STONINGTON–On Saturday, Oct. 25, the Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) will host two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David S. Rohde for a talk titled “Sincerity, Dialogue and Empathy from Bosnia to Afghanistan to America.”
The 5 p.m. presentation will be held at the La Grua Center, 32 Water St., Stonington.
Rohde, an NBC journalist and executive, is best known for his in-depth reporting on international conflict and national security.
SECWAC in a press release said Rohde will describe how sincerity, dialogue and empathy helped him cover the wars in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and how those skills continue to help him report in a politically polarized America. Rohde will describe how sincerity helped him reveal the mass executions of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica and his recent return there for the 30th anniversary of the killings; how dialogue helped him cover Afghanistan; and how empathy helps him cover a divided America.
Rohde was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008 while reporting in Afghanistan, and was held captive for over seven months before escaping. His experience became the subject of the book “A Rope and a Prayer,” co-written with his wife, Kristen Mulvihill.
He first gained recognition in 1996 for uncovering the Srebrenica massacre while reporting for The Christian Science Monitor. He was awarded his second Pulitzer in 2009 as part of The New York Times team covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Over the course of his career, Rohde has reported for major news outlets including The New York Times, Reuters, and The Christian Science Monitor, covering global hotspots and high-stakes political issues.
He is currently serving as executive editor of newyorker.com, the digital platform of The New Yorker, and continues to write and speak on topics related to foreign affairs, investigative journalism and press freedom.
SECWAC members are free. Non-Member in-person attendance is $20. Non-Members mayvisit this link to register. A post-presentation dinner will follow at the Old Lyme Inn for members only.
The Halls Road Overlay District or HROD was fortunately defeated by the Old Lyme Zoning Commission, but only after the majority of Old Lyme voters and taxpayers made their voices known. The battle cry was: Overlay – NO WAY. Yay!
HROD would have allowed huge buildings for mixed-use housing, retail, and restaurants to be built with multi-story parking garages along the front of Halls Road. The whole scheme was an absurd attempt of a few people to forever alter Old Lyme’s character.
The fact that this proposal ever made it by the Town’s Planning Commission is staggering at best. What is more, the HROD proposal paid no attention to three main problems:
A. Halls Road is a State Road, not a town road and is the alternate traffic route through Old Lyme when I-95 backs up, a common occurrence. Traffic problems would become untenable.
B. There is not sufficient aquifer water for wells along Halls Road to support such development volume. This could lead to water quality issues for existing property owners.
C. There is not sufficient land present on Halls Road to provide adequate septic systems to make such growth feasible. This would lead to sewers being required and where would that take the town?
As a former owner (40%) of the Old Lyme shopping center for 20 years, I am very familiar with the septic situation in the area. Our system, though fragile, worked for many years, but for example, it can accommodate the sewage of only ONE real restaurant and no other major users of wastewater. As owners, we did, over the years, research the possibilities of sewage disposal in the area. Studies indicated the ground would not permit it.
I was shocked to hear of the proposed “overlay” project for so many dwellings along Halls Road in the shopping center. Had they not done their homework? Then, I was even more surprised to discover that two of our “Selectmen” were championing the crazy scheme. Martha Shoemaker and Jim Lampos were elected to “take care of the people of Old Lyme,” not to put them in jeopardy. Now, guilty of either irresponsibility or lack of sound judgment, they are asking the town to reward this incredibly dumb initiative by re-electing them. Go figure!!
This whole initiative was a boondoggle that would only have irreversibly changed Old Lyme and cost the town substantial legal and design study fees.
An entranceway currently prone to flooding and unfriendly to pedestrians will be reconfigured in the planned renovation to the Florence Griswold Museum with a focus on green space and a flatter, safer path to the open-air pavilion adjoining the new lobby and gift shop. All renderings provided by the Florence Griswold Museum.
OLD LYME–The Florence Griswold Museum is hoping construction can begin next year on a $17.8 million renovation and expansion project building on a priceless, 12-acre landscape that inspired an American art movement.
Museum Executive Director Joshua Campbell Torrance in a press briefing Wednesday said the museum is looking toward a capital campaign goal of $24.2 million to cover construction, fundraising costs and a $5 million increase to its $32 million endowment.
Renderings for the project, which is overseen by Massachusetts-based Oudens Ello Architecture and Stimson Studio landscape designers, show rooms that capitalize on open air designs and expansive windows to bring the outside in. An open air pavilion turns into an enclosed lobby and gift shop described by Torrance as an observation deck with views of the Lieutenant River, apple orchards and the remnants of Childe Hassam’s studio.
“The landscape is why we’re here,” he said.
The expansion includes 3,000 square feet of new and reconfigured gallery space. Torrance said designers brought the open air concept into the exhibition space with north-facing skylights to introduce natural light without damaging sensitive pieces in the museum’s collection.
Matt Strekel, the museum’s development director, said the silent phase of a capital campaign instituted in 2022 has brought in $10.8 million to date. The success of fundraising efforts going forward will determine if the project can be completed in one 17-month project or in two separate phases spread out over a longer period.
“We will continue to fundraise, certainly as we move forward through the planning process and as our plans come into sharper view,” Strekel said.
Torrance was hopeful shovels could be in the ground this coming spring for at least the first phase of the project.
The museum, with a $3.7 million annual budget and 22 full-time employees, sees about 36,500 guests per year and has 3,000 members.
The proposed lobby and gift shop is characterized by Executive Director Joshua Campbell Torrance as a welcoming space and an “observation deck.”
