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Bee Intelligencer AN INDEPENDENTLY OWNED FREE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Informing the towns of Middlebury, Southbury, Woodbury, Naugatuck, Oxford and Watertown
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Volume XIII, No. 6
Park improvements under way
News you can use May 3 Vote Middlebury voters will cast ballots for or against the town budget and the Region 15 school budget Wednesday, May 3. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Shepardson Community Center at 1172 Whittemore Road. The proposed town budget is $10.6 million; the proposed Region 15 budget is $67.5 million.
Remove valuables, lock cars Despite frequent reminders from Police Chief Fran Dabbo, residents are still leaving valuables in their unlocked vehicles parked on the road or in their driveway overnight, and thieves are coming through town and helping themselves to whatever they find in those cars. This past weekend, a number of vehicles were entered. A purse, wallet, passport, some cash and a credit card were taken from one of the vehicles.
EIDC mails business survey The Middlebury Economic and Industrial Development Commission mailed a three-page survey to Middlebury businesses in late April. On the first page, the survey asks business owners to rate the importance of two dozen factors in doing business in Middlebury. Factors range from the rural nature and appearance of the town to tax rates, safety, utilities and services, and the school system. The second and third pages present open-ended questions asking owners to tell the commission what should be done to promote a better business climate and ask about difficulties in starting a business and keeping it profitable. The survey was constructed from the best ideas seen in surveys used by neighboring towns. The responses will be read in full by the commissioners and then compiled into action items. The mailing list of about 300 businesses was culled from a database of 635 businesses provided by Assessor Chris Kelsey, eliminating out-of-town leasing companies, “bedroom” LLCs, and other businesses that don’t directly serve local customers. Middlebury businesses owners who do not receive a survey by May 1 should email eidcchairman@middlebury-ct.org or visit middleburyeconomicdevelopment-ct.org.
Seeking Vietnam War Veterans The town honors all veterans at Memorial Day celebrations each year, but this year is the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, and Parks and Rec Director Betty Proulx, a Navy veteran, is encouraging all Middlebury Vietnam War and Vietnam War Era Vets to lead the Middlebury parade as honorary parade marshals. The parade lineup begins at 4 p.m. at the corner of Bronson Drive and Whittemore Road; the parade steps off at 5 p.m. Middlebury has 119 Vietnam War Vets. Vets who want to march or ride in the parade are asked to call 203-758-2520 to let Proulx know you’d like to participate. Other veterans may also call and register, particularly if they will need a ride in the parade.
Flags for veterans The Middlebury Lions Club provides Memorial Day flags for Middlebury veterans’ grave sites. Anyone who during the last year has lost a family member who was an armed services veteran and is buried in Middlebury can contact Lion Ray Sullivan at 203758-9939 to be sure an American flag will be placed on the veteran’s grave Saturday, May 27.
Veterans Memorial Day Ceremony Sunday May 28, at noon, the Middlebury Lions Club will honor war veterans in a ceremony at the Midlebury Cemetery on Route 64 behind the Middlebury Garage. The Middlebury Lions Club will pay homage to our fallen military heroes, and all those who have served our nation’s military, at the Middlebury Cemetery. Please come join them in honoring all who have served our country. The ceremony will include an honor guard and rifle salute from the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Local boy scouts will raise the flag at the start of the ceremony and lower it as taps are played. Prayers of invocation and benediction will be said by local clergy, followed by comments from Middlebury’s Selectmen, and a reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as we honor those who have served and sometimes given their lives for our freedom.
Middlebury Memorial Day Events Sunday, May 28 Middlebury Lions Club Memorial Day Ceremony honoring veterans
When: 12 p.m. Where: Middlebury Cemetery behind Middebury Garage at 1126 Middlebury Road (Route 64).
Middlebury Veterans Reception – All veterans are welcome. When: 4 p.m. Where: Corner of Bronson Drive and Whittemore Road.
Middlebury Memorial Day Parade
When: 5 p.m. Where: Parade starts at Bronson Drive and goes to Town Hall for a ceremony in front of Town Hall. Features Middlebury veterans, marching bands, town organizations, sports clubs, Scouts and local businesses.
