Volume 20, Number 16
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
www.TownTimes.com
Friday, August 8, 2014
Middlefield receives $131,000 grant By Mark Dionne Town Times
At their regular meeting on Aug. 4, the Middlefield Board of Selectmen announced and formally accepted a STEAP grant in the amount of $131,000 for the repair of the bridge on Miller Road.
A crowd gathered at a McDonald’s parking lot in Waterbury to meet the children they would be hosting for the Fresh Air program. |Charles Kreutzkamp / Town Times
Inner city youth see their first stars and suburbs By Charles Kreutzkamp Town Times
Families across the state are taking in children from the inner city for a couple of weeks to communities including Middlefield, Berlin, and Newtown as part of the Fresh Air Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing New York City kids from low-income families who have never experienced life
outside the inner city free summer experiences with carefully vetted host families. The organization also runs summer camps. This is the first year in the program for Tancy Gemza of Danbury. She said she’s excited to meet 5-year-old Sue-naya and 11-year-old Thaily, who will be spending the next two weeks at her home. Gemza said she plans
to take to the kids blueberry-picking at Lyman Orchards in Middlefield – something the city-slickers have certainly never experienced. Gemza said she knows one of the kids likes to bake, and hopes to enjoy making her grandmother’s blueberry tea-cake recipe together. “I think it’s really great,” See Suburbs / Page 15
STEAP grants come from the state of Connecticut in amounts up to $500,000. STEAP stands for “Small Town Economic Assistance Program.” The grant, announced on July 21 by Gov. Dannel Malloy’s office, does not cover See Grant / Page 13
Former Durham intern heads to D.C. By Charles Kreutzkamp Town Times
Working in government isn’t quite like what you see on TV, but there are kernels of truth in television, according to Don Rawling, a former Town of Durham intern and Coginchaug Regional High School graduate, who is headed to an internship in Washington D.C. after earning a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University. Rawling has previously worked at the state capitol and served on the Town of Durham’s Clean Energy and Sustainability Task Force.
In 2007, only two years after graduating high school, Rawling was an intern at the Durham Town Hall. “I got to work with Laura Francis, who was town clerk at the time – of course, now she’s first selectman,” Rawling said. After that, he worked with Kim Garvis, the current town clerk. “He had a great head on his shoulders,” Garvis recalled. Garvis said that Rawling was a great help when Durham was working on bringing the town proceedings book up to date. Garvis remembered Rawling as a hard worker who was great both as a team member See Intern / Page 14
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