Brrassss Tackss
Waterbury’s Selim Noujaim, certainly never known to be shy or reserved, delivered an emotional, often teary tribute to his family, his friends and his beloved city when he accepted the Waterbury Regional Chamber’s Baldrige Community Award on Wednesday night during the annual celebration at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.
Early on in his acceptance speech, snappy in a tuxedo before a packed house, Noujaim, a native of Lebanon, held up a plane ticket — JFK to Beirut. He had intended to leave, he said, but he couldn’t leave the woman he had recently met. He and his wife, Linda, have enjoyed 52 years of marriage, raised a family in a community which embraced them, and “I held onto this ticket all these years.”
Waterbury will either say, “Who is this outsider?” or embrace you, Noujaim said. He is grateful to have been embraced.
So were many in the chummy audience, including state Sen. Eric C. Berthel, R-32nd, who helped introduce Noujaim and read a proclamation from the Legislature for the former legislator. He choked up, and paused before he could continue. “Forgive me,” Berthel said. “I didn’t know I was going to get emotional.”
Along with thanks, Noujaim took the opportunity of his award for another purpose: to, for the first time publicly, tell stories about his 2017 accident, and to thank people who helped him recover and get back to serving the community. — Anne Karolyi
Volunteer award-winner Marya DiPerna of Post University offered this advice at the Waterbury Regional Chamber’s Baldrige awards celebration Wednesday night. Volunteer to be happy, and strive for one of three things when you do, she told the crowd: fill someone’s belly, keep someone safe or bring joy to their life. — Anne Karolyi
Region 20 Board of Education members left their meeting Thursday sporting navy blue fleece vests bearing the logo of the new school district’s mascot, the Bobcat.
The vests were gifts from Superintendent Christopher Leone, a gesture marking Board of Education Member Appreciation Month in Connecticut.
“What you are doing as a board has never been done before,” Leone said of the unprecedented union of a municipal school district ( Litchfield) and a regional school district (Region 6). “Your work is valuable and needs to be recognized.”
The Region 20 board has been working on the merger of the two districts for 19 months and is in the home stretch of an effort that will culminate with Region 20 going into business July 1.
It’s a date Leone said he’s looking forward to because it will mean he’ll have to report to just one school board, the Region 20 board. He’s been juggling the Region 20 board with the school boards in Litchfield and Region 6, and while he said he’ll miss the Litchfield and Region 6 boards, working with one board will be welcomed.
— John McKenna
An alliance of groups demanding an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza are urging Democratic voterstovote“uncommitted”intheDemocraticpresidential preference primary April 2. State law requires there be an “uncommitted” See TACKS , Page 5A
Selim Noujaim, executive vice president of Noujaim Tool Co., recipient of the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige Community Award, fights back emotion as he thanks friends, family and the community that supported him following his accident in 2017.
PHOTOS BY JIM SHANNON REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
Noujaim shows a plane ticket back to Lebanon he purchased years ago, but he met his wife, Linda, and chose to stay.
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line on each party’s primary ballot for voters who choose to vote, but not for any of the listed candidates.
The CT Palestine Solidarity Coalition announced the “Vote Uncommitted CT” campaign during a news conference in Hartford last Wednesday.
The coalition and other 10 allied groups are urging Democrats to mark the “uncommitted line” to send a message to President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party that Connecticut voters demand an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza, an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, and an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
Biden and three other Democrats will appear on the primary ballot. Biden secured the Democratic nomination after primary wins in several states last week. — Paul Hughes
It may technically be winter still until Tuesday, but that didn’t stop a local ice cream truck from visiting Middlebury on Friday afternoon, much to the delight of both kids and adults. It was just like the good old days, or at least as far back as the summer of 2021. That was the year Middlebury 10-year-old Bryce Erwin fondly remembers the ice cream truck making regular visits to her neighborhood.
Bryce shared her memories in a recent handwritten letter to Middlebury Selectman Jennifer Mahr, stating that the trucks had not returned since then and asking for Mahr’s help.
The story was picked up by the Republican-American and was read by Jessyca Simmons and her mom, Linda, of Waterbury, who operate Linda’s Ice Cream & Treats.
“We saw the article and decided we needed to fulfill Bryce’s wish,” Simmons said.