According to Torrance, the museum in the years leading up to 2020 had achieved “a strong record of excellence” through well-received exhibitions, preservation efforts and programs.
Then the world changed.
“Post-pandemic, we recognized the need to adapt and to grow,” he said. “Like many museums, Flo Gris needed to evolve and refine our offerings to remain relevant to today’s audiences, and also to grow revenues to fulfill our mission.”
Expenses, according to Torrance, are currently outpacing revenue. He said costs associated with curating the collections and preserving the Florence Griswold House, a national historic landmark that anchors the Lyme Street museum, continue to rise.
Strekel and Torrance recounted the past four years spent analyzing data from membership surveys, studies of the physical site and the broader economic factors, and a long-range master plan. The result is the blueprint for a renovated and expanded 17,385 square foot facility where views of the picturesque landscape are as valuable to the design as any piece of art in the new and reconfigured galleries.
A vision for the back of the museum includes a veranda in the renovated area and new flexible education space as well as a bathroom.
The project, which relies heavily on the renovation and reconfiguration of the existing 12,177 square foot Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery and Marshfield House, represents a net gain of 5,208 square feet. Torrance said the museum is proposing the relocation of the Huntley-Brown House off site to allow for a streamlined entryway. The 1795 house was initially moved to the property from Boston Post Road.
“We’ve really been careful to think through a project that didn’t substantially increase the size of what we have,” Torrance said. “We call it an expansion, but it’s really a renovation of the current building as well as a modest expansion.”
He said the plan builds on “the sense of place and community” created by a woman whose hospitality turned one house into a storied Impressionist art colony. It also remains heavily influenced by the site’s unique natural attributes.
“We are inspired by the story of the art colony she helped nurture and create, a story of coming together, of the sharing of the magic of this bend in the river, and the creative energy that is ignited by the movement of water, the play of light, the verdant landscape, and by human curiosity,” Torrance said.
Torrance detailed a redesigned entranceway and buildings they hope will draw new and repeat visitors, including those in a one-hour radius where more than 2.7 million residents are predicted to move by 2027.
He credited the demographic forecast to Elevated LLC, an economic and management consulting firm from Boston hired by the museum in 2023. The same group estimated the planned improvements could drive up attendance at least 26%.
“Their findings showed that our corner of Connecticut is an exceptionally competitive area for arts and cultural institutions, yet Flo Gris remains one of this region’s cultural front runner,” he said.
He said the museum will continue to refine the designs as they seek state and local permitting approvals beginning this fall amid continued fundraising efforts.
Museum Communications Director Tammi Flynn emphasized the importance of the visitor experience in the new vision for more exhibition space, new programs and a research center.
“This will really give people something to come back for, which is what we hope for them to do,” she said.
OLD LYME–With the Zoning Commission deep into the first major rewrite of its regulations in over 15 years, a seat at the five-member table carries more weight than it has in a long time.
As planners like to say, zoning is destiny. Those three words tell a story that would otherwise take hundreds of pages of local codes—and a stack of maps—to explain: The rules about what we can build, and where we can build it, are the most powerful tool a town has to shape its future.
Recognizing the commission’s critical role in a pivotal year, we invited the candidates to answer four questions. You can find the responses here in their own words.
This year’s race for a full seat on the Zoning Commission pits current Zoning Commission alternate Michael Fogliano, an unaffiliated candidate endorsed by the Democrats, against former alternate Sloan Danenhower, an unaffiliated candidate running under the Republican banner. The term begins Nov. 18. Incumbent commission member Jane Marsh, R, is running unchallenged for a term beginning in November 2026.
The candidates responded with a 350-word limit to four questions that we posed. We thank them for responding in a timely fashion and adhering to our rules.
Click on each name below to learn more about them in their own words.
Why are you running for the Zoning Commission, and what skills or experiences make you the right candidate for that role?
Despite a decade-long effort to create a vision for Halls Road that the community can support, the goal remains out of sight. What do YOU want the future of Halls Road to look like, and what role should the Zoning Commission have in making it happen?
Old Lyme, like the other municipalities in the state, is being called upon to increase the availability of affordable housing. Do you think Old Lyme needs more diverse housing options, and what part does the Zoning Commission play in ensuring the appropriate amount of residential development in town?
In order of importance, what do you see as the top three challenges facing the commission over the next five years?
Candidates for Old Lyme Zoning Commission, term beginning 2025
The role of the Board of Finance (BOF) Alternates demands fiscal acumen and community experience. We are fortunate that the Old Lyme Democrats endorsed an exceptional team with an extraordinary balance of municipal knowledge and business expertise: Fred Behringer (Unaffiliated), Diane Linderman (Democrat), and Tom Walsh (Democrat). This slate offers a combined record of fiscal responsibility and collaborative attitudes:
Fred Behringer has worked constructively with all BOF members as an alternate member over the past two years. As Chair of the McCurdy-Salisbury Foundation, a former small business owner, scientist and environmentalist, he brings a critical and balanced perspective to the BOF.
Diane Linderman is seeking a second term and provides invaluable continuity to the BOF. She possesses a unique understanding of both the municipal and school budget processes – experience that serves the town well.
Tom Walsh’s extensive management career with UPS and 11 years of effective CT town committee experience will be a significant asset to the BOF.
Fred, Diane, and Tom are prepared to serve our town with integrity and intelligence. Please join me in supporting this highly qualified team for Board of Finance Alternates on Election Day, Nov. 4.
