Addie is a frequent visitor to Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Using canine comfort, three Ridgefielders have been helping the children of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Jenn Marr, Jan Hebert and state Rep. John Frey are working with the Lutheran Comfort Dog Ministry at Sandy Hook.

Ms. Marr is the coordinator for the project and responsible for Addie, an award-winning comfort dog, and Ms. Hebert is a handler for Maggie, Addie’s sister.

Mr. Frey, who had nieces in Sandy Hook Elementary School when the shooting took place, has seen the comfort dog program in action and has become an advocate of the program, including in the state legislature. He also helps with fund raising.

Recently honored on Good Morning America, Ms. Marr and Addie were awarded special recognition by Lara Spencer, anchorperson. The national program was presented a new van to transport the dogs to anywhere a tragedy might occur and comforting is needed.

Lara Spencer of Good Morning America discussing comfort dogs with Jenn Marr of Ridgefield. At the right is Tim Hetzner, president of Lutheran Church Charities, which sponsors the comfort dog program.

Not only have the dogs been involved in the post-Sandy Hook recovery but they were brought in after the Boston Marathon, the Joplin Tornado and other weather-related events.

“These dogs are purebred golden retrievers that have a year of extensive training,” explained Ms. Marr. “For a Lutheran Church to bring one of these dogs into a ministry, $10,000 must be raised.”

She said that “a Lutheran Church in Iowa won an award and donated the money to the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Danbury, just prior to Sandy Hook.

“I never thought about getting involved in the program until I got pressure from my daughter. When 45 people signed up and only three were available for training, and I was on the top of the list, my life changed.”

“Three days after my training, I was slated to handle Addie.

Addie started out as the sole comfort dog for Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“The responsibility was overwhelming, but when I saw the ability of this dog, I knew I would be all right,” Ms. Marr said with tears in her eyes.

Ms. Marr and Addie have been visiting Sandy Hook Elementary, now located temporarily in Monroe, for the past year.

“Addie and I have seen so much,” she said. “We have seen children want to come to school to see the dog. Children have gone to their classroom and been able to focus on work because Addie was beside them.

“Special students have been given one-on-one time with her for brushing, giving water and hugging. Addie just seems to know what each child needs to get them back on their path to recovery.”

Just recently at the school, she said, “I saw Addie go nose to nose with a birthday girl who was not having a good day. Her attitude changed completely.

“I saw Addie immediately identify a Sandy Hook child at the mall in the midst of other people.

“When the Joffrey Ballet came to perform at the school, the dog went right up to a particular dancer and licked her ankle. The ankle was one that was causing the dancer pain.”

“I have seen the worst of the worst with what happened at Sandy Hook, and I have seen the best of the best with the comfort dogs,” said Ms. Marr. “I am just so happy I am able to serve the children in such an important way.”

“I just hope that people will support this program by going online to Lutheran ministries and contributing to bringing more dogs into communities.

Addie has her own Facebook page, Addie Comfort Dog, with more than 3,000 followers.

She also has an amazing list of honors that include:

• Top 11 Animals of 2013.
• The ASPCA Dog of the Year.
• The Pet of the Year by the Connecticut Veterinarians Medical Association.

Unlike most dogs, Addie, Maggie and all other certified comfort dogs get their own business cards along with beautiful blue jackets. They bring comfort, but also pride, to any community.

Janet Hooper

Janet “Jan” Priest Hooper, a former Ridgefielder who was active in gardening circles, died in her home in Sun City, S.C., on Friday, Dec. 6, after a brief bout with cancer. She was 78.

Mrs. Hooper lived on Woodcock Lane in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

A lifelong Episcopalian, Mrs. Hooper was an active member of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. She was on the altar guild and flower guild there.

Born in New Hyde Park, NY on June 16, 1935, Mrs. Hooper grew up in Garden City and Stewart Manor, N.Y. She married Mr. Hooper on June 15, 1957, She and Mr. Hooper lived in 13 states and London, England, in their 56 years of marriage.

Mrs. Hooper was an avid gardener. She was president of the Caudatowa Garden Club and many other garden clubs around the country. While living in London, she studied floral design with Constance Spry.

In Ridgefield, Mrs. Hooper was an active member of the P.E.O Sisterhood. She was president of the AD Chapter in Hilton Head, S.C.

She is survived by her husband, Robert C. Hooper, Jr. of Sun City,  Nancy Ryer and her husband, J. Hill Ryer, of Germantown, Tenn.; her son, the Rev. Robert C. Hooper, III and his wife, Priscilla, of West Hartford; her daughter, Jill McGarry, and her husband, Marty, of Glastonbury   — all formerly of Ridgefield, and her daughter Susan Duncan and her husband, Jackie, of Concord, N.C.; 11 grandchildren and her sister, Jean Sax of Sun City West, Ariz.

A memorial service will be held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Hilton Head Island. The date and time are still to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to All Saints Episcopal Church or Hospice Care of the Low Country.

