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Police Blotter: Troop B
Oct 01, 2025
Police Blotter: Troop B
Police Blotter: Troop B
The following information was provided by the Connecticut State Police at Troop B. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Double-yellow passing fender bender
On the afternoon of Sept. 19, Demetri Ouellette, 19, of Falls Village was traveling north on Route 126 in Falls Village, approximately 50 feet north of the intersection with Dublin Road, when a BMW M340 attempted to pass in a no passing zone. Ouellette’s Toyota Celica GT subsequently collided with the BMW, which was driven by Patrick Riley, 39, of Falls Village. Ouellette stated that the BMW tried to overtake him and then slammed on the brakes, causing the collision. Riley claimed that he was driving north on Route 126 when a vehicle struck him from behind. Riley was ultimately issued a written warning for overtaking and passing in a no passing zone. Both vehicles sustained minor damage, but neither driver was injured.
5-charge arrest
On the afternoon of Sept. 20, troopers were dispatched to an address on Doolittle Drive in Norfolk for a non-active disturbance. After investigation, troopers arrested Regina Lane, 62, of Norfolk on five charges: interfering with an officer/resisting, disorderly conduct, violation of a protective order, third degree assault, and second-degree reckless endangerment. Lane was released on a $10,000 cash bond and was scheduled to appear at Torrington Superior Court on Sept. 22.
Possession/DWI arrest
Troopers were dispatched at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Sept 21 to 172 Route 7 in Falls Village on the report of a male passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle. After investigating, police arrested Mark Gannon, 35, of Waterbury for two counts of possession of a controlled substance, failure to keep narcotics in original container, and operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Gannon was released on a $5,000 non-surety bond.
Speeding crash
On the afternoon of Sept. 25, Clifford Chase, 67, of Cornwall was traveling west on Route 44, approximately 50 feet north of the intersection with Wildcat Hollow Road in Salisbury when he veered off the road, striking his Mazda 3 sedan into a tree. The vehicle was disabled by the accident, but Chase was uninjured. He was issued an infraction for traveling too fast for conditions.
The Lakeville Journal will publish the outcome of police charges. Contact us by mail at P.O. Box 1688, Lakeville, CT 06039, Attn: Police Blotter, or send an email, with “police blotter” in the subject, to editor@lakevillejournal.com
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A view over Candlewood Lake from the Sweetcake Mountain Preserve in New Fairfield.
Provided
The Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy, the state’s largest land trust and the 22nd largest in the nation by number of lands conserved, announced on Sept. 25 that it has merged with the Candlewood Valley Regional Land Trust, effective Sept. 30.
Commonly referred to as the NCLC, the nonprofit is now responsible for the protection of the Candlewood Valley Regional Land Trust’s (CVRLT) 611 acres of preserved land across Danbury and New Fairfield, adding to its roster of 14,000-plus acres protected across the northwestern portion of the state. The combined organization will continue to operate under the NCLC title, while members from the Board of Directors of CVRLT will sit on a newly formed advisory board called the Candlewood Valley Council.
The move also adds CVRLT’s eight public nature preserves to NCLC’s robust array of conserved lands ranging from hiking areas, working farms, rivers and streams, and habitat for rare and endangered species.
The leadership of both groups championed regional collaboration for effective land protection.
“We are proud to carry forward CVRLT’s legacy and to build an even stronger foundation for regional conservation,” said NCLC Executive Director Catherine Rawson.
CVRLT President Faline Schneiderman affirmed the value of a unified approach: “By sharing resources and expertise, merged organizations have been able to better steward their preserves, expand their reach, and ensure long-term success.”
The groups will celebrate the merger at the NCLC’s annual meeting on Saturday, Nov. 15 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the New Fairfield Senior Center Community Room, 33 CT-37, New Fairfield, Connecticut. The meeting will be free and open to the public.
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Stephanie Januszewski
Crews battled raging flames in the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 28, when an abandoned factory on High Street in Torrington caught fire. At 1 a.m. ladder trucks were deployed around the brick building to contain the fire, an effort which persisted well into daybreak. By 8 a.m., crews had still not entered the building due to unsafe conditions. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was unknown. Multiple departments responded from as far as Plainville and residents reported the smell of smoke from miles away. High Street remained closed on Monday with rubble in the road. The building once housed the Hendey Machine Company, which was among the largest employers in Torrington prior to the firm’s closure in the 1950s.
