Members of the Housatonic Valley Regional High School Academic Bowl Team, who recently placed first in Connecticut and New England and finished fourth nationally in the Spring Knowledge Masters Open.
FALLS VILLAGE — The Housatonic Valley Regional High School Academic Bowl Team recently finished first in Connecticut, first in New England, and fourth in the nation in the Spring Knowledge Masters Open. Hosted for over 43 years by Academic Hallmarks, the Knowledge Masters Open challenges a team of students with a variety of questions from all academic disciplines as well as popular culture.
The Housatonic team finished in a four-way tie for first place in total points as well as in the first tie breaker, percentage of questions answered correctly. On the second tie-breaker, however - time required to finish - the Mounaineers finished fourth. Jesuit High School of New Orleans, Louisiana, finished first in the country.
The Housatonic team consisted of seniors Maddie Johnson, Tenzing Sherpa and Silas Tripp; Juniors Jordan Almeida, John DeDonato, Addie Diorio, Jonas Johnson, Danny Lesch, and Meadow Moerschell; sophomores Mia Belter, Karmela Quinion, Bridger Rinehart, and Owen Schnepf; and freshman Alistair Schnepf. The team is coached by Social Studies teacher Peter Vermilyea.
The team will next compete in the National Championship in April.
— Peter Vermilyea
Leila Hawken
Roasted lamb
Preparing lamb for the observance of Easter is a long-standing tradition in many cultures, symbolizing new life and purity. For Christians, Easter marks the end of Lenten fasting, allowing for a celebratory feast. A popular choice is roast lamb, often prepared with rosemary, garlic or lemon. It is traditional to serve mint sauce or mint jelly at the table.
The Hebrew Bible suggests that the last plague God inflicted on the Egyptians, to secure the Israelites’ release from slavery, was to kill the firstborn son in every Egyptian home. To differentiate the Israelites from the Egyptians, God instructed them to mark their doorposts with the blood of a lamb. Today, Jews, Christians and Muslims generally believe that God would have known who was Israelite and who was Egyptian without such a sign, but views of God’s omnipotence in the Abrahamic faiths have evolved over the millennia.
This tradition, celebrated at Passover, has made lamb a first choice for Jewish families commemorating freedom from Egyptian slavery. Christians have continued the tradition, naming Jesus the Lamb of God, whose death serves as atonement for the sins of the world. For them, the dietary restrictions of Lent have ended, allowing a return to eggs, sweets and meat.
2 or more cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Good-quality olive oil
Rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Trim fat from lamb as desired. Using a sharp knife, cut small gashes in the meat and insert a slice of garlic into each cut. Rub the roast with olive oil, then season with rosemary (some cooks also add thyme), salt and pepper.
Place the meat on a rack in a shallow roasting pan and put it in the preheated oven. After 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees. Roast for 25 minutes per pound for rare or 30 minutes per pound for well-done. Well-done lamb will be less juicy and less tender. If garlic is not desired, substitute lemon or additional rosemary.
When the roast is done, carve by slicing parallel to the bone, rotating as needed.
Variations: Some recipes substitute lemon juice for olive oil. You may also use salad oil instead of olive oil and add a bit of powdered ginger, a bay leaf, sage and marjoram. Soy sauce is also used.
To make gravy:
After removing the roast to rest, place the roasting pan on the stovetop over heat. Add flour and stir for one minute, until a paste forms. Add beef stock or water to reach the desired consistency. Mash any garlic pieces, if used, to enhance flavor. Strain and serve.
Patrick L. Sullivan
The snow is mostly gone, the mud is flowing, the stocking trucks are rolling and that means only one thing: it’s tackle fondling time!
Yes, it’s that happy time of year when we dig out all the gear we carefully cleaned and stowed away back in November.
What’s that? You left it all in the car until you had to help Aunt Edna move? And now it’s piled up in the garage?
Never mind that. What’s important is getting ahead of it,starting now.
Reels: Take the spools off and blast them with a can of compressed air. Then deploy a Q-tip to get the stubborn stuff. Then deploy something long and pointy to get the little bits of cotton that came off the Q-tip.
Lines: Clip off the old leader. It’s no good. Pull the fly line of the reel and clean it with something. There are many commercial products available. The Rio line cleaner seems to work pretty well, but it goes fast. I use a weak solution of Dawn dish soap and warmish water and a clean sponge or two, so I can see just how much yick comes off the line. Then I give it a shot of some stuff called Albolene, which is used for removing heavy theatrical makeup. It also functions as a line dressing and costs much less than actual line dressings.
Rods: I check guides and ferrules, and give everything a wipe with a chamois cloth or something similar. Then I start emailing people I barely know looking for someone who repairs rods.
I have something like 60 fly rods, and they are a pain in the neck to store. But I had a brain wave over the winter and bought four kitchen garbage cans. Ignoring the lids, I arranged them in a corner of my living room and to my delight found I can corral most of the rods in such a way that I can actually find the one I want.
It works very well. If the cans had an Orvis or Simms logo on them I could sell them for $85 apiece as a “modular rod storage system.”
Flies: What you absolutely don’t want to do is buy more fly boxes because the giant cardboard box filled with fly boxes is still in the back of the car and you can’t remember what’s in any of them so it’s better to just buy new flies and boxes and use those, reserving the joy of sorting through the old boxes for the summer when you’re at the summer camp that has a nice big table. Whatever you do, don’t do this. Oh, excuse me, that must be the Amazon guy at the door with my new boxes and flies.
