Montville Times

‘Many Hands Lighten the Load’: Local church groups help Haitians

2009-01-06T19:37:23Z

Few Americans may realize that the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is only 600 miles off of our eastern coast. It is Haiti, which shares half of the island of Hispanola with the Dominican Republic. Eighty percent of its 8 million citizens live under the poverty line, 54 percent in abject poverty, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA’s) World Fact Book.

For almost 25 years, the Haitian Ministries for the Diocese of Norwich, based in Uncasville, has been working with counterparts in Haiti to support and empower the Haitian people. Following the Haitian proverb, “Men anpil, chay pa lou” (“Many hands lighten the load”), the ministry has sought to build relationships between Americans and Haitians in the process.

Founded in 1985, the ministry is housed with other diocese functions at the Bishop Flanagan Ministry Center on the St. Bernard School campus. Through its Mission House of Norwich in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capitol city, it has had a physical presence there since 1987.

“We’re on the ground in Haiti and we can get to the use of funds and assure donors that the money they donate is used specifically for projects,” said Emily Smack, executive director.

Also an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Smack said it collected and donated around $1 million, its largest amount ever, for projects in Haiti in the past fiscal year.

The ministries’ programs include emergency relief, medical assistance through emergency support, a clinic, and medical missions to work with Haitian caregivers. It also supports two orphanages, funds reforestation projects and neighborhood meals, and a long-standing scholarship program for children from elementary through college levels.

Smack credits the ministry’s success in part to its ability to bring Americans to its mission house for 7- to 10-day immersion experiences. This is where they can meet their Haitian counterparts and learn first-hand of the needs and challenges the country’s people face.

“We have learned working in a third-world country, when we go there thinking we have the answers to their problems, they are accepting, and tend to say ‘Yes, we’ll do that.’ But when you move away, the sustainability of that project isn’t there because they truly haven’t gotten into that project. Or our solution is too sophisticated,” she said.

She described how on a first mission trip to Haiti, an American man announced he had the perfect solution for a local community: a bakery back at home was shutting down, so why not tear down the equipment and ship it to the island?

But the automated equipment couldn’t be run without constant electricity. There was no clean water in the area. The local people didn’t really want a bakery.

An essential component of the work is in uniting Haitian parishes and projects with American churches, schools, and other groups through its “twinning” program.

St. John the Evangelist Church Parish at 22 Maple Ave. in Uncasville is one of a dozen such twinnings. For almost 10 years, church members have supported the L’arc-en-Ciel Rainbow House orphanage in Port-au-Prince. It provides a home to 32 children, from infancy through 17 years old, who are either infected by HIV/AIDS or have lost one or more parents to the disease.

“We support them with quarterly payments of cash, and send toys for Christmas and a shipment of over-the-counter medical supplies, things people could pick up at their pharmacy,” said Joan Malchiodi, one of the parish committee members.

Most of the original members have since cycled off of the committee. Malchiodi, who got active about five years ago, and Sheryl Lambert, one of the originators, have recruited a handful of new members in the past year.

Thanks to the Internet, the St. John Parish is able to communicate directly with the leaders of the orphanage, Robert Sr. and Danielle Penette, and their son, Robert, Jr., who visited Connecticut earlier this year. L’arc-en-Ciel also has set up a community outreach program and medical clinic for families affected by HIV/AIDS.

“They run a very good, accountable organization and they know how to go for grants worldwide,” she said. “The fact that many big organizations support their outreach program shows that they are not just a fly-by-night organization.”

The orphanage was one of the first models in Haiti that showed locals that people could live with others who had the disease and not get infected, Smack said. In the first years, when anti-viral medicines were not always available, it faced the tragic choice of having to divert medication from healthier children with the disease to sicker ones. As a result, a couple of children died each year, she said.

There haven’t been any deaths of orphanage children in the last five years, Smack said.

Although sometimes intermittent, Internet access has made it possible for St John’s members to stay in touch with the orphanage and see how their support is being used, Malchiodi said. The Christmas gifts had to be shipped out in August.

“At first, people had questions about if the money and gifts really got there. But with the e-mail, we hear back quickly. They also send us disks of photos of the kids getting their toys. We can share this with our parishioners.”

The orphanage has been around, and successful, long enough that some of its youth are old enough to set out on their own. To raise funds for them, the orphanage has started an arts project, where the students create holiday and other note cards that it sells. The proceeds are split between the artists and orphanage and put into savings accounts for each youth.

After the holidays, the St. John’s committee will consider supporting the gift card project. Malchiodi said they might buy some of the cards and resell them at church activities.

Malchiodi and the newest Parish committee members haven’t been to Haiti yet, but several have expressed interest.

“The whole purpose of twinning is to make lives larger, both here in the United States and in Haiti,” Tolson said, adding that many of the Americans come to feel that they get more out of the relationship than their Haitian counterparts.

“Being involved with Haiti is such an eye-opening, mind-expanding, and, we hope, heart-enlarging experience. There is something rather amazing about Haiti,” said Tolson, who grew up in Africa and has traveled the world with his miltary family. “It’s not just the shock of poverty. It is so close to the United States, but it is so different.”

The ministry also maintains Haiti’s Back Porch, a retail shop that offers a selection of art, crafts, clothing, and specialty foods that it has purchased directly from Haitian artisans and artisan collectives. It is located at 100 Riverview Center in Middletown.

Another popular program with individual donors is scholarships for children to attend elementary school through college in Haiti, she said.

“Only 60 percent of children in the country get to go to school, most of it private schools, which charge tuition,” Tolson said. “This can run from $200 to $400 per student per year, which is more than a family might make in a year.”

About 150 students currently are supported by five-year-long pledges through the Tierney-Tobin Memorial Scholarship administered by the ministry, Tolson said. These are based on family need and student merit or performance.

