Cornwall education spending plan reflects large incoming class next year
Cornwall expects a large kindergarten class next year.
Riley Klein
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Experts speak at Scoville Library, urge adults to document healthcare wishes
Patrick L. Sullivan
Aug 05, 2026
Cristin Rich, left, and Brenda Fife discuss end-of-life care at the Scoville Memorial Library on July 28.
Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan
SALISBURY — Every adult should have an advance directive — a legal document that outlines future healthcare wishes — regardless of age or health, according to two end-of-life care professionals who spoke at the Scoville Memorial Library on Tuesday, July 28.
Cristin Rich, executive director of East Mountain House in Lakeville, a residential hospice that provides end-of-life care, joined Brenda Fife, a certified dementia practitioner and admissions coordinator at Geer Village in North Canaan, to discuss the benefits of the “Five Wishes” advance directive. Together, they encouraged attendees to begin conversations about their healthcare wishes before a crisis occurs.
An advance directive is a legal document that specifies what medical treatments a person wants if they become incapacitated and unable to make those decisions. It also typically designates someone to make healthcare decisions if needed on the person’s behalf.
Fife said advance directives are not just for the elderly or the sick.
“Every adult over the age of 18 should have one.”
Meanwhile, Rich added: “If you don’t make choices, the choices are made for you.”
The pair explained that there are five common types of advance directives: healthcare proxy, living will, POLST/MOLST (physician orders for life-sustaining treatment and medical orders for life-sustaining treatment), a dementia directive, and the Five Wishes.
The Five Wishes combines elements of those directives into a single document written in plain language that also addresses emotional, personal and spiritual preferences.
Rich and Fife walked the audience through each of the document’s five sections.
The first wish focuses on choosing a healthcare proxy — the person who will make medical decisions if the patient is unable to do so.
Fife said the ideal person is someone who will remain calm under pressure. “You should also name an alternate as well,” in case something happens to the first person.
The proxy “does not speak for you unless you are unable to speak for yourself.”
Fife said when picking the person to be the healthcare proxy, the question to keep in mind is “who is the best person to follow your wishes?”
The second wish addresses the kind of medical treatment a person wants or does not want if they are unable to communicate, such as whether they would want life-sustaining treatment or other medical interventions.
Fife added that this is not the same thing as a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, which is issued by a physician. She said in general a healthy person cannot get a DNR order, and Rich added that a DNR “should not be in contravention of your wishes.”
The third wish focuses on comfort care.
Fife said this comes down to whether a person would prefer to have pain relief treatment that leaves them sleepy or if a person would rather be alert but experience more pain.
Rich noted that situations can change. “We had a patient who wanted to be awake and alert until the family members had been there. After that, pain medication was ok.”
She added that there are options other than opioid pain medications. “Distraction can be effective,” Rich said.
The fourth wish addresses how a person wants to be treated during their final days.
Fife said some patients prefer to have music playing, or enjoy flowers, or appreciate people coming to pray. It all depends on the individual.
“Me? If I’m not feeling well, I don't want people around me,” she said.
During the discussion, an audience member asked whether East Mountain House allowed pets.
Rich said pets are welcome as long as certain conditions are met. If the pet gets along with the resident therapy dog and can’t escape, then it’s usually okay.
“It’s not a hard yes or no.”
The fifth wish allows people to communicate what they want their loved ones to know.
“This is the most emotional wish,” Fife said. Some people write letters of gratitude or forgiveness.
Rich said that personal messages like those are what distinguish the Five Wishes document from more traditional legal forms.
“Sometimes these are words that family members will remember forever,” Rich said.
People interested in completing a Five Wishes document should first determine whether it is legally recognized in their state.
Rich said in 46 states the Five Wishes are legal, and in four more states (including Connecticut and New York), the Five Wishes require some additional legal provisions.
The pair also said it is important to keep the document up to date. One audience member said she prepared a Five Wishes document only to pull it out some years later and realize the proxy she had designated had died.
Fife encouraged people to revisit the document as life circumstances change.
“So don’t just put it in a drawer.”
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Aspiring writers and illustrators workshop ideas
Annie Prinz
Aug 05, 2026
Writers seek and share advice during the third and final workshop for aspiring children’s book authors and illustrators at the Scoville Library July 29.
