New London Times

Solid Foundations: Stephen George wins Associated Contractors of Connecticut award

2009-01-06T15:57:54Z

It's patently unfair to encapsulate a person with one word but Stephen George is a builder.

On one hand, it’s his job title.

As Connecticut College’s manager of planning, design, and construction, he’s overseen the school’s building projects for the past 20 years.

And before that he built submarines at Electric Boat.

Academic structures and ships are merely just the objects he’s built. But in his nearly 40 years in the region, George, who lives on seven acres in Preston, has helped build something else—a sense of community that stretches from his job at Conn to mission work in Haiti.

In fact, Haiti is where George, his wife, and one of his three sons are right now.

“We’re going down to try to help alleviate some of the starving children,” George said in an interview during last month’s snowstorm.

The snow that day put a temporary halt on his latest project, the $5 million addition to Conn’s athletic center.

Construction on the campus has become a familiar sight, as Connecticut College’s $60 million, 10-year renewal plan is well under way.

George has been the point man in coordinating the often entangled interests of public and private entities that participate in major construction projects.

In fact, George’s management style, which relies on partnerships, won him an award in December from the Associated General Contractors of Connecticut.

“Steve’s faithful commitment to the college and partnership style of management make him more than deserving of this recognition,” Conn’s Vice President for Administration Ulysses Hammond said.

George said his management technique, which he calls a “nexus” non-competiveness and conflict resolution, has been a hallmark of the recent work on the athletic center.

“Rather than fight,” he said, “it’s a better method.”

Jack Cipriano, New London’s building official, said all of his dealings with George have “been good.”

“He an outstanding citizen,” Cipriano said.

The athletic center, which will meet the environmental LEED standards for “green” buildings, is designed to house the college’s exercise equipment and yoga studios that are becoming commonplace on campuses around the country.

“It’s for average students,” George said. “Not everyone is an athlete.”

The athletic center will complement the architecture on the eastern portion of the campus across Mohegan Avenue.

George was born in Denver, but lived in various parts of the country, including San Antonio and Chicago.

He joined the Army, and served for four years before getting out. While George was in the service, his mother moved to Westerly, and he followed here.

George never left.

“I thought: ‘The northeast is a weird place, I’ll never stay here,’ George said. “Thirty-six years later, I’d never live anywhere else.”

After a stint at Electric Boat, George responded to a newspaper ad for a job at Connecticut College, and, again, he’s never left.

And George sees his role as part of the college’s academic mission.

“The college provides a great platform to give young people the foundation they need going forward,” he said. “It’s not just a job.”

By Stephen Chupaska
Staff Writer

New London Notebook - Historical Society Hosts Inauguration Party

2009-01-06T15:55:39Z

It makes perfect sense: watching a historic event in a historic place.

The New London County Historical Society will be screening the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 45th president of the United States on a 50-inch television at the Shaw Mansion on Blinman Street.

In addition, NLCHS executive director Edward Baker said the museum will feature artifacts from Hawaii and Chicago, two places with connections to the incoming president. Obama grew up in Hawaii, and came of political age in Chicago.

“We have some very special things from both places,” Baker said.

Elias Perkins, who grew up in the mansion, was a whaling agent in Hawaii, or as they were formerly known, the Sandwich Islands, in 1850. Later, Abraham Linclon, whose Bible Obama will be sworn in upon, appointed Perkins as the American consul to then Kingdom of Hawaii.

Baker said an actor playing Perkins will make an appearance to talk about the inaugartion of Lincoln, which took place in 1861.

Also, on display will be hand-drawn maps of the Chicago River by New Londoner Henry Burdick, who served in the War Department in the Thomas Jefferson administration.

Doors for the celebration will open at 10:30 a.m., as Obama is expected to be sworn in shortly before noon.

Baker said the ceremony and speech will be digitally recorded and replayed at the mansion at 6 p.m.

A $5 donation is requested for the morning and a $10 donation for the evening.

Concert Rescheduled

The Jennings School Winter Music Extravaganza originally scheduled for Dec. 19 and cancelled because of snow will take place Friday at 9 a.m.

Call 447-6050 for more information.

