As was demonstrated by the crude and disgraceful disruption of last week’s back-to-school forum in Cheshire, many people in Connecticut are sick and tired of the coronavirus pandemic and government’s steps against it, however necessary they may have seemed.
Consumed by their hysteria, the dozen or so people at the forum who shouted down the speakers and cursed Governor Lamont seemed not to realize that the governor and other state and municipal officials are entitled to be more sick and tired of the pandemic than anyone else.
The governor may not have been right about everything since the pandemic began, but he could not be more right than he is about getting children back to school in person.
Since “remote learning” works only for the most motivated students with the most motivated parents, a year of education already has been lost for many children — children who were already the most disadvantaged.
The governor was abused in Cheshire last week because he has directed that students should wear masks in school at least until Sept. 30. Yes, children may find the masks annoying, and the medical necessity is questionable. But many parents are nervous about sending their children back to school under any circumstances, and the mask requirement may give them more confidence about it, even as wearing a mask is unlikely to cause substantial harm to anyone.
The school mask requirement may be a political compromise but nearly everyone should be able to live with it.
After all, no matter what the schools do about masks, there will be risk — the risk of contagion, the risk of losing more education, and the risk of getting hit by a car on the way to or from school. Indeed, from the beginning, dealing with COVID-19, for both government and individuals, has been entirely a matter of balancing risk, a daily judgment call. As government officials and individuals gain experience, those judgments evolve.
Next year there will be a state election. The governor, state legislators, and Connecticut’s members of Congress may have a lot to answer for, but the people will be able to make them answer for it then.
Even as coronavirus cases spike again in Connecticut, in part because of “breakthrough” infections — infections suffered by people already vaccinated against the coronavirus — there is cause for optimism in the governor’s daily COVID-19 reports.
While each day lately has brought hundreds more cases, hospitalizations and deaths have not risen correspondingly. On some days hospitalizations even decline as cases rise. This signifies that many cases are milder or asymptomatic and that doctors have found more effective ways of treating the virus than they had when the virus swept the world a year and a half ago and, upon diagnosis, people were sent home without any serious treatment only to come to the hospital critically ill when it was too late.
As the coronavirus mutates into more evasive “variants” and the vaccines lose effectiveness and reveal more side effects, government and medicine may realize that treatments rather than vaccines may be the best mechanisms for defeating COVID-19.
Though government in the United States has been distressingly slow to acknowledge some treatments, several treatments are already in use and showing success around the world and just need publicity.
Vaccines can be great and they have often saved humanity, but getting people vaccinated on a worldwide basis takes a long time. The polio vaccines have been around for 60 years and yet that disease is still not eradicated in the developing world. A vaccine’s success in the developed world breeds complacency, the disease seems to vanish there, people lose fear of it and stop getting vaccinated, and then the disease returns, possibly because of contagion from the developing world.
Medicines are far more easily administered than vaccines. But as long as the government and the medical establishment is obsessed with vaccines, the country may miss a big opportunity and sink deeper into the political controversy about individual choice vs. government coercion.
Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.
February was a slow month for real estate most everywhere in the Northwest Corner with no transfers reported in Falls Village or Cornwall.
Together, Kent and Goshen reported only four modest sales, each under $500,000, between them.
There are signs that the spring selling season is beginning. In Goshen, of the 20 properties of all types, five were new listings. Eight residences are available with six under $1 million. In Kent, 28 properties were listed for sale with eight new listings.
Kent transfers
196 Kent Cornwall Road — 4 bedroom/4 bath home on 2.77 acres sold by Jean C. and Kurt T. Speck Jr. to Dylan Balfore for $440,000.
16 Elizabeth St. — 2 bedroom/1.5 bath remodeled condo with garage sold by Carole Ann Godfrey to John and Tracey Suess and Lawrence Reinhardt for $285,500.
Goshen transfers
Beach Street, Lot 10 — Five acres of vacant land sold by Terry L. Smith Trustee to Shady Lawn Farm LLC for $172,750.