Photo by Annie Prinz
SALISBURY — Around a table in the Wardell Room at Scoville Memorial Library, an assortment of characters and stories began to take shape Wednesday, July 29, as six aspiring children’s book writers and illustrators gathered for a third and final workshop session.
Titled, “Lights! Camera! Action! A Theatrical Approach to Writing and Revising Picture Books,” the three-part workshop was led by award-winning author Caroline Nastro.
The participants’ discussion revealed just how many decisions go into each page, and each author and illustrator had the opportunity to reflect on the many different steps involved in making a children’s book.
Topics included how to keep an illustrated character’s appearance consistent, how research can strengthen a story and how familiar subjects can be approached from an unexpected angle.
The final session focused on sharing work, offering feedback and developing ideas in a supportive environment. Participants arrived at different points in the creative process. Some had begun matching their words with images, while others had created sketches or were still deciding how to bring their ideas to life.
As the group offered feedback on Winsted artist Cheryl Ann Bartley’s work, she responded lightheartedly.
“I’m an artist; nothing hurts me,” she said.
Throughout the workshop, participants were encouraged to borrow techniques from theater and film to better understand their stories. During the first session, writers created a “toolbox” of ideas and techniques that could guide their work. The second session invited them to imagine their stories as film sequences, considering what readers would see on each page alongside the written text.
During the final meeting, participants listened to each other’s stories and tried to consider them from a child’s perspective. Rather than concentrating on whether a story made sense to an adult, the group considered what might capture a young reader’s attention, what emotions the story could evoke and where its characters could be developed more fully.
Nastro’s own work combines her experience in literature and theater. She studied at Stanford University, the Yale School of Drama and the Université de Paris-Sorbonne. Her debut picture book, “The Bear Who Couldn’t Sleep,” was named a Bank Street Best Picture Book of the Year. One of her later books, “Outside Amelia’s Window,” received the same recognition in 2023.
By the end of Wednesday’s session, no two participants had reached precisely the same point in their process. Yet each left with new questions, suggestions and possibilities.
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Rescheduled laser show lights up sky at Satre Hill
Patrick L. Sullivan
Aug 05, 2026
Crowds gather for a laser light show on Satre Hill in Salisbury Aug. 2, after the Fourth of July event was postponed by the powerful storm. Giant beach balls and a food truck round out the celebration.
Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan
SALISBURY — Around 300 people came to Satre Hill in Salisbury on Sunday evening, Aug. 2, for a laser light show sponsored by the Salisbury Association. The event was originally scheduled for the evening of July 4 to cap off the town’s Independence Day celebrations, but was canceled by the unexpected storm that took down trees and knocked out power in the area.
As people filed in to the SWSA Ski Jumps around 8 p.m., Salisbury Association Executive Director Chris Abeel said the laser show was a new type of event for the organization, which usually sponsors educational talks.
A silver lining of the delayed light show was the availability of food trucks, which were fully booked on the Fourth of July. The Taco Shack food truck attended the Aug. 2 event, providing crowds with a mix of street tacos, burritos and Mexican favorites.
To add to the excitement, three giant beach balls were inflated and tossed into the crowd a little before 8 p.m. The idea came from Salisbury Association Board Member Gloria Miller, and was proven successful. Children of all ages immediately rolled, jumped on, tossed, and kicked the beach balls. It was still going on during the laser show, which started at about 9 p.m. and ran for 30 minutes.
Accompanied by music, the light show displayed geometric patterns that weaved around artificial fog. Occasionally, a representation of a human was projected onto the ski jump hill.
Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan
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Sharon looks to protect farmland in new planning document
Alec Linden
Aug 05, 2026
The Sharon Land Trust manages about 500-acres of protected farmland, including the Mary Moore Preserve, where cows graze. Policymakers are exploring ways to connect farmers with available farmland.
Photo by Alec Linden
SHARON — Farming in Sharon is increasingly at risk due to soaring land prices, a shortage of affordable housing and continued development pressure, residents and planning officials said during a public planning meeting on July 22.
Farmers, landowners and conservation advocates gathered at Town Hall to discuss how the town can better preserve agricultural land as part of its upcoming update to the Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD).
The meeting was the final of four sessions with the Planning and Zoning Commission that invited public input on four key land use issues identified by residents in responses to a survey conducted in the spring. The other three, which were discussed in the three previous meetings, were economic development, conservation and housing.