It costs about $2,000 per year to attend university, she said. Scholarships helped students in medicine and agronomy graduate last year and are supporting a third-year medical student and a number of young men in technical schools who are preparing to become electricians and plumbers.

“You would be amazed what some families will sacrifice because they so much want their child or children to go to school. It would break your heart and inspire you at the same time,” she said. “They see that as a way to get out of poverty.”

For more information, go to www.haitianministries.org.

By Suzanne Thompson
Special to the Times

MYSB Report: Ready for Another Busy Year

2009-01-06T16:34:32Z

MYSB has had a very hectic end of 2008, but what a successful one it has been. We rounded out the year with a very successful book fair, Stocking Drive, and end of the year Holiday Social for the After School Program (ASP).

What was so great about 2008 was how much fun we had. We made some new friends this year and shared quite a few laughs along the way. We are so proud of how much we accomplish here during the year, and we are looking forward to all the new and fun ideas we have in store for 2009.

I would like to congratulate our Kids of the Month for September through December: Mitchell Burdick, Frances Yu, Johnathon Deschenes, and Jasmine Loy Smith, who are all great participants in the ASP. We look forward to seeing their smiling faces each day when they come to the Youth Center. Keep up the good work!

Montville Youth Action Council is starting to count the pennies collected through the Penny Drive. Our collection ran through the first weekend in January and we’ve dropped off the pennies at Dime Bank in Montville for counting. The Make-A-Wish of Foundation of Connecticut will be receiving a wonderful donation from the Town of Montville, and we would like to send out a special thank-you to all the local businesses that supported our Penny Drive: Beit Brothers, Ed’s Kitchen, Smakosh, Sunrise Café, Friendly Pizza, and Café 32. We couldn’t do it without you!

MYSB spent the last few weeks of December raising money and buying presents for Montville Social Services. We had a lot of supporters and were able to buy stockings for 83 teenagers in Montville.

YAC will hold its annual Doggie
Donation Drive in January, and our collection will go to the Town of Montville’s Department of Animal Control. We are looking for old blankets and towels, doggie toys, canned dog food, and dog treats. There will be a donation bin in the Youth Center and in the Town Hall.

MYSB and the ASP has some great activities that are planned for the New Year, and we can’t wait to get it started! We wish all the families and friends of MYSB a safe and happy New Year!

As always, you can check out pictures from all the events held at MYSB on our Web page, www.montvilleyouth.org. For more information about our program, call 848-7724 or e-mail me at Kimberly@montvilleyouth.org.

Kimberly Grant is the program developer at the Montville Youth Service Bureau.

By Kimberly Grant
Special to the Times

Pop Culture - New Year’s Resolution: Stay Smart

2009-01-06T16:23:46Z

If there is a politician I would’ve liked to have had dinner with, it would have been Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Moynihan, who authored nine books during his 24 years in the Senate, is generally regarded as the last academic-as-politician, able to reference the ancient Greeks and labor statistics in the same breath.

Plus, I think there would have been plenty of whiskey.

But if I do at times weep for the future, it is over the debate over the role of intellect in public life.

It’s as though we can’t decide if want to elect a president whom we want to have a beer with, or one who can tell you intricate details about molecular structure of Coors Light.

Supporters of Barack Obama will say they are taken with the president-elect’s posture as the professor-in-chief, while right wing detractors dismiss his academic tone as elitist.

Meanwhile, the modern American conservative movement founded by eggheads such as William F. Buckley, Jr. and Irving Kristol threw in with George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, for whom public incuriosity was an election-winning strategy.

The most telling moment, for me anyway, of the election season circus, as reporters and bloggers were on constant Def-Con 5 alert for gaffes, was Palin’s comment about fruit fly research.

During a press event Palin was making a point about the federal government frittering away taxpayer money on projects that “really don’t make a whole lot of sense” and have “little or nothing to do with the public good. . . things like fruit fly research in Paris, France.”

Well, it turns out, that research into fruit flies has been valuable in the search for the causes of autism.

Now, I don’t have any proof of this, but I’m willing to wager that the fruit fly comment was a talking point meant to be humorous and innocuous.

Instead, it was especially embarrassing moment for the campaign, seeing how much they touted Palin’s sensitivity to families with special needs children.

But imagine for a second if at a press conference Obama gave a dissertation on how fruit flies are an integral part of autism research.

Can you just hear the cable television talk show hosts? “It’s Al Gore nerd-talk all over again.”

I’m sure Obama’s acolytes would have nodded along, in the same manner conservatives laughed along with Palin at Frenchies dissecting fruit flies.

Now that scene wouldn’t have happened, not the least of which because Obama is a much better politician than either Palin or McCain would dream of being.

After all, this supposed left-wing change messiah hired his opponent Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and invited Pastor Rick Warren, whose supporters helped ban gay marriage in California, to speak at his inauguration.

President Che Guevara this is not.

But I hope—there’s that word again—that Obama, who used the word “connotes” during an appearance on David Letterman and made me smile, continues to project his obvious intellect in public.

It’s not elitist to be the smartest guy in the room, especially when that room is the Oval Office.

And if maybe Obama can be a president that younger people look up to, maybe he’ll inspire them to know more tomorrow than they do today.

This is the opinion of Stephen Chupaska.

From the Ground Up: A Rare Life in Gems

2009-01-06T16:19:07Z

A truly dazzling feature of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History’s new “Gems, Rocks, and Minerals” exhibit is a suite of emeralds from North Carolina that includes an 8-carat faceted emerald considered the finest gemstone ever found in the U.S. and a 900-carat crystal considered among the best gems ever discovered in North America.

The local story behind these emeralds is equally fascinating. Members of the mining operation that discovered these rare and exquisite gems are two residents of Eastern Connecticut: Richard Freeman of Waterford and Jim Elliott of East Lyme, owners of EF Watermelon in Old Lyme, which sells fine jewelry and objets d’art.

