The Old Lyme Historical Society Inc.’s scholarship presentation was held at the Society’s building on Lyme Street.
OLD LYME—The Old Lyme Historical Society Inc. this week announced the recipients of two Carol Noyes Winters Scholarships. The scholarships are given to outstanding students from Lyme and Old Lyme, who intend to study history in college.
The society in a press release said scholarships were presented to Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) seniors Chloe Datum and Simon Karpinski.
Both students were involved with the National High School Mock Trial competition as “major players” in the LOLHS team’s two state championships, according to the historical society.
Chloe Datum, center, with parents Jennifer and Michael Datum. Photo courtesy of James Meehan.
Chloe Datum is the daughter of Jennifer and Michael Datum. She hopes that her study of history will guide her toward a career in the the area of policy and law. Datum will attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Simon Karpinski, center, with parents Sarah and Ben Karpinski. Photo courtesy of James Meehan.
Simon Karpinski is the son of Sarah and Ben Karpinski. He was the Valedictorian of the LOLHS Class of 2025 and hopes that his study of history will help him to attend law school and eventually practice law. He hopes to one day serve in public office. Karpinski will attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
OLD LYME –Photographer Beth Green’s Impressions of Connecticut exhibit will run at Saint Ann’s Episcopal Church through Labor Day.
The exhibit, located in the church’s Griswold Room, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon.
The church in a press release said the show focuses on scenes of shoreline Connecticut and the Connecticut River Valley, from a bend in the Lieutenant River, to a red barn in snow, to sunlight on the Long Island Sound.
It also includes several of her iconic sports photographs from the 1970s, when Green became known as the first female photographer allowed in a professional sports locker room.
A printed guide to the show includes a QR code for each photograph leading to audio narration by Green. All the photographs are available for sale.
Green’s career includes work as a photographer for international wire services and then as a photo editor for Newsweek magazine. After a decade with the magazine, she switched to architectural and corporate photography with a continued focus on using her photography skills to tell stories from a female perspective.
Green describes herself as a “a very traditional photographer” from the world of film and large format photography.
“With the advent of digital photography, the use of digital manipulations in my work is minimal,” she said. “I believe in the play of light on the subject to create my images. I crop entirely in my camera and turn my camera on the world around me as it exists. Light is my paintbrush and is the tool for my artistic license. My main interest is the image as it is in the world at that moment. There is nothing new in the world, it is how you arrange it in your viewfinder and capture the image forever at that moment.”
Green has served as a guest professor at Rutgers University and Fordham University, and has taught for the New York Institute of Photography.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the church.
Saint Ann’s Church stands serene on Shore Rd. Photo courtesy of Saint Ann’s Episcopal Church.
OLD LYME–Saint Ann’s Episcopal Church has announced enrichment programs to engage kids and adults throughout the summer.
Starting this Sunday, June 29, Saint Ann’s will offer three sessions of the Godly Play curriculum for children from 3- to 12-years-old. The Montessori-based educational program uses an interactive storytelling process to explore the mystery of God’s presence in their lives, according to the church.
Godly Play classes will take place at 9:30 a.m. on June 29, July 6 and August 3. Parents are welcome to attend Saint Ann’s worship service at 9:30 a.m. while their children are in Godly Play, with children to join their parents in the service following the lesson.
For adults, the Summer Bible Study will take place on Mondays from July 7 to Aug. 25, at 5 p.m. in the Griswold Room or via Zoom.
The focus this summer will be on the Book of Acts, which tells the stories of the faith, joys, accomplishments and struggles of the earliest followers of Jesus.
Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority Chairman Steve Cinami addresses a $7.6 million bond authorization request for sewers to First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, center, Selectman Jim Lampos, left, and Selectwoman Jude Read, right.
OLD LYME–6/22 UPDATED: Headline amended: Six years ago, a $9.5 million request to install sewers in the Sound View Beach area got the go-ahead from voters at a town-wide referendum – but the project stalled.
Now, amid inflation exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and other factors, the Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) is back with a request for another $7.6 million.
The state-led, decades-long charge to clean up Long Island Sound by ridding the area of septic systems involves a plan to require residents of three private beach associations and the public Sound View Beach community to install sewers. Continued concerns about the cost of the project and successive rounds of construction bids coming in higher than anticipated have dragged out the process.
Steve Cinami, chairman of the Old Lyme WPCA, visited the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance this week to plead for approval to go to referendum for the bond authorization necessary to support the Sound View portion of the project. But selectmen balked at the lack of information about how the project will affect the Sound View residents who will have to repay the loan.
Old Lyme officials all along have said the cost of the Sound View project will be borne by the system’s users, not the town’s tax base.
This time around, significant additional funding from the state and federal government will leave those users responsible for about $8.5 million of the $17.06 million project, which Cinami has emphasized is less than the amount requested at the 2019 referendum.
He said the new numbers shake out to about $26,000 over 20 years, or $1,932 per year, for a property owner whose house has one bathroom, a kitchen, and four bedrooms or less.
In August of last year – before the latest round of bids came back and before state and federal funding was secured – Cinami at a public meeting told residents the WPCA was estimating the cost to a user would be about $22,556 over 20 years, or $1,368 a year, for a similarly sized home.
