Bob Deakin Short Stories

Southbury resident Jon Norris speaks to the board of selectmen Thursday night. Photo by Bob Deakin

The Southbury Board of Selectmen took on a light agenda Thursday, discussing the promptness of police reports from the resident trooper supervisor, a proposal to enter into an agreement with the Greater Waterbury Transit District (GWTD) for senior transportation and whether or not to change the locations of some of the voting areas during elections.

Police reports from the resident trooper supervisor have allegedly not been promptly filed with the town according to selectmen. The issue was initially addressed by Selectwoman Carol Hubert and the first selectman concurred.

“That has been brought to my attention before and I told them that they had to get these reports [to the town] in a timely manner and I haven’t heard anything since so I assumed it was being done,” said First Selectman, William Davis. “The resident trooper isn’t at my beck and call – he’s not at anybody’s beck and call – he’s not a town employee.”

Selectmen discussed ways in which to rectify the problem or perhaps go to a higher-ranking member of the state police to do so. They also questioned whether the town is getting the service that it needs from the resident state trooper program.

“Are we getting what we’re paying for?” Ms. Hubert asked, “and is the contract being fulfilled?”

“Yes,” Mr. Davis replied, later stating that the issue of whether the town is getting its money’s worth is a “whole other ball of wax.”

Mr. Davis stated that he has not been in regular contact with Resident Trooper Supervisor, Michael O’Donnell, but that he had a meeting with him planned for the following day and that he would address the issue.

Selectmen discussed joining the GWTD for the Dial-a-Ride between Southbury and Waterbury funded by the New Freedom Initiative. The program provides low-cost rides, door-to-door for elderly or disabled residents. The annual dues the town would pay for the program is $250, which selectmen expected would be covered by a nonprofit group associated with the Southbury Senior Center.

The district currently includes the municipalities of Cheshire, Middlebury, Naugatuck, Prospect, Thomaston, Waterbury, Watertown and Wolcott. Selectmen were prepared to vote to join the GWTD until a number of questions came up concerning potential unexpected costs and liability. Selectmen eventually decided to invite Director of Elderly services, Sharon Gesek, to the next Board of Selectmen meeting to answer questions about the program before proceeding further.

Selectwoman Hubert brought up voting sites around town and said she’d received some complaints about voting irregularities. She suggested that all voting sites should be on town-owned properties for better enforcement of rules.

The First Selectman said he asked for input from the registrars.

“Carol and I have asked the registrars to make a report to the Board of Selectmen stating the reasons why they feel these polling places should be changed or why they shouldn’t be changed if that’s the conclusion they come up with,” he said. “Hopefully we can get all of the polling places back under town properties.”

He speculated that polls on town properties may even reduce labor costs for the town.

“It was our perception that most of these polling sites were underutilized,” the first selectman added, saying a consolidation to three voting sites (from the current five) might be ideal.

In the only public comment, Southbury resident Jon Norris asked what progress has been made with regards to promotion of a corporal in relieving some of the trooper overtime and if any effort had been made to prepare for the supply of salt for the roads during the winter.

“Are we going to wait until winter or [is there] some move in that regard to be made now,” Mr. Norris asked. He did not receive a reply to either of the questions.

Selectmen also approved the Road Foreman job description, which will be utilized in the search for a new foreman to replace the retiring Ronnie Metcalf. The position will be publicly advertised in the near future. Mr. Metcalf is slated to retire on August 12, 2011.

Originally published on Patch.com in July 2011

Copyright 2011

Southbury Commons under re-construction. Photo by Bob Deakin

The Southbury Board of Selectmen opted not to grant tax abatement to business owners of Southbury Commons who lost their businesses when the plaza was destroyed by fire early this year.

Selectman Edward Gittines III, a member of the subcommittee reviewing requests by the businesses for abatement of personal property taxes, said that although state statute allows such abatement it would be a bad precedent for the town to set.

“Ultimately our recommendation from the subcommittee to the board of selectmen is to not move forward with the tax abatements for the businesses affected at the Commons,” Mr. Gittines stated at Tuesday’s meeting, citing three reasons.

“First is some of these businesses that have applied for abatements are back up and operating, and it was our feeling that this would provide a tax holiday for businesses that were back in operation for a period of time that other businesses wouldn’t be able to enjoy.”

The second reason, he said, was that if another business in town went bankrupt or out of business that it wouldn’t be given the same privilege of being able to request an abatement of personal property tax. The third was fear of setting a precedent.

Selectwoman Carol Hubert said the amount of taxes that would have been forgiven to the five businesses that applied for abatement amounted to a combined total of approximately $615 prorated for the year.

“We felt too that the numbers weren’t that great [and wouldn't be] that great a help to these businesses,” she said.

“To reiterate, the reason the EDC [Economic Development Commission] brought this forward was to show spirit and caring for the businesses in town,” explained Selectman John O. Turk, also the chairman of the EDC.

The subcommittee was formed in June to address the possibility of giving tax abatement to those businesses destroyed by the fire. Five of the businesses applied for the abatement, which was intended to help them through the difficult time, prorated from the time of the fire through the end of this fiscal year.

The town has assisted some of the business owners in applying for loans and finding new locations to run their businesses. The only motion necessary at Tuesday’s meeting was to accept the recommendation of the subcommittee.

Originally published on Patch.com in July 2011

Copyright 2011

Woodbury Business and Economic Development Committee members at their January 2011 meeting. Photo by Bob Deakin

The Woodbury Business and Economic Development Commission meant Wednesday to discuss was to promote the town

Brookfield parent Margaret Petta speaks to the Brookfield BOE at Wednesday's meeting. Photo by Bob Deakin

Parents disagree with Superintendent’s assertions that teachers will differentiate

The Brookfield Board of Education (BOE) held the first 2011-2012 budget hearing of the new year on Thursday in the media center at Brookfield High School (BHS). Despite the attendance of only a half dozen at the hearing, two parents spoke vehemently in opposition to the proposed elimination of an Academically Talented Program (ATP) for elementary school students and discussion on the subject carried a large portion of the nearly two-hour meeting.

Brookfield Superintendent Anthony Bivona stated that the BOE and the administration have been trying to reduce class sizes at Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES) and that last year the average class size was approximately 25 students per grade compared to 23 to 24 this year. He said the choice to reallocate three teachers from upper grades to Huckleberry Hill to reduce class size in grades two, three and four to about 20 to 21 students was done instead of adding additional full-time teachers to reduce class size in accordance to district guidelines.

“We felt by reallocating these resources and bringing down those class sizes in grades two, three and four that teachers would be better able to individualize instruction,” Bivona said.

During the public comment session parent Deirdre Coury spoke in opposition to the cut in the ATP program, speaking on behalf of students she said may be “chomping at the bit” to go beyond the regular curriculum.

“If you felt that these efforts to realign the curriculum were sufficient to address the needs of higher-level students then indeed you’d be willing to cut enrichment funding at all grade levels,” Coury said, speculating that such cuts would not take place. She reasoned that students might lose skill development, become bored or discouraged, lose focus on their studies or “worst of all lose their capacity all together to think creatively and they might even lose their love of learning.”

In closing, Coury added, “To remove it all together not only says that these gifted and talented students who love school and learning are not on the priority list, what it says loud and clear is that they’re not even on the list at all.”

Parent Margaret Petta echoed those sentiments by reading a letter her third grade daughter, an ATP student, wrote to the BOE in response to the proposed cut. “Please do not get rid of this program,” the letter concluded. “Because the children in [this] program are learning things they should be learning but are not taught in their classrooms.”

“I was a teacher and I commend you for claiming that teachers will differentiate,” Petta said to the board. “But they’re not.”

She added in closing, “I have a third grader and a first grader. I have yet to find a teacher in Brookfield who differentiates. Why will they now? I’m begging you please do not eliminate this program. It’s a small fraction of our budget.”

