Haddam-Killingworth High School Junior Erin Schuster was named the winner of the 3rd Annual Shoreline Idol Competition last night in the HKHS auditorium. Schuster belted out Martina McBride's "A Broken Wing" and received high praise from the judges and a rousing ovation from the crowd. She will receive a $1000 scholarship, donated by Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale Restaurant, and a recording session at Tapeworks's Recording Studio donated by Doug Kupper.

Last night's concert was the finale in the competition process. Forty students from area high schools tried out and the ten finalist performed on the Annual HK-TV Telethon in December. The public voted during the telethon for their favorite idol by pledging money to fund a scholarship for an HK senior in memory of Terrie Lusis and Sgt. Jason Lantieri. The telethon raised $19,000 this year. The vote count along with the opinions of judges Renee Verillo, Doug Kupper and Tré Johnson determined the winner.

HK swept the competition this year with second place going to Jocelyn Linder and third place going to Nicole Pedonti. Pedonti received the most votes from the public.

Shoreline Idol is produced by HK Communications Teacher Chuck Lewis, Art Teacher Betsy Himmelman and Choral Director Marcy Webster. The host for the show was local radio personality John "Cadillac" Saville. Click to view Idol Photo Gallery

Erin Schuster singing "A Broken Wing" and after she was announced the winner.

Nicole Pedonti and Jocelyn Linder

Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's No Child Left Inside initiative continues even during the winter cold with the second annual Winter Festival at Chatfield Hollow State Park, Killingworth, that showcases outdoor winter activities for the whole family Feb. 2 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a full range of winter outdoor activities.

The event is free and there is no registration or sign-up. Everyone is welcome. Last year's Winter Festival at Black Rock State Park in Watertown drew more than 500 adults and children.

Activities will include winter-related activities and depending on the weather, may include snow tubing, ice skating, snowshoe races, hiking, wildlife tracking, ice fishing, letterboxing, demonstrations on winter camping, cooking demonstrations and a large bonfire with hot chocolate and a marshmallow roast.

HK Sports: The HK Boys Basketball team fell to Old Saybrook, 76-51. Steve Landell led HK with 11 points followed by Brendan Hatin with 10 and Matt Martin and Dan Brough each with 8. The Cougars are 6-4 on the year. Old Saybrook improves to 10-0.

The Killingworth Nursery School Association will hold their monthly board meeting on February 5, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. Killingworth Elementary School Kindergarten teachers will offer a Kindergarten Readiness program to help parents determine if their child is ready to enter kindergarten. This meeting is open to the public and will be held at the Killingworth Nursery School house down stairs in the Killingworth Congregational Church, 273 Route 81.

Ashley Giddix of Killingworth has earned a place on the Lyndon State College Dean's List for the fall semester. Giddix, the daughter of Michael and Debra Wells is majoring in Television Studies. She graduated from Haddam-Killingworth High School in 2006.

For inclusion on the Dean's List, a student must have completed at least 12 graded credits with no incomplete or failing grades and a minimum grade-point average of 3.50.

Do you have a knitting or needlework project that has been sitting around waiting for you to finish it? Join Beth Hartke to work on that neglected piece or start a new one and enjoy the company of others with NO modern day intrusions. Sunday, January 20, 2008 and Sunday, February 3, 2008 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Thankful Arnold House Museum, 14 Hayden Hill Road, Haddam, CTRegistration is required, since space is limited. Admission is free. For further information call Lisa at Haddam Historical Society 345-2400 or contact@haddamhistory.org.

2ND GRADE BASKETBALL:The Haddam-Killingworth Recreation Department is offering 2nd Grade Basketball on Saturdays, January 26th - March 8th (No class 2/23) from 10:30 - 12:00 PM at the HK New Middle School gym. The fee is $50. Non-residents may register for an additional $10. This is an instructional program to teach 2nd grade boys and girls the fundamentals of basketball. Skills such as dribbling, passing, shooting, & defense will be taught. A great way for young players to prepare for the youth league.

START SMART - SPORTS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: The Haddam-Killingworth Recreation Department is offering Start Smart - a National program where parents will work one-on-one with their child in an instructional setting performing fundamental motor skills such as throwing, kicking, batting, and catching. The program is for 3 1/2 to 5 year olds and will meet on Saturdays from 9:15 - 10:00 am at the HK New Middle School Gym beginning January 26 - March 8 (No class 2/23). The fee is $40 per child. Non-residents can sign up for an additional $10.

