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Kent Library’s car raffle returns
Apr 17, 2024
Provided
KENT — Tickets for the 22nd annual car raffle to benefit The Kent Memorial Library have been on sale for a while and will continue right up until the drawing on Sunday, Oct. 27, at the end of the Pumpkin Run road race. The drawing will be held at the Kent Town Hall.
Residents who purchase a ticket, or more than one if so inclined, can be in the running to win this year’s raffle car, an all-wheel drive 2021 Jeep Compass Limited. The color is white and the condition is described as “like new.”
The car features a nine-speed automatic transmission, a power front sunroof and fixed rear sunroof and a premium alpine speaker system for people who like to travel with robust sound.
Tickets, priced at $25 each are now available at the library or electronically by visiting www.kentmemoriallibrary.org. Tickets will be sold throughout the summer and even on weekends during the annual Library Book Sale. Or, residents can send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Kent Memorial Library Car Raffle, P.O. Box 127, Kent, CT 06757, enclosing a check for $25 per ticket, being sure to include phone number to allow the staff to complete the information on the raffle ticket. Or, to save a stamp, residents can drop that same envelope into the Library Book Drop slot.
Whichever means of purchase used, other than in person, the library will mail the raffle ticket stub to the purchaser.
Proceeds of the traditional car raffle support the Library’s annual operating budget, assisting the library with raising the more than 70% required to provide for its programs and essential services to the town.
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Police Blotter: Troop B
Apr 17, 2024
John Coston
The following information was provided by the Connecticut State Police at Troop B. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Swerving to avoid vehicle
On Monday, April 8, at approximately 4 p.m., George Cafiero, 54, of Wassaic was southbound on Route 41 in Sharon in a 2017 Volkswagen Jetta when the vehicle swerved off the road, striking a DOT wire rope guardrail. Cafiero said he swerved to avoid a northbound vehicle that was in his established lane. The Jetta was towed from the scene and Cafiero was issued a written warning for failure to maintain lane.
Up an embankment
On Tuesday, April 9 at approximately 4:10 p.m., Mavis Richardson, 70, of Torrington, was southbound on Route 63 north or Hautboy Hill Road in Cornwall in a 2017 Honda CR-V. The vehicle exited the roadway up an embankment. Richardson did not sustain injury. The Honda was towed from the scene Richardson was issued a written warning for failure to maintain lane.
Traveling too fast
On Friday, April 12, at approximately 8 a.m., Emily Wagner, 40, of North Canaan, was westbound on Route 44 in Norfolk and failed to negotiate a curve, and exited the roadway, striking an embankment. The 2016 Honda Fit was towed from the scene and Wagner was issued a written warning for traveling too fast for conditions and failure to maintain lane.
The Lakeville Journal will publish the outcome of police charges. Contact us by mail at P.O. Box 1688, Lakeville, CT 06039, Attn: Police Blotter, or send an email, with “police blotter” in the subject line, to johnc@lakevillejournal.com
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Each spring, students throughout Region One School District nominate a standout classmate for the Superintendent Award. This honor recognizes individuals for outstanding academic performance, commitment to school sports and clubs, and dedication to the community. Below are winners for 2024.
Leila Hawken
Allie McCarron
Kent Center School
By Leila Hawken
KENT — With a strong record of academic achievement, Allie McCarron was selected as the Superintendent Award winner at Kent Center School (KCS).
She is involved in the Student Council and the Litchfield Rowing Club where she engages in competitive rowing. She shares her talents readily with younger students, providing a positive role model with a positive attitude.
During an interview on Wednesday, April 10, Allie recalled that she entered Kent Center School for the Second Grade, her family having moved from Kennett Square, Penn. She has participated in the school band since the Fourth Grade, playing alto saxophone.
While she has enjoyed her time at KCS, Allie singled out the sense of community among her fellow students and the teaching staff as the highlight. She said that she has appreciated the spirit of collaborative service within the school.
