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Press Release | Jan 24, 2025 9:13 am
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ANSONIA – Today Mayor Cassetti toured SHW (35 N. Main St.) site along with our engineers from AECOM and approximately 10 interested firms for the demolition of Building 12. Building 12 is the remaining structure on this site and will allow for the creation of three new site pads, an access road and the Johnson Controls’/Bloom Energy’s 10 MW fuel cell project which should break ground in the Spring of 2025.
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Press Release | Jan 24, 2025 9:07 am
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ANSONIA – On Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, the Ansonia Library will celebrate the International Take Your Child to the Library Day. Now in its 14th year, this annual event is a wonderful opportunity for children to have fun while parents and caregivers learn more about their library. Take Your Child to the Library Day will showcase all the free resources local public libraries provide for families.
This year, the library is celebrating with Ice Cream for Breakfast from 9:30 – 10:30 AM (while supplies last). Kick-off Take Your Child to the Library Day with a scoop of ice cream for breakfast! This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Ansonia Library. There is no registration required for this event.
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Eugene Driscoll | Jan 24, 2025 5:29 am
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Photo Courtesy of Luke Camara
(Left to right) Quintin Simjouw, EJ Smith, Luke Camara, Johnathan Zuckerman, and Luca Tecci.
DERBY – Derby High School sophomore Luke Camara knows that some families in Derby struggle to put food on their tables. He saw it when he was a student at Irving School, the city’s westside elementary school.
“There were some students who were coming to school in the same clothes, things like that,” Luke said. “It made me mad and it made me sad. But there was really nothing an 8‑year-old kid could do.”
Fast forward about eight years – and Luke is doing something about it.
Luke, a scout with Troop 3, is trying to become an Eagle Scout. For his Eagle Scout project he wants to build self-serve food pantries outside Irving School, Bradley School, and on the high school-middle school campus on Chatfield Avenue.
“This is my attempt to help now, when I actually can,” Luke said.
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Jasmine Wright | Jan 24, 2025 5:26 am
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ANSONIA/SEYMOUR – A New York man was arrested Jan. 6 and charged with ten building violations across two commercial plazas in Ansonia and Seymour.
Eshagh Malekan, 71, of Mineola, N.Y., was charged with three counts of fire code violations at the Seymour Plaza on First Street, as well as seven counts of building code violations at the Maple Street Plaza in Ansonia.
Malekan was arraigned at Superior Court in Derby on Jan. 21.
According to the Ansonia arrest warrant application, one of Malekan’s tenants at the Maple Street Plaza at 27 Maple St. complained to the building department in January 2023. He said that water was leaking in through the roof and covering the floor, preventing him from accessing an electrical panel.
Set in Damon Runyon’s mythical New York City, Guys and Dolls is an oddball romantic comedy. Gambler, Nathan Detroit, tries to find the cash to set up the biggest craps game in town while the authorities breathe down his neck; meanwhile, his girlfriend and nightclub performer, Adelaide, laments that they’ve been engaged for fourteen years. Nathan turns to fellow gambler, Sky Masterson, for the dough, and Sky ends up chasing the straight-laced missionary, Sarah Brown, as a result. Guys and Dolls takes us from the heart of Times Square to the cafes of Havana, Cuba, and even into the sewers of New York City, but eventually everyone ends up right where they belong.
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Press Release | Jan 23, 2025 1:09 pm
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Griffin Hospital is seeking certified therapy dog teams to join its pet therapy program.
DERBY – Griffin Hospital is seeking certified therapy dog teams to volunteer for its pet therapy program to help bring smiles and soothe the souls of patients, visitors and caregivers.
As part of its Planetree person-centered care philosophy, Griffin’s People and Animals Working in Spirit (P.A.W.S.) program is a complementary therapy offered to patients in need of the calming companionship that dogs can provide.
Handlers need to become a registered Griffin Hospital volunteer and provide proof of their dog’s certification.
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Jean Falbo-Sosnovich | Jan 23, 2025 4:20 am
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(Left to right) Drugonis and Conroy.
SEYMOUR – Republican First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis is seeking re-election to a third term in office.
Drugonis, 55, is scheduled to make a formal announcement 6 p.m. Thursday at Cast Iron Pizza, 15 Klarides Village Drive.
“I enjoy working directly with the residents and resolving any issues they may have,” Drugonis said. “Community always comes first. This job is not just about sitting behind a desk. I’m a boots-on-the-ground person. I lead by doing. And I have a track record of delivering results and effectively addressing community needs.”
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Jasmine Wright | Jan 23, 2025 4:20 am
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Jasmine Wright
Olson Drive, in August 2024.
ANSONIA – Two Aldermen asked the city why it continues to be involved in the remediation of Olson Drive, more than two years after it was sold to a private developer.
During the monthly meeting of the Board of Aldermen on Jan. 12, the board voted to accept a series of state grants, including a $3.8 million grant for assessment and remediation on Olson Drive. Before voting, however, Alderman Bob Knott asked why public money is still going to the private project.