Far more than retailers, for almost 40 years the partners have been involved in every aspect of the jewelry business from “taking it out of the ground, cutting it, mounting it, and putting it around someone’s neck,” Freeman says.

From Social Work to Rock Mining

Elliott, who grew up in Middletown, and Freeman, who grew up in New London, met at the University of Connecticut where both men received Master’s degrees in social work. But after a few years in clinical practice, they both left the field, looking for something different, or as Freeman puts it, “Something that was beautiful and had no bad stories.”

The two men joined forces and went to Brazil to learn the gem trade from the ground up, with no previous knowledge of the business. They went into the mines, bought crystals in their raw state, brought them to a cutting shop, processed them into gemstones, and transported them back to the U.S. where they traveled the country selling them door-to-door to jewelers.

In 1970 Elliott and Freeman formed their company, EF Watermelon.

“The rarest crystal on earth is a watermelon tourmaline,” Freeman explains. “It changes color in its growth. We found one very early on and became tourmaline dealers. We knew we had unusual things and that’s what got us in the door time and time again.”

Freeman points out that their social work background actually helped them get to where they are today.

“It allowed us to make relationships in Brazil with the miners that got us to places in the middle of nowhere we never would have had the opportunity to go if we weren’t social workers first and nice guys second…even though we weren’t multigenerational in the business. Cultural issues are the same everywhere. We knew how to make a relationship.”

Freeman says it came to the point that he and Elliott “knew everything and saw every place” and it was time to raise a family and be home and off the road. They needed a show room and office and in 1985 opened one in Old Lyme.

They met master jeweler Janet Vitkavage, who had apprenticed at Tiffany’s and was working for David Webb—a major Fifth Avenue jewelry house. Vitkavage made several pieces for EF Watermelon and they hired her full-time as their jewelry designer.

In 2000 EF Watermelon moved to the historic district of Old Lyme.

“It gave us a real retail business and we slowed down the wholesale business,” Freeman says.

EF Watermelon sells custom designed fashion jewelry and estate jewelry. The store also carries a full line of pieces by Vermont glassblower Simon Pierce and hardstone lapidary arts by American craftsmen.

“The artists we represent have been in the finest museums in the country,” including the permanent display at the Smithsonian,” Freeman says, “We also have petrified wood tables that are 218 million years old that you can’t even see in museums. We have really unusual things all the time.”

Emerald Find

EF Watermelon Company is an exclusive representative of North American Emerald Mines, which hired them for the expedition in 2003 that yielded the rare emeralds in the Peabody Museum exhibit.

“I was in Connecticut and I flew down immediately and knew we had hit a major find,” Freeman says.

He explains that the site, located in Hiddenite, N.C., was the first emerald mine in the U.S., developed by William Earl Hidden, who, in 1881, gifted Yale University with one of the earliest stones to be discovered there—also on view in the Peabody exhibit.

In 1995, Jamie Hill, whose family had lived in Hiddenite for generations, bought the farm the mine is located on and started a mining operation digging down to the rock base.

“In 1998 Hill discovered the actual hard rock source for these crystals,” Freeman says, “a hydrothermal vent that opened deep in the earth and brought hot gases up—chromium oxide, which makes emeralds green—into the pockets in the granite that had never been seen before.”

The 900-carat crystal was found in one of these pockets and Freeman coordinated the emerald’s sale to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for $1 million. Subsequent smaller crystals yielded the 8-carat cut emerald.

Freeman says the large crystal was worth even more but the company’s board of directors decided to sell it for less so it could be exhibited in a museum where the whole world could see and enjoy it.

“The Houston gem exhibit is the finest in the world,” Freeman says.

“We’re hoping that in the next three months as we open more of the area up to hard rock mining, we’ll have much more production [of gem quality crystals].”

Bitten by the Bug

Looking back on an unexpected career change that turned into a lifelong passion, Freeman says that from the minute he and Elliott entered the gem world, they knew they would stay there.

“Once you’re underground pulling things out of the earth, you’re bitten by the bug and it’s just all-consuming,” Freeman says. “Things in nature that are millions of years old and will be here a million years later—they’re always totally unique, one-of-a-kind. When you see a very special stone, it changes everything. We are stone dealers first and then we build the jewelry. We start with a beautiful stone and everything goes from there.”

EF Watermelon is located at 24 Lyme Street in Old Lyme (860-434-1600). “Gems, Rocks, and Minerals” is a new permanent exhibit at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven. The emeralds are on temporary loan through mid-January. For more information, call the museum at 203-432-5050 or visit www.peabody.yale.edu.

By Amy J. Barry
Special to the Times

Published in the Jan. 8 issue of the New London Times.

A Look Back: Revisiting some of our favorite feature photos from 2008

2009-01-02T20:19:03Z

In compiling our top five photos of the year, we considered several criteria in the process. Overall punch, great angles, drama, and irony, among others.

Using those criteria, we soon discovered several Times photos were contenders for the top five spread. As such, we had to expand our concept a bit and placed our second string of favorite photos in smaller form on the front page of the paper.

We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed capturing them.

To view the corresponding Top 5 photo album featured in the Jan. 1 Montville Times inside spread, click on the photo at right.

Santa’s Many Helpers: Tyl students support CT Children’s Medical Center

2009-01-02T20:15:44Z

Imagine a winter away from home.

Imagine a winter sick.

Imagine a winter in the hospital.

Most students at the Leonard J. Tyl Middle School have not experienced being sick for any extended period of time. Most of them never will.

To make life a bit easier—and not quite as boring—for their peers who are sick, Tyl students wanted to do something.

So, from Dec. 8 through Dec. 17, the students, under the school’s motto “Making a Difference,” did something.