Bivona then defended the faculty’s sensitivity to students’ particular skills and needs while several of the parents in attendance continued to disagree with him.

“I’d be very disappointed to believe that there is no differentiation occurring in any classroom,” he said. “I don’t believe it. I believe that we do differentiate.”

At various times throughout the rest of the meeting, in which the board discussed different items in the budget, the subject of the elimination of the ATP program came up again with members of the board expressing concerns. Opinions varied.

“I’m on the fence,” said BOE Chairman Mike Fenton. “I’m listening and learning.”

“I can’t imagine a teacher not wanting to go as far they possibly can for a student,” stated BOE Vice-Chairman Rob Gianazza. “Especially one [student] that’s inquisitive and has the ability to take on more and is looking for more challenges.”

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Genie Slone verified that currently about 25 students in both grades five and six are enrolled in the ATP program, 30 at Center Elementary School (CES) and more than 100 from Whisconier Middle School (WMS) at various times of the week.

BOE member Victor Katz acknowledged parents in the audience shaking their heads in disagreement as he asked the superintendent about the degree of training Brookfield teachers have in catering to the abilities of academically talented students. Bivona assured that professional development, including differentiation training, is built into the educational training program. 

Originally published on Patch.com in January 2011

Copyright 2011

Brookfield BOE members hear the 2011-2012 budget presentation. Photo by Bob Deakin

Superintendent Bivona and Business and Technology Director Colley present an overview of the proposed budget at Thursday’s public hearing

Brookfield’s Board of Education (BOE) once again presented its proposed 2011-2012 budget with a hearing on Thursday at Brookfield High School (BHS). Superintendent Anthony Bivona and Director of Business and Technology Art Colley kept it brief in splitting the opening presentation before relinquishing the podium to public comment.

Bivona touched on four main goals of the proposed $36,699,868 budget, describing them as integrating 21^st Century skills, implementing the world language program in earlier grades, enhancing the K-12 music curriculum and personalizing instruction to meet each student’s needs. He also discussed Student Support Services and the proposed elimination of the Pay-to-Participate program.

The Superintendent explained that the proposed budget sets forth the plan to introduce the teaching of Spanish to grade five next year, then gradually work instruction into the lower grades in succeeding years. He also explained that the addition of a part-time music teacher to Whisconier Middle School (WMS) would better accommodate student participation.

As for the addition of a Library Media Specialist position at BHS, he explained that the position would be responsible for teaching video production to accommodate demand for those courses and to aid in the implementation of the proposed computer tablet program for freshmen in Brookfield schools next year. The tablet, such as an iPad, would be lent to students and incorporated into the curriculum during the school year, giving them an opportunity to learn and use current technology as part of their studies.

Bivona also brought up the proposed elimination of the Pay-to-Participate program, explaining that the resulting $116,000 addition to the 2011-12 budget would cover the costs of a full-time athletic trainer, a part-time secretary, the middle school sports program, officials, transportation and supplies. Last year, $92,320 was collected from the program.

The total request of $36,699,868 in the 2011-12 budget represents an overall increase of $1,280,459 or 3.62 percent over last year. School salaries of $23,698,184 comprise the greatest increase in the budget, which is a $785,930 (3.4 percent) increase over last year. Employee benefits ($6,005,309) represent an increase of $197,406 (3.4 percent) over the previous year, while Purchased Services ($5,328,027) are up $204,881 (4 percent) from last year. Supplies & Materials ($1,354,248) are up $72,285 (5.64 percent) over 2010-2011.

Colley continued the presentation, announcing that the school district selected CIGNA as the health benefit provider, effective July 2010, saving approximately $540,000 over Anthem, its previous provider. He emphasized that the district also chose a new busing firm, bringing 34 new buses and technology at a bid of approximately $352,000 less than the next competitor.

He also explained the budget increase in funding for out-of-district tuition offsetting the expected 23 percent reduction in the Special Education Excess Costs grant from the state.

“I could talk about this for an hour,” Colley said, later posing, “Why is this significant? In 2009-2010 the state funded it at 100 percent and we received about $840,000. This year they’re down to 77 percent and we anticipate it going down to 70 percent or even lower next year.”

The significance, he said, is that Brookfield ultimately receives $291,000 less in the 2011-12 budget than it did in 2009-2010.

Originally published on Patch.com in January 2011

Copyright 2010

Members of the Naugatuck Parks & Recreation Commission discuss a dog park. Photo by Bob Deakin

The Naugatuck Parks Commission heard a presentation for a dog park proposal at its meeting Tuesday night and urged residents to be patient as it goes through the normal channels to create a park for dogs and their owners to enjoy.

Naugatuck resident Rocky Vitale presented a brief proposal for a public dog park at a yet-to-be-determined location in the borough. Vitale, a dog lover and a member of the Naugatuck Board of Education, described it as a preliminary plan in order to develop parameters for a dog park, an idea he first presented early last year. The commission has also formed a subcommittee to look into the creation of a dog park.

“This commission has dedicated itself to creating a dog park in town if feasible and if allowed by our insurance companies and the law,” said commission Chairman Pat Wagner near the end of the meeting. “It’s just like any other recreation. Walking a dog is a form of recreation. It’s for the dog and for the people.”

Vitale and the commission delayed the dog park presentation until 7 p.m. in the event that citizens who mistakenly thought the meeting was at 7 p.m. would be present. Vitale, who leads an informal group spearheading discussion of a dog park also created a “Naugatuck Dog Park” Facebook page, which had 128 members as of Tuesday night.

“I know that there were some e-mails that came to some people that weren’t exactly the nicest emails concerning the pace of the dog park going forward,” Vitale stated. “Please understand I’m telling people there’s a process to go through and they must respect the process and be grateful that this is just here and moving forward at this point.”

Vitale estimates approximately two acres are needed for a park with a large area for big dogs and a smaller one for small and timid dogs. It would likely have four gated areas for egress and for six-foot chain-link fences to surround it with signage. As for labor, Vitale estimated approximately 80 hours of labor to install the fencing, remove debris and to grade a dirt or gravel parking area. Overall he presented an estimate of $35,000 for the project.

“Please understand this is so preliminary,” Vitale urged, indicating that he would seek grants for the work and private donations to pay for the remainder of labor and materials. “I’m talking about a basic dog park with a grass area to run on.”

He suggested that scout groups or civic organizations may choose to erect ramps or other improvements for the park if they so choose over time.

“I really appreciate that you’re still moving forward with this,” Vitale said to the commission. “Believe me I understand the process that it’s going to have to go through, and there’s still an awful lot that needs to be done but I’m kind of willing to hang around for the duration to make sure that this goes through or if it doesn’t go through, that we know we put up the good fight and did the best that we did.”

Vitale referred to dog parks in other towns including Hamden, Southbury and Southington and other parts of the country that have had a positive effect on those communities. He added that he believes state laws stipulate that animal owners are responsible for their pets in regards to liability, adding that local statutes would have to be changed to accommodate dogs without a leash within town limits.

“This would be promoting exercising your dog, which is a happy dog – which isn’t a frustrated dog – that’s hopefully not going to bite somebody,” Vitale said at the end of his presentation. “Please don’t look at this as a dog park. I ask you to look at this as a park for people who just happen to own dogs.”

Following Vitale’s presentation Wagner stated for the record that the Parks and Recreation Dog Park sub-committee is charged with recommending a site for the park to the commission, which may then accept it or come up with its own location. It must then take its course through all of the necessary boards, commissions and public hearings in the borough before approval can be given.

“People need to understand that it could take six months to a year,” Wagner warned, “especially when we go to public hearing [in case] there’s a lot of controversy or adversity to it.”