By Stephen Chupaska
Staff Writer

Champagnes Celebrate 65 Years of Marriage

2009-01-06T15:51:52Z

Malcolm and Wanda (Polnar) Champagne celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary at Beechwood Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in New London surrounded by friends and the Beechwood staff. Malcolm and Wanda were married on Dec. 18, 1943. When asked if there was any significance to the date, Wanda replied, “He was home on leave from the Merchant Marines.”

The Champagnes have two children, Malcolm, Jr. (deceased) and Michelle. They also have four grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and are awaiting the arrival of their fourth great-grandchild.

From the Ground Up: A Rare Life in Gems

2009-01-06T15:47:25Z

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.

Los Tiempos - More Than Books/Mas Que Libros

2009-01-06T15:44:18Z

"You, Platero, are in the past, but what does the past matter to you, who live in eternity—you, who possess, just as I do, as red as God’s heart, the sun of every dawn?”

With those words ends a book about a writer and his recently deceased donkey. I grew up with that book, which describes life in a small, white town in Andalusia, Spain, close geographically and in appearance to my hometown. This book, Platero and I, is one in the small collection of material in Spanish that the New London Public Library has assembled, despite tight budgets, and a small, slowly growing group of readers.

Who would have told me when I was a child that one day I would be reading that same story in a library on the other side of the Atlantic? But that’s the magic of books: to preserve the best of our experiences and thoughts beyond the moment and across mountains and seas, which wait for us to go in search of the words to continue the dialogue between memory and our present condition. The New London library is doing what it can to make the building on the corner of State and Huntington streets a welcoming space for families of our city’s increasingly culturally diverse population. A study showed that it’s better to have all public services on one floor.

“It’s better from the point of view of security, and parents and children can visit the library at the same time, rather than waiting to go to another floor,” said Peter Ciparelli, the library director. “Since the children’s section was moved to the first floor, there has been an increase in the use of our facilities. Computers were also installed on the same floor, so they kicked us [the administration] upstairs, but they did us a favor.”

Ciparelli brought me upstairs to the attic in the limited-access elevator from the children’s room so that I could see why he’s so happy with the change.

The director’s office—with floor, walls, and ceiling paneled in Georgia pine, as well as a bathroom and kitchenette, a wall-to-wall glass door with several sections, and a long, hand-made maple table that sits 18 people near the high windows that curve following the ceiling—it’s every writer’s dream studio. Ciparelli confides (with a tinge of envy) that he suspects someone used to live there, while he explains the library’s current offerings.

Project Aspire is an after-school program for elementary- and middle-school kids, offered Mondays and Wednesday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. by a staff member of the Children’s Museum of Southeastern Connecticut; with the attractive name of “Messing Around Around the Books,” it gives kids the opportunity of creating things related to science.

As we make our way to the History and Genealogy Room down the beautiful spiral staircase, the director wants to make sure people understand the library welcomes adults as much as it does the younger population. He would like to hear from residents who have an expertise to share, and could suggest programs.

We stop at the new Community Room in the basement to look at the exhibit of a winter city constructed by children and their instructors out of milk cartons and cardboard cleverly cut, stacked, and painted to resemble trees, houses, and even a recognizable library building. Ciparelli says the public is invited to bring their own objects to exhibit and to apply for a card, which takes about five minutes.

In the Community Room, with its impressive wide screen, movies are shown on Saturday afternoons.

“On the second Saturday in January we will show ‘Barack’s African Journey and Homecoming to Kenya.’ People wonder where he comes from. Well, they can come here and find out,” said Ciparelli, who would like to stay in our library for about eight more years because, “There is plenty for me to do here.”

Going upstairs to the first floor to greet the new head of adult services and reference, Tara Samul—who says of our library that, “More than just a source of books, it’s a community center”—I bump into a poster sign showing in pretty calligraphy a poem by a young visitor from TVCCA:

“Reach the heavens,
Reach for glory,
Climb the stairs,
Read a story.”

By following that advice I found my childhood’s book. That’s what its author meant by the “sun of every dawn.” Try to start your New Year with magic. Visit the library at 63 Huntington Street or call Tara at 447-1411.

Published in the Jan. 8 New London Times.

