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Bee Intelligencer Informing the towns of Middlebury, Southbury, Woodbury, Naugatuck, Oxford and Watertown A FREE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Volume VIII, No. 27
Friday, July 6, 2012
Longtime Middlebury Public Library Director retires By MARJORIE NEEDHAM Middlebury Public Library Director Jane Gallagher will head into retirement Friday, July 13, after 22 years in the position. The Friends of the Middlebury Public Library will have a reception in her honor Thursday, July 12, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the library. Library patrons are invited to stop by to wish Gallagher well and show their appreciation for the contributions she has made to the library during her time there. Friends President Chris Parker said of Gallagher, “She’s such a gem. She has done so much for the library. She didn’t want us to do anything, but we wanted to have a reception so people could come in and show their appreciation for what she has done over the years.” Asked to name highlights of her career, Gallagher started with the intangible – relationships with people. “I’ve had very long, rich relationships with the people in the community,” Gallagher said. She also said members of the library Board of Trustees are invaluable and take their six-year terms very seriously. “They go above and beyond just attending the meetings,” Gallagher said. And members of the library staff are a pleasure to work with. “They’re good people,” she said. When Gallagher took the director’s position in 1990, the library had no computers; now it has 22. She recalled with a smile the 1994 arrival of the library’s first computer. “It was one tiny bit of memory in a huge beast of a box,” she said, “and we all stood around and looked at it.” She said her husband, Michael, is a bit of a geek and encouraged her to have Internet access in the library. That was the first computer’s sole function – to provide Internet access. Today’s computers provide, among other
things, Internet access, the complete catalog for the Middlebury Library and a number of other Connecticut libraries, downloadable books, and WiFi access for patrons who bring their laptops to the library. The library also has a generator, so when the town experienced long power outages last fall, the library became one of the few places people could go to recharge their cell phones, access the Internet, and brush their teeth. “We had more than 350 people come in,” Gallagher said. Gallagher’s path to becoming a librarian began 33 years ago, when she and Michael, a photography teacher at Westover, moved to Woodbury from Oxford. At the time, the birth of their second child had triggered the decision Gallagher would give up her job as an accountant at Continental Can Co. in Greenwich. She had been commuting there daily. The day they closed on their Woodbury home, they went to the Woodbury Library to get their library cards. They learned the library was about to move into temporary quarters for a year while the building was renovated. When they left, they had library cards – and five boxes of books they had agreed to help store during the library’s renovations. Newly unemployed, Gallagher volunteered to help out part-time at the temporary library site in what is now the Middle Quarter Mall. She would take her younger son, Brendan, who was about 18 months old at the time, with her and help with whatever tasks needed to be done It wasn’t long before Jill Smith, the library director, asked Gallagher if she wanted a job. Over the next eight years, Gallagher worked at the library while also working on a master’s degree in library science at Southern Connecticut State University. Once she had her
– See Gallagher on page 3
You’re Invited! Reception honoring retiring Middlebury Public Library Director
Jane Gallagher Thursday, July 12, 3 to 5 pm at the library Hosted by the Friends of the Middlebury Library to wish Jane well and express appreciation for all she has done for the library during her years of service.
Middlebury Public Library Director Jane Gallagher is retiring after 22 years of service. (Marjorie Needham photo)
Brief Sunday storm wreaks havoc
Selectmen hold brief meeting
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Flames totally engulf a two-car garage on Christian Road in a fire that appears to have started when lightning struck a tree next to the garage. (Elise Callahan photo)
A severe thunderstorm that moved through the area around 5 p.m. Sunday did a lot of damage in a short time, starting a fire in Middlebury that burned a two-car garage to the ground, blowing down trees, and spitting out hail as large as golf balls that damaged structures and left hundreds of dents on vehicles, particularly in Watertown. Lightning split bark from a tree behind a house at 71 Christian Road, tracing a path from the tip of a small branch onto a larger branch and then down the tree trunk. From there, it apparently jumped to a two-car garage. Shortly after 5 p.m., Sandra Rajcok and Sean Blanc were about to sit down to dinner in the house, which is owned by Rajcok’s mother, when someone pulled in the driveway and yelled the garage was on fire. They ran outside, saw the flames, and then ran back into the house to get
– See Storm on page 5
By JONATHAN “CHIP” LONGO Monday night’s Board of Selectmen (BoS) meeting was brief, and the main item of business was to vote to put the proposed town charter revisions on the November ballot. Selectmen will present to the Town Clerk the same document presented to them by the Charter Revision Committee. The Selectmen said no one had any comments or suggestions at the final public meeting for the proposed changes. First Selectman Edward B. St. John said it’s good to have the charter vote in conjunction with the 2012 presidential elections to ensure a high voter turnout. St. John said the BoS will try to publicize the vote so people will be aware of it. The board next voted on the Historical Documents Preservation Grant and Resolution. St. John said this will be used by the Town Clerk to preserve important historical documents. In other business, the BoS approved tax rebates totaling $345.24. When the board asked for public comment, the one townsperson in attendance said nothing. The meeting then adjourned. The next regular BoS meeting will be Monday, July 16, at 6 p.m. in the Town Hall Conference Room.
Book Review.....................2 Adoptable Pets..................8 Classifieds.........................7 Community Calendar.........2 Fire Log.............................2 Frugal Mummy..................5 In Brief..............................4
Legal Notices....................7 Library Happenings............2 Nuggets for Life................6 Obituaries.........................5 Parks & Rec.......................6 Puzzles.............................7 Senior Center News...........3
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Upcoming Events
Inside this Issue Southbury Farmers’ Market
THURSday
July 12
When: 3 to 6 p.m. What: Various area farmers sell produce and more Where: Southbury Town Hall Green at 501 Main St. South
Faerie Festival July 21
Page 2
Movie Night at Meadowview Park
When: Dusk What: Family movie under the stars Where: Meadowview Park on Southford Road at the corner of Rtes. 188 and 64
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Mail: P.O. Box 10, Middlebury, CT 06762 Published weekly by The Middlebury Bee Intelligencer Society, LLC - 2030 Straits Turnpike, Middlebury, CT 06762 - Copyright 2012