Peggy Bruno, director of Ridgefield Continuing Education, says that an adult education class or course makes a fine gift for the holidays.

Classes are available starting in January and February that will help participants learn new skills, enhance an interest and meet new people.

They include bridge, genealogy, ballroom dance, line dance, zumba, La blast!, yoga, Pilates, cardio and core workouts, tai chi, qi gong, history, photography, arts and crafts, drawing, painting, knitting, jewelry making, furniture painting, writing, guitar, didgeridoo, interior decorating, gardening, cooking, computer, real estate, and five languages.

For details and schedules, visit ridgefieldschools.org or phone Peggy Bruno at 203-431-2812.

The sale of five Schlumberger acres for $1.25 million to Steve Zemo is a deal with tangible benefits to the town — including Mr. Zemo’s plans for a hotel with banquet facilities.

Questions should be raised, and opinions listened to. But voters would do well to support the selectmen’s proposed sale at a town meeting Monday night, Dec. 16, at 7:30 in town hall.

A question worth discussing before the vote is whether the site might be needed for expansion of the town sewer plant, which is already under study as required by the state. Most of the talk about needing land for future town facilities has focused on police and fire stations — those could be located elsewhere on the site. But the sewer plant is right next door.

Skeptics argue the selectmen are rushing to sell the property without a full vision for the whole 45-acre tract. But as a speaker at last week’s public hearing pointed out, the five acres the selectmen want to sell are separate — across the street — from the main Schlumberger parcel. They can be sold without jeopardizing the integrity of the 40-acre tract.

The sale has obvious benefits. There’s the money —  $1.25 million isn’t bad for five acres bordering a town garage and a sewer plant. That’d get back some of the $7 million taxpayers approved for the Schlumberger purchase.

The property would be back on the tax rolls. Mr. Zemo estimates his development of the five acres would pay more taxes than Schlumberger was paying on the entire 45 acres when it left town.

And there are side benefits. The planned 48-suite hotel with banquet facilities would benefit other Ridgefield businesses by attracting visitors and keeping them in town after the concert or the museum visit or the wedding is over. It could help realize the Chamber of Commerce’s “Destination Ridgefield” vision.

There’s a Titicus River in Ridgefield and a Titicus Reservoir in North Salem. What’s a “titicus”?

Titicus, an abbreviated form of an ancient Indian word, has been in use for a river, a road, a hill, and a neighborhood since the town’s founding.

The word has appeared in early records in many forms, including Mutighticus, Mughtiticoos, Mutighticoos, Mutighticoss, Matiticus, Metiticus, Tyticus, and Titichus. It was in use in New York colony before Ridgefield was established, so its origin is probably in Westchester County, into which our river flows.

Explaining the name, historian George L. Rockwell cited tradition, saying the “Mutighticoos River was at one time called Buffalo Creek. Van der Donck, a historian of Yonkers, writing in 1656, says: ‘Buffalos are also tolerably plenty.’” From this, Rockwell suggests that Mutighticoos meant buffalo.

However, in his Indian Place Names of New England, John C. Huden translates both Mutighticoss and Titicus as Mahican or Algonquian for “place without trees.” George R. Stewart’s classic, American Place Names, offers a similar translation: “without-trees-at.” This is probably the meaning, not buffalo.

Needless to say, Mutighticoss in its sundry forms is a mouthful; thus it’s no surprise that the English settlers, unaccustomed to the native tongue, tended to shorten the word, with the end result Titicus. (An exception has been Mamanasco, a word that to this day can twist tongues.)

An 1896 cancelation from the Titicus post office, which was located in the Titicus Store.

Titicus was first associated by the settlers with the river and then with the territory around it — Titicus Swamp, Titicus Hill, Titicus Mountain, Titicus Plain, Titicus Road, etc. Eventually, the area around the intersection of North Salem, Saw Mill Hill, and Mapleshade roads became known as “Titicus” or sometimes as “Titicus Crossroads.” This area was once a small village, with a store, post office (having its own cancellation), schoolhouse (now the American Legion Post), and several mills and small factories.

No discussion of Titicus would be complete without the story of Duncan Smith’s challenge. One day in the 1940s, a group of Ridgefield Press staffers was talking about words that had no rhymes — like orange. Someone mentioned Titicus, and Mr. Smith, a retired columnist with The Chicago Daily News who lived in Ridgefield, took up the challenge. He offered the following in his Press column called “A Birdseye View”:

I live upon the Titicus,

a river rough and raging,

where fishes to a city cuss,

will come for a simple paging.

I used to read Leviticus,

or some such ancient volume,

before I saw the Titicus

or started on this column.

And now, my dears, you might agree 

it really takes a witty cuss,

a crossword puzzler (that’s me)

to rhyme with Titicus.

(It really should have said ‘that’s I’

to show for words I have nice sense, 

but for such slips, I alibi

with my poetic license.)

