WINSTED — Board of Education members remained cautiously optimistic Tuesday that the current year’s school budget will be properly funded following a state investigation in the Winchester school district’s accounting practices.Announcing the results of its investigation April 27, the Office of Internal Audit at the state Department of Education found school officials had provided the necessary documentation for salary payments made in 2009-10. Critics of the school system, mainly Republicans on the Board of Selectmen and their supporters, have claimed for the past two years that the school officials somehow defrauded the town of the federal grant money. Led by selectman and former mayor Kenneth Fracasso, the group called for the state investigation last year and successfully lobbied the current Board of Selectmen to withhold $636,000 from the current budget as collateral against any possible fines leveled by the state. That decision leaves the school system short of its state-mandated minimum budget requirement (MBR) for the current school year.The school board responded by suing the Board of Selectmen in state court for the $636,000 balance.Board of Education Chairman Susan Hoffnagle acknowledged Tuesday night that the selectmen decided not to appropriate the remaining balance of funding to the school budget during its regular meeting Monday night. “We are likely to have a joint meeting with them,” she said. “The question seems to be, if they fund the full amount of the MBR will we withdraw the lawsuit. If we have a joint meeting we can talk about that.”Superintendent of Schools Thomas Danehy said a joint meeting between the two boards had been scheduled for Thursday, May 10, but that he had not seen the meeting posted as of Tuesday afternoon.Though some school board members appeared disappointed that the selectmen had not voted at their regular meeting Monday night to return the $636,000 to this year’s school budget, they acknowledged the two boards need to be on the same page when making the final decisions on appropriating funds and agreeing to drop the school board’s lawsuit.Danehy, who has been the superintendent in Winsted for less than a year and was never involved with the 2009-10 school budget, has consistently maintained school officials did nothing illegal in their accounting. The business office used controversial “journal entries” to record expenditures involving federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds that year, and those journal entries were backed up with detailed explanations. The only item the state’s audit found to be incomplete was a single payroll payment of $1,826, which the school system agreed was incomplete and would refund to the state.Last week, Danehy said the state’s investigation “closes the door on 2009-10” and that the result “should restore faith and credibility in the school system.”
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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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