The four proud owners, José and Diana Plasencia and José Luis and Carolina Marin cut the ribbon together. L-R: Wendy Russell*, Scott Smith*, Mona Colwell*, Joe Camean*, José Luis Marin, Carolina Marin, José Plasencia, (Diana Plasencia behind José), Selectman Jim Lampos, First Selectwoman, Martha Shoemaker, Jeff Hartmann* (*connotes EDC member.) All photos by C. Poirier.
OLD LYME — Family, friends, and lunchtime diners joined the Town of Old Lyme in congratulating the new owners of The Hideaway on Saturday.
The Old Lyme Economic Development Commission (EDC) was joined by the Board of Selectmen in the ribbon cutting ceremony that celebrated both the new ownership and expanded Hideaway offerings of wood-fired pizza. Visit this link to read more about both of these.
Old Lyme First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker shares her well wishes with the owners .
Economic Development Commission Co-Chair Joe Camean welcomed everyone to the celebration noting, “We are happy to see healthy businesses thrive in Old Lyme and want to thank you for doing business here.”
First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, after also offering her welcome, added, “As a mother of three boys, I know that pizza is a staple in our house and I appreciate we have another place to come and support.”
Co-owner José Plasencia shared his gratitude to those gathered, saying, “Thank you to the whole Old Lyme community for supporting us.”
From left to right, José Plasencia and his daughter Sydney pose with Selectwoman Jude Read, Selectman Jim Lampos, and First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker.
The four new owners, Jose and Diana Plasencia and José Luis and Carolina Marin cut the ribbon together. Jose and Diana run the daily operations of The Hideaway, and Jose Luis and Carolina do the same for The Stumble Inne across the street.
The previous owners of both establishments, Jim and Cyndie Caramante, were on hand for the ribbon cutting and recognized for ensuring the businesses continued through new ownership following the Caramante’s retirement.
The Plasencias accepted a Certificate of Recognition from the Old Lyme EDC. From left to right, EDC Co-chair Joe Camean, José and Diana Plasencia, Selectman Jim Lampos, and EDC Co-chair Jeff Hartmann.
Following the ribbon cutting and presentation of a Certificate of Recognition, attendees were invited to partake in fresh pizza with a variety of toppings, including one created just the evening before—fresh shucked corn and tomato.
Delicious pizzas galore were on offer at the ribbon-cutting. Photo by Laurie Walker.
The selection of pizzas was truly mouth-watering!
The Plasencia Family had an array of pizza offerings for attendees of the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Marcia Higgins chats with a friend at the Lymes’ Senior Center during the Grand Re-Opening Ceremony Saturday afternoon.
LYME/OLD LYME–Lorraine Wilcox and Marcia Higgins are among those who refer to the Lymes’ Senior Center as a lifesaver.
Now, with 3,265 additional square feet and a layout that allows for multiple programs to be held at once, more older adults than ever can experience the resuscitative power of friendship.
While eating ice cream at the Center’s Grand Re-Opening Ceremony Saturday, Wilcox recalled becoming a member after the death of her husband almost eight years ago.
“It was a lifesaver,” she said. “I was depressed, and I could come be with other people, do things.”
“It’s a great way to make new friends,” she said.
Wilcox line dances. She takes exercise classes with up to 30 others in a space dedicated to the likes of weight training, Tai Chi and yoga. She sits quietly in the library room with a book. She gathers with others to await transportation to places like the JFK Museum in Boston, the mansions of Newport, RI, and the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall where the Rockettes are the stars of the show.
The Lymes’ Senior Center Grand Re-Opening Ceremony culminated with ice cream in the new dining room.
Higgins said she found herself in the same boat when she became a widow.
“It is a lifesaver,” she agreed.
The Center reopened earlier this month after being closed for a year and a half. The women credited Center Director Stephanie Gould and Assistant Director Caitlin Perkins with ensuring a full slate of activities from satellite locations across both towns during the closure.
