Monthly Archives: June 2025

Talking Transportation: There’s Still Some Unfinished Business

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Jim Cameron

The end of June has a sense of finality. School wraps up, celebratory parties are held and everyone looks forward to the summer. But there’s a lot of unfinished business on the transportation front worth remembering.

AMTRAK AVELIA:
Whatever happened to Amtrak’s promise to have the new Acela trains in service “by the spring”? The initial contract for 28 train sets was signed in 2016 with the first prototype of the sleek nine-car sets delivered for testing in 2020. The plan was for all the new trains to be running between Washington and Boston by 2022.

Computer simulations found problems as real life testing continued. By 2024 the hope was for the new trains to be running by now. But we’re still waiting. Amtrak’s only explanation for the latest delays is “crew testing.”

The new trains have been sighted in New Jersey (where maximum speeds of 160 mph are possible on short stretches of track) but I’ve not seen Avelia on Connecticut tracks … yet.

DIGITAL DRIVERS LICENSES:
In September 2021 the Connecticut DMV and Governor Lamont announced that ours would be among the first states to allow smartphone users to show a digital version of their driver’s license on their devices. To date, 17 states offer such options. But still not Connecticut.

When I last asked DMV what was delaying the launch, their PR team gave me some boilerplate answer about “testing” and “security”… but no announced date for the launch.

How can California have solved those issues but we can’t?

WALK BRIDGE:
Built in 1896, this crucial rail bridge in South Norwalk has a history of problems. In one year alone the bridge was stuck 16 out of 271 times it opened. Now it’s undergoing a $1.5 billion rebuild, not just of the bridge but its supports and nearby tracks. The IMAX theater in the adjacent Maritime Museum was demolished to make way, but work on the bridge structure itself is still years away. The removal of the existing tower structure for overhead wires is scheduled to begin in 2026 with the new bridge (finally!) being finished in 2029.

DARIEN TRAIN STATION:
Last rebuilt in 2003, the station’s platforms were starting to crumble. By 2018 it was clear that CDOT would have to replace them. The $40 million contract called for first-of-their-kind heated platforms, obviating the need for corrosive salt to melt ice and snow. Half of the platforms were removed and the station waiting room was closed.

But now, years later, construction delays and problems with the electrical system have slowed the work, initially promised to be done by now. It’s hoped the first half of the new platforms may be ready later this summer. Then the other half of the platforms will be demolished and rebuilt. By March 2026 the work will (hopefully) be done and the station’s 1800+ daily commuters will be able to use the new station platforms.

Engineering projects take time. But with every ceremony celebrating the launch of a new project there are overly-optimistic promises of speedy completion. The pols take the credit while we just wait and grow more cynical watching the costs rise.

Editor’s Notes: i) Jim Cameron is the founder of the Commuter Action Group and advocates for Connecticut rail riders. He writes a weekly column called ‘Talking Transportation,’ which is published by a number of publications in the state.
ii) ”Talking Transportation” recently won first place in the general column/commentary category in the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Contest.

‘David Ruggles Week’ Concludes at Lyme Library with Painting of Community Mural Celebrating Ruggles, Saturday

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Acclaimed Local Artist Nancy Gladwell to Lead Mural Creation

LYME, CT—Lyme Public Library hosts a special ‘David Ruggles Week’ next week from Monday, June 23, through Saturday, June 28. To register to attend any of the events listed below in person ot to receive the Zoom meeting invitation, email programreg@lymepl.org or call 860- 434- 2272.

The schedule of programs is as follows:

June 23  (Monday) @ 6 p.m.
Local historian Jim Lampos will discuss the life, work and, historical impact of the African-American Abolitionist and Lyme native son David Ruggles.on American society
Lyme Library Community Room or Zoom

June 24  (Tuesday) @  6 p.m.
Professor and historian Dr. Jonathan Wells, Professor in the history of Afroamerican and African studies, will be appearing via Zoom to speak about his book “The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War”. Dr. Wells will recount how journalist, abolitionist and Lyme native son, David Ruggles, worked tirelessly, and at the risk of his own life to bring to light the injustices of institutional corruption that allowed slavery to continue to flourish in America on the eve of the American Civil War. 

Wednesday, June 25 @ 2 p.m. (Zoom)
Local historian Tom Schuch will be speaking about the Ruggles legacy and his genealogical connections to Lyme via Zoom.

Thursday, June 26th @ 6 p.m. (Zoom)
Dr. Graham Hodges, author of “David Ruggles: A Radical Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City” will speak about how David Ruggles saved lives via the Underground Railroad.

