y

The society tries to organize a cleanup and landscaping day in the spring and fall, although some years it only happens once. Lafferty said it’s mostly raking up the pine needles that pile up around the headstones.

A study conducted with ground-penetrating radar in 2014 showed that there are graves at the cemetery that no longer have headstones. Others, made of soft brownstone, are deteriorating or are leaning.

While the society can clean it up every so often, more involved work is beyond their capabilities.

“We really don’t have the money, ” she said.

Town Manager Mark Sciota said the town, which owns the cemetery land, is tasked with maintaining burial grounds if there are no other groups to take on the role.

“For many years, the Merriman family was maintaining the burial ground but sadly the last remaining family member, Peter Merriman, passed away in December of 2021,” Sciota said.

The cemetery is named for Rev. John Merriman, the founding pastor of First Baptist Church on Meriden Avenue. Merriman is among those buried at the cemetery.

He died in 1784.

While his wife Jemima’s grave is identifiable, those of his children and other relatives possibly buried there have yet to be identified.

The First Baptist Church congregation has a tradition of holding Easter sunrise services at the cemetery.

jbuchanan@record-journal.com

Twitter: @JBuchananRJ

Sadly, such incidents are not uncommon for parents raising autistic children. “When we moved to Naugatuck, a 16-year-old autistic individual took off on his parents from Naugatuck on foot and ended up picked up in Oxford by state troopers,” Harding said. “Once that happened, I knew I had to get this done.”

What Harding did was design a simple tool that members of law enforcement can use should an autistic child in their community go missing. The “Walk with Derek” Autism Safety Alert Form Harding conceived of in 2022 allows parents to describe their special-needs child, including their common behaviors and communication style. Parents may also indicate specific things that may trigger the child, and methods which may calm them. Also, caretakers are encouraged to supply a photo of the child.

The “Walk with Derek” information is then filed with the family’s local police department.

“Being a single mom raising Derek alone, it took me time to get the design right and figure out how to approach it,” Harding said. “Naugatuck welcomed it with open arms, and it took off from there.”

Currently, the “Walk with Derek” form is available in more than 20 Connecticut communities, including Plainville.

“Our plan is to advertise the form on our social media, as well as have the form available on our website and at the police department,” Plainville Chief of Police Christopher Vanghele said. “We would ask parents and guardians of individuals on the autism spectrum to voluntarily complete the form and drop it off at the PD. We would keep the completed form in a binder that could be referred to should our officers have an interaction with the individual.”

North Haven Police Department Lieutenant Matthew Falcon said the “Walk with Derek” program is another example of police departments adapting to the needs of the community to better serve their residents.

Jennifer Harding said local legislators have contacted her about making the “Walk with Derek” document available across the state.

Jean Mongillo

SOUTHINGTON - Jean Sheppard Mongillo, 92, of Southington, passed away surrounded by her family on Thursday, March 9, 2023, at the HOCC, New Britain Campus. Jean was born on August 10, 1930 in Plantsville, to the late William and Amanda (Brayfield) Sheppard and was the wife of the late Marcello “Mickey” Mongillo. She was a proud graduate of Lewis High School, Class of 1947. Some of Jean’s favorite memories were spent with Mickey visiting her daughter and family in California and their late night adventures to the casino. Jean is survived by her two daughters, Sandra and husband David Picone of Plantsville and Lori and husband Mark Crevier of Santa Clarita, CA. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Colleen Picone, Marcy and Christopher Kelly, Michelle Crevier, and Lesley Firmwalt; and great grandchildren, Aviyana, Emilio, Adrian, Nicholas, Michael, Andrew, Lalaina and Silas. She was predeceased by her grandson

Prom wear

Plainville High School’s Prom Wear Boutique, located at the PHS Learning Commons, will be open Friday, March 24 from 3 to 5 p.m. More than 100 gowns will be available. Prices range from $1 for jewelry to $20 for floor length gowns.

Booster clinic

Pfizer COVID-19 Bivalent Boosters will be offered by Wheeler’s Family Health & Wellness Center Monday, March 20 from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Plainville Senior Center, 200 East St. This walk-in clinic is open to the public. Bring your insurance

Obituaries

Donna E. Chase

Michael Crevier. In lieu of flowers, donations in Jean’s memory may be made to 4 Paws for Ability, 207 Daytona Ave., Xenia, OH 45385, www.4pawsforability. org/. A funeral service will be held at 12 noon, on Friday, March 17, 2023, at the Plantsville Funeral Home, 975 S. Main Street, Plantsville. A calling hour will be held from 11-12 p.m. prior to the service. Burial will follow in the South End Cemetery, Southington. For online condolences and directions, please visit www. plantsvillefuneralhome. com

In Brief

and vaccine cards. There must be a two-month time span from your last COVID19 vaccination to receive this booster.

