Although the Board of Selectmen has developed a preliminary spending plan, their proposal of approximately 1.7 million has yet to be reviewed by the Board of Finance. Increases include a 3% cost of living adjustment for all town employees, a $5000 increase to the Treasurer’s salary, and a $2000 increase for Planning and Zoning Consulting.  An additional $3000 for legal counsel is included to cover two law suits lodged against the Town, as well as a 5% increase to all utility and fuel line items, and an additional $30,000 for the services of KB Ambulance, from $53,600 to $83,600. The Conservation Commission is also requesting an increase from $605 to $13,974, $12,000 of which is designated for a Trail Improvement Program, a four to five year project which will widen some trails to accommodate the rescue vehicle and provide parking spaces to access certain areas. The Selectmen also added a line item for “Selectman’s Communications”, allocating $2,500 for a town newsletter to “provide updates from different departments of the Town Hall for town information” such as “transfer station stickers, dog license renewals, and revaluations.”  The Selectmen voted to fund only the Land Acquisition and Revaluation Capital accounts this year.

The Board of Finance will discuss the budgets presented by the Boards of Selectmen and Education and hold a public hearing prior to approving the proposals which will be sent to the ultimate decision makers, the taxpayers, at a referendum in June.

The polls will be open on May 3, from noon to 8PM, to decide the question: “Shall the sum of $6,646,927 be appropriated for the operation and maintenance of the Regional District #11 Public School System for the July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 fiscal year?”

All registered voters, and taxpayers on the Grand List owning at least $1000 worth of property, are eligible to vote. Absentee ballots are available in the Town Clerk’s Office during regular hours, Tuesdays 9AM to 4PM and Thursdays 10AM to 7PM.

A local controversy announced in a headline on The Willimantic Chronicle’s front page involving a flyer distributed to residents that denounced the committee researching the viability of combining Hampton and Scotland elementary schools was resolved at an April 7 meeting when Rose Bisson was “unappointed” as the committee’s chairman. Distributed by the Political Action Committee “Keep HES Open”, the flyer named Bisson as the contact person for the PAC.

The flyer alleged that the committee “is trying to close the school” and that its “cost comparisons are not being accurately presented”. The flyer also made claims against the committee’s imminent proposal, predicting that combining the two schools will “adversely affect our property values”, cause Hampton to lose “respected staff” and “control of the school budget”, and result in “larger class sizes”. The flyer also claimed that our elementary school “represents our future and guarantees the vitality of our community” and urged residents to contact Bisson to support the PAC.

The First Selectmen of Hampton, Allan Cahill, and Scotland, Gary Greenberg, established the committee in 2021 to research the possibility of merging the two elementary schools as a cost-savings measure and to deal with the continued declining enrollment in the schools. Two sub-committees were subsequently formed, a Governance Committee, which has been developing a cooperative agreement between the two schools, and a Programming Committee, charged with developing a model educational program and its costs, in order to provide a viable proposal to the people of the two towns on educating their students together in a single elementary school. A member of both, Bisson chairs the Programming Committee.

It was the dual leadership roles with the committees and the PAC which Selectman Greenberg, who chaired the meeting, found most egregious. While critical of the flyer’s “untruths”, Greenberg stated that the flyer compromised the credibility of the committee in that it named Bisson, an authoritative source of information, as the PAC’s “point person”.  Greenberg asked members to consider whether or not Bisson should remain as a member, and chairman, of the committee.

The majority of members echoed Greenberg’s concerns. Tom McAvoy of Scotland and Juan Arriola of Hampton stated that members should refrain from announcing their personal opinions until the process is complete and the public becomes involved during the informational meetings and the advisory vote. Wendy Sears of Scotland and Kathy Donahue of Hampton expressed “disappointment and dismay” over the contents of the flyer, and Bisson’s role in creating it, and defended the accuracy of the committee’s financial information. While stating that Bisson is a valuable member of the committee, they joined McAvoy and Arriola in calling for her removal as chairman. Only Scotland member Cassidy Martin advocated for Bisson’s continued role as committee chairman, although the two dozen residents in attendance seemed to support her opinion, applauding both Martin’s, and Bisson’s, remarks.

