WINSTED — Under a mandate to do so from the state, the Winchester Board of Selectmen still has not developed a plan to provide the minimum funding required for this year’s school budget.Selectmen did not vote on how to fund the 2011-12 minimum budget requirement (MBR) during their meeting on Monday, Feb. 6. Instead, the board authorized Town Manager Dale Martin to meet with Town Attorney Kevin Nelligan to discuss the issue.The vote on the measure was five to two and was along political party lines, with Democratic Mayor Maryann Welcome and selectmen George Closson, Michael Renzullo, Candy Perez and James DiVita all voting for the motion.Republican selectmen Ken Fracasso and Glenn Albanesius voted against the motion.History of the MBRThe approved action by the selectmen is just the latest on what has become a long-running saga on the approved town budget for fiscal 2011-2012.In late May, town voters approved a budget set forth by the selectmen that set education funding at $18,600,000, which is $1,358,149 below the state-mandated MBR.In August, Brian Mahoney, chief financial officer for the state Department of Education, told the town it was not compliant with the MBR and asked for the town to come up with the remaining funds.In late November, the newly elected democratic majority on the Board of Selectmen approved a motion by Perez to fully fund the MBR.However, Perez put in her motion that town officials would be required to meet with Board of Education members and state officials to make sure that the school district is using proper accounting procedures and to address any financial discrepancies.Perez made the addition to her motion due to the release in November of an audit of the school system’s 2009-2010 fiscal year.The audit showed that as much as $636,000 in spending was not properly documented by the school district.In early December at a Board of Education meeting, Superintendent of Schools Thomas Danehy said the school district could prove the funds were properly spent. Danehy said the money was part of $1.1 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds that the school spent on salary payments to employees.As of Monday, almost six months after Mahoney told the town they were not compliant with the MBR, and almost four months after the Board of Selectmen voted to fund the MBR, the selectmen still did not reach a decision on how to fund it.Discussion at meetingAt the meeting, Town Attorney Nelligan told the selectmen that he had not been authorized by the town to research the issue and consult with Town Manager Martin.“You have not made any formal motion to do this,” Nelligan told the selectmen. “Obviously, I have thought about it. It has been hanging over you for months and months.”“I was working under the impression that both you and Dale were working to understand how to go about this,” Mayor Welcome told Nelligan.As part of the proposal, Martin presented a draft funding plan that would amend the budget by taking funds from budget-line items to fund the MBR.The draft funding plan was not directly voted on by the selectmen, but rather was given to the board by Martin as a “framework” for a potential future plan.In Martin’s draft funding plan, the funds to meet the MBR would come from a contingency line from the town’s fund balance of $735,000 and various available funds from budget lines and town departments.Also, payments to agencies outside of the town would receive reduced funding, including Foothills Visiting Nurses, Camp Lark, the Youth Service Bureau, the Susan B. Anthony Project, The Chore Service and other several agencies.Despite this, Martin said the town would still come up $54,000 short of funding the MBR if the “framework” was approved as is.Selectman Fracasso then brought up the issue of the estimated $636,000 that was allegedly not properly documented by the school district in school year 2009-2010.“When our auditor was here a few weeks ago, she was asked that, if the school district misappropriated funds in 2009-2010, what are the chances that this also happened in 2010-2011,” Fracasso said. “She said that if it happened in 2009-2010, then it probably happened in 2010-2011. If we are looking at $1.3 million we cannot account for, will we have to pony all of it up? Does this mean we will have to issue a supplemental tax? If we take all of this money that we are talking about tonight, I don’t think we will have anything let in the town coffers.”“We are going to have to spend it,” Mayor Welcome said. “The previous board decided to underfund the MBR, which is why we are in the position that we are in now.”“No, the taxpayers are the ones who voted on the budget,” Fracasso said. “We just put the budget forward.”Fracasso asked Nelligan to research whether it was legal for the Board of Selectmen to overturn a town budget once residents have approved it.Nelligan said he would research the issue.
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.