Inside this Issue Senior News Line.........3 Sports Quiz..................6 Sporting View...............6 To Your Good Health....6 Veterans Post..............5 Winning Ways.............7
Editorial Office: Email: mbisubmit@gmail.com Phone: 203-577-6800 Mail: P.O. Box 10, Middlebury, CT 06762 Advertising Sales: Email: mbiadvertising@gmail.com
wednesDAY Upcoming Events
Adoptable Pets............8 Classifieds...................7 Here’s a Tip...........................8 Obituaries...................5 Paws Corner.................8 Puzzles.......................7
May 2017
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May 28
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM Trees, bushes and vines are rapidly disappearing from some Middlebury parks and some areas along the Greenway as the Public Works Department crew tackles projects in the recently approved Capital Plan. We dropped by the Parks and Rec Department to get more information on this work from Parks and Rec Director Betty Proulx, who is in charge of these projects. Proulx told us, “I’m thrilled this stuff is getting done. With the budget constraints we’ve had the past few years, we haven’t been able to do the repairs we are doing now.” She said when the work is complete, residents will be able to see parks as they were meant to be seen, without scrub pines and overgrowth mixed in with the other trees. Proulx said work at Meadowview will include further clearing of overgrowth around the pond behind the police station. “You used to be able to walk all the way around that pond,” she said. Once that area is cleaned up and the stumps have been removed, the pathway that leads from the parking lot by the police station past the ponds will be repaved, and a new walking bridge will be built over the brook. Proulx said of the project, “We’re making repairs and refreshing. We’re bringing it back so people can see the park.” Improvements at Ledgewood Park will include repairs to the tennis courts, skate park and basketball court and cleaning up the area around the Veterans Memorial. Some trees that have been there since 1988 need to be cut down. Trees, bushes and vines have been cleared from Volunteer Park at the corner of Regan and Middlebury Roads. Next,
Standing in Meadowview Park looking back toward the police station from the road leading to the pavilion, one can see the extent of the tree cutting done there thus far. Pine trees and other overgrowth have been removed. (Marjorie Needham photo) plants will be placed in the cleared area. Proulx said the vegetation at that corner was cleared because it interfered with drivers’ sight lines as they approached the intersection. “Everything was little when they planted it,” she said. Bristol Park on Middlebury Road will not undergo major renovations, Proulx said. It will, however, be cleaned up. Some areas along the Greenway, particularly where dense growth may affect the safety of those using the Greenway, are also being cleaned up. Some of that work
can be seen at the corner of Steinmann Avenue and Middlebury Road. Proulx said the dense overgrowth there also interfered with drivers’ sight lines, and clearing out the overgrowth made the Greenway more visible and thus safer for those walking there. As you walk farther East, however, hills rise up on either side of the Greenway, and thus it tends to be darker there. Proulx said a solar light or two would be helpful there. If anyone wants to donate lights, please call Proulx at 203-758-2520.
Spring brings skunk cabbage By JANINE SULLIVAN-WILEY When you think about the glories of early spring, many blossoms come quickly to mind. This plant is probably not one of them. But this amazing and utterly unexpected plant – skunk cabbage – is one of the most important of the spring plants. As Curtiss Clark, who photographed today’s featured plant, has noted, “Symplocarpus foetidus is indeed fetid.” How can something so stinky, and not terribly attractive, be so interesting and truly valuable? First, this native plant blooms in very early spring, although you might not realize that those emerging shapes contain flowers. A member of the Arum family, which includes calla lilies and elephant ears, its flowers appear before the leaves. They erupt from muddy ground that is often still icy or snow-covered with a maroon or purple shape called a spathe that forms a hood around the actual flowers – the spadix. There is a slight resemblance to its relative, the Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Their most unique characteristic is now visible; ice and snow melt around the emerging flowers. While at this flowering stage, skunk cabbage can maintain a core temperature in those hoods of 70 degrees, much higher than the surrounding soil and air. They can maintain that warmth even as the temperatures plummet over night. They are able to do this through an oxidative process in which they metabolize oxygen at a high rate much like some tiny mammals do. The skunky odor is most noticeable if you step on the plant, but that odor has its own important function: it attracts insects. Gnats pollinate skunk cabbage, as do – no surprise given their smell – carrion beetles and flesh flies (yes, flesh flies are real insects). These insects in turn form an important food source for birds that rely on very early spring insects for food.
Skunk cabbage flowers resemble Jack-in-the-Pulpit when they first emerge. The flowers appear before the large green leaves. (Curtiss Clark photo) The plants’ leaves contain an especially large percentage of water and are eaten by several species of moths. They are not suitable for consumption by humans or many other animals for that matter, but they are eaten by bears. (One has to consider how hungry bears are, though, after a long winter of food-less hibernation.) Happily, this is not a plant one would want to remove as it has a deep and tenacious root system. The main rhizome can be a foot long and 3 to 6 inches wide, surrounded by fibrous roots. Each year the roots contract and pull the plant deeper into the ground.
When the leaves emerge, they do so in a lovely spiral pattern, growing wide and green and often covering the wet areas in which they grow. You can see them now, the leaves unfurling in wetlands along the Greenway and in Middlebury Land Trust properties. By late June, the leaves begin to die but not like autumn leaves that fall to the ground and dry up. They first develop holes, and then get slimy and dissolve away, rather like something left too long in the back of the refrigerator. By August, they are gone, only to have their warm magic bring them back in the very early spring the following year.
Vote on Town and Regional School District 15 Proposed 2017-2018 Budgets
What: Residents of Middlebury and Southbury vote on town and school district budgets When: Polls are open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Where: Middlebury residents vote at Shepardson Community Center at 1172 Whittemore Road in Middlebury; Southbury residents vote at the Southbury Firehouse at 461 Main St. S. in Southbury.
Tag and Book Sale What: When: Where:
Natural gas service to expand Page 4
Fundraising tag and book sale sponsored by the Friends of the Middlebury Public Library. Rain date is May 13. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Middlebury Public Library at 30 Crest Road in Middlebury.
Annual Memorial Day Celebration and Parade
What: See events listed in “News you can use” on this page When: 5 p.m. Where: Parade goes from Bronson Drive to Town Hall
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P.O. Box 10, Middlebury CT 06762
203-577-6800
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