With help from teachers Judy Abrams and Cindy Carvahlo, and Kyle Duba, a 17-year-old mentor from Mystic, the students, led by the student council, chose the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and three families from the school community as the recipients of their effort.

In that two-week span, the students raised nearly $400 with a handful of classroom teachers matching their students’ efforts, and filled five 4-foot-by-3-foot boxes with toys. Initially, the 11 students, two teachers, and Duba were going to take a small school bus to the hospital to make the donation.

They ended up taking a full-sized bus to fit the load and themselves.

“Without the students it would have been just a little crazy idea I had,” Duba said. “I was amazed…I can’t describe what my heart felt when I walked into the room and saw what they’d collected.”

Abrams said the trip and tour helped to alleviate some of the fears children associate with medical facilities.

“They saw that if they were ever sick, that it is a pretty cool place,” Carvahlo added.

For Duba, the trip to the hospital to deliver the goods was emotional. Duba, a Fitch High School student, is a patient.

In November 2007, Duba was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. As he explained it, he had “hundreds of little ulcers in my large intestines.”

Medication didn’t work, so in April of 2008 he underwent a nine-hour surgery to remove all but four inches of his large intestine. When he’d recovered from that, he underwent a 12-hour surgery in August during which doctors used a portion of his small intestine to make a new large intestine.

He suffered from complications from the surgery and was in the hospital for two months.

Duba is not in the hospital and is slowly transitioning back into normal Fitch High classrooms—he’d been tutored since his diagnosis.

Unfortunately, now doctors think something could be wrong with his small intestine.

“I’m not quite as sick, but I still have some issues,” he said.

His experience has made him consider becoming a nurse practitioner or maybe a doctor. It will depend on his stress level, which can aggravate his condition.

After spending so much time at
CCMC, Duba said he wanted to do something to give back. Through talking with Abrams the two hatched the toy drive plan. With help from Carvahlo and the Tyl student council, it was a success.

“From my perspective, a donation that comes from a child is even more special. It is kids reaching out to help other kids just like them,” said Jean Boza, the development programs officer for the hospital’s foundation.

“These students’ main job in life right now is going to school. That they can stop in their tracks and think about what would make others feel better…” Boza said, her voice trailing off.

“What they did is key to our hospital,” she continued. “That is the sort of thing that isn’t covered by health insurance.”

Some of the toys donated were used to make a bag for every family that was in the hospital on Christmas with gifts for the patient, siblings, and parents.

“Many kids won’t get gifts because their parents are paying to keep their kids alive,” Duba said.

On a normal day, every child who enters the hospital receives a gift. Patients for day surgery get to pick from the treasure chest when they leave. Someone taken to the emergency room receives a present, and so do their siblings. It’s a way of helping them cope with what’s happening.

The patients run the gamut from infants to teenagers. The gifts do, too. For the fiscal year that ended in October, the hospital had 240,000 office visits, including the hospital and its satellite locations.

The children on the floors need to stay entertained. There are play areas and game rooms, but some patients can’t come out of their own rooms either for medical reasons or they don’t feel up to it. The toys, books and games make the experience a little less frightening.

“No matter what is going on, this child is still a child,” Boza said. “We firmly believe that no matter how young or how sick a child is, we will find a way for that child to continue to be a child.”

To make a donation to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, contact the hospital’s Child Life Department at 860-545-9700 to find out what is needed and to check if a donation is appropriate.

By MEGAN BARD
Staff Writer

Parent's Eye View: Kids Need Hopeful Role Models During Troubled Times

2009-01-02T20:12:32Z

We are living in precarious times, bombarded with mixed messages, unsure of what the future holds.

On the one hand, we have a president-elect who promises change in the New Year when he takes office and has instilled a sense of hope and enthusiasm in many Americans. There is also increasing evidence that optimism and positive attitude play a key role not only in people’s mental health, but also their physical well being.

On the other hand, we’re in an economic downturn of grave proportions that’s causing enormous stress for families faced, at the very least, with financial insecurity, not knowing if or when the other shoe will drop, and those for whom it’s already dropped and are coping with the loss of jobs—and even homes, due to foreclosure.

So how do parents maintain that important equilibrium between being truthful and communicative with their kids, while at the same time staying positive and hopeful and making them feel safe in the world?

I asked several child psychologists to share their thoughts with me.

“Children may become frightened or confused by these unexpected threats to family security and will look to adults for information and guidance on how to react,” says Marilyn Giuliano of Old Saybrook, in her 28th year as a school psychologist, currently at Mile Creek School in Old Lyme. Giuliano is also state representative for Connecticut’s 23rd District.

Giuliano suggests that parents make time to talk to their children and reassure them that they’re safe and so are other important adults in their lives.

“Your words and physical presence will be comforting and will give you the opportunity to monitor your child’s reaction,” she says, and “to the extent possible, stick to normal routines for meals, homework, chores, and bedtime.”

Younger children will be comforted if you read or play quiet games with them before bed. Spend a little extra time tucking them in and let them sleep with a light on if they ask for it.

”These activities are calming, foster a sense of closeness and security, and reinforce a sense of normalcy,” Giuliano says.

Abby Lipschutz, a licensed clinical psychologist whose practice, Shoreline Psychological, is based in Madison, has been working with children, adolescents, and families since 1996.

Lipschutz concurs with Giuliano that first and foremost, kids need to feel physically and emotionally safe and that needs to be balanced by a realistic picture of the world without creating undue anxiety.

She suggests having family meetings and discussing some of the changes that may be taking place, such as not going out to dinner as much or forgoing a family vacation this year.

This can be a wonderful opportunity to teach children about values and money and gratitude about what they do have, Lipschutz points out.

“Great lessons come in during these times of distress,” she says.

Parents can help kids feel like important, contributing members of their families and community by asking them to shut off lights to conserve energy or volunteer with mom or dad at a local soup kitchen to help those in even greater need.

