Volume 19, Number 44
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
www.TownTimes.com
Friday, March 13, 2015
Solar farm project defeated By Mark Dionne Town Times
Opposition to a proposed solar farm at Haddam Quarter Road and Brick Lane in Durham defeated the project on March 9, when the Board of Selectmen voted 2-1 against approving the contract. The contract vote, originally scheduled for the BOS meeting on March 2, had been delayed after neighbors repeated their complaints about the project’s location and also raised questions about the contract with Green Skies, the private company that would run the solar farm. See Solar / Page 7
Firefighters rescue calf from collapsed barn By Charles Kreutzkamp Town Times
A farm in Middlefield raising beef cows had “quite a bad day,” when the roof of a barn collapsed, said Triangle A Farm manager Margaret Schaulis. “It came flat down from the weight of the snow,” Schaulis said. The Middlefield Volunteer Fire Department See Firefighters / Page 9
Media was not permitted near the collapsed barn, visible behind the intact buildings, for insurance reasons. | Charles Kreutzkamp / Town Times
The Bee Attitudes, from left, Chris Balay, David Turley, Patricia Dynia, Thomas Kannam and Dan Shoemaker, bested their competition at the CVEF Trivia Bee. | Mark Dionne / Town Times
Crowd swarms to CVEF Trivia Bee By Mark Dionne Town Times
The Coginchaug Valley Education Foundation held its 2015 Trivia Bee on March 6, bringing 26 creatively costumed teams to Strong school to compete and raise money for educational initiatives. Wearing black robes, yellow hats, and sunglasses, “The Bee Attitudes,” a team from The Church of the Epiphany consisting of Chris Balay, Dan Shoemaker, Patricia Dynia, Thomas Kannam and David Turley took home the championship. It was largely the same team that won in 2013, the last time CVEF held a Trivia Bee. The Trivia Bee consists of four “swarms” or heats. Teams were grouped into swarms with themes like school faculty, student teams, civic groups, and businesses and friends. The
winner of each swarm then competed in a final swarm for the championship. The surprise of the evening came during the student swarm when five students, four in the sixth grade and one younger, from the Independent Day School in Middlefield beat four teams consisting of high school students and moved on to the final round. The team, called “Are You Smarter than a Sixth Grader?” became crowd favorites. At the start of the swarm, the audience serenaded team member Francesca Antonopoulos of Durham, celebrating her 12th birthday. The crowd, including the other student teams, later gave the team a standing ovation when it won its swarm by correctly answering a question about the year of the Wright brother’s first flight (1903). “Are You Smarter than a
Sixth Grader?” did well enough in the championship swarm to finish runner-up to “The Bee Attitudes.” Strong School Media Specialist Michael Klimas emceed the event, reading the rules – including the last one to the large crowd, “Do not shout out the answers” – and the questions. Several questions had a local flavor, including the number of cemeteries in Durham (three), the name of Durham’s last two dairy farms (Greenbacker and Deerfield), and the name of Powder Ridge’s mountain (Beseck). The questions ranged over a variety of subjects. Contestants did well to know that the name of Ahab’s ship in “Moby Dick” is The Pequod, the current world record for running the mile is 3:43 (contestants had See Trivia / Page 4