Transfer station

Plainville’s transfer station on Granger Lane is set to open for the season Saturday, April 8. Hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturdays only. The transfer station is for Plainville residents only. ID is required. Direct questions to 860-793-0221 ext. 7176.

Pierogi sale

Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church, 200 Sum-

SOUTHINGTON - Donna E. (Gardner) Chase, 90, of Southington, passed away peacefully at Southington Care Center on Saturday, March 11, 2023. She was the beloved wife Norris A. Chase, who predeceased her in 2002. Donna was born on September 16, 1932 in Masardis, ME, to the late Owen and Iva (Snow) Gardner. After marrying the love of her life, Donna became a homemaker, raising 6 daughters. She enjoyed crosswords and puzzles. She was known for being an avid bowler in her younger days. Donna is survived by her daughters, Sharon Emery and her husband Jimmy of Southington, Brenda Hoffman and her husband Charles of Bristol, Patricia Chase of Plantsville, Deborah Wilcox of Vernon, and Sheila Berdebes of Ellington. She is also survived by many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In addition to her husband and parents, Donna was predeceased by her daughter, Noreen Goulet,

Donna (Barry) Aldieri

June 1, 1962-March 18, 2013 her brother, Donald Gardner, her sister, Greta Paszek and her son-inlaw, William Wilcox, Sr. A graveside service will be held at 12 noon, on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in South End Cemetery, 200 South End Rd., Southington. Memorial calling hours will be held from 5 - 7 p.m. on Monday, March 20, 2023 at the Plantsville Funeral Home, 975 S. Main St., Plantsville. For online condolences and directions, please visit www. plantsvillefuneralhome. com.

We think about you always We talk about you still You have never been forgotten and you never will We hold you close within our hearts and there you will remain to walk and guide us through our lives

Until we meet again. Its been ten years without you Donna, your loss is immeasurable but so is the love left behind.

Mom, Dad, Susan, Paula, Pamela mer St., Plantsville, is selling homemade pierogi (cheese, sauerkraut, potato and cheese, and sweet cabbage). Call Kathy at 860-977-5010 to place your order.

Veteran assistance

The Town of Southington Veterans Service Office is located in Town Hall, 75 Main St. Veterans may seek assistance with an array of issues. Office hours are Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to noon, and the first and last Thursday of the month, 5 to 7 p.m. To make an appointment outside of these hours, leave a message at 860-276-6299 or e-mail veteranscommittee@southington.org.

plans to open another Hop Haus location in Berlin, Miller also mentioned looking to expand further.

The Salty Dog Tavern, which Miller opened in the former Tipping Chair Tavern space on Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike in Southington late last year, will be opening a second location in Plainville sometime in the near future, replacing the Plainville Hop Haus location, which moves to Berlin.

Hop Haus is still grappling with the same issues as the rest of the industry, though, which has caused margins to slim over the past year. Yet Miller remains confident about the future of his businesses due to strong community relations and advertising efforts.

“My margins are shrinking and shrinking. I make less and less money almost every month now. We also have been going up in price. We've been trying not to go up too much to (avoid hurt- ing) our customers. We want people to keep coming in, but between small price increases and shrinking margins, it's definitely getting harder and harder for business,” Miller said. “But we've been doing a lot with advertising. Hop Haus is very focused on supporting local whether it's local breweries, local farms, or just local charity organizations and different local sources around town. So all those people are very grateful for our support and they, in return, give us support.”

Hop Haus sources beer from local breweries Alvarium and Five Churches Brewing in New Britain, 12% Beer Project in North Haven among many others fostering a network of local businesses supporting each other.

In the past they’ve also collaborated with organizations like Wing Addicts, a Connecticut-based group that sprang up during the pandemic that supports local restaurants by driving around the state and advertising their wings.

For Barbara Coleman-Hekel- er, president of the Southington Chamber of Commerce, the success of Hop Haus and Salty Dog is built off solid community outreach and advertising. Miller’s locations for his new restaurants were strategic in that they filled a void in the market for a local gastropub, growing not only his business but the surrounding areas as well.