“We were all over the place,” Wilcox said.
But Gould and Perkins kept the needs of all older adults front and center, according to Wilcox and Higgins.
“I think they love us,” Higgins said with sly certainty. “And we love them.”
Lymes’ Senior Center Director Stephanie Gould and Assistant Director Caitlin Perkins receive a citation for their work from Board of Directors Chairman Peter Lucchese.
Jeri Baker, chairwoman of the Lymes’ Senior Center Building Committee, took the podium during the early afternoon ceremony in front of a full house.
“We were focused from day one on one thing: That the seniors in these two communities didn’t get just what they needed, they got what they deserved,” she said.
Through the years, Baker has repeatedly described the committee’s vision for an open, airy layout marked by retractable walls and expansive windows to let in the light. The vision was tested by cost overruns and a slow grant funding process, but remained a priority for taxpayers in both towns through multiple votes on what added up to a $6.4 million project.
One million dollars is covered by state funding through a program that supports small town, quality of life projects.
Old Lyme First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, right, brings Lymes’ Senior Center Building Committee Chairwoman Jeri Baker to the podium to recognize her for five years, seven months and 12 days of service on the project.
State Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London, told the members they deserve the new space where they can be with others.
“We all know loneliness is hard. It’s hard for a lot of seniors,” she said. “When you have such a beautiful place like this where you can all come together, it’s going to change lives.”
Baker, Old Lyme First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, Lyme Selectwoman Kristina White and Lymes’ Senior Center Board of Directors Chairman Peter Lucchese all stood up to thank the dozens of people who made the renovation happen.
Shoemaker said there were about 1,100 members before the renovation. They combined for roughly 550 visits per week.
“In short, the Center was being used more frequently by more people than at any point in the history,” she said. “And at the same time, it had not undergone any renovation to its original structure since it opened in 1996, except, I believe, for a screened-in porch.”
Ruth Young was an original Lymes’ Senior Center member, who raised money for the building in the 1990s.
The project was designed by Old Lyme-based Point One Architects and managed by Newfield Construction of Hartford.
Shoemaker acknowledged two garbage cans in the dining room to catch water from a leak in the ceiling related to the heating and cooling system.
“Anyone who’s built a house, done a home remodeling project, we all know that turning things on for the first time is a surprise,” she said.
The system is under warranty, according to Shoemaker.
Members and supporters of the Lymes’ Senior Center applaud during the re-opening ceremony.
When Gould, the Center’s Director, got up to give thanks, nobody ranked higher on her list than the seniors themselves.
“I want to thank our members, you guys, who I lovingly think of as ‘my seniors,’ for believing in this project and coming out in numbers to approve both referendums,” she said.
She credited their positive energy, understanding and support with keeping staff members in good spirits through the transition.
“This one’s for you,” she told the crowd.
The Day in Pictures
Lymes’ Senior Center Assistant Director Caitlin Perkins and member Mary Buttery stand in front of Buttery’s painting. Members’ art lines the walls of the newly renovated facility.
Lymes’ Senior Center Board of Directors Chairman Peter Lucchese gives a tour of the Lymes’ Senior Center.’s new kitchen.
Members sit at tables in the lobby of the newly renovated Lymes’ Senior Center, where they can start each day with free coffee and tea.
The memorial garden surrounds the flag pole in front of the Lymes’ Senior Center.
The newly renovated, $6.4 million Lymes’ Senior Center is open again after closing its doors a year and a half ago for the upgrade.
Old Lyme-based Attorney Fran Sablone served as moderator at Wednesday’s Town Budget Meeting.
OLD LYME–Two young men sitting with their parents in the auditorium of the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Wednesday night were recognized at the end of the 2.5-hour Town Budget Meeting for making it through a crash course in the New England town meeting form of government
First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker acknowledged the boys after a record-setting crowd of more than 200 residents and taxpayers approved the $45.39 million 2025-56 budget and five new or amended ordinances.