Steve Zemo addressed last week’s public hearing on his proposal to buy five acres from the town for $1.25 million and develop it as complex including a hotel with banquet hall, offices, 11 apartments and self storage facility. The town meeting is Monday night.—Macklin Reid photo

The prospect of a hotel with banquet facilities drew strong support at a public hearing last week, in advance of Monday’s town meeting on a $1.25-million sale of five Schlumberger acres.

“We have a need for quality hotel space in this town,” Chuck Hancock said. “It’ll draw people into our town. It’ll be good for The Playhouse and restaurants and businesses.”

About 30 people attended the hearing and 12 spoke — 10 in support and two skeptical of the sale and its timing.

“I expected to see a holistic plan for how we can develop the entire site,” said Dick Larson of Belvedere Court.

The town meeting vote is scheduled Monday, Dec. 16, at 7:30 in town hall on the  sale to developer Steve Zemo. Mr. Zemo has offered $1.25 million, with a commitment to develop the site as a three-building complex with a hotel that has banquet facilities, a self-storage facility, and a building that has 11 apartments above ground floor office space.

In the selectmen’s request for proposals — Mr. Zemo was the lone bidder to respond — they’d asked for a price and a development plan.

The proposed “Old Quarry Commons” would be worth an estimated $13-to-$17-million, Mr. Zemo said, and pay the town from $231,000 to $302,000 a year in taxes.

“That represents more than Schlumberger was paying on the 45 acres when they left us.” Mr. Zemo told the crowd.

In Mr. Zemo’s site plan, the 48-suite hotel with banquet facilities is in a 40,000-square-foot building that would be high on the sloping site, just off Old Quarry Road and near the 25-foot setback along the western property line with the Treetop Townhouses.

A 25,000-square-foot building would have offices on the ground floor, with 11 apartments above.

The apartments wouldn’t be deed-restricted to satisfy the state’s definition of “affordable” and count toward meeting goals in the 8-30g law. But the two-bedroom units would function as affordable, Mr. Zemo said.

“They have very few amenities. A good honest place to live,” he said. “Affordable twos allow people to share, if you’re working in a restaurant….

“We’re creating a lot of jobs here. There’s no 11 o’clock bus to Danbury. We need folks who can live and work in the community.”

The self-storage building would be down near town’s sewer plant — placed to serve as a visual block for both the hotel and many Treetops units. The 45,000-square-foot building would have drive-in garage bays, and two levels of storage units above that.

“No orange doors here,” he said.

Voters approved spending $7 million on the Schlumberger property two years ago, with the thought the town could recover some of the money by selling off parts of the property with deed restrictions to guard against over-development.

At last week the selectmen slighted amended the proposed deed restriction to say development on the site “shall be limited to those uses specifically permitted as of right or special permit under the Ridgefield Zoning Regulations, or as may be amended by the Planning and Zoning Commission of the Town of Ridgefield by a commission-initiated amendment. The aforesaid limitation shall not be modified by any variance granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals…”

Many of the dozen people who spoke at the hearing were enthusiastic about the proposed sale and Mr. Zemo’s plans — especially the hotel and banquet accommodations.

“For years our non-profits have had to go to New York State or Danbury or Redding for a facility that will hold 200 people for their galas,” said Jeanne Cook, who has served on the boards of town arts and cultural institutions.

The longtime owner of a travel business, Ms. Cook once represented Ridgefield on the regional Housatonic Valley Tourism Council.

On this map of the five acres, the hotel building is at the bottom. Building 2 is self-storage, and building 3 is offices and apartments. Old Quarry Road is at the bottom, Treetops condominiums at the left, and at upper right, the town’s sewage treatment plant. Off to the right, beyond the image, is the town highway garage complex.

“Today, 25 years later, we have many more attractions and the potential for being a tourist destination.” she said.

The Playhouse regularly brings in nationally known musical acts, the town has museums and arts groups, she said, as well as bike and hiking trails, a golf course — and its charming downtown with shops and 35 restaurants.

“We need tourist dollars to support our cultural institutions,” Ms. Cook said. “We’ll also benefit our Main Street businesses.”

Chuck Hancock of North Street agreed.

“It’ll tend to make Ridgefield a destination,” he said.

He also liked the combination of tax revenue, and a sale price that could help recover some of the $7 million taxpayers spent on the property.

“It’s a win-win financially,” Mr. Hancock said.

Marion Roth, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said that people come to the chamber office asking about overnight accommodations. Ridgefield has a couple of “wonderful” smaller places to stay — Stonehenge, the West Lane Inn, the Green Rocks Inn — but more rooms are needed.

“There’s a huge amount of people going to Danbury, and we lose out on the restaurants and shopping once I send them up there,” she said.

Mr. Zemo’s location, she thought, would benefit the business districts.

“It’s walking distance,” she said. “It meets a need, and the need is here now, and will bring revenue to everything that’s here.”

She said the proposed banquet facilities would serve a need evident from the number of events benefiting town organizations — including even the Chamber of Commerce — that are held out of town because there’s no venue big enough.