Bryce was joined by friends and neighbors as the truck pulled up in front of her home on East Ridge Drive about 4:30 p.m.
“Thanks Bryce,” they all shouted. Mahr was out-of-town Friday and was unable to join in the fun, but called in remotely to say she saluted Bryce for standing up for change.
— Steve Bigham
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, reintroduced a resolution in the U.S. House to declare racism a public health crisis in the United States. U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., cosponsored H.R. 1062 with Hayes.
Hayes said the intent of the resolution is to highlight what she called the overwhelming evidence of the intersection of racism and discrimination within the health care system that is placing people of color at higher risk for health issues and shortening life expectancy.
“We do not and should not live in a colorblind society. Racism is embedded in many of the core systems we use in this country, including the health care system,” she said.
Hayes first introduced the legislation in 2020. In 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly declared racism a public health crisis in Connecticut. The state law established a 28-member Commission on Racial Equity in Public Health to document health disparities and inequities and make recommendations to decrease the effect of racism on public health. — Paul Hughes
Gov. Ned Lamont expressed reservations Thursday about a national ban on the popular video app TikTok.
The five members of the state’s all-Democratic delegation to the U.S. House split 3-2 in a vote Wednesday against legislation that would lead to a nationwide TikTok ban its Chinabased owner fails to sell its stake.
Lamont urged caution when asked Thursday if he had a position on a national TikTok ban following a news conference on consumer protection legislation at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford.
“I think it is a slippery slope,” he said. “In the name of national security you can give up an awful lot of liberties, so I think they should be very careful when they think about these bans.”
U.S. Reps. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, Jim Himes, D-4th District, and John B. Larson, D-1st District, voted against the TikTok ban on Wednesday, while U.S. Reps. Joseph D. Courtney, D-2nd District, and Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd District, voted to approve the bill.
The overwhelming 352-65 vote sent the legislation to the U.S. Senate, where its prospects are unclear. President Biden has said if Congress approves the measure, he’ll sign it.
Ben Proto, the state chairman of the Republican Party, slammed the three Connecticut Democrats who opposed the TikTok ban in the House vote.
“When it came time to protect Americans, and their personal data and well-being, John Larson, Jahana Hayes and Jim Himes failed the call and voted to protect the Chinese company that is regularly collecting personal information and data on Americans,” he said.
Proto called on U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Christopher S. Murphy to support the TikTok ban in a Senate vote. — Paul Hughes
In what likely will turn out to be an interesting year for political candidates all the way around, Litchfield’s party politics on the left is now in the hands of an all-female Democratic Town Committee executive panel.
No one can recall an all-female group of its kind here, or anywhere else in the Northwest Corner.
What does a party town committee do exactly? It supports the party’s candidates from local to national levels, and encourages voter registration and a bunch of other things related to sponsorship as campaigning heats up. The executive committee has the added responsibility of steering the group administratively and setting goals.
The five-member executive committee in Litchfield elected earlier this month includes Harmony Tanguay, chairwoman; Daniela Larsson, Linda Austin, Jennine Lupo and Kara Cruoglio.
— Brigitte Ruthman
In Plymouth, during last week’s Board of Finance meeting, Board of Education members came to the defense of Superintendent of Schools Brian Falcone and the entire administration. Some in the public have criticized the administration as being top heavy and making too much money.
School board Vice Chairman Walter Seaman said Falcone, in his fourth year as superintendent, works “countless hours,” working 24/7 to take late night phone calls and on weekends, dealing with various issues. Falcone even canceled a vacation because there was so much going on in the school system. He said he knows Falcone has received job offers from other school districts that would pay him far more than he makes here.
“How he’s still married, I have no idea,” Seaman said. “His wife was getting jealous of me.”
The proposed budget for 2024-25 includes a 2% increase for Falcone, from $198,900 to $202,878. Falcone said the average salary for superintendents statewide is $219,000. — Kurt Moffett
When the owners of this ice cream truck read a story in the Republican-American about a Middlebury girl asking her selectman why the mobile treat trucks haven’t been to her neighborhood since 2021, they made a point of bringing the truck to her so friends and family could enjoy.
STEVE BIGHAM REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