354 Sharon Turnpike — 3 bedroom/2 bath Cape Cod built in 1869 sold by Mary R. Grimes to Rebecca A. Hajosy for $185,250.
*Town of Kent and Goshen real estate transfers recorded as sold between Feb. 1 and Feb. 28, 2025, provided by the Kent and Goshen Town Clerks. Transfers without consideration are not included. Current market listings from Smart MLS. Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Salesperson with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in CT and NY.
Dr. Sarah Humphreys became chief medical officer in March.
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TORRINGTON — Community Health & Wellness Center has appointed Sarah Humphreys MD, MPH, as its new chief medical officer.
“I feel deeply connected to this community, and it was that connection that drew me to work at the Community Health and Wellness Center,” stated Dr. Humphreys in a March 26 press release.
Dr. Humphreys is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases.
She earned her BA from Brown University before completing a Master of Public Health at Yale University. She then obtained her medical degree from Ben Gurion University in Israel, followed by residency in Internal Medicine at New York University and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai in New York City.
Prior to joining CHWC, Dr. Humphreys served as an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she provided outpatient and inpatient Infectious Disease consultations, HIV primary care and conducted clinical trials research.
Dr. Humphreys has spent time in the Northwest Corner since she was born.She is excited to be moving back to the area full-time to further strengthen her roots in the community.
Passionate about public health, patient care and medical education, she is committed to expanding the reach and impact of CHWC.
Outside of work, Dr, Humphreys enjoys traveling and spending time with her husband, daughter, and their two beloved dogs, Oliver and Romeo.
The following information was provided by the Connecticut State Police at Troop B. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Car theft arrest
On March 24, Richard Andre Castaldi, 19, of Torrington was arrested for the theft of a vehicle that occurred on Feb. 10 on West Greenwoods Road in Norfolk. Castaldi was processed and charged with Larceny of a Motor Vehicle. Castaldi was released on $1,500 non-surety bond, and is scheduled to appear at Torrington Superior Court on April 7.
Stop sign fender-bender
Abdul Moro Buri, 32, of Salisbury was driving with Samuel Graham, 80, of Louisville, Kentucky, when he approached the intersection of Route 41 with Route 361 in Sharon. Moro Buri came to a complete stop, then initiated a left turn onto Main Street in a Honda CRV. Shirley Yohalem, 78, of Mill River, Massachusetts, was traveling northbound on Route 41 and failed to come to a complete stop at the intersection, causing her Lexus NX200 to collide with the front bumper of the CRV. Both vehicles sustained minor damage, but were able to be driven from the scene. There were no injuries reported. Yohalem was issued a written warning for Failure to Obey Stop Sign.
A Volvo sits upside-down after colliding with a tree alongside Route 44 in Salisbury on Saturday, March 29.Provided
Car strikes tree, flips
Just before 4 p.m. on March 29, John Casadei, 54, of Litchfield was driving his Volvo XC60 westbound on Route 44 in Salisbury when he exited the roadway and struck a tree. The vehicle rolled to a stop in the westbound lane of Route 44, sustaining significant damage in the accident. Casadei was uninjured, but an inspection of the vehicle yielded that it was meant to be installed with an ignition interlock device, but that it was not. Casadei was issued a misdemeanor summons for Avoidance of, Tampering with, or Failure to Install Ignition Interlock Device, as well as Failure to Drive in Proper Lane.
The Lakeville Journal will publish the outcome of police charges. Contact us by mail at P.O. Box 1688, Lakeville, CT 06039, Attn: Police Blotter, or send an email, with “police blotter” in the subject line, to johnc@lakevillejournal.com
The group — minus Garrick Dinneen, who’s taking the photo — stops for a mid-run rest.
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CORNWALL — This past winter, an intergenerational group of Mohawk Mountain skiers took their hard-earned East Coast skills to the towering peaks of interior British Columbia for a ski trip that went beyond just pursuing the steep and deep.
“As fun as the skiing was, the lift rides and even just going home and cooking dinner together and talking was a pretty cool part of it,” said 24-year-old Cornwall native Dean Saccardi of the nearly 20-day voyage. “To have that age range of people who had grown up in Cornwall, went to [Cornwall Consolidated School], and had all their stories about the school, about the ski program, about the community … it definitely made the trip.”
