Category Archives: Events

TOP STORY: Witness Stones Old Lyme Installs 12 More Plaques Honoring Enslaved People as Five-Year Project Sunsets, Brings Total to 60

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Soprano Lisa Williamson moved attendees with her performance of the American spiritual “Steal Away” and gospel hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” All photos by LymeLine.

OLD LYME–Ten small brass plaques installed Friday morning on the Sill Lane Green are there to fill holes left by untold stories.

Cesar was about 15-years-old when he was purchased for 80 pounds by Reynold Marvin Jr. in 1730. Zacheus Still, born enslaved to Richard Lord Jr. in 1726, served in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. A 26-year-old known to history only as ‘Negro Woman’ was recorded as being healthy and “capable at housework” when she was sold in 1802 by Enoch Lord Jr. 

The information was culled from scant references in land records, emancipation certificates, and other primary sources, according to the Witness Stones Old Lyme organization that for five years has been working to unearth the town’s history of enslavement. 

The group on Friday held its fifth installation ceremony on the grounds of the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library. The Sill Lane Witness Stones join 50 others laid in Lyme and Old Lyme since the organization began in 2020 as an offshoot of the wider Connecticut-based Witness Stones initiative. 

The local group marks sites of enslavement and engages students in telling the stories behind the stones.

Witness Stones Old Lyme over the past five years has installed 60 plaques in locations shown here.

Witness Stones Old Lyme Chairwoman Carolyn Wakeman said the ceremony would be the last of its kind as the sun sets on the five-year-project.

“Together, we have restored missing history,” she said. 

Wakeman described the map of Witness Stones as a wide circle extending from Lyme Street, past the Lower Town Green to McCurdy Road, south to the Black Hall section of town, north to Lyme and the East Lyme border, and back to Lyme Street’s northern end at the Sill Lane Green. 

The 12 most recent installations were located on Sill Lane and at the Florence Griswold Museum.

“Even though we could easily place another 60 plaques to commemorate additional enslaved persons, the Witness Stones website will continue to provide new information about local enslavement, and middle school students will continue in the years ahead to engage with the Witness Stones curriculum and to focus on primary documents in the history of our town,” she said. 

Poet Kate Rushin reads “Fishing for Shad” at the fifth and final Old Lyme Witness Stones installation ceremony.

Kate Rushin, a poet and Connecticut College professor, read her poem “Fishing for Shad” as one of four artists selected to remember in verse people enslaved on Lyme Street. 

Rushin, along with Antoinette Brim-Bell, Marilyn Nelson and Rhonda Ward, are the Witness Stones Old Lyme poets. The group received a Health Improvement Collaborative of Southeastern Connecticut (HIC) Partnership Grant for Racial Equity. 

Rushin wrote the poem from the perspective of Jack Howard. He was born enslaved to Samuel Mather Jr. in 1795 and willed to Mather’s son James in 1809. 

She said she used Wakeman’s research, her own understanding of others, and her experiences to imagine how she might feel if she were the enslaved child. 

“I don’t know where I belong/but I know I don’t belong here,” she wrote in the poem’s opening lines. 

Led by Kate Rushin, the audience repeats the name of each enslaved person honored in the final installation ceremony. 

Rushin is also the author of Meditations on Generations, written for Jane. Born enslaved to Joseph Peck Jr. in 1726, Jane was sold for 25 pounds at the age of 3. No more information about her has been discovered. 

“I’ll remember you, Jane,” she wrote in the poem’s final lines. “You were here./I will honor you, respect you;/hold you in my words.” 

The poet, who identified herself as the great-granddaughter of an enslaved woman and the free man who released her from bondage, grew up in the first incorporated African-American town in New Jersey. 

“This project is very personal to me, as it is to the other Witness Stones poets,” she said. 

The Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School Chamber Choir, under the direction of Laura Ventres, sing a medley of American spiritual songs.

Eight Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School students followed Rushin with their own poems honoring those whose plaques were laid Friday.