In her defense, Bisson spoke to the validity of each claim on the flyer and her right to help publish it; however, she did agree to step down as chairman. Hence, Greenberg “unappointed” Bisson and after adjournment, newly appointed Chairman Wendy Sears called a meeting of the Programming Committee to order, and work continued on confirming figures for accuracy.

The Gazette expects to publish a special edition when the advisory vote is scheduled, with information from the committees on the cooperative agreement, the educational model and its costs, questions posed and answered during the public forums, and the opinions of residents on the matter. Please send us yours.

Skoto Gallery at 529 West 20TH Street New York is presenting…a unique exhibition by Hampton artist, and ECSU retired Professor Emeritus , Lula Mae  Blocton. They offer a look into two decades of her work from 1970 to 1990.This career survey will include two more shows over the next three years focusing on the evolution of her life’s work over time.

Dr. Barbera Stehle, Curator of this retrospective has written;

Blocton moved from Michigan to a loft near Cooper Union in 1972. From her first entry into the art world, Lula has been fighting for acceptance and visibility of the LGBTQ community and the Black and feminist communities. As she remarks: “There are two constants in my life; a love of art-formal, precise, abstract — and concern for human dignity and civil rights.” Blocton was criticized for eschewing figuration, for not painting scenes contributing to the political conversation. Nothing could have been further from the truth, Indeed, she claimed abstraction as a right, not the preserve of a privileged few. For her, thoughts about color were as concrete as they were political, personal, and spiritual. In time Blocton would propose that colors, black, white, and beyond- the entire spectrum– could evoke, metaphorically, the palette for an inclusive society. Blocton’s color grids of the 1970s explore the full color spectrum and are at times reminiscent of textile patterns. Her close observation of weavings brought to her paintings an understanding of overlay and colored edges. The  hues are lively and rich, the compositions dreamy. In her drawings, the textures are fuzzy and delicate, reminiscent of mohair. In the paintings, the light seems to get caught in the brushstrokes. One feels the evocation of sunsets, summer lights, dawns, overcast atmospheric skies, all captured in a grid. Despite their abstraction, Blocton’s 70s’s compositions refer to the atmospheric light of New York City and other sites. The artist’s sensibility found inspiration in the shifts of light views through her windows. In these paintings luminosity comes from the back of the picture as it does in stained glass. Light manifests itself as a movement through the colors and influences the color gradations. Blocton’s palette shows already the sophistication of a great colorist; her grays have greens, her red oranges, her blues pinks, and her white blues.

Lula Mae Blocton was born in Michigan in 1947. She achieved a BFA from the University of Michigan and while seeking an MFA from Indiana University, along with a developing  awareness of social issues, dove deeply into the color theories of Josef Albers. She acquired an awareness of additive and subtractive light, color transparency, the capture of light, and the effects of light from behind. These were the bedrock of her integrating African American and LGBTQ issues into her colorful and thoughtful paintings and drawings.

After earning her MFA, Lula decided academia was a pathway that would offer security and still allow artistic space for her own visions, dialogue, and social commentary. In 1988 she acquired a teaching position at Eastern Connecticut State University. Along with her wife and fellow artist, Shirley Bernstein, they built a house with two studios here in Hampton where they reside and still work today. Lula says about Hampton, “I am still inspired by the light here. Some of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen are right here. I love being surrounded by nature.”

The walls of her studio are bright white and her large colorful paintings have a language infused by Lula’s attention to detail. Her messages are subtle, “I don’t try to beat the viewer over the head politically.” Some of her prismacolor drawings are quite small. She explains that the pencils must be constantly sharpened for the blending of one color over another. And “never use in summer heat; it makes the lead too soft.” Large oil paintings fill the walls, some 40” by 30”, diptychs,tripyychs, African patterns emerge, straight lines, curved lines, geometric, even a whimsical animal shape or two. Lula has something to say, and we can look and listen for the next three years.

Recently, Holland Cotter of the New York Times reviewed her NYC show and said the following:

I encountered Lula Mae Blocton’s art for the first time only three years ago in the traveling exhibition “Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989.” In that febrile, figure-intensive show her 1975 abstract geometric painting “Summer Ease” was a meditative stopping point. The politics of the era were present but indirect: The colors were those of the rainbow flag, but tonally nuanced and applied to an off-center grid of rectangles. The work didn’t directly read as gay or Black, or feminist, which may be one reason Skoto’s tight survey of two decades of early work, from 1970-1980, curated by Barbara Stehle, is Blocton’s first New York City solo since 1978.

