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Riley Klein
WASHINGTON — Thomaston High School girls basketball defeated Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) 53-25 in the Berkshire League tournament semifinals Tuesday, Feb. 20.
The defending champion Golden Bears advanced to the championship for a rematch of last year’s title game against Northwestern, which defeated Gilbert 61-44 in the semifinal match prior to the HVRHS/Thomaston game.
The Mountaineers entered the second round of the tournament coming off an electric win in the quarterfinals against Nonnewaug. The momentum did not carry over, however, and HVRHS wrapped up conference play on a tough loss to a strong team.
Round two of the Berkshire League playoff was played on neutral ground at Shepaug Valley High School in Washington. Supporters from both sides made the trip to cheer on their teams.
Thomaston set the tone of the game early. Unshakeable defense from the Golden Bears forced repeated turnovers and fueled a dominant performance in the first quarter.
Trouble for HVRHS persisted into the second quarter. Thomaston’s possession control and ability to find open shots caused the lead to grow to 37-6 by halftime.
HVRHS coach Jake Plitt adjusted to a zone defense in the second half, which proved effective and rattling the Golden Bears. Defensive stops led to successful fast breaks and HVRHS outscored Thomaston 10-4 in the third quarter.
HVRHS battled to the final buzzer, but the game was out of reach. Thomaston remained undefeated in the Berkshire League this season with a 53-25 win in the semifinals.
Nicole Dekker led the Golden Bears in scoring with 17 points. Ava Harkness scored 11 points and Lily VanOrmer finished with 10 points.
HVRHS’ top scorer was captain Anne Moran with 7 points. Kylie Leonard and Olivia Brooks each scored 5 points for the Mountaineers.
Thomaston advanced to the championship game against Northwestern Friday, Feb. 23. A win for the Golden Bears will make their seventh Berkshire League title since 2014.
HVRHS qualified for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class S tournament as the 17th seed. The Mountaineers will head to Durham for round one Monday, Feb. 26.
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KENT — After months of consideration of disbanding the Kent Cemetery Association, the Board of Selectmen reviewed a nearly final draft of a new cemetery ordinance at a special workshop meeting Tuesday, Feb. 6.
If the new ordinance is approved at a town meeting, the town would take on responsibility for Kent’s six cemeteries, disbanding the association.
The selectmen voted unanimously to approve the new ordinance, pending one final review by the town attorney.
All assets of the Association will be transferred to a special account within the town budget. The town will appropriate funds to the new committee for cemetery operations.
The six cemeteries to be included are Bulls Bridge, Congregational, Flanders, Good Hill, Skiff Mountain and St. Andrew’s. Considered a department of the town, the new Cemetery Committee would consist of five volunteer members to be appointed by the Board of Selectmen. One member would serve for two years, two for four years and two for six years to stagger the term expiration dates.
“The ordinance should recognize the new cemetery committee and assume the obligations of the committee members,” advised town attorney Randall DiBella, who was present at the meeting. He added that the committee must be responsible for establishing and maintaining cemetery operations.
“We don’t want an ordinance with a lot of detail,” DiBella said, cautioning that a public hearing process would be required to make any change in an ordinance. Most operational questions, DiBella advised, could be administered by the committee’s cemetery rules and regulations, where changes could be recorded and implemented by simple action of that committee.
The schedule of fees should be found in the committee’s regulations, not in the ordinance itself, agreed Selectwoman Lynn Worthington.
“We can move this forward now,” said First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer. “We could just get it started,” he added, referring to the ordinance.
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Falls Village adopts new POCD
Feb 21, 2024
FALLS VILLAGE — The Board of Selectmen approved the new Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) at a special meeting Tuesday, Feb. 13, which was held in person and online.
The selectmen and the Board of Finance both held special meetings Feb. 13 because the regular meeting date of Monday, Feb. 12, was the Lincoln’s Birthday holiday.
