Category Archives: Top Story

TOP STORY: ‘No Bar, No Building, Just Good Works’: VFW Post 1467 Focuses on Helping Vets Where They Are

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Members of VFW Post 1467 gather for a photo. Post Membership Chairman Ed Shilosky stands in second row at left, Post Trustee and former Commander David Griswold stands at right. Photo submitted.

LYME/OLD LYME–For this Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post with no bar and no building, the focus remains on helping veterans wherever they can be found. 

VFW Post 1467 trustee and former commander David Griswold said the group has helped 142 veterans since an anonymous donor handed him a check for $10,000 over a cup of coffee back in 2012. 

Griswold, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, whose service included a year in Vietnam as a company commander, recounted the exchange during an interview last week at the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library. He said the donor had two requests—that his name remain anonymous and that the money be used to help veterans. 

“You can’t go out and buy a pool table or have a beer party,” Griswold recalled the man saying. 

It was an easy commitment for an organization that had long eschewed the smoky, wood-paneled VFW canteens popularized in the post-World War II era. Instead, they’ve met predominantly at the Lymes’ Senior Center. 

“And not having a bar has really helped us,” Griswold said. “These bars, they sprung to life after the war in the 50s, 60s. They’re old buildings, a lot of them. They’re beat up. They’re a horrible expense to keep up. Insurance is terrible.”

Post 1467 Membership Chairman Ed Shilosky, who is credited with the “No Bar, No Building, Just Good Works” motto, said not having to worry about building upkeep has allowed them to put more resources toward helping veterans in need and helped draw more members. 

Shilosky, who was in the Army for 23 years, served on active duty in Vietnam and then in the reserves.

“The main reason people join us now is they want to get away from VFWs that don’t do anything, either for the community or for veterans, because they’re weighed down by other expenses,” Shilosky said. 

Griswold pointed to changing societal attitudes that have made the group’s ethos all the more relevant. 

“Back after World War II, going out and drinking heavy was kind of expected, but it’s not now,” he said. “And let’s say you have a young person that gets back from Iraq or Afghanistan, maybe he has some drinking issues. Saying, ‘Let’s join the VFW, you can get drunk every day’ isn’t helping the person.” 

The post’s membership roster of roughly 80 people includes veterans from Lyme, Old Lyme and beyond. The only membership requirement is honorable, verifiable service in a combat zone. 

The Vets in Need program, which Shilosky said has grown out of that unexpected donation to fund about $105,000 in one-time needs, covers expenses including food, rent, utilities, home and car repairs, travel and accessibility upgrades. 

The program helped pay for three funerals. Used cars, most of them provided at cost by All Pro Automotive in Old Lyme, add up to 10. Thirteen veterans received specialized equipment or furniture to accommodate their medical needs.

The group has also given more than $60,000 to statewide initiatives administered through Connecticut Veterans Affairs. 

The first veteran to benefit from the Vets in Need program was an elderly man living in a converted garage with a bucket as a chamber pot, according to Shilosky. Another needed help relocating to Las Vegas to live with a daughter when his wife got sick. One struggling veteran whose paintings lined his apartment ended up with an art show at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex after Post 1467 got involved. 

“Those are the kinds of things that are so gratifying,” Shilosky said.  

Griswold said the group’s strength is its ability to react quickly when emergencies arise. In the case of veterans who cannot afford utility payments during the winter, Post 1467 members can get the furnace restarted and two months of heating bills paid before state and federal resources can be secured for a more long-term solution. 

Each case needs sign-off from the post’s service officer, trustees and membership, he said.

He likened the group’s role to that of a military medic. 

“We’re running out there and getting an immediate fix,” he said. “And then it can be turned over to other organizations.”

Former Old Lyme First Selectman Tim Griswold, a previous commander of the VFW post and cousin of David Griswold, said the group has expanded its outreach beyond Lyme and Old Lyme. 

“It was apparent that there were other individuals not within our border that had needs,” he said. “And so we’re willing to help people regardless.”

If that sometimes means stepping outside of their jurisdiction into the realm of other VFW posts, Tim Griswold wasn’t too worried about it. He said any lingering concerns were assuaged by a visit from a national VFW commander a couple years ago. 

“He was very well pleased with us, saying, ‘This is how a post should be,’” he recalled. “You don’t necessarily have to have little fiefdoms. You can help veterans that are in need, and that’s a good thing.” 

The three men said the communities of Lyme and Old Lyme are uniquely situated to give back to veterans.

David Griswold recognized the area at the confluence of the Connecticut River and the Long Island Sound as a place where some very accomplished people from all over the world have landed. 

