interact pg 12 6-6-24
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captions, from the top down:
Roberta Rocchetti, Eric Levesque and Rotary President Amanda Kelly.
Roberta Rocchetti, Jordyn Butler and Amanda Kelly.
Incoming Interact co-presidents, from left: Sofia Thurber, June Ferraro with Rotary President Amanda Kelly. Photos courtesy of Doug Porter.
PUTNAM — The Putnam Rotary Interact Club inducted three new officers May 28, kicking off a new year full of service.
Amanda Kelly, the Putnam Rotary Club president, inducted June Ferraro and Sofia Thurber as Interact co-presidents.
Interact Advisor Roberta Rocchetti inducted Kaelyn Tremblay as the new Interact historian and archivist.
Jordyn Butler and Eric Levesque, outgoing co-presidents and seniors from Tourtellotte Memorial High School, gave an overview of all the Interact Club’s achievements from the past year. It was a year full of hard work.
Levesque said the club secured a $1,000 District Rotary grant to help with fencing around the TEEG Community Garden. They also worked hard on revitalizing the garden that had fallen victim to vandals and varmints.
The club also raised $3,000 to purchase a solar suitcase to power a small school in a developing country. Butler talked about the Rotary World Seminar that she attended last June and how we can do little things like repurpose our clothing and avoid wasteful shopping on fad fashions that end up in the landfill.
Sofia Thurber and June Ferraro, juniors from Tourtellotte, spoke about their upcoming year as co-presidents and their focus on children with needs.
They would like the Interact Club to get involved with the Special Olympics, Camp Quinebaug, the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and other organizations that address children’s needs.
Rocchetti gave gifts and certificates to Interactors including, from Woodstock Academy: Ava Hovestadt, Emma Kerr, Kira Greene, Jacqueline Dearborn, Kaelyn and Talia Tremblay, Logan Casteen and Amelia Haynes; Putnam High: Gabriell Cerasiello and Paige Perry; Tourtellotte: Eoin and Caitlin Mercer, Melanie Noonan, Serena Smith, June Ferraro, Sofia Thurber, Jordyn Butler and Eric Levesque.
The Interact Club is a regional Rotary-sponsored youth group for ages 12 -18, they meet at 6:30 p.m. the second and fourth Tuesday at the Putnam Public Library from September through May. For more information email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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police pg 12 6-6-24
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The following charges were listed in the Putnam Police Department logs. The people charged are innocent until proven guilty in court. The Town Crier will publish dispositions of cases at the request of the accused. The dispositions must be accompanied by the proper documentation. The Putnam Police Department confidential Tip Line is 860-963-0000.
May 25
Adam R. Ham, 40, Nelson Street, Webster: traveling unreasonably fast, failure to stop at a posted stop sign, operating under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
May 27
Zachary Prince, 30, Hammond Street, Putnam; criminal violation of a protective order, second-degree reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, second-degree criminal mischief.
May 29
Gayle LaCasse, 44, Riverside Drive, Grosvenordale; second-degree criminal mischief.
May 31
Michael E. Angelo, 44, Sexton Street, New Britain; possession of drug paraphernalia, interfering with an officer.
June 2
Leonardo Martelo, 54, Wilkinson Street, Putnam; disorderly conduct.
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Centaurs pg 1 6-13-24
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Centaurs bring home
Class L state crown
As the bus carrying the Woodstock Academy newly crowned Class L baseball state championship team approached the Bungay Fire Department, the lights began to be seen.
A lengthy procession of fire trucks and emergency vehicles were waiting, ready to escort the yellow bus back to South Campus and a victory celebration after a 5-2 win over RHAM at Palmer Field in Middletown Saturday night.
It was a fitting end to what had been a rather eventful day in the lives of the 18 young men on the baseball team as well as the Woodstock Academy community as a whole.
Just a little over 12 hours before, the school’s seniors turned the tassels on their graduation caps and officially departed as graduates.
But for those on the baseball team, the mission was not quite complete.
The four seniors on the team skipped the graduation celebrations and got ready for the final, most important for most, baseball game that they would play.
The win over the Raptors was the first state championship in the sport in the long history of Woodstock Academy.
“It’s hard to not be romantic about baseball. You saw what happened to us (Saturday). During the season, everyone counted us out, everyone doubted us; no one talked about us preseason. Look at us now. We have the plaque; we got the banner at the field; we got everything. People asked us, ‘What are you going to do if you don’t win?’ And I guess, we will never know,” said captain Eric Mathewson to those assembled inside the South Campus gym around midnight.
For Mathewson, it completed a special day.
“It’s awesome. It’s a very rare chance that you get to graduate and get to play in a state championship on the same day and it’s even rarer that you get to win a state championship. I can’t be more grateful,” he said prior to leaving the field.