Frank Altese of Glen Road said he’d had a celebration at the Lounsbury House — which was barely big enough — and struggled finding rooms in town, so many guests stayed in Danbury.

“We booked West Lane, we booked Green Rocks, some people stayed at Stonehenge,” he said. “But almost 70 people stayed at the Ethan Allen hotel, and I had to transport people to Lounsbury House.”

As a Realtor, said Jefferson Gutherie, he works with many people from out of town.

“Clients get into my car and I have to give them a list of ‘Here are the hotels up in Danbury,’ ” he said.

David Luppino, a resident of The Treetops off Grove Street and Old Quarry Road, said people in the complex had met with Mr. Zemo and appreciated the 25 foot setback in his plan — a requirement in the selectmen’s contract with Mr. Zemo.

“Our preference would be that the acreage not be developed. We recognize that’s not realistic,” Mr. Luppino said. “We’re very comfortable with the plans he’s laid out.”

There were some doubts raised at the hearing.

Dick Larson thought the selectmen should slow the process down.

“If we’re going to get long-term maximum value for this property, we’d be much better off with an integrated plan for long-term development.” he said.

“Let’s get the whole picture in front of us before we start bidding pieces of it out.”

With new police and fire stations on the town’s long-term agenda, Paul Ciavarelli said, voters might regret selling land right next to the town garage and other facilities.

“The town’s going to be forced to expand the fire department and the police department,” he said.

“You’re going to run out of space. There’s  no other tracts in the center of town.

“If you needed a fire department, you’d have to spend a lot of money for a piece of property,” he said.

“I wouldn’t sell it, myself.”

Jeff Bonistalli Sr. replied to these concerns, saying other areas of the Schlumberger site could hold police, fire or other facilities.

“There’s another section — five, 10 acres, behind the Goodwill,” he said, referring to the charity drop-off trailer.

Linda Lavelle pointed out that the five-acre property is a separate parcel, across the street from the main 40-acre Schlumberger tract.

“The parcel of land is set off all by itself,” she said.

“We have a buyer. My feeling is we have a high quality purchaser here.

“If we delay and delay and put it off, we’ll lose our buyer,” Ms. Lavelle said. “I’d recommend we move forward as quickly as possible.”

(Send reports of closings, cancelations, and other storm notes — and pictures — to news@TheRidgefieldPress.com . Refresh page to check for updates. )

10 — One-car into a tree on Route 116, North Salem Road, near #395. One person complaining of chest pain. Ambulance dispatched.

9 — Two-car accident on Limestone Road near Route 35. No reported injuries.

8:05 — Firefighters report it is not a fire. A water line has broken near the furnace, creating a “steam condition.”

8 — Firefighters on scene report smoke condition in the basement.

7:54 — Fire department responding to possible house fire at 174 Lounsbury Road.

Sunday, 6 a.m. — About 6 inches of snow, capped with a thin layer of ice,  have fallen in the season’s first winter storm. Highway crews have been out since earlier this morning, and town roads have a coating of slush. The roads are drivable, but use caution. The light freezing rain is due to stop by 8, the sun will come out, and temperatures will be above freezing. Temperatures have risen from a low of 14 degrees at 11 last night to 28 this morning.

Saturday

11 p.m. — Measuring about 5 inches total snowfall in southern Ridgefield.

5:10 — No injuries from the car-in-pond accident.

4:39 — Ambulance on scene. Victim is out of the water.

4:35 — Report that driver is out of car, but still in water. Police call highway dept. to treat Ivy Hill Road, which is reported as slick.

4:33 — Car rolled off Florida Hill and Ivy Hill rolled over off road into lake, people still inside.

4 — Books on the Common closed at 4  pm today. Will be open Sunday from 10 to 6.

3:30 — Car. vs. pole on Peaceable Street. CL&P called to check pole for damage.

1:20 — The Ridgefield Library has closed for the day.

1:15 —  Animal Fair is closing at 2 p.m. “We will reopen at 11 a.m. Sunday and extend our hours to 6 p.m.,” said manager Dawn Zimmerer.

Most businesses are open today, including this local eatery.

Noon — State highways are mostly in good condition. Many town roads are still snow-covered, but drivable with care. Some parking lots slippery. Very few accidents reported in town.

11:10 — At Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, the  SymphoNYChorus Christmas concert has been canceled; it will be rescheduled for early January. Living Nativity was canceled earlier. The Children’s Christmas Pageant will not take place tomorrow; it is being rescheduled for Dec. 22 at the 11  am service. The church have only one worship service Sunday at 11:00 a.m.  (8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 am services are canceled.)

10:45 — The Ridgefield Guild of Artists’ Festive Home event is closed for today. Guild hopes to be open tomorrow 11-5 and will open Monday, Dec. 16, 11-5 to make up for Saturday closing.

10:25 — The cell tower meeting is taking place as scheduled this morning.

