WINSTED — Selectmen agreed on several actions concerning the Water and Sewer Commission and its chairman, Richard Nalette, during their meeting Monday, Jan. 7, at Town Hall.Nalette’s reappointment to the commission had been tabled at the board’s Dec. 17 meeting due to concerns about financial discrepancies in Winchester’s Water Department.There was no discussion of Nalette’s reappointment at the Jan. 7 meeting. Selectman Candy Perez said the board has great concerns about the commission.“We have reviewed meeting minutes and other documents from the commission, and we have also had conversations with members who have revealed deeper issues,” she said.Perez said a financial analysis of all accounts handled by the commission will be undertaken by town auditors at the accounting firm King and King and Associates.“This will include a list of where all of the accounts stand today,” Perez said.She added that the selectmen will be consulting with Town Attorney Kevin Nelligan on how to get the commission back under the board’s authority.Because of a Town Charter change in 1998, the selectmen do not have oversight powers in regard to the commission.“As for accusations of politics being involved in this, there are no politics involved at all,” Perez said. “No one up here on the board is looking for any of that.”Selectman Ken Fracasso agreed with Perez and said that there are many questions that needed to be answered in regard to the commission.“I studied the fiscal year 2009-2010 audit, and my interpretation is that the Water and Sewer department makes approximately $2.6 million a year and spends $2.5 million,” Fracasso said. “There are several pages in the audit that deal with the Water and Sewer Commission. One of those pages said that the commission is responsible for the interest of the bonds that have been taken out to pay for projects including the sewer plant and water filtration plant upgrades. However, the town is responsible for principal payments. I think it’s a good idea to get a handle on what is going on financially.”Fellow Republican Selectman Glenn Albanesius agreed and said that he spoke to Nalette before the Jan. 7 meeting.“We have a man who has a lot of experience, but he might have made some mistakes,” Albanesius said. “In my conversation with him, Richard was conciliatory on a couple of fronts. I am in favor of uncovering the facts, getting information and moving forward.”During the citizen’s comments portion of the meeting, two members of the commission criticized the selectmen.Commission member Tim Moran spoke out against Selectman George Closson, who voiced his concerns about Nalette’s reappointment and the commission during the Dec. 17 meeting.“While it is listed with the town that Selectman Closson is our liaison, the last time we had a liaison show up to our meeting was when [former selectman] Karen Beadle was in office,” Nalette said. “When you read the minutes of a meeting, you don’t find out everything that was discussed at that meeting. You don’t get a chance to see a presentation that was held at the meeting and you don’t get a chance to hear from the guests at the meeting who show up and talk. So I don’t know how our liaison knows so much about what is going on from just reading the minutes.”Moran also criticized longtime Finance Director Henry Centrella.Centrella was placed on paid administrative leave by Town Manager Dale Martin in November.“We have been asking Henry to come down to our meetings for three years to tell us where the finances are and where we are at,” Moran said. “We did find some discrepancies over the years that we could not explain. He did finally show up to a meeting a few months ago. However, not all of our questions were answered. He said he was going to get back to us.”Fellow member John Massicotte’s comments to the board were brief.“In the past few years since I have been on the board, the only decisions we have made are to better service our customers and to help with the expansion of the town as far as businesses and individual residents are concerned,” Massicotte said.
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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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