Ellington Ellington

ELLINGTON — I was honored to attend an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for five incredible local Scouts who spent a considerable amount of time and effort on projects that greatly improved our community.

Lori Spielman

Only 4% of Scouts achieve Eagle rank, and the journey takes many years. This is an amazing achievement and I’m grateful to these young men for what they’ve done for the people of Ellington.

Zachary McTighe worked with the Ellington Trails Committee to help blaze an extensive new trail in town; he also worked to make the trail more accessible, building a 16-foot bridge to span a waterway.

Matthew Harris worked with the Ellington Historical Society, creating and constructing an outdoor case for displaying native artifacts at the Nellie McKnight Museum property.

Timothy Scott built a compost bin and cart at Ellington Middle School to help mitigate food waste; this will allow the Gardening Club to learn about composting, instilling important environmental habits in our students’ day-to-day lives.

John Takach constructed a podium for presentations at the Crystal Lake Fire Department; he also held a work party where Scouts installed mulch around the building, as well as planted flowers.

Divyesh Paladugu installed two benches on the Franklin Street Trail and organized a trail cleanup, removing low-hanging branches and overgrown vegetation.

And speaking of trails, in mid-May, a ribbon-cutting was held to celebrate the reopening of the Metcalf Nature Preserve Trail. Metcalf had been closed due to significant storm damage —trees were uprooted, broken, and/or dying, creating unsafe hazards. A huge thankyou to those involved in securing the grant funding and getting this beautiful property open to the public once again, including state Rep. Jaime Foster.

We recently received grant funding of $3.7 million to support air filtration system upgrades in Ellington schools; many thanks to Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, state Sen. John Kissel, Rep. Foster, and the Ellington Board of Education representatives, as well as state. Sen. Saud Anwar, for their advocacy efforts in helping us better our community.

Sam Saunders is our new recycling/refuse coordinator. He has been instrumental in creating and developing services for residents to allow them to conveniently drop off all sorts of items –scrap metal, appliances, cardboard, electronics, and more. These items can be brought to the Recycling Center 6:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 6:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Fridays. Saturday hours will be available as well.

Finally, thank you to Ellington Volunteer Fire Department, Crystal Lake Fire Department, and Somers Fire Department for your hard work and collaborative response to a house fire that took place in April; due to the work of these agencies, a two-family home was saved.

Three Ellington High boys lacrosse seniors have incredible accomplishments. Johnny Hintze, the goalie, recorded his 500th save recently. Emil Johnson and Drew Casella each reached 100 career goals. This is an even greater feat since they did it in three years —they didn’t have a freshman season and a shorter sophomore year due to the pandemic. The team was 16-0 heading into the postseason.

David Lenz photos