Waders and boots: I have a dedicated wader rack where I hang them up. This is an improvement over my old method, which was to leave them in the car in a crumpled heap all winter. Check for leaks by taking a small flashlight and running it over the seams from the inside of the waders. If you see pinholes then it’s time to deploy Aquaseal. There are wader repair kits that have small tubes of Aquaseal and patches that can be cut to fit. Do not buy a big tube of Aquaseal unless you plan to use it very quickly, otherwise the big expensive tube turns to stone in a matter of days. That’s why the tubes in the kits are small. Ask me how I know this.
Check boot laces and replace if necessary. Paracord is your friend here, if you’re on a tight budget and don’t mind using a lighter to create an aglet. Look for missing studs and replace. Clean the soles with an old toothbrush. Do this outside. Ask me how I know this, too.
Note: Thanks for all the kind inquiries as to my new right hip. I am pleased to report that Ye Surgeon took me off the Injured Reserve list a couple of weeks ago, and as soon as things settle down a bit on the run-off, I will be back in action for the first time since September 2025.
Lakeville Journal
The Pasquale Grasso Trio performs at 7:30 p.m. April 4 at The Stissing Center in Pine Plains. The Italian-born guitarist, a rising jazz star and winner of the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition, is known for his virtuosic, piano-like style. A frequent collaborator with vocalist Samara Joy, he has performed at major festivals worldwide and is supporting his 2025 release “Fervency.” Tickets at thestissingcenter.org
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Patrick L. Sullivan
SALISBURY — At a special meeting Thursday, March 26, the Board of Finance voted to send the proposed spending plans for 2026-27 to a public hearing Monday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
Salisbury Central School principal Stephanie Magyar said “this is the easiest update I’ve ever given.” She said the final number came in some $23,000 less than the initial presentation, bringing the increase down from$339,528 (4.92%) to $316,367 (4.59%) for a total budget of $7,213,515.
First Selectman Curtis Rand said the town budget proposal’s bottom line is the same, but he and Comptroller Joe Cleaveland made some changes, most notably for an employee pension fund.
“We ended up in the same place, but just shifted things around,” Rand said.
The selectmen’s budget proposal is $9,617,825, an increase of $412,723 or 4.40%.
The town and school budgets are developed separately but together determine the overall tax impact on residents.
Alec Linden
SHARON — Residents will be asked at a town meeting on April 16 to decide whether to join a nascent regional waste authority, as towns across the Northwest Corner consider a coordinated response to uncertainty over the future of a key disposal facility.
The proposal centers on the Torrington Transfer Station, where Sharon and other municipalities send household waste for consolidation and shipment to disposal sites.
The Northwest Regional Recovery Authority was formed in 2025 by the city of Torrington in anticipation of a change in oversight at the facility, as the state Department of Administrative Services prepares to end its temporary management of operations at the end of June.
While Sharon has a contract through June 2027 at the transfer station, it is not yet clear who will operate the facility after the state steps back, or whether existing arrangements will continue unchanged under new management.
“There’s a lot of gray area with the Torrington Transfer Station, so this gives us hopefully another option come July 1,” First Selectman Casey Flanagan said.
Regional response
The NRRA, supported by the Northwest Hills Council of Governments, is seeking legislative approval in Hartford to transfer ownership of the facility to a multi-town public authority that would oversee and operate the site on behalf of participating municipalities.
Supporters say the structure would allow towns to retain public control over a facility that serves as a regional hub for municipal solid waste, while providing more stability in pricing and long-term planning.
Salisbury, Goshen and Torrington have already joined the group, while other towns in the Northwest Hills region are weighing similar action. Cornwall is scheduled to vote on its own ordinance to join on April 17, one day after Sharon’s meeting.
Town finances
Also on the April 16 agenda is a proposal to establish a $7 million financing arrangement to support projects in Sharon’s 10-year capital plan.
The financing would function as a flexible line of credit, allowing the town to borrow funds as needed for infrastructure projects.
First Selectman Casey Flanagan said the structure would give the town more flexibility in timing expenditures while maintaining access to favorable interest rates.
The town reached out to four banks and selected NBT Bank, which the town already has a relationship with.The proposal still requires approval from the Board of Finance and a town vote before it can take effect.
The Selectmen will also ask voters to approve the use of state Local Capital Improvement Program (LoCIP) funds for several projects.
That includes $20,000 to support updates to the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development, a state-required long-range planning document that guides zoning and land use.
An additional $99,998 in LoCIP funding would be used to complete resurfacing work on Boland Road and West Woods Road No. 1, where base paving was completed last year.
Voters will also be asked on April 16 to approve the town’s audited financial statements for fiscal year 2025.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Crystal Palmer Andrade, left, is congratulated on her induction to the Sigma Theta Tau honor society by Lori Martone-Roberts, professor of the practice of nursing at Wheaton College.
FALLS VILLAGE — Crystal Palmer Andrade of Falls Village, a member of the Class of 2027 at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, has been inducted into the college’s chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society recognizing excellence in nursing.
Palmer Andrade, who is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, earned membership in the honor society through outstanding academic achievement and a demonstrated commitment to the nursing profession.
Sigma Theta Tau International honors students who have shown superior academic performance, leadership potential, and a dedication to advancing health care. Membership is by invitation and is among the highest forms of recognition for nursing students.
Wheaton’s nursing program combines a strong liberal arts foundation with hands-on clinical experience, preparing graduates to deliver compassionate, evidence-based care.
Students also benefit from the college’s state-of-the-art simulation center and opportunities for experiential learning in a variety of health care settings.
“Being inducted into Sigma Theta Tau reflects both academic excellence, leadership, and a deep commitment to caring for others,” said Colette Diejuste Ph.D., RN, Dean of Nursing at Wheaton College. “We are proud of Crystal for achieving this distinction.”
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