News & Features

Tomie de Paola, an American author and illustrator of over 200 childrens books and a former Meriden resident, reacts after a surprise unvieling of the Meriden Childrens Public Library now named in his honor at Meriden Public Library on Saturday July 23, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Cliff Richards (left), 23 of Berlin and David Proctor (right), 21 of Wallingford air out on a quarter pipe at the Meriden skate park in Meriden on Thursday June 2, 2011. Richards, who graduated from Wilcox Tech, has been going to the skate park for 7 years, while Proctor says he rides at the skate park about three times a week. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Grandpa Elliott, a musician for Playing For Change, sings on a street corner in the French Quarter of New Orleans, LA on January 6, 2012. The Wallingford Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Phil Ventre, rehearses at Choates Paul Mellon Arts Center in Wallingford on Thursday March 17, 2011. The orchestra will be performing a concert on Saturday March 19. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Jeffrey Montalvo, 19 of Meriden, an avid Boston Red Sox fan and sneaker collector, is in need of a heart transplant after being diagnosed with noncompaction cardiomyopathy at the end of June 2011. Montalvo had surgery about 3 weeks ago at Hartford Hospital to install a ventricular assist device attached to his heart to help pump blood throughout his body until a heart becomes available. He uses the heart pillow that he got from the hospital to help ease chest pain when he coughs. Montalvo says the thing he misses most is feeling healthy and normal. Photo taken at his home on Wednesday August 17, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) New England Patriots tight end, Rob Gronkowski signs the hat of a young fan at the beginning of the 3rd hole during the Travelers Championship Celebrity Pro-Am tournament in Cromwell on Wednesday June 22, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Kevin Jobbagy, of Southington, kayaks outside his home on Curtiss Street in Southington on Monday March 7, 2011. Heavy rains and melting snow caused the Quinnipiac River and a nearby brook to oversflow and shut down Curtiss Street. Jobbagy and other neighbors said flooding on the street hasnt been this high in four or five years. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Tom Dalton, of the New Haven County Firefighters Band, plays the bag pipes as he leads a procession through American flags that were layed out in the American Legion Post 45 baseball field for each individual who passed during the September 11th attacks. Each flag had an individuals name on it and was placed in the ground according to which building or flight they perished in. Photo taken in Meriden on Saturday September 10, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Tom Havrilla Sr., 64 of Meriden is in his 20th year of decorating the front of his home at 295 Chamberlain Highway in Meriden for the Fourth of July. Havrilla served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam era from 1965-1969. Photo taken Friday July 1, 2011 in Meriden. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Mike DeMusis, 52 of Westville, hangs clothes at the Goodwill Store in Wallingford on Thursday September 22, 2011, as part of the Easter Seals Goodwill Industries programs that helps provide opportunities for people in the area with disabilities and other challenges. DeMusis, who works 3 days a week, has been at the Wallingford store for the past four years. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Ed Harris, 84 of Meriden waters the flowers of a veterans grave at Walnut Grove Cemetery in Meriden on Friday July 15, 2011. Harris visits the cemetery twice a day to water the flowers at his wifes grave as well as the rest of the flowers in the particular section. In addition to pouring between 6 and 7 gallons of water each trip, Harris also bought flags for the veterans grave, most of which have been stolen since. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Linda McMahon (left) standing next to Jeff Gagnon (right) founder of Coil Pro in Southington, announced her candidacy for U.S. Senate at a Southington manufacturing company Tuesday September 20, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Linda McMahon prepares for media interviews at Coil Pro in Southington, after she announced her candidacy for U.S. Senate at the Southington manufacturing company Tuesday September 20, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Gov. Dan Malloy gives a speech at the Armory on inauguration day in Hartford on Wednesday January 5, 2010. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Gov. Dan Malloy addresses the House after being inaugurated as Connecticuts new governor in Hartford on Wednesday January 5, 2010. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Gov. Malloy speaks to ESPN employees about business growth in Connecticut at ESPN in Bristol on Tuesday March 22, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) A firefighter breaks a second floor window as a fire engulfs the attic at 79 Christian Street in Wallingford on Friday May 13, 2011. Nobody was hurt in the blaze that occurred around 9:00 pm. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Bill Reiman, mechanical assembler at I2S, LLC in Yalesville, assembles plumbing for oil mist lubrication for a Coal Rolling Mill that will be shipped to Uzbekistan at I2S on Monday July 11, 2011. The company recently signed two contracts for Coal Rolling Mills to be sent to China. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Nicole Szuba, 5, of Southington, catches some air off a jump sledding down the hill at Panthorn Park in Southington on Thursday January 13, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) With such a high demand to clean snow off roofs, customers waited in line, which extended from outside the store through the back of it, for about an hour to buy roof rakes at Ace Hardware in Cheshire on Monday January 31, 2011. Police had to turn cars away after traffic caused congestion the entire length of Maple St. in Cheshire. Ace Hardware ordered over 1,000 roof rakes in anticipation of the coming snow storms. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Academy Award winning actor Joe Pesci looks to sink a putt on the second hole as professional WWE wrestler The Miz watches during the Travelers Championship Celebrity Pro-Am tournament in Cromwell on Wednesday June 22, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Professional WWE wrestler The Miz takes a moment to engage with the camera on the second hole of the Travelers Championship Celebrity Pro-Am tournament in Cromwell on Wednesday June 22, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Diana Sheard of Southington, shows Adam Ciaffaglione, 6 of Southington a shark she painted on his face at the Kids Entertainment at Recreation Park in Southington on Tuesday July 5, 2011. In addition to face painting, families could watch live music and a magician with their children as part of Southington Parks & Recreations Kids Entertainment Series. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Relay for Life participants walk around the Lyman Hall track past a Fight Back sign that has signatures of people who participated in this years event in Wallingford on Friday May 13, 2011. (From left to right) Nancy Burt of Cheshire, Barbara Moulthrop of Cheshire, Trudi Heft of Wallingford, and Denise Eldridge of Meriden, all survivors of cancer walk together during the opening ceremonies of Relay for Life at Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford on Friday May 13, 2011. The ladies who all dance together on Monday nights, are walking in memory of Tom Heft and Charlies Moulthrop, both who died of cancer. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Nick Ugolik, of Wallingford and owner of Metal Health Gym in Wallingford, discusses the dual business he operates, having a tatoo parlor and a work out gym in the same building on Thursday April 7, 2011. Ugolik, who has had the work out gym for the past 13 years and who has always painted and drawn, started tattooing about 2 years ago. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Director and cinematographer Thomas Vinci (left), co-founder of Forge Fourth Media in Meriden, shoots Lyzbeth Ramos music video for her latest single, Amor de Historia at Lincoln Middle School in Meriden on Saturday January 29, 2011. Ramos, a former Lincoln Middle School student, included students from Lincoln Middle School in her music video. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Miguel Cardona Jr., 6 of Meriden takes center stage to sing Talking to the Moon, as his father Miguel Cardona, Sr. (right), the principal of Hanover Elementary School in Meriden, video tapes the performance during the Meridens annual National Night Out at City Park in Meriden on Tuesday August 2, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Kevin Guaman, 10 of Meriden plays a pyramid cup stacking challenge at the Pryme Tyme Entertainment tent during the Meridens annual National Night Out at City Park in Meriden on Tuesday August 2, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) A K-9 team arrived at Platt High School in Meriden around 11:15am on Wednesday May 4, 2011 after the school was put on lockdown earlier in the morning. Police received an anonymous tip to a possible bomb being brought to school by a student. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Wallingford firefighters Rich Sartori (left) and Andy Thorp (right), stock the top of a ladder truck with safety ropes and ash cans at Wallingford fire department headquarters on Tuesday April 5, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) K.W. Reese Inc. railroad track construction workers cut down and clear trees on the Amtrack rail line near Cooper Street in Meriden on Thursday April 7, 2011. Joe Mattie, an Amtrack track foreman said the tree cutting along the track is an ongoing project extending from New Haven, CT to Springfield, MA to prevent trees from falling on the tracks. Mattie said the crews are able to work during the day in this area because of the dual tracks, but are forced to work during the night in areas with only a single track. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Walter Hushak, 88 of Southington, a former B-24 pilot in WWII, sits in the pilots seat of a B-24 Liberator, at Oxford Airport in Oxford on Friday September 9, 2011, reminiscing on the times he spent flying and controlling the bomber. Hushak, who was in the 7th Army Air Corp., flew B-24 airplanes from May 1944 -April 1946 in the Pacific Ocean region. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) A small single-engine plane lay upside down in a field off Boulder Road in Cheshire on January 13, 2011. A father and son walked away from the crash landing. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) David Quijano, construction worker for A & G Contracting of East Haven, nails a piece of wood connecting two roof joices for the new Scrubbin Bubbles car wash on North Colony Street in Wallingford on Monday March 14, 2011. Quijano and other A&G construction workers spent about three hours putting up around 30 pre-fabricated roof joices. Rick ONeil, project manager said that the three hour job would have taken 10 days to complete if they did not get the pre-fabricated roof joices from East Haven Builders and Supply. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Confederate soldiers retreat after some of their soldiers were wounded by Union soliders during the Civil War reenactment at Stanley Quarter Park in New Britian on Saturday April 16, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Friendlys waitress Julie Ceruti (center), sits Norma Baldwin (right), 74 of Vernon and Fran McParland (left), 71 of Meriden as the two hug after not seeing one another in over 50 years at the Friendlys in Meriden on Monday April 18, 2011. Baldwin and McParland went to Camp Witawentin in Pittsfield, MA together in the late 1940s and havent seen each other since. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Southington Chamber of Commerce President Art Secondo (right) points out broken bricks in the sidewalk on North Main Street in Southington to Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback (middle), as well as other Chamber of Commerce members and local business people in Southington on Thursday April 21, 2011. The Chamber of Commerce held its annual walk to discuss issues and concerns in the downtown area. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Bob Grandpre, of Bethlehem shows Ron Michaud (middle) of Southington and Janice Pinto (left) of Wolcott his 1932 Ford pick-up truck at the Southington Drive-In in Southington on Friday July 22, 2011. Prior to the movie American Graffiti being shown at the drive-in, vintage cars were on display for the audience to check out. Southington Drive-In has movies playing every Saturday night through September 3, 2011. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Mount Southington Snowboard Instructor Scott Marciniec, 17, of Southbury, practices his freestyle tricks in the terrain park at Mount Southington Ski Area in Southington on Thursday January 20, 2011. Marciniec had several lessons set up once school got out later in the afternoon. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Adam Sandora, 9, of Southington does the air-guitar during the dance-a-thon at Plantsville Elementary School in Southington on Friday January 28, 2011. 44, 4th and 5th graders at the school raised $1,509 for the Connecticut Childrens Medical Center with the help of Phi Sigma Rho sorority at UConn. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Southington firefighters attempt to put out a two story house fire at 59 Lombardo Court in Southington on Tuesday March 30, 2011. The fire, which began around 10:00pm could be seen from I-691 and I-84 interstate highways. There is no word on what caused the fire. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) North Haven Police Chief James DiCarlo takes a congratulatory phone call in his office at the North Haven Police Station on Wednesday March 30, 2011. DiCarlo, a Wallingford native, will be retiring after serving on the North Haven police force for 38 years, and acting as chief for 11 years. DiCarlo spent the past week cleaning out his office in anticipation for his last day on the job Thursday. (Matt Andrew/ Record-Journal) Lauren Skotnicki holds up a sign supporting funding for city schools during a rally outside the Board of Education building in Meriden on Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

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