It’s a beauty. The early geometric oil paintings and wonderful colored pencil drawings, with their stroke-by-stroke textures and blurred contours, have the look of soft woven cloth. With the 1980s, their foursquare geometry splinters into diagonals in adjustable, multipanel compositions. Illusionistic space turns some of these paintings into galactic landscapes. And the interest in prismatic color intensifies: Light, optical and, one senses, metaphorical, becomes a primary subject.

Her work beyond the 1980s has been much influenced by African textile designs, as will no doubt be evident in future shows at Skoto, which is planning a career survey as a series of solo exhibitions shows. I look forward to seeing this visual narrative unfold and to being brought up-to-date on what’s happening with this artist-illuminator, who is in her 70s, in the Now.

Wayne Erskine

When we moved to Hampton, we were charmed by the old farmhouse but not blind to its deficiencies. Besides needing a great deal of structural work, it lacked two necessities for writers: bookcases and storage. Fortunately, the solution to both of those stood in the side yard: a large red barn. On the left side was an enclosed space, most recently a shop selling tack and other riding paraphernalia. On the right were two open, doorless bays that once might have served for farm equipment but now, cement floored, would hold two cars.

Above both sections was a loft accessed by a narrow, newish stair from the shop. The loft had a trap door for bales of hay, as well as a door in the east wall so bales could be off loaded from a tall hay wagon. The hay was long gone and access via the door in the east wall was no longer possible except for bats and other wildlife because there was a lean-to shed attached to the lower story. This had a proper cement footing but an earth floor and was divided into a small stall and a larger  L shaped open area. There were boxes that might have held feed and space, I’m guessing for two, or possibly three, horses.

Given that we were having numerous rooms stripped to the studs, floors refinished, and a bathroom redone, all this space was very welcome. There was room in the garage to set up a work table to make bookcases, and the former tack shop had a built-in bench with shelves underneath, very suitable to store my share of my dad’s hand tools and my recently purchased skill saw.

What was to prove more problematic, and can serve here as a warning for anyone else fortunate enough to buy a place with a large, mostly empty, barn, was the ease with which potentially useful, or too good to discard, items can be stored out of sight and mind in a barn. The previous owners had succumbed to that in part, but I’m afraid we have topped up the store.  Two glass fronted bookshelves now hold copies of novels past. The changing cubicle of the shop first held books and, when they were moved into the house, paintings. The latter have been particularly difficult, expanding to two improvised racks and a professional steel video rack, useful to a sportswriter before sports moved to on demand tv and streaming services.

The pony shed, meanwhile, held a generator for years and when we upgraded to one that did not need a manual start, the garden equipment, previously held at bay, took over the rest. In the garage, old shop, and shed, useful wood and rescued planks from otherwise unsalvageable floors have taken up lodging. I can foresee a dumpster in someone else’s future.

According to Bob Burgoyne’s inventory of historic Hampton buildings, the barn was most likely built soon after Nathan Holt bought the land from his father in 1859 and erected our present house. The younger Holt operated a blacksmith business, either in the barn or in another now lost structure. But if the basic framework of the barn is 19th century with post and beam construction and hand cut nails and pegs, the joists in the garage area look to be 20th century and much of the sheathing looks to be recycled boards. The wall between the shop and garage is plywood, while the cupola on the roof probably dates from the 1980’s and does not provide for ventilation.

Still, at purchase, the barn seemed authentic – at least from a distance. Its air of solidity also proved deceptive, when we discovered with the first heavy spring rains that the roof leaked, depositing a steady stream of water in the shop area.  Berard Builders, already virtually in residence in the house, removed the worn-out asphalt shingles, laid plywood over the boards that had once supported wooden shingles, and installed a new roof.

Earlier the barn had needed even more drastic assistance. The previous owners had hauled it into something like plumb with a steel cable, and we suspect they also put in the windows, given the supply of used sash and doors that resided in the loft. The walls of the pony shed, which might also be partly 19th century construction, had been sheathed in flake board, an ugly modern product now hidden under amateurishly applied clapboards. One learns a lot with an old place needing repairs!