No residents appeared at the meeting to voice their opinion in regards to the dog park proposal. Commission members were also careful to let residents know that it has had to deal with a shortage of athletic playing fields in town for many years, noting that some residents have expressed their impatience with the time it has taken to address the dog park proposal. Commissioners will continue to search for potential sites for a dog park, weather permitting, and hopes to identify a site by the spring.

The next meeting of the commission is Tuesday, February 8, and the dog park will be on the agenda.

Originally published on Patch.com in January 2011

Copyright 2011

Naugatuck Town Hall - Home of the Long Term School Facility Planning Committee. Photo by Bob Deakin

Committee formed to address future of borough schools meets for the third time on Monday

Naugatuck Town Hall on an icy January day is the home for Probate Court District 21. Photo by Bob Deakin

There are new hours, more staff and more towns in the Naugatuck Probate District 21, but still the same service and same borough court

Members of the Middlebury, CT Conservation Commission

The Middlebury Conservation Committee and the Quinnipiac Game Association have agreed to restore a once flourishing area pond on Mirey Dam Road

The Middlebury Conservation Commission spent the significant portion of its November 30 meeting discussing two applications. One was for the dredging and improvement of a pond off Aunt Olive Rd. and the other a re-construction of a boathouse and sea wall on Lake Quassapaug.

The Quinnipiac Game Association presented a plan to dredge and restore a 3-acre pond on Mirey Dam Rd. Paul Lupina, representing the Game Association, stated that it has owned the pond since 1959 and that it was once used for boating and fishing.

Years of erosion have filled the pond with silt, rendering it uninhabitable by fish and most other wildlife. The pond was dredged several years ago in an attempt to improve the condition of the pond, however, those efforts failed, necessitating the current project.

“The pond is not working for us at this point,” Lupina explained to the commission. “What we’re going to do is restore it back to the original depths, restock it with fish and use it for boating and fishing.

He explained that excavation is slated to take place next year, to be completed by December, 2011.

Commission members inquired as to how the water would be removed and what, if any, effect it would have on the surrounding properties. The application calls for pond materials to be removed and trucked out via Aunt Olive Rd. to a destination in Watertown, CT. Water would be gradually drained into   nearby wetlands.

Lupina explained that the original depth of the pond was 28 feet and that it is now approximately two to five feet during the summer. The goal is to excavate it back to its original depth in an attempt to restore the original setting with an improved habitat for fish and wildlife.

“It’s all about responsibility,” stated Commission Chairman, Paul Bowler, referring to the obligation to confirm that the work is done in accordance to the application and in respect to the habitat and surrounding property owners. “We’d be lax in our duties if we did anything [else].”

The commission approved the application on the condition that surrounding landowners submit letters of approval for the project. They also waved the application fee for, reasoning that it is an improvement of the natural habitat.

“This is something that is clearly going to be an improvement on an existing man-made pond,” Mr. Bowler added, suggesting it would help save the applicant in engineering fees. The commission voted unanimously to approve the application on the condition of the submission of additional details and approval of surrounding property owners.

New, larger, boathouse to be constructed

In other business, the application on Bristol Rd. includes the construction of a larger boathouse to replace a smaller, older one and to repair the man-made sea wall surrounding it damaged by erosion and encroaching trees.

“We’re improving the site,” stated Scott Meyers of Meyers Associates, the surveying contractor for the project.

The project involves the removal of several white birch trees and subsequent replanting of two new ones. Commission members were concerned with the lack of details of the foundation and construction of the new boathouse and stipulated that those plans be submitted before final approval of the application.

Wetlands Plantings on Park Road

In other discussion, wetlands plantings on 329 Park Rd., as required by the commission at a previous meeting, were reviewed and the commission set forth the stipulation that several more plantings be made before final approval.

The next meeting of the Conservation Commission will take place on December 28 at 7 p.m.

Originally published on Patch.com in December 2010

Copyright 2010

Members of the Brookfield, CT Board of Education

Board of Education recognizes achievements and plans for 2011

The Brookfield Board of Education (BOE) began the month of December with an early gift in the form of examples of how some of the school system’s students, teachers and programs are apparently working.

The meeting began with Brookfield High School (BHS) student Dan McLoone acknowledging teacher Pamela Rogalin, also present at the meeting, as the recipient of the 2010 “Bridges of Peace and Hope Heroes Award.” McLoone, also a member of the “Peace and Hope” board, gave a speech crediting Mrs. Rogalin for her ongoing efforts in collecting clothing for needy citizens of Nicaragua as well as electronics and other items for the needy in the United States.

“Her compassion and friendliness is amazing,” McLoone said near the end of his speech. “Mrs. Rogalin has shown us that we need to care for each other regardless of the circumstances. We must take a step out of our comfort zone and find a way to help others.”

McLoone’s musically-underscored slide show followed, showing Rogalin and Brookfield students in action loading supplies and personally delivering them in the troubled Central American nation.

“I’m thankful for a community that comes together for this project,” Rogalin said in accepting the award. “We have the children, we have the adults, we have the businesses that all come together to make this really happen.”

Students from Whisconier Middle School (WMS) and BHS who have been selected as members of the Peer Leadership group also made a presentation to the board describing in detail what they do, why the program works and what it means to them individually. Peer Leadership, among other functions, provides new students with a friendly face to show them around the school, manages recycling projects fostering a “green” approach for Brookfield public schools and raises money for charitable causes.

“I could spend the next half hour talking to all of you,” BOE Chairman Mike Fenton said in complementing the students for their work and particularly their community involvement. “On behalf of the board and certainly on behalf of the town, thank you all for continuing to make us look good.”

Teacher Marty Settle was recognized by BHS Principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi for being honored with the “Educator Award” from the Western Connecticut Association of Human Rights (WeCahr). Settle, who teaches Life Skills at BHS, received the award for “exemplary dedication to his students.” Dr. Luizzi cited weekend bike trail excursions and other activities that Settle organized for his students in going beyond his day-to-day duties as a teacher.

“When we heard that Marty won the [WeCahr] award we were very happy for him but not surprised,” Principal Luizzi said before presenting the award. “From Marty’s first day, he came in with the right attitude and a ‘can do’ kind of spirit. He believes to his core that every one of his students will be successful.”

“I don’t believe I’m an outstanding teacher, I believe I’m an aspiring outstanding teacher,” Settle said in receiving the plaque. “What I believe is I have outstanding students: Students that give me a hundred percent of what they have each day.”

“These are the great things about public education,” stated Brookfield Superintendent Anthony Bivona, addressing both Mr. Settle and Mrs. Rogalin. “You get a little discouraged sometimes when you hear in the media what’s wrong with public education. We work long hours, more than 182 days with our kids, so thank you and we are very proud of you.”

Under new business on the agenda the BOE heard and viewed an extensive presentation from a committee of Social Studies teachers regarding its Curriculum Framework, which is part of the Brookfield public school system’s program for compliance with the State of Connecticut’s educational guidelines in all subjects.

Social Studies teachers Aggie Burns (WMS) and Joe Sapienza (BHS) provided a PowerPoint presentation on the various subjects and categories of focus as part of the curriculum for the future — including the use of technology — in understanding the significance and sensitivity of history, culture and literature in forming a complete education.

“What we have done in the district for the first time is take a look at all of the standards and try to prioritize the standards,” Burns explained, “So that we’re not faced with ‘everything is important.’”

Board members will have a month to review the Social Studies Framework before giving final approval at a meeting in the coming weeks.

Other Business

Draft Budget: Superintendent Bivona will present the first draft of the BOE budget for 2011 at the December 15 meeting.

Fielding Residents’ Questions: Nearing the end of the meeting board members pointed out that they have recently received a number of questions and comments from Brookfield residents to the Brookfield BOE email address (brookfieldboe@gmail.com), most notably concerning teacher salaries, the school calendar and the teaching of world languages to students. They made a point of encouraging more input from residents.

