SHERMAN — Rumor has it that in 1802, the same year the town was incorporated, an 18-year-old built a colonial house in the middle of town.
Doctors successfully removed a benign tumor from Mayor Mark Boughton’s brain during a complex procedure Tuesday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Mayor Mark Boughton delivers remarks from the City of Danbury during Immaculate High Schools Graduation Excercises at Western Connecticut State Universities O'Neill Center on Wednesday May, 31, 2017.
For more than three decades, Lt. Albert Mion has driven to work at the Danbury Fire Department, aware that he could be tasked with saving someone’s life.
Summertime in the Greater Danbury area means lazy lake days for many. From boating to tubing, wakeboarding, swimming and general partying, Candlewood Lake is a playground for area residents in the summer.
Danbury native Oscar Bordoy scored a win in his second career boxing match, defeating Felip Nazario at Uptown Live in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday. Bordoy is now 2-0 as a lightweight fighter.
July 19 is National Hot Dog Day! If you're in the mood for a good dog tonight, seems you should head to Fairfield. Three of the top 10 most Yelp-reviewed hot dog spots in southwestern Connecticut are found in Fairfield.
The spirit of “buy local” is as strong as ever. It’s the practice that often falls short.
DANBURY — Hidden gems produced by local companies and grown on local farms lurk among the shelves of even the largest supermarkets in the area.
Millennials aren’t the only ones who want to live in downtowns, where restaurants, shops and other amenities are only a walking distance away. So do Baby Boomers.
New Milford football played its spring game, the Green and White game, Thursday, June 15, 2017.
Site names Newtown's Ferris Acres the best ice cream in Connecticut
DANBURY - The $50 million expansion of the state’s largest high school is in high gear, with only 70 more days of summer for workers to complete key upgrades before classes resume in September.
Homelessness in Danbury has dropped 12 percent since 2016
Kyle Lyra receives his diploma during Danbury High Schools Commencement Exercises that were held on Tuesday June 20, 2017.
DANBURY — Andrea Gartner has a lot of passions, and many of them are embodied in her new restaurant, Pour Me Coffee and Wine Café, which opened this month at 274 Main St.
"Batman" TV star Adam West has died
Bob's Stores is closing at 114 Federal Rd. in Danbury, Conn., one of three locations in southwestern Connecticut getting the ax by bankrupt parent company Eastern Outfitters of Meriden.
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New Fairfield resident Pat Bower will throw the ceremonial first pitch at a May 31 Mets game to celebrate his dedication to helping those with cancer.
Bower lost his wife in 2010 to brain cancer and was diagnosed with melanoma six months later. Since then, he has been dedicated to raising money to support the American Cancer Society and through Relay for Life of New Fairfield. Bower has personally raised over $110,000 for the cause.
When a friend offered the opportunity to throw the first pitch at Citi Field, Bower chose May 31 because it is a few days away from this year’s Relay for Life event. He urges all New Fairfield residents to join him June 3 at New Fairfield High School for the town’s Relay for Life event, which will support the American Cancer Society.
“Suspicious” New Fairfield death under investigation
Detectives with the state police major crimes unit are investigating a “suspicious” death in a small private lakeside community.
Police said a 55-year-old woman was found dead Tuesday morning in a home on Candlewood Drive, a small community along the southwestern shore of Candlewood Lake. Police have not characterized the death as a homicide, but only as “suspicious.”
Police have not identified the victim, but court records indicate that a woman by the name of Susan Guido, 55, was living at the address. Guido has a pending criminal case on a charge of driving under the influence with a suspended drivers license. She was arrested on the charges in February.
Efforts to reach Guido’s relatives were unsuccessful Wednesday.
A “person of interest” has been arrested in the “suspicious death” of a New Fairfield woman. On Thursday. troopers located the suspect, Steven Flood, 32, camping in the woods in Union, on the Connecticut/Massachusetts border.