Más Que Libros

“Tú, Platero, estás solo en el pasado. Pero, ¿qué más te da el pasado a ti que vives en lo eterno, que, como yo aquí, tienes en tu mano, grana como el corazón de Dios perenne, el sol de cada aurora?”

Con esas palabras termina un libro sobre un escritor y su burro, que acaba de morir. Yo crecí leyendo ese libro, que trata de la vida en un pequeño pueblo blanco en Andalucía, España, cercano al mío y muy parecido. Este libro, Platero y yo, se encuentra en la diminuta colección de material en español que la Biblioteca Pública de New London ha logrado reunir, a pesar del bajo presupuesto y del pequeño número de lectores con que esta colección cuenta.

¿Cómo iba yo a imaginarme cuando era niña que me encontraría un día leyendo ese mismo libro en una biblioteca al otro lado del Atlántico? Esa es la magia de los libros, que nos permiten preservar lo mejor de nuestras experiencias y pensamientos más allá del momento en que son creados, y que podemos recrear en mundos lejanos, y de las bibliotecas, que nos esperan a que acudamos en busca de las palabras que nos ayuden a continuar el diálogo entre la memoria y las circunstancias presentes de nuestra vida.

La Biblioteca Pública de New London, en la esquina de las calles State y Huntington, se está esforzando por hacer el edificio ameno a las familias de nuestra ciudad, que cada día tiene una composición cultural y lingüística más compleja. Se ha comprobado que es más efectivo tener todos los servicios dirigidos al público en un piso.

“Es más seguro, y padres e hijos pueden hacer lo que tengan que hacer en la biblioteca al mismo tiempo, en vez de tener que esperar para subir al otro piso,” dice Peter Ciparelli, el director. “El uso de la biblioteca ha aumentado desde que mudamos la sección juvenil al primer piso. También se instalaron en el primer piso las computadoras, así que nos exiliaron [a la administración] al ático. Pero nos hicieron un favor.” Y el señor Ciparelli me lleva desde la biblioteca juvenil al ático en el ascensor de acceso limitado, para que vea por qué está tan contento con el cambio.

La oficina del director—con el suelo, el techo y las paredes cubiertos de pino de Georgia, con su baño y cocinilla, con una puerta cristalera de varios paneles y una mesa larga de madera de arce hecha a mano que debe sentar a no menos de 18 personas situada debajo de las ventanas altas que se curvan siguiendo al techo—es el estudio ideal con el que todos los escritores hemos soñado. El señor Ciparelli me confiesa, con cierta envidia, que sospecha que alguien vivía en el ático, y sigue hablándome de los programas que ofrece la biblioteca. El Proyecto Aspira tiene lugar los lunes y miércoles, de 3:30 a 5 de la tarde, impartido por un empleado del Museo Juvenil del Sureste de Connecticut para estudiantes de escuela primaria y de enseñanza media. Con el atractivo nombre de ¨Tonteando entre libros,¨ a los jóvenes se les guía en actividades relacionadas con lo que estudian en clases de ciencias. Mientras bajamos a la sala de Historia y Genealogía por la preciosa escalera de caracol, el director me dice que quiere dejar claro que la biblioteca está tan interesada en atraer a la población adulta como a la juvenil. A él le gustaría oír de cualquier residente que posea una habilidad especial que quiera compartirla con el público.

En el nuevo salón de la comunidad, nos paramos a mirar la exhibición en la vitrina de una ciudad en invierno construida por niños e instructores, usando envases de leche y cartones recortados y pintados de tal manera que representan casas, árboles y hasta el familiar edificio de una biblioteca pública. El señor Ciparelli dice que se invita al público a proponer exhibiciones, y, de paso, a que se hagan miembros, que es gratis y tarda cinco minutos. En esta sala se proyectan películas todos los sábados por la tarde en la nueva pantalla grande.

“El segundo sábado de enero se mostrará el documental ‘El viaje a África de Barack y su bienvenida en Kenya.’ Hay gente que se pregunta quién es Obama: que vengan y se enteren,” dice el señor Ciparelli, a quien le gustaría quedarse en nuestra biblioteca durante ocho años más porque “todavía tengo mucho que hacer aquí.”