Contract Negotiations Begin: The board entered into executive session following the meeting to discuss the “statement of strategy or negotiation with respect to collective bargaining.”

Originally published on Patch.com in December 2010.

Copyright 2010

Mark Grusauski, Brian Orth and Ted Gereg (L to R) launch their raft during the old "Huckleberry Finn Raft Race" on Lake Waramaug in Warren, CT in the late 1980s.

Labor Day is often a quiet holiday. It does not come replete with marching bands and speeches, but some residents may remember the summer activities put on by Dick Combs, the late owner of the Inn on Lake Waramaug.

One of the most popular events was “The Huckleberry Finn Raft Race,” a homemade raft race on the lake that drew hundreds of spectators each year. The race continued a tradition on the lake that was born in the 1800s and ended in 1906. It was revived in 1981 and offered as a trophy a one-foot tall statue.

There was no entry fee to join the race and the rules were simple: each raft had to be homemade and the total amount spent on materials could not exceed $25. “This rule will be strictly enforced” entrants were warned. Sails, oars and any other methods of propelling the craft were allowed with the exception of motor power. Everyone had to wear a life jacket and those 10 to 14 years old had to be accompanied on the craft by an adult. No one younger was permitted to compete.

The race route was short, beginning at the lawn of the restaurant on the shore of Lake Waramaug. The former inn is now a private residence, located just west of the intersection of Bliss Road and North Shore Road. The restaurateur usually placed an obstacle out on the water for the boats to reach before returning to the shore as the finish line.

Former Kent resident Mark Grusauski participated in a number of the races with friends and remembers a year when the turnaround was a carefully arranged group of buoys and another when it was a boat full of reporters.

“It varied from year to year but I can’t imagine the thing lasted for more than 20 minutes,” he said recently.

Judging by old newspaper photographs it was probably a good thing the race was short. A front page photo from the Washington Eagle in 1987 showed a rickety wooden craft with three men from Bristol titled, “Trial and Error.” It was propelled by two men on bicycles with the rear wheels attached to paddles in the water. A third man paddled and steered from the side.

Another photo from the previous year showed a man on top of what appeared to be a coffee table, flailing away with his hands and struggling to move his “raft” along the course.

A New Milford Times photo collage from 1984 showed a man and a woman piloting a raft shaped like and egg, supplying the power with their legs from below the surface, like ducks.

“I think we won that thing twice,” Mr. Grusauski said, laughing as he recaptured the memories. “Mr. Combs liked to have fun. The prize was a dinner for two for every person on the boat so we elected to go with a six-person boat.”

The name of his 1987 entry was “The Silo Six.” The crewmen were John Arno and Ted Gereg from Kent and Brian Orth, Scott Walker and the late John Buchmann, all from Sharon. They won the race with a time of seven minutes and one second.

The “Cider Barrel 6” won in 1988, crewed by Arno, Buchmann, Gereg and Orth, along with Eric Kaminski and Bob Skueglia of Kent.

Hundreds of spectators showed up, as was the case each year, cheering the competition on. Mr. Grusauski doesn’t recall an official ceremony to commemorate the event but said there were always a series of tailgate parties near the shore the day of the race.

Morette Robarge Orth was Mr. Orth’s girlfriend at the time and has since become his wife.

“We were the girls on the beach that cheered,” she recalled with much enthusiasm.

“The raft was like 40 feet long and they kept winning the race,” she said of the six-man crew. “The Kent Greenhouse lent them a flat-bed truck so they could get the thing to the lake.”

Marge McAvoy used to attend the races and remembers it being a great time for all. Many of the rafts never made it to the finish line, disintegrating under their own weight and faulty construction. One, she remembers, was made entirely of concrete.

“It was a blast but it was sad when they discontinued it,” Mrs. McAvoy remembered fondly. “It was so much fun.”

The “Huckleberry Finn Raft Race” continued into the early 90s and ended a few years before the Inn on Lake Waramaug closed. It may not have been the biggest or the most organized event around Lake Waramaug over the years, but according to those who were there, it was the most fun.

Labor Day is often a quiet holiday. It does not come replete with marching bands and speeches, but some residents may remember the summer activities put on by Dick Combs, the late owner of the Inn on Lake Waramaug in Warren, Connecticut.

Originally published in the Kent Good Times Dispatch on September 10, 2004

Andy Stirnweiss is shown in the open cockpit of his World War II fighter and in his Kent home. Photo by Bob Deakin (2005)

No one in the world can say they served in two wars, flew under the Route 341 bridge in Kent, Connecticut and had a brother who played for the New York Yankees. No one, that is, except for Andy Stirnweiss.

Mr. Stirnweiss lives on the Kent/New Milford border but has called Kent home for most of his 81 years, retiring as a captain in the U.S. Navy following a 26-year career. Originally from the Bronx and the son of a New York City cop, he remembers cows and farms in the days when the borough was still remote from the city.

He found Kent by way of the Schneider family from the Macedonia section of town and the Imberts, who lived in the Bog Hollow area just over the line. The three families could all trace their ancestry to the same region of Germany more than a century ago and the Stirnweiss family came to Kent for visits when he was a kid.

“We used to come and visit the Blanks when they had the Bull’s Bridge Inn,” Mr. Stirnweiss explained last Friday at his home. His father loved the inn and the town and soon enough the family bought a red brick home on Birch Hill Lane.

Still powerfully built, he looks a man not to be messed with but he peppers his conversation with a dry wit and the understated modesty typical of his generation of veterans.

From the time he joined the Navy in 1942 he flew more than 50 different kinds of military aircraft including single and twin engines, turbo props, seaplanes, helicopters and jets. He served in many capacities including as a bomber and missile pilot, but spent the majority of his time as a test pilot during the burgeoning era of high-tech flight in the 1950s. After stints at the Pentagon “pushing papers” as he derisively described it, he served as navigator of the U.S.S. Kittyhawk aircraft carrier in the early 1960s as he neared the end of his career. He wanted to spend more time with his wife, Emilie, and their young family he said.

“I don’t know of any other woman I ever knew that would put up with the stuff she did as a military wife,” he said. “I’d run off and leave her with the kids and she kept the family going.”

the couple spent their first years together in the 1940s in Hawaii, where their first two daughters were born. Soon after the Navy sent him to UCLA for advanced training and the young family lived in California. They moved around a bit more until settling back in Kent in the mid-1950s.

He remembers a tongue-in-cheek pact he made with Emilie early in the marriage.

“I told my wife before we got married that I guaranteed she was going to love me half the time because I’d be away half the time,” he said with a laugh. “Whether she loved me or hated me she’d be happy half the time.”

“She was the nicest person you ever met in your life,” interjected his daughter, Lyn, while flipping through old photographs with him.

Before he met his wife his brother, George, was already making quite a name for himself on the diamond with the New York Yankees. George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss, as he was nicknamed, was the Yanks’ starting second baseman throughout the 1940s and into the 50s, winning the batting title in 1945 and playing on four World Series Championship teams. Snuffy – nicknamed for his penchant for snuff and because he resembled and old-time comedian – was also drafted by the New York Giants to play pro football as a quarterback, but chose baseball instead. He later taught at the Canterbury School during the off-season coaching baseball and football.

Andy Stirnweiss never considered sports as a career, however. While he had athletic ability, he said it didn’t show up in the same way as with his brother, who had amazing foot-speed.

He got to see George play a lot in the minor leagues, but after World War II erupted there were fewer opportunities to see him play. Nevertheless, he did watch him in action in New York and in Boston on occasion and citizens in Kent used to get groups together to travel to the Bronx to cheer on their neighbor.

What was it like having a brother on the Yanks during the golden era of baseball?

“I got tickets,” he joked. “I was dating a very attractive girl one time and she was a Yankees fan and I brought her down to the game one day. We met George in the locker room after the game then went to a steak house for dinner with the team.

