SHARON — Winsted’s Community Lawyer Charlene LaVoie is raising concerns about a proposed hospital merger that she says looks more like a takeover that is not being properly reviewed.In a letter to state Attorney General George Jepsen last month, LaVoie noted that an announced “merger” between RegionalCare Partners and Essent Healthcare, which owns Sharon Hospital, looks more like an acquisition to her, and that such transactions require greater oversight than has been given to the deal.“After reviewing documentation obtained pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act request submitted by a concerned citizen to the Office of Health Care Access (OHCA), it is clear that ownership of all Essent’s assets — including Sharon Hospital — will be sold to RegionalCare, the new owners,” LaVoie wrote. “Essent states that ‘Essent will remain as the surviving corporation, will retain its name and will be wholly owned by RegionalCare.’”LaVoie said she believes a takeover requires a certificate of need (CON) application and public hearing, since a new entity will effectively be created as RegionalCare takes over Essent and Sharon Hospital, even as representatives of RegionalCare say they have cleared that hurdle.In a statement this month, RegionalCare spokesperson Kim Fox of the Nashville, Tenn., public relations firm Jarrard Phillips Cate and Hancock, said a CON would not be required. “The state Department of Public Health will be involved. We have started the process with the state of Connecticut, and we are following their lead.”The proposed merger will combine the four hospitals owned by RegionalCare, which are in: Florence, Ala.; Muscle Shoals, Ala.; Ottumwa, Iowa; and Wilmington, Ohio; and the three hospitals owned by Essent, which include hospitals in Waynesburg, Pa., and Paris, Texas, in addition to Sharon Hospital. RegionalCare representatives have said the merger is necessitated by a weak economy, and that a larger system of hospitals will be able to operate with greater efficiency.LaVoie’s letter to Jepsen claims that OHCA incorrectly decided that, since Essent is not changing its name as a result of the new ownership, the merger with RegionalCare does not qualify as a takeover. “OHCA’s reading of the statute is too restrictive and narrow and doesn’t address that RegionalCare can change the governance policies and the Board of Directors at any time,” LaVoie wrote.“Since RegionalCare is privately held, without the CON process there is no public scrutiny of the financial statements and no assessment of its financial health to determine its financial ability to provide continued quality medical care, including vital charity care,” LaVoie continued. “In addition, without the CON process the community cannot be assured that RegionalCare has the demonstrated track record and experience to run Sharon Hospital successfully. This lack of transparency also means that the Sharon Hospital community cannot know how much debt the restructured Sharon Hospital will have or RegionalCare’s future plans.”State Rep. Roberta Willis said Tuesday that the RegionalCare-Essent deal is very concerning to her and that she wants more oversight. “I’m really feeling that this was premature,” she said. “There should have been a public hearing process. I’ve gone to the attorney general’s office, and I’m hoping that they can intervene. I’m just questioning the way the merger was portrayed to OHCA. It wasn’t portrayed so much as an acquisition. It sounded like it was just a merger.”LaVoie noted that RegionalCare is a Nashville-based, private leverage buyout firm created two years ago, which has acquired several hospitals “and is said to have borrowed several hundred million dollars. It could affect the continued viability of Sharon Hospital if RegionalCare is over-leveraged and heavily in debt and is unable to continue operations in the short, or long, term. It is unclear when the ‘merger’ will be effective, or if any permits or approvals will be required by the Department of Public Health — so time is of the essence.’”Willis said she will continue to pursue the matter with the attorney general’s office and OHCA. “It deserves more scrutiny,” she said.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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