10:20 —  The Aldrich Museum will be closed today.

10:18 — ROAR Animal Shelter will be closed to the public today.  Staff and Volunteers will be there to care for the dogs and cats.

10:15 — About two inches of snow have fallen.

10:10 — Minor two-car accident at Main and Prospect Streets.

8:43 — The Ridgefield School of Dance has changed its Nutcracker performance from 3 pm today to 12 p.m.  August Eaton from NYC will be dancing the Pas De Deux.  Tickets are available at the door at East Ridge Middle School.

8:30 — State roads in pretty good shape. Town roads snow-covered and being plowed.

Town roads are snow-covered. This is Olmstead Lane at 8:30 a.m.

7:58 — Volunteer firefighters being called in to put chains on the trucks.

7:50 — Katonah Art Center is closed today.

7:46 — Wilton police reporting five-car crash with injuries on Route 7 near Norwalk line.

7:45 — Town highway crews are out.

6:30 — Area police departments are starting to get reports of accidents.

5:20 —  The “Living Nativity” scheduled for 5:30 p.m. today at Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church has been cancelled because of the weather forecast. However, the 7 p.m. holiday concert by the SymphoNYChorus at the church is still planned to go on.

5 a.m. — Snow has begun to fall and is coating roadways.

Ridgefield Parks and Recreation Director Paul Roche has received a donation from Mike Taylor of the Taylor Zemo Foundation for improvements to the Ridgefield Youth Barn.

The Barn, an after-school meeting place will soon be a daytime home base for youths with disabilities in the Ridgefield Schools’ 18 to 21 Transition program. The transitional program helps these students develop independent living and employment skills as they move toward adult life.

The foundation, founded by Steve Zemo and Mike Taylor, has also made donations to other organizations in the Ridgefield area including the Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association, The Ridgefield Library, Meals on Wheels, Productions for Young People and The Women’s Center of Greater Danbury.

In the past few months, Americans have begun staring grimly at the present administration’s feet of clay. So far we know the Administration: a) misled the public about their ability to keep the health insurance and doctors they like, period, b) misled the Congress into believing that the development of the Healthcare.gov website was on track, c) attempted to mislead the public into believing that the “glitches” in the web site were no more or less than what one might have seen from other commercial ventures (viz., the iPhone), and d) continues to mislead the public about the increased cost of Obamacare plans.

Soon another big deception will unfold:  the Administration denies that millions more people will lose their employer-based healthcare next year. At her testimony before Congress in late October, HHS Secretary Sebelius even appeared to take offense at the suggestion that that might happen. But the 17 June 2010 Federal Register indicates nearly half the people having employer-based healthcare in 2010 will have lost it by the time the employer mandate becomes operational.

Perhaps the biggest danger will not lie in the cost or availability of the healthcare plans at all, but in the decisions of the Independent Advisory Board, consisting of 15 political appointees who will make all decisions about prices, “best practices,” and patient eligibility.

Rather than actively manage performance, the Administration tries to manage perception via a pretty consistent playbook: deny the criticism or failure report, vilify the critics (or, even easier, their intentions), then trivialize the outcomes, and finally, make some change and declare the problem “solved.” Key to the success of this playlist is a lack of transparency, a lack of hard data, and a lack of meaningful benchmarks.

The Administration should come clean right now in three areas. First, the choices and unsubsidized costs of health plans (showing hospitals and doctors included) should be available without having to give up personal information on an unsecured website. Second, the statistics of the people who have actually signed up for Obamacare, as well as the number diverted into Medicaid, should be made public on a daily basis. Third, security incidents should be made public; horror stories should not have to be spread by word of mouth. Given that enrollees are asked to acknowledge that they “have no reasonable expectation of privacy,” then they should at least have some sense of the history of threats and responses.

This Administration’s strategy of deceptions and cover-ups not only shortchanges the public, it disheartens our allies and emboldens our enemies. It has even graver long-term consequences: Will Americans believe the President when he really needs to rally the public to make some sacrifice to protect our freedoms or sovereignty or safety?

Ridgefield voters should be asking our Senators Blumenthal and Murphy, and our Representative Himes, why they voted for and continue the Administration’s propaganda and diversions.

This column is supplied by the Republican Town Committee.

Alex Wong, in his restaurant, Yuan Asian Cuisine, previous managed at Empire Szechuan. He moved to America from Malaysia more than 25 years ago. Yuan Asian is the first restaurant he’s owned. —Steve Coulter photo

Alex Wong wants to stay in Ridgefield as long as he can.

Mr. Wong, the owner of the recently opened Yuan Asian Cuisine on Prospect Street across from the library, believes he has found a community he can share his vision with — a town where he can build a rapport with his customers and provide them with a dining experience that is unmatched anywhere else in town.

“I’m here for the family dining experience, not to make money — whatever the customer wants, we try to cater to them,” he said. “I want to make sure the whole family can experience authentic Asian cuisine, and I want to bring back the traditional family dinner where everyone shares with each other instead of this ‘No —  this is mine, this is yours’ situation that we see all too often these days.