Clearly our barn is not a fine example of 19th century rural architecture, just as our house, notably lacking in architectural detail or quality craftsmanship, is not a prime example of historic construction. By and large, notably preserved and designed buildings did not belong to working farmers of modest means, and the houses and barns that have been well preserved most likely belonged to wealthy families, probably with an antiquarian bent.

But the beautifully-preserved are all too often rendered obsolete. One only needs to see the sad state of what were once impressive post and beam agricultural structures to see that change and renovation are often the instruments of survival. Our old barn once held hay and provided shelter for animals and farm equipment. Later, the house belonged to a carpenter/ builder, and I suspect the barn was his workshop.

The owners immediately before us kept riding horses and rescued the barn from near collapse with modern materials and a good deal of dump picking and recycling. They divided it up and added on. As we have. Now it is an inauthentic yellow with blue doors and sports solar panels, earning its keep as a garage, work, and storage space. If it is lucky, the next owners will find it useful, keep it in reasonable repair, and preserve it, not as an historic artifact, but as a machine for living and working.

Janice Trecker

It is a fairly well established truism that history is written by the victor. And so our story begins:

Ulysses, a Greek hero of the Trojan war, had learned from the goddess Circe of an island populated by beautiful women known as Sirens, who sung in irresistible voices, seducing sailors with promises of love and fortune while in fact they were luring them to their doom. Any sailors who were lured to the island by the Sirens were actually lured to their death. Ultimately they were eaten by the Sirens, their bones used to make musical instruments. Determined to hear the voices of the Sirens, Ulysses ordered his men to tie him securely to the mast of his galley, to plug their ears with bees wax and ignore any of his orders as they rowed the galley past the island of the Sirens. All obeyed. The galley was rowed safely past the island of the Sirens; the sailors with their ears plugged with beeswax, and Ulysses struggling fiercely against the leather bindings that secured him tightly to the mast.

Well, all but one obeyed. You know – there’s always that ONE guy. Buried in the footnotes of the ancient manuscripts we find the story of an oarsman on Ulysses’ galley that went by the name of Patrick Apollopolis. Now, Patrick was as keen on hearing the Siren voices as was Ulysses. He had also, as a Seaman 3^rd class, grown weary of yanking on his 20 foot long oar and the endlessly monotonous cycle of men groaning out o –e-o. E-O. o-e-o. E-O and the occasional rendition of  “Row, row, row your boat.” Let’s be honest, Life is anything BUT a dream for an oarsman on an ancient Greek galley returning from the Trojan war. Anyway, with Ulysses securely strapped to the mast, the crew, wax in ears, returned to their respective oars and proceeded to row past the island of the Sirens. O-e –o –E-O… Patrick, however, before taking his place had pulled the wax just a wee bit from his ears so he too could hear the seductive voices of the Sirens and perhaps witness other feminine features known to appeal to sailors in foreign ports. As the galley drew near to the island and the Siren voices grew ever more sweet and seductive, Patrick leapt from his seat, peered over the railing and shouted: “Oy, mates, get dewax outchee ers! Thar be women out thar.  Alma gyna get me ah maiden.”  And overboard he went.

Now, Patrick was a determined young sailor but not particularly knowledgeable about currents and tides. He had jumped into an outgoing tide and before long he was beyond sight of the island and galley, beyond the sound of the Sirens, struggling to stay afloat and calling in vain for help. Luck was on his side. His desperate cries were heard by a passing mermaid who came to his rescue. Mermaids, being precursors to modern SCUBA gear, she sealed her lips against his, dove beneath the waves and began to swim in a gently undulating manner for what seemed days, in a more or less westerly direction. All the while Patrick, in a paralytic daze, was experiencing what might be called an early version of shock and awe. Eventually emerging from his days’-long daze, Patrick found himself clinging to a log, clunking against the rocky shore of an unfamiliar land in the shape of a boot.  How much time had passed he could not actually tell. Days? Years? Centuries? It was all very strange. Rising slowly from what should have been his watery grave, Patrick stumbled forward to a large, warm, flat rock, and lay on this Adriatic coast soaking in the fresh air while the warm Mediterranean sun dried his tattered clothing to an itchy crisp. Not having much choice in the matter, and with the delicious aromas wafting from the local shore-front eateries, Patrick determined to make this strange land his new home. Being an adaptable, industrious and adventurous lad, Patrick Apollopolis became Patrick Apollopolisini, began earning his living hawking jewelry he had fashioned from seashells and, in the tradition of sailors through the ages, spending his living patronizing the local brothels.