HVRHS junior Michael Gawel moves debris left over from the day’s labor using an excavator provided by his parents’ business, M&M Excavating.
Alec Linden
FALLS VILLAGE— Work has begun in earnest to install a “land lab” for the Agricultural Science and Technology Education department at the Housatonic Valley Regional High School, marking first step in realizing the fruition of a plan that has been well over a decade in the making.
On Monday, Sept. 22, droves of HVRHS students in the ASTE program visited the newly acquired, 2-acre plot of open field and grove-like woodland set just a half mile up Warren Turnpike past the school’s entrance. Up to 20 high schoolers at a time, including a number who labored the whole day, visited the property during their ASTE classes to assist in clearing a lightly forested section of a tangle of brush that has overtaken the understory.
The area is planned to be a native forest management area meant to teach students about the health and maintenance of an ecosystem, but the first step was to make it passable.
“It was a terrible mess,” explained Bruce Bennett, chairman of the ASTE advisory board. Just that morning, the area was an impenetrable “wall of vines and shrubs,” he said while gesturing at the now spacious expanse, partially shaded by a smattering of cigar trees, maples, white pines and cedars. Eventually, the property, which is owned by Eversource Energy but signed for use by the school, is planned to also host plots for horticultural learning and practice, landscape construction learning, a flower garden and shop, a farm-to-table garden, and other uses.
“All day the kids have been chipping, moving branches… ignoring us,” said Megan Gawel with a joking smile as she glanced at her son Michael, an HVRHS junior, who was moving roots and shrub debris with an excavator some hundred yards away.
Megan and her husband Mike run M&M Excavating out of Sheffield, Massachusetts, and had donated their time and equipment on Monday — plus an hour of brush mowing on Sunday — to help the project get up and running. In addition to the excavator, they had brought along a skid steer, a mulcher, brush mower, and a dump truck to move wood chips that will eventually surface an interpretive pathway through the educational woodland.
Along with their son, the family had been at it since 8 a.m., but Megan figured Michael wasn’t too upset about the change of curriculum — “he got a field trip today,” she said with a grin.
Both Megan and Mike are graduates of HVRHS and the ASTE program. Megan was an officer of the school’s FFA chapter, which she said taught her valuable skills that apply as much in meeting rooms as they do in the field.
ASTE students load cut vegetation into a wood chipper. The resulting material will be used to surface pathways throughout the natural forest zone of the property. Megan Gawel
Bennett said the land lab concept was designed to promote the type of hands-on learning that solidifies long-lasting and far-reaching knowledge and teaches real-world problem solving. “We’re trying to create a space where students can experience hands on examples of what they learn in the classroom,” he explained.
“They don’t know what it’s like to plant a row of tomatoes and have it get phytophthora disease.”
The agriculture and technology program, which is over 80 years old and one of only 21 curriculums of its kind in Connecticut, already reaches every student in the school when they take the Life Skills course as freshman, explained ASTE educator Sheri Lloyd, who was present at Monday’s inaugural landscaping project.
She said the new facilities will be a valuable asset to the program’s already formidable offerings, which include a farm-to-table kitchen, mechanics shop, animal care centers, greenhouse, and a forest laboratory. Essentially, it will help the program teach students how to be “informed stewards” of the land, Lloyd explained.
Even on the land lab’s unofficial first day in action, the students are already gaining valuable experience. One student in the ASTE department spent the day cutting problematic trees and branches with a chainsaw – certified by the program, of course. He’s already aspiring to be an arborist, which are “much needed” in Connecticut, said Bennett.
The next step for the property is to seed the forest floor that Monday’s undergrowth exorcism had left bare. This process will be handled by Matt Schwaikert, longtime ASTE advisory board member and graduate of the program himself.
He emphasized that the loyalty of ASTE graduates is its strength. “That’s the best part of this community — always available to help.”
HVRHS Principal Ian Strever came to admire the progress as Mike and Michael cleared the last of the woody debris from the forest floor. “It just adds to what is already a beautiful campus,” he observed.
“This would be impossible without the volunteers,” he said, glancing around at the soil-stained laborers.
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