BABYSITTER'S TRAINING COURSE: The Haddam-Killingworth Recreation Department is offering the American Red Cross Babysitting Course this winter. Classes will be 6:00 - 8:30 pm at the HK Old Middle School Room A-127. The fee is $70 and includes a Red Cross Babysitting Manual and Certificate. Non-residents please add $10. Session I is Mondays, January 28 - February 11 and Session II is Tuesdays, March 4 - 18. The course is for students ages 11 - 15, and is designed to prepare them for babysitting.

This American Red Cross Program has been updated to include Basic Child Care, First Aid for breathing and bleeding emergencies, and injury prevention as well as covering other important topics to prepare young adults for babysitting. Students will not become certified in CPR or 1st Aid, but will gain knowledge. This class is an excellent opportunity to help students build self-confidence as well as job leadership, and decision-making skills.

For more information, please call the HK Recreation Department at 345-8334 or visit us on-line at www.hkrec.com.

HK Sports: The HK Wrestling team improved its record to 9-11 with a, 62-18, win at Portland yesterday. Justin Simmers, Tony LaRosa, Guy Hall, Korey Johnson and Nick DiGioia had pins for the Cougars. Read all about the match in the Middletown Press.

There will be Student Voter Registration at Haddam-Killingworth High School this Friday, January 18 and Monday, January 28 in the cafeteria from 12:00 noon to 12:40 p.m.

Killingworth resident Susan Dean will take completed registration forms to the appropriate town halls on the day they are filled out.

Registration for the February 5 Presidential Primary
Students who are 18 years of age by the February 5th primary are able to register to vote. Since there are only Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on the ballot, only registered Democratic or Republican voters can take part in this election. Registration forms will be available in the cafeteria. Students must present one form of identification: Driver's License, last 4 numbers of SSN, or their student photo ID. Any forms mailed to the Registrar of Voters in the designated town must be received by January 31. However, a registration form presented at the town hall by the prospective voter can be accepted until noon on February 4.

Registration for the November 4, 2008 Election
Students who will be 18 by November 4 can register to vote at this time as well. They will need to fill out the form and show identification. (Same as above.) However, they will not have to register with a party. Registration closes on October 28 - 7 days before the election. Mailed registrations must be postmarked or received 14 days prior to this election.

To the Editor:
I must congratulate the Killingworth BOS for acting to providing a temporary fix for the Reservoir Bridge fiasco. One has to wonder though how it could take almost two years to come to this simple and inexpensive fix. I've read some of the minutes of the committee that is in charge of this project and have read how this committee has time and again told concerned users of this bridge that no such temporary fix was feasible and/or way too expensive.

I suppose that in the end we should be happy that the users will finally get some relief but I still have to think that some good old Yankee ingenuity two years ago should have been applied.

Phil Stull

Killingworth now has a fascinating website for exploring the geography of our town, our neighborhoods, and even our individual land parcels.

This is an interactive website which allows you to see important geographic qualities: soil types; wetlands; flood zones; lot sizes; zoning; and many other parameters. You may examine a parcel, group of parcels, or the entire town.

The site is fun to explore, but it has a very serious purpose. It is a fully functional Geographic Information System (GIS) that enables land use officials and the town's Planning and Zoning, Inland Wetlands and Conservation Commissions to visualize many potential impacts of any proposed development at a glance. Users can create customized maps that depict wetlands and watercourses, environmentally sensitive areas, town infrastructure and other important features to see how a given parcel relates to its surroundings and the town as a whole. This will help place it in the context of the Plan of Conservation and Development. As a result, planning can better protect Killingworth's valuable resources and long-term ecological sustainability.

After spending a few minutes exploring the website, you will quickly gain a profound appreciation of just how connected all of us are within the natural systems around us. A wetland, for instance, does not end at a property line, nor do the living things which depend upon it for survival. Likewise, if contamination from one parcel flows into a wetland, that contamination spreads throughout the wetland system, degrading and devaluing properties far beyond its borders. This new website makes these relationships very clear.

To use the website, a fast internet connection is preferable, since the site actually re-calculates your parameters each time you change one - there's a lot of data being crunched. For PC users, the website runs best using a recent version of the Internet Explorer browser. For Macintosh users, a recent version of the Firefox browser (available for free) seems to work well.

