, a history teacher in Waterford for 38 years, said her eighth-grade classes often discuss the 1999 high school shooting in Colorado in terms of personal freedoms.
“We discuss the difference between freedom and security,” she said. “That was a pivotal moment.”
In fact, it’s most of what Cannamela has spent her career doing, pointing out pivotal moments in history and relating them to her students’ own experiences.
Cannamela said over the years her students have reacted positively to personal narratives such as Frederick Douglass’ autobiography and Night by Elie Wiesel.
“We balance in a sense of hope,” she said.
During her final few weeks in the classroom, Cannamela’s been giving lessons on America in the 1950s, as pictures of pop-culture icons from the decade adorn the walls.
Lately she’s been playing the students Chuck Berry records, and, “They like it more than they will admit.”
“I grew up in the ‘50s,” she laughed. “Maybe it is time to retire when you are teaching the decade you grew up in.”
Cannamela is a New Londoner by birth, one of three daughters.
Her father was a Navy man who died shortly after the end of World War II, leaving Cannamela’s mother to raise the children.
“My mother was a strong advocate for making it on your own,” she said. “You need to support yourself.”
Cannamela’s mother put all her daughters through college.
Cannamela, ever the history teacher, instilled the quintessential American values of self-reliance into the two daughters she had with Michael.
“Katie teaches Italian at Norwich Free Academy,” she said, “and Gabrielle is a scientist.”
Cannamela has been thinking about what it is going to be like come August and she’s not getting ready for school. For Cannamela, her decision to retire is a product of good timing, like a TV show that ends before it “jumps the shark.”
“I still feel inspired,” she said. “I’m not retiring because I’m disgruntled; I’m ending my career still energized.”

School Board Cuts $325,000 From Budget

Stephen Chupaska — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:03:04 GMT

The Board of Education cut $325,000 from its 2008-2009 budget, leaving the public schools with a $39.73 million spending plan for the coming fiscal year.
Superintendent of Schools Randall Collins said last week that while any budget reductions are tough, this budget season “was a good process.”
“It’s hard to be upset when we know there is a revaluation,” he said. “Over the years the taxpayers have been very generous with the schools.”
The big ticket reductions included a $122,316 savings not filling vacant positions in the next year, $121,240 in technology equipment, and the board decided to postpone adding $125,000 in health insurance costs until the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
Other cuts included $24,520 in school supplies, $10,000 in special education tutors, and $6,000 in new software.
Despite the cuts, Collins highlighted the programs the school board decided to keep.
“We left full-day kindergarten alone,” he said. “We also decided to keep the gifted and talented programs.”
Collins added that the G&T programs would be “revamped.”
“We did not cut programs,” he said.

News and Notes
While the new Quaker Hill School is in the same locations as its predecessor, the building scheduled to open in the fall will have a new
address, 235 Bloomingdale Road.
The old address was on Old Norwich Road.
School board President Donald Blevins and Waterford High School Principal Donald Macrino presented WHS students Samantha Strong and Kyle Turnier with the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education Student Leadership Awards.
The school board voted to place signage around school construction sites notifying passersby that they might be recorded by a surveillance camera.
“You might end up on YouTube doing something you’re not supposed to be doing,” Collins joked.
Collins announced that ground will be broken on the Great Neck School renovation on June 16.
Also, a ceremony for retiring school staff will be held in the Board of Education offices in Town Hall on June 12. The ceremony will begin at 4 p.m.

Waterford animal control officer Robert Winters keeps a leash on things

Stephen Chupaska — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:01:34 GMT

