Henry Kyle recruited several friends to help him build a beach wheelchair shed at Rocky Neck State Park as part of his Eagle Scout project for the Boy Scouts of America. Left to right are Alex Glaras, Noah Brant and Kyle.
EAST LYME–A new beach wheelchair shed for Rocky Neck State Park is in place thanks to a soon-to-be Eagle Scout from Old Lyme.
Boy Scout Henry Kyle of Troop 26, the son of Chris and Kate Kyle, assembled a crew of four Scouts and some of their parents to help protect beach wheelchairs from the elements. Project supporter Jolene Brant shared the details about the effort, which she described as ambitious from the start.
An Eagle Scout project, usually completed in a day or two with the help of volunteers, is a community service effort carried out by a Boy Scout to earn the rank of Eagle. It is touted by the Boy Scouts of America as a demonstration of leadership, planning, and problem-solving.
Kyle, a sophomore student at Lyme-Old Lyme High School, is set to receive his Eagle Scout recognition at the end of the month.
Henry Kyle and Alex Glaras work with Steve Urbowicz to lay concrete.
Kyle chose the Rocky Neck project after he saw the need for the enclosure, which was affirmed when a state park employee told him it would be helpful if a Boy Scout could do the work as an Eagle project. He thought it over and decided he was the person that could take the lead on it, Brant said.
The project required approval from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), which took about three months. Meanwhile, Kyle had to pivot after the concrete contractor he initially secured fell through due to health issues. That’s when Kyle’s Boy Scout connections led him to Steve Urbowicz of the Branford-based Concrete Connections.
Urbowicz donated the concrete, the delivery, and his time to teach the Boy Scouts how to pour and finish concrete.
The project was also supported by Park Supervisor Marcella Hube, maintainers David Leiper, Cody Mullen, and Brett Lewis, as well as previous Park Supervisor John Guglielmoni.
Editor’s Note: This op-ed was submitted to us by Maryam Elahi, President & CEO of the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut
Maryam Elahi, President & CEO, Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut.
At this moment, when all eyes are on the impact of federal budget cuts on our communities, it is important to highlight one of the most successful accomplishments of this last legislative session here in CT – the Early Childhood Education Endowment. We thank Governor Lamont for listening to advocates and residents who testified, and for demonstrating leadership, compassion and wisdom.
This was no small feat. Our state is now a national model. By supporting the Endowment Fund, our elected leaders put their arms around our youngest residents and their families. Working families won’t have to make a Hobson’s Choice between caring for their children (and not making a living wage) or working to earn a living (just to spend it all on childcare).
This is the role of responsible and responsive government – to use resources and revenue wisely, ensuring all residents can thrive and contribute back to their communities. Those of us in philanthropy have traditionally played a partnering role by providing grants and other support to the nonprofits that are the backbones of our communities. We are prepared to step up today, as we did during the pandemic. We aspire to do our best in these times to ensure that every one of our residents is supported.
The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut has led a campaign to “End Child Poverty Now” in our state for the last two years, with about 120 partners ranging from universities and nonprofit organizations to think tanks and municipal partners. We embarked on this campaign believing that we could do so much better in our wealthy state. We believe that every child should have what they need to reach their utmost potential.
Providing childcare for families who can’t afford it is an essential step in creating strong communities. But we need to do more. All school children should be provided with healthy school meals. Best practices in the United States and other nations demonstrate that providing nutritious meals for children and youth, especially those in struggling households, enhances their performance and reduces stress on families and teachers. Investing in school meals is a smart investment in our future generation.
As our elected leaders head into the Special Session this Fall, we ask that they build on the success of the last session and invest in structures that can protect those who are vulnerable and promote the basic rights of all our residents. We know that the federal cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other programs will be devastating.
Difficult choices must be made. Strategic choices should be made.
Investing in school meals will ensure that children perform well in school. It will support families’ economic stability. No child should suffer from hunger and malnutrition on account of their parent’s economic status. After all, we are one of the wealthiest states in this nation. Let’s ensure that our children are well fed so that they and their families have the opportunity to thrive in this great state.