The best way to become familiar with the site is to give yourself a "trial-and-error" tutorial: just point and click on its various tabs and buttons, and watch what happens. If you are feeling less adventurous, there is a "Help" system which walks you through the system.

Remember that the drawings on the website are not as precise as an A-2 survey, nor are they meant to be. They are meant to conveniently show the conditions on a parcel (or parcels) which, if they are important to you, should be confirmed by walking the site.

The website address is http://hosting.tighebond.com/killingworthct/main.htm. Have fun exploring!

The Snow Ghost of Killingworth (sited and photographed by gifted town psychic)

HK Sports: The HK Girls Basketball team defeated Portland yesterday afternoon, 54-47. Allie Rand scored a double double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Michelle Fillion scored 11 points, three of those from behind three-point range. Deanna Loso added eight points. Read all about the game in the Middletown Press.

The Board of Selectmen passed a resolution Monday night to support the efforts of Citizens for a Clean Hammonasset River "to elevate the classification of the Hammonasset River to a Class A/SA river and protect it from assaults which threaten to degrade water quality and damage the fragile Hammonasset watershed environment".

CCHR is requesting the Towns of Madison and Clinton also pass the resolution that "all Town agencies, commissions, and committees execute their tasks in a manner that is mindful of the valuable rivers and estuaries contained within the bounds of each town". By elevating the river to Class A status, the likelihood of getting State Department of Environmental Protection permission to discharge wastewater into the river is significantly minimized.

The non-binding resolution states, "We do not support or have interest now or hereafter, nor support any project or plan which will introduce waste water, treated or otherwise, or any other material, substance or pollutant into the Hammonasset River or its tributaries, adjacent wetlands or estuary which may impair the goal of a clean Hammonasset River and its recreational use, including swimming, fishing and shell fishing by the public or its natural function as a habitat".

The CCHR, formed in 2004, currently has identified three danger areas. It helped organize the opposition to Unilever's plan to discharge wastewater into Hayden's Creek in Clinton; they are very concerned about leaching industrial wastewater lagoons at the Stanley Bostich plant in Clinton, as well as the advanced treatment septic system proposed for the Madison Landing development in Madison. CCHR representative H. R. Gram, who proposed the resolution to the BOS, said that Killingworth's water is very clean: almost drinkable. He praised the local Water Pollution Control Commissions for their hard work.

The Hammonasset River is a 30-mile watercourse which originates in Durham and forms the eastern boundary of Madison between Killingworth and Clinton. Its waters then travel through Clinton Harbor to the Long Island Sound.

First Selectman Richard Cabral has provided more details on the opening of the travel lane over the Reservoir Road Bridge this spring. Cabral said that resident Peter Venuti of Venuti Enterprises stepped forward and volunteered to install the dragline mats at no cost and in addition will purchase the mats and lease them to the town. The Town crew will be responsible for installing the guard rails and signage. The temporary span of dragline mats will be 10 feet wide, 60 feet long and made of wood.

The Board of Selectmen announced last night that it has put together a plan to open one lane over Reservoir Road Bridge. Closed since April 2006, and not expected to be open again until 2009, Blueberry Hill Reserve resident Frank Cunningham said it was like Christmas.

After consulting with Cardinal Engineering and the State Department of Transportation, First Selectman Richard Cabral determined it was possible to safely open one lane by installing dragline mats across the span. The project will also include guard rails, warning signs and stop signs with flashing lights. The Town crew will do all the installation work and the mats will be leased. The lane will be wide enough to accommodate school buses and trucks.

Cabral will ask the Board of Finance to approve up to $9,000 for the project next month and the installation should begin soon after. Cabral was reluctant to be specific about a completion date, but said it would take approximately a month to complete. The bridge will remain open until construction begins on the new bridge. A construction timeline for the permanent bridge has not been announced but it is expected to be completed by fall 2009.

Cabral said he thinks the Reservoir Road Bridge services more than just residents in that area. He said he hopes that residents will proceed with care when crossing the bridge. When asked where this idea came from, Selectman Fred Dudek said the trick was to think simply; if the bridge can hold 40 tons of sand for all this time, it can certainly stand up to one lane of traffic. Cabral said the State is supportive of the temporary plan but will not put the bridge on its inspection schedule.

Dragline mats or bridgemats are some type of heavy panel that can be used in multiple to construct a temporary crossing over streams, ditches or other small waterways. Most dragline mats are constructed either of heavy wood timbers or fabricated steel panels.