No meeting in the last seven years had drawn more than 60 people, according to Shoemaker.
“You have received the best education in what a town meeting can be like,” she told Joseph Jewett, 11, and Joshua Jewett, 9.
The budget passed 167 votes to 40 in a year when a property revaluation left a majority of homeowners in town facing a tax hike in excess of 4.7%. Those whose property values rose more than average are looking at relatively higher tax increases.
The town meeting is a form of direct democracy that allows all eligible voters 18 years old and up to discuss and decide important matters rather than letting elected officials do it for them.
While October 2024 data from the state Office of Policy and Management shows that 103 towns in the state have a town meeting form of government, many of them leave the ultimate budget decision up to a machine vote at a day-long referendum as a way to encourage more participation.
Shoemaker applauded the Jewett family for showing the boys that their “voices matter.”
“Even though (the votes) may not go the way you want, your voices are heard,” Shoemaker said.
Fire Marshal Dave Roberge said he counted 222 people in the auditorium Wednesday night. With 207 people voting on the budget, that leaves about 15 people like the Jewett children who were there to watch and learn.
Procedural questions about how to vote dominated the early part of the meeting, with an early motion to use a paper ballot on all seven questions failing by a vote of 87 to 110.
Voters decided to use a hand vote for the budget, which proved the most contentious issue on the call to meeting. They raised fluorescent green chits in the air to signify their voting status as Democratic Deputy Registrar of Voters Katherine Thuma and Republican Deputy Registrar of Voters John Mesham counted the chits row by row.
When the results of the vote to approve the budget were counted, Town Meeting Moderator Fran Sablone put it this way: “The motion carries.”
Voting down the budget would have required the town to bill taxpayers based on the current budget until a new spending plan was approved, according to town officials. That means the town would be locked into paying its share of the Region 18 education budget, which voters passed in a referendum earlier this month, even though the expense wouldn’t be reflected in tax bills.
Board of Finance Chairman Bennett J. Bernblum, who during the meeting used the word “stupid” to describe such a scenario, was asked to clarify what he meant.
“It would be stupid because it would put us into disarray,” he said.
The meeting, originally scheduled for May 19, was postponed due to overcapacity at the Town Hall. Fire code there allows only 124 people in the meeting room and lobby.
Tax Impact
The finance board immediately after the Town Meeting convened to set the tax rate for the coming year at 16.23 mills.
The current tax rate is 24.4 mills. After taking the property revaluation into account – and if spending did not increase at all in the coming budget – the tax rate would have been 15.5 mills.
A mill represents $1 in tax per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Bernblum in his presentation said a house appraised at $400,000 with a valuation mirroring the average 57.4% increase to the grand list is now worth $629,600. The tax bill for that homeowner based on the 2025-26 budget will be $7,153 – an increase of $321, or 4.7%, over the current tax bill.
Assessor Melinda Kronfeld has said 3,312 properties in town will see their tax bills go up more than 4.7%, while 2,331 properties will be looking at an increase less than that, or even a tax decrease.
The finance board last month voted to use $800,000 from the town’s predicted $14.2 million ‘Rainy Day Fund’ to help mitigate the impact to taxpayers. The vote was a compromise between Republicans, who wanted to use less, and Democrats, who wanted to use more.
Bernblum said the town’s healthy savings helped secure a AAA bond rating from S&P Global Ratings, which translates to the most favorable interest rates when the town goes out to bond. He said he was advised that the finance board’s decision to dip into the Rainy Day Fund should not adversely affect the town’s rating.
Bernblum said the $800,000 allocation, combined with $171, 350 in cuts identified by Shoemaker and town hall department heads at the request of the finance board, reduced the original budget proposal’s impact on taxpayers by almost a million dollars.
New and Amended Ordinances
The remaining issues on the meeting call were determined by voice votes. The most controversial was an ordinance codifying golf cart use in the Sound View and Hawk’s Nest beach areas.