Mientras me voy arriba a saludar a la nueva bibliotecaria de servicios de referencia y programas de adultos, Tara Samul (que cree que nuestra biblioteca es mucho más que un sitio para libros: es un centro de reunión para la comunidad), me tropiezo con un póster con letras cuidadosamente caligrafiadas donde se lee un poemita escrito por un joven visitante de TVCCA:

“Alcanza el cielo,
Llega a la gloria,
Sube las escaleras,
Lee una historia.”

Seguí el consejo y encontré el libro de mi niñez. A eso se refería su autor cuando escribió lo de “el sol de cada aurora.” Intenta empezar el Año Nuevo con magia. Visita la biblioteca en el 63 de Huntington, o llama a Tara al 447-1411.

Publicado en la édicion del 8 de Enero en New London Times.

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

2009-01-02T15:35:42Z

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 New London Times inside spread, click on the photo at right.

A Flurry of Spending: Storms blow away a quarter of New London’s snow budget

2009-01-02T15:32:57Z

Winter has already melted away the money stowed away for snow removal.

Last month’s winter storms took up about a quarter of the salary budgeted for snow removal in the city.

The twin snow and ice storms on Dec. 19 and Dec. 21 cost the city $24,507 in wages as crews logged more than 700 hours of work.

Keith Chapman, the advisor to the city manager who oversees public works, said the majority of the city’s snow removal crews worked both storms.

“We had 20 to 22 people on,” Chapman said.

According to Chapman, New London has eight heavy plows that cleared the city’s major thoroughfares and several smaller trucks responsible for side roads and dead ends.

Chapman, the former Newington town manager who also worked as highway superintendent in Manchester, said the city’s current fleet of eight plows is inadequate.

“Ideally, we should have 11 plows,” he said.

Chapman said the snowfall rate and low temperatures throughout weekend made it difficult for crews to keep pace with the winter weather.

“The sun never really came out, and the snow lingered,” he said.

Also, Chapman said some residents did not obey the parking bans issued on Friday morning and on Sunday, further complicating matters for plows.

“Parked cars can create havoc for us,” he said. “We don’t want to tow cars and a ticket doesn’t help; we just hope residents follow the rules.”

Chapman said for future winter storms, residents should consult the city’s Web site for guidance, or listen for announcements over the Early Warning System.

New London has an opposite side of the street parking policy during snowstorm season according to the year in which winter begins. This winter, parking is allowed on the even-numbered side of the street during storms.

The public works office also fielded complaints from residents who shoveled their sidewalks, only to have plows cover them with snow from the road.

“We recommend that residents wait until the storm is over to clear sidewalks,” Chapman said.

By Stephen Chupaska
Staff Writer

Engineers’ Toy Drive benefits the Tommy Fund

2009-01-02T15:29:58Z

On Dec, 17, Operating Engineers Local 478 delivered more than $1,600 worth of toys to the Gemma E. Moran United Way Labor Food Center in New London to benefit the Tommy Toy Fund. This year marks Local 478’s fourth annual Toy Drive, which donates and distributes toys to various holiday toy collections throughout the state.

“At Local 478, we pride ourselves on our commitment to the community,” said Ben Cozzi, president and business manager of Local 478. “We hope that by contributing to the Tommy Toy Fund, boys and girls throughout Southeastern Connecticut will have a more enjoyable holiday season.”

The Tommy Toy Fund, a non-profit organization, provides toys and books to low income families in Southeastern Connecticut during the holiday season.

Letter to the Editor: Support NLHS football team with better playing field

2009-01-02T15:28:51Z

To the Editor:

Congratulations to Coach Jack Cochran and the New London High School football team. You have represented yourselves, your school, and our community with class and dignity.

Now it is time for the community to step up and support you. The condition of the playing field and sections of the grandstand are deplorable. As generous as the donation of lights for Friday night games was, a first-class, permanent lighting system should be part of the plan. We deserve a first-class facility that showcases not only our team, but our city as well. To continue to showcase our team to the region and the state in the current condition would be a disgrace.

The team not only plays its games on the field, but practices on it as well. The wear and tear requires a surface more durable than reseeding each season. Field turf has proven to be a superior surface and is used at every level from high school to college to pro. Field turf also will be strong enough to handle multiple uses all year round, which is cost effective.

