WINSTED — Residents were not shy about expressing their feelings about the proposed budget for fiscal 2011-12 at a special Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Wednesday, May 11.The proposed $30.7 million budget, which is going to referendum on Saturday, May 28, includes $18,600,000 for the school district.The proposed budget is below the minimum budget requirement (MBR) of $20,049,466, a figure set by the state in late April.If the budget passes, the school district will have a funding shortfall of $1,361,094 below the MBR. The shortfall did not sit well with resident Ruthann Horvay, who is the school district’s Family Resource Center director and kindergarten transition coordinator.“A lot of these children are coming into the district with disadvantages,” Horvay said. “There are a lot of risk factors when families are economically stressed and they are coming from single families.”To back up her statement, Horvay said that, of the 73 families who applied for kindergarten, 10 families have single mothers, 12 families have fathers who are not employed, 32 families have mothers who work full-time and two families have both parents who are not working.“I would like for you [the selectmen] to be considering these statistics in making any decision about the budget because our children deserve more,” Horvay said. “I cannot understand why we would not think our children deserve more. If we have to cut $1.3 million from our budget, it would put our full-day kindergarten program at risk of being a half-day. Then we might have families looking for child care and it will hit the Care 4 Kids program, costing the state more money.”The Care 4 Kids program is operated by the state’s Department of Social Service to help low- and moderate-income families pay for child care costs.Resident Tina Sessa, who was the next speaker at the meeting, read to the selectmen a letter she sent to state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) criticizing the proposed budget.“Sadly, we live in a town that does not support education,” Sessa said. “The Board of Education, while they have made mistakes, have done the best they can with what they have been given. As a parent, it is unfair that the Board of Education has been put in a position where they have to choose between our children’s safety or their education. However, that is exactly what has occurred and continues to occur. Giving them less support from the state would make a difficult situation unbearable.”In her letter to Sen. Roraback, Sessa pleaded with him not to support the idea of lowering the MBR for the town.“Lowering the MBR would have a long-term detrimental effect to children and the entire community,” Sessa said. “We must protect the future generations by giving them the best education as we possibly can. We cannot afford nor should we reduce the MBR.”Resident Caroline Christensen spoke next and proceeded to tear into the selectmen for their proposed budget.“To take money away from these children is absolutely the most absurd thing I have heard of,” Christensen said. “I can’t even consider how you would even think about doing this. It makes me livid to live here and to continuously have to fight for the kids in the town.”Christensen said the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) scores for the school district are below the state goal level in almost every single area.“Our children need as much funding as possible,” she said. “I am so frustrated with the in-fighting and the reasoning behind making decisions that are not based on our children’s needs. [As proposed], my daughter’s sixth-grade class next year will have 31 children. It’s almost ridiculous to teach that many students without help in class.”Resident James Roberts argued that the proposed $18.6 million for the school district budget is adequate funding.“Let’s say that the $20.1 million is the MBR that will provide adequate education in Winsted,” Roberts said. “If the budget passes and the school district receives $18.6 million, and if the school system receives the state funding that has been budgeted of $1.6 million, it would equal $20.1 million. There seems to be a misconception that the MBR is the minimum that can be spent to ensure quality education. That is not the case. The MBR is simply an allocation of resources used to determine how increases in education funding can be split between the town and state.”Resident Brian O’Heron was the last resident to speak at the meeting and he said he intends to vote for the budget.O’Heron referred to comments made at the meeting by Mayor Candy Perez, who took issue with unfunded mandates for the school district created by the state and the federal government.“I want to point out that we all live every day in our families with unfunded mandates,” O’Heron said. “When gas costs go up from $4.50 to $5 a gallon, we have to live with it. We have to adjust our priorities and change our ways of life. Right now we are going through a lot of unfunded mandates as a town. Our school [capacity] is at half full and we have moved the seventh and eighth grades [to The Gilbert School] to save money. We have room to be more efficient. To not manage [the town] more efficiently would be even worse for our children.”
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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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