Volume 3, Number 44
Cheshire’s Hometown Newspaper
www.cheshirecitizen.com
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Policeman’s Ball 1956. The Cheshire Historical Society is trying to find out who is in the picture. Can you help?
William Petit, Jr. takes in the festivities with his son, William III. | Patrick Matthews / For The Citizen
Heat doesn’t slow GE/Petit race’s momentum By Ken Liebeskind The Cheshire Citizen
PLAINVILLE — Sunday’s GE 5K Road Race to benefit the Petit Family Foundation, run in blistering heat, is likely contribute $125,000 to the foundation that supports educational programs to honor the memories of the Petit family members killed in a 2007 home invasion in Cheshire. More than 1,400 runners entered the July 19 5K race that started on East Street and proceeded down Robert Holcomb Way and Locust Street before concluding on Woodford Avenue near the GE Industrial Solutions plant. Some 250 children – under 8 – participated in the Kids Fun Run held prior to the 5K race on Woodford Avenue. William Petit, Jr., who heads the foundation, attended the race with family members and welcomed runners with statements about the foundation’s purpose. He asked for a moment of silence for Jennifer Hawke-Hewitt See Race / Page 2
Can you help solve a historical mystery? By Joy VanderLek The Cheshire Citizen
The photo, clearly old, is somewhat damaged for its years. Taken in 1956, and labeled “Police Ball,” it hangs in anonymity in the Cheshire Historical Society. The picture’s details show people dressed stylishly for a formal occasion: the men handsomely outfitted in suits, many in tuxedos, some wearing white tuxes with pocket squares; the women with corsages in tea-length formal dress with tightly fitted waists and bodices, halter top straps, and petticoats and crinoline to fill out the skirts. Taken
in the Chapman Elementary School gymnasium, that’s almost all that’s known about the specific circumstances of the photo. And that’s where the public can help to solve this mystery — perhaps shed light on the names and faces at the Policemen’s Ball, as well as other mysteries at the historical society. According to CHS Director Diane Calabro, the Policemen’s Ball photo is just one of many historically important items without provenance at the Hitchcock-Phillips house. “The society is really trying to tell the story of the items we have on display and in our collection.
Many times, people bring us things and [since] we all know what the item is or what’s in the photo, we don’t write or document it further because it seems so obvious. Then time goes by and we realize that we have ‘lost’ that information because the people who could tell that story and share their memories are no longer part of our landscape,” Calabro said. Another example of this dilemma is found in more than a dozen “wonderful” Memorial Day Parade photos from the 1970s. “I have no idea what specific year these photos docSee Mystery / Page 5
Pay rate maintained for non-union staff By Jesse Buchanan
A proposed 3 percent increase to the maximum pay for employees failed in a 4-to-4 vote at a counAn attempt to raise the maxi- cil meeting last month. Democratic mum wages for non-union town Councilor Peter Talbot was not employees again failed at the Town present. At last week’s meeting, the counCouncil meeting July 14. The pay schedule for 35 full-time cil considered a motion to maintain and 70 part-time employees not the current pay schedule. Talbot represented by bargaining units proposed instead raising the maxiwill remain the same for the 2015- mums by 3 percent. A new pay plan 16 fiscal year after due to the coun- was needed, Talbot said. “The resolution that failed becil’s vote. Special to The Citizen
fore didn’t advance anything and it needs to be advanced,” he said. “It’s important we do the three percent increase.” Republicans Sylvia Nichols and Rob Oris voted in favor of the increase last month but on Tuesday said they would oppose Talbot’s proposal. The council had failed to pass the increase, Oris and Nichols said, and it set a bad precedent to See Pay / Page 5