The public input will help shape the rewrite of the POCD, which state law requires municipalities to review and update every 10 years. Sharon’s current plan is due for revision by the end of the year. Janell Mullen, a land use consultant hired by P&Z to prepare the revision, referred to the document as “a road map for the next 10 years of planning and development.”
Several participants at the July 22 meeting voiced their desire to see firmer safeguards for the town’s agricultural land, which totals some 4,000 acres, or approximately 11% of Sharon’s total area, become a priority in future changes to town codes.
“There’s no governance by the town that protects it,” said resident Carol Flaton, who serves on the town’s Board of Finance.
Some argued that Connecticut as a whole is not hospitable to farmers, making the town’s role in protecting agriculture especially important.
According to statistics published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2025, Connecticut had the fourth most expensive farmland in the country at $14,400 per acre, following Rhode Island, New Jersey and Massachusetts, in order.
“Connecticut and farming are separating slowly, unfortunately,” said James Shepherd, a Sharon farmer and a board member for the Connecticut Farmland Trust.
Mullen, originally from Sharon herself, said “we’re only going more in the direction of losing our farms.”
Participants suggested several ways in which the town could support especially small farmers given the relatively compact plot sizes in Sharon. Flaton brought up the possibility of a town-operated platform that could connect farmers to landowners wishing to have their land farmed. “Something that says, ‘Hey we’re getting serious about this,’” she said.
Shepherd pointed to a state-run initiative called Connecticut FarmLink that seeks to connect working farmers to available land across the state, saying that “the infrastructure exists for the town of Sharon,” but needs some nudging to be utilized.
Flaton and others noted that there are other obstacles keeping working farmers out of Sharon, namely affordable housing.
Resident Jill Drew said that diversified housing options are essential “if we’re going to get away from just having gentleman farms,” farms that exist for recreation rather than profit or widespread food supply.
Several suggestions were made about how to create housing opportunities for farmers, such as changing zoning laws to make it easier for farmers to live as tenants on the land they farm. Carolyn Klocker, executive director of the Sharon Land Trust, said that her organization is actively working with the Sharon Housing Trust to find housing solutions that protect natural landscapes, agriculture and workers together.
Many during the discussion agreed that above all, protecting the lands themselves should be a foremost goal for the town as it looks into the future.
Flaton argued that stricter oversight for farmland protection needs to be in place. Within the last several years, two properties under state Department of Agriculture easement were purchased by private landowners and turned into residences.
Klocker said that Sharon’s self-sufficiency is reliant on its farms, making their protection a primary goal for the POCD. “If all the land is gobbled up,” she said, “there will be no land left for our kids to grow the food they need.”
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North Canaan settles dispute with former Town Clerk for $48,000
Christian Murray
Aug 05, 2026
NORTH CANAAN — The Town of North Canaan has agreed to pay former longtime Town Clerk Jean Jacquier $48,000 to settle a lawsuit stemming from a nearly two-year dispute that divided Town Hall and culminated in multiple court battles.
First Selectman Jesse Bunce confirmed the settlement, which was finalized about two weeks ago, following mediation. Of the $48,000 settlement, the town will pay $12,500, while the town’s insurance carrier will cover the remaining $35,500.
The settlement compensates Jacquier for back wages and legal fees, Bunce said.
“We sat down in mediation and went back and forth until we discussed the number that both sides were comfortable with,” Bunce said. “Our insurance company was in on it as well because they picked up a good portion of the cost.”
Bunce said resolving the dispute allows the town to put a difficult chapter behind it.
“That’s behind us, and I think that’s really good for North Canaan, so we can move forward,” he said.
Jacquier, who worked in the Town Clerk’s Office for more than three decades and served as the elected town clerk from 2017 until January 2026, could not be reached for comment.
The settlement resolves a lawsuit Jacquier filed in August 2024 seeking reimbursement for legal expenses she incurred defending herself during a state investigation into her conduct as town clerk.
Years of conflict
The conflict began shortly after Brian Ohler was elected as First Selectman at the end of 2023.
Ohler filed a complaint with the Connecticut Attorney General in January 2024 alleging misconduct by Jacquier, arguing that she had failed to secure the town vault properly, posted election campaign materials in Town Hall, and failed to promptly stamp official documents.
