Laurel Festival Car Wash good clean fun

WINSTED — The Laurel City Commission showed its spirit Saturday, May 14, at the Winsted Ambulance Barn on Main Street, where nearly all contestants in this year’s Laurel Festival volunteered in the organization’s first-ever Laurel Festival Car Wash.Organizers said the event raised nearly $600 as it attracted a line of cars Saturday morning and into the afternoon. “It went very well,” said Laurel City Commission Chairman Tracie Colabella. “We had almost 100 percent participation from the candidates and we want to thank them for coming out and helping us with the fundraiser. We also want to thank everyone who came down to support the girls and the Laurel Festival.”Contestants in this year’s Laurel Festival include Margaret Gainer, April Harding, Casey Sway, Katelyn Bailey, Lindsey Dzielak, Mallory Rotondo, Marijo Ficca, Meghan Dzielak, Samantha Kurlick, Shannon McGrane, Sophia Cannavo, Stephanie Kimball, Brooke Williams, Madison Kelly Peltier, Gabrielle Gangi and Angelica Consiglio.Commission member Debbie Angell took photos at the event and said there was plenty of support from the community. “It was 100 percent awesome,” she said. “At one point, the girls were washing four cars at the same time. The cars were full of pollen and covered in bird doo-doo.”Though the skies were partly cloudy and the air was cool, business was good for the event. “The cars were coming non-stop,” Colabella said. “We could have gone all day.”Colabella agreed that cars were coated in pollen. “There were quite a few very dirty cars. The girls worked non-stop. It was nice to see them all working together, and they had fun.”Colabella thanked the Winsted Area Ambulance Association for providing space for the car wash and encouraged Winsted residents to come out and support this year’s Laurel Festival, Friday through Sunday, June 10 to 12.

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Father Joseph Kurnath

LAKEVILLE — Father Joseph G. M. Kurnath, retired priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, passed away peacefully, at the age of 71, on Sunday, June 29, 2025.

Father Joe was born on May 21, 1954, in Waterbury, Connecticut. He attended kindergarten through high school in Bristol.

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  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

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Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

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Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

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For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

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