Saturday, June 28 2-4 p.m.
Calling artists of all ages to help make history happen at the library!

Local artist Nancy Gladwell, who is a member of PARJE (Public Art for Racial Justice Education), will be assisting all the artists (no age limit so adults and children are encouraged to attend) to come by and participate in painting a mural for the Lyme Library about the hero, abolitionist and Lyme native son, David Ruggles. The mural created will be proudly displayed in the library upon its completion.

Come in and help promote and participate in the legacy of racial justice that Mr. Ruggles fought so hard to uphold and make history happen at the Lyme Library.

Drop ins welcome. Refreshments will be provided.

Editor’s Note: This report was updated to correct the date of the final event.

Longstanding Foundation Gives Almost Half a Million Dollars to College Students From Lyme, Old Lyme

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The MacCurdy Salisbury Educational Foundation recently awarded grants to 26 students. Standing, left to right: Manu Geronimo, Caleb Todzia, Mason Freer, Simon Karpinski, Ryan Shapiro, Micah Bass, Chloe Datum, Thomas Kabel, Tabitha Colwell, Erin Durant, Lily Esposito, Samantha Fiske and Paige Phaneuf. Seated, left to right: Abigail Greene, Abby Griffith, Audrey Spiegel, Nola Slubowski and Ada LaConti. Award recipients not pictured:
Gloria Conley, Caeli Edmed, Grace Ferman, Christopher Gibbons, Lana Lopes, Elias Sahadi, Kelly Sheehan and Charlotte Tinniswood.

LYME/OLD LYME—On June 17, the MacCurdy Salisbury Educational Foundation honored 26 graduating seniors during a reception at the Lyme Art Association.

Foundation President Fred Behringer said there are 94 students from Lyme and Old Lyme currently receiving grants through the program. The awards continue for all four years of college, trade school, or other post-high school training, as long as GPA and Lyme-Old Lyme residency requirements are met.

Total awards amount to $448,500 for the 2025-26 academic year, according to Behringer.

Behringer said grants for this year’s graduating seniors come in at $118,100.

The grants are based on need.

Evelyn MacCurdy Salisbury established the foundation in 1893.

W.E.S. Griswold Award recipient Simon Karpinski, right, and Willis Umberger Award recipient Ryan Shapiro were honored June 17.

Three students also earned $500 special achievement awards.

Simon Karpinski, who will be attending Harvard University, received the W.E.S. Griswold Award. Incoming Columbia University student Ryan Shapiro received the Willis Umberger Award. Caeli Edmed was awarded the Rowland Ballek Leadership Scholarship for a student who has demonstrated leadership in the school and community by organizing, mobilizing or inspiring others. Edmed will attend Yale.

The special awards honor Bill Griswold, president of the foundation from 1965 to 1992; Willis Umberger, secretary/treasurer from 1966 to 1986; and Rowland Ballek, president for 20 years until he retired in 2022.

I-Park Welcomes Visitors at First Open Studios of Season, June 29

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Ted Efremoff’s Floating Living Room, Iteration #4, is shown in this photo by Christina Goldberg.

EAST HADDAM—I-Park, a nonprofit artists’ colony set within a 450-acre nature preserve in East Haddam, will hold its first Open Studios event of the season from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 29.

The organization in a press release said artists will be in their studios, or at their artworks, from 2 to 4 p.m. to share glimpses into their creative process and the work they’ve developed during their time at I-Park. Visitors should try to arrive at 2 p.m. to experience all of the art, including the inaugural public launch of Ted Efremoff’s Floating Living Room. 

Tickets are free at i-park.org.

The artists’ colony adjoining Devil’s Hopyard State Park is generally closed to visitors to give the artists undisturbed time to work on their creative endeavors. I-Park opens its grounds at the conclusion of each four-week residency.

Visitors will have the opportunity to meet the following eight artists:

New York-based visual artist Stephanie Beck earned an M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally. Most recently she presented a solo exhibition at the Wave Hill Sunroom Project Space.

David Crowell is a composer and instrumentalist (saxophones, guitar) based in New York City. His work crosses stylistic boundaries encompassing contemporary classical composition, improvisation, jazz and experimental rock and pop. David received a PhD in composition at Stony Brook University and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Saxophone Performance from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied improvisation with Ralph Alessi, Don Byron, Peter Epstein, Steve Coleman and Ravi Coltrane.

Ian Dippo is a multidisciplinary artist, landscape designer and arborist born in Michigan and based in Austin, Texas. He received a BS in Landscape Architecture from Michigan State University. I-Park is his first residency. 