“The three of us went in and half the Yankee team was in there and we sat down with them. This girl was a big Yankee fan and boy, my ratings went up,” he said, laughing.

He remembers his brother – who was five years his senior – as “a great guy and a nice man” and credits him with taking care of the family after their father passed away at a young age. Tragically, George died young himself, in 1958, the result of a train accident in New Jersey. Unlike his brother, George did not like to fly and his niece remembers he almost missed the train that day.

“He actually missed the train, then he ran to catch it,” Lyn said. “That’s how fast he was. Unfortunately, he did catch the train.

“They were grooming him to take over the Yankees as manager,” his brother said, describing his rise as manager through the minor leagues following his playing career. “He knew more about baseball than anybody. After he moved away, he’d come up and visit once in a while and one of the things he always wanted to do was see (notorious Kent resident) Lem Segar. George claimed [Segar] knew more about baseball than any player he ever knew.”

Andy Stirnweiss remains close to his brother’s family.

Mr. Stirnweiss gained his fighter pilot’s wings two years after entering the service and saw action in World War II and Korea before moving on to post-graduate studies in Monterey, California. In the mid-1950s he became a test pilot and entered the navy experimental squadron VX4 at the naval Missile Center in Point Mugu, CA. Much of the testing involved aircraft carriers.

“There are one-seventeenth as many accidents on a carrier as there used to be,” he said, referring to the straight deck carriers that have since been replaced by the angled-deck variety. “The hairiest thing I ever did was landing on a carrier at night under the old conditions – a straight deck with practically no lights on. You used your instruments to get your time turnaround but at the last minute you had to eyeball it.”

He completed more than 450 carrier landings on a straight deck carrier and plenty more on angled decks, and made the first carrier landings with the Grumman A3 Bomber in 1963.

“Angled decks don’t count,” he joked. “They’re easy.”

He won numerous medals during his flying days but downplays any personal accomplishments.

“I thought it was great,” he said of his career. “I enjoyed all of the flying. The more experimental it was, the more fun it was.”

He had two tours of duty in the Korean War, flying both the Corsair F4U as well as jets. His training and testing became increasingly sophisticated as the years passed and he Cold War intensified. He was one of the first fliers to attempt dropping atom bomb shells from jets in the early 1950s.

“The jets were easier,” he said of avoiding trouble during war. “You’re going like hell and you drop your bombs from the higher distances.”

He was shot at during his career but managed to move through his flying career with nary a glitch – with one exception. “I bailed out between San Francisco and San Jose on the coast in a town called Atascadero,” he remembered. “My F4U was on fire at night and it was over the ocean. In a Corsair all you’ve got to do is put your head toward the back of the wing and roll out. The amazing thing was in 1943 I was taught the technique and the chute’s opening and I remembered the lecture. All I could think of was, ‘I’m glad I paid attention.’”

He landed in a coastal marsh and was picked up 25 minutes later without a scratch. His children gave him a framed front page of the San Jose Mercury News with his picture on the cover, taken the day after the near tragedy. He keeps the pull cord from his parachute as a souvenir of the 1951 event.

Through the Society of Experimental Test Pilots meetings in the 50s he met Chuck Yeager, John Glenn and many of the other notable test pilots of the time and applied to be one of the original seven Mercury astronauts in 1959. Though he didn’t make the final cut he became a friend of John Young, who twice landed on the moon and commanded the first Space Shuttle mission.

Of all the test flights Mr. Stirnweiss made, none may have been as risky as the one he made in Kent in 1945. There was a young lady who worked at Watson’s Store on Main Street and he wanted to make an impression on her and some of his friends. Though only 21 he was already an expert pilot and figured he could pull off a stunt for all to remember by flying under the Route 341 bridge across the Housatonic River, next to Kent School. A friend was going to join him but backed out when he saw how little clearance there was.

Before the flight he carefully measured the bridge and determined he had 14 feet of clearance with his Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter/bomber, which was just over 13 feet tall. The old bridge was about a foot lower than it is today and he also had to veer to the right to avoid rocks in the shallow water underneath.

“It was relatively safe and extremely stupid,” he says today.

Before he made the maneuver he buzzed the town center then headed down over the Housatonic. He made it through without incident then beat it back to his base in Rhode Island before anyone was the wiser.

No mention of the stunt has ever been made other than within a close-knit group of friends and in local legend, but on that day a complaint was filed with the state police. A subsequent check with controllers at Stewart Air Force Base in New York confirmed no maneuvers in the Kent area at that time and it was seldom mentioned ever again – on the record.

All in all, Mr. Stirnweiss feels fortunate to have survived his career and is happy with the results.

“I would have stayed more except it would have meant three or four more years at sea and we had three teenagers and a couple of little kids running around,” he said. “My wife had the five children and I decided it wasn’t worth staying in four more years and be away from the family.”

These days the retired Navy captain volunteers his time for FISH (Friend in Service Here) in Kent and is a member of Sacred Heart Church. He makes occasional visits to see his family and enjoys attending Navy reunions each year, primarily the Tailhook Reunions in Reno, Nevada. He’ll still take the controls of a plane when he gets the chance and recently flew a friend’s plane from Los Angeles to Nevada during one of the recent reunions.

“One thing I’ve learned about reunions is the older we get, the braver we were,” he joked.

Mr. Stirnweiss is hesitant to speak of his flight under the bridge over the Housatonic, somewhat ashamed of the “dumb stunt” as he calls it. As it turned out it may have been the smartest dumb thing he ever did, as later that year the young lady from Watson’s Store became Mrs. Andrew Stirnweiss and the two were happily married for more than 55 years before she passed away in 2000, raising five children, all with warm memories and rich tales to tell of a father who served in two wars, flew a daredevil flight under the Route 341 bridge, and an uncle who starred for the New York Yankees.

Originally published in the Kent Good Times Dispatch in January 2005

The Friday the 13th Part 2 theater poster from 1981

It was 1980. Most of the actors had hairstyles modeled after the cast of TV shows C.H.I.P.S. or Dallas, and the women were entering the big hair era. Horror movies had just made a comeback, perhaps inspired by director John Carpenter’s Halloween, released in 1978 to rave reviews.

In Kent, Warren and New Preston, it was time to film Friday the 13^th, Part 2, featuring Jason, the horrid goon who would star in a series of movies wearing his trademark hockey goalie mask. Paramount Pictures filmed the movie and used local talent to provide the background characters.

The 87-minute Friday the 13^th, Part 2 was rated R and may have rankled some of the locals when it was released because of its brutality. The movie was set in the bucolic surroundings of Camp Kenmont and he Bromica Lodge in Kent, as well as The Casino, in New Preston, located on West Shore Road. A new house now stands on the site – The Casino having burned down just a couple years later under mysterious circumstances.

Part 2 was directed by Steve Miner and featured Jason before he donned his hockey gear, when he wore only a white sheet over his head with an opening for an eye. Residents in New Preston must have wondered what was happening in the town center when they saw a pickup truck used in one of the first shots of the movie stop in the village. A young man and woman bolt from the truck, headed for the phone booth where Eleven Main Street now stands. In a flash, a tow truck from Dowler’s Garage was on the vehicle, towing it away as part of the plot.

Lloyd Albin of Kent owned and ran Camp Kenmont at the time and had about 80 people living at his camp for the filming during September and October of 1980. He was first contacted by a location scout who was considering a number of camps in the area as a setting for the film. The timing was good, as the children from summer camp had just gone home.

A look at a draft of the script left Mr. Albin skeptical.

“I recommended a number of camps to them because I wasn’t anxious to have them in my own camp, thinking that they would wreck the place,” he said with a laugh. Eventually, however, he decided to allow filming on the premises.

“What we had was the ideal situation because we could accommodate the people,” he related.

