No injuries in Derby fire today

Photo credit: Valley Independent Sentinel 

DERBY - Firefighters quickly extinguished a small fire at the Antique and Junque Shop just after noon today at the corner of Roosevelt Drive and Cedric Avenue. No injuries were reported.

Read the report in the Valley Independent Sentinel here.

This quick response by volunteers in weather featuring a wind chill factor around 0 degrees is to be commended.

Gentile backs special ed reform goals

Keeping taxable property on a town’s grand list when acquired by a non-profit college or hospital, separate local property tax bills for board of education and town budgets, requiring regional common school calendars, and incentives for towns are among the various legislative proposals put forth by Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, and the MORE (Municipal Opportunities & Regional efficiencies) Commission this year.

Linda M. Gentile

Deputy Speaker of the House Linda M. Gentile, D-Ansonia, is particularly pleased with the goals focusing on special education in the state.

“Special education costs are particularly high in Ansonia and Derby,” Gentile said. “If we can get a handle on those costs through working cooperatively it’s a success for all involved.”

Special Education Reform goals include:

• Providing a more efficient system and providing more accessibility to quality special education by regionalizing services and programs.
• Centralizing and coordinating transition services under one state agency.
• Re-purposing Regional Education Service Centers (RESCs) into regional special education districts.

Sharkey re-established the bipartisan, bicameral MORE panel in 2013, and charged them with helping cities and towns reduce their costs and increase efficiencies, particularly through regional cooperation, with a goal of ultimately reducing local property taxes.

This post is taken from a press release on Gentile's website.

Conroy among lawmakers unveiling goals to support disabled

Theresa Conroy

Includes 5-year plan to close Southbury Training School

State Rep. Theresa Conroy, D-Seymour, Friday joined other members of the General Assembly’s Intellectual and Developmentally Disabled (I/DD) Caucus to unveil their legislative priorities, seeking substantial changes in state funding and housing for intellectually and developmentally disabled state residents and their families.

“This is a bold agenda that seeks to provide the best possible services to for intellectually and developmentally disabled residents and their families,” Conroy said.

The 60-member bipartisan and bicameral caucus supports legislation designed to:

· Close the state Department of Developmental Services’ Southbury Training School by 2020 and move its remaining residents (approximately 320) to community-based settings; shift all of the Southbury closure savings (approximately $237,000 per-person) to community-based settings in order to reduce the waiting list of approx. 2,000 disabled clients seeking supportive housing; evaluate the best use for the Southbury property and buildings and conduct an environmental assessment.

· Maintain DDS funding at pre-rescission levels in the FY 2016-17 biennial state budget

· Study the creation of a client trust fund for individual spend-down requirements

The I/DD Caucus issued its goals Friday in advance of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s Feb. 18 biennial state budget address, which is expected to impact health and human services spending in Connecticut.

Conroy's district includes parts of Seymour, Beacon Falls and Derby. 


This is a press release from Conroy's office. 

Griffin Hospital in Derby offers free CPR course

Griffin Hospital is offering free Friends & Family CPR Training on the second Saturday of every month. / Contributed photo

DERBY - Griffin Hospital Valley Parish Nurses are encouraging individuals to be a hero for their friends and family by offering free Friends & Family CPR Training throughout the year.

The Family & Friends CPR is a non-certifying course that teaches the basics of adult and child CPR and relief of a foreign body (choking).
Infant skills will be offered at the end of the program to those who wish to learn these additional skills.
The course is offered on the second Saturday of every month from 10 a.m.-noon.

Registrations are required as space is limited.

Call Cathi at 203.732.1337 to sign up or for more information.


This is a press release from Griffin Hospital.

Comedy show in Oxford to benefit Seymour-based nonprofit

Photo credit: CT Partnership for Children, Inc. event page on Facebook

OXFORD - Dave Reilly Comedy Adventure will be held March 6 to benefit Connecticut Partnership for Children, Inc., at Colonial Tavern, 24 Hawley Road. 
The annual event will feature Reilly and comedians Gary Pettinella and Desmond Walker.

Doors open at 7 p.m.; show begins at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $25 a person, $210 for a table of 10 (first come, first served) and $240 for a table of 12 (only four available).

Connecticut Partnership for Children, Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Seymour dedicated to supporting low-income children throughout Connecticut, by working with their families and the communities in which they live.