A new resident trooper

SALISBURY — The Board of Selectmen welcomed the new resident state trooper, Chris Sorrell, at the regular monthly meeting Oct. 3.Sorrell gave the selectmen a quick sketch of his resume — 12 years on the force, with a stint in the Western District Major Crimes unit.He said he planned to do some patrolling on a bicycle. First Selectman Curtis Rand reported to the board that he has asked department heads in town to buy American-made goods when possible.“I think it’s a small effort by our town to help support the American economy.”Rand said he was inspired when he visited a store in search of a new shovel and couldn’t find a domestically made product.Rand also reported that other members of the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments were not enthusiastic about a proposal to establish a regional council to hear ethics complaints. The council is made up of first selectmen from nine Litchfield County towns, including the six towns of the Region One School District.Selectman Jim Dresser said such complaints are difficult to administer within a town, and the regional council would allow impartial individuals from other towns to hear cases.Asked how ethics complaints are currently handled, Rand said they are handled internally in cases that involve town employees. And in the case of elected officials, it’s been left to the voters, Dresser added.“Periodically people recuse themselves from things,” Rand said, noting that all three selectmen had done so in recent years.Rand said work at Town Hall, on windows and the cupola (see photos, Page A14), was progressing on schedule, and made a special note of thanking Rick McCue for providing the specifications for the bidders without charge.“He did not bid on the project; he didn’t intend to.”

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South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

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Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

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Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

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Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

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