The MacCurdy Salisbury Educational Foundation recently awarded grants to 26 students. Standing, left to right: Manu Geronimo, Caleb Todzia, Mason Freer, Simon Karpinski, Ryan Shapiro, Micah Bass, Chloe Datum, Thomas Kabel, Tabitha Colwell, Erin Durant, Lily Esposito, Samantha Fiske and Paige Phaneuf. Seated, left to right: Abigail Greene, Abby Griffith, Audrey Spiegel, Nola Slubowski and Ada LaConti. Award recipients not pictured: Gloria Conley, Caeli Edmed, Grace Ferman, Christopher Gibbons, Lana Lopes, Elias Sahadi, Kelly Sheehan and Charlotte Tinniswood.
LYME/OLD LYME—On June 17, the MacCurdy Salisbury Educational Foundation honored 26 graduating seniors during a reception at the Lyme Art Association.
Foundation President Fred Behringer said there are 94 students from Lyme and Old Lyme currently receiving grants through the program. The awards continue for all four years of college, trade school, or other post-high school training, as long as GPA and Lyme-Old Lyme residency requirements are met.
Total awards amount to $448,500 for the 2025-26 academic year, according to Behringer.
Behringer said grants for this year’s graduating seniors come in at $118,100.
The grants are based on need.
Evelyn MacCurdy Salisbury established the foundation in 1893.
W.E.S. Griswold Award recipient Simon Karpinski, right, and Willis Umberger Award recipient Ryan Shapiro were honored June 17.
Three students also earned $500 special achievement awards.
Simon Karpinski, who will be attending Harvard University, received the W.E.S. Griswold Award. Incoming Columbia University student Ryan Shapiro received the Willis Umberger Award. Caeli Edmed was awarded the Rowland Ballek Leadership Scholarship for a student who has demonstrated leadership in the school and community by organizing, mobilizing or inspiring others. Edmed will attend Yale.
The special awards honor Bill Griswold, president of the foundation from 1965 to 1992; Willis Umberger, secretary/treasurer from 1966 to 1986; and Rowland Ballek, president for 20 years until he retired in 2022.
Pianist Mihae Lee, left, has stepped down after 15 years as director of the Essex Winter Series. She will be succeeded by accomplished flutist Tara Helen O’Connor. Photo courtesy of the Essex Winter Series.
ESSEX–Tara Helen O’Connor has joined Essex Winter Series as its newest artistic director for the 2026 season following Mihae Lee’s retirement from the role.
The organization in a recent press release said Lee held the leadership position for 15 years.
The group described Lee’s successor as an “exceptional musician who wishes to maintain the reputation, quality, and community commitment that her predecessor achieved.”
O’Connor, a flutist, is a charismatic performer noted for her “artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone spanning every musical era,” according to the group.
A recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and two-time Grammy nominee, she was the first wind player invited to participate in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program. She is a recurring featured artist with the Chamber Music Society.
O’Connor is a regular participant in numerous chamber music festivals across the country. Along with her husband Daniel Phillips, she is the newly appointed co-artistic director of the Music From Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico.
She has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Jaime Laredo, Dawn Upshaw, Eliot Fisk, Jeremy Denk, Ida Kavafian, Peter Serkin and David Shifrin. Tara is a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, the legendary Bach Aria Group and is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble. An advocate of new music, she is a member of the Talea and Cygnus Ensembles.
O’Connor has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Bridge Records. She has just released a solo CD of American flute works entitled The Way Things Go on Bridge Records with pianist Margaret Kampmeier.
She holds a doctor of musical arts degree from Stony Brook University in New York. At the Purchase College School of the Arts Conservatory of Music, she is an associate professor of flute, head of the woodwinds department and the coordinator of classical music studies. She also serves on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory of Music, the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music and is a visiting artist, teacher and coach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
Mihae Lee Legacy Concert
Lee, who became Artistic Director of Essex Winter Series in 2011 when president Fenton Brown stepped down, has been recognized by the Essex Winter Series Board of Trustees through the creation of the annual Mihae Lee Legacy Concert starting in the upcoming season.
