WINSTED — Democratic Selectman Michael Renzullo, who was elected for a third term during municipal elections in November, was arrested at a traffic stop on New Year’s Day.According to the police report by the Winchester Police Department, Renzullo was cited for misuse of a marker plate and failing to stop at a stop sign.He was released on a written promise to appear in Bantam Superior Court on Monday, Jan. 9.“I’m taking care of this today, and this won’t be a story in two hours,” Renzullo told The Winsted Journal in an interview on Tuesday. “There is a stop sign on the bottom of Oak Street, which is right near where I live on Wetmore Avenue. Apparently, I didn’t stop completely to the officer’s liking. I did not do it the way he wanted me to do. He considered it a rolling stop and pulled me over.”As for being cited for misuse of a marker plate, Renzullo admitted he was not carrying up-to-date vehicle registration forms at the time of the stop.“Over the summer, I got new license plates,” Renzullo said. “When I was pulled over, I could not find my new registration. I only had my old registration, which showed my old license plate number. I am going to the Department of Motor Vehicles today and getting everything straightened out. The police officer told me that all I need to do is bring my new registration into court with me and the matter will be dropped. I have no idea where the new registration went. It was just a silly mistake that I left the old one inside my truck.”In November 2009, Renzullo was pulled over and charged with carrying a dangerous weapon in a vehicle, using a cell phone while driving and driving an unregistered motor vehicle.The charge of a dangerous weapon in a vehicle was due to the discovery of a 7-inch knife in his truck during the police stop, which Renzullo said was used for a camping trip.Those charges were eventually dropped.
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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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