Nero is barking, not fiddling, and he’s in a safe place.
As his name suggests, the jet black Nero is a mixed Labrador with a little bit of terrier in him and he is looking for a home.
“He’s a great dog,” said Robert
Winters, the animal control officer for Waterford and East Lyme, while holding onto the leash. “He’s completely house-trained.”
For now, though, Nero is taking up temporary residence at the animal shelter adjacent to the Waterford Public Safety Complex.
Winters has been credited with turning around not only the animal shelter facility, but for improving animal control services in both towns.
“[Winters] is getting things accomplished,” Dan Steward, the Waterford first selectman, said.
Last month, the Waterford Elks Club named him Waterford’s “Officer of the Year” for his work revamping animal control in both towns.
Due to budget constraints, Winters is the sole municipal person in Waterford and East Lyme responsible for animal control over 66 square miles in both towns.
The shelter is a small concrete building with dog cages inside with small doors that lead to a larger fenced-off pen on the side of the structure.
And it’s loud inside, with sometimes as many as 10 dogs inharmoniously barking together.
Winters admits that the only one who does not mind the incessant yelping is Stanley, the ACO’s pet cat, charged with keeping the rats out.
Steward said Winters has been an ideal selection for the job due to his veterinarian background and his training as a police officer.
“Others just did not have that background,” he said.
“I studied to become a vet,” Winters said in an interview at the shelter, “but then I became attracted to police work.”
And Winters stresses that he’s a police officer, not just a “dog catcher.”
“The job is more police work than anything,” he said. “You need to have knowledge of courts.”
And he can, and often has to, give tickets to residents.
Winters said he sometimes has to give noise citations to dog owners whose pets are barking and causing a nuisance.
“You find yourself in the middle of neighbor disputes,” he said.
While he sometimes finds himself doing “normal” police work—traffic stops and administering DUI tests—Winters clearly relishes working with the animals.
Steward said the towns turned to him to reorganize the animal control division after years of “concern.”
“He is very competent and professional,” Steward said.
A one-man operation, Winters depends on volunteers such as Melinda Beit of Pet Pals Northeast, a regional group that spays and neuters feral cats.
“Rob really pulls together the right resources,” Beit said. “It’s a community effort.”
Winters said he works with the Connecticut Humane Society and volunteer groups to find homes for the dogs he is forced to impound, and to help find homes for stray cats.
“I don’t have room here for the cats,” Winters said. “I usually call the Humane Society.”
If Winters is forced to impound a dog, state law says he must keep it for two weeks, but some such as Nero have stayed for as long as a month.
“It’s my job to find the owners,” he said, “or then contact people to try to find them homes.”
Some breeds are more popular than others.
“English bulldogs go really fast,” he said.
But for the all-black Nero, who seems to smile a canine smile when Winters rubs his face, it might take a while.
“People are intimidated by a black dog,” he said.
As much as he can, Winters tries to get information to the public about diseases that might strike pets in the summer months.
Especially worrisome is the expected rise in the population of fisher cats—the mink-related species in the weasel family—that can carry rabies.
After letting Nero play out in front—a volunteer arrived so he’ll get his walk in soon enough—Winters sat back down at his computer amid more barking.
Does he get used to it?
“No, you don’t,” he laughed.
But does he mind helping these animals?
Not at all.

Brains and Brawn: CT Sun Players Read To Kids

Stephen Chupaska — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:35:17 GMT

On long road trips, Connecticut Sun point guard Jamie Carey gets a fair amount of reading done.
“I read 15 books last year,” she said. “That’s all I do on the road.
Carey, who just finished David Sheff’s addiction memoir Beautiful Boy, teamed up with teammate Ketia Swanier to promote literacy with an appearance last week at the Waterford Public Library.
Sponsored by Pitney Bowes, the WNBA’s Fast Break for Reading will raise money for literacy programs in six of the league’s cities, including New York, Seattle, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, as well as eastern Connecticut.
“We’re excited about the program,” Kathleen Ryan Mufson, the director of corporate citizenship at Pitney Bowes said. “The company has a long tradition of helping communities. We want to help improve literacy and close the achievement gap in Connecticut.”
Carey and Swanier each took turns reading books about, no surprise here, basketball, to kids who signed up for Waterford’s Summer Reading Program.
Swanier, a rookie who played her college basketball at the University of Connecticut, read A Princess Gets A Ball, about hoops-playing royalty, and Carey narrated Swish, about a hotly contested match between the Blue Jays and the Cardinals.
The Sun announced that a section at the team’s home arena will be dedicated specifically to children who have participated in the program.
Throughout the season, Pitney Bowes will be holding events around the state to raise money to sponsor literacy programs.
Pitney Bowes will fund a “reading and learning center” at the WNBA city that has raised the most amount of money this season, which concludes in September.
Swanier, who just finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, said she was pleased to talk to the children, as she used to attend similar events as a child growing up in Germany.
Carey, a University of Texas alum, also demonstrated the trademark “hook ‘em horns” sign for the kids, but said that athletics should not be the only thing young people focus on.
“I grew up in a house that stressed reading and education,” she said.

High Times for "In The Heights"

Stephen Chupaska — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:12:58 GMT

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, a musical developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, garnered 13 Tony nominations, more than any production this year.
The musical, set in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, was developed at the National Theater Institute at the O’Neill Center in 2005.
“We are very excited for Lin-Manuel and the rest of those involved in the show,” Janice Muirhead, a spokesperson for the O’Neill, said last week.
The O’Neill Center has also shepherded along hit shows such as Avenue Q.
In The Heights, is nominated for “Best Musical” and Miranda is also nominated for song writing as well as acting.
In The Heights, is on stage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York.