The Attorney General’s investigation concluded in October 2024, finding evidence of wrongdoing in those three areas but imposed no disciplinary action. Instead, the attorney general recommended procedural changes regarding vault security, political activity in Town Hall and document handling. Jacquier was not fired.
Relations between Jacquier and town officials deteriorated further in early 2025.
In February 2025, Jacquier stopped coming to work, saying ongoing conflicts with Ohler and another town employee had created a difficult work environment. She later claimed that she had been subjected to harassment and verbal abuse and that the situation had taken a toll on her health. Ohler could not be reached to refute those claims.
The Board of Selectmen voted in March 2025 to suspend her salary after she remained absent from work. Ohler and then Selectman Craig Whiting voted to suspend her pay, while Bunce abstained.
The dispute escalated again in September 2025 after Jacquier attempted to return to Town Hall to work. She said she found the locks had been changed and was ultimately ordered to leave the building by Connecticut State Police after Ohler requested her removal. Town officials maintained she had abandoned her position, while Jacquier insisted she had never resigned.
Jacquier also became embroiled in a separate legal battle over her 2025 reelection bid after errors in Democratic Party endorsement paperwork rendered her filing invalid. A judge ruled she could not appear on the November ballot.
Returned before leaving office.
Despite the ongoing conflict, Jacquier returned to complete the final weeks of her term as town clerk after Bunce defeated Ohler in the first selectmen’s race in November.
Jacquier said her return was made possible after Bunce and the Board of Finance asked whether she would like to finish her term and that they would reinstate her pay.
“They reached out to me,” Jacquier said in December. “They asked me if I would like to finish my term. And I said, absolutely.”
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Sharon road paving and sidewalk construction could last through September
Ruth Epstein
Aug 05, 2026
SHARON — Separate but related construction projects will impact travel in town during the final weeks of summer, with road paving and sidewalk repairs slated to begin in early August. The projects, which will take place along state roads, should wrap up between mid-August and mid-September, First Selectman Casey Flanagan said, although the exact dates are tentative.
The road paving projects continue work by the state Department of Transportation that began last year. The sidewalk improvements address a need that emerged over a period of years, and engineers from Cardinal Engineering presented the findings of a sidewalk study during a public informational meeting in January. The sidewalk project will be funded, in part, by a recent grant from the state’s Transportation Rural Improvement Program (TRIP).
Paving on state roads
“We have two projects that will eventually meet at the Clock Tower,” Flanagan said of the upcoming road paving projects, noting that the paving will impact travelers.
The first paving project will begin near Stone House Road along Route 41, just south of the intersection with Route 112 near Hotchkiss. Picking up where it left off last year, the paving will head south toward the Memorial Clock Tower in Sharon and the intersection of Routes 4 and 343.
The other stretch of paving will come from the intersection of Joray Road and Route 4 and head north, eventually joining the end-point of the first project at the Clock Tower.
The road work will begin with milling — a process in which construction vehicles grind and remove the top layer of a road to prepare it for paving. The milling work on Route 41 was originally scheduled to begin this week, with an expected paving completion date of Aug. 24. Milling on Route 4 will begin on Aug. 11, with paving expected to be completed by Sept. 11.
Flanagan emphasized those dates are tentative and could be altered.
Sidewalk enhancements
New sidewalks in the center of town have also been on the docket since a public meeting was held in January and residents called for upgrading a stretch of sidewalks from the Sharon Shopping Center to the intersection of Route 4 and Route 343 past Town Hall and toward the Clock Tower.
The project was made possible, in part, after the town was awarded a $1.1 million grant from the state’s Transportation Rural Improvement Program (TRIP). The town will be responsible for $600,000 to cover the total cost, which will ultimately depend on materials used.
The project is intended to rehabilitate the sidewalks that are in poor condition, with widespread cracking, breaking and uneven surfaces. Presently, there are no plans to extend their length. Residents have called for concrete to be used instead of asphalt and expressed concerns about the impact on trees.
A follow-up informational meeting is scheduled for Aug. 13 at 5 p.m. at Town Hall to discuss the sidewalk project. An arborist from Bartlett Tree Company will be in attendance to talk about the effect the sidewalks will have on the surrounding trees.
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