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Police Blotter: Troop B
Jul 09, 2025
Police Blotter: Troop B
John Coston
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.
Trailer detachment
On the afternoon of June 28, Gary Schoonmaker, 61, of Sheffield, Massachusetts was hauling a trailer behind a Ford 150 down Old Turnpike Road North in East Canaan when the trailer detached, colliding with a utility pole. Schoonmaker was found at fault, and was issued a written warning for operating with an unsecured load.
Disorderly conduct and restraint arrest
On June 29, Brian McDermott, 53, of Sandisfield, Massachusetts, was arrested on an active warrant for an incident dating to the late evening of June 4 on Joray Road in Sharon. McDermott was processed for disorderly conduct and unlawful restraint in the second degree, and was released on a $2,000 cash bond. He was scheduled to appear at Torrington Superior Court on June 30.
Trespassing Arrest
On July 1, Steven Knox, 49, of Norfolk was arrested on first degree trespassing charges for an incident that occurred on June 21 at a Grant Street residence in Norfolk. Investigation yielded that no threats were made, although Knox had entered the residence without permission. Knox was released on a $1,500 surety bond and is scheduled to appear at Torrington Superior Court on July 15.
Vehicle scratched and dented at Town Grove
Between noon and approximately 2 p.m. on July 3, Samantha Zappia, 37, of Amenia had parked her 2019 Chrysler Pacifica in the Lakeville Town Grove parking lot, where it was scratched and dented by an unidentified party. Anyone with information is asked to contact Trooper Begley #868 at the Troop B barracks at Kathleen.Begley@ct.gov of Troop B Routine Line (860) 626-1820.
Thunderstorm crash
Late in the afternoon on July 3, Steve Zacarias, 23, of Torrington lost control of his Honda Civic EX on Route 272 in Norfolk during heavy rain and hail. The vehicle slid from the roadway and collided with a utility pole, causing damage to both the pole and car. Zacarias was uninjured in the accident, but was issued a written warning for traveling too fast for conditions.
Domestic disturbance arrest
On the evening of July 3, Troopers were dispatched to a High Street residence in North Canaan on the report of a verbal altercation between a boyfriend and girlfriend. Upon investigation, troopers determined that Sarah Rakowski, 35, of Prospect, Connecticut, was the primary aggressor in the dispute and was transported to Troop B. Rakowski was charged for disorderly conduct and was released on a $1,000 non-surety bond. She was scheduled to appear at Torrington Superior Court on July 7.
Patient steals car from hospital parking lot
At about 1:30 a.m. on July 6, Sharon Hospital phoned Troop B to report a missing patient who had left the hospital. Just after 3 a.m., another report notified troopers of a 2020 Red Chevrolet Silverado that had disappeared from the hospital’s parking lot. It was later determined that the patient, Chace Jones, 25, of Kent, had taken the car and drove it to the Cumberland Farms gas station in Amenia where he abandoned it, subsequently finding other means of travel back to the High Watch Recovery Center in Kent where he was located by troopers. He was processed for larceny of a motor vehicle, and was unable to post a $5,000 cash bond, after which he was transferred to New Haven Correctional Facility. He was scheduled to appear at Torrington Superior Court on July 7.
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 subject, to editor@lakevillejournal.com
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USA Waste & Recycling, based in Winsted, is seeking to purchase the Torrington Transfer Station for a price of $3.25 million.
Jennifer Almquist
TORRINGTON — Effective July 1, Connecticut Department of Administrative Services became the entity overseeing municipal waste service agreements in the Northwest Corner.
The shift occurred after the MIRA Dissolution Authority Board of Directors was unable to reach a consensus on what to do with the Torrington Transfer Station prior to June 30. The two apparent choices were to sell the facility to USA Waste & Recycling for $3.25 million, or to convey the property and permit to the Northwest Resource Recovery Authority, founded by the City of Torrington.
MIRA-DA had previously, at different times, accepted both proposals.
An agreement was reached in February 2025 for a regional waste authority to take over the Transfer Station. Most Northwest Corner towns expressed interest in joining. The City of Torrington worked with the Northwest Hills Council of Governments to establish the NRRA, holding a public hearing May 19 and concluding the process in early June.
