Category Archives: Top Story

Old Lyme’s Share of Nip Bottle Surcharge Funds Town’s New Waste and Recycling Coordinator

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Data from the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut show Old Lyme received $3,715.00 for the 74,300 nip bottles sold there between Oct. 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025.

OLD LYME–The town’s Waste and Recycling Committee has announced the hiring of Raechel Peterson as Old Lyme’s Waste and Recycling Coordinator using funds from the state’s nip bottle surcharge.

Committee member Fred Behringer in a press release said the two-day-a-week position is funded by nip bottle deposits collected in Old Lyme and returned to the town through the state’s redemption program. The funding allows the new position to be supported outside the town’s general fund.

Nip bottles are the 50 milliliter beverage containers often found on the side of the road that spurred a 2021 state law instituting a 5-cent surcharge on the miniature bottles. The surcharge on bottles sold in Old Lyme comes back every six months to fund environmental cleanup and litter reduction efforts.

Data from the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut show Old Lyme received $3,715.00 for the 74,300 nip bottles sold there between Oct. 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025.

Behringer said Peterson will explore ways to reduce the environmental impact of its waste stream and manage disposal costs.

Peterson earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from South Carolina’s Coastal Carolina University in 2023. She went on to work as an environmental specialist at the University of North Carolina Asheville before becoming an Environmental Conservation Corps member with the Sustainability Institute in Charleston, SC. Peterson recently completed a seasonal position with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) Waste Engineering and Enforcement Division.

Old Lyme Currach Rower Celebrates Fellow Breast Cancer Survivors in Irish Style

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Standing with the New London Currach Rowers’ hand-built seagoing currach are (from left to right) Pauline Wyatt, Nancy Harney, Karissa Williams and Maureen Plumleigh.

Old Lyme–Four New London Currach Rowers recently took out the team currach for a trip from Old Lyme’s Black Hall Outfitters to Great Island to celebrate and support breast cancer survivors.

New London Currach Rowers in a press release identified the “lady rowers” as Old Lyme resident Maureen Plumleigh; her daughter, Karissa Williams, of Westport; Nancy Harney of Westbrook and Pauline Wyatt of Waterford.

Plumleigh and Williams are breast cancer survivors.  

The Sept. 6 event was presented by Black Hall Outfitters and the Middlesex Health Cancer Center. The health center on social media said the event drew nearly 60 cancer survivors, family members, friends and staff members for the opportunity to connect, enjoy nature and exercise. The event was free to each survivor and a guest thanks to sponsorship from the Connecticut-based After the Storm organization, which assists in the aftermath of breast cancer diagnosis and treatments.

While the event was billed as a kayaking excursion, Plumleigh said her group rowed a currach to bring attention to Irish rowing as well as breast cancer survivors.

The currach is a hand-built craft of Ireland, originally designed 2,000 years ago for the rough waters of the Irish Seas.  The team competes against other member teams of the North American Currach Association.

For more information, visit New London Currach Rowers on Facebook or contact row.currach.nl@gmail.com.

Renaissance Masterworks by Albrecht Dürer Take Center Stage at Lyman Allyn through November

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Included in the exhibit is Dürer’s “Joachim and the Angel,” ink on paper.

NEW LONDON–The Lyman Allyn Art Museum has announced the opening of “Albrecht Dürer: Master Prints,” featuring over 40 woodblock prints and engravings from  the German Renaissance master printmaker. 

The exhibit will run through Nov. 30. 

The museum in a press release described Dürer (1471-1528) as an extraordinary innovator who revolutionized printmaking.

The exhibition features a selection of Dürer’s prints, including two woodcuts from his celebrated Apocalypse (1498), his engraved Adam and Eve (1504) and his Meisterstiche (master engraving) of Saint Jerome in His Study (1514). All sixteen prints from Dürer’s Engraved Passion (1507-12) will be on view, along with examples of his Small Woodcut Passion cycle (1508-10), and his Life of the Virgin (1503-10). Several compositions by some of the artist’s most influential contemporaries and predecessors are included, with examples by Albrecht Altdorfer and Martin Schongauer, among others.  

Born in Nuremberg, Dürer apprenticed under his goldsmith father and under the Nuremberg painter and printmaker Michael Wolgemut. He soon rose to prominence, utilizing his skill and ambition to produce increasingly accomplished drawings, paintings, and prints. After several years of travel and work in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy, Dürer returned to Nuremberg to focus on printmaking. Dürer’s woodblock prints and engravings brought printmaking to a new level of sophistication, establishing an international reputation for the artist.  

Lyman Allan Curator Tanya Pohrt said Dürer redefined printmaking in the early 1500s. 

“Visitors will have the unique opportunity to explore the artist’s exceptional mastery of a remarkably complex medium,” she said. 

The exhibit is organized by the Reading Public Museum of Pennsylvania. Additional works from Connecticut College’s Wetmore Print Collection will be featured in the exhibition. Funding comes from an anonymous foundation as well as the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

The museum at 625 Williams Street, New London, is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. For more information call 860-443-2545, ext. 2129 or visit www.lymanallyn.org.

SECWAC Hosts Author Talk in Old Lyme, Book Recounts Mother’s Real Life Escape, Survival on WWII Eastern Front

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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.

SECWAC members are free. Non-Member in-person attendance is $20. Non-Member Visit this link to register.

For more information on SECWAC, visit their website.

Two Lyme-Old Lyme Seniors Named National Merit Semifinalists

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Rose E. Dimmock and Alexander L. Glaras have been recognized as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship competition.

LYME/OLD LYME–Two Lyme-Old Lyme High School seniors have been announced as semifinalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship competition. 

Rose E. Dimmock and Alexander L. Glaras stood out from 1.3 million high school students when they took the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) in 2024, according to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Less than 1% of test takers that year earned the semifinalist distinction. 

The Lyme-Old Lyme students, along with 245 students from across Connecticut, join more than 16,000 semifinalists continuing in the competition nationwide. 

Dimmock and Glaras will compete for 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be announced next spring. Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the next level of the competition, with approximately half of the finalists earning a National Merit Scholarship. 

The organization will select finalists based on academic records, school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment, and any honors and awards they have received. Judges will also look at recommendations, a personal essay and SAT scores. 

The 2026 National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced starting in April.