Community pulls together to deal with snowstorm aftermath

SALISBURY — Town officials and business owners scrambled to provide services after an unusual autumn snowstorm dumped well over a foot of heavy, wet snow and knocked power out for the entire town Saturday, Oct. 29.LaBonne’s Market was ready for the storm, with a rented generator arriving just in time on Saturday. Store director Rich Stomski said the diesel generator was in place Saturday evening, and the store was open for business as usual — including the use of debit and credit cards.The store also had an urn of free, hot coffee at the entrance, for warming-up purposes.Stomski said Monday that additional supplies of firewood and water were en route, as shoppers stayed focused on daily needs and not on buying a lot of perishables. Sales of batteries and candles were brisk.Monday morning at Town Hall, Town Clerk Patty Williams and selectmen’s assistant Emily Egan fielded phone calls — many inquiring about trick-or-treating — and handled whatever administrative tasks could be accomplished in the dark.First Selectman Curtis Rand spent the morning conferring with a representative from Connecticut Light and Power and on a conference call with other towns and Governor Dan Malloy.Hampering communications was the failure of the AT&T cell tower in Salisbury (which didn’t come back on until Tuesday morning). With many households in town using Comcast for their home telephone service, even those with old-fashioned plug-in phones could not get a line out.Sunday morning, Peter Feen was digging out Peter Becks Village Store. Two friends from high school, Josh Feil of Westport, Conn., and Randy Ashton of High Point, N.C., happened to be visiting, and took the opportunity to make a snowman in front of the shop.Ashton, in town to promote his Collared Greens line of neckties, draped a sample around the snowman’s neck.Meanwhile Feen cleared the sidewalk in front of Sweet William’s bakery, for which he was rewarded with a bag of muffins.“Tell me that’s not a small-town story,” he said.

Latest News

Walking among the ‘Herd’

Walking among the ‘Herd’

Michel Negroponte

Betti Franceschi

"Herd,” a film by Michel Negroponte, will be screening at The Norfolk Library on Saturday April 13 at 5:30 p.m. This mesmerizing documentary investigates the relationship between humans and other sentient beings by following a herd of shaggy Belted Galloway cattle through a little more than a year of their lives.

Negroponte and his wife have had a second home just outside of Livingston Manor, in the southwest corner of the Catskills, for many years. Like many during the pandemic, they moved up north for what they thought would be a few weeks, and now seldom return to their city dwelling. Adjacent to their property is a privately owned farm and when a herd of Belted Galloways arrived, Negroponte realized the subject of his new film.

Keep ReadingShow less
documentaries

Fresh perspectives in Norfolk Library film series

Fresh perspectives in Norfolk Library film series

Diego Ongaro

Photo submitted

Parisian filmmaker Diego Ongaro, who has been living in Norfolk for the past 20 years, has composed a collection of films for viewing based on his unique taste.

The series, titled “Visions of Europe,” began over the winter at the Norfolk Library with a focus on under-the-radar contemporary films with unique voices, highlighting the creative richness and vitality of the European film landscape.

Keep ReadingShow less
norfolk library

New ground to cover and plenty of groundcover

New ground to cover and plenty of groundcover

Young native pachysandra from Lindera Nursery shows a variety of color and delicate flowers.

Dee Salomon

It is still too early to sow seeds outside, except for peas, both the edible and floral kind. I have transplanted a few shrubs and a dogwood tree that was root pruned in the fall. I have also moved a few hellebores that seeded in the near woods back into their garden beds near the house; they seem not to mind the few frosty mornings we have recently had. In years past I would have been cleaning up the plant beds but I now know better and will wait at least six weeks more. I have instead found the most perfect time-consuming activity for early spring: teasing out Vinca minor, also known as periwinkle and myrtle, from the ground in places it was never meant to be.

Planting the stuff in the first place is my biggest ever garden regret. It was recommended to me as a groundcover that would hold together a hillside, bare after a removal of invasive plants save for a dozen or so trees. And here we are, twelve years later; there is vinca everywhere. It blankets the hillside and has crept over the top into the woods. It has made its way left and right. I am convinced that vinca is the plastic of the plant world. The stuff won’t die. (The name Vinca comes from the Latin ‘vincire’ which means ‘to bind or fetter.’) Last year I pulled a bunch and left it strewn on the roof of the root cellar for 6 months and the leaves were still green.

Keep ReadingShow less
the ungardener

Matza Lasagne by 'The Cook and the Rabbi'

Matza Lasagne by 'The Cook and the Rabbi'

Culinary craftsmanship intersects with spiritual insights in the wonderfully collaborative book, “The Cook and the Rabbi.” On April 14 at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck (6422 Montgomery Street), the cook, Susan Simon, and the rabbi, Zoe B. Zak, will lead a conversation about food, tradition, holidays, resilience and what to cook this Passover.

Passover, marked by the traditional seder meal, holds profound significance within Jewish culture and for many carries extra meaning this year at a time of great conflict. The word seder, meaning “order” in Hebrew, unfolds in a 15-step progression intertwining prayers, blessings, stories, and songs that narrate the ancient saga of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery. It’s a narrative that has endured for over two millennia, evolving with time yet retaining its essence, a theme echoed beautifully in “The Cook and the Rabbi.”

Keep ReadingShow less
books