The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) approved the 2024 POCD last month. The selectmen voted to recommend the POCD to a future town meeting.
The selectmen appointed Sergei Fedorjaczenko to the Bridge and Infrastructure Committee, and set up a standalone committee to handle the solar project at the town farm site. The new committee will have Chris Kinsella from the Board of Selectmen, two members from the Board of Finance, one each from the Recreation Commission and P&Z, and community members for up to 10 members total.
The selectmen appointed Kim Mahoney to the P&Z per that commission’s recommendation.
First Selectman Dave Barger reported that food scrap collection at the transfer station was 1,100 pounds in October and 1,500 pounds in November and December. Barger said he was pleased to be getting that much weight out of the municipal solid waste stream.
Registrar Susan Kelsey reported that preparations for the new early voting procedures are underway. She said the presidential primary elections April 2 are limited to voters registered as Democrats or Republicans and has four days of early voting, so the flow should be manageable, with early voters using the back door of Town Hall.
The 2024 general election on Nov. 5 is open to all voters and has 14 days of early voting.
“That’s a big disruption” for Town Hall personnel, she said, adding that using another location such as the Senior Center would be difficult because it would require installing communications lines with the state.
But Kelsey was optimistic that the town would manage.
Barger noted that town departments and various outside agencies are submitting spending plans and funding requests. He said he has received several letters asking for more funding for the David M. Hunt Library. Selectman Judy Jacobs looked up the town’s contribution to the library in the current budget — $52,225.
The meeting opened with public comment from Sue Sweetapple of the Falls Village Inn, who said she is not satisfied with the town’s tree and snow plowing efforts over the last few years. She also said that nearby businesses were making nuisance complaints about the Inn:
“I feel we’re being harassed by other businesses around town.”
Laura Werntz spoke in support, saying the Inn is one of the few businesses that attracts visitors to town.
At another special meeting Wednesday, Feb. 14, the selectmen voted unanimously to confirm the appointment of Michelle Hansen as town treasurer/bookkeeper, with a term ending Dec. 31, 2027.
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Alexander Wilburn
There can be no question that democratic freedoms are currently being attacked and restricted in the United States, and somehow, children and the information they have access to have been the ongoing targets of attack.
As AP News reported in 2023: “More than 1,200 challenges were compiled in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the American Library Association began keeping data 20 years ago.” Conservative groups across the country have become well-organized machines harassing individual public and school librarians with threats of legal and violent action. The message from these groups, often supported by government leaders, is that children should not have access to books — books meant for young readers — that engage with topics of race, gender or sexual identity.
At Fisher Center at Bard College, the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt Banned Book Awards was held Saturday night, Feb. 17, honoring a group of middle-grade and young adult authors with the first Awards for Bravery in Literature. These recipients, authors of some of the most challenged books in the country by counties, local governments and school boards, were acknowledged for their literary accomplishments and for championing stories full of independent thought, compassion and important social messages.
The award ceremony was hosted by Anna Eleanor Fierst, Roosevelt’s great-granddaughter and chair of the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill. Fierst was joined on the stage by speakers Emily Drabinski, the president of the American Library Association; George McCalman, author of “Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and Unseen”; Matt Nosanchuck, the deputy assistant secretary for operations and outreach in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education; Lee Rowland, policy director at the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU); and Cameron Samuels, a student at Brandeis University and the executive director of SEAT, a youth civic organization. Last year, at age 18, Samuels testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee addressing book bans.
The recipients of the Eleanor Roosevelt Awards for Bravery in Literature were the following, in alphabetical order:
— Laurie Halse Anderson for “Shout: The True Story of a Survivor Who Refused to be Silenced” from Viking Books. Anderson is the author of the 1999 young adult novel “Speak,” adapted into a Sundance Festival film in 2004 starring Kristen Stewart. “Speak” tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped at a party the summer before her first year of high school and finds herself ostracized by her fellow students as she finds the strength to name her assailant. Twenty years later, Anderson wrote “Shout,” a companion memoir about her own adolescence. “Speak” was a National Book Award finalist, but in 2020, was also named the fourth most banned and challenged book in the United States.