Mathewson, unfortunately, did not get a chance to play in the semifinal or championship game. His left ankle was still encased in a boot after he sprained it in a quarterfinal win over Guilford.
On Saturday, the Centaurs were missing not only Mathewson but fellow senior Jack Sumner who suffered a sudden illness and did not make either graduation or the game.
“Jack Sumner has been a solid second baseman for us and with Eric out, we were down two, but we have guys we trust. Brady Lecuyer would be a starter on most other teams in the state. He’s a very good player and getting him in and he had some awesome at-bats. We knew we had guys ready. This team believes in each other,” coach Connor Elliott said.
The game, actually, ended pretty quickly for RHAM.
The third-seeded Raptors’ dugout quickly grew quiet in the bottom of the first inning.
On a 1-0 count. Fayz Baig threw a fastball to Brady Ericson. The junior sent it high into the twilight sky. It didn’t come down until it cleared the bleachers beyond the 322-foot mark in right field.
Keon Lamarche, who had reached on an error, preceded Ericson to plate to give the Centaurs a 2-0 lead.
“It did feel really good,” Ericson said. “It was a nice little energy shift to our side, they got knocked back a little bit.”
“We scored those two runs and it set the tone for the rest of the game,” said senior Noah Sampson.
Not that the Centaurs allowed them the opportunity.
Ericson, pitching for the second time in four days, admitted to being a little sore coming in but he put together a 5 2/3 inning effort, allowed only one hit in the sixth inning and struck out 11.
“I can’t say enough good things about him,” Elliott said of Ericson. “He deserved the Gatorade bath (Saturday). Coming back on short rest, he threw (104 pitches) on Tuesday, came back (Saturday), gave everything he had and he probably would have made it through the sixth if a ball had not got lost in the lights. What can you say? He shows up in the biggest moments and he has really grown into a leadership role.”
Logan Coutu came on in the sixth to get one out and senior Riley O’Brien finished up, throwing only 13 pitches and striking out the side in the seventh.
Maxx Corradi helped his classmate in the second inning.
Tanner Graham drew a one-out walk, stole second and one out later, Corradi singled home Graham for the 3-0 Centaur lead.
Woodstock (26-2) added two more insurance runs in the fifth.
Lamarche singled and one out later, Hernandez added a base hit. O’Brien drew a walk from reliever Sean Connolly and, one out later, Graham (2-for-2) delivered a two-run single.
“I was seeing the ball well (Saturday). I had a single earlier in the game so I felt like nothing could stop me at the plate and I was aggressive early in the count, swung at the first pitch, and it resulted in two RBIs,” Graham said.
There was a little concern in the sixth.
Ericson (9-0) got the first two outs relatively quickly but Cam McPeck had the only hit of the game for RHAM, a line drive single to left. Ethan Boisvert then reached on the ball getting lost in the lights and Joey Tyler reached on a walk. A passed ball allowed the two Raptor runs to score but Coutu got the fly out to end the threat.
“It’s surreal,” Ericson said of the championship standing in front of the scoreboard sporting the final score, drenched from the water bucket dousing he received from his thankful teammates. “This was an unreal environment. There were so many people here. I’ve never played a game of the caliber of this and to walk away with a win, I could not ask for anything more.”
For Ericson, who still has another year at Woodstock Academy, it will likely not be the last time he plays in front of a big crowd as he has verbally committed to play for UConn.
The state championship was also a vindication of sorts for hockey players like Corradi and Sampson who had anticipated winning a state title, after falling just short the year before, in that sport this past winter.
It was not to be.
“I needed this one definitely,” Sampson said with a smile. “It definitely makes up for it. It would be nice to have two rings but now I have one. It feels great.”
It also left Elliott in a bit of a quandary.
A first-year head coach who wins the ultimate prize- the state title.
That’s difficult to eclipse.
“I don’t think you can better this. You have to go 28-0, I guess. This season is always going to be special. I don’t think you can top it. It’s a testament to the guys and the hard work. Wanting to get better every day, building the team, building that bond with each other. We lost our leader and, arguably, our best player. Doesn’t matter. Next man up. We will find a way and that’s the story of these guys’ season-finding a way. They come back if they need to, run away with it if they need to, they have done a heck of a job all year,” Elliott said.
Semifinal
In the middle of the Class L state tournament semifinal game last Tuesday at Dunkin’ Park in Hartford, Ericson found himself next to O’Brien in the dugout when the Centaurs were at the plate and trailing by two runs.
“I told Riley that I was not ready to be done playing on this team,” Ericson said.
O’Brien and the rest of the team apparently agreed and wanted to go the distance in the state tournament, finish up in the championship game.
The top-seeded Centaurs made that happen as they rallied for a 3-2 victory over No. 13 East Lyme to vault them into the title tilt.