“And a lot of them have done well financially and are very generous,” he said. “I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, they can afford it.’ But that doesn’t mean they’re going to do it. I know some wealthy people, who wouldn’t give you a dime.”

For Shilosky, it all goes back to an overarching sense of service and gratitude that comes from veterans who look outward together – and the community who supports them. 

He said the Post 1467 mantra has grown from “Small but Mighty” to the oft-repeated “No Bar, No Building, Just Good Works.” 

“And I think we’ve lived up to that,” he said. 

Editor’s Note: Lyme-Old Lyme (LOL) VFW Post 1467 reminds all local Veterans and Veteran families in need that they can reach out to the Post to request a great variety of types of assistance. All that is required is the Veteran’s DDForm214 Record of Military Service and a call to Services Officer, Navy Rtd. Captain Larry Olsen at 607-220-7137. The Services Officer will then respond, assess the need, and assist as appropriate.

TOP STORY: Controlling Hydrilla is Critical to CT River’s Health, Best Way to Implement Control Now Heated Discussion Topic

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This photo was taken September 2020 during an inspection of Whalebone Cove in Lyme, in which it was found 60 to 70% of the waterways were clogged with hydrilla vines.

State Legislators say “There has been false and misleading information on social media” about use of herbicide diquat to combat Hydrilla growth in CT River

LYME, CT—Reactions to the use of herbicides in the fight against hydrilla along the lower Connecticut River have only recently begun to spread across social media, but the topic is old news to local property owners long concerned with the pernicious water weed. 

Joe Standart, a Selden Cove resident, said the herbicide treatment applied last year as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) project worked “beautifully” to rid the cove of a strain of hydrilla unique to the Connecticut River. 

“There’s no trace of hydrilla at the moment,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday. For four years prior, fast-growing and thick mats of the aquatic weed had rendered the water body impassable to power boats and inhospitable to many fish and native plants during the height of summer. 

Efforts to plan the next phase of the Connecticut River Hydrilla Research and Demonstration Project are ongoing despite federal funding limitations exacerbated this year by the threat of a government shutdown and related costcutting measures. 

Keith Hannon, USACE Project Manager, said Selden Cove may get another treatment this summer using money approved by lawmakers in the previous budget. But a proposal to add Hamburg Cove and Joshua Creek to the treatment mix, along with additional chemicals, will not happen this year. 

Meanwhile, critics of the state and federal effort to bring hydrilla under control – including a rap artist originally from Fairfield County, whose online petition has amassed 18,839 signatures to date – have gone viral with concerns about toxicity and a lack of government transparency. 

The petition calls on authorities to discontinue the use of the herbicide diquat dibromide while focusing on “non-toxic, mechanical and biological alternatives” to manage the plant. 

Documents from USACE engineers show the treatment last year in Selden Cove consisted of Dipotassium salt of endothall, while sites in four other towns along the river were treated with chemicals including diquat. 

A proposal for 12 additional sites currently under review specifies diquat is slated to be used in Hamburg Cove and Joshua Creek. 

Diquat is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), according to Hannon. He said EPA approvals are based on field and laboratory studies that show the active ingredient doesn’t cause unreasonable risk to humans or the environment. 

He said the threat of the genetically distinct strain of hydrilla is real.

“It spreads quickly and aggressively, forms dense monoculture mats of the plant that block light which native plants need, prevents fish passage and boat traffic during the summer months, threatens native aquatic plant species by displacing them, and threatens the local river tourism and recreation economy, among other negative effects,” Hannon said. 

It can also lower property values and increase an area’s flood risk, the USACE said in a statement.  

A Public Statement issued July 8, led by State Representative Renee LaMark Muir and signed by 18 state legislators states, “There has been false and misleading information on social media that has triggered fear among residents about the use of the herbicide diquat to combat the growth of Hydrilla in the Connecticut River.”

The Statement continues, “If we do not act now, the ecosystems of the Connecticut River will be changed forever, and the river may never recover. Understandably, the use of any chemical in our environment causes concern. If we do nothing, the Hydrilla problem will worsen, and other invasives will proliferate.”

Congress allocated $5 million in 2024 and $6 million in 2023 to address hydrilla in Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River, and in 2022 authorized $1 million for the Connecticut River. 

At the state level, the Office of Aquatic Invasive Species was created in 2022 with roughly $600,000 in funding annually. 

Selden Cove, Pameacha Pond in Middletown and Petzold’s Chester Boat Basin remain the only sites that may be treated this year amid budget constraints, according to Hannon. A public notice will be posted to the project website once a treatment schedule has been determined.

