Lions offer scholarships

POMFRET — The Pomfret Lions Club will award three $1000 scholarships to students who will attend a post-secondary educational institution during the 2016-17 academic year.  

To be eligible applicants must be residents of Pomfret and must complete and return an application before April 29.  The application requires a school transcript, a reference, and several brief paragraphs in addition to personal information.  Applications are available from school guidance departments at Woodstock Academy, Putnam High School, Killingly High School, Pomfret School, and Marianapolis Preparatory School.  

An application may also be requested from the following address: Lions Club Scholarship, Box 224, Pomfret, CT 06258.

 

 

HARTFORD – Senator Mae Flexer (D-Killingly), Representative Danny Rovero (D-Killingly) and Representative Christine Rosati Randall (D-Killingly) announced that $3.8 million in supplemental and small hospital funding to Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam has been restored, following the legislature’s approval of a bipartisan deficit mitigation plan for the current fiscal year.

The plan will restore hospital funding in full, preserve town aid, and protect funding for core social services. 

The compromise legislation was negotiated between legislative Democrats and Republicans and Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s budget office.

“I am very pleased that we have been able to reach a bipartisan agreement that closes the current year’s budget shortfall without harming Day Kimball Hospital,” said Flexer. “We recognize that this fiscal year presented real and serious challenges to the State, and many of the cuts the budget plan contains are painful, but we could not in good conscience pass an amended budget without restoring the funding our hospitals so desperately need.”

Sen. Flexer, Rep. Rovero and Rep. Rosati Randall have worked for months to secure the restoration of funding for Day Kimball Hospital, which was stricken from the earlier budget plan, restored, and then rescinded by Governor Malloy’s administration earlier this month.

“When the money allocated for Day Kimball was withheld by the governor, Rep. Rovero, Rep. Rosati Randall, and I made it our top priority to see the money restored. We, along with the community of northeastern Connecticut, have been fighting tirelessly to make our voices heard and to communicate to the governor what these cuts would mean for Day Kimball – putting the hospital’s very existence in jeopardy and crippling both quality healthcare and the economy in our region,” said Flexer.

“After many meetings and long negotiations I am pleased that hospital reimbursement funds have been restored to the state budget,” said Rovero.  “It has been a tough battle, but we are finally there and I hope we can put a plan in place to prevent going through this year after year.”

“When the governor announced that nearly $4 million in payments from the state for Medicaid patients – payments that had been promised, and budgeted for by Day Kimball – would not be made, we said that was unacceptable and vowed to ensure the governor made good on his original promise to fund our hospital. Today, the legislature has taken the action necessary to bring that money back to Day Kimball. Closing the deficit in this fiscal year’s budget has not been an easy or painless task, but closing the gap on the back of small hospitals like ours was not the answer and will never be the answer,” said Flexer.

“As a resident of Killingly and parent of four who frequently utilize Day Kimball Hospital’s services, I understand the importance of preserving their funding,” said Rep. Rosati Randall. “Restoring this funding protects jobs in our communities and ensures the quality patient care we expect at Day Kimball.”

 “While we celebrate this victory today for Day Kimball, we must also look to the future, to ensure that our small hospital funding is not put in jeopardy like this again. We are advocating for several policy changes that will protect Day Kimball in future years. Rep. Rovero, Rep. Rosati Randall and I will continue to fight for our hospital, its employees, and our community — who should not have to live in fear of a future without local, quality healthcare,” said Flexer.

 

 

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Stream Work

Allison Kelleher, a senior and a member of the girls' track team, works on cleaning out a stream at the Palmer Arboretum April 1 "It is a good thing to do," she said. More photos on page 6. Linda Lemmon photo.

 

 

By Linda Lemmon

Town Crier Editor

WOODSTOCK --- When the swarm of Woodstock Academy students and staffers left,  there was no trace of winter's ravages.

Sara Dziedzic, social studies teacher and Initiative leader, said more than 200 students and Academy personnel signed up to spruce up the Palmer Arboretum before its May 7 Open House.

Dziedzic said she started planning the community service project about a month ago. She was bombarded with positive responses when she sent out a blast email, looking for helpers.

"They all got right back to me," she said.

Spring athletics teams, the National Honor Society, the Spanish Club and more all signed up.

"This shows a lot about the kids at Woodstock Academy. They are giving back and giving back to a neighbor on the Hill."

Several students said they didn't even know the Palmer Arboretum was there. It was founded in 1915.

Bill Brower, head of the arboretum's board of directors, was wowed by the turnout. "We had volunteers coming out of our pores" last weekend. The kids and adults "got into corners, carried logs, leaves, raked, picked up piles of branches, dug out weeds (dock, garlic mustard bittersweet, skunk cabbage and more), pruned shrubs, put in drainage pipe, cut down euonymus. and more.

"Unbelievable," said Brower. "They've been fabulous."