The group credited Lee with bringing in accomplished musicians and expanding community outreach to schools, senior communities and libraries.
“With at least four concerts each winter and five days of outreach every year in Middlesex and New London Counties, reaching thousands, her success is clear,” the group said.
OLD LYME—UPDATE 6/20: The Old Lyme Town Clerk and Selectman’s offices will be closed today, Friday, June 20, 2025, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.so that employees can attend Eileen Coffee’s funeral.
The Old Lyme Town Hall administration asks that you plan accordingly and thanks you for your understanding. You can contact either office by phone or email, and your message will be returned. Documents can be left in the drop box outside the main entrance to the Town Hall.
OLD LYME — Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, and faithful public servant, Eileen Keating Coffee passed away unexpectedly at home June 13, 2025. A devoted wife, loving mother of five, proud grandmother and great-grandmother, and a respected public servant, Eileen lived a life full of warmth, faith and quiet strength.
Eileen was born [Feb. 5, 1946] to Lawrence Keating, of Valencia Island, County Kerry, and Bridget “Veronica” Lavelle Keating, of Straide, Mayo County, Ireland …
Raised in New London, Eileen attended St. Mary’s Grammar School and Saint Bernard’s High School. It was at Saint Bernard’s that she met her high school sweetheart, Kenneth W. Coffee. They married and recently celebrated 58 years of love and partnership.
Together, Eileen and Ken raised five children: Kenneth L. (spouse Teresa), Brian M. (spouse Brittany), Elizabeth A. Hutchinson, Edward “Ned” J. and Daniel J. Her pride in her family was immeasurable. She was a loving grandmother … She was a cherished great-grandmother … Eileen is survived by her brother Lawrence Keating and his children: … as well as her sister Mary Keating of Waterford. She is lovingly remembered by her extended Coffee family: Shirley Coffee, John and Sue Coffee, Josephine McCulloch, Hugh and Heike Coffee …
… Later, she served the town of Old Lyme with distinction, first as assistant Town Clerk and then as elected certified Town Clerk for two terms. Her commitment to the town continued as she worked part-time in the clerk’s office up until her passing …
Calling hours will be held from 4 until 7 p.m. Thursday, June 19, in Christ the King Parish Hall, 1 McCurdy Road, Old Lyme. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, June 20, in the church. Interment will follow in Duck River Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to Christ the King Church or to your favorite charity.
Old Lyme First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, center, with Selectman Jim Lampos, left, and Selectwoman Jude Read, right.
OLD LYME–Selectwoman Jude Read is calling for the dissolution of the Halls Road Improvements Committee (HRIC) as the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen continues to back away from big picture changes to the road that have evolved over the past decade.
On the selectmen’s table now is a scaled-back plan that includes new sidewalks, but no other substantial upgrades like the bow bridge and trail system envisioned by the HRIC. First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker in May signed off on a grant application to the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) for $800,000 to install sidewalks on the north half of Halls Road.
Josh Morgan, DOT Communications Director, said in a Tuesday email that he expects the award announcements to go out in the next several weeks.
During their Monday evening regular meeting, the selectmen considered creating a new committee to guide the process if a grant is awarded. But Read emphasized the existing Halls Road committee should be disbanded before forming a new one.
“The other thing I think would be helpful – these are my thoughts – is, if and when we start a new committee, we’re careful about the charge, what the goal is, (and) how many people are on that committee.”
Read also suggested requiring a unanimous vote when appointing members to a new committee. She is the lone Republican on the board with Shoemaker and Selectman Jim Lampos, both Democrats.
Lampos and Shoemaker declined to disband the committee right now because they need more information on the status of projects that were pending when selectmen voted to put the group on a hiatus in April.
The HRIC has been controversial since it started in 2015 under Democratic then-First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder with a charge to consider a master plan for the commercial span. The result – honed over the course of dozens of public meetings, information sessions, and workshops – evoked images of village-like storefronts and apartments, a pedestrian bridge, more greenspace and sidewalks.