CT-based interdisciplinary artist Ted Efremoff is a professor of Art and Design at CCSU.  His work deals with issues of displacement, marginalization and integration. It extends beyond explorations of human societies to the influence humans have on nature. His suspicion is that human creativity is not attached solely to the handle of art, but to ordinary activities that intersect every aspect of our lives. He is interested in the kind of literal and metaphoric travel through space and time that storytelling allows us to experience. The stories he tells focus on the creative solutions people find in living their daily lives.

Margaret Gerhardt is a transdisciplinary designer and registered landscape architect whose work bridges the digital and analog, the permanent and the impermanent, the familiar and the unknown. She holds a BFA in Industrial Design from Carnegie Mellon and a dual M.Arch/M.L.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Virginia-based visual artist Foon Sham holds a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a professor of Art at the University of Maryland, College Park and has had 50 solo exhibitions in the US and abroad, including the National Building Museum and the Smithsonian Sculpture Garden in Washington DC.

NYC-based composer Elise Morris is a professional stage/studio musician and vocalist. She has composed numerous underscores for Scholas=c Audio Books, for documentary film shorts, dance performances, sound design for plays as well as music and lyrics for musicals. In 2023, her musical “MADam LUCY, deceased” was performed at The College of William and Mary. Her 2020 album Dancin’ With The Boys, released the single “Mardi Gras” reaching #1 on US iTunes Jazz charts – and “Unto Light Unbroken” reached #37 on US singer/songwriter charts and #7 in Canada.

Sarah Wang teaches writing at Barnard College. She is a MacDowell Fellow, a NYSCA/NYFA Nonfiction Fellow, a PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, a Center for Fiction Fellow, a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow, a Kundiman Fellow, a Kenyon Review Workshop Scholar, a Tin House Scholar, and the winner of a Nelson Algren prize for fiction. Her writing appears in The New Yorker; The Atlantic; London Review of Books; The Nation; The New Republic; Harper’s Bazaar; n+1; BOMB; and McSweeney’s. Her debut novel is forthcoming from Little, Brown in 2026.

Due to the fragility of the artworks and the natural features at I-Park, pets are not permitted on the grounds. Only part of the campus is wheelchair accessible at this time.

For more information, call 860-873-2468 or email events@i-park.org.

Essex Winter Series Now Under Leadership of Renowned Flutist With Retirement of 15-year Artistic Director Mihae Lee

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Pianist Mihae Lee, left, has stepped down after 15 years as director of the Essex Winter Series. She will be succeeded by accomplished flutist Tara Helen O’Connor. Photo courtesy of the Essex Winter Series.

ESSEX–Tara Helen O’Connor has joined Essex Winter Series as its newest artistic director for the 2026 season following Mihae Lee’s retirement from the role. 

The organization in a recent press release said Lee held the leadership position for 15 years.

The group described Lee’s successor as an “exceptional musician who wishes to maintain the reputation, quality, and community commitment that her predecessor achieved.”

O’Connor, a flutist, is a charismatic performer noted for her “artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone spanning every musical era,” according to the group. 

A recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and two-time Grammy nominee, she was the first wind player invited to participate in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program. She is a recurring featured artist with the Chamber Music Society. 

O’Connor is a regular participant in numerous chamber music festivals across the country. Along with her husband Daniel Phillips, she is the newly appointed co-artistic director of the Music From Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico.

She has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Jaime Laredo, Dawn Upshaw, Eliot Fisk, Jeremy Denk, Ida Kavafian, Peter Serkin and David Shifrin. Tara is a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, the legendary Bach Aria Group and is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble. An advocate of new music, she is a member of the Talea and Cygnus Ensembles. 

O’Connor has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Bridge Records. She has just released a solo CD of American flute works entitled The Way Things Go on Bridge Records with pianist Margaret Kampmeier.

She holds a doctor of musical arts degree from Stony Brook University in New York. At the Purchase College School of the Arts Conservatory of  Music, she is an associate professor of flute, head of the woodwinds department and the coordinator of classical music studies. She also serves on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory of Music, the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music and is a visiting artist, teacher and coach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. 

Mihae Lee Legacy Concert

Lee, who became Artistic Director of Essex Winter Series in 2011 when president Fenton Brown stepped down, has been recognized by the Essex Winter Series Board of Trustees through the creation of the annual Mihae Lee Legacy Concert starting in the upcoming season. 

The group credited Lee with bringing in accomplished musicians and expanding community outreach to schools, senior communities and libraries. 

“With at least four concerts each winter and five days of outreach every year in Middlesex and New London Counties, reaching thousands, her success is clear,” the group said.