An informational meeting on the proposed modifications affecting Lyme was held at the Town Hall in April. Comments on the project will be accepted through July 13 at CTRiver-Hydrilla@usace.army.mil. 

Natural Limitations

The project, overseen by the USACE in partnership with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and other organizations, began several years ago to figure out which aquatic herbicides ― and how much of them ― are best suited to fighting off the uniquely pernicious aquatic species.

Scientists in 2023 applied red dye to Selden Cove to mimic the flow of herbicide. It was a precursor to last year’s treatment meant to gauge the safest, least toxic way to stem the problem. 

Standart, who has spoken with scientists from his property at Selden Cove and has looked into the issue himself, said he was assured herbicides are carefully chosen based on the characteristics of each water body. He has also come to see it as the only effective option. 

He said pulling out hydrilla by hand doesn’t work because roots remain in the sediment and broken fragments can rapidly sprout new plants in new locations. 

Hannon pointed to the limitations of other natural options. 

He said introducing fish like grass carp – which he described as difficult to control, monitor and remove from the system – means beneficial native plants would be consumed in the process. And installing man-made mats to block the light would also kill off native plants – if it were feasible to cover such large areas, which Hannon said it is not. 

“Other methods to control the plant have been considered, but they do not work to effectively control hydrilla,” Hammon said.  

Standart said all signs of hydrilla disappeared within about a week of the herbicide application last August. But other forms of vegetation beneficial to the cove remained. 

“It’s still a very healthy ecosystem with wild rice and other things,” he said.

Editor’s Notes: (i) Visit this link to read more information about hydrilla from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is available here. For more facts on the USACE and ERDC’s efforts to eradicate Hydrilla, visit this link. 

(ii) The statement signed by the legislators states, “We can all help slow down the spread of this invasive and highly transmissible strain of Hydrilla and other invasive plants. CT DEEP and USACE recommend the best way is to “Clean, Drain, Dry” your boats and any type of watercraft and fishing gear after removal from the river or a lake. Report any sightings of the strain to DEEP at this link or to the Connecticut River Conservancy at this link.”

Paintings at Lyman Allyn Chronicle Artistic Transformation of David J. Marchi

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David J. Marchi, Earth Wave, 2023, mixed media, 50 x 50 in. Image courtesy of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum.

NEW LONDON—The Lyman Allyn Art Museum is currently featuring an exhibition titled, David J. Marchi: Break on Through, a series of abstract paintings documenting the artist’s unexpected transformation. The show runs through Oct. 19.

The museum in a press release said Marchi had never painted before a life-altering boating accident in 2015. Suddenly compelled to paint, he left his previous profession to embrace the world of art.

He was subsequently diagnosed with acquired savant syndrome, according to the release. Marchi is one of only about 50 documented cases of this syndrome worldwide.

Layering colors, patterns, and methods of paint application, the museum said Marchi utilizes gesture, physicality, and unusual materials and methods to produce vibrant, large-scale canvases. He often works from vivid dreams that lay out colors and structures for him to follow.

Marchi has studied with artists Ronnie Landfield, Larry Poons, Pat Lipski and Peter Bonner at the Art Students League of New York.

Marchi also draws on his experiences to help instruct students with disabilities. His story shows creativity lives within everyone, regardless of experience or background, serving as a reminder that art can be a profound tool for recovery, connection, and transformation.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum Director Sam Quigley said working with Marchi to produce the exhibition was rewarding for everyone involved.

“His artistic brilliance, passion for life, and generosity of spirit is deeply appreciated,” Quigley said. “We are delighted to feature his work in our Near::New series of contemporary exhibitions, a series that celebrates the artists among us.”

This exhibition was made possible with support from an anonymous foundation, and from the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s Office of the Arts.

TOP STORY: Lyme Academy Receives $1.8 Million Donation Enabling Purchase of Adjacent Property Owned by Gil Boro

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Gift is Largest in Academy’s History

Lyme Academy of Fine Arts has received a major donation enabling it to purchase the adjoining property at 80-1 Lyme Street to the left of the administrative building shown in the photo above. LymeLine file photo.

OLD LYME — In what Michael Duffy, who serves as Lyme Academy Board of Trustees Chair, describes as, “an act of astonishing generosity,” a local couple is donating $1.8 million to the Academy to enable it to purchase the neighboring property at 80-1 Lyme Street, which is better known as the former Studio 80 + Sculpture Gardens owned by Gilbert ‘Gil’ Boro.

The donors, who wish to remain anonymous, will retain the right to live in the 3747 sq. ft. residence on the property for their respective lifetimes after which time, ownership of the house will be transferred to the Academy. 

