The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/author/lester-smith/page/10/)
It’s been the custom for a number of years for The Suffield Observer to print individual photos of star athletes at Suffield High School with their parents (and sometimes coaches) when the happy winners are signing to accept their scholarships and promising to play in the sports where they have excelled.
In spite of a dubious forecast, May 15 opened with lovely weather and just got better all day. It was a perfect day for an enjoyable parade of events that hinted at an incipient emergence from the long pandemic shut-down.
Over 40 interested folks gathered at Sunrise Park on Saturday morning, May 8, to celebrate the opening of a new nature-theme playground next to the parking area by White’s Pond and the Rotary Pavilion – the heart of the big mountainside park.
Readers have asked when the present status of the Route 190 bridge to Enfield will end. Even with the somewhat reduced traffic flow during the pandemic, many drivers find the constricted two-lane configuration a bit daunting.
The DOT’s project to renovate the traffic control apparatus at Suffield’s complicated intersection in the town center seems to advance in spurts. Back during a bit of last September and most of October, an “in-ground” crew from a western Connecticut contractor called NY-Conn dug in and installed circuit boxes, underground wiring, and short posts for new pedestrian switches at Mountain Road, as well as the foundations for two new steel poles.
The last days of March and the first half of April have been moving days for Town departments.
Landry-Sic VFW Post 9544 on Sheldon Street, closed for a long period because of the COVID-19 pandemic, reopened in March, and on March 20 a special ceremony was held. A dozen and a half hard-working volunteers had labored hard for several months, not only to clean up the dust and debris that accumulates in a closed building, but to make some long-needed repairs and freshening.
In response to the mass shooting in Atlanta March 16 that killed eight spa workers, the Greater Suffield Interfaith Council, together with ABAR Suffield, quickly organized a candlelight vigil at the bandstand on Suffield Green. Over half a hundred attended the event, sharing the growing grief over such happenings, especially when the motivations are associated with racial bias.
During the demolition of Bridge Street School several weeks ago, many townspeople expressed their sadness, and sometimes their anger, that the old school was being demolished. But on February 19 it was reported to the Suffield Police that someone had taken action: the old sign out front was missing.
Preparations for the long-anticipated move into the renovated Town Hall continue, but even when the move is complete, “normality” will probably not arrive for a while. The Town’s appropriately cautious concern about COVID-19 will still be with us. Human Resources Manager Karin Ziemba advises that, as of now, no Town employees are working from home.