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Driver killed, passenger injured in fiery crash in New Fairfield
A driver was killed and a passenger was seriously in after a fiery car crash early Sunday morning.
State police said the driver was headed southbound on Route 39 about 12:50 a.m. when he or she lost control of the car and crashed into a utility pole in front of 85 Route 39. The car caught on fire.
The driver was pronounced dead at the site of the crash. A passenger, 45-year-old Victor Declet, of Rochester, N.Y., was transported to Danbury Hospitalwith serious injuries.
Route 39 was closed at Sawmill Road until around 4:15 p.m. Sunday.
Police said the identification of the driver is unknown, but said his or her car was registered in New York. Police are continuing to investigate the crash.
New Fairfield school board wants more information on zip-tying incident
Board of Education members disagree over the administration’s handling of an incident last fall in which a middle-school teacher used plastic zip-ties to restrain a student at his desk.
Several board members said in a meeting last week they hadn’t known the teacher had resigned until reading about it in the News-Times, and still had not been given details on how it occurred or when it would go into effect.
The resignation of the teacher, who teaches seventh-grade math, was to be approved that evening, but members postponed the matter until their March 13 meeting, when they hope to have more details.
“I have yet to see the resignation letter and I would like to know the terms and conditions of that resignation,” said board member Doug DeRito. “We don’t know any facts and the community doesn’t know any facts. There’s something wrong with that.”
DeRito criticized the district’s lack of transparency at length at the end of the meeting.
Board member Samantha Mannion agreed with DeRito that the board should receive as much information as possible without violating the privacy rights of those involved. Vice Chair Amy Tozzo said the board needs to investigate why the members were not informed of the resignation.
“In my three and a half years on the board I’ve never had the experience [of not knowing of a resignation],” Tozzo said. “Obviously, it is a breakdown of communication somewhere. We need to come together as a board and figure out where that breakdown in communication was.”
Two board members, Susan Starr and Kevin Hearty, voted against postponing the approval of the resignation. Hearty said the incident had been discussed enough in executive session.
“I don’t think there’s any need for us to go on and on with this,” he said. “I thought it was handled properly and adequately. I’d really like to just move on.”
The incident resurfaced at the school board’s Feb. 16 meeting, when parents questioned whether it had been handled properly. Several parents said they hadn’t heard about the incident until months after it happened.
Roy said proper procedure was followed in investigating the incident, notifying the appropriate authorities and reprimanding the teacher.
Craig David Rosen, a parent of a student in the teacher’s class, said the teacher had threatened to zip-tie other students, and that his son was fearful as a result. It is his understanding, Rosen said, that the teacher’s resignation will go into effect at the end of the year.
Danbury remembers locals who died in Vietnam War
Veterans and community members gathered around the Vietnam Monument Wednesday morning to honor those who lost their lives in a war veterans say is often disregarded.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 149 hosted the annual ceremony, marking the 44th anniversary of the day the United States withdrew from the Vietnam War.
Tom Saadi, a member of the American Legion, Catholic War Veterans and 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, led the ceremony in front of a marker in Rogers Park that lists those in the Greater Danbury area who were killed or went missing in the war.
“We gather here each year to remember those lost in battle, and those still unaccounted-for in those battles,” he told the crowd. “Their names are forever engraved upon this monument and upon the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C., so that we never forget their sacrifice in a war, not to conquer territory or to enslave another a nation, but to keep a nation free.”
Mayor Mark Boughton also spoke, reminding people not just to honor veterans at the event, but to reflect on their contributions throughout the day. Boughton and a member of the VFW laid a wreath at the foot of the monument.
Ronald Agard, also a VFW member, read the names of the nearly 50 troops from the Greater Danbury area who died or were declared missing in action in the war.
“It never gets easy after doing these names,” he said. “It still chokes me up, but I’m grateful for their sacrifice and to you being here today.”