Explaining the complexities of the transaction to LymeLine in a July 7 Zoom call, Duffy noted that the Academy’s sculpture program is expanding so rapidly that it is, “running into difficulties’ in terms of the space it needs. He gave as an example the stone-carving class held last summer, which ended up having to create what he described as a, “makeshift workplace in one of the [Academy’s] parking lots.”

Chad Fisher adjusts the patina on his bronze sculpture ‘Avarice.’ File photo courtesy of Lyme Academy.

Duffy credited Sculpture Director Chad Fisher with the increasing success of the Academy’s sculpture program. He noted there are now three applications for each single place across all the Academy’s program courses.

One of the features of Boro’s 4.3 acre property is a huge, stand-alone sculpture studio with a soaring ceiling, which enables outsize works of sculpture to be designed and fabricated in the space. Duffy noted there is still a mechanical hoist in the studio remaining from when Boro used the studio to create his own contemporary sculptures there. Some of Boro’s sculptures and works by others are still dotted around the sprawling grounds, which have direct water frontage on the Lieutenant River.

Looking across Gil Boro’s Sculpture Grounds, past several of his signature works in the foreground and to the left, the huge sculpture studio can be seen to the right. LymeLine file photo.

Pointing out there is already a pathway between Academy and Boro’s property—a tangible sign of the already existing connection between them—Duffy continued, “There’s a logic to it [combining the properties.]”

Duffy recalled at his very first meeting with Boro some five years ago, one of the main topics of their conversation was, “How can we cooperate?” Duffy said that unfortunately that early desire to work more closely together failed to blossom due to the impact of the COVID pandemic and Boro’s declining health.

Adding that this development seems “natural” now, he commented that Boro’s sons—who are managing the sale on their father’s behalf—are “really excited” about the prospect of acquisition since, “It keeps the spirit of Gil [Boro] alive in perpetuity.” 

Boro, who now lives in a residential home in Brooklyn, NY, close to one of his sons, is being kept fully informed of developments. Some of his sculptures and works by others are still dotted around the sprawling grounds, which have direct water frontage on the Lieutenant River.

Gil Boro relaxes in a wicker chair during one of the last events held in the sculpture studio. Photo by Christina Goldberg.

The donors are planning some changes to the immediate exterior of the house including filling in the outdoor pool and installing a fountain in its place. They also intend to turn the current pool cabanas into artist’s studios. 

By coincidence the donors are both architects by profession, which is the same profession in which Boro began his own career. 

In another coincidence, the college was founded in 1976 by the sculptor Elisabeth Gordon Chandler and so Duffy remarked it seems fitting that this major expansion of the college’s facilities and grounds should be primarily to serve the Academy’s sculpture program.

Duffy said that the plans for the future of the property were presented for discussion at the Old Lyme Historic District Commission’s regular meeting on July 7 and will also be discussed at the next Old Lyme Zoning Commission meeting on July 14.

Asked when the transaction might be completed, Duffy responded enthusiastically, “We hope to close by the end of July.”

Describing the process by which the transaction has come about, Duffy noted that the first conversations were some 10 months ago but at that time, the price of the Studio 80 property was beyond the Academy’s reach. He said he felt “a sense of loss” when the idea had to be shelved. 

Now that these donors, who have been taking classes at the Academy for several years, have enabled the plan to come to fruition, a delighted Duffy commented, “This is a great vote of confidence in the future of Lyme Academy as we approach our 50th anniversary.”

Happy ‘Bastille Day’! Memories of Celebrating ‘Le Quatorze Juillet’ in Spectacular Style

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Nicole Prévost Logan

Editor’s Note: On this French National Holiday, we are pleased to republish a column from our oft-times Paris-based correspondent Nicole Logan (no relation), which she wrote in 2023 about the huge parade in Paris that celebrates the most memorable day in French history when the Bastille was stormed in 1789.

Letter From Paris:

Watching the 14th of July defilé [parade] is a well-anchored tradition for the French.

This year, as always, it was a two-hour impeccably choreographed event. Each French president takes it very seriously since it is an opportunity to display the military profile of the country, the vision for its future, as well as the latest technology, and to reaffirm the fact that strategic solidarity with European allies has become a priority. 

The tradition of a military parade on France’s national day — July 14th or Bastille Day — dates back to 1919, when  troops marched to celebrate the victory at the end of the Great War. In its early days, the defilé took place on the Longchamp hippodrome in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.