Charov will talk about the book she wrote based on her mother’s diaries.
OLD LYME–The Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) this month hosts author Helen Charov in a presentation on her book “Tatyana’s War: Escape and Survival on the Eastern Front in World War II.”
The Thursday, Sept. 25 event will be held at 6 p.m. in the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme. It will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.
SECWAC in an event description said Charon was born Brooklyn, New York, to émigré parents, who came to the U.S. as displaced persons after World War II. Charov grew up in Sea Cliff, a village on Long Island’s north shore. After graduating from New York University, she traveled extensively throughout the USSR with a U.S. government exhibit. She lives in Connecticut.
Charov’s book has its origin in diaries belonging to her mother that were found in a Connecticut attic. There, Charov discovered an account of her mother’s life as a teacher in the Stalinist Soviet Union, the 1941 Nazi invasion of Donetsk, her survival under Nazi occupation, and her harrowing escape to the West.
“Tatyana’s War” tells the story of Tatyana Artemyeff, a 25-year-old teacher, as Nazi troops invaded her home of Donetsk, Ukraine, in 1941. The 25-year-old teacher was left on her own to save her two children and mother when her conscripted husband’s unit retreated from the city. Tatyana, who spoke German, was determined to find a way to survive the brutal occupation and keep her family from dying of starvation or execution.
LYME–The offerings at the Lyme Public Library this month include a wide array of readings, classes, clubs and unique explorations of the arts with some big names.
These are just a few of the events on the September schedule:
Friends of the Lyme Library Used Book Sale
LymeLine file photo.
Friday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, Sept. 13
The Friends of the Lyme Library will kick off their annual used book sale on Friday from 3 to 7 p.m.
On Saturday, books will be sold at half price from 10 a.m to noon for the first half of the sale. From 12:30 to 4 p.m., shoppers will able to fill a bag for $10.
Organizers describe the books as near-new at very discounted prices.
“Twice Told Tales” with Janet Roach
6 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 23
An evening of entertainment and community connection returns with local Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Janet Roach, as she guides the audience through some of her favorite films.
Twice Told Tales, held in two installments, will feature two movies with similar plots from different directors. It kicks off with “Philadelphia Story,” directed by George Cukor, starring Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart. The romantic comedy follows a rich divorcee, her ex-husband and a tabloid reporter through all the emotional fireworks on the eve of her remarriage.
The second installment on Oct. 7 will feature the musical comedy “High Society,” followed by a potluck dinner.
The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen this week agreed to bring in a consulting accountant to go over estimates from the WPCA, its engineer Fuss & O’Neill, residents, and state officials to come to a better understanding of the cost to residents. From left to right: Selectman Jim Lampos, First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker and Selectwoman Jude Read.
OLD LYME–The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen’s plan to hire a third-party accountant to review cost estimates for the Sound View Beach sewer project has raised concerns that delaying a townwide referendum could put millions in state funding at risk.
The selectmen on Monday during its regular meeting reaffirmed a plan to bring in a consulting accountant to analyze various budget projections for Sound View’s portion of a total $70 million sewer installation project to be shared by four beach communities.
First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said she needs more clarity on the financials before asking voters to approve it at a townwide referendum.
“I know that no one in government will go forward with any type of referendum on a budget application unless they know that these numbers are firm,” Shoemaker said. “I am not putting it to a referendum resolution until it’s taken care of.”
She said it’s already too late to put the issue on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election based on scheduling deadlines from the Office of the Secretary of the State.
The Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA), which oversees the Sound View project, has been pushing for townwide approval before construction bids expire in mid-October. Meanwhile, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is warning that roughly half of the project cost is in jeopardy if the town misses the Oct. 15 deadline.
Shoemaker said the selectmen are also waiting to see how the finances play out for the Miami Beach Association, where bids came in about $5 million higher than expected last month, and for the Old Lyme Shores Beach Association, which is in the process of going out to bid.
Lampos after the meeting said the cost estimates under review came from the Old Lyme WPCA, its engineer Fuss & O’Neill, residents, and state officials.