Lipschutz also notes that parents shouldn’t create anxiety by projecting about what hasn’t happened yet and should speak as close to the present as possible.

“It’s not helpful to project into the future if there’s a great unknown,” she says. “It’s better to help children live in the present.”

“Keep your explanations developmentally appropriate,” Giuliano advises. “Elementary school children need brief, simple information that should be balanced with your reassurances that the daily structures of their lives will not change.”

Both women agree that maintaining a hopeful attitude is key when the world is throwing curve-balls.

“Hope is a psychological strength that not everyone possesses,” Lipschutz points out. “You really have to teach hope and model hope. We live in a society that’s very fearful, very negative. On the flip side, hope instills optimism, and when optimists are faced with difficult situations, they don’t give up.”

Giuliano adds that fostering resiliency in children helps instill hope and optimism.

“Resiliency is that important and adaptive psychological attribute that allows kids to be calmer, more optimistic, and creative problem solvers in the face of adversity,” she says. “Teaching the dimensions of resiliency helps to create strong kids.”

The bottom line is, no matter how rocky the road may get during these challenging times, children—of every age—who feel loved and safe, encouraged rather than discouraged, included rather than excluded, helpful rather than helpless, will develop the inner resources to cope—and even thrive—no matter what obstacles are put in their path.

E-mail Amy Barry at aimwrite@snet.net.

At the Capitol: A New Year in Hartford

2009-01-02T20:10:53Z

Happy New Year! Please accept my very best wishes for 2009; I hope the year ahead is characterized by happiness and good health for each of you. Please celebrate responsibly this weekend and take care to avoid any increased risk of starting 2009 off on the wrong foot.

At the Capitol, the New Year signals final preparations for the start of the 2009 legislative session next Wednesday. Each odd-numbered year the General Assembly convenes for its long session to begin the two-year term. Preparation of the two-year state budget is always the number-one priority; this year the formula for a balanced spending plan in the face of so much economic uncertainty will be hard won.

And while the budget process might earn the most headlines over the next six months, my colleagues and I will remain busy working to enact policies in other areas as well. I am pleased to have been reappointed co-chair of the legislature’s Public Safety and Security Committee, which has responsibility for the state Department of Public Safety and matters regarding the state’s first response provided by police, firefighters, and paramedics.

This assignment has been rewarding, challenging, and constantly stimulating, and I’m grateful to Senate President Don Williams for entrusting me with this position for another term. Recent lessons we’ve learned about the critical importance of emergency preparedness were painful and heartbreaking; our common memories join us in a renewed commitment to preparedness and motivate me to be thorough and exhaustive while refining public safety protocol and standards.

I will also serve another term as a member of the Public Health Committee, where I will continue to fight for greater access to high quality, affordable healthcare for my constituents and all state residents. We must continue to find ways to cover more residents with health insurance so regular check-ups and early detection and treatment of illness can limit the overall expense of healthcare.

No one denies that preventative care is more cost efficient than treatment of late-term or chronic conditions, and certainly emergency care is the most expensive of all. Other pressing issues in the state’s healthcare delivery network include the high cost of malpractice insurance for doctors and the continuing economic viability of hospitals throughout Connecticut.

Senator Williams has also added one appointment to my workload. When the new term begins next week, I’ll join the legislature’s Education Committee and I’m looking forward to beginning my work there. The importance of outfitting our public schools and preparing Connecticut students for the challenges of the future cannot be underestimated.

The role of Connecticut’s public education system will assume even greater prominence over the next few years as we work to stabilize a tumultuous economy. The system will not only be required to accomplish more with fewer resources, it will be called upon to prepare a competitive, even superior workforce. Employers seek smart, innovative, hard-working employees. Our public school system must encourage and produce these traits in our students if we are to retain our place as a profitable home for corporations and small businesses.

The state’s business climate and economic fortunes will factor mightily when I consider my third committee assignment, reappointment to the legislature’s Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee. It has responsibility for the revenue side of the state budget and this is familiar territory for me because I was co-chair of this committee while serving in the House some years ago. Nevertheless, the committee has an unenviable task ahead this term, given the economic slowdown.

Each and every New Year is welcomed with raucous cheers, noisemakers, and even fireworks, in seeming defiance of the always unpredictable future. The greeting for 2009 this weekend will be no different. Somehow, despite the unprecedented circumstance, I sense we’re all looking forward to it, with firm and common resolve to meet and overcome whatever challenges we face.

Again, happy New Year.

Andrea Stillman represents the 20th Senatorial District, which includes New London, Waterford, East Lyme, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Salem, and Montville.

One Man’s Pilgrimage: Local man’s Q&A book on the Mayflower Pilgrims gains in popularity

2008-12-29T18:03:24Z

Montville resident William Muttart started out researching and writing a small history of the Mayflower Pilgrims and their arrival in America because he wanted to create an accurate history to pass on to his three sons, six grandchildren, and two step-grandchildren.

The motivation to write that history came in 2001 after Muttart discovered he is a direct descendent of seven of the 102 passengers onboard the Mayflower who braved the cold North Atlantic during their 66-day journey from England late in 1620.

“Prior to that, even though I was rather interested in history, I really hadn’t paid much attention to the story of the Pilgrims,” Muttart stated.

Shortly after he learned of his family’s lineage, however, Muttart says he began noticing how articles in newspapers seemed to be highly critical of the Pilgrims.

While some early information he found was true—like the Pilgrims did not first step ashore onto Plymouth Rock but waded ashore on Nov. 11 west of the area known today as Provincetown, Mass.—he found so much other conflicting and negative information, “I began to wonder if everything I’d been told about the Pilgrims was true,” he said.

