Invitation to help with mural project
By the MuralFest team
Over the years, the town of Putnam has become a community canvas for artistic expression...boasting eye-catching murals, enchanting fairy doors, painted electrical boxes and refuse containers, decorated bicycles, street art and staircases, fiery ice carvings, painted cow parades, performing arts, gardens, glowing River Fires, and dozens of other projects large and small. Thanks in large part to the talented contributions of so many of you, from painters and performers to planners and promoters, Putnam is enjoying a renaissance - a flourishing of arts and culture that continues to make our quaint town a favored destination by residents, neighbors, and visitors alike.
The project is called MuralFest Putnam, a public art collaboration that welcomes sign painters and muralists from around the country and across the world, and engages local artists, supporters, businesses, municipal, for-profit, and non-profit organizations, donors, and the community-at-large. Plans call for Putnam’s rich history to be captured in a series of privately funded, storytelling murals. The project is massive and is expected to take three to five years to bring to fruition.
We welcome you to join us at 6 p.m. May 29 in Room 109 of the Putnam Municipal Complex, 200 School Street, for a kick-off reception. We will all undoubtedly have more questions than answers right now, but that is the intent...to engage the will of our community to imagine the possibilities, create the vision, and take the collective steps to move this project forward.
There will be many opportunities to add your time, talent, and meaningful contributions to the project, so please join us for MuralFest Putnam...where history repaints itself! Please contact Elaine Turner at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you would like to help out! See page 8.
Early conversations and initial research about the project led Putnam to apply for and be accepted as a MuralFest community by The Walldog Public Art Movement. A “walldog” is a historical term for a professional outdoor muralist or sign painter who often worked on tall buildings. 

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Legal Notice
Town of Pomfret
Planning & Zoning
At the May 21, 2025 meeting of the Pomfret Planning & Zoning Commission, the following legal action(s) were taken:
1. Matt Basch for Gerard Rondeau, 338 Brooklyn Road, special permit application for an excavation project (removal of interior stone walls and stones).  APPROVED with conditions.
2. M&E Transportation, 4 Nora Lane, application for modification/amendment to a previously approved special permit/site plan to construct a truck maintenance facility along with 21 parking spaces for tractor trailers/trucks and 18 vehicular spaces and associated landscaping.  APPROVED with conditions.

Dated at Pomfret, 
Connecticut
May 22, 2025
Lynn L. Krajewski, 
Clerk 
Planning & Zoning Commission

May 28, 2025

Legal Notice
Town of Pomfret
The Pomfret Board of Selectmen will hold a Public Hearing on Monday, June 2, 2025, at 6:15 p.m. at the Community Center, 207 Mashamoquet Road to hear public comments and questions regarding the CT Audubon Society application through the Neighborhood Assistance Act for Energy Conservation Modifications to Facility and to discuss the town’s participation in, and service as liaison for the same.

Date at Pomfret, 
Connecticut

Maureen Nicholson,
First Selectman

May 28, 2025

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Memorial Day: 
‘That we may drink from the same spring of inspiration’
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
A solemn Memorial Day with reminders at every turn that freedom isn’t free.
In his closing remarks at the Putnam Memorial Day program MC Roy Simmons (lieutenant commander, U.S. Navy retired) said, “This for some is a very difficult day and I want to give you some reflections from Woodrow Wilson, 1914.” Wilson said: “I will not deny myself the privilege of joining with you in an expression of gratitude and admiration for the men who perished for the sake of the union. They do not need our praise. They do not need that our admiration should sustain them. There is no immortality that is safer than theirs. We came, not for their sake, but for our own in order that we may drink from the same springs of inspiration from which they themselves drank.”
Following Pomfret’s parade, First Selectman Maureen set the tone with the reminder that showing up matters. It shows the importance of remembering and honoring, she said, of those who showed up and never came back.
“Showing up matters. It reminds us that we are not alone in our remembrance, and that together we ensure the memory of our fallen heroes,” she said.
State Representative Pat Boyd joked about the program on what seems like Pomfret’s busiest intersection. “But most people don’t stop and look at the other side of it and look at those who lived in our community — who did give the last full measure. Or in our busy mornings when we go to PCS to drop folks off. We go in and out, really fast, and don’t recognize the plaques at the entrance way that also recognize those PCS students who gave their all at a time of war.” He added, “We are here for a very finite amount of time and how we perform service can come in lots of different ways and serving and paying the ultimate sacrifice in the military is one of the ways.”
In Putnam Roger Franklin (U.S. Army Colonel – retired) said in his keynote address that patriotism is defined as a love, a devotion to one’s country that can manifest itself in many forms. “Today, we gathered to show our patriotism … sometimes in very personal special ways marked by a brave celebration.” “We are nonetheless reminded daily of the freedoms we enjoy.” He also noted that not all casualties or frontline combat are caused by bullets and the military has recognized that and the help for those suffering the trauma of those hauntings.
In Pomfret Pomfret Community School 8th-grader Gavin Deasy read his winning essay on Memorial Day. He wrote that Memorial Day was a day to honor veterans. “They went through hell and back to protect us.”
He added: “Memorial Day is for the veterans wat passed away while keeping us safe. We also have this day to commemorate the legacy that they left behind … We use this day to think of … all the hearts that they touched along the way.”
WWII vet Jim Platt, 97, Pomfret’s remembrance speaker, recalled Memorial Day parades when he was young and “Some of the parades that were held there were more people involved in the parade than were watching it.” When he was in WWII he traveled quite a bit around the western Pacific Ocean. “So today we look back on all the battles and conflicts … and we celebrate and honor their services and thank them for defending their country.”
Putnam’s program included: Parade grand marshal Michael Rocchetti (U.S. Air Force Colonel – retired); Poppy Queens American Legion – Paige Perry and VFW – Rilynne-Mae Sargent; bugler Tyler Eddy; American Legion and VFW color guards with rifleman; Putnam Clipper acapella singers, VFW Chaplain Tod Smith; VFW Post 1523 Commander Jonathan Drew; American Legion Chaplain Pierre Desilets; Mayor Barney Seney; State Senator Mae Flexer; the PHS concert band.
In Pomfret the program included: Nicholson; Selectman Patrick McCarthy; Boyd; Pomfret Lions Clue President Peter Lusa (who presented Deasy a check for his winning essay); Jim Platt, who turned 97 May 26; the Connecticut National Guard the Pomfret Town Band members and many more. 
From Deasy’s essay: “We are all guilty of taking what we have for granted. Next time you’re just walking through the park, think about the people that had everything together — wife, kids, parents, siblings. All the things that you could ever want. The people we are memorializing today had most of, if not all, of these things. And they give it all up to serve the United State of America.”

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captions, page 1:
At Pomfret's parade. Expanded photo array Wed. night on our FB page. More photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photos.

The Putnam Middle School band. Courtesy photo.

The Putnam Fire Dept.

Roger Franklin, left, and Michael Rocchetti were honored with flags.

captions, page 4:

Jim Platt. Photo by Jimi Gothreau

Biker at  Vanilla Bean as the Star Spangeled Banner was being sung. Linda Lemmon photo.