Allie plans to attend HVRHS in the fall.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Logan Miller
Lee H. Kellogg School
By Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE — Logan Miller is this year’s winner of the Superintendent’s Award from Lee H. Kellogg School. Logan is a trumpet player in the LHK and Region One bands.
He runs track, plays hockey and baseball, and serves as a hockey referee.
As treasurer of the Student Council, he runs the school store, and he is the man inside the Falcon costume at pep rallies.
He told The Lakeville Journal that he is headed to Housatonic Valley Regional High School, where he plans to get involved with the agriculture education program and the Robotics team.
Beyond high school, he is thinking about studying science at (perhaps) Boston College, Boston University, or Quinnipiac University. “Somewhere with good sports.”
Riley Klein
Nate Young
Cornwall Consolidated School
By Riley Klein
CORNWALL — An active participant in the community, Nate Young was selected by his classmates as Cornwall Consolidated School’s 2024 Superintendent Award winner.
Nate is an active Boy Scout and proud leader of the CCS morning announcements team.
For his eighth grade exploration project, Nate is repairing a 1974 Land Rover.
“It’s awesome,” said Nate. “I spent probably two or three hours this weekend draining the fuel system... it had like 15-year-old fuel in it.”
“The fuel was older than you?” asked a Lakeville Journal reporter.
“Yeah,” Nate responded.
Nate will be attending HVRHS next year and is looking forward to continuing his passions for baseball, cross country running, saxophone, chorus, and agriculture education.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Mia Belter
Salisbury Central School
By Patrick L. Sullivan
SALISBURY — Mia Belter, an 8th grader at Salisbury Central School, is described as “mature, polite and kind-hearted. She is a role model who starts each day with a smile.”
When asked why she won the 2024 Superintendent’s Award for Salisbury Central School, she thought for a moment.
Then she said, “I’m nice to people, and I get good grades.”
Mia plays basketball and soccer and plans to run track this spring.
She is a big reader, with fiction of any kind a favorite. She admits to having two books going at a time.
“I used to read during nap time.”
Mia plans to attend Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
Riley Klein
Federico Vargas Tobon
North Canaan Elementary School
By Riley Klein
NORTH CANAAN — Federico Vargas Tobon of North Canaan Elementary School has been chosen as the school’s 2024 Superintendent Award winner by his peers.
On what the award means to him, he said, “It means a lot because all the work I’ve done finally pays off.”
An academic leader who excels in all subjects, Federico takes pride in his efforts on the student council, sports teams, and theater productions.
Federico played the Prince in NCES’s recent production of “The Little Mermaid.” He looks forward to continuing his passion for drama at HVRHS next year.
Federico plans to play on both the basketball and soccer teams when he becomes a Mountaineer next year.
Leila Hawken
Jayden Milton
Sharon Center School
By Leila Hawken
SHARON — Students at Sharon Center School (SCS) have chosen Jayden Milton as the 2024 Superintendent Award winner.
Presenting himself well with strong communication skills, Jayden wins SCS praise for his commitment to learning and for his qualities for being consistently respectful and responsible. He displays strong habits of mind in academics and within the school community.
He said that he has enjoyed working with the early-Kindergarteners and Grade 4 students, sometimes reading to them, but engaging in other activities at other times. Jayden performs with the Jazz Club as a percussionist, and he is serving as stage manager for the school musical.
Interested in serving the larger community, he has recently become a Junior Firefighter and received training in hazardous chemicals and how to deal with them.
Jayden plans to enroll this fall at Oliver Wolcott Technical High School with an interest in the machine tool program. Eventually, he hopes to pursue engineering studies.
Click here to see more winners.
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Leila Hawken
Local pharmacies are historically central to community life and have been for generations. If they offered a soda fountain counter with round swivel stools, so much the better.
Today’s family pharmacists throughout the area, however, are struggling under an oppressive pharmaceutical insurance middleman system that strips away profit from their prescription counter.
