cheshirecitizen.com
Volume 12, Number 39
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Wedding industry looks to rebound
Hearing set for proposed blight ordinance
By Faith Williams Record-Journal staff
A public hearing on the town's proposed new blight ordinance will take place Tuesday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m., at Town Hall.
Record-Journal staff
While local business owners in the wedding industry have dealt with highs and lows since the start of the pandemic, optimism remains strong as they look ahead.
The Town Council voted unanimously to to set a date for the public hearing at its Sept. 14 meeting,
Cakes Ana Parzych owns Ana Parzych Cakes based in Cheshire. The shop specializes in high-end custom designed wedding cakes. “Wedding cakes comprise about 90 percent of our sales, so we basically had no income for majority of 2020 until early 2021,” Parzych said. “Meanwhile, we still had overheard costs — rent, utilities, insurance — and incurred product loss.”
Ana Parzych, owner of Ana Parzych Cakes, poses next to one of her creations at a wedding in Newport, at Fort Adams, during the summer.
See Weddings, A4
Photo courtesy of Hillary Talmadge
Fall-themed drinks featured at area coffee shops By Jessica Simms Special to the Record-Journal
As summer ends, area coffee shops release their fallthemed drinks. “We put up our fall menu the last week of August,” said Alyssa Trisone, manager of Cheshire Coffee. “We have everything pumpkin to start with.” Along with pumpkin spiced drinks, Trisone said there are some more creative drinks.
“The autumn harvest latte, that’s a mix of caramel and hazelnut, topped with cinnamon sugar,” Trisone said. “We also have our French toast latte, which is a combination flavor of the cinnamon, the maple and the vanilla. S’mores latte is very See Drinks, A2
Gio Piris makes a French Toast latte, a fall favorite at Cheshire Coffee. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal
According the ordinance, the regulations will “apply uniformly to the maintenance of all residential, nonresidential, and undeveloped premises now in existence or hereafter constructed, maintained, or modified but shall exclude Agricultural Lands and land dedicated as public or semipublic open space or preserved in its natural state through conservation easements or areas designated as inland wetlands and watercourses.” The ordinance will also create two positions — a blight enforcement officer and a blight public hearing officer. They will be responsible for executing and enforcing the new regulations. These positions will be filled by existing town employees. The new ordinance will replace the current “Unsafe Premises” ordinance enacted in 2018, which didn’t directly address specific blight issues and was focused primarily on health and safety See Blight, A2