Today the Champs Elysées offers a majestic setting with the perspective of the modernistic sky scrapers of la Défense district, the Arc de Triomphe and the wide avenue leading to the Place de la Concorde. The TV Channel France 2 cameraman played with the hieroglyphs of the Luxor obelisk, which stand at the center of the square, before zooming down to the bleachers where President Macron, his wife Brigitte and the official personalities were seated.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was on a state visit to France and a delegation of Indian troops was the first to march down the avenue. I was struck by their very unusual gait. They were not just swaying their arms back and forth but it looked as though those very arms were going full circle. 

Celebrating ‘Le Quatorze Juillet’ in Paris. Photo by Yewin on Unsplash.

The military parade has a special significance for me  – an officer’s daughter and the sister of an Air Force General – especially as the kickoff was done in synch with an air parade. To the delight of the crowd, two small planes flew one on top of the other, with the top one upside down.Those planes are part of the Air and Space acrobatic team of the French Air Force, who have been world champions since 2022. 

The “Big Nine” of the Patrouille de France gave a spectacular performance: nine Alphajets  flying in perfect unison with tricolor smoke trailing behind them. The Patrouille has existed since 1953 and is based in Salon-de-Provence.  

In all, more than 6o planes took part in the event: 26 Rafales, Mirages, and Falcon aircraft and 28 helicopters, including two light helicopters Guépard. The latest generation F4 Standard Rafale demonstrate improved connectivity with satellite and intra-flights links.

The modernization of the technology was developed during the French-led Operations Serval and Barkhane in the Sahel region since 2013. 

Polyvalence, info-valorization and integration principles were on display in the new military equipment such as  Leclerc tanks, Cesar canons, five-tons heavy tanks, 2022 hussards for infiltration and exfiltration of intelligence, armored vehicles essential for logistics in delivering troops, and equipment, such as anti-personnel mines, anti-ballistic missiles and trailers with drones .  

France already has eight aircraft carriers — the largest one being the Charles de Gaulle — along with 10  nuclear submarines.

The parade was an opportunity to display the latest equipment from the defense maritime system in existence from Belgium to both Cherbourg and Mont Saint Michel, as well as for the nuclear approach that was developed during the Harmattan Operation in the war against Libya in 2011. 

More than 6,500 men and women marched down the Champs Elysées. Their superb performance required at least six hours of rehearsals. The graduates of the élite military schools like Ecole Polytechnique, Saint Cyr-Cohêtquidan (founded in 1802 by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte in Fontainebleau), Ecole de l’Air (created in 1933 and the oldest air force academy in the world), and Ecole Navale always have a special place in the military parade.  

Marching also were some of the 800,000 firefighters who are engaged in the fight against the growing danger of forest destruction. Thirty thousands of them are volunteers. In February 2023, they took part in a rescue mission to Turkey and Syria after the earthquake which killed 60,000 people. France uses 21 bi-engine bombers , including 12 Canadairs ( pioneered by Canada) to fight the fires from the air.

La Légion Etrangère [Foreign Legion] always stands out on the 14th of July. It is the only group which has its own band. The pace is strikingly slow. One soldier swirls his baton high in the air. The men from many nationalities are dressed completely in white. Some wear leather aprons. A soldier with a  beard longer than his companions’ holds a dog on a leash. 

The colorful contingent of the Garde Republicaine , accompanied by the noise of the horses’ hooves on the pavement is most popular with the public. Created in 1802 by (again)  Bonaparte – this special corps of 3,300 men and women is  part of the Gendarmerie Nationale. 

The defilé ended up with quite a moving choreography of young people positioned to form a Croix de Lorraine – the declared symbol of the Résistance  by General de Gaulle in 1940. The commissar of the armies read the letter of Jean Moulin, hero of the French Underground.

And finally, the crescendo of the haunting “Chant des partisans, ” a 1828 Russian melody imported by a Russian emigré to France in 1917, rose over the ceremony. 

The 2023 ceremony was indeed bristling with the symbolism of France’s destiny and its De Gaulle heritage.

Editor’s Note: This is the opinion of Nicole Prévost Logan.

Nicole Prévost Logan

About the author: Nicole Prévost Logan divides her time between Essex and Paris, spending summers in the former and winters in the latter. She writes an occasional column for us from her Paris home where her topics will include politics, economy, social unrest — mostly in France — but also in other European countries. She also covers a variety of art exhibits and the performing arts in Europe. Logan is the author of ‘Forever on the Road: A Franco-American Family’s Thirty Years in the Foreign Service,’ an autobiography of her life as the wife of an overseas diplomat, who lived in 10 foreign countries on three continents. Her experiences during her foreign service life included being in Lebanon when civil war erupted, excavating a medieval city in Moscow and spending a week under house arrest in Guinea.