Beginning in the 1960s, Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBMs) came upon the scene to process drug claims for insurance companies. By the 1970s they were serving as middlemen between manufacturers, insurance companies and pharmacies, adjudicating prices.
Today, PBMs not only adjudicate claims, but now they develop and manage pharmacy networks, determine the list of drugs to be covered by insurance, set co-pay amounts and serve to channel the patient to a particular choice of pharmacy.
According to the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York (PSSNY), PBMs can own their own pharmacies, retail and mail order, and profit from sales and services. The work of the PSSNY is to propagate and protect community pharmacies.
The effect of this progression as PBMs have become “invisible middlemen” has been devastating to local family-owned pharmacies in area towns in New York and Connecticut, endangering their existence and the invaluable service they provide to their patients and the communities they serve.
Today, the three largest PBMs control nearly 80% of the prescription benefits market share in the U.S., according to the PSSNY.
“We are so lucky to have this pharmacy. It’s a blessing,” said Pine Plains resident Ann Noone, a regular customer of the Pine Plains Pharmacy, commenting on Monday, April 8 about the local business and its pharmacist. “He’s done a lot for this town.”
Pharmacist at the Pine Plains Pharmacy since 1989, and owner of the historic corner drug store since 2006, Nasir Mahmood has witnessed the financial squeeze on area pharmacies with some forced to close their doors, victims of the PBM system.
It is the PBMs that pre-determine how much each drug covered under the plan should cost, and this is the amount it reimburses all pharmacies except the large-chain ones they own. Often the reimbursement rates are well below the cost of the drug, putting pharmacies in the position of having to fill a prescription at a loss.
“We cannot wait for PBM reform,” said Mahmood on Wednesday, March 27, describing the current tenuous status of bi-partisan federal legislation awaiting vote in Washington, D.C.
Having served as president of the PSSNY for two years in 2008-09 and having finished a two-year term as chairman of the PSSNY Board in March, Mahmood now continues as a member of that board. He also serves on the National Legislative Committee within the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) working with other pharmacists’ professional organizations promoting new legislation to place limits on PBMs and create an equitable structure of reform and accountability.
Bipartisan bills have passed out of committee and are awaiting floor vote that would provide strict regulation and transparency to the work of the PBMs, improve patient access and lower costs, Mahmood said. The NCPA has achieved some recent success in the long process of bringing bills to the floor for a vote.
A series of Senate and House bills received bipartisan support and convincing vote margins as they emerged from committees. With passage, the various pieces of legislation would bring lower drug costs, greater transparency in the process, require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to define their contract terms, and require PBMs to operate with greater transparency.
The legislation was attached to the government funding package that was passed in late March to avoid a government shutdown, but Mahmood said that at the last minute the PBM bills were stripped out of the package.
Continuing their commitment to PBM reform, however, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) pledged to press on with efforts to enact the legislation before the end of this congressional year.
The NCPA further reported that on Friday, March 22, a bipartisan group of 21 senators and 51 house representatives signed a letter to their respective leadership, asking for immediate action on PBM reform measures.
Advocacy groups are actively pursuing passage of the legislation having arranged a conference drawing pharmacists from across the U.S. to the national headquarters of the NCPA in Alexandria, Virginia, for a two-day meeting to begin on Wednesday, April 17.
“We’ve come a long way with continued advocacy year after year,” Mahmood said, contemplating his participation in the upcoming meeting. Senators and representatives will be reporting to the conference and encouraging continued advocacy strategies to promote passage of the bipartisan PBM legislation.
One bill would bring transparency to Medicaid drug pricing with annual savings of $1 billion. Another would remove PBMs from negotiating CMS services, and the third would provide for greater transparency, oversight and enforcement through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Independent pharmacies throughout the area have expressed their concern about the issue and joined in the hope that the current efforts toward passing legislation will be successful.
Meanwhile, local and area pharmacists remain in the balance, squeezed by the PBM system and locked out of the price negotiation process. During an interview, Mahmood noted that there is not one independent community pharmacy left open in Columbia County.
“It’s not fair,” he said.
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