Assessing ‘affordability’
Selectman Jim Lampos at Monday’s selectmen’s meeting asked for more specifics about fees in addition to the annual project payments for which users will be responsible. He said connection costs and future capital spending for infrastructure improvements in the system flowing through East Lyme into New London will affect user’s sewer bills here in Old Lyme.
“Before we go to a referendum, I think we have to give the property owners a clear idea of what the affordability is going to be,” he said. “And the taxpayers are going to want to know this before going to a referendum. They’re going to ask for it.”
Cinami estimated the average yearly fee would be around $500 per year in the Sound View area. Beyond that, he said he would have to “try” to develop a rough cost structure.
State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Project Engineer Carlos Esguerra last year said the agency sets the amount that residents can reasonably be expected to spend at 2% of the town’s median income, which he identified at the time as $122,000. That equated to $2,440 a year.
There is also a state law specifying a town cannot assess property owners for any amount higher than the percent increase in the property value attributed to the sewers. He said an assessor hired by the Old Lyme WPCA before the previous referendum estimated sewers would increase home values between 10 to 12%.
Documents from the Sound View Coalition, a grassroots group opposing the sewer project, show an assessor hired in 2020 by the group found sewers would increase residential property values by 7% and commercial properties by 10%.
Cinami, who has been criticized for his abrasive manner at meetings, also heard complaints at Monday’s meeting from Shoemaker and Old Lyme WPCA member Dennis Melluzzo about the chairman’s alleged attempts to quell questions and dissent.
Shoemaker said she was made to feel uncomfortable asking questions at the June WPCA meeting, while Melluzzo described feeling disrespected by Cinami while speaking up at last month’s WPCA meeting.
Cinami said he was just trying to run an efficient meeting.
“I feel, maybe it’s a misperception, but I feel as though I’m trying to get stuff across and I’m interrupted on a constant basis by members.”
He told Shoemaker he was sorry if she took offense, and said he owed Melluzzo an apology as well.
Capital Costs
At Tuesday’s finance board meeting, member David Kelsey expressed concern about the financial impact of any large-scale capital upgrades that could happen in the future at the New London wastewater treatment plant into which Old Lyme’s sewage will flow.
He said he’s heard for the past 10 years that DEEP was pushing for the installation of sewers in Old Lyme “because they wanted more users to spread the cost of upgrades in New London.”
Cinami said he wasn’t aware that the city was on the verge of any major capital projects.
New London Director of Public Utilities Joseph Lanzafame in a Wednesday phone call disputed Kelsey’s characterization of the situation.
“There’s no truth to that. Not from our standpoint,” he said. “Somebody else may have other motivations, but from our standpoint, the contribution that Old Lyme is going to give towards the facility is very marginal.”
A contract between New London and the four beach communities signed late last year calls for the beach associations to pay 1.2% of annual treatment plant capital costs and the town to pay 0.5%.
He estimated the city has spent $15 million over the past 10 years, but could not predict what the future holds in store.
“But as far as major upgrades, I mean, we’re not looking at hundreds of millions of dollars of work to be done,” he said.
He said the city does not have plans to upgrade the plant to be able to handle additional flow, which he described as an extremely difficult undertaking. But if that kind of upgrade did happen, he added that Old Lyme ratepayers would not be affected unless the beach associations or the town wanted to purchase some of the increased capacity.
The current contract with New London allows the beach associations to send up to 120,000 gallons of sewage per day to the treatment plant and the town to send up to 50,000. They have the right to purchase up to an additional 130,000 gallons per day as more people in the beach communities tie into the system.
Lanzafame said he’ll be happy if Old Lyme doesn’t ask for additional capacity in the future.
“I mean, I’m going to be quite frank. That’s just what it is. Wastewater capacity is a big deal, and it’s just not unlimited,” he said.
Back at the finance board meeting, Kelsey predicted the costs to each user – including the minimum $1,932 payment homeowners will need to pay for 20 years, the cost of tying into the system, the annual fees and the increased tax bills from their new property values – are likely to result in angry residents.
“It’s not going to be pleasant when all these numbers come out, is my basic point,” he said.
While Cinami acknowledged residents in the affected areas will be required to hook up to the system, he added a caveat.
“There are some new (septic) systems down there that cost sixty thousand dollars; We will probably not have them hook up immediately,” he said. “But any any system that’s in variance, which is, I would say, 97% of all the systems down there, will have to hook up.”
Next Steps
In addition to asking for more information on the financial impact for Sound View residents, the Board of Selectmen emphasized that the details of a Cost Sharing Agreement between the beach associations and the town must be finalized before they will ask residents to authorize more spending at a referendum.
Another issue still outstanding revolves around the portions of the sewer project to be undertaken by the Miami Beach and Old Lyme Shores Beach Associations, which Cinami said have not yet gone out to bid. He said the beach communities’ project officials, who are waiting for approval by the state DEEP before opening the bid process, are hoping to make their selections by the end of July.
Cinami assured selectmen that winning bids received earlier this year for the Sound View work will remain valid through October, though he acknowledged the bidder selected to build the system’s shared pump station has not formally committed to keep his bid open that long.
Shoemaker said Cinami’s request to schedule a referendum for August 14 won’t be possible because the traditional polling location in the middle school is being renovated and will not be available.
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.