Lloyd Albin of Kent, CT displays the "head" of Jason's mother, used as a prop in the movie "Friday the 13th Part 2." Photo by Bob Deakin

He had a full-time chef still on the premises and charged the crew room and board to live in the bungalows, many of which were used in the film. The camp also had an expanse of woods where Jason’s rickety shack could be built and it bordered North Spectacle Lake, where more shots were filmed. Bromica Lodge, owned by the late Janet Gordon, was next door on the waterfront, and served as the camp counselors’ lodge in the movie.

The plot of the movie involved about a dozen young people who were training to be camp counselors near an old camp where a couple of vicious murders had taken place a few years before, in the original Friday the 13^th.

“That’s camp blood,” warned Ted, played by actor Stu Charno early in the movie. “You don’t want to hear about it, man, believe me.” Such was the dialog and the constant temptation for the characters to poke around looking for signs of the haunting legend that lurked nearby. They quickly found it.

Friday the 13^th, Part 2 had one of the highest body counts in horror movie history, and a graphic killing could be expected with nearly every scene change. Even one of the wheelchair-bound counselors didn’t escape the wrath of the ax-wielding maniac.

One of the few conditions that Mr. Albin insisted upon was that no panoramic shots of his camp be used.

“It wouldn’t help the enrollment,” he added, “if the kids knew that Jason was swimming in the same lake as they were.”

Finally, he remembers, the movie makers decided his camp offered the best location and moved in. Still concerned about the prospect of a horror film being made at his camp and potential damage to it, an agreement was made that the production company would put up a bond in the event any damage was done.

Mr. Albin was pleasantly surprised to find the crew polite and well behaved. One of his employees even got a speaking part I the film as an extra.

“They ate very well and it was like having another group of counselors coming in” he said. “They were all very nice, outgoing people. It was a pleasure to have had them there.”

The crew worked nights and slept during the day. Breakfast was served at 11 p.m. and dinner at 7 a.m.

“It was like a Stephen King novel. If you drove in during the day no one would be around but then all these people started appearing late in the afternoon.”

Laurie Potter of Warren lived on Davis Road at the time of the filming and was still celebrating the birth of her son that August. She had coincidentally named him Jason, not knowing about the film to be shot just beyond her back yard, and noticed signs along her road directing people to “Jason.”

Her son’s feeding schedule coincided with the filming schedule.

“Because I would get up in the middle of the night, I turned my lights on,” she remembers. “They were doing night filming on the lake and I was right on the other side.”

The light was picked up by the cameras and one of the production assistants (PR) stopped by her home one afternoon requesting that she cover her windows at night, and was given the materials to do so. Ms. Potter had no problem complying and remembers that she and and the PR had a laugh discussing the recent birth of her son.

“She said she had heard that I just had a son and named him Jason and she said, ‘you don’t want him to be named after this Jason.’”

One day, roughly 100 extras were bused up from New York to The Casino in New Preston and the producer came to Mr. Albin in a panic after learning that the caterer for the day had canceled. Mr. Albin and his chef came to the rescue.

“I took my chef and we set up two 55-gallon half drums in the parking lot of The Casino and we cooked lunch for about 200,” he said.

Friday the 13^th, Part 2was released in May 1981 and some of the actors called to ask Mr. Albin for his permission to have a reunion camp out on his property.

“Of course I said yes and they had a great time,” he said. “When they left, they told me that they had left me a souvenir and I said ‘thank you but forget about it.’”

Soon after, one of his real camp counselors was shocked to find one of the heads used in a decapitation scene hanging from a tree in a net. The actors also left him the sign for “Camp Crystal Lake” and he saves both to this day.

Mick Deakin of Brookfield was an extra in the movie. He heard about the casting call on the radio and went up with a couple friends for a quick audition and got the part.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “It was my first filming experience. You do a lot of standing around and waiting.”

He appeared in the scenes shot in The Casino, dancing with a girl in front of the band, The Smokey Boys, who were an actual band in the area at the time. He remembers one of the male leads in the movie was somewhat full of himself – perhaps choosing not to step out of his character in the movie – but that the rest of the cast and crew were friendly. In particular, Amy Steel, the female lead, made it a point to spend time with the locals and even joined them in games of tabletop bowling in the bar.

“It was a great experience, overall,” he said. “The band was lip-syncing and the coolest thing was that they had to do the dialog in the next room.”

The extras were not paid for their efforts but all got t-shirts with the inscription, “I was an extra in Friday the 13^th, Part 2.” For added comfort, the bar at The Casino remained open for the entire evening.

The Kent and Warren volunteer fire departments also helped, creating artificial rain.

“I was fire chief then and we went up there and sprayed the hoses up against the Bromica Lodge to make it look like rain,” remembers former Kent First Selectman, Bill Tobin. “We weren’t really involved in much else of the production but they gave us a nice donation.”

Long-time Kent resident and attorney, Boone Moore, was also called to assist, lending animals for the film.

Mr. Albin remembered a particularly memorable night of shooting. “As careful as they were, the guy who was playing Jason got a gash on his arm filming the scene where the girls try to fight him off with a chain saw,” he said. “They brought him to Sharon Hospital with the fake ax still imbedded in his head and took about 28 stitches. They told me he said to the nurse ‘I have an awful headache.’ and caused quite a commotion at the hospital.”

Over the years, he said, about 20 or 30 cult followers of the movie series have come to his camp in search of Jason’s old shack or other mementos. He had the shack removed following the filming to prevent it becoming a tourist attraction and bothering the neighbors.

The budget for the movie was about $1 million. Reviews were awful but it did well at the box office, grossing approximately $19 million (opening the same day as The Shining) and DVD rentals continue to accumulate revenue.”

It had one of the longest pre-credit sequences in movie history – nearly 15 minutes – which made it unique and added to its cult status. Whenever anyone refers to a horror movie of the 70s and 80s, Friday the 13^th, Part 2 is always in the discussion and will be for generations.

It may be a tough movie for some to watch, but shots of camps, roads and homes in the area provide a good reminder of the way the area and its people looked in 1980. They may or may not be proud, but they remember, but their memories are forever captured on film, albeit it a horror story.

Portions of this story were originally published in The Kent Good Times Dispatch and The Litchfield County Times in late October, 2004.

Copyright 2010

The Hexen Haus Gang from left; John, Hazel, Dan, Dave, Kirk and Wayne.

They went ahead with the release, nonetheless, and the Hexen Haus Gang’s debut album, Tupelo Hahny (There’s No Place Like Hahn) album was on its way to the charts with an indelible image cast upon record buyers for generations to come.

This story is not true but I must admit I’ve had such visions of this photo and my own imaginary story behind it since I began staring at it in 1976 as a 10 year-old. My brother Dave is at front and center looking rather pensive, his circular belt buckle at the center of the photo and in the best focus.

I have always realized first and foremost that this is a photo of U.S. Air Force personnel during the Vietnam War and that they all had stressful and dangerous jobs in a stressful place during a stressful time, to say the least. Anyone involved during wartime in the military is experiencing the toughest things life can throw at them at any moment. I don’t for a minute forget that, make light of it or fail to be completely amazed at the tasks accomplished during these times.

Looking at this photo over the years, however, my mind has wondered and wandered.

“Why is this guy at the far left making such a funny face?”

“What is the girl looking at?”

“Why is Dave looking at the ground?”

“Why is that hat in the tree and what’s the thing underneath it?”

“What’s the picture on that button on the chest of the guy in the suspenders?”

“Is the guy on the far right leaning on his buddy for the photo or does he really need help standing up?”

“Where does the trunk of the tree meet the ground?”

“How come the guy kneeling down is the only one making direct eye contact with the camera?”

“How come everyone in the photo looks so, let’s say, sedated?”