“The town of Ridgefield is one big family, and that’s why we want to be here,” he said. “We want all our customers to feel happy and welcome, but most importantly to feel at home.”

From hand-carved swans to custom-designed sushi plates, his restaurant isn’t short on entertainment value.

However, Mr. Wong knows that providing consistent, high-quality food and service is the key to his business’s success in town.

“What makes our food unique is that it has a totally different taste than what Ridgefield has had for 20 to 30 years —  a taste it’s never had before,” he said. “I’ve served it to customers from Asia and they’ve remarked at how you could taste the authenticity.”

Some of the differences Mr. Wong highlights include using Shanghai noodles instead of yellow noodles in all lo mein dishes and implementing a vinegar-based dipping sauce and a less doughy roll for all dumpling plates.

He hired five chefs who all have different backgrounds to ensure that “the standard of quality is always there.”

Mr. Wong, who was the manager of Empire Szechuan, has worked in the United States for about 25 year since leaving his native country of Malaysia.

Chef Tao Wang, who previously worked at Joe’s Shanghai in Manhattan, carved out a pair of swans using radishes and carrots. —Steve Coulter photo

He managed restaurants for more than 15 years during that time, learning how to build relationships with customers and studying what Asian cuisine was like in America.

“It’s a lot sweeter here in the U.S.,” he said.

Mr. Wong opened Yuan Asian officially on Oct. 28. He said gaining exposure has been the biggest hurdle he’s had to face so far, but he believes that as time passes, more people will come to recognize his restaurant’s name and style.

“I don’t know if a lot of people know if we exist yet, but the people we have had come in have came back, which is a good sign,” he said.

The building he’s leasing has seen restaurants come and go, including Koo, which changed its name three times before finally bowing out as Green Tea in April.

Mr. Wong had to decide whether to secure the building for five or 10 years when he was in negotiations this summer.

“I settled on 10 years because this is somewhere I want to be for a long time,” he said. “I am comfortable and I love the people I get to serve.

“This is a family town, not a commercial town.”

He said customers from the previous business have stopped in to sample the new menu and left impressed at what Yuan Asian has to offer.

“It’s a good sign that old customers come in and feel the improvements in both the quality of food and the atmosphere,” he said. “We want to provide the customer with this family gathering-type setting where everyone is coming together and sharing a meal with one another.”

Mr. Wong added that his restaurant just got an approved liquor license and now has a full bar that will host happy hour specials from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

He has already hosted a “wedding night special” in November for married customer and he intends to have a Chinese New Year special in late January.

“It will be either five- or eight-course meals, depending on what the customer wants,” he said. “But we will make sure it is an authentic dining experience and make it a very special night for those who come out.”

Yuan Asian also delivers within five miles for $15 minimum lunch orders and $30 minimum dinner orders.

Store hours are 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11:30 to 10:30 Friday and Saturday, and 12:30 to 10 Sunday.

What is co-housing? And why is Affordable Housing Committee chairman David Goldenberg trying to get the town to sell 10 acres of Schlumberger land for less money — $1.75 million, with other bids running as high $4 million — in order to build co-housing in Ridgefield?

“Sometimes called shared housing or community housing, co-housing refers to a community-oriented home or grouping of homes,” Mr. Goldenberg said in a proposal submitted to the selectmen.

“These homes are often formed for specific groups, such as older people, women, families, religious groups, or people with special needs. They are for people who want to live together with others, yet maintain some independence,” he said.

Mr. Goldenberg wants to build 50 units of co-housing for senior citizens in Ridgefield.

“Many people choose these alternative living options for financial reasons, but they soon find the greatest payback is through lifestyle enhancements centered on regular interaction with others.

“Many find themselves sharing meals, hobbies, interests, and entertainment. They also gain companionship, support in times of crisis, physical assistance when needed, and safety in times of emergency.”

Mr. Goldenberg, long an advocate for more diverse and affordable housing in town, submitted a 14-page response to the selectmen’s request for proposals on a 10-acre parcel of the town’s 45-acre former Schlumberger land. The proposal is co-signed by Ridgefield-based architect Elizabeth DiSalvo.

Mr. Goldenberg described “medical and emotional benefits” to co-housing arrangements, with “greater physical activity and participation in civic and charitable associations later in life” leading to “reduced incidence of depression and heart disease” and “longer life spans and high cognitive function.”

There are, the proposal says, various forms of co-housing:

• Land developed with “small houses close together, in which community living is promoted” through front porches and both indoor and outdoor “common spaces,” such as shared kitchen, dining, meeting, and entertainment rooms, or shared yards, parks, walk paths, gardens.

• Apartment or condominium complexes with small units and “shared amenities such as kitchen and dining, recreation rooms, gyms etc. — all placed and designed to enhance interaction among residents.