His research over the next five years eventually turned into the book One Hundred & Eleven Questions & Answers Concerning the Pilgrims: Passengers on the Mayflower, 1620, which Muttart self-published in 2007.

In the 16 months since its initial publication, the book has been gaining the interest of history buffs, historical scholars, and school teachers.

A background investigator by trade for federal judges assigned to the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, Muttart is familiar with the process of digging into records to ferret out information.

“If you learn nothing else from this job, you learn that you better be accurate, you better be objective, and you better be thorough,” he pointed out. “I wanted to put together objective information no matter where it led me.”

Once Muttart had completed his initial research and recorded what he’d found, he realized it was time to verify his facts.

“I contacted the Mayflower Society, in Plymouth, and they referred me to a woman who was a former librarian for the society who was quite knowledgeable about Pilgrim history,” he explained.

That librarian was Linda Ashley, whom Muttart says he still has not met in person.

“When she read the material, she thought I had the beginning of something that should be published, or at least distributed on a wider scale than just to my family. She edited a couple of drafts and was pretty supportive of the whole project, so I asked her if she would co-author the book with me,” Muttart said.

When Muttart sent the manuscript to Peggy Baker, director of the Pilgrim Hall Museum, she agreed to look at it despite her initial reservations.

Her quick reply was a welcome surprise for Muttart, who wanted his information to be as accurate as possible.

“She wrote a five-page letter to me, and it was right to the point, telling me where my information was wrong,” Muttart said. “I really appreciated that, because that was really the springboard for my information being accepted and being accurate. I really have to thank Peggy for getting me over the top with my information.”

The stamp of approval for Muttart came when the staff at Plymouth Plantation agreed to offer his book for sale.

“That’s the last place I would have expected to market my book,” Muttart admitted, “since they are very particular about what they handle. You’d better be accurate about your information.”

Over the past year more than 300 copies have been sold at Plymouth Plantation, and Muttart says the buyer sent him a note recently declaring the book a “huge success.” Muttart believes the book has become such a success in the marketplace—considering the number of related titles it’s competing against—because it contains no long narrative, no fictionalized storytelling, and no drawn-out characterizations, just quick questions and answers.

“I call it a ‘Reader’s Digest’ approach, where you can pick and choose a few questions, and then hopefully you’ll want to read the whole thing,” he noted.

While the material is stated simply, Muttart says much of the information he provides deals with controversial information about the Pilgrims.

“What’s bothered me over the years is the great amount of erroneous information that’s been printed. And it seems like the week before Thanksgiving [each year] everybody wants to dig up an article about the Pilgrims that exposes something about their background that is rather unsavory,” Muttart mused.

“I rarely see an article that is very truthful toward the Pilgrims. It really surprises me,” he added, and describes how an archeologist mentioned in one article said “the Pilgrims were intolerance and discriminated against Catholics, Jews, and Indians.” It’s a statement that Muttart takes exception to, since his own research has never been able to reveal documentation to support such a claim.

“There may have been an individual Pilgrim who did something at one time that wasn’t acceptable, but as a group there was never any indication of that,” Muttart stated.

In the 16 months Muttart’s book has been on the market, teachers across the country who have gotten wind of it have ordered it for their students, and the Governor General of the Mayflower Society published a review recommending that all 27,000 members of the society place it on their reading list.

“When I started doing this, you might assume I was trying to find information that would put the Pilgrims in a better light,” Muttart said, “but I wanted to write what I found just for my children and grandchildren, no matter what I found.”

One Hundred & Eleven Questions & Answers Concerning the Pilgrims by William P. Muttart and Linda R. Ashley is available from the publisher at $16.50 for a single copy, two books for $15.50 each, and three books or more at $14.50 each. Prices include the cost of sales tax and shipping. For more information, write to Mayflower Books, P.O. Box 341, Montville, CT 06353; send e-mail to mayflowerbooks@99main.com; or call 860-848-7418.

By Jason J. Marchi
Times Correspondent

Town Council Revamps Volunteer Vetting Process

2008-12-29T17:58:21Z

The rubber stamp has been put away when it comes to appointing members to town boards, committees, or commissions.

In October, the Town Council changed the way it does business relating to how it reviews applications and requests from newcomers and incumbents asking to volunteer for various municipal groups.

The new process is not meant to slight the volunteers currently serving on the boards but to make councilors more familiar with the incumbents, have the volunteers evaluate their own performance, and to extend the opportunity to serve to those considering the possibility.

“It’s all about trying to create opportunity and make government more accessible, trying to achieve some balance, and invite diversity,” Councilor Rosetta Jones said last week.

At the council’s Oct. 15 meeting, after becoming frustrated by what she perceived as one commission’s disregard of public and council concerns, Jones asked for the opportunity to meet with incumbent candidates on all municipal boards who are up for reappointment before the council votes on their status.

Jones told her peers that she wanted to review the attendance records and ask the candidates their views of the town and whether they had any possible conflicts of interest.

Jones said last week that she wants to make sure everyone appointed is held accountable.

Council Chairwoman Catherine “Candy” Buebendorf agreed, saying the council has a “duty to the public to ensure the best people are in these positions,” according to meeting minutes.

Buebendorf said prior to instituting the new procedure, she and some fellow council members were appointing people they’d never met to positions that could have a great effect on the lives of residents.

The chairwoman also said she hopes the process will allow more people to become part of the municipal volunteer corps.

“If people see that there are, in fact, true openings, then maybe that will be enough to prompt them to file an application,” she said.

Councilor Howard “Russ” Beetham Jr., whose family has been in town for generations, recognized that although he is familiar with nearly every volunteer currently sitting on a board, the council owes at least that much to residents to review their qualifications and philosophies.

At its Oct. 15 meeting, the council chose not to reappoint two people to two boards because of poor attendance. The other incumbents up for consideration had their terms extended until the end of January, which gives the council enough time to conduct the interviews and not leave the respective boards and commissions without enough members for a quorum because of term expirations.