A picture is worth a thousand words so it is said and this is the perfect example. To calculate the shades of gray would be impossible. It must have been taken during a warm winter day if not during early spring judging by the stage of vegetation. The angles, depths, fog, protrusion of the tree branches, whiteness of the ground and somber mood make for a brilliant photograph. Fortunately everyone was wearing mostly dark-colored clothing in front of a dark-colored tree for definition.

I’ve always been able to place myself at the scene in the mood of the subjects even though I have no idea of the story behind it. I don’t know if it was a happy time, sad, complacent or whatever. I’ve learned that those in the photo knew each other very well and that they lived in the same house together but beyond that it’s their own secret. I speculate that it was an off day for everyone based on their dress and that they were somewhat reluctant to pose for the photo. I’m glad they took a couple minutes to stand still and I bet they are too.

Other interesting points of the photo include the sprouting wheat-looking plant in front of Dan. The plant couldn’t be placed any more directly in front of him, almost eliminating him. One branch of the tree, also, has seemingly cut off John at the throat, and his expression reflects that.

I have always wondered what music they were listening to when the photo was taken. Of course, Neil Young’s Harvest album comes to mind. “Twenty-four and so much more” must have been uttered once or twice at a get together of these folks in 1972, even though they all were probably a few years short of their 24^th.

I’d be willing to bet that Derek and the Dominoes, Beatles solo albums, Cat Stevens, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Yes, perhaps Randy Newman (I hope) and other acts of the time must have been on the play list in this home. I’d also venture to guess that the smoking of a certain green vegetable was popular in this household, as was the ingestion of a certain sliver of paper sharing the same initials as the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

I don’t accuse. I merely suspect; and that comes from personal experience.

I’ve always wished that I could have lived in that Hexen Haus. I bet I would have fit in well if I was a few years older. I’m certain of that and I bet the gang holds those memories dear to their hearts. It was a time and a place they all probably had no plans of being in but made the best of it.

I’ve idolized my brother Dave since I was old enough to idolize anyone and any place he was I would have enjoyed. Perhaps the most gifted, intelligent conversationalist I have ever met, I would have been beside myself in his element at that time. I had the pleasure of living with him for a year or so a few years ago and it was one of the best times of my life. Any subject I wanted to explore I could count on him to enlighten me, particularly concerning planes, technology, politics or the German language. Nothing has changed through the years and I cherish the time we have together.

I remember when he got back to the states after his term in the Air Force. It coincided with my tenth birthday and I considered it the best birthday present I’d ever had. In previous years Dave would call home from Germany from time to time and every once in a while I would get to talk to him. It seemed like he was calling from the moon it was so far away to me at the time.

The family couldn’t have been more excited when he finally came home in 1975. I lived in a house with two sisters and three brothers before he arrived and we couldn’t have been happier to have the ninth member of the family back home. I finally had my oldest brother back home for the first time since I was a toddler, and really for the first time in my life.

What a great guy he was. He seemed to know everything about everything that I’d ever wanted to know. Not in an arrogant way but just by the questions I would ask him, and I asked a lot of them. He could identify any aircraft on TV, overhead or anywhere, seemingly by the sound before he even saw it.

Me, my brothers and sisters now had another character in the house, and a worldly one at that. We were all growing up at various ages-all younger than Dave-and, nothing against my parents, he had a new, entirely different perspective on which to see things. Nixon had resigned and I didn’t know why but now Dave was home and I knew Nixon had something to do with him being away for so long. We were just glad he came home as we had neighbors who wished their sons had been able to but would never be able to.

He moved in to the attack of our house when he got back and he had an electric guitar and a great stereo system. At ten I had already begun a good collection of albums, took great care of them and was a burgeoning authority on the music business and who played on whose tracks. Dave allowed me up to his room when I wanted to visit and even gave me permission (I think) to go up there and play an album from time to time when he wasn’t around. I took that privilege when I could and still remember hearing my Monkees and Allman Brothers albums in high fidelity for the first time. Nothing like it and those albums still don’t sound as good on CD as they did on his turntable, as do most albums.

I don’t know if he played his guitar much but it is our family’s M.O. to be musically talented and be reluctant to let anyone know about it. I now play the guitar a little bit but have been a drummer since then and still have my chops and play the occasional gig. To see and handle an electric guitar at the time, however, was like having the keys to the rock & roll world. I learned a few chords and years later remembered them and took it from there. Still haven’t recorded my first album but I have scored a couple really bad movies of my own playing the guitar and other instruments. Thanks Dave.

It’s been almost two years since I called Dave one night after thinking about the picture of the Hexen Haus gang. I hadn’t seen it in a couple years and knew it was deteriorating in that old picture frame he had it in and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I came up with the idea of having it scanned into a high quality digital photo. I would pay for it and get a digital copy of it as well as a high-quality giclee print of my own.

I called Dave and asked him if I could do so and asked him what happened to all of the people in the photo. He was all for the digital copy of the photo as he still had it hanging in his living room. I was a newspaper reporter and had gotten good at tracking people down so I offered to find them all if he would allow. He did and I set off on a search that lasted months.

The first obvious place to start was the Internet. I punched the names of each of the gang onto various search engines and people finders but got know where. I then searched phone records throughout the United States and got a list of possible matches, did a little reasoning, and called Dave back and asked where some of these people might have wound up. He figured John and Hazel were in England as that’s where they were from, that Wayne was from the upper northwest and that he had no idea where the rest of them were.

I wasn’t about to make my search public and enter every Vietnam vet chat room I could find looking for these people, but I did search every Vietnam vet site and chat room I could find, punching in names but never submitting an email of my own out of respect of my brother’s and his friend’s privacy. I got nowhere but I saw that there was a lot of communication going on and held out hope.

I continued to search the Internet and knew that some of the names of the Hexen Haus gang might be misspelled so I kept that in mind. I searched info on air traffic controllers, radio-ops and anyone else who might have served in the Air Force in the early to mid 1970s, particularly at Hahn Air Base. I found thousands who had but none of the chosen six.

One night, getting close I thought, based on info garnered from the Internernet, I called a bank in England asking if perhaps Hazel worked there. The woman on the other end of the line couldn’t have been nicer but I had struck out. Indeed, a Hazel worked there but she was in her early 20s and not the one I was looking for.

Eventually, I settled on two web sites that were genuine to Vietnam vets’ searches for their long lost brethren. There wasn’t a lot of marketing garbage associated with them and I monitored the messages for two months then decided that I felt comfortable sending one of my own. I sent a message that stated I was looking for anyone who’d served with Dave, Kirk, John, Hazel, Dan or Wayne at Hahn Air Base in the early 70s.

As it turns out, I’d had the spellings of the last names of Kirk, John and Hazel completely wrong, which I’d suspected. Nonetheless, a month later I got a reply from Kirk, stating that he was pleasantly surprised with the inquiry, confirming he was one of the Hexen Haus Gang in the photo.

When I checked my email that day I couldn’t have been bloody floggin’ happier. I’d gotten one of the missing five and he knew the whereabouts of four of the other five. I called my brother that night and he confirmed a couple misspellings and looked forward to talking to Kirk, which I was looking forward to more than anything. I figured he hadn’t talked to any of them since the 70s and was hoping they’d have a good catching up and he’d eventually re-connect with the rest of them. I take it they did but it was none of my business so I didn’t really follow up on the reunion chat.

I’ll take this opportunity to state that it has been an odd pursuit of mine to search for the subjects of this photo. Other than my brother I have no ties whatsoever to any of them and I think he may have looked at me somewhat cross-eyed over the phone when I asked him if I could search for them after almost 30 years. I knew he didn’t hang the photo in his residences – all of which I had visited – for no reason for that long so I figured it must mean something to him. Therefore I decided to take the leap. I have friends I’ve lost contact with over the years that I would love to get in touch with, but there is no hope of doing so. None whatsoever, and that is a shame.

