As the months have gone by restaurants which have been able to weather the Coronavirus cocoon have emerged into a newly established safe place where mask-wearing patrons can, like they used to, enjoy a meal out with loved ones and friends. But despite the restaurant name being the same and the menu similar, there are some changes to the overall dining experience that may just be here to stay…
The most obvious changes are the ones everyone can see, like servers who wear facemasks, tables which are appropriately distanced from one another, paper menus and bottles of sanitizer everywhere. Signs which used to list beers on tap or happy hour specialty cocktails have been replaced with signs which require the use of facemasks when getting up from your table and hours which have been readjusted to reflect actual hours open.
For patrons, these changes seem minor as being able to not shop, not cook, have to wash dishes or dine with people who are different than the same people you have been forced to quarantine with for the past six months, make the dining out experience SPECTACULAR. Being seated at a table, in public, where you get to remove your facemask in order to enjoy delicious food someone else had to prepare makes a limited menu with higher prices seem fantastic. But for the server, their sentiment may not be the same…
Since restaurant patrons are free to be out in public and apply sticky lip gloss to their now visible lips, they are happy to linger. Servers are hard workers who rely on tips, but now since they are wearing upper lip sweat inducing facemasks and pantomiming friendly responses to the few tables they get, they want patrons to leave quickly. And thus begins the battle of servers asking to clear your plate way before you may have actually finished eating…
I don’t blame the servers, really. I would feel the same way, but lately, when I am fortunate enough to get to enjoy a meal out, I find that I treasure my fork, not ever wanting to rest it on my plate for an eating break out of fear that somewhere, when I least expect it, a server is going to come by and try and grab my plate asking me, or perhaps telling me, ‘You are all set with that.’ I respond almost as forcibly, ‘I am still working on it’. But when it happens again, and to my dining companion who says, ‘Sure. You can take it.’ I feel like a gluttonous pig if I keep eating. Plus, no one likes to be the only one at the table who has a plate of food. It’s why we wait for everyone to be served before beginning to eat. It’s just bad manners.
So, servers, I implore you, please wait for everyone at the table to finish eating before you clear dirty dishes because we waited a long time before we could come back to your fine establishment and now … we want to enjoy it!
Finished? Finished?
Kathy Naumann, possessor of NATURALLY curly hair and the understanding that you can’t control everything!
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Town looks
to buy
88 Main
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Downtown’s crown jewel, 88 Main, will have life breathed back into it if approved by electors at a September town meeting.
The town is proposing using funds in the town’s economic development trust fund to purchase 88 Main. The special town meeting will convene via Zoom at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 8 for discussion only and will then be recessed to curbside voting from 4 to 7 p.m. Sept. 10 in the Town Hall parking lot.
In the last 25 years, the building has run the gambit from decrepit with a side of pigeons in the windows to two developers’ attempts where, according to Mayor Barney Seney, “all the ducks weren’t in a row.”
Delpha Very, economic development and Putnam Redevelopment Agency director, said: Do we want to sit on it for the next 25 years or do we want to get something done.”
The town proposes using $225,000 in the economic development trust fund to buy 88 Main from the state. Very and Seney both stressed the funds are already sitting in the trust fund and “no local tax money will be used for the purchase”
The state had invested some $400,000 into structural and façade rehabilitation. A few years ago John DiIorio bought the building. He obtained grants/loans from the state of Connecticut and the state put a lien on the property to secure that. DiIorio later changed his mind about moving his company into the building and the building sat. The state exercised its lien. The state is motivated — the $225,000 is below what the state was owed and the current appraisal of the property is $385,000, according to Very.
For the continued revival and success of the town, Very said it’s in the best interests for the town to continue revitalization of the downtown area.
In conversations with the community, revitalization of downtown was near the top of the list and “obviously that building is part of that,” Very said. “We need to bring the best projects forward for that.”
Very said that the turnaround would be “very quick” — less than two months. Once the deal is closed she said there are three possibilities.
1) Solicit developers to do the build out; 2) The town could pursue grants and do the build out itself; 3) Or sell the building and be the mortgage holder. Very said this option would generate interest that would replenish the economic development trust fund.
The Putnam Redevelopment Agency, which started after the Flood of 1955, has already done a similar project. In the ‘80s the Montgomery Ward building was brought back to life with the program.
Seney said that the Putnam Redevelopment Agency taking the reins would better the chances of getting solid responses on Request for Proposals and improve the town’s chance of getting grants. He added he believes the state Economic Development Commission has grant/loan money available.
Because Putnam is in an economic distressed district, the property would attract buyers — there is significant tax relief that comes with the designation, Seney said. “It would make it even more viable,” he added.
Seney said he believes the best use would be retail with office space above.
Dexter Properties, LLC, (Dexter Properties LLC) purchased the building from Christopher Mark Oct. 19, 2009.
Very said the town would like to see viable tenants into that property after 25 years. “No building is happy unless people are in it,” she said. “We need people to see merchandise and activity in those windows.”
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Success
The Bradley Playhouse presented "Rave On," a fund-raiser, Aug. 22 and 23 in Rotary Park to "rave" reviews. Photos courtesy of Rande Chmura.
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The Aspinock Historical Society (AHS) recently received a community grant for historic preservation from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The DAR (www.dar.org) Historic Preservation Grants provide financial assistance for projects that preserve historic resources, sites and other history-related projects.
The guidelines for the grant application fit the ongoing restoration of the Cady-Copp Cottage. The building was gifted to the historical society many years ago with no means for upkeep of the building, let alone vital restorations needed.
Bill Pearsall, former AHS president and Town of Putnam historian, oversees the Cady-Copp restoration project and is pleased to receive the grant. However, Pearsall reports that at least $30,000 more is needed to complete the restoration work. The sooner the funds are secured and the work is done, the better. Once the exterior is restored, the interior work will begin as another phase of this project.
AHS is always looking for volunteers, members and donations to support the history of Putnam. Questions can be emailed to
Dr. Pempek is a direct descendent of Manasseh Cutler. He was tutored in the Cady-Copp Cottage and went west to influence U.S. History immensely. He helped build the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory, and was instrumental in creating the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. While there, he also founded Ohio University. His son, Ephraim Cutler also played a major role in early U.S. History. Details can be found in David McCullough’s popular book, The Pioneers.
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