Michelle Dean, curriculum director for the Lyme-Old Lyme Schools, described the five-year collaboration between Witness Stones Old Lyme and the schools as a shared commitment to telling the stories of “those whose voices for far too long have gone unheard.” 

She said historical documents allowed students to confront complex truths and explore diverse perspectives that shaped the history of Lyme and Old Lyme. 

Witness Stones Project founder Dennis Culliton, with grandson Joey Tomanelli, lauded the Old Lyme group as a model for other cities and towns. He is retiring from the Witness Stones Project next month after eight years.

“If our past is indeed our greatest teacher, then let it teach us this: We each have the capacity to honor others with dignity and respect,” she said. “Let us honor the past and our future by choosing humanity every day.”

Editor’s Note: This article was updated with the most recent Witness Stones Old Lyme map and to correct Wakeman’s name in one reference.

TOP STORY: Memorial Day in Old Lyme is, in Turn, Both Solemn and Hopeful

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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.

TOP STORY: Longtime ‘Behind-the-Scenes’ Organizers Give Glimpse of Extensive Preparations for Old Lyme’s Beloved Memorial Day Parade

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The well-organized parade heads down McCurdy towards the cemetery. LymeLine file photo.

OLD LYME–Old Lyme’s Memorial Day Parade is brought to you by two behind-the-scenes guys named Tony. 

The annual tradition, marked by the rumble of a military C-130 airplane overhead and hundreds of marchers pounding the Lyme Street pavement, has been mustered for years by Old Lyme Fire Department members Tony Hendriks and Tony Vallombroso. 

On this coming Monday, May 26, at 11 a.m., the parade route will fill with participants from more than 30 local organizations on their trek from the Old Lyme Fire Department headquarters to the Duck River Cemetery for a ceremony hosted by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1467. 

The Memorial Day Parade for many years has included the US Army half-track vehicle belonging to Bruce Noyes, which he drove in 2024 with wife Tammy and veterans atop. LymeLine file photo.

In separate phone interviews this week, Hendriks said he has been leading the organizational aspects of the parade for roughly three decades while Vallombroso recounted coming on board in 2012. 

Positions in the parade and at the ceremony are carefully mapped by Hendriks, a land surveyor by profession.

The duo’s work entails “a lot of things that people really don’t see,” according to Vallombroso. Tasks range from filing paperwork for the military flyover, to mailing out invitations, to ordering flowers from Old Lyme Landscape in the form of bouquets placed in firefighters’ ceremonial trumpets and a wreath laid at the ceremony.  

When all the parade participants have assembled in the Duck River Cemetery, a wreath is laid at the memorial to honor all our fallen heroes. LymeLine file photo.

Vallombroso described the parade as relatively short. It takes about a half hour from its start at the Lyme Street fire station to the cemetery finish.

“It takes a lot longer to plan it than it does to execute it,” he said. “But that’s okay.” 

The work starts in January with one of the most labor-intensive aspects of the parade: securing the military flyover. 

Vallombroso said the request must go through the U.S. Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration to be approved as a mission. From there, paperwork gets picked up by the Connecticut Air National Guard. 

Vallombroso’s own military service included 38 years in the National Guard before he retired in 2003. As one of the town’s Veterans Representatives, he acts as a liaison to help connect those who have served in the military with available resources at the state and federal level.

The flyover by the Air National Guard is complemented on the ground by vehicles from the Army National Guard under the coordination of Major General Francis J. Evon Jr., according to Vallombroso.    

The Deep River Fife & Drum Corps play lively tunes as they march down Lyme Street in the parade. Photo by Michele Dickey.

The parade coincides with the installation of 48 United States flags on Lyme Street, where they will remain until after Veterans Day. That’s when they’ll be cleaned, reassembled on the poles, and put away in preparation for the following year. 

Vallombroso said he helped launch the flag program after the idea was broached several years ago by senior fire department member John “Mick” McCarthy. He credited the likes of then-First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder, Eversource Energy and the Old Lyme Historical Society for working together to make it happen. 