Time passed, and as with most young men, Patrick eventually settled, married the maiden Penelope, and fathered a son, Michael. (Actually it was: Marry or face the mace, and the events might have occurred in a different order. But that’s a whole other story.)  The years of married life ground by slowly and before long Patrick’s adventure gene was given the excuse for which he yearned.  Far to the north Barbarians were threatening to give the boot to the residents of the boot-shaped land. Trumpets of the Roman Legions were heard in every village and town. Recruiters in their shining armor appeared in every gymnasium.  Patrick required little persuasion.  Soon he was marching north with a Legion, confident in giving those Barbarians a thrashing they wouldn’t soon forget, leaving behind a wife with an uncertain past and a son with an uncertain future.

In the last surviving record we have of Patrick Apollopolisini he is identified as the Head of a Roman Legion. By Head we don’t mean anything as honorable as a General or something of that nature. No. His was the actual head dangling from the war belt of a Barbarian Corporal. In keeping with the black humor heard around the camp fires of junior troops on campaign, he was christened “The Head of a Roman Legion.” Soon to become a drinking cup.

With the death of Patrick, the Barbarians were able to sack Rome, eventually plunging the entire continent of Europe into what has become known as the Dark Ages. The names Apollopolis and Apollopolisini, the trumpets of the Roman Legions and the Sirens call effectively vanished from history. Or so it appeared. While the Barbarians were busy burning and pillaging their way across Europe, a group of Irish monks took upon themselves the mission of preserving as much of the written history of civilization as they possibly could. Dispersing all across Europe they retrieved and returned to their Celtic monasteries as many ancient manuscripts as they could get their hands on.  Within the walls of these monasteries the monks worked tirelessly hand-copying and translating the manuscripts.  In the process of copying the manuscripts they would often make personal notes and illustrations in the margins, as footnotes and sometimes as fully illustrated pages. The most famous of these manuscripts is known as the Book of Kells. It is kept in the library of Trinity College in Dublin.

Upon inspecting the various margin notes, footnotes and illustrations you will come upon a familiar looking name: Shamus O’Apollopolysini. As the story goes Shamus had appeared at the gates of the monastery, a dirty, gap-toothed, hungry beggar offering to work for his keep. Orphaned at a young age, he appeared to be in his middle or late teens and believed he had been born somewhere in Gaul. Being an adaptable, industrious and adventurous lad, he had begged, borrowed and stolen his way across the English Channel, England, the Irish Sea and across Ireland to the gates of the monastery. Illiterate in three languages, he was of no use to the monks as a scribe. Being a compassionate lot, the monks hired him on as the assistant to the assistant shepherd. This turned out to be a poor choice of employment. On returning from the field on his first day of minding the sheep, his eyes and lips were swollen nearly shut and his body covered in a bright red rash. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out poor Shamus was allergic to wool. (Good thing, since there were none available to consult at the time.)  Having filled all other job openings, the monks had little choice but to send him on a fool’s errand hoping he would just go away.  After giving him a few days to recover his ability to see and eat, they instructed him to go into the surrounding hills and dales, round up all the stray cats he could find, bring them back to the monastery barn where they would earn their keep protecting the hops harvest while dining on the bewiskered beady-eyed long-tailed hops bandits.

As Shamus departed the monastery the monks chuckled , smirked at one another and resumed their tireless copying of ancient manuscripts.  Forty three days later the monastery bell clanged wildly as the thick oaken doors swung open, and every monk stood slack-jawed as Shamus, covered in scratches, herded 37 feral cats and one Scottish terrier through the gate and into the barn.

