NORTH CANAAN — A potentially dangerous situation on Railroad Street/Route 7 is getting renewed attention with the start of the school year — and the ticketing of five people last week.The mother of a student at North Canaan Elementary School was charged with failure to obey a traffic signal Sept. 26 after she nearly collided with a crossing guard and student in the crosswalk at Railroad, Bragg and Orchard streets.Resident State Trooper David Collins issued the $117 ticket. The woman was driving north on Railroad Street, and told police that crossing guard Don Caranci was not holding the sign high enough in the air.Caranci said he was holding the sign up, and a stopped truck driver blew his horn at the woman to alert her, but she waved hello to Caranci and continued on her way to the school.Collins said it doesn’t even matter if the crossing guard had a sign or not. The law requires drivers to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk. Collins, who is on temporary assignment here (see story above), said he is not out to issue lots of tickets, especially given the economy. He would rather make the public more aware of the traffic problems by issuing warnings; he only plans to ticket those who don’t get the message. It is also becoming obvious to him that the problem is just as much local people as it is people passing through town on state roads.The morning after the incident, he came out to Railroad Street at about 9 a.m., and quickly needed to pull over four cars, all driven by local people, for speeding.“There are a lot of things going on out there. It’s a pretty scary situation,” Collins said. “I’m not giving out tickets for people going a few miles over the speed limit. I’m talking about 10 miles or more over it, and those drivers are not hard to find.”He is very concerned about the traffic issues here and in other parts of town — including the area around the school.Many of the same issues Caranci sees were also happening on Main Street, where the decision was made to discontinue a controlled crosswalk. All students in the center of town were assigned to and encouraged to ride a school bus. Caranci was reassigned to the crosswalk between the school and the Town Hall parking lot, where he said he has documented hundreds of traffic violations per month. The selectmen addressed the issue by moving the Town Hall entrance, to eliminate the four-way intersection, and by posting new signs to make it clear that Pease Street is one-way during school arrival and dismissal times. That designation continues to be ignored by some parents and school staff.One of the biggest issues Caranci has observed everywhere is people using cell phones while driving; most, he said, are usually also speeding at the same time.When another crossing guard went on disability last spring, Caranci was moved to the Railroad Street post. The crosswalk by the school was left unguarded.Collins plans to work with the school board and administration in an effort to stop the violations at the school. That includes a chronic problem of drivers parking in fire lanes. The bus circle and most of Pease Street are designated fire lanes. Yet, during the school day and any event taking place there, including school board meetings, the fire lanes will fill up with cars, even as a parking lot directly across from the main entrance remains mostly empty.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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