The bulk of those members were brought before the council at its Dec. 8 meeting. That night, councilors took more than an hour to interview 13 candidates seeking reappointment to Youth Advisory Board, the Public Safety Committee, Uncas Health District, Commission on Aging, the Building Code Board of Appeals, and a representative to the region’s tourism district. Ultimately, each was reappointed without discussion. One newcomer was appointed to the planning commission.

For more information about vacancies on town boards and commissions or to apply for a position, visit www.townofmontville.org.

By MEGAN BARD
Staff Writer

Meet Mrs. Christmas: Holiday house tours a "labor of love"

2008-12-18T18:46:29Z

For the organized and mall-fearing, holiday decorating starts the day after Turkey Day. For the rest of us, decking the halls starts early enough in December so that the abode is ready before the relatives arrive. But for the super-organized, Christmas-crazy Betty Dessert of Uncasville, decorating for the holidays starts at the end of the summer.

It has to since Dessert’s digs are decked out inside and out with more than 3,000 Santas, 38,000-plus lights, and countless other embellishments—not to mention the 500 or so guests she expects.

Dessert has been collecting Christmas decorations for 49 years, and has been hosting open houses of her Christmassy creation, her home on Sharp Hill Road in Uncasville, for 18 years. Over the years, the money she raises through tour donations have gone to various charities—the Montville High School Drama Club, the band, Project Graduation—depending on where the funding was low.

The Jimmy Fund, however, has always been a must-do. Again this year the Jimmy Fund will be a recipient, along with the Connecticut Children’s Medical Hospital.

When Dessert first started decorating her home in 1969, she had only one strand of lights. Her collection grew. With a daughter in Girl Scouts, the Scouts asked if they could use Dessert’s home to host a fund-raiser. The Scouts moved on to other activities but people became accustomed to touring the house every year. Thus, Dessert decided to open her home for charity.

“We have Santa and Mrs. Claus. I’m the Head Elf and have several grandchildren and one of my neighbor’s daughters are the elves who give house tours,” Dessert explains.

There is no admission charge, but donations are accepted. “It’s free because people get nickeled and dimed so much this time of year,” Dessert notes.

Dessert has never tried to calculate how much money she has raised over the years.

“We take one year at a time and whatever we take in we give back. If we can do something nice for other people, that’s what’s Christmas is all about.”

Job decorating duties are split. Betty handles the interior and her husband is charged with the outdoor decorations, the lights on the inside trees, and the big trains.

“We’re both very organized. You have to be to put everything up. Otherwise, it would be disastrous,” she says.

Dessert said her children have always maintained that the design of the lights develops in her head.

“There is no blueprint. Until someone can think like I think, I’m the only one who can put them up,” she notes.

By day, the Head Elf is a real estate agent, and her husband, Chuck Orr, owns (conveniently) Affordable Electric. “I’ve upgraded my electrical two times since I’ve lived here because of the Christmas lights. Most people upgrade because of personal reasons,” Dessert says, laughing.

The organized Dessert has all the original boxes for every decoration that came in a box. She has Rubbermaid totes so that everything is protected, and when the season is over, the interior decorations go to the attic and the outdoor ones go to the basement.

“We have 10 rooms that are decorated and that includes the bathroom, and the bathrooms are as decorated as any room in the house. You have to go to the bathroom with Santa, and he has to talk to you!”

Many of the decorations are homemade. Children make decorations for the Dessert home every year.

“Then, as they get older and they come back, they have to find them,” she says. “When they are really little, I’ll put their things on the tree so that they don’t become upset if they don’t find it. When they start to become 5 or 6, then I start hanging the decorations on the ceiling so they have to start looking. That gives them a lot to think about,” Dessert explains.

Children’s decorations are made out of cardboard, macaroni, fishing lures, paper clips, and pages colored from coloring books. Adults make decorations such as pinecone wreaths, wooden reindeer, ceramics, crocheted ornaments, and crocheted doilies. Her own mom creates paintings.

“Anything that is homemade is my favorite. And what the children make is just memorable. You cannot take back the memories,” Dessert says.

She is a particularly busy elf all year-round. She not only sells real estate, she owns several pieces of property that she and her husband maintain, she manages another business, does her husband’s scheduling, and pays everyone’s bills.

“I have six checkbooks—that gives you an idea of how many businesses I take care of. I just think the busier you are the younger you’ll stay.”

Dessert admits that she is “very childlike this time of year.” She says she’s a “walking Christmas replica of my house. I have lights that light up that I wear. I have Christmas bulbs and ribbons in my hair. My clothing is Christmas. I show houses like that, I go to closings like that.”

While most of us are over holiday-partied, Dessert stays home as much as she can this time of year.

“I don’t enjoy going to parties or going anywhere else. I love my home and enjoy what I’ve done. It’s a labor of love,” she states.

In fact, the only function that Dessert will attend outside of her home is the Board of Realtors fund-raiser. “The luncheon supports many charities in this area. Outside of that, I love being here and taking time with children, enjoying them and my grandchildren,” she says.

Skipping any social events won’t cause loneliness by any means. Between the open houses, a get-together for friends, another get-together for realtors and attorneys, and another get-together for family (50 or so relatives on both sides), probably 500 people will view the labor of love throughout the season.

The Dessert home will be open to the public on Dec. 20 and 21, from 5 to 8 p.m. Parking is available in the back of the home on 59 Sharp Hill Road in Uncasville. For further information, call 848-7514.

“It’s a casual, homey atmosphere, so you can leave your heels at home,” Dessert adds. “You can even wear your slippers.”