The ceremony also included a rifle salute by the Danbury Police DepartmentHonor Guard and a performance of “Taps.”
mass protests across the country and veterans said the unpopularity of the war meant they were treated poorly when they returned home.
Bethel resident Charlie Weeks, who served in the Navy in Vietnam, recalled a taxi driver warning him about protesters shortly after landing in the states.
“For the most part, the Vietnam War wasn’t an attractive war, it wasn’t a friendly war,” he said. “Just the fact that they do this every year, all those guys that died, all those guys around here that served, deserve it.”
That is why the ceremony is so important, said Vietnam Army veteran Timothy Winkler.
“It’s a way to remember,” he said. “Never forget these guys that gave the supreme sacrifice to this country, and at least now people are more appreciative to what they gave than they were in the past. A lot of us came home to a lot of hostility, and now it’s better.”
Danbury resident Bill Moser said the ceremony made him feel appreciated for his time in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. But he said he wished more people besides veterans had attended.
“But I’m proud we could do it, and today is a significant day,” he said.
Saadi said the ceremony is a reminder that the community thanks veterans for their service.
“[It] is something that people neglected to do when they came home, and we can never thank them or the veterans from all our wars enough times,” he said.
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New Fairfield applies for state grant to help low-income homeowners
Low-income residents in need of home renovations might be able to apply for zero-interest loans through the town as early as this fall.
The Board of Selectmen agreed last week to apply for a state Small Cities Grant, which uses funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentto aid community and economic development. If approved, the grant would give the town $400,000 to create a loan program for low-income families to use for housing rehabilitation.
Lisa Low of Lisa Low & Associates, a consulting firm, described the program in a public hearing before the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting.
“This is a real lifesaver program,” Low said. “The mission of the program is to keep homes healthy and safe, and keep people of low or moderate income in their homes.”
Should New Fairfield be approved for the grant, which Low said would be decided in July, the program would roll out in October. A date would then be set for residents who qualify to apply with the town clerk on a first-come, first- served basis.
To qualify, applicants must meet the HUD income limits—a maximum $54,250 for one-person households and $77,500 for four-person households— have at least 10 percent equity on their homes and be up to date on all local taxes. The loan is repaid interest-free upon the sale of the house or the death of the homeowner.
Tom Foley, a housing rehab specialist with Lisa Low & Associates, said renovations to the home usually focus on health and safety upgrades to keep the house up to code. These include fire safety improvements, electrical upgrades, roof, window and door projects or any mechanical fixes. But homeowners will also have some say in the which projects they undertake.
“We schedule an appointment with the homeowner to do a full inspection,” Foley said. “The homeowner usually has needs in mind, but sometimes they’re not aware of the health and safety requirements to bring it up to code. So we write up a scope of work and then move it out to the contractors.”
The Small Cities Program awards $13 million each year to towns and cities with populations under 50,000 for private housing rehabilitation and public facilities or housing renovations. New Fairfield first received the grant, which lasts two years, in 1991 and most recently in 2013.
Low said those interested in applying shouldn’t wait for the grant application to be approved to start their application process. To increase the chances of state approval, she said, New Fairfield must to establish that there is a need for the money.
Interested residents should keep an eye on the town’s website, where a letter of intent will soon be available to fill out.
“It is very important that if you think you might qualify to send us a letter,” Low said. “That will help us develop the waiting list that we need.”
New Fairfield ‘senior buddies’ volunteer with students
Each week, the second-graders in Sue Hastings’ class wait for the arrival of Kathy Hull, the town’s senior center director, hoping it will be their day to read one-on-one with their “senior buddy.”
Hull is one of 12 volunteers from the New Fairfield Senior Center that particpate in the Senior Buddies Program at Consolidated School. The volunteers visit the same class of students once a week to help them with reading, writing or math skills.