USA Waste & Recycling’s purchase offer was conditionally accepted May 14, days before the NRRA could be established. Before the sale went through, the state intervened by passing an amendment to the Intervenor Bill (HB 7287) requiring the Torrington Transfer Station operating permit be transferred to the public authority.
MIRA-DA’s June meeting centered around how to proceed. The vast majority of discussion took place in executive session, which was recessed and reconvened over several days.
On June 26, Chairman Bert Hunter said, “After considerable deliberations, there is not sufficient support to pursue either the sale to a private party as proposed by USA Waste, a private option, or the public option as proposed by Northwest Hills COG plus the City of Torrington. So, since we cannot support either path, the contracts associated with the Torrington Transfer Station and the transfer station property will by law transfer to the Department of Administrative Services.”
The law cited here is the Solid Waste Management Services Act - Section 22a-284e, passed in 2024, which names DAS as the successor to MIRA-DA effective July 1, 2025.
MIRA-DA went on to make a motion formally recommending DAS “competitively bid the sale of the Torrington Transfer Station land and operations by September 30th, 2025, or at their earliest practicable opportunity.”
Towns in the Northwest Corner continue to mull the option of joining NRRA. Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway explained a town ordinance must be passed to secure membership.
“It’s still a ways away, but that’s where things are going,” Ridgway said at a selectmen’s meeting July 1.
As of early July, Torrington remained the sole municipal member of the Authority. Northwest Hills COG staff encouraged interested towns to “start the process” of joining the NRRA.
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Falls Village welcomes new eatery
Jul 09, 2025
Guests line up for food and drink at the Off the Trail Cafe soft opening Saturday, July 5.
Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE — Just in time for the regular monthly “First Saturdays in Falls Village” event, the Off the Trail Cafe had a soft opening Saturday, July 5.
Proprietor Liz Ives was scooting back and forth between the serving area and the kitchen at around 10:30 a.m., as three or four groups of customers sat at tables inside and out and another knot of half a dozen people waited to place their orders.
Ives said the cafe is offering a limited menu for the moment, with more to come.
There were four other employees besides Ives working.
There is also a notebook in which Appalachian Trail hikers can log in with trail names such as Moxie, Frogger, Candyman and Leafy, who all visited recently.
The cafe is in the town-owned 107 Main St. building, sharing the ground floor with Furnace: Art on paper and the building with the Senior Center upstairs.
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The Cornwall-based Housatonic Valley Association has named Timothy B. Abbott as its new executive director. He succeeds Lynn Werner, who retired on July 1.
Provided
CORNWALL — Following a six-month national search, the Board of Directors of the Housatonic Valley Association has selected Timothy B. Abbott, a well-known conservation leader in the region, as its new executive director.
Abbott, 57, succeeds Lynn Werner, who retired on July 1 after 42 years with the Cornwall Bridge-based organization and 30 years as its executive director.
Abbott, who has been a resident of North Canaan since 2002, has focused on conservation leadership for 27 years in western Connecticut and eastern New York, with national and regional nonprofits, including 17 years at HVA, where he most recently served as conservation director.
James H. Maloney, search committee chair and president of the HVA board of directors, said Abbott was selected from a field of about 60 applicants from all over New England and one from the West Coast.
“We actually narrowed the field down to Tim and one other. Tim became the clear choice when it became clear that no one had a stronger background,” said Maloney. He noted that the process of utilizing a formal search committee “was done deliberately, looking at the highest standards.”
The committee, he said, narrowed candidates down to a dozen, and from that, five were selected for interviews, then the field was narrowed down to two, Abbott and one other. “The board really did think over this decision very carefully,” Maloney explained. “We are convinced that Tim is the strongest candidate and the best candidate for us.”
The HVA Board of Directors, said Maloney, is highly confident that Tim will make a “dramatic and substantial contribution” to the wellbeing of the tri-state Housatonic River Watershed as HVA’s new leader.
“It is going to be an exciting time working with Tim and making, we hope, very significant progress. He has huge experience in environmental conservation and in the work that an organization like HVA does. He also has a tremendous network of people that he knows in the community at large. It’s a great and unique combination of professional skills and personal relationships that are so valuable.”