“I don’t know if it’s relief or joy. I’m pretty sure it’s joy but it’s like, all of a sudden, it’s over. All of a sudden, we’re winning and it’s heart attack after heart attack and then it’s over. If that is how it is going to be the rest of the way, I’m OK with it,” said Elliott.
The Centaurs came back in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the sixth inning and then endured a nail biter of a seventh.
Woodstock fell behind the Vikings (18-9), 2-0, in the first three innings as Liam Cochrane had a first-inning RBI double and A.J. Montesano doubled and later scored on a wild pitch.
East Lyme starter Alex Dreyfus did the rest as he held the Centaurs to two hits and struck out 11 in the first five innings.
Still, it was the sixth inning and the Centaurs had just two base hits, one by Corradi in the first inning and the other by Ericson in the fourth.
“We had to change up our approach a bit, which helped, but not that much. Noah Sampson, a kid who has been there before and is great in that nine-hole. I told him, “It just takes one. Get us one ball in play, give us one baserunner, put the pressure on a little, and see where it goes from there. It took six innings but we got there,” Elliott said.
The senior started the game-winning rally when he had an infield single.
That begat a Corradi double to right field that put the tying run in scoring position.
Caleb Simoneau cut the lead in half with an RBI groundout and, after walks to Lamarche and Ericson loaded the bases, Hernandez tied it with a sacrifice fly.
O’Brien followed with what proved to be the game-winning hit when his infield single plated pinch runner Will Bushey.
“I felt like I wasn’t swinging well at the beginning of the game, wasn’t seeing the ball straight. (Dreyfus) wasn’t easy to hit. The new kid (reliever Dylan Joyce) came in and I just stuck with the slider and put it out there,” O’Brien said.
Ericson got the first two outs quickly in the seventh but Montesano reached on an infield single and both Garrison Biggs and Dreyfus walked before the junior lefthander sealed the win with a strikeout.
“It gets a little scary but in moments like that, I can’t let the game get bigger than it is. I’ve seen these guys three times already. I knew what they could and couldn’t hit and I just had to trust myself. You see me talking to myself out there. I work for these moments and as long as I trusted myself, I knew I would get the job done,” Ericson said.
It was a bit of a gut check. But Ericson was up for it.
“If that’s how it’s going to be, so be it. He got the job done at the end and he sure did. He was phenomenal. He battled (Tuesday). He makes it look so easy so much of the time. His ability to stick with it and not give in when things are down and that’s how the team as a whole is. We’ve learned to this point that we can play with anyone, we’re in every game and we have one more game to prove it,” Elliott said.
The happiest person in the dugout was Mathewson.
Still wearing his boot because of a sprained ankle suffered in the quarterfinal win on Saturday,
“Being able to beat this team (East Lyme) that we have beaten three times and they didn’t have their guy (Dreyfus) in one of those games and this time, we didn’t have our guy. The fact that we still beat them, shows how good a team we are, how much we are working toward this final goal,” Ericson said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
2024 David Bunning: Woodstock Academy senior
Pinch runner David Bunning crosses the plate in the fifth inning.
2024 Brady Ericson pitching:
Brady Ericson gutted out his second 100-plus pitch performance in four days.
Maxx Corradi semifinals:
Maxx Corradi scores one of the Centaurs three runs in a narrow, 3-2, victory over East Lyme in the Class L semifinal.
Woodstock Academy baseball team proudly displays the championship plaque.
Everybody jumped into the pile near the pitcher’s mound after Riley O’Brien recorded the strikeout that gave the Woodstock Academy baseball team its first Class L state championship.
Elliott congratulates Ericson:
The turning point of the Class L baseball state championship game came early. Coach Connor Elliott congratulates Brady Ericson along the third base line after Ericson hit a two-run, first inning homer that RHAM never recovered from.
All photos by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy)
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Judgment pg 1 6-13-24
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Judgment
against PSA
owners
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — In a stipulated agreement granted by a Connecticut Superior Court judge June 4, a Massachusetts foreign corporation was awarded a judgment of more $6 million against the owners of the Putnam Science Academy.
The stipulated agreement for final judgment saves the plaintiff and the defendants from a June 25 trial. There are no appeals. Raise Crest Education Inc. was awarded the $4,800,000 it lent D&M Group, LLC d//b/a as Putnam Science Academy and PSA Education Inc. starting in 2019. The 8 percent interest on that figure totaled another $1,690,958.91, plus costs of $3,964.25 plus related attorney’s fees of $52,750.50 for a total of $6,547,673.66.
In its amended complaint to the court in February, 2024, Raise Crest listed the particulars of the two promissory notes and alleged fraud by Putnam Science.
Raise Crest said that D&M Group LLC was in breach of contract. Putnam Science, Nov. 24, 2019, executed a convertible promissory note, promising to repay Raise Crest $1 million plus interest.