The golf carts must be outfitted with numerous safety features to qualify as the kind of “low speed vehicle” authorized last year by the state to operate on any public roads with speed limits of 25 mph or less.
Previously, state statutes left it up to cities and towns to decide if they wanted to allow golf carts on local roads. Now, it’s up to those municipalities to specify if they don’t want them – or to limit where they can travel.
Shoemaker said the ordinance adds several streets in Hawk’s Nest Beach to a program established by the Sound View Commission a few years ago in cooperation with the previous administration of the Board of Selectmen.
Golf carts registered with the town will be allowed to travel on town-owned roads in the beach areas from sunrise to sunset.
There will be an initial fine of $90 for those caught driving an unregistered golf cart, driving outside the allowed areas and hours, or missing necessary equipment. The second offense comes with a $180 fine, while the third offense will result in the golf cart being impounded.
Golf carts must be registered annually and can only be operated with a valid driver’s license.
Sound View Commission Chairman Frank Pappalardo said the program has “worked out very, very well safety-wise” without being a hardship on residents. He cited 25 golf carts registered currently, with more joining each year.
Shoemaker described the ordinance as a way to keep communities safe in a town with only six full-time police officers to patrol the streets. She said voting the proposal down would result in the Board of Selectmen, which serves as the local traffic authority, outlawing golf carts completely.
“A ‘no’ vote will mean that we will prohibit golf carts in the Soundview and Hawks Nest area,” she said. “Because we cannot have people riding around in golf carts without some rules.”
Resident Steven Ross objected to the take-it-or-leave-it approach on what he described as an overly restrictive ordinance.
“That’s a threat. It’s heavy-handed. It’s inappropriate,” he said. “I think this ordinance should be reviewed and redrafted and brought to another town meeting.”
Shoemaker said the town can consider expanding the ordinance to include the Rogers Lake area in the future if enforcement goes smoothly this summer.
Joseph Jewett after the meeting said he ended up at the meeting with his brother because their parents, Dave and Daphanie Jewett, didn’t give them a choice.
While 9-year-old Josh Jewett said he really didn’t think they learned anything, Dave Jewett said the kids got a lesson about the importance of voting and having a say in where tax dollars go – even if they didn’t realize it.
Dave Jewett said he voted in support of the budget.
“I’ve been in the town my whole life,” he said. “Now I’ve got my kids growing up in this town.”
Editor’s Notes: i) Bennett Bernblum is a financial supporter of LymeLine.com, but has no input to the editorial process, which remains completely independent.
Old Lyme-based Attorney Fran Sablone served as moderator at Wednesday’s Town Budget Meeting.
OLD LYME–Record attendance Wednesday night at the rescheduled Town Budget Meeting resulted in the passage of a $45.39 million 2025-26 budget and several new or amended ordinances.
Residents and taxpayers in the Lyme-Old Lyme High School auditorium raised fluorescent green chits in the air to signify their voting status as they approved the budget in a 167 to 40 vote. It represents an increase of $3.28 million, or 7.8% , over the current year.
The vote came amid large-scale renovation projects to the Lymes’ Senior Center and the Region 18 school district drove up the budget, while the recent revaluation drove up property values – and the resulting tax bills – for a majority of homes in town. The Board of Finance was expected after the meeting to set the tax rate at 16.2 mills.
A previous motion to use a paper ballot on all seven questions failed with 87 yea votes and 110 nays.
The five ordinances and a procedural vote to set the billing schedule for property taxes each passed in decisive voice votes.
First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said no meeting in the last seven years had drawn more than 60 people.
The originally scheduled meeting on May 19 was postponed due to overcapacity at the Town Hall, where fire code allows only 124 people in the meeting room and lobby.
Fire Marshal Dave Roberge on Wednesday said he counted 222 people in the high school auditorium—its capacity is 550 people.
Editor’s Note: Watch for the full story on Thursday.
A Connecticut Air National Guard C-130 airplane flies over the 2025 Old Lyme Memorial Day Parade as a tribute to fallen service members.