Even though the program just started in February, reading specialist Roseann Petruso, who founded the program, said she has already noticed its positive effect on both volunteers and students.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” said Petruso. “The seniors get to come in and the children make them smile ... they all leave here happy. And the children, especially at this age, love the attention.”
In Hull’s case, she spent half an hour last week helping one class write
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History
The creation of Candlewood Lake, the first hydroelectric lake in the United States began February 25, 1928, when a switch was thrown at Connecticut Light and Power's new Rocky River plant in New Milford. The water surged up 200 feet from the Housatonic River traversing a huge 1,000-foot tube to flood the valleys above. By the end of December the water had reached 429 feet above sea level, and the pumping stopped. On a winter morning the glistening ice mirrored a magic new island in the midst of the lake soon to be described by national writers as one of the seven most beautiful in the world - Candlewood Isle.
By 1929 there was a causeway and a sign and inevitably a real estate office to promote the Isle. The real estate development firm Miller, Price and Schiller, acquired all the proeprty on the island north of the causeway. There were no roads. The terrain was treacherous in many areas, dropping sharply to the lake. There was, however, great optimism for this spectacular new setting and the opportunities it offered. The developers set aside the northern tip of the Isle for a beach and a tiny clubhouse to form a nucleus for the new community
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The first people to purchase land and build the small Adirondack lodges were a mix of clergy, doctors, lawyers, business-owners and corporate executives. They were attracted to the natural beauty of this new sanctuary, its privacy and the opportunity to be part of a small community with the ability to shape its own future. They were in every sense of the word the first settlers, and their credo would establish the pattern of the Isle for many years to come. Their self- reliance and independence were critical in the first year because in November 1929 the economy of this country as well as the world crashed, and a decade of depression set in. Many plans for other communities around the lake were abandoned, their developers in bankruptcy.
Volunteerism would be the mainstay of the new community's success. The first settlers formed an association with the one-room clubhouse and the beach as its focus. The members worreed that the developers might go bankrupt, and they offered to buy the land that formed the communal beach. The Candlewood Isle Association was chartered in 1930 as a non-stock coporation assuming that its membership would include all landowners on the Isle who would equally own all assets of the corporation. It is difficult to imagine what this entailed in a cash-poor society. The first records include individual donations of barrels of sand and cement to build a beach and volunteer families working to construct a seawall or plant some flowers.
The '30s passed but not without financial and natural disasters. In 1938 a major hurricane demolished most of what had been built. The community held together. The developers tried to keep pace with the influx of new residents who required basic needs for their summer cottages. Some rudimentary roads were extended with a water system that in many places ran over ground and had to be shut off at the first frost. Since the community had chosen to be private, there was little help from state or municipal sources. The volunteers, as they had from the beginning, kept the community going but the problems of rapid growth required funds for road maintenance, snow and garbage removal, security and other services. There was no authority to administer to the needs of a maturing community that now included an increasing number of year-round homes.
To deal with the upkeep of roads and other Isle needs, first a Landowners Association was formed to levy taxes and eventually the Candlewood Isle Tax District was approved in 1970. The Candlewood Isle Association bought out the original corporation in 1994 and is the official owner of the clubhouse, the roads, the post office and real estate office, the tennis courts, the guardhouse and all open space on the Isle. The Tax District leases those things from the association because by state law a tax district can't own real property. Dues are levied each year and collected July 1st and January 1st by the treasurer of the tax district. Dues pay for upkeep of the buildings, roads, snow removal and Isle security.
There are five programs service the Isle. The Tennis Program, the Marina, the Youth and Senior Recreation programs, and the Bocce program raise money from participants and are self-supporting.
Today the Isle number 339 homes. In addition to Candlewood Isle taxes, revenue for the Tax District comes from rental of the real estate office. Our mail is delivered to the post office by an employee of the USPS system who places it into locked mailboxes in the post office and a number of freestanding mailboxes outside near the guarhouse. In addition to the Isle's guards, New Fairfield police and the resident state trooper patrol the Isle regularly. The New Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department services the community as well.