Reemsnyder successor Tim Griswold, a Republican, a few years later called the vision too grandiose. He said at the time that he preferred to focus on building sidewalks one segment at a time before considering such broad plans.
But opposition came to a head earlier this year when more than 550 people filled the Lyme-Old Lyme High School auditorium for a public hearing on changes to the town’s zoning regulations that the committee hoped would turn their vision into reality.
The proposal to create an overlay district in the commercial zone would have allowed as many as 40 housing units per acre to be built above, or behind, ground-floor businesses.
The plan was rejected by the Zoning Commission, HRIC Chairwoman Edie Twining subsequently resigned, and the board of selectmen put the committee on hiatus while attempting to manage the fallout.
Crossing That Bridge
Before making any decisions on whether to disband the HRIC, Shoemaker and Lampos on Monday said they wanted to get a better understanding of how much has been spent on Halls Road projects to date and which contracts remain outstanding.
At the behest of the HRIC, selectmen in 2023 hired AI Engineers of Middletown to come up with plans for a pedestrian bridge over the Lieutenant River and a trail system between Lyme Street and Halls Road. The company’s work was funded with $135,000 in federal American Rescue Plan money and a $28,500 grant through the Connecticut Recreational Trails program.
Old Lyme Finance Director Anita Mancini said the committee spent $13,500 of the trails grant so far.
The committee in an FAQ document said AI Engineers was tasked with taking charge of conceptual designs, formal designs, permitting and the construction bid process. No funding for construction has been secured.
The decision to accept or reject the designs would be up to the public, according to the committee. Old Lyme’s form of government calls for the public to vote on major decisions at town meetings, with options to send the biggest issues to referendum.
Shoemaker said the town could be responsible for returning $13,500 to the state if the town doesn’t complete the design project.
Read argued it might be prudent in some cases “to take a loss.”
“Is it better to lose $13,500 or spend another $15,000, have it designed, and not be sure if the town’s going to approve it or not?” she said.
Shoemaker and Lampos reiterated they need a better idea of the financial picture first.
They said it’s been difficult to pinpoint how much has been spent, and in which line items, in a decade of budgets overseen by multiple administrations.
Lampos credited the current selectmen with making the budget process and town procedures more transparent.
“I think there’s a lot of clarity, but there’s just so much that we can answer for what happened before us,” Lampos said.
LymeLine in April requested documents related to the amount expended so far on HRIC projects. Shoemaker on Monday said the information will be available next week.
Lampos, who wrote the grant with Shoemaker’s executive assistant Katie Balocca, emphasized there is nothing in the grant to cover the HRIC’s bow bridge proposal.
“It is currently on hiatus. We’re not addressing it,” he said.
Building the bow bridge would require the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to transfer ownership of its property on the east bank of the Lieutenant River to Old Lyme, which the agency has agreed to do as long as the town agrees to put a fishing pier, a dock for portable boats and parking spaces there.
Lampos acknowledged the idea, like other elements of the HRIC plan, is controversial. That’s why the grant application focuses solely on sidewalks.
“Almost everybody was saying, ‘forget the overlay,’ half the people were saying, ‘forget the bridge,’ and just about everyone was saying, ‘but we want the sidewalks,’” he recounted.
Read wondered if a new committee should be limited to overseeing only what’s in the grant or if they should be empowered to look at other improvements and funding sources.
“We have requests for sidewalks, lighting, signage, beautification,” she said.
Lampos put it this way: “If we don’t get the grant, I think we cross that bridge at that time.”
LYME, CT–The nonprofit Lyme Ambulance Association is hosting a free workshop for older adults and their family members about how to maintain “independence, strength and joy” at home.
The workshop will cover simple home safety modifications to make daily living easier, ways to stay active and connected in the community, and how to access the local caregiving support network.
The event will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, at the Hamburg Fire Station, 213 Hamburg Road. Anyone with questions is invited to contact Deputy Chief Ariana Eaton at deputychief@lymeambulance.org or (860) 434-7225.