This past season also showed how popular Friday night games are in New London. Attendance was up significantly and this policy should be continued. In this vein, permanent lighting should be integrated into the overall plan. Friday night games should not be just for the suburbs.

The needs for New London are many, along with plans for upkeep and maintenance. This investment in our youth and our community will be money well spent.

Sincerely,

Martin T. Olsen Jr.

NLHS ’72

At the Capitol: A New Year in Hartford

2009-01-02T15:25:48Z

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.

By State Sen. Andrea Stillman
Special to the Times

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

Florida Gator-New London Pipeline a Rare Event: Top Five Sports Stories of 2008

2009-01-02T15:23:55Z

The Big Two on New London High’s sports scene—football and basketball—made a lot of news in 2008.

The football team won its fifth state championship in December. The basketball team rolled to a 23-1 record until falling in the Class L state semifinals. But the New London Times’ top sports story featured a Big Two individual tandem that accomplished something that never may be repeated at any state high school. Two Whalers received scholarship offers to play at one of the big-time college athletic programs in America, the University of Florida.

1. - Chaney, Reed Enjoy Gator-Aid

The University of Florida came calling for New London High’s top two athletes: basketball player Alan Chaney and football player Jordan Reed.

Chaney, now playing as a freshman for the Gators, won the Gatorade Player of the Year Award in Connecticut after the 6-9 forward averaged 27 points a game for the Whalers.

Reed, a 6-4 senior, made a verbal commitment in August that he would accept a Florida scholarship offer. Reed appeared on the verge of following in Chaney’s footsteps as his sport’s Gatorade Player of the Year—passing for 891 yards in five games—until suffering a season-ending injury in October. Though the Whalers missed the services of the state’s top quarterback, who passed for 1,700 yards and 27 TDs as a junior, they pulled together to achieve the No. 2 entry on the list.

2. – Whalers Win Class SS Championship

After losing Reed, the Whalers weren’t their dominant selves down the stretch, beating Montville by a point on a miracle “Hail Mary” pass and losing decisively to Ledyard. But behind their attacking defense, the improved play of freshman quarterback Casey Cochran and the indomitable drive of back Richie Vitale, the Whalers won their first state championship since 1991 in a 27-18 victory over Seymour Dec. 3.

Vitale gained 303 yards rushing, and receiver Nick Singleton caught two Cochran TD passes. New London (12-1) shut down two of the state’s top running backs, Montville’s Tyler Girard-Floyd and UConn-bound Mike Osiecki, limiting them to a combined 60 yards in the playoffs.

It was coach Jack Cochran’s eighth state championship and the first at his alma mater after losing title games in 2005 and 2007.

3. – New London Basketball Crusade Falls Short

New London’s boys’ basketball team was as good as advertised, residing in the top 3 in the state poll all season, losing just one game to a San Diego school in a New York showcase. Powered by Chaney, the Whalers did not lose to an ECC team and downed Norwich Free Academy in a classic ECC Tournament final, a game played before a sellout 1,700 fans with 200 more in the parking lot waiting to get inside.

In the Class L tournament, however, New London did not play with the same intensity, winning a pair of sloppy games before meeting its match in the semifinals, losing 72-51 in resounding fashion to eventual state champ Maloney of Meriden.

4. – Coast Guard Reaches NCAA Final Eight

The Coast Guard men’s basketball team had a tough act to follow in 2007-2008. The previous year’s team hovered around .500 during the New England Men’s and Women’s Athletic Conference regular season but caught fire in the post-season, winning the NEWMAC Tournament to earn an NCAA bid and then winning the program’s first Division III NCAA game.

The Bears, though, surpassed the 2006-2007 magical run with a march to the Elite Eight, beating three ranked teams: No. 24 Trinity (70-65), No. 10 UMass-Dartmouth (50-47), and No. 13 Rochester (57-48) before losing to No. 16 Ursinas, 82-76, in overtime.

5. – Lessig Retires From Conn College

Bill Lessig retired after the 2008 season, culminating a successful 37-year career (267 wins) as Connecticut College’s men’s soccer coach. Lessig had the 25th highest win total of all active Division III coaches and ranked 33rd on the all-time NCAA leader list for victories. He has gained induction into the State of Connecticut and the Southeastern Connecticut Soccer Halls of Fame.