“And McCarthy’s dream of flags down Lyme Street was able to be done,” he said. 

Hendriks described the day of the event as a hectic one. 

“There’s always something at the last minute,” he said. 

He said he is actively searching for “new blood” to help organize the parade. 

“I’m trying to retire,” he said. “But every time I leave the room, I get renominated.” 

The Lyme-Old Lyme Middle and High School bands always form a popular part of the parade. LymeLine file photo.

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker this week said the two Tonys will be difficult to replace. 

“I am not sure if the residents of this town know how lucky we are to have Tony Hendriks and Tony Vallombroso,” she said. “Their dedication to this parade goes above and beyond our expectations.”

She likened the parade to a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting of idyllic, small town American life.

“It’s a good feeling day for this town,” she said.

She expressed hope that someone will step up to train for the volunteer role before Hendriks and Vallombroso choose to retire. 

The men, for their part, ascribed their quiet service to hometown pride and patriotism. 

Hendriks put it this way: “I’m just a humble servant of the town. Just helping out.”

Lyme Town Meeting to Include Votes on Budget, Elderly Tax Break

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LYME—The $11.37 million proposed 2025-26 budget will be among the items up for a vote at the Town Meeting on Thursday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m., in the Lyme Town Hall, 480 Hamburg Rd.

If the proposed budget is approved, members of the Board of Finance have said the tax rate will remain unchanged. They plan to set the tax rate at the current 14.5 mills at their meeting immediately following the vote.

The budget proposal is down $1.02 million, or 8.2%, from the current budget. 

The spending plan includes town operating and capital expenses, as well as Lyme’s share of the Region 18 education budget. 

Education costs in Lyme’s proposed budget come out to $6.96 million for the town’s estimated 231 students. That’s up $299,504, or 4.5%, from the town’s current share. The increase is driven by debt payments on a multi-building renovation project approved by voters at a cost of $57.5 million. 

Lyme’s $10.84 million town operations budget proposal is up $513,372, or 5.0%, over the current budget. Proposed capital spending comes in at $530,400, a decrease of $1.53 million, or 74.3%, from the current budget. 

First Selectman David Lahm has attributed the decrease in capital spending to the completion of bridge projects on Birch Mill Road and Macintosh Road that drove up the budget in previous years. 

Residents will also decide whether or not to amend the Lyme Elderly Tax Relief Ordinance to modify the income eligibility criteria.

Lahm this week said the proposed ordinance for the first time reflects income limits set by the state Office of Policy and Management each year as part of the program allowing cities and towns to offer a tax relief program for elderly and totally disabled homeowners.

He said the previous ordinance set the income cap at $40,000 per year to qualify for the tax break, and had not changed in years.

Some households receiving Social Security payments who previously qualified for the program would become ineligible when annual federal Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) put them over the $40,000 threshold, according to Lahm.

“That wasn’t the intent,” he said. “The intent is if you’re on Social Security that you should be in this program and not get bumped out by COLAs.”

He said the change brings the definition in line with state income limits “”so that when the state program does cost of living increases, our limits will also rise with that.”

The town’s annual report for the 2023-24 fiscal year will also be officially accepted at the meeting.

A summary of the proposed budget can be viewed at this link.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated with information on the proposed ordinance and annual report.

Old Lyme Annual Budget Meeting to Include Votes on Spending Plan, Local Laws

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OLD LYME–The $45.39 million 2025-26 proposed budget and several proposed changes to the local law books – ranging from an ordinance on golf cart usage in the Sound View and Hawk’s Nest beach areas to a $1,000 increase in the tax abatement available to volunteer first responders – will be up for a vote at the Annual Town Budget Meeting tonight. 

The headliner at the May town meeting is always the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. This time around, the plan represents an increase of $3.28 million, or 7.8%, over the current budget. 

Paying off debt from large-scale renovation projects is driving much of the added expense. 

