amber pg 1 2-8-24
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The sap is running! These traditional sap buckets on maples in Pomfret are harbingers of the maple syrup. Left: The tap under the bucket's "roof" is dripping pretty quick. Linda Lemmon photos.
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coderre pg 2 2-8-24
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Moe Coderre is a staple of the Putnam High School Athletics and the wider community. He has been the official timekeeper at PHS basketball home games for 38 years and has recently started keeping time for volleyball games and wrestling matches.
Basketball remains his favorite because when he is manning the clock, it is the most challenging and keeps him on his toes. He started timekeeping in 1985 when his two sons, Derek and Lance, were on the Putnam High School boys’ basketball team. At one of the games, longstanding Clipper girls’ basketball coach Willie Bousquet went to Coderre and asked if he could help them with the clock that night. He agreed and has been manning the clock ever since.
A home game doesn’t start until Coderre sings the National Anthem. Putnam students, staff, alumni, and visitors look forward to his performance. His tradition of singing the national anthem started over 20 years ago. He recalls asking everyone to rise for the playing of the National Anthem at one game and the song that came on instead was “Who Let the Dogs Out.” He then decided to ask everyone to join him in singing the National Anthem but no one else sang. He did not intend for it to perform at every game, but coaches, players, and referees all came up to high five him afterwards. Coderre kept getting asked to sing in each of the following games. Since the start of this tradition, he has also sung the National Anthem at Fenway Park and at Providence College basketball games.
Coderre graduated from Putnam High School in 1962. While attending, he was a three-sport athlete, playing football, basketball, and baseball, captaining all three. He earned 10 varsity letters and scored 305 career points in basketball. Two weeks after graduating high school, he enlisted in the Air Force and ended up spending four and a half years in the service. He went to Texas for basic training, spent two years in Arizona, and two years in Germany. While stationed in Germany, he was able to visit seven other counties including France where he helped close U.S. military bases.
When he returned home, Coderre went to work for United Airlines for five months and married his wife, Pam. They’ve been married 55 years. He then worked at US Button and stayed there for 33, running the company for the last six. During his first few years there, Coderre also attended night classes at QVCC to get his associate’s degree in business. After working at US Button, he then went to work at Pallflex Cooperation for 10 years, working directly for the president of the company. He retired from Pallflex 13 years ago but, on his last day, Robert Fournier, owner of Gilman and Valade funeral homes, asked Coderre if he could help care for those who passed away. He agreed and they later built a crematory that Coderre has now run for 11years.
Even with his busy schedule, Coderre finds time to attend almost every home event for Putnam High School basketball, volleyball, and wresting. Because of his tireless dedication, he has been honored by the Putnam Board of Education with the Pride of Putnam award in recognition of his support of the student athletes.
When talking to him about his job as an official timer, Coderre said, “Being around young people... it keeps me young.” He said that being around PHS students keep him “young at heart but also young in spirit by coming here and watching kids with a lot of energy”. At games, Moe Coderre has the best seat in the house and does not seem to be giving it up anytime soon.
By Isabel Vergoni, student
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nature pg 1 2-8-24
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By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
POMFRET — A former farm gives life to art.
At a Connecticut Audubon Society reception, the words and artwork born from inspiration at Trail Wood, were celebrated.
The Artists-in-Residence program, held each summer at the Connecticut Audubon Society Trail Wood: Edwin Way Teale Sanctuary, touched the hearts, souls, brushes and pens of six artists. An exhibit of their work is at the Connecticut Audubon Society at Pomfret on Day Road through March 3.
Three writers selected for the program were: Ginny Lowe Connors, Alison Granucci and Ashley Makar. Visual artists at the reception included: Jen Iwasyk and Diane Nizlek.
At the Feb. 3 Trail Wood Reflection 2023 reception the artists described the transformative effect Trail Wood and Edwin and Nellie’s spirit had on them when they arrived at Trail Wood last July.