By Susan Cornell
Special to the Times

Parading Through the Holidays

2008-12-18T18:27:14Z

The town of Montville hosted its 11th annual Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting Dec. 7. The parade featured a slew of floats and performances created by locals and town organizations and businesses. Earlier in the day, parade-goers enjoyed a concert by The Illusions; the Montville Youth Service Bureau’s annual book fair and sale; gingerbread house decorating at Cafe 32; and crafts projects at Montville Florists; among other special activities.

And, of course, Santa Claus made his annual trip to Montville, as well.

At the Capitol - The Volatile Budget

2008-12-18T18:20:13Z

It's no secret that a global economic meltdown has created budget crises statewide: at the Capitol in Hartford, at each and every town hall, and for each individual and family in Connecticut. What might be less well known is the process by which Connecticut officials will work to balance our state budget and how that might impact the budgets of local governments and residents.

At this writing, the state is approaching the halfway point in its current budget year. Yet even as we navigate this perilous economy and work to prevent current-year deficits, additional work is well underway to gauge the state’s future resources, the future needs of its residents, and reconcile the two for the next two-year budget cycle.

Given the volatility of prices, available credit, cash-on-hand, and other critical economic benchmarks this past year, it seems the only safe bet is on the prospects for more volatility.

But even if the economy itself presents a moving target, the timetable for making these projections is predictable and built into state law. The process begins with the Executive Branch, so the commissioner of each state agency is presently preparing spending estimates for the next biennium. Over the next couple months, the governor’s budget office will compile this information, make changes as it sees fit, and then determine the revenue that will be needed to meet these spending projections.

The result of that months-long process is delivered to the General Assembly in a formal address by the governor in early February. The annual budget address often includes policy initiatives and spending proposals to address a governor’s program priorities; this year, the address is certain to be far less ambitious. This year, the only variable is how much spending will be slashed and how much government will shrink.

After the governor outlines her proposals, the legislature begins essentially the same process to determine spending needs and then match that total on the revenue side. After a Legislative Branch budget is approved later in the session, negotiations with the governor’s office—usually lasting into June—determine the final budget language and the state’s fiscal roadmap for the following two years.

All of this is to say some of the blanket statements and figures we hear and see at this time of year—at this early stage of the process—are premature and only represent projections, targets, or arbitrary objectives. The only budget that’s been finalized at this point is the one for the current year.

For FY10 and FY11, the governor gave preliminary guidelines for commissioners to return budgets with a 10 percent reduction from current spending. While her one-size-fits-all objective is admirable, it could well be unrealistic in many cases. For instance, the Commissioner of Education immediately targeted Education Cost Sharing grants to local governments to cut his 10 percent, but that would almost certainly translate into increased local property taxes to make up the difference. That wouldn’t solve the challenge of education funding, it would only transfer it to property owners at a time they can least afford it.

Thankfully, there is deliberative process by which all of these proposed strategies—and all of their ramifications—will be evaluated and weighed against all the others. We have a great deal of work ahead of us, but I’m confident about our ability to meet Connecticut’s needs in the short term. And I’m hopeful about our ability to streamline and fortify the way Connecticut operates for the long term, so we emerge from this difficult time positioned for future prosperity.

Andrea Stillman represents the 20th Senatorial District, which includes New London, Waterford, East Lyme, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Salem, and Montville.

Ask Rosetta - Thoughts on the January Referendum

2008-12-18T18:11:58Z

The opportunity to examine what really matters in our lives beckons response, as we brace for the financial tidal wave our state legislature has predicted in the coming year.

Thus far, the projected deficit soars at nearly $6 billion over the next two years. The shockwaves of this huge shortfall will undoubtedly result in less revenue for municipal aid. As we navigate the uncertainties of this looming storm, it is paramount that our decisions on town matters are anchored in commonsense, common purpose, and wise spending.

On Jan. 13, 2009, a town referendum will be held at Fair Oaks School from noon to 8 p.m. Residents will be asked to approve an additional appropriation of $54,700,000 for further enhancements to Mohegan, Murphy, and Oakdale Elementary, Tyl Middle, and Palmer Alternative schools. According to financial records, our voters approved the initial appropriation of $43,950,000 in June 2003. Additionally, in March 2006, by town referendum, voters approved an additional increase of $54,350,000 to accommodate project cost increases.

The reason cited for the latest increases is safety concerns. Here’s what’s at stake:

• An optional replacement and upgrade to the current security system at the high school to further diminish potential acts of vandalism. The cost for the upgrade is $78,500.

A break-in did occur in June of this year. All indicators suggest this was an isolated incident. Documentation relating to persistent problems of this nature is unavailable.

• A grease interceptor system for Tyl Middle School at a cost of $65,000. This is a Department of Environmental Protection mandate that must be in compliance by 2011. The logic is it will cost more in 2011. According to construction project officials, if installed now, the town would be eligible to receive a 65 percent reimbursement. Mathematically, this is a plausible choice. However, once installed, this system will require the additional expense of a contractual agreement with Maintenance Haulers to remove the volume of liquids and solids that are generated by the school cafeteria.

• Replacement of the existing telephone system at Tyl Middle School to decrease incidents of dropped calls. The cost is $57,320. Again, no record indicates that the current system has jeopardized the safety and security of the students, staff, public, or school faculty.

• Replacement of the existing fire alarm system at Tyl Middle, to comply with new ADA standards (CGS 29-292). Cost is $185,000. According to the fire marshal’s office, the school is in full compliance with all state fire codes. This law factored in the reality of the cost to pre-existing schools and decided to grandfather in schools built before 2005. Translation: this initiative is not driven by a state or federal mandate.

The rationale behind this initiative is to avert any potential civil liberties compliant against our schools. As a result, I inquired about our track record regarding such claims. I was told it had been about 15 years, since a claim of this nature had been filed.

Wishing you an empowered New Year!

Rosetta Jones is a member of the Montville Town Council. She can be reached at rej26@snet.net.