The Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments (COG) has just released its annual listing of salaries paid to town employees in the region. Towns in the Northwest Corner often refer to the list as they enter into the annual budget planning season. Charts showing all the information can be found at The Lakeville Journal’s website at www.tricornernews.com.The COG is an organization based in Warren, Conn., made up of the first selectmen from nine Litchfield County towns, including all six towns in the Region One school district.Salisbury pays its selectmen the most of all the COG towns, with the first selectman receiving $73,316 and the two selectmen $9,968. North Canaan pays its first selectman $25,000 and the two selectmen $5,000.Falls Village’s first selectman is paid $32,398 and the selectmen $5,335; in Cornwall, the first selectman receives $45,631 and the selectmen $3,320.In Kent the top job is worth $59,081 and the two selectmen get $4,156, and in Sharon the first selectman is paid $54,556 and the selectmen $4,160.Kent’s town clerk leads the salaries for that position at $41,636, with Salisbury right behind at $41,250.The town clerk job in Sharon pays $39,333; in Cornwall, $35,721; in Falls Village, $25,880; and in North Canaan, $6,500 plus a portion of fees collected.The survey chart also shows what the animal control officer, health officer or sanitarian, senior center director, solid waste and recycling coordinator and agent for the elderly are paid annually.In addition to salaries, the survey also shows benefits that town employees receive. Workers in North Canaan, Sharon and Falls Village do not contribute to their premium. Workers in Kent and Cornwall contribute on a sliding scale based on coverage.Workers in Roxbury pay between $500 and $1,000 and town employees in Warren contribute 15 percent while those in Washington do not have to share in their premium cost. Most but not all of the towns have switched to high-deductible and health savings account programs.The chart has information as well on what employees must pay as a co-pay per visit. Health insurance includes dental care for workers in all nine towns except Sharon.The survey also includes information on the number of sick days, personal days and vacation days that employees earn.
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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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