On Tuesday evening, Shoemaker said over the phone that she hired an accountant in consultation with the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments, a regional planning organization. The consultant, whose firm she could not specify while away from her desk, will start on Sept. 16.
A major concern was the uncertainty over how much each Sound View homeowner will have to pay. They also cited a lack of current testing to show a pollution problem exists and questioned why Hawk’s Nest Beach and White Sand Beach were excluded from the project.
CT DEEP Spokesman James Fowler in a Tuesday email said the town will still be obligated to address “community pollution problems that can arise from areas of substandard septic systems” even if they lose their state and federal funding by failing to act quickly.
“The Department will be reaching out to the Town this week to set up a meeting to discuss next steps and timing, as we look to continue to assist the Town with resolving this important issue,” he wrote.
‘With or Without the Town’
Scott Boulanger, chairman of the Miami Beach WPCA, told LymeLine in a Tuesday phone interview that the association is trying to figure out how to proceed “with or without the town.”
Acknowledging the Miami Beach costs came in higher than expected, he said the project will only become more expensive once the existing bids expire.
“If this doesn’t go through in October, everything would have to go out to bid again, which basically says the cost is going to be escalated even more,” he said.
He said he is working with officials from the other beach associations and the CT DEEP on potential ideas to save money, such as eliminating parts of the project for now.
The state, going back to the early 1980s, has pushed for an end to pollution emanating from local beach communities, leading to a 2018 consent order with the three private beach associations that resulted in the current shared sewer plan. Sound View Beach, which is under Town control, was added in 2019 after taxpayers across the town agreed to spend $9.5 million on the public portion of the project with the understanding that affected neighborhoods would fund it.
The town so far has been participating voluntarily in the sewer plan under the threat of a consent order from the state.
Now, inflationary costs have triggered the need for another referendum on the Sound View project after the bottom line increased by $7.6 million. But state and federal funding announced last year promised to reduce the price tag by about half, leaving Sound View residents responsible for less than the amount approved in 2019.
“Eventually, I think what’s going to end up happening, if I had a crystal ball, would be the project might go forth without [the town], which is what was planned like a decade ago,” Boulanger said.
Then the town, he said, “will just end up paying a lot more whenever they do get put into the system, which they will probably get forced to do one way or the other.”
Old Lyme WPCA Chairman Steve Cinami in a Tuesday phone call predicted that delaying the Sound View referendum will cost the town its 25% forgivable loan from the state. WPCA documents show the loan amounts to about $2.6 million.
He worried that taking the time to hire an accountant could needlessly jeopardize the funding.
“I’m surprised there’s an accountant out there that knows how to assume costs to run a pump station, but that’s what they seem to be doing,” he said.
He attributed the delay to resistance from what he described as a small group of people.
“There’s almost 200 residences in Soundview and only about, from what I can tell, 30 to 40 residences at most were represented at that informational meeting,” he said. “It leads me to believe that 160 people don’t care or don’t care enough to show up.”
He emphasized the demands from the state won’t go away if the project moves forward without the town.
The Case for Waiting
Mary Daley, a longstanding opponent of the Sound View project, who was appointed to the Old Lyme WPCA last year, applauded the delay during the public comment portion of Monday’s selectmen’s meeting.
“I totally support the idea of retaining an independent auditor to do a forensic audit of what has been spent, what is owed, and what will be owed if this project goes forward,” she said as one of the meeting’s remote participants.
She warned that the combined impact of annual sewer payments and increased taxes could push some older adults out of their long-term homes.
Selectman Jim Lampos, a Sound View resident, acknowledged a lack of verified numbers has been a sticking point among property owners from the beach community, who will be responsible for construction costs as well as annual fees.
“I think the suggestion of hiring a third party to take a look at it and to vet all the different estimates that are out there, and to render an opinion, could only help breed confidence,” Lampos said. “Having different estimates floating around doesn’t help.”
Selectwoman Jude Read called on her fellow selectmen to give a clear directive and timeframe to the consulting accountant.
“Because this can go on for a long time,” she said.
Lampos, who is currently working with the four beach communities to formalize a cost-sharing agreement, with another meeting set for Sept. 22, agreed.