— Mike Curato for “Flamer” from Macmillan. A semi-autobiographical graphic novel written and illustrated by Curato, set in 1995, it details a summer at a sleepaway Boy Scouts camp where a 14-year-old Filipino boy navigates changes in his male friend group — which include bullying and homophobic slurs — leaving him isolated, hating himself and contemplating suicide. PEN America reported that “Flamer” was banned in schools in at least six states during the 2021-22 school year, and in Utah’s Alpine School District, was filed as “pornographic.”
Macmillan
— Alex Gino for “Melissa” (previously published as “George”) from Scholastic. “Melissa” has appeared on the American Library Association’s Top Ten Most Challenged Books list every year since its publication. The children’s novel follows a 10-year-old transgender girl named Melissa, known as “George” to her family, whose one wish is to play the role of the talking spider Charlotte in her fourth-grade class’s production of “Charlotte’s Web.” The novel was at the center of the 2018-19 Oregon Battle of the Books controversy, a school reading challenge that two school districts refused to participate in because of the inclusion of “Melissa” on the reading list.
— George M. Johnson for “All Boys Aren’t Blue” from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. A coming-of-age memoir, Johnson details their ’90s youth in Plainfield, New Jersey, with a focus on coming to terms with their Black and queer identity while also addressing Black, queer male readers today as they search for role models and representation in their own lives. In 2021, a Flagler County school board member and a retired teacher filed a criminal complaint against the Florida school’s superintendent for carrying the book.
Macmillan
— Maia Kobabe for “Gender Queer” from Simon and Schuster. The graphic novel written and illustrated by Kobabe has been in the eye of the book-banning storm since its publication, publicly challenged by conservative politicians like South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, among others, citing the novel to be “obscene for unrestricted viewing by minors.” In a town hall in 2023, Youngkin was called out on his views on the book and trans youth by a transmasculine Arlington high school student named Niko. “Look at me,” Niko said to Youngkin. “I am a transgender man. Do you really think that the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?”
Simon and Schuster
— Jelani Memory for “A Kids Book About Racism” from Penguin Random House. The young reader’s book for ages 3-6 was initially written for Memory’s own children — his four white step-children and two Black biological children — before he submitted the book for publication. The introduction tells children, “This is a book about racism. For reals! And yes, it really is for kids. It’s a good book to read with a grownup. Because you’ll have lots to talk about afterward.”
The ceremony’s Lifetime Achievement Award was presented by NYCLU’s Lee Rowland to the incomparable author of beloved young adult books, Judy Blume, who joined the audience digitally from her home in Key West, Florida.
Since the publication of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” in 1970, the name Judy Blume has been synonymous with the inner heart of girlhood. The author of classics like “Blubber,” “Tiger Eyes,” and “Forever...,” Blume has not only captured the complexity of puberty as childhood innocence slips away and the shadow of adulthood looms, but taken the emotions and plights of young girls seriously. Tackling stories centering on faith, death, virginity and love, Blume’s novels continue to be a lifeline to readers grappling with understanding a world that often deliberately hides uncomfortable truths, even when it comes to a girl’s own body and mind.
“As someone who argued with [former White House communications director] Pat Buchanan over masturbation, I’m sorry to say I’ve heard a lot [when it comes to challenging books],” Blume said at the ceremony. “It is different today. It is scarier because it is coming from the government more and more, and from state legislatures. It is very political now. We just have to keep going. We just have to keep working together.”
Her advice to her fellow authors, as well as to young aspiring novelists, was clear: “You’ve got to knock the critic off one shoulder, and you’ve got to knock the censor off the other shoulder. When you’re locked up in your little room writing, you cannot think of what will happen. You just have to go for it.”
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