OLD LYME—5/27: UPDATED with additional photos. Some marched, some danced and some rode as the Memorial Day Parade wound its way down Lyme Street Monday morning.
The community trek took marchers and parade-goers alike to Old Lyme’s Duck River Cemetery for a solemn ceremony in remembrance of the nation’s fallen service members. A plaintive rifle salute and two trumpets sounding Taps replaced truck horns, sirens and marching bands.
Lyme First Selectman David Lahm, a retired U.S. Army colonel and member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1467, acknowledged the uneasy peace between festivity and solemnity when he asked the crowd to consider the words of one soldier to his parents regarding the holiday.
“Let people have their barbecues and fun,'” he recounted the man saying. “‘That’s why we fight.”
The soldier later died in Afghanistan, according to Lahm.
“Please join us in keeping the memories of our fallen servicemen and women, and Gold Star family members, alive,” Lahm said. “They are not forgotten.”
The Day in Pictures
A smiling Lahm (second in line behind the flag-bearer) marched with members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post (VFW) 1467 to lead off the parade under a sunny sky with just enough cloud cover to keep temperatures comfortable.
Old Lyme Board of Selectmen members Jude Read (left) and Jim Lampos (second from left) march with First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker and State Rep. Devin Carney, R-Old Lyme.
The US Army half-track vehicle belonging to Bruce Noyes (driving) remains a parade mainstay and a fitting escort for veterans and service members. His wife Tammy stands atop the vehicle to the right.
The sound of the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Band is one of the first indications that the parade is on its way.
Lymes’ Youth Service Bureau gives everyone a place to shine amid red, white and blue-festooned bikes, scooters, wagons and strollers.
The Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School band keeps the music playing.
Boy Scouts are well represented in the parade and at the ceremony.
Young lacrosse players briefly trade in their Ticks sticks for a banner.
The Old Lyme Visiting Nurse Association carries on their community commitment with a spot in the parade.
The Old Lyme Land Trust blends into the Lyme Street greenery.
Dan Stevens (right) leads the Nightingale’s Precision Marching Ukulele Band, which lends an air of homespun harmony to the event.
These three Old Lyme Historical Society Trustees, from left to right, Michaelle Pearson, Nancy Mol, and Jaymie Nickerson-Buckmaster ,rode atop the Old Lyme Historical Society’s truck along with …
… these folk, and they all had front row seats …
… for the show-stopping Techno-Tick representing the robotics team from Lyme-Old Lyme and East Lyme High Schools.
It’s a banner year for the Lyme-Old Lyme Lions Club.
The Lymes’ Senior Center dancers consider themselves “aged to perfection” starting at 55 years old.
The modern day reincarnation of Phoebe Griffin Noyes, otherwise known as Mary Dangremond, travels in style as part of the Old Lyme-PGN Library contingent.
Antique cars bring smiles for passengers and paradegoers alike.
The Carousel Shop on Hartford Avenue in the Sound View Beach area looks forward to the 100th birthday of its namesake amusement ride this year.
The New London Firefighters Pipes & Drums Corps show some leg on Lyme Street.
The Old Lyme Fire Department arrays itself behind the flags and fire axes.
Fire Department officers march with bouquets from Old Lyme Landscape in their ceremonial trumpets.
Volunteerism in Lyme and Old Lyme spans generations.
Gators like this one from the Lyme Fire Department have been put through the paces in numerous brush fires across the region and state over the past year.
Lyme Fire Department turns out as polished and shiny as ever.
Members of VFW Post 1467 lead the ceremony in honor of Memorial Day.
David Griswold, at left, and a fellow Veteran lay a wreath at the Duck River Cemetery war memorial.
VFW member and former Old Lyme First Selectman Tim Griswold rings a bell for each military veteran from Lyme and Old Lyme, who died in the past year.
The flag is duly raised from half staff at the conclusion of the solemn ceremony.