Connors said it was nice to focus on her own work “instead of being pulled in 17 different directions.” Her transformation came in the realization of the connectedness of life. Through her poetry written at Trail Wood, reminds us that we’re all connected and there are rich veins of life. “Everything and everyone is connected.”
Granucci, writer and photographer, said “What an extraordinary experience it was to be in Trail Wood. It was more of a pilgrimage than a residency.” She called her transformation profound.
Iwasyk’s transformation came with an appreciation of the eccentricities of the townspeople represented at Trail Wood. From fearless deer to mullein that moved and danced more like people, she said she really felt Ed and Nellie’s presence. “Ed and Nellie’s message is alive through me,” she said.
Artist Nizlek said her naturalist bend started in Girl Scout Camp and grew from there. She said the week allowed me to get back into sketching. She called her transformation a “magical experience I will never forget as long as I live.”
Makar was traveling and sent her impression to be read by Trail Wood caretaker Laura Tedeschi. She said she’d been primarily a non-fiction writer but Trail Wood transformed her, as she returned to poetry.
Sara Heminway, Connecticut Audubon Society at Pomfret director, said the like artist Nizlek, she got a little emotional. “I think Ed and Nellie are absolutely smiling ear to ear.”
Tedeschi said the residency program is in its 11th year and was the brainchild of Richard Telford who took a sabbatical from his English teacher job at Woodstock Academy to write a book about Trail Wood and the Teales. “He felt there should be a way to share this Teale legacy.”
Tedeschi recommended additional information about Teale in a video of the UConn MFA students talking about their “Raid the Archive” work last year.
Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMd3dxiqYaM&t=45s
More information on Trail Wood and the artists on Wed. night on our FB page: Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger.
captions, page 4:
Journal from Trail Wood
Painting by Jennifer Iwasyk
Artist Diane Nizlek speaking
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next pg 1 2-8-24
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Next up for
Toyota:
Demo two
houses
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Another step toward a Toyota dealership.
Jan. 31 the National Rent-A-Fence company placed a chain link fence along the front edge of the Rt. 44 property that will become a Toyota dealership.
In March 2022 Sean and Michael Putnam, LLC purchased the 12-acre parcel just east of the Putnam Parkade. The sale price was $1.335 million, according to town clerk records. In August 2022 Sean and Michael Putnam LLC purchased a 1.1 acre parcel adjacent to the 12-acre parcel for $725,000. The additional parcel would give the developers enough usable land for the dealership. The 12-acre property has a good deal of wetlands.
Recently, asbestos was removed from the two empty houses on the properties.
Two demolition permits are pending with the town. Once they are complete, the two buildings will be demolished.
Following the demolition, a building permit is next up. The town recently received the developer’s letter from the Connecticut Department of Transportation approving the company’s site plans.
Officials in the town’s building/zoning/land use department said the developers have all their approvals from the town’s planning and zoning and inland wetlands commissions. “Those permits are all done.”
Last July the Inland Wetlands Commission OK'd the development's plan.
The applicant was listed as McGee Automotive Family, Toyota of Hanover (Mass.), and the owner of the parcels is Sean & Michael Putnam LLC.
According to its lengthy application permit paperwork: “The site improvements will include a parking lot for customers and for vehicle display. The parking lot will have a storm water management system to treat and mitigate storm water prior to outflow towards the wetlands area. There will be two plunge pool type outlet areas adjacent to the wetlands.” The area is designated for commercial/industrial uses.
In the application McGee Toyota said, “no disturbance to wetlands, but work is along 400 feet of wetland edge.” The affected number of acres breakdown includes “site improvement area (upland to wetlands) is 4.19 acres. Site improvement area within 100 feet of wetlands equals 0.96 acres and direct impact to wetlands is zero acres.”
On the site map all of the construction is along Rt. 44. The map says “woods to be undisturbed.”
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