A good thing that has come out of this for me is a great correspondence with the first one of them that I found. We’ve never seen each other in person or spoken on the phone but I have exchanged countless emails and I have the utmost respect for him and his cooperation, honesty, his Web site and willingness to communicate. I was a stranger to him and he took the leap to trust me in my pursuits.

Without getting to sentimental, life is a series of times and places that form our memories and life experiences. Of course many are good and many are bad and most are somewhere in between. I saw this picture and figured this was a good time, at least an important time, for the six people in this photo. I think that’s worth revisiting for all of the above, whether they decide to do so or not. I think it’s worthwhile to connect with old friends regardless of all you’ve been through over the years.

I hope they do and I hope to meet them too, one of these days.

Written by Bob Deakin and originally published in the Orlando Sentinel on September 24, 2005
Photo courtesy of Terri Latner

Copyright 2005 Orlando Sentinel

Hidden deep in the woods of Warren, Connecticut, on Keith Road are massive steel sculptures created by the late abstract artist Alexander Liberman. In the early 1960s, the painter and photographer needed help venturing into a new medium and neighbor Bill Layman lent a hand.

Originally from Maine, Mr. Layman had a repair shop nearby, down the hill from a shop owned by his brother-in-law, Ed Keith.

“I started branching out on my own little construction company, and had a couple pieces of equipment and I built that building to repair it,” Mr. Layman said. An internationally known artist and the editorial director of Condé Nast Publications, Mr. Liberman lived in the area and needed help holding the metal pieces he was welding together for sculptures. “After a while I could see that he couldn’t weld so I made a couple suggestions and he asked if I could weld.”

Mr. Layman, a quick study, became proficient with the craft, and his assistance soon became a full-time occupation and stayed that way for the next 30 years. Eventually, he would bring two of his sons into the business and they, too, worked for Mr. Liberman and occasionally for other artists. Mr. Liberman passed away in 1999 at the age of 87, and the Laymans have since moved on to help artists and non-artists alike.

The family has worked on, or repaired, the works of sculptors from around the globe as word of the quality of their work and their precision has spread. They credit New York art conservator Steven Tatti for some of the connections, and modestly acknowledge their own attention to detail and quality. They have assisted local artists such as Dave Colbert, Cheryl Smith and Peter Woytuk, and have repaired or helped restore works by Mark di Suvero, George Rickey, Isaac Witkin and many others.

Mr. Layman’s two sons, Ken and Keith, learned the craft from their father, but all three are otherwise self-taught, though Ken and Keith are both certified structural welders. Ken is now president of W.J. Layman & Sons Inc. and Keith is vice president.

The senior Mr. Layman still owns the business, though recent health problems have forced him to cut back on his work. He still helps out, however, and can be spotted at the shop every day.

“I don’t weld anymore,” he said recently, with a chuckle. “I think my days of the hard work are about over.”

Welding, custom fabrications and repair and refinishing of fine artworks are the services provided by W.J. Layman & Sons, Inc., though no two jobs are ever alike. On a recent autumn day, a large mower attachment for a farm tractor sat in the middle of the shop, its owner depending on having it back soon to keep up with chores on the farm.

Not lacking for work, the family recently hired a full-time welder, Woody Rahm, to help keep up with the projects and added a heavy duty, high-precision cutting machine a couple years ago.

“We’ve been to a lot of major cities in the United States and Dad’s been all over the world for Alex, either overseeing projects or going to look at a particular project with a sculpture,” Ken said, adding that he met his wife in Seattle on such an excursion.

Most projects now come to them in Warren.

“Mr. Tatti has clients all over the country and if it’s a job they want him to take care of, he brings the work to us,” Keith said, adding that the Laymans have worked with the conservator for the better part of 15 years.

“He’s got the type of clientele who calls him up at 10 o’clock in the morning and says, ‘I’ve booked you on the Concorde for two o’clock,” Ken chimed in. “You’ve got to fly to Italy and look at this piece for me.”

Keith Layman described how a sculpture by Daniel Chester French, who created the Lincoln Memorial, was damaged during an attempted heist.

“It was sent to Steve from the Midwest and was damaged. Somebody tried to steal it and ripped the base. It ripped right through the signature so Steve had to bring that to us and we worked about three days on it. When we were finished you could not tell there was ever any repair done to that piece.”

“When we were working for Alex, a lot of the time he didn’t want to see welds or bolts,” he noted. “He just wanted this thing to look like it had grown there.”

Sculptor Denis Curtiss of Kent sells his steel sculptures all over the country and uses the Laymans’ services to cut his steel and make an occasional weld. With their teaching, he has become a skilled welder himself.

“They are wonderful,” Mr. Curtiss said. “We’re both mechanics and we’re able to speak a common language.”

The Laymans can work from simple sketches or complex, computer-generated drawings.

“What Denis brings me is a sketch on a piece of paper, and I take that and I digitize it through the computer system and with our computer-controlled abrasive waterjet cutter, I’m cutting exactly what he wants,” Ken replied. “I give him finished pieces ready to weld together.”

The waterjet sprays a variably controlled stream of water and crushed garnet with more than 50,000 pounds pressure-a kind of accelerated erosion-to cut the material.

“It doesn’t melt the material, it erodes it,” Bill said. “No heat. No distortion.”

The expensive piece of equipment takes up about a 15-by-20-square-foot space in one of the two shops the Laymans have, and it can cut a 6-by-12-foot piece. The pieces to be cut rest on a slotted grate that floats above three feet of water. The waterjet can cut steel, glass, stone, marble, titanium, wood and any material-except tempered glass-up to four inches thick.

Ken handles the computer setup of the waterjet, which is accurate within ten-thousandths of an inch. The garnet does the cutting and is recycled while the water is filtered and brought back into the tank.

As for the projects requested by their clients, the Laymans said the majority are ornamental, though not always for an artist.

“The waterjet has been a real boost to the business because [there are] so many different mediums that we can work [with],” Keith said. “Before, it was basically steel, bronze and aluminum. Now we’re incorporating more stone and tile.”

“We’ve always worked with the artist, and we felt that our business was stagnant the way we were operating it and we needed to get into a wider base of clientele,” Ken divulged. “We needed to be able to handle the contractor who is building $2 million homes. We needed to handle the structural steel and the decorative stuff that was going into those homes. We needed to be able to handle the artists who have a $500,000 piece of art that needs repair.”

Yet the Laymans can still take on work from the local contractor who damaged a piece of equipment or is building a railing for a porch.

“That was one of Woody’s comments,” Ken said, referring to his fellow welder’s observation about fabricating metal pieces by hand as opposed to buying ready made parts at a Home Depot. “He said, ‘I never realized what it took to put together a railing-all the steps that go into it to make it look the way it needs to look for a particular client.’”

“Vilma Kurzer is an excellent case,” Keith said of the Kent artist who has made sculptures of birds and other beings from found objects. “When she came up here we kind of got a kick out of it because Liberman started out the same way. She said people were saying, ‘What’s that junk?’ or ‘What are you doing?’ but we understood what she was doing. This was what she wanted to do and we helped her get there.”

A six-day work week is often the norm at the business, but there are also children to bring to soccer games and other matters to take car
e of. Ken Layman is a selectman in Warren and Keith is chief of the ambulance crew and a firefighter.

“It’s tough to run a business in a small town and volunteer because there are so few people,” Keith said. “The last five years it’s been Kenny and I-Dad’s more or less retired-so when you lose 50 percent of your workforce for two and a half hours in the middle of the day that hurts.”

“Living in a small town, you’ve got to have it,” Ken said of the volunteer service.

It seems that the Laymans are simply a dedicated family, in all their endeavors, which explains why the business has plenty of projects in the works. “The phone keeps on ringing,” Ken said. “One job goes out the door, two more come in.”

(Originally published in The Litchfield County Times in 2004)

Copyright 2004