Volume 20, Number 45
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
www.TownTimes.com
Friday, Februar y 21, 2014
Durham treasure found in chest
By Diana Carr
Special to Town Times
Rob and Doreen Raney, of Durham, got the surprise of their lives one day. A few years back, Rob’s mother, Kathryn (Kitty) Francis had passed away. The couple was helping the family clean out her attic when Doreen saw a chest in the corner. “We don’t have time to look through it right now, so let’s just take it home,” she said. “And thank heavens we did. When we opened it, we found paperwork from 1700s and 1800s Durham. We were expecting family pictures or family records.” The Raneys don’t know the origins of the chest, just that Francis’ second husband, Bob Francis, brought it to his marriage. “We’ll keep the chest, but we’re giving the contents to the town, where it belongs,” Doreen said. “It’s
town history. It doesn’t belong to us.” Peg Atwell, secretary of the Durham Historical Society, agrees with the importance of the discovery. “It’s a significant find and we must praise the Raneys for saving this. So many would have tossed it all in the garbage. This is our town and we should be diligent in saving our records for the future.” “I’m grateful to the family for their generous donation,” said First Selectman Laura Francis. (She is not related to the Francis family who pos-
sessed the chest.) “I’m appreciative of the fact that they value our town’s heritage and history and are giving the public the opportunity to enjoy these artifacts.” The chest offers a peek into lives lived long ago. Contents include a wide range of old books, paperwork and various items such as postcards. There is a committal form from the
1880s that sent recalcitrant youth to the Connecticut Industrial School for Girls (in Middletown), a school for juvenile delinquents. Cause for admittance included being “stubborn and refusing to obey her parents, guardians, or others who have the charge and control of her, or being “an habitual truant, in
the habit of wandering about the streets and public places.” There are: a package of tax bills, from the 1870s, unopened and wrapped in the original parchment paper and string; peddlers’ licenses from the 1880s, which were required for anyone wanting See Chest / Page 15
Rob Raney, First Selectman Laura Francis, and a chest full of old town records the Raneys plan to return to the town. Right: Some of the contents of a chest found in the attic of the late Kathryn (Kitty) Francis. | (Diana Carr/ Special to Town Times)
‘Giant salad spinner’ will clean river By Charles Kreutzkamp Town Times
The hydroponic particulate seperator drains runoff from Jackson Hill Road and Main Street here, nex to the Levi Coe Library, where it flows underneath the railroad tracks to rejoin the Coginchaug River. | (Charles Kreutzkamp/Town Times)
This year, as the snow melts, sand and other contaminants on Jackson Hill Road will be caught by a hydroponic particulate separator before they reach the waters of the Coginchaug River. Middlefield First Selectman Jon Brayshaw explained this device is like a “giant salad spinner” that uses centrifugal force as water passes through it to collect sand, tin cans, pieces of glass, and other pollutants on their way to the river.
Contaminants collected by the separator will be periodically vacuumed out by large trucks, specialized for the purpose, which already regularly service other particular separators in the area. “We have four or five of them around town, but this one is the biggest and most expensive,” Brayshaw said. Before the new separator was installed, Jackson Hill, a large drainage area, deposited dirty water from storm drains directly into the river. “From a water quality perspective, if someone was going to tell me they were doing anything to reduce sediments deposited into
the river, that’s great. That is going to reduce all sorts of pollutant types,” said Traci Iott, environmental analyst for the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Iott explained that the Coginchaug River was evaluated several years ago and had been reported to have elevated levels of harmful bacteria. Reducing contaminants may not solve the problem entirely, but it is certainly good for the health of the river, Iott said. Storm water is one comSee River / Page 7