Shamed by their mean but backfired prank, Shamus was hired on as the monastery gardener. For the next 27 months all went well for Shamus: He ate well, his clothes were clean and whole, he had a comfortable straw bed out of the rain, the hops harvest was transformed into beer, the cats grew fat, the gardens bloomed brightly, the lawns neatly clipped. Shamus even learned a bit of the three Rs. Life was good.

Alas, the center could not hold, Shamus O’Apollopolisine was not built for the settled life. While the monks went on to gain fame for Saving Western Civilization, Shamus gained infamy as a fugitive from civilization upon being discovered in flagrante delicto with the shepherd’s wife. With the departure of Shamus there was no one left able to maintain good order and discipline among the cats; they soon returned to their wild and free life in the hills and dales of Ireland; the bandit population expanded rapidly resulting in the Black Death which erased a third of the population of Europe.

From the year 1136 on no record has emerged with the name Apollopolys, Apollopolysine or O’Appolopolysini. Nor has there been much mention of the trumpets of the Roman Legions or the Sirens’ call. The name may well be gone but hints and evidence have surfaced from time to time suggesting, in all likelihood, fugitives being what they are, the bloodline survived. The debate goes on about who and when the first siren was invented. Depending upon who you believe it was invented sometime between 1790 and 1820 either by a Frenchman names Charles or a Scotsman named John. Initially the Siren was used as a musical instrument, eventually evolving into use as a civil defense alarm. Both uses harking back to the Siren calls encountered by both Ulysses and Patrick Apollopolys ,as well as many others who did not survive the call.

Right here, in our own little ole Hampton there exists strong evidence that the Apollopolis bloodline lives on. Genealogy is a tricky business; not unlike running a river back to its source. The further back you go the narrower and shallower it gets; smaller rivers and streams feed into it; they, in turn, are fed by even smaller streams, brooks and mud holes. Ultimately the whole thing vanishes like a dewdrop in the morning sun.

Dave DeMontigny has been a volunteer with Hampton Fire Company for over 50 years. Starting out as an uncertified volunteer, he proceeded up through the ranks:  Fireman, EMT, Lieutenant, Captain, Assistant Chief, Chief and President. (Adaptable?) He is a wealth of knowledge and ability when it comes to operating, repairing or replacing any piece of equipment or gear in the firehouse. (Industrious?) He is what is commonly referred to as a fountain of institutional and operational knowledge. Safety is always his first concern; little escapes his watchful and learned eye. He likes his travel vacations to places not previously visited. (Adventurous?)

Of course none of these characteristics constitutes proof or even indisputable evidence of any ancestral or genealogical connection to Patrick, Shamus, John, or Charles the Frenchman (Gaul?) But here are a few other things we do know about Dave that add to the suspicions: He has been known on occasion to enjoy a pint of Guinness. He has a taste for Italian cuisine. (Gluten free of course.) He currently sports a monkish hair style (As do several other members). If you ever have the pleasure of observing him chair a Members meeting you leave with the very definite impression he possesses an inherent knowledge of herding cats. He has been known to go fishing off Westerly. Badda Boom-Badda Bing: He has a lawn care business.

Finally, of this, above all else, there is no dispute: With 54 years as a volunteer with the Hampton Fire Company, when he heard the Siren call he went overboard. Incidentally, Dave is currently touring Ireland with his fair Maiden …Dale! Coincidence? Destiny?  Only the dewdrop knows.

Be like Dave.

Fire House Dog

This is a public service announcement for all past, present and future hippies; for those who were never hippies, were contemptuous of hippies, or don’t know what hippies are; for those who abandoned their hippie ways to became doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs; for those intent on becoming doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs, and for all the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers swept up in the current of life full of stress and worry:

Slow down, you move too fast

You got to make the morning last

Just kicking down the cobblestones

Looking for fun and feeling groovy

Bad da-da da-da da-da, feeling groovy

Hello lamppost, what’cha knowing

I’ve come to watch your flowers growin’

Ain’t you got no rhymes for me?

Doo-ait-n-doo-doo, feeling groovy

Ba da-da da-da da-da, feeling groovy

I got no deeds to do, no promises to keep

I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep

Let the morning time drop all its petals on me

Life, I love you, all is groovy.