Jim Terrall, who runs a building company in Cornwall, grew up skiing at Mohawk about 50 years before Saccardi got his start through the after-school CCS ski program, which lets students out at noon on Fridays to go skiing during a stretch of the winter. Terrall grew up going to Mohawk the same way, and estimated that the group on the trip spanned 1960-2017 of the CCS ski program.
“My winters were spent at Mohawk” said Terrall, “as were my kids’ winters.”
He said Mohawk Mountain and the CCS ski program have had an outsized impact on building a unique love for downhill snow sports in the town: “A lot of Cornwall kids are skiers because of the program,” which continues to this day — minus the included season pass of years past.
After graduating from Colorado College, Terrall moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with the intention of working a ski season or two, and ended up staying for 15 years.
Terrall’s son Keaton, who also joined the trip, is now a student at Montana State University in Bozeman and is as passionate about skiing as his father.
While a veteran of Western skiing, the elder Terrall said part of the fun of the trip was introducing Saccardi and his brother-in-law Garrick Dinneen, who had never skied outside of the Northeast, to bigger and steeper terrain.
Saccardi said the difference was immediately apparent. At the group’s first stop at Schweitzer Mountain in northern Idaho, “you could barely see the tips of your skis, it was so foggy,” Saccardi recalled. Even then, though, “you quickly appreciate how steep it is.”
Saccardi said that despite the initial adjustments, he and Dinneen were able to keep up well with the seasoned and skilled group. “It’s a testament to Mohawk Mountain and that program … Despite it being a little mountain, it does prepare you with the basics and everything you need to know.”
Josh Tyson, from the CCS class of 1981, who now runs a Cornwall excavating company, said that watching Saccardi and Dinneen get to experience Western skiing was a highlight of the trip for him.
“They became such better skiers in like a day,” he said. “Just the exposure to really steep and mogully trees — it’s not eastern skiing, you know, and they just figured it out right away and were great.”
Tyson’s son Ian joined too and the final member of the cohort was Andy Peterson, who grew up skiing with Terrall at Mohawk in the 1960s and now lives in Colorado, but still spends a few months in Cornwall every summer. As a group of seven, the skiers resort-hopped across southern British Columbia on an itinerary that would make even the most seasoned skier rage in jealousy.
Flying round trip to Missoula, Montana, the group hopped in a few cars and first stopped at Schweitzer in Idaho for a day of foggy skiing, before bouncing to Red Mountain just across the border, where they spent three full days, including the sole powder day of the trip — which was a blast, Tyson said. After that, the crew visited Whitewater, Kimberly, Panorama, and finally, famed powder-mecca Revelstoke, which was unfortunately mostly powder-free during their stay.
Their visit, which spanned the final week of February and first week of March, was uncharacteristically warm for the Canadian mountains.
“We skied in all types of weather, from dense fog to 18 inches of fresh snow to spring skiing,” said Tyson. Despite the variable conditions, “I didn’t hear one complaint the whole time,” said Terrall, reflecting fondly on the group’s positive attitude.
The Terralls and Peterson capped off the trip with a few days of heli-skiing in the mountains surrounding Revelstoke, where “you never cross another ski track” — including your own — said the elder Terrall.
Plans for another trip are already in the works for next year. The group is thinking a return to B.C. is in order, but with an emphasis on mountains they missed this round — Fernie, Kicking Horse, and maybe some more Revelstoke for good measure.
The community feeling remains, however, as those who still call Cornwall home settle back into Northwest Corner life.
Tyson said that since both he and Terrall are in the contracting business, they often run into each other on job sites alongside Dinneen, who is an electrician in town. Ian works for his father’s company, and Saccardi works for Terrall, further tightening the bond.
In his free time, Saccardi stays busy by serving on Cornwall’s Board of Education, a position he picked up after graduating high school and has held for nearly four years.
When asked about how he decided to take up a town service role at such a young age, he was quick to attribute it to Cornwall’s intrinsic community benevolence: “I think the town itself sort of has that culture.”
A Volvo sits upside-down after colliding with a tree alongside Route 44 in Salisbury on Saturday, March 29.Provided