• A large house where a group of people — two to 10 is suggested — “live in private suites but share greater common portions of the house like kitchen, dining and living rooms.”

Mr. Goldenberg’s proposal describes several examples of co-housing developments around the country, including Pioneer Valley Cohousing in Amherst, Mass.; Liberty Village Cohousing in Union Bridge, Md.; Wolf Creek Lodge in Grass Valley, Calif.; and Rindon del Rio in Nevada County, Calif.

For the 10 acres of Schlumberger land the selectmen are marketing, Mr. Goldenberg envisions 50 units that “will be small, but will have kitchenettes and living rooms.”

The development, to be called Ridgefield Commons, would have a mix of two types of housing:

• Small apartment-style units in two- or three-story buildings “with common interior spaces that include a kitchen, dining room, recreation and meeting rooms.
• And “separate one- and two-story cottage units” with “common outdoor spaces and a central ‘meeting house’” featuring group kitchen, dining and recreation facilities.

“The financial savings make co-housing more affordable than many independent-living options,” Mr. Goldenberg said. “Reduced construction and management costs keep rents down, Shared utilities and transportation reduces ongoing costs. Many also choose to share food purchase and preparation, reducing costs further.”

The proposed Ridgefield Commons would mix market-rate units with “moderate” and even lower cost “affordable” units.

“A new Ridgefield-based housing nonprofit will own and operate Ridgefield Commons,” Mr. Goldenberg said. “Life in the community will be governed by a residents’ council. No funding or management from the Town of Ridgefield will be required.”

Like the four other responses the town received from private land developers, Mr. Goldenberg’s bid proposal includes a dollar price — $1.75 million — accompanied by a description of planned development.

Unlike the other bidders, Mr. Goldenberg requests that his still-forming nonprofit group, New Ridgefield NP, be given 60 days to pull together a more detailed “full project plan” for a co-housing development of the 10-acre tract, which is off Sunset Lane near the Quail Ridge II condominium complex.

He says the new group will work together with a more established nonprofit affordable housing developer, the Stamford-based New Neighborhoods Inc., which he says was founded in 1967 and “has developed, owned and managed more than 425 units of affordable and elderly rental housing, and has built more than 160 units of ownership housing.”

He addressed the town’s financial issue directly.

“Our proposed offer, while substantial, fair and reasonable, may not represent the highest offer,” he wrote to the selectmen. “But we urge you to ask yourself: ‘What is best for Ridgefield?’”

For more about the co-housing proposal, Mr. Goldenberg may be emailed at housing4ridgefield@gmail.com

The 10 acres is labeled MFDD — the multifamily zoning designation — on this map. Sunset Lane is at bottom.

Condominiums, apartment buildings, single-family homes, and a co-housing community were the development concepts the selectmen received Friday from bidders on 10 acres of former Schlumberger land off Sunset Lane.

The bid prices offered ranged from $1.75 million to $4 million.

“We will look at each one of the bids and have discussions as to what the prices are, who we would like to possibly negotiate with, what we want to negotiate, etc.,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.

“And some of the points we will be covering are selling price, design, long-term revenue for the town, aesthetics in the neighborhood.

“We have to be considerate of the neighborhood. How does it look compared to what’s across the street?”

The selectmen had an executive-session discussion of the bids scheduled for Wednesday night, and further closed-door meetings on the proposals seem likely.

The Board of Selectmen has chosen not to make the bid documents with their detailed development plans public.

Mr. Marconi gave a quick description on Friday of the different kinds of development proposals that came in — two proposals for single-family homes, one for condominiums, one with apartment buildings and condominiums, and an affordable senior citizen community.

The purchasing department, in keeping with its standard practice, later posted bidders’ names and the dollar prices they offered on the town website.

Mr. Marconi eventually matched the brief descriptions with the various bidders and their prices.

• Toll Brothers, a nationwide firm with offices in Newtown, bid $4 million, with plans for a complex of 32 to 36 condominiums. Toll Brothers built the Regency at Ridgefield age-restricted condominiums on Route 7 just north of Route 35, and are building the huge Rivington complex in the Ridgebury section of Danbury.
• Sun Homes of Pawling, N.Y., bid $3.2 million, proposing 78 units — 44 rental apartments, eight of them deed-restricted as “affordable,” in two buildings of 22 units each, and 34 condominium units laid out around the 10-acre site.
• Ridgefield Investment LLC, represented by the local law firm Donnelly, McNamara & Gustafson, bid $2.7 million, proposing 18 single-family homes.
• Sturges Brothers of Ridgefield bid $2,584,000 and proposed 17 single-family homes.
• New Ridgefield NP, a Ridgefield-based nonprofit that is being formed, bid $1.75 million with plans for “co-housing” for “50 or more” senior citizens.

New Ridgefield NP, which proposed to develop the site in partnership with the Stamford-based affordable housing developer New Neighborhoods Inc., has asked the selectmen to hold off selling the property and give it 60 days to get organized and submit a complete proposal for the town to consider.