Referring to the overwhelming response from applicants, Maloney said HVA is a very well-regarded organization in the environmental community. “It’s not a position that comes up very often, so there was a lot of pent-up interest.”
Abbott said he is grateful that, in the end, the board was enthusiastic about his candidacy. “Now there is no question in their minds. They had a chance to kick the tires,” he said of the search committee’s full vetting and national search.
“It allowed the board to think hard about what they want in Lynn’s successor, and for the organization, and it has allowed me to present a strong case for my vision of HVA, said Abbott. “I am very grateful that in the end, the board was enthusiastic about my candidacy.”
Land protection work began with the Nature Conservancy
Abbott is a well-known and respected conservation leader who grew up in Dutchess County, New York, and began his land protection work with The Nature Conservancy in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.
He is an appointed member of Connecticut’s Natural Heritage, Open Space and Land Acquisition Review Board and a member of the Steering Committee of The Nature Conservancy’s Staying Connected Initiative.
During his long tenure with HVA, Abbott championed the federal Highlands Conservation Act, and he represents HVA as Connecticut’s nonprofit member of the four-state Highlands Steering Committee.
A skilled fundraiser, effective advocate and creative problem solver, Abbott created and led HVA’s Litchfield Hills Greenprint Collaborative, an innovative regional conservation partnership among northwest Connecticut’s land trust community. He holds an M.A. in International Development from Clark University and a B.A. in English from Haverford College. He was the winner of a J. William Fulbright Scholarship in 1997.
Abbott said this is a time of tremendous opportunity for HVA and conservation urgency for the region. “The climate crisis is a paramount concern, and HVA’s Follow the Forest and Clean, Cold & Connected conservation programs represent vital and effective ways to make an impact at local and regional scales.”
He noted that he is excited to work closely with his HVA colleagues, its board, supporters and conservation partners to advance these and other conservation initiatives across the watershed and beyond.
“I have been working in conservation within this tri-state region and focused on this geographical region since 1995. I have institutional knowledge and fully recognize the conservation goals. I am ready for this level of leadership.”
Vast watershed impacts tri-state region
The 1,248-million-acre Housatonic River watershed encompasses parts of 83 communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York and contributes 11% of the fresh water that enters Long Island Sound. It includes habitats as ecologically diverse as fens and seepage swamps, extensively forested uplands and a tidal estuary.
Some of its villages have fewer than 2,000 people, while more densely populated areas and significant cities include Danbury, Waterbury and Pittsfield. The intersection of human communities with natural ones is at the core of HVA’s work and the organization specializes in strategic, collaborative conservation action with a wide range of partners.
“HVA’s strategic plan for climate adaptation and resilience,” said Abbott, “recognizes the need to adapt bridges and culverts to accommodate both increased water flow and wildlife, to protect and connect forest habitat and allow for safer wildlife passage between them, to enhance riparian area and wetland conservation and to ensure that everyone has access to nature, wherever they live in the watershed.”
HVA has always been solution-oriented, said Abbott, “and that will serve us well as we and our conservation partners advance this vital work.
‘An essential partner’ for NW Corner land trusts
John Landon, committee chair for the Salisbury Association Land Trust, said he feels Abbott is “the perfect choice” to lead HVA and advance its goals.
“I have known Tim for many years. Over that time, he has been razor focused on preserving the important ecosystems in the Northwest Corner and beyond. He has always been available to assist local land trusts in identifying the most important parcels in need of protection and then helping secure necessary funding,” said Landon, who noted that Abbott’s strong connections with state and federal agencies has frequently helped overcome bureaucratic obstacles.
“He can be very persuasive in a friendly, non-confrontational way that advances the region’s conservation objectives. Without Tim’s help,” said Landon, “the Salisbury Association Land Trust would not have been able to protect several important parcels.
Shelley Harms, co-president of the Norfolk Land Trust, executive director of Cornwall Conservation Trust and Conservation Director of the Salisbury Association, said she is thrilled to hear about Abbott’s appointment.
“Tim is an essential partner for the land trusts of the Northwest Corner. His relationships with the state and other important funders brigs grant dollars to our area for land conservation,” said Harmes. “He has a deep understanding of the ecology and the history and the economy of our towns and the Housatonic River Watershed.”
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