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NORFOLK — At a special town meeting May 22, voters in Norfolk ratified the proposal to construct a new firehouse located at 20 Shepard Road.
According to the town website, the $9.3 million project will be partially funded by town bonds, up to $3.5 million. The department plans to generate $3 million in donations, and a state grant was identified for $2.5 million. Norfolk will reapply next year for a federal grant of $1.25 million. Town funds will contribute $500,000.
The website states First Assistant Fire Chief Matt Ludwig described the current firehouse, which originally housed three firetrucks, as “perfect” 54 years ago. Today, with seven trucks measuring up to 33 feet in length, the building is now inadequate. Per Ludwig, when the trucks are parked side-by-side, there is not enough room to open the truck doors.
The future building was designed to provide more space for training, storage and parking for modern-sized trucks. A ventilation system and solar panels were included.
‘HVRHS Today’ — a new paper
From left, Ibby Sadeh, Anna Gillette, Nathan Miller, Maddy Johnson and Caitlin Hanlon proof the pages of HVRHS Today at The Lakeville Journal office while Shanaya Duprey teleconferences in on Thursday, May 29.
There’s something new in this week’s edition of The Lakeville Journal — the first issue of the student-produced HVRHS Today.
This publication is the culmination of nearly two months of diligent work from five juniors at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
The program started with a simple goal: to re-establish students’ voices in the community. The program’s structure was broadly devised by content coordinator Nathan Miller, a recent graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism and proponent of the “Missouri method.” Miller joined The Journal last summer.
The “Missouri method” is, basically, learning by doing. The students met with Miller at The Journal office every Thursday for preparatory lectures and discussions, but the bulk of their education came from in-the-field reporting and the feedback Miller provided after the fact.
It’s tried-and-true experiential learning, and the benefits are obvious. Mizzou graduates have been in all but one class of Pulitzer prize winners since 2010. The pieces featured in this inaugural issue of “HVRHS Today” are further evidence of the success of this method. These five students, who had never reported on or written a newspaper article before in their lives, have put together their own publication practically from scratch.
There was some help along the way, and a few people that deserve thanks for helping make this program a reality. We would all like to thank Peter Vermilyea, HVRHS social studies chair, and Lori Bucco, English teacher, for helping to assemble this impressive group of young reporters. We would also like to thank Nancy Hegy Martin, HVRHS educator and 21st Century Fund board member, for helping organize meetings with the students and principal Ian Strever for helping us bring this program to the school.
This program was generously supported by Funds of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and the 21st Century Fund for HVRHS.
We would also like to thank the courageous volunteers that stepped up to create this inaugural issue. As the first group, they were responsible for naming their publication and developing a general tone and goals for the paper. They are also responsible for approving the final design and visual style of the piece. All that is in addition to hours of reporting, writing and photography on stories that they pitched in the first place. Every step of the process was shaped by their decisions.
The students’ issue can be read on Pages A5 through A8. Give it a read, it’s worth your time.
HVRHS Today is also available online at www.lakevillejournal.com/hvrhs-today and is expected to return in print this fall.
Democrat ‘Politburo’ ran Biden White House
After a decade of the Democrats screaming that Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy, the evidence grows that the Democrats are the real threat.
The latest bombshell is that a group of President Biden’s aides secretly ran the executive branch in his cognitive absence.
The aides jokingly referred to their profoundly undemocratic cabal as a “politburo” — “the principal policy-making committee of a communist party.”
But it was no joke. It was real. Biden, at most, was said to be “a senior board member” in his own administration, not a president. On his frequent “bad days,” he probably was neither.
The aides who seized power in this Oval Office vacuum were Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Bruce Reed and former chief of staff Ron Klain, along with first lady Jill Biden and even son Hunter (yikes!). They were the “ultimate decision-makers,” according to Alex Thompson, co-author with Jake Tapper of the new book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”
The idea of replacing the obviously unfit president through the proper, orderly and publicly open constitutional process of the 25th amendment was not for the Democrats. Biden was still a useful puppet in his dotage, and the Dems figured their secret unconstitutional setup was the best way to keep the lid on and win again. Eh, comrade?
Instead, they lost big time, deservedly so. Some of them deserve jail.
The Politburo justified its secret control of Biden and the government in various ways. One aide claimed, “When you’re voting for a president, you’re voting for the aides around him.”
That’s utterly false, self-serving and delusional. No one votes for aides. Biden’s aides and family members were not even Senate-confirmed, let alone elected. Even if they had been, they had no constitutional, legal, practical or moral right to seize power.
The Politburo also claimed that Trump’s supposed “existential threat to democracy” justified their actions. “You can rationalize anything,” co-author Thompson noted, “including sometimes doing undemocratic things.”
That’s true. The Republican protesters who rioted on Jan. 6 in their half-baked attempt to restore the 2020 election to the supposed rightful winner thought they were saving democracy, not threatening it.
But the Biden Politburo was far more organized than the J6 crew and operated far longer, not just for one afternoon like the rioters.
Indeed, the communist-style Politburo planned to continue running the government for another four years. As one aide put it: Biden “just had to win [a second term], and then he could disappear for four years. He’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while … His aides could pick up the slack.”
That, my fellow Americans, is a real threat to democracy.
Trump and his team are pikers compared to the lying, power-mad Democrats.
And don’t forget the legacy media that covered for the Democrats and only began to investigate after it was all over.
Mark Godburn
Norfolk
Trying to imagine a post-Trump America
So, the president of the United States is accepting a gift from Qatar? A super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet that King Trump calls a “palace in the sky,” His disregard for ethical and national security concerns is per usual. Isn’t there an emoluments clause that states anyone holding government position cannot accept any present, office, or title from another king, prince, or foreign state without congressional consent? This clause, in our constitution, is supposed to prohibit the president and other federal officials from receiving any benefits from a foreign government. It’s design is to prevent the president from being influenced by these foreign governments. In Teflon Don’s case it’s too late! He is building hotels in Dubai, the Philippines, Azerbaijan, etc. His profits are astronomical so foreign influence is assured.
The hypocrisy of King Trump’s signing of an executive order targeting universities with actions addressing gifts and disclosures of large donations to these universities is outrageous. Trump is concerned about universities getting donations but he can accept a jet plane from Qatar!
King Trump’s orders to fire federal employees (with families), cut necessary programs such as medicare and medicaid, department of education, FEMA, USAID, etc.,etc. has been devastating. It’s all being done under the cloak of “DOGE” without regard for the people being affected by these regulations. Teflon Don’s enforcer, Elon Musk, gleefully dances around with a cheese hat on while raking in billions.
Since when does a president use his power to punish prominent law firms and lawyers that opposed his administration? Trump is using his morally depraved despotic power to wreak havoc on any perceived rival. The group of law firms that did not make deals with Trump were than accused of working against the country’s national interests.
It’s not a mystery that Teflon Don’s administration would create such a debacle. It’s a mystery why so many Americans would believe a word he says. How can there be any doubt that Trump and his cronies will damage our country? His blatant declaration of running for president in 2028 shows his narcissistic corrupt sense of entitlement. Trump’s first hundred days has clearly revealed his plan of dismantlement of our constitution which will cause the downfall of the United States. The authors of the Constitution created it “for the people, by the people” not for dictators or tyrants. Wasn’t the reason for the Revolutionary War to establish a just democracy and not another autocracy with its head a king? Or a dictatorship with a despotic leader?
I can’t imagine what America will look like after Trump’s administration. I can only hope the United States can withstand his onslaught of executive orders and utter disregard of the law.
Gretchen Gordon
Sharon
