SALISBURY — The draft of the 2012 Town Plan of Conservation and Development will be presented at an information meeting Thursday, March 22, at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.The 60-plus page document is a roadmap of how the town will grow and change (or not) in the next decade. The state requires Connecticut towns to have the plans, as a basis for planning and zoning regulations. Towns that do not update their plans can be denied state funding and grants. It’s a wide-ranging document. The draft can be found online at www.salisburyct.us; click on POCD Information under Planning and Zoning.It notes that, “while the plan primarily addresses physical issues, it is also intended to influence the social and eonomic development of the community.”And it is intended to be “a guide for the future of Salisbury.” The introduction highlights some of the tangible and intangible things that town residents say they cherish, including its lakes, hills, natural beauty and community spirit. It notes that the town’s “rugged terrain” has historically had an influence on life here and on patterns of settlement and development. And it stresses that “responsible stewardship of the ecological balance that provides for this habitat diversity are of primary importance to the future of Salisbury.”The Town Plan is a document of the Planning and Zoning Commission, but town residents are urged to weigh in on its contents.Its chapter titles include “Things we want to protect” (such as natural resources and working landscapes); “How we want to guide development” (by enhancing village centers and providing housing options, for example); and “Supporting the community we want to be.” Some highlights: • On page 21, the draft plan calls for promoting a “dark skies” approach to development, noting that “one of the beauties of living in Salisbury is to be able to see so vividly the stars in the inky night sky on a cold clear winter’s night.”• On page 10, there is a recommendation sure to be popular with hunters: “Investigate the options of increasing the hunting season or increasing the use of crop-damage permits to control deer.”• The draft plan asks the town to consider changing the Planning and Zoning Commission by adding two additional elected commissioners (bringing the total to seven), to “provide for a broader range of expertise.”• The draft also brings up the idea of separate planning and zoning commissions, and separate inland wetlands and conservation commissions (currently inland wetlands comes under the Conservation Commission’s authority), and a new Economic Development Commission.
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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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