www.towntimes.com
Volume 26, Number 33
CT COVID CASES
Friday, November 13, 2020
PLANETA WOODWORKING
Middlefield remains in red zone
Left: A sampling of Coginchaug senior Nick Planeta’s woodworking creations. Durham-based Planeta Woodworking offers custom millwork, cabinetry, signs, cutting boards, and more. Below: A Connecticutshaped cutting board by Planeta Woodworking.
Middlefield is one of 68 communities across the state in the coronavirus red zone. The color coded status for cities and towns is updated each Thursday and represents two weeks of cases. The trigger for red status starts at a rate of 15 cases per 100,000 people per day. Middlefield reported 16 cases Oct. 18 to 31. Nearby, Meriden, Wallingford, Southington, North Haven, Hamden, North Branford and Middletown are among the other municipalities to be similarly classified. Durham remains in the yellow zone, a step down from red. The town reported 12 cases Oct. 18 to 31. The changes that come with the red status include issuing a public health alert, advising high risk people to stay home, limiting trips outside of the home and gatherings with non-family members, canceling public events and limiting community gathering points. With COVID-19 cases on the rise, Phase 2.1 went into effect in Connecticut last Friday. The changes include reducing the capacity of indoor restaurants to 50 percent, with a maximum of eight people per table. Outdoor venues are reduced to 25 percent capacity with social distancing and masks required. — Town Times report
‘You name it, I'll build it!’ By Bronwyn Commins Special to Town Times
About four years ago, I developed a terrible ant problem in my front hall closet. No food in there of course, just some winter coats, the vacuum cleaner and, outside the door, a box containing an unassembled wood planter that I bought online at a really low price. Terrifyingly, the ant problem grew to Amityville Horror proportions, and I expected to see Rod Steiger in a priest's collar at one point. But I couldn’t locate the source of those pesky insects. In talking with a neighbor who is gifted with plants, I mentioned the table top planter I had just purchased, and he took the box off my hands and offered to as-
semble the piece. He returned a few days later, table complete, and described the horrible number of ants that emerged from a nest in the box. (Did I mention what a bargain it was?) Okay, so no dark forces were at work in my coat closet, but I learned that perhaps it was better to keep online purchases in the garage until I could open them up. There was no blame here. That table was packaged by someone who was under a deadline to box up hundreds of tabletop planters that were identical to the one I had just purchased, quickly and cheaply. This was not exactly a made-to-order purchase. Had I purchased a cutting board from Durham-based Planeta
Woodworking, no one would have the same exact one that I do. That is because those cutting boards are created through the expertise and patience of Nick Planeta: Eagle Scout, high school student and successful entrepreneur. See Planeta, A10
Division over presidential race reflected in local vote By Mary Ellen Godin Record-Journal staff
Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden topped Hillary Clinton’s 2016 performance in Connecticut while President
Trump lost support in Wallingford, which went for him in 2016, 48.33 percent to The Nov. 3 results Clinton’s 47 percent. This showed Connecticut, alyear, Trump garthough reliably blue, is near- nered 45.89 percent of the ly as divided as much of the vote to Biden’s 52.6 percent. rest of the country. Donald Trump’s support dipped in some area towns.
In legislative races, Trump’s decline is believed to have helped some Democratic candidates. Trump picked up some support in Meriden where the
president netted 39.43 percent of the city’s votes as compared to 38.59 percent in 2016. Trump also won Southington with 50.43 percent of the vote, but it See Division, A12