The 59^th St Bridge Song : Paul Simon ( Simon and Garfunkel)

When the pager sounds, the message has yet to be: “Cookies at Grandma’s. Bring your friends.” But almost without fail every month there will be a mental health call of one form or another. Life in this ever-changing, fast-paced world can be overwhelming. Sometimes the decisions we make get us into the pickles we find ourselves; sometimes life just T-bones us. Either way, stress is still stress. How we respond to stress makes all the difference. As Grandma would often say, “Worrying is like rocking in a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.” If we have time to worry then we have time to relax. It’s a matter of the thoughts we choose to embrace. Believe it or not, it is a choice and repeated choices become habits.

Most people drown, not because they don’t know how to swim but because they panic, thrash around wildly and don’t control their breathing. If they would stop thrashing, remain calm and control their breathing they would simply float, even if they don’t know how to swim.  It is the same with the stress and worries of life. Anyone of us can make the time to control our breathing “skip down the cobblestone, talk to the lamppost, and watch the flowers grow”…if we choose to. Even five minutes of calm is better than a day of nothing but stress and worry.  After all, a pair of deuces beats a king-high nothing every time. Take the time to take care of yourself.

During the month of March the members of Hampton Fire Company  responded to nine emergency dispatches, attended two training sessions and two administrative meetings, prepared and attended an annual Service Awards dinner for the members and their families.  Length of service award was presented to Mike Bernard – 30 years. Top Responder awards, in order, went to Al Ameer, Rick Nichols, Noel Waite, Dave DeMontigny and Jeff Stoddard.  Firehouse Dog received extra ear scratches for not pooping in the truck.

A bit over 150 man hours were logged. And the pager sounds.

Fire House Dog.

Farmer-Musician Bennett Konesni will return to Hampton to lead a worksong workshop and give an evening concert on Wednesday, May 11 at Organic Roots Farm at Popover Hill at 147 East Old Route 6. Bennett is the grandson of Rad and Leila Ostby, the previous owners of Popover Hill Tree Farm, and has devoted his life to learning and sharing songs that help get work done, from field hollers to sea shanties, from herding calls to lumberjack anthems, and has been featured by NPR, the New York Times, The Library of Congress, and on the Ted talk stage. He also tours internationally.

The workshop begins at 5pm with Bennett leading songs as the group works on a project (stacking firewood, planting tomatoes, etc.) at Organic Roots Farm, with new owners, the Fisher Family. Bennett will take time to discuss how to make music happen at your own farm or homestead during everyday activities, like stacking firewood, weeding the garden, or doing the dishes. A farm-to-table dinner (suggested donation) will be served, followed by a grand finale concert by Bennett. Besides the farm-to-table dinner, a bake sale will be held to benefit the Working Hands Ministry, that assists the widowed and elderfolk with home repair and maintenance.

Planning to attend? This is a rain or shine event, please bring chairs and clothing for weather. This is sure to be an interesting and powerful evening of music in Hampton! To purchase tickets, or for more information, please see Bennett online at worksongs.org ¡

As a town newspaper, we rarely cover national or global issues. Yet we would be remiss this year, if first and foremost, we didn’t acknowledge what’s happening in the world.

Our hearts and prayers are with Ukraine and its people, who have bravely withstood the military might of Russia. Weeks ago, we watched ominous images of that convoy inching toward Kiev, still stalled as of press time. We are witnessing David and Goliath battles, in real time, as the Ukrainians resist the Russian war machines, standing strong as their beautiful country is brutally attacked, demolished, and innocent civilians, even children, are brutally killed. Standing strong, at such a high cost.

The people of Ukraine – men, women, children, soldiers, leaders — have demonstrated daily to the world their love of their country, and of freedom and independence; their president has become an international model of leadership; their messaging, in words, pictures, song, are powerful.  We are in awe.

Pray for them. Support their resistance, fly their flag, plant a sunflower, sing their national anthem, and accept that we might be called upon to make sacrifices ourselves.

Our hearts and prayers to Poland and Hungary for opening their borders and their homes to the Ukrainian refugees, to all the nations of the world who have rallied so strongly together in support of Ukraine and the principles they represent, and, yes, to those Russian people who, facing countless years in prison, courageously protest their dictator’s cruel war.

Democracy is holding, and we’re reminded yet again of the importance of protecting and preserving it.