By Larry Kelley
Special to the Times

An International Christmas: New London Adult and Continuing Education throws a worldly bash

2008-12-23T16:55:34Z

Caroling is a Christmas tradition in this country, along with making wreaths, cooking a turkey, and watching old movies on television.

The folks at New London Adult and Continuing Education put a bit of a spin on the old customs this year, when it celebrated its annual holiday party with an international flair. Touches were added from more than 20 nationalities represented by the student body.

“We thought this would be a nice way to share American culture and in some ways, for the students to share their traditions,’’ said Maria A. Pukas, director of the school.

On party day, about 200 students milled around the school’s 18 classrooms, learning salsa dancing and creating table center pieces. Some decorated gingerbread cookies while others filled clear ornaments with fake snow and sparkling gold leaves. Glitter was liberally sprinkled on decorative balls and greeting cards.

Between 1,200 and 1,300 people attend the school annually. Classes include English as a Second Language, Citizenship, GED, and a high school credit program. There are also youth programs and Even Start, in which young parents can bring their small children to an on-site daycare while they attend classes. About 45 teachers work on an hourly rate for the school, which also has sites in Montville, Connecticut College, Shop Rite, and Centro de la Comunidad.

In classrooms throughout the building, signs of Christmas spilled out into the hallways.

In the music room, students with limited English proficiency sang “Joy to the World.’’ Others were drawn to the songs, and before long Brian Yang and Wendy Liao, both from Waterford and originally from Hunan Province, China, were singing “Silent Night” in their native language. Emi Futatsugi of Groton sang a version in her native Japanese. Soon, everyone in the room, including those from Columbia, Ecuador, and Brazil, were singing.

“This is great. Everyone seems to be having fun,’’ said Melanie Sandora, one of the teachers.

Other students gathered in a darkened classroom to watch “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.’’

Jennifer Smith gathered her students for a couple hours of holiday cooking.

They made an Amish broccoli salad, two pumpkin-mousse pies, a turtle pie, and cranberry salsa.

“We’re working on our communication skills and the vocabulary of cooking,’’ she said. Her students, originally from Taiwan, Haiti, Cambodia, China, El Salvador, and Columbia, started reciting the new words they learned: slicing, dicing, peeling, chopping, whipping, and whisk.

The food was being prepared to share at the holiday luncheon.

“It’s all about community today,’’ Smith said.

Even Leo Lamarre’s math class integrated a holiday theme. Students learned bar graphs and pie charts by plotting favorite Christmas gifts and favorite Christmas activities. They learned that among their peers, most preferred goodies include fudge, chocolates, and candy canes over peanut brittle.

“I was astonished at the population we had today,” he said. Students were given the opportunity to sign up for any activity. He said 10 attended his class.

Throughout the hallways, students poked in and out of classrooms.

Vanecia Delacruz of the Dominican Republic proudly walked around with a green centerpiece she put together.

“I’ve never made anything like this,’’ said the home health aide who has lived in New London for two years. She worked for 18 years in New York City with handicapped people but failed to pass the math portion of the training to work in Connecticut, so she’s taking adult education classes.

“I need my GED,’’ she said.

But on this day, the focus was on family, tradition, and Christmas.

At noon the students gathered in the lunchroom for an international feast that featured turkey, along with papa huancaina, a potato dish from Peru; Kimchi, a Korean dish featuring pickled cabbage; and tembleque, a Puerto Rican dessert of corn flour and coconut milk.

The buffet tables were dotted with international flags from Peru to Italy, Panama to Pakistan, Albania to Honduras, and Bolivia to the Ukraine. Afghanistan, Columbia, Ghana, Mexico, and Albania were also represented.

The school traditionally has a luncheon, but after the success of the “activity party,’’ the school will most likely carry on a new tradition.

By KATHLEEN EDGECOMB
Staff Writer

A New London Goodbye: Family and friends pay tribute to Tim West

2008-12-23T16:54:16Z

It may have been a chilly December morning with snow and freezing rain in the forecast, but last week’s tribute to Tim West at Ocean Beach Park was summertime for a day.