“This Olson Drive thing is kind of rubbing me wrong. We sold the property and I was all in favor of that,” Knott said.
However, he said, he wasn’t sure why the remediation was receiving public funds. He asked economic development director Sheila O’Malley why that is.
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Eugene Driscoll | Jan 23, 2025 4:05 am
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Mayor Joseph DiMartino addresses the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission on Jan. 21, 2025.
DERBY – Members of the city’s planning and zoning commission Tuesday (Jan. 21) rejected a zone-text change that could have opened the door to high-density housing atop ‘Telescope Mountain.’
Several commissioners said they were not anti-development – but they said almost no one liked what was being presented, especially the public.
The vote to reject the zone-text change was 4 – 2. Commissioners Albert Misiewicz and Raul Sanchez voted against rejecting the proposed change.
Summit Hill LLC owns four undeveloped parcels off Mountain and Summit streets nicknamed “Telescope Mountain.” State business records list the principal of the company as Eric Brennan of the John J. Brennan Construction Co. in Shelton.
ANSONIA — Police said a 27-year-old Ansonia resident faces three criminal charges after accidentally shooting his girlfriend in her leg.
Casey Barker is charged with second-degree assault, a felony, first-degree reckless endangerment, and illegal discharge of a firearm. The latter charges are misdemeanors.
According to a press release from police, Griffin Hospital staff called Ansonia police Jan. 18 and said they were treating a 27-year-old woman who had been shot in the leg. The woman said she had been shot accidentally while her boyfriend, Barker, was cleaning a gun. She was treated and released.
Police located Barker and pressed charges. They noted several other people were in the house at the time of the incident.
Barker is out on a $10,000 bond pending a March 12 court date.
ANSONIA – The Ansonia Nature Center will host an all-ages educational program to celebrate Groundhog Day on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. There is a $3 materials fee and you can register at this link.
The Ansonia Nature Center is located on 10 Deerfield Ln. The event description is as follows:
Groundhog Day has been celebrated on February 2nd for nearly two hundred years! Find out more about this quirky folk holiday, as well as what real groundhogs are like in their natural habitat. Watch a live shadow-puppet show, then make your puppet to take home. This program is appropriate for all ages. $3 materials fee.
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Jasmine Wright | Jan 22, 2025 11:09 am
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Canva/Ansonia Police Department Facebook
ANSONIA – Here are some highlights from the Ansonia Police Department’s calls for service. It’s a partial list of calls, pulled by The Valley Indy.
Ansonia police received 350 calls for service and made 17 arrests between Jan. 13 and Jan. 19.
Note: generally, this publication does not post the names of people charged with misdemeanors; the names of victims; or numbered residential addresses. If we publish a suspect’s name, we track the case.
The goal is to give the public a head’s up on calls for police services happening in the community, outside of just arrests.
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Eugene Driscoll | Jan 22, 2025 11:00 am
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Gino DiGiovanni (file photo).
DERBY – Gino DiGiovanni Jr., the city official who was sentenced to 10 days in prison for his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, said he assumes he was pardoned by President Donald Trump this week – though he has yet to receive official word.
“I am grateful and hope our nation will heal and unite,” said DiGiovanni, who served his jail sentence.
DiGiovanni is the chairman of the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission. He is the chairman of the Derby Republican Town Committee, and he is a former Aldeman.
Last year DiGiovanni pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. The charge came from DiGiovanni’s entering the Capitol grounds and building on Jan. 6, 2021, disrupting Joe Biden’s certification as U.S. president.
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Jasmine Wright | Jan 22, 2025 6:19 am
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Google Maps
The location of the murder.
SEYMOUR – In the hours before Christopher Stanley allegedly stabbed Rhahzhem Turner to death in a house on Ajellos Farm Road, the two had been arguing at a family gathering, police documents say.
Stanley, 33, was arraigned at Superior Court in Derby on Tuesday (Jan. 21) on charges of murder and first-degree assault. He stands accused of stabbing two people on the evening of Jan. 19.
His next court date is Feb. 13 at Superior Court in Milford.
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Press Release | Jan 21, 2025 3:08 pm
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ANSONIA/DERBY — State Representative Kara Rochelle is seeking input from the people of her district as she continues to prepare for the 2025 Legislative Session. Residents can take the 2025 constituent survey, by visiting: https://www.housedems.ct.gov/Rochelle/2025survey. Residents will also be receiving a copy of the survey in the mail that can be completed and returned to her office.
“I hope residents will complete the survey and will continue to stay in touch with me and share what matters most to them,” Rochelle said in a prepared statement.
The survey will ask residents for their ideas and thoughts on issues that may come up this session, including tax relief for working- and middle-class families, the increasing costs of prescription drugs, addressing the state’s housing crisis, and dealing with the high cost of utilities.
