WINSTED — Disunity among town officials was pronounced this week, as members of the Board of Selectmen wrote conflicting letters to area newspapers regarding the proposed $30.7 million budget going to referendum May 28.Three Republicans, Ken Fracasso, Karen Beadle and Glenn Albanesius, have formed a coalition with one Democrat, Lisa Smith, in agreeing to cut more than $2.8 million from the Board of Education’s proposed budget, and the group is standing by its numbers.The four fiscal conservatives hold a majority over the three remaining Democrats, Mayor Candy Perez, George Closson and Mike Renzullo, who were opposed to the size of the cut to education. “Our commitment to education reflects the fundamental changes that have occurred and continue to take place within our school district,” the majority selectmen wrote this week in a letter to The Winsted Journal (see Page A6). “These include the shift of seventh and eighth grades to The Gilbert School, a step we are confident will both improve educational achievements and save the town money.”Despite that show of confidence, the reduction in funding to the schools has triggered the threat of a lawsuit from the Board of Education, which claims the 2011-12 school budget will be officially underfunded by $1.4 million, according to the state’s minimum budget requirement (MBR), determined annually by the state Legislature.Perez said in a letter Monday that the four “cross-partiers” on the Board of Selectmen had potentially backed the board into a legal corner with their one-vote majority, and that the group has been caucusing behind closed doors and attacking other members of the board.“The politically motivated, mean-spirited cut to education is precisely why an MBR is needed and why I will not just agree with Mr. Fracasso, Ms. Smith and the other ‘cross-partiers’ to ask our legislators to drastically change the MBR to the level they seek,” Perez wrote. “What I will to agree to is an independent analysis of the educational system that is long overdue.”But Republicans on the board say Winsted’s MBR should change with the reorganization of schools taking place this year, in which the seventh and eighth grades will move up to semi-private Gilbert, while the public K-through-8 system will be reduced to K-through-6.“Some reasonable people may differ over the budget, but there can be no disagreement about the MBR,” the Republican-led group wrote in its letter this week. “To be perfectly clear, there is no MBR for fiscal year 2011-12. None will come into effect unless the Legislature decrees it. We must work together with our legislators to ensure that any new MBR reflects the fundamental changes in our school system. The current MBR was designed for a K-through-12 district with almost 20 percent more students than we will have in 2011-12 — and at least one more school than we need. Other towns routinely lobby for changes to their MBR. Why shouldn’t Winsted seek redress for these major changes?”Perez acknowledged in an interview Tuesday she has been particularly disappointed with the breakdown of decorum on the Board of Selectmen. “I don’t see eye to eye with Ken [Fracasso],” Perez said. “He yells at me and threatens me and claims it’s all political. My opinion is everybody is mad at each other and people have gotten lost in that — being angry, instead of seeing a long-term vision.”Perez said she is hopeful that Winsted’s new town manager, Dale Martin, will be allowed to take a strong leadership position, which will take some of the decision-making burden off the Board of Selectmen. “I think if we give people a chance to lead, we’ll all be a lot better off,” she said.As far as the budget goes, Perez said there isn’t much anyone can do between now and May 28, when the town’s budget referendum will take place. “What happens from here on forward is going to be a very complex issue, and some people are way ahead of themselves,” she said. “We really have to wait and see what happens with the town budget and the state budget. The answers will come after that.”
Latest News
Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
Provided
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.
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