In fact, some of West’s close friends, including Probate Judge Matthew Greene and Democratic Town Committee Chairman Anthony Basilica even donned shorts for the occasion.

“It’s the way Tim would have wanted it,” Greene said. “He wore shorts every day, unless it was 20 below.”

Mark Christensen, the chairman of the zoning board, said “it was always summer with Tim.”

West, a former mayor and president of the Board of Education, died at his home in the early morning hours of Dec. 13.

He was 49.

Three days later more than 200 people gathered at Ocean Beach, one of West’s summer haunts, to listen to touching and humorous eulogies delivered by friends, family, and colleagues.

The Reverend L. David Cornish of Mount Moriah Fire Baptized Holiness Church presided over the tribute. Rev. Cornish told the crowd that West was “a courageous, concerned, and passionate” man.

Greene, who was West’s roommate at Bryant University, stopped and got a trim at the city’s iconic Thames Barber Shop before the ceremony.

“I was talking to Dan [Cardillo] about Tim,” he said. “Dan remembered the little kid on his tricycle riding back and forth over the same 20-yard strip.”

Greene called West, who graduated from New London High School in 1977, “a true Whaler.”

“He played football and was a tough guy,” he said. “Number 66.”

Greene recalled helping West with his political campaigns, spending the wee hours laboriously banging his big red signs into front lawns around the city.

“I’m honored I got to spend 33 years with one hell of a friend,” he said. “He was like a brother.”

Michael Elliot, who worked with West for much of his 25-year career in the state Office of Consumer Protection, got the biggest laugh of the ceremony.

“I started writing this eulogy the way Tim would have wanted me to,” he said. “On state time.”

Elliot said West was often out the door by 3 p.m.

“He wanted to be home coaching softball, helping his family,” he said. “But what you might not know is that Tim was the first one in the office in morning.”

Tommy Jones, West’s brother-in-law, remembered family gatherings at the Rhode Island beaches, where they would often decamp to a local bar for cocktails and laughs.

Amy Perry, a neighbor and running partner of West’s wife of 25 years, Valarie, recalled Tim as a voracious reader, as he would blaze through 600-page biographies in a day or two.

But mostly, Perry remembered West in the kitchen, coming up with another culinary masterpiece, aided by his favorite ingredient.

“Linguine with clam sauce, 12 cloves of garlic,” she said. “Barbecue ribs, six cloves of garlic.”

Perry said West “would have loved to cook for all of you today.”

“Without Tim to fill our hearts,” she said. “A lot of us are going to go hungry.”

West’s daughter Allison, a student at St. Bernard School where his son Drew also attended, read a poem, and said her father “could always make me laugh more than anyone else.”

At the end of the 90-minute ceremony, servers brought out roasted turkeys and fixings as part of the large-scale lunch served to those in attendance.

But mostly, it seemed, those who showed up at Ocean Beach to pay tribute to West would have been content with one more beer with the man.

New London Police Capt. William Dittman, who grew up in the same neighborhood as West, said his friend would have said, “Hey brother, let’s grab a frosty beverage.”

By Stephen Chupaska
Staff Writer

Education is a ‘Product’ Barber Can Believe In: New Bennie Dover Jackson principal puts focus on students

2008-12-23T16:52:33Z

Tracy Barber studied marketing in college, but wasn’t sold on it as a career.

“The primary reason I didn’t pursue it, “ he said, “ is that I was concerned I might be forced to sell a product I didn’t believe in.”

It’s what led Barber, who took over as principal of Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School in July, to become an educator.

“I’m now selling a product I wholeheartedly believe in,” he said, in an interview earlier this month.

Although his spartanly decorated office doesn’t suggest it, Barber is settling into his job as head of the middle school.

“It’s been evolving,” he said. “I’ve been understanding how the pieces fit together,”

Barber sees his role a collaborator with the teachers.

“[The teachers] hold a lot of information when making decisions,” he said.

In addition to familiarizing himself with parents, staff, and teachers Barber has been diligent about attending sporting events and school plays. Foremost on Barber’s mind is improving academic achievement at the middle school, which was identified under the No Child Left Behind Act as not making adequate yearly progress.

“Our primary focus will be literacy in every content area,” he said.

