The Gazette’s major accomplishment this last year was the celebration of our 40th anniversary, beginning with the April, 2018 edition that reprinted the April, 1978 front page and included a collage of notable headlines, a salute to the xx members who have served on the editorial board, and a ‘Time Capsule’ listing important events of the last four decades on the national and local level, a column we continued monthly throughout the anniversary year. We also dedicated ink every month to the history of our town institutions and our coverage of them, with articles on the Fire Department, the Seniors’ organization, Fletcher Memorial Library, the Historical Society, our schools, our churches, Goodwin Forest, Trail Wood, the Little River Grange and the Community Center. We also summarized our articles on nature and Christmas and politics, and the letters of opinion we published, with a two page spread of memorable words of wisdom. A review of historical articles correlated with Jean Wierzbinski’s contribution on Governor Cleveland, a survey of family vacations featured our trip to Florida last summer, and a chronicle of Memorial Day Addresses complemented this year’s, delivered by Mike Costillo. An article on the ways our newspaper has welcomed neighbors was accompanied by Diane Gagnon’s account of “Coming to Hampton”, and Anne Flammang was interviewed for “Those Who Serve” when we reported on the ways we’ve honored our veterans. For the final celebration of our anniversary year we paid tribute to the humorous articles we’ve published and the humorous people we’ve met, delivering something we’ve discussed for at least a decade – a special April Fools issue — and facing the (either definition of) hysterical reaction.
We also reviewed the residents we’ve recognized as Citizens of the Year and their contributions of the last forty when we honored this year’s citizen, Michael Chapel, the first to hold the title posthumously. We suffered several difficult good-byes this year, published 22 obituaries including life-long residents, a Gazette founder, Goodwin Forest’s first Director, and the last of our iconic “characters”, with seventeen neighbors remembering “Paulisms” on August’s front page.
Continuing the series “Our Rural Heritage” which began last year with the Burell, Freiman, Halbach and Burdick barns, we published articles on the “Historic Barns” of the Browns’, the Yanouzas’, the Fullers’ and the Hoffmans’, and the farms remembered by the Jaworski, Edwards, and Schmeelk families, as well as the one which was once at Trail Wood. The Johnson’s barn on Main Street is featured this month. Artistic renderings of historic barns by Hampton artists, through paintings and photographs and fabric, comprised our 2019 Calendar.
In the August and September issues we recorded the memories of students who attended our one room schoolhouses and some of their teachers, a subject we’ll revisit this year. We reported on our current schools, announcing special happenings at Hampton Elementary and Parish Hill and acknowledging student accomplishments. We also recognized graduates from other area high schools who earned distinction on the stage and on the basketball court, in film and in masonry.
As is our tradition, the chief officials of the schools and the town detailed their respective budgets on the front page of the May edition. We also reported on the Fire Department’s addition to the building, taxpayer approval of its funding, the Zoning Board of Appeals’ consent for its required variances, and concern over the single source procurement for its construction, which prompted the Board of Finance to develop an ordinance on bidding procedures. Our schools, as well, experienced some scrutiny. After receiving what was considered an insufficient response from school officials, a parent reported multiple complaints alleged against elementary school staff; and an ethics violation was confirmed when an anonymous letter sent to the Gazette asked us to investigate whether or not a member of the Regional District #11 Board of Education was compensated for a coaching position at Parish Hill. We subsequently reported on the member’s statutorily required removal from — and subsequent reappointment to — the school board, as well as Freedom of Information complaints lodged against the board’s conduct in the matter.
We also reported on the community debate over the need for a security guard at the high school in the wake of school violence across the country. We published matters of national importance only a few times, with a fictional story submitted in response to the opioid crisis, an article titled “Traveling While Brown” on the unfortunate reaction to an unfamiliar person in town, and an editorial on the lessons the Covington High School students could learn from their experience in Washington D.C. We also covered the discussion among Main Street residents on the protection, or the development of, the village, and reported on the demise of its old oak tree, one of the seedlings given to delegates of the State’s 1902 Constitutional Convention which served as a landmark for 116 years until a family of raccoons living in its hollow trunk revealed the necessity of its removal.
The Gazette was pleased to announce the community festivals — with various organizations providing a variety of activities – that are on the rise with this year’s successful initiation of “Winter Fest”, captured in words and photographs on our pages. We also participated in the annual “Fall Festival” with another poll which asked residents their favorite place in Hampton (with “home” the overwhelming response), their favorite restaurant in Connecticut (yielding an assortment of suggestions), and to the question – how are you informed of national news? – residents named television, newspapers, the internet and radio, in that order, with a few citing “the grapevine,” “smoke signals” and “tea leaves”. This year’s community poem asked participants to complete “I dream of…” with youthful responses such as “becoming a pro-athlete” to the more common response of older residents, “times past”.
We published all of the poems and letters to the editor submitted by residents. Pete Vertefeuille’s photography accompanied many articles and elevated the newspaper’s artistry. Angela Fichter and Auntie Mac supplied us with plenty of laughter, “Green Thumbs” and “In the Garden”, with plenty of horticultural advice. Fletcher Memorial Library and our sanctuaries, Goodwin Forest and Trail Wood, notified us of monthly events, the Historical Society and the Recreation Commission kept us apprised of special happenings, the Seniors published the monthly luncheon menus, and the First Selectman reported monthly on the important news of the Town.
We thank everyone for their contributions of news, announcements, columns, stories, histories, opinions, poems, humor and art, all of which have, for the last 40 years, comprised our community newspaper. We promise to continue to report on news and happenings, accomplishments and losses, in this, the first year of the next forty of The Hampton Gazette.
Juan Arriola