Killingworth Park and Recreation Commission Special Meeting

The Park and Recreation Commission will hold a special meeting on Thursday, January 17 at 7:00 p.m. at the Killingworth Firehouse to discuss the short and long term development of the Wettish property, refurbishment of Sheldon Park, and the general overall direction of recreational facilities development in Killingworth.

The public is welcome.

HK Sports: The HK 12U Travel Girls Basketball Team visited Branford on Sunday and tweaked out a nail biter victory, 32-30. With the score tied at the half, 16-16, and again at the close of the 3rd quarter, 21-21, it was the HK full court player to player defense that pulled out the win. HK, with only 7 players to Branford's 12, had to step up the pace and play strong and smart to outlast the Hornets. Beth Riedy led all scorers with 16 points, followed by Anna Fetteroll with 5, Sammi Mackowitz with 4,and Sam Waskowtiz with 3 points. Kirsten Carlson and Marissa Moncata each chipped in with a pair. It was another exciting victory for the 7th grade travel girls team to bring them to 4-3 on the season. The girls are at home next weekend vs. rival Clinton.

The Shoreline Idol Competition Finale Concert will take place on Friday, January 18 at 7:00 p.m in the HKHS auditorium. This year the Annual HK-TV Holiday Telethon and Idol Competition will benefit the Terrie Lusis Scholarship Fund and Sgt. Jason Lantieri Scholarship Fund. Admission is just a non-perishable food item donated to the Shoreline Soup Kitchen.

Friday's concert, hosted by John "Cadillac" Saville from 102.9 FM, will feature the 10 finalists in a reprise of their telethon performances as well as some group numbers. The winner will be announced at the end of the evening. The winner will receive a $1,000 scholarship provided by Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale Restaurant and studio recording time provided by Tape Works Studio in Hartford.

The Ten finalists are: Katie Armstrong, Hale-Ray High School; Kelsey Crawford, Westbrook High School; Maddy Hammell, Haddam-Killingworth High School; Jocelyn Linder, Haddam-Killingworth High School; Allison Lindsay, Middletown High School; Nicole Pedonti, Haddam-Killingworth High School; Erin Schuster, Haddam-Killingworth High School; Arantza Solabarrieta, Haddam-Killingworth High School; Henry Tobelman, Haddam-Killingworth High School and Melanie Yates, Haddam-Killingworth High School

Sunday January 6:
• 8:43 AM: Medical emergency, Bar Gate Trl
• 5:34 PM: Carbon monoxide investigation, Bar Gate Trl
Tuesday January 8:
• 6:06 AM: Medical emergency, Route 80
• 4:20 PM: Medical emergency, Whitewood Rd
Wednesday January 9:
• 6:30 PM: Medical emergency, Route 81
Friday January 11:
• 2:20 AM: Medical emergency, Burr Hill Rd
• 7:44 AM: Mutual aid to Deep River, Structure fire, Cedar Swamp Rd
• 8:19 PM: Medical emergency, Route 81
• 9:26 PM: Medical emergency, Chestnut Hill Rd
Saturday January 12:
• 12:18 AM: Motor vehicle accident, Route 80

FOUND PIG

A small black pig with a tag on its ear was found yesterday, January 12. It wandered into a resident's yard on Tower Hill Road. Please call (860)304-3820 with information or to identify and claim.

Agenda
Regular Meeting of the Board of Selectmen
Monday, January 14, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Town Office Building

1. Call to Order
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Approval of minutes of meeting held December 10, 2007
4. Visitors: Concerning items on the Agenda
5. Tax Abatements & Refunds:
6. Vacancies:
    a. Estuary Transit District
    b. Land Use Committee (2)
7. Appointments:
    a. Estuary Transit District: Richard J. Cabral
    b. Emergency Management - David J. Brown
8. Old Business:
    a. BOS Acceptance of Clarkson Lane as Town Road per Town Meeting Vote of 12/20/07
    b. Transfer Station Permits - Update
9. New Business:
    a. WPCA - R. Ellis
    b. Traffic Study Committee - R. Ellis
    c. BOS authorization of Resolution, "Citizens for a Clean Hammonasset River" Herbert R. Gram
    d. Set BOS Budget Meeting Dates
    e. Library Assoc. - Nancy Bradley
10. RJC Announcements
11. Selectmen Concerns:
12. Visitor Comments: General
13. Adjournment
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