Old Lyme’s government operations expenses come in at $11.39 million, an increase of $835,260 million, or 7.9%, over the current budget. That includes debt service amounting to $702,350, which is up $271,168, or 62.9%, over the current budget. The increase is largely attributable to payments on the Lymes’ Senior Center renovation project.

The proposal includes an additional $107,000 in health insurance expenses over the current year.

Education costs in the proposed budget come in at $31.52 million, which is up $1.99 million, or 6.72%, from the town’s current payment toward the regional Lyme-Old Lyme school district budget.

The Region 18 school district’s $39.7 million 2025-26 budget was approved earlier this month in a vote of 457 to 297.

In Old Lyme, the increase to local tax bills will depend on the effect of last year’s revaluation process on each property owner. 

At an April public hearing on the budget, budget documents showed the projected tax rate to be 16.2 mills. The official tax rate won’t be set until after the proposed budget is approved by voters.

The current tax rate is 24.4 mills. After taking the revaluation into account – and if spending did not change at all in the coming year – the tax rate would be 15.5 mills. 

The town’s grand list of taxable property grew by 57.4% as a result of the revaluation, according to final assessor’s data. That means the tax increase compared to the current year will be around 4.7% for the average homeowner whose property values mirror the overall increase to the grand list. 

Assessor Melinda Kronfeld in a memo shared by First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said the effect of the proposed budget on individual tax bills will vary based on how homes fared in the revaluation.

She used the example of a house valued at $200,000 in 2003. The tax bill associated with the property currently comes in at $4,880.

If the house went up 52% in value, the owner would see a tax bill that is $49, or 1%, higher than the current bill. If it went up 60% in value, the owner would see an increase of $326, or 7%. If it went up 82%, the increase would be $1,024, or 21%.

On the other end, the owner of a $200,000 house that went up 40% in the revaluation – which is less than the grand list increased – would see the tax payment reduced by $336, or 7%, in the coming year.

Kronfeld on Friday said 3,312 properties in town will see their tax bills go up more than the average 4.7% increase. There will be 2,331 properties looking at an increase less than 4.7%, or a tax decrease.

The finance board last month agreed to use $800,000 from the town’s predicted $14.2 million ‘Rainy Day Fund’ to help mitigate the impact to taxpayers.

Voters on Monday will also be asked to consider one new section and four revisions to existing chapters in the local code of ordinances. 

Golf Carts in Sound View Beach Area 

Shoemaker this week said the creation of an ordinance on golf cart usage in town-owned beach areas is the local reaction to a state law passed last year. That’s when Gov. Ned Lamont last year signed allowing golf carts to be used on public roads with speed limits of 25 mph or less.

“The best thing, according to our town attorney, is to let (people) know where they’re allowed,” she said. 

The ordinance codifies existing rules in Sound View Beach and adds town-owned streets in Hawk’s Nest Beach to the regulated area. 

Golf carts registered with the town will be allowed to travel on town-owned roads in the beach areas from sunrise to sunset based on the proposed ordinances. 

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. The registration fee for this season, which lasts from May 1 to April 30, is $25. Rates will be set annually. 

The ordinance specifies each golf cart must have numerous safety features to ensure drivers can see and be seen. Locking brakes, a horn, a flag, various lights and reflectors, seatbelts and a windshield are required. Children’s car seats may not be installed in the golf carts. 

Golf carts cannot be driven at night or during inclement weather, according to the proposed ordinance. Vehicles are only allowed on Route 156 if they are crossing from Hartford Avenue, Swan Avenue or Portland Avenue to the corresponding extension on the other side of the road. 

If golf cart spaces at the bottom of Hartford Avenue are taken, registered golf carts can use the town parking lot. 

Harbor Management Commission ordinance

Selectmen earlier this month gave the go-ahead to language drafted by Harbormaster Matthew Lynch to address concerns from the Sound View Commission about chaotic conditions wrought by water taxis, jet skis and swimmers at the public beach. 