On Jan. 22, 2020 another note was executed promising to repay Raise Crest $3.8 million. That was paid in several separate installments. The original maturing date of both those notes was Dec. 23, 2023.
Subsequently both agreed to adjust the maturing date for those two notes to Dec. 1, 2021.
“Sept. 30, 2020 through April 28, 2021, Putnam Science transferred three of the four properties it owned to co-defendant PSA for no consideration.”
The properties transferred were: 26 Church St., 72 Church St. and 18 Maple St.
Putnam Science missed the note payment deadline and Raise Crest, Dec. 16, 2021, then demanded immediate payment of all the amounts due, plus interest.
Putnam Science asked for six months for repayment.
As of Dec. 23, 2023, the amended complaint said, Putnam Science failed to make payment in full and the interest amount due.
Count two of the amended complaint, “Fraudulent Transfer Pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat 52-552 as to D&M Group, LLC d/b/a Putnam Science Academy,” Raise Crest said the real estate conveyances were fraudulent transfers because they were made “after the plaintiff’s claims arose; after the defendant knew it was exposed to significant liability in excess of its assets with the intent to hinder, delay or defraud or without receiving a reasonably equivalent value.
Count three on the fraudulent transfer says Putnam Science made the property transfers “to an insider — its alter ego and affiliate PSA.” Raise Crest asked the court to reverse the transfers.
(Around that same time, facing overdue taxes, in 2021 the property owners transferred all but 55 Gilman St. into the tax-exempt Putnam Science Academy holdings. D & M’s property at 55 Gilman St. is still taxable — Tax Woes subsection - see below)
Raise Crest Education Inc. operates New England Innovation Academy, a Massachusetts foreign corporation founded in January 2022. The founder, treasurer and trustee is listed as Raymond Chang. It operates a school in Massachusetts.
On May 30, the judge approved an order for prejudgment remedy that Raise Crest can attach to the value of $4.8 million the following estate of PSA Education, Inc.: 72 Church St., 15-23 and 29 Marshall Street and 55 Gilman St.
Lis Pendens
In addition, a lis pendens was filed at Town Hall May 29. The plaintiff is listed as Shichao Zhang and the defendants are D&M Group, LLC, PSA Education, Inc. Xiaoqing Yuan, Yanqin Ding, Yuan Liu, Xiaohong Yan, the IRS ($300,000) and Raise Crest Education Inc. The civil action, returnable to court June 25, is brought to foreclose real estate taxes and sewer usage liens in favor of Shichao Zhang. It lists the real estate affected as: 85 Pomfret St., 55 Gilman St.
A lis pendens is a written notice that a lawsuit has been filed concerning real estate, involving either the title to the property or a claimed ownership interest in it.
Purchased in 2015
When he bought the school in 2015, school President Dr. Tieqiang Ding said: “This is a new day that I’m very excited about for our students and the town of Putnam.”
In May of 2015 the former owners of Putnam Science Academy, the Wellspring Foundation, unexpectedly announced the closing of the school that had been in existence for more than a dozen years.
Tax Woes in 2022
Nearly $900,000 came into the town coffers thereby removing the Putnam Science Academy and D & M holdings from town’s Aug. 23 tax sale, according to Tax Collector Melissa Alden.
D & M had been the owner of 55 Gilman St., 26 Church St., 18 Maple St., 72 Church St. and 15-23 Marshall St.
D&M is not a tax-exempt entity. Taxes to the town and to the Special Service District were not paid in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The taxes, interest and liens for both the town and the Special Service District totaled $894,882.11 and the town placed all the properties on the list for the tax sale.
Alden said that in 2021 the property owners transferred all but 55 Gilman St. into the tax-exempt Putnam Science Academy holdings.
D & M’s property at 55 Gilman St. is still taxable.
She said that the payments to the town began in July and continued through Aug. 8 when the final property was paid in full. She added all delinquent taxes have been paid to the town and the district and that no properties owned by PSA or D & M will be involved with the tax sale.
A breakdown:
55 Gilman St.
Taxes/interest/liens paid: $159,350.24 (town: $111,160.42 and district: $48,189.82)
26 Church St.
Taxes/interest/liens paid: $31,992.67 (town: $22,325.00 and district: $9,667.67)
18 Maple St.
Taxes/interest/liens Paid: $337,455.62 (town: $235,497.23 and district: $101,958.39)
72 Church St.
Taxes/interest/liens paid: $304,757.14 (town: $212,498.73 and district: $92,258.41)
15-23 Marshall St.
Taxes/interest/liens paid: $61,326.44 (town: $42,828.33 and district: $18,498.11)
Total town collections: $624,309.71
Special Services District total: $270,572.40
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