Nearly 200-acre brush fire in Kent, area rife with rattlesnakes, put out
The Schaghticoke Mountain fire that injured four firefighters and subjected several to harsh terrain and rattlesnake territory was put out Friday afternoon, having grown to nearly 200 acres before it was pared done to smoldering spots at about 2 p.m.
The fire had grown to a perimeter of nearly 200 acres, rife with rattlesnakes, since Wednesday morning, said Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Firefighters were back out fighting the blaze Friday, Schain said. He didn’t how many firefighters were on the mountain Friday, but added that they had changed their containment strategy.
Some 20 firefighters and state officials returned to Schaghticoke on Thursday morning to battle a steadily growing fire replete with displaced, sometimes singed and angry, rattlesnakes.
“The snakes are crawling between firefighters’ legs,” said Chief Alan Gawel, of the Kent Volunteer Fire Department.
As the fire devours rattlesnake habitat, the serpents are slithering to where firefighters are trying to contain the fire with water they backpacked in and fire equipment similar to rakes, shovels and hoes.
Schain said Friday that DEEP plans to send wildlife experts to “assess the situation.”
Firefighters are on the defensive, Gawel said Thursday. They are trying to contain the fire, not yet put it out. The force is understaffed, he added, with only 20 firefighters — many volunteers — in the woods. Water, on the rocky, mountainous land, is hard to come by.
“There is some water in the woods, but we can’t get our pumps or hosing to it,” Gawel said.
To get water to the fire, firefighters are filling specialized backpacks and hiking it in for two hours, but most of their effort Thursday was spent creating fire lines, paths the fire can’t cross, Gawel said.
Officials estimate the fire has enveloped more than 40 acres of craggy land. Wednesday, in a “blitz approach,” more than 100 firefighters from 18 departments responded to the blaze. In the effort, four volunteers were injured — two of them hospitalized, Gawel said. On Thursday some 20 firefighters from Kent, Gaylordsville and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, as well as, New York Forest Rangers returned to fight.
Everyone is OK, and no one has been bitten by a rattlesnake, but the danger is there. Before the fight resumed Thursday, officials called area hospitals to ensure that they carried anti-venom, Gawel said.
The fire has been burning and growing for more than a day. First called in at 5 acres, it grew, reaching about 40 acres last night after firefighters retired for the evening. Gawel estimated the fire had enveloped some 50 or 60 acres by Thursday afternoon.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, DEEP said.
No homes or structures are threatened. On Wednesday, wind gusts and high temperatures fed the fire; on Thursday, the high was forecast to be 92 degrees.
The rattlers are likely timber rattlesnakes, a state endangered species, which enjoy climates similar to the steep region the fire blankets. They are one of only two venomous snakes in the state.
“In Connecticut, timber rattlesnakes inhabit deciduous forests,” according to DEEP. They live “in rugged terrain with steep ledges, rock slides, and a nearby water supply,” much like the western Connecticut-New York line along the Appalachian Trail where the fire is raging.
The hike to the fire from Kent is replete with a mountain climb and a ridge crossing, said Rich Schnek, a fire control officer for DEEP. Kent Emergency Management Director Brian Hunt said Wednesday the rocky terrain made it hard to get to the fire and fight it.
“It’s gnarly stuff,” he said.
Schaghticoke Road, which was closed Wednesday, was reopened Thursday, but the Appalachian Trail remains partially closed with 300 feet affected by the fire roped off.
In an information page on the rattlesnake, DEEP said they likely were ubiquitous in Connecticut during Colonial times, the snake population has dwindled.
Firefighters in Kent don’t have that option and are encountering the burned-out reptiles during the serpent’s “active season.”
The snakes, which average 40-inches long, just emerged from dens last month.
“We’re in the fire and the rattlesnakes are in the fire,” Gawel said.
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