“Mike is a huge supporter of the Chamber and of the programming we do here. He's a huge supporter of many causes in the community,” Coleman-Hekeler said. “We're always thrilled to see our businesses that start here locally to be able to grow and establish in other communities as well, because when our surrounding communities thrive, obviously that helps support our community as well. So we're not myopic that way, we like to see those success stories.”

For the chamber, West Main Street in Plantsville and Main Street in Southington are elevated by the presence of local businesses, while Queen Street is where most of the chain brands reside.

The loss of both Zingarella and Fireside on Main in February struck a significant blow, as both restaurants occupied significant tentpole properties that played a role in local community events like Halloween and Christmas in the Village. Though

Mark Zommer expressed plans to fill the vacant Zingarella with a new tenant in the near future, plans for Fireside on Main are currently unknown.

Hop Haus still aims to remain a pillar in the Plantsville area, due in part to the continuing support of the patrons.

“We've maintained a lot of loyal customers over the years, and the customer base has just been growing and growing,” Miller said. “The Plantsville community's always been great to Hop Haus and having the other restaurants closed down around us was definitely a shame. We were very good friends with all of them, and it's definitely bad to see good friends close their businesses.” cmetzger@record-journal.com

From

A10 Housing

“It seems like a partial solution to the affordable housing crisis that doesn’t involve any change.”

Osborne said she’s still working on the bill, to ensure that it’s not creating a loophole for people “acting in bad faith” to get around 830g.

“This is not meant as an end run around 8-30g,” she said.

The affordable housing law, 8-30g, gives developers court remedies if towns deny their affordable housing proposals.

Towns are exempt if at least 10% of their housing stock is deed-restricted as affordable, and when new affordable units go on the market, they can gain points toward a moratorium.

Town officials, particularly in Fairfield County, have argued that 8-30g circumvents local zoning and puts undue burdens on certain towns to deal with an influx of multifamily housing applications. And Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski brought the issue to the forefront of his campaign by proposing a repeal of the law.

Republicans this session also proposed a bill that would mean major changes to the law; the proposal did not get a vote from the Housing Committee, which has no more scheduled meetings this session.

Housing advocates and some Democrats have argued that 8-30g works as it’s supposed to, a tool for creating more affordable units in towns that have imposed zoning ordinances that largely work to keep people with low incomes out.

How

The Bill Works

Osborne’s bill requires that all towns allow seniors to opt in, although she says adding the deed restriction won’t make sense for everyone. It could reduce resale value for heirs, and reduce generational wealth-building that comes with home ownership, she said.

She instituted an option to pay a fee to remove the deed restriction in case the home value rises and the family wants to build wealth, she said. In order to revoke the deed restriction, homeowners would have to pay back the taxes and half of the difference between the deedrestricted value at the time of the sale and the non-deed restricted value.

The funds can go towards upgrades to make affordable homes in town more accessible and energy efficient or towards buying new affordable units, Osborne said.

Osborne said the program was inspired by a need she saw in her community: more affordable housing for seniors, many of whom live on fixed incomes. Nationally, more than 10 million households headed by someone who is 65 or older are housing cost burdened, or paying more than a third of their income to housing costs.

She’d also seen too many single-family houses sold by seniors who couldn’t afford to stay, that were then flipped by investors and sold at an increased price. “I was trying to think about how we could make it more affordable for seniors to age in place and live at home,” Osborne said.

The tax credit would end if the house is sold or inherited, unless its new owner is also an income-qualified senior, she added.

The revocable element of the tax credits is one of the things that have housing advocates concerned.

The concern is that people could use the tax credit, then soon after remove it, and that it wouldn’t preserve affordability in the long-term, according to public testimony.

“The bottom line is the state needs way more housing supply to actually solve this problem. Just counting the home that is already fairly affordable doesn’t help,” Ghio said.

Osborne says she thinks the fees will be enough to keep people from revoking the credits.

Saverio DeGiorgio, a member of the Pemberwick Glenville Association in Greenwich, submitted testimony in favor of the bill.

“Please give the town, that I have proudly resided in for the past 30 years, the empowerment to continue serving all its residents, including its lower income population,” DeGiorgio wrote.

Some towns opposed the measure, saying it would cut down on tax revenue.

“The majority of municipalities are concerned with eroding its property tax base any further and this bill does not have enough check and balances to ensure that those who avail themselves of this opportunity are eligible,” wrote Brian O’Connor, director of public policy and advocacy for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, in public testimony.