Also, like many modern educators, Barber emphasizes the importance of data gathering before making decisions, but does not neglect the personal connections students and parents have with schools.

“There is more to this job than just what [students] are doing on paper,” he said.

Barber replaced Jaye Wilson, who moved over to Winthrop Elementary School at the end of the last academic year.

He grew up in New Haven, attended both Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Southern Connecticut State University, where he earned a master’s in education administration.

Barber also did a tour in the Army from 1987 to 1990, where he was stationed in Germany. He was discharged shortly before Operation Desert Shield in August 1990.

After returning to Connecticut, Barber taught at the private Hopkins School in New Haven, where was also a track and cross-country coach.

He then moved on to teaching mathematics in public schools, first at Bloomfield High School then at Middletown High School.

Barber said he felt called to teach in the public schools.

“The ethnic diversity of public schools drove that decision,” he said. “That pulled me away from private schools.”

Barber said it’s important for him to give back to students of color.

Barber then was assistant principal at Washington Middle School in Meriden, before becoming principal at East Hampton Middle School.

He still makes his home in East Hampton with his wife of 11 years and their 3-year-old son.

When not at school, you’ll find Barber listening to jazz or gospel records with a little R & B for good measure.

“I’m good with everything up until 1999,” he said. “Except Alicia Keys.”

By Stephen Chupaska
Staff Writer

Pop Culture: The Babe Wrapped In Swaddling Clothes

2008-12-23T16:50:46Z

Here's a paradox I’ve been going 12 rounds with: Ever since I stopped believing in God, I miss religion.

And my longing has nothing to do with spiritual yearning or a desire to fill some absence in my life.

In fact, ever since I left the Catholic Church and God behind, I’ve been a happier person, able to concentrate on my relationships with people without some Supreme Being looking over my shoulder.

I’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior; to me he’s a non-union carpenter who does good work and to whom I wouldn’t mind paying a prevailing wage.

No, when I think about it, what I miss is reading in church, especially at Christmas.

Unlike other churches, such as black Baptist ones, where people actually look like they are having fun singing and praising God, the Catholic Church of my youth was where Jesus wanted you to be quiet and would write your name on heaven’s chalkboard if you dared to speak.

In the entryway to St. Mary’s in Torrington, the “away church” I went to when staying with my grandparents, there was a picture of Pope John Paul II with his arms in the extended “I’m blessing all of you now” position, with the word “Silence” written below it.

Talk about intimidating.

But the upside to the Catholic mass is that it provides a great atmosphere to get some reading done, like the quiet study room in university libraries.

And they even provide you with something to read, a missalette.

In case you don’t know, a missalette—from the root word missal, meaning “prayer book”—is a small periodical with various readings from the Old and New Testaments used during the mass. It’s sort of like the Bible set on “shuffle.”

I loved, and still love, the gravitas with which the priests and readers announce the day’s readings:

“A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians,” or “A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Toronto Blue Jays...”

Like I said, it’s been a while since I’ve been to church.

My favorite readings were from the Christmas Vigil Mass my family would attend every year.

They were always from the beginning of the Gospels, the chapters and verses that describe the birth of
Jesus.

The fun one is from Matthew that traces the genealogy: Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah, etc.

I think my favorite, however, is the Gospel according to Luke, set in the fields outside Bethlehem shortly after the birth.

In particular, I love Luke 2: 8-14, in the gorgeous King James Version, and best read by Linus in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”:

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

“And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’”

It’s wondrous, luminescent English.

Look at the rhythm of the sentences: “the angel of the Lord came upon them,” followed by “the glory of the Lord shone round about them.”

Plus the passage is chock full of great words, for instance, “sore.” Here it’s the archaic definition of the word, meaning “very” or “extremely.”

And “swaddling clothes” are two words that sound lovely together.

Of course, I don’t believe this scene, as magnificent as it sounds, actually happened.

In fact there has been too much misery inflicted upon the world by people who claim this and other scenes in religious texts actually happened. And it’s part of the reason God and I stopped seeing each other.

But what did I get out of that relationship? A love of words and language that brings me good tidings of great joy.

Merry Christmas.

This is the opinion of Stephen Chupaska.