New language in the ordinances limits jet skis to no more than 6 mph within 200 feet of the shore, docks, piers, floats, swim zones or moored vessels. Boats are subject to the same speed restriction within 100 feet.

The changes limit motorboats to 6 mph on the Lieutenant River, Back River, Duck River, or Black Hall River. 

The boat lane at Sound View under the proposed ordinance is limited to vessels under 35 horsepower, which means jet skis don’t qualify to be there. Approved water taxis and emergency vessels are exempted from the regulation. 

The proposed ordinance gives the Harbormaster, Marine Patrol and Police the authority to enforce the rules. 

Any violations of the ordinance come with a fine of $150 each, or up to $750 in total in the case of three or more tickets on the same day. 

Certain violations, including traveling faster than 6 mph on rivers or operating jet skis in the boat lane, come with fines of $150 for the first offense, $250 for the second offense and $350 for each subsequent offense.

‘Tax Abatement’ for volunteer first responders

Proposed amendments to the ordinance affecting members of the Old Lyme Fire Department and Old Lyme Volunteer Ambulance Association would raise an incentive meant to recruit and retain more members from $1,000 to $2,000 per year for each volunteer. 

The proposed ordinance would also allow volunteers serving for at least 25 years to continue receiving the benefit even if they aren’t active volunteers anymore. 

Old Lyme Fire Department President Robert McCarthy in an interview at the Town Hall this week said the fire and ambulance companies asked town officials to consider updating the existing ordinance on the volunteer incentive. He cited changes to state law, which was updated in 2021. 

The original $1,000 incentive was implemented locally in 2002 as a tax abatement. McCarthy said officials in 2018 worked out a plan to deposit the incentive into a retirement account for volunteer first responders instead of using it as a tax break. The plan was vetted by Town Attorney Jack Collins and an attorney with Pension Administrative Services Inc, according to McCarthy.

Volunteers that year were given the option to continue with the tax abatement or take the money in the retirement account, McCarthy said. Any volunteer who joined the fire department or ambulance association subsequent to the 2018 agreement received the benefit as retirement savings. 

The revised ordinance language again makes it possible for volunteers to choose between a tax break or retirement savings, McCarthy said. 

The 2018 retirement plan states that volunteers are vested after six years of qualified service. Benefits are paid out after members stop serving or they turn 65, whichever comes first. 

Sound View Parking ordinance 

Proposed updates to a longstanding parking ordinance in the Sound View Beach area address private parking lots leased by local businesses, such as Kokomo’s, for customer use. 

The language specifies patrons and employees in the leased lots cannot be charged a fee for parking, “nor can the normal price of goods sold by a business be increased with a special surcharge for parking.” 

The hours of operation of the leased lots, which must be monitored, cannot exceed the hours of business operation.

The proposed updates come with a $200 fine for each violation, plus $100 per day as long as the violation continues. After five repeated violations, the parking permit will be revoked by the Board of Selectmen.

Newspaper Notice

Proposed changes to the ordinance governing the publication of town meetings would reverse a provision put in place in 1958 and amended in 2003 to make it more widely known to seasonal residents when off-season votes on big-ticket items over $25,000 are scheduled. 

The current ordinance requires posting the notice of town meetings in major newspapers from November through May, according to Shoemaker. She said the cost of posting these announcements has risen in the past two years. 

The proposal would strike the requirement to post meeting notices in newspapers in Hartford and New Britain, as well as Springfield, MA. 

Shoemaker in a selectmen’s meeting late last year said a survey filled out by 341 residents revealed “not a lot of people are reading the newspapers that we are publishing in.”

She said only eight people responded that they read the New Britain newspaper.

The proposed ordinance language would require notices to be published only in newspapers in general circulation within town borders, such as The Day and The Courant.

The Annual Town Budget Meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 19 in the Town Hall Meeting Room for residents and qualified taxpayers.

Editor’s Note: i) This article was updated with additional information from the tax assessor.