The work of the Hampton/Scotland Ad Hoc Committee for Interdistrict Educational Cost Sharing is nearing completion. This spring, we will formally report our work—a model Cooperative Agreement for operating a single school, a model staffing plan, and a model budget—to the two towns’ Boards of Education, and conduct public information sessions to present and discuss it. After the public discussion, we will hold an advisory vote in both towns on the question of whether or not the towns should enter into an agreement. That vote will be non-binding. The final decision is up to the BOEs. If both boards approve it (or some version of it), and if the Town Meetings of both towns approve the use of the school buildings for this purpose, Hampton and Scotland will share an elementary school.

The subcommittee drafting the model Cooperative Agreement has been meeting in executive session, primarily to allow us to talk informally and candidly among ourselves and with our attorney. While we have not quite reached a final draft, we have made sufficient progress that we wish to share the broad outlines of our work with the public even before we roll out the entire report.

Governance Structure

The draft agreement calls for a six-member Cooperative Committee drawn from the local BOEs. The BOE chairs and two other members appointed by each local BOE will serve as the Cooperative Committee. The BOE chairs will be co-chairs of the Committee and alternate as the presiding chair on an annual basis. The Committee will have most of the same duties as the BOEs currently have for their schools. It will hire a superintendent, negotiate contracts, make a budget, and oversee the operation of the school. The local BOEs will have input via the members they designate for the Committee. The local boards will maintain responsibility for and control over transportation and out-of-district special education for students in their respective towns. The Committee will meet at least monthly, elect officers, establish bylaws, just as BOEs do now. It will act on behalf of the local districts to apply for and administer federal and state grants, and may receive grants directly. It will be audited annually.

Financial Structure

The draft agreement calls for the Committee to present a budget to the local BOEs. The local boards will be assessed for their respective portion of the budget expenditures. Their portion will be based on the number of students each town sends to the school. For example, this year, Scotland has 103 students and Hampton 72, so Scotland’s assessment would be 58.8% and Hampton’s will be 41.2%. The student count will be based on the population of the school on October 1, applied to the following year’s budget. If the audit finds a surplus or deficit, it will be returned or charged to the towns according to that year’s assessment. Budgets will be presented by the local BOEs to the Board of Finance and to the Town Meeting as they are currently. Those budgets will include the assessment from the Cooperative Committee, plus student transportation, out-of-district special education, and other expenses specific to the local BOE.

Special Education

Planning and Placement Teams at the Cooperative School will meet and determine Individualized Educational Programs for special education students. The costs for students whose IEPs can be carried out in the school will be built into the general operating budget. Should the school staff determine that a student’s needs cannot be met by the Cooperative School, responsibility for determining and funding an educational program will return to the local BOE, which will be responsible for planning, placement, and program costs.

School Building

The draft Cooperative Agreement provides that the Cooperative Committee will make a recommendation to the local BOEs as to which school should house the Cooperative School. The BOEs and the Town Meetings of both towns will have to approve the choice. The town that owns the building designated by the BOEs will remain responsible for the costs of capital improvements, such as roof replacement or other major repair. Operating expenses for the school, such as routine maintenance, minor repairs, and utilities, will be the responsibility of the Committee, and will be included in their budget expenditures. Because this arrangement will change the use of town-owned real estate in both towns, the Town Meeting will have to approve the agreement.

Amendment and Termination

In the current draft, the Cooperative Agreement will be in effect for seven years. (As with everything else in the agreement, the final decision belongs to the BOE.) It can be modified at any point in the term by agreement between the BOEs. It can be terminated by either BOE with a year’s notice.

We look forward to releasing the completed draft Cooperative Agreement and the model staffing plan and budget, and to the public information sessions and advisory vote. In the meantime, feel free to contact members of the Cooperative Committee. Allan Cahill is available at firstselectman@hamptonct.org, or 860 455 9132 x2. Other committee members’ contact information is available, along with meeting minutes and other information, at https://www.hs-interdistrictcommittee.org/entities/ad-hoc-committee-for-interdistrict-cost-sharing

Gary Greenberg, Chair, Hampton/Scotland Ad Hoc Committee for Interdistrict Educational Cost Sharing,

First Selectman, Town of Scotland