In late 2011 the selectmen convinced voters to approve spending $7 million on the former Schlumberger property — $6 million to buy it and another $1 million for “related costs” that ranged from surveying to demolition to oversight of Schlumberger’s environmental cleanup.

Part of the plan was to recover some of the taxpayers’ money by selling off the land for development — with deed restrictions to limit potential density.

The first such proposed deal — an offer of $1.25 million for five acres off Old Quarry Road, with plans including a hotel — will go to town meeting today (Monday).

All along, the selectmen viewed the 10 acres off Sunset Lane as potentially the most lucrative, and this summer they had it rezoned for multifamily use — six units an acre, eight if some are “affordable.”

They put out a request for proposals seeking both a bid price and an accompanying concept plan for development, much as they’d done with the five-acre piece that Monday night’s town meeting will consider selling to Mr. Zemo.

The selectmen aren’t bound to accept one of the proposals now before them. They may well do some negotiating, and they could put the parcel out to bid a second time.

But board members have expressed a sense that they would do well to get back some of the $7 million the town spent on the property two years ago.

“We can reject all bids, and reserve the right to sit and negotiate with a party,” Mr. Marconi said.

“If I’ve read the board correctly, it’s not a situation where time is of the essence. We’re not going to rush into it,” he said. “But we want to keep the ball moving.”

Members of the Just Girl It program stand together in the gymnasium at Veterans Park Elementary School.—Jennie Carr photo

If you’re comfortable with yourself, you can accomplish pretty much anything. That’s the message a pair of local mothers, Jennifer Hanson and Stacy Krys, are trying to spread to elementary school girls through their empowerment program, Just Girl It.

The 10-session, hourlong class that runs once a week before school in the fall and spring just completed its third run at Veterans Park and includes everything from inspirational quotes and dream boards to yoga and meditation to exercise activities and journal writing — all focused on building confident, positive-thinking girls who are mindful of their actions and decisions.

“It’s girl talk at the end of the day,” Ms. Krys joked.

“It’s always interesting to hear what comes out in a given session; it’s enlightening and sad sometimes, because I don’t think parents really know what’s going on and the kids only feel comfortable sharing it with us in that group setting.

“They could go on forever if we let them because they’re girls and they love sharing,” she said. “We’re trying to pinpoint who they are exactly and find out what tools we can help give them to overcome challenges they will inevitably face.”

The moms say the girls have learned patience through meditation and acknowledged their mistakes through reflective journal writing.

Most importantly, the group setting has allowed the 25 third-through-fifth-grade girls to channel their feelings toward a variety of problems, such as bullying — both in and out of the classroom, trouble at home, and the onset of puberty.

“No matter what, it always comes back to the mean girl thing,” Ms. Krys added. “If I say, ‘Today we’re going to talk about leadership’ or ‘Today we’re going to talk about confidence,’ it always comes back to bullying, and it’s relevant because this is obviously something they want to talk about and that’s why it comes up every week in our discussion.”

How girls bully each other — and why they do it — is a particular subject the mothers have heard since the program’s inception in September 2012, as cyber bullying has become more and more pervasive with the rise of smartphone technology.

Jennifer Hanson and Stacy Krys founded Just Girl It in September 2012.—Jennie Carr photo

Ms. Hanson and Ms. Krys believe Just Girl It’s success can be attributed to the fact they both understand this modern crisis and realize that there may not be a single solution to solving it.

“Girls are getting meaner at a younger age, they’re going through puberty younger, some as early as 8 or 9 years old, and in general, girls are starting to learn about themselves and the rest of the world at a much younger age than ever before — it’s just a sign of the times,” Ms. Hanson said.

“We accept that social media is part of their life and we must formulate ways for them to deal with it,” she said. “With cyber bullying, no matter where they are, as long as they have their phones, they can be bullied.”

The four tools, or steps, the mothers have given the girls to handle situations involving any type of bullying include these: stand up for yourself, don’t react, walk away, and use sarcasm.

“One girl shared with us that her bully was making fun of her dress in school and she responded by asking the bully, ‘Well, do you want me to go home and change?’” Ms. Krys recalled. “Some girls need to just walk away, though, because most aren’t going to feel comfortable using sarcasm, and that’s why we give them a lot of different tools.

“We like to cast a big net with a lot of tools so that these girls can figure out what solutions work for them and their individual situations.”

Despite the positive feedback they’ve received from parents and the personal success stories they’ve heard in group discussion, the problem of bullying is perpetual and continues its shift toward the social media.

The difficult task Ms. Hanson and Ms. Krys must accomplish is figuring out to talk about the interconnected subjects of bullying and social media with a group that has just discovered this innovative technology and all they can access with it.

The mothers say they’ve heard of some elementary-level girls who have access to texting and have already started to “group text” with boys, as well as share pictures through Instagram.

“There’s this dichotomy we get within the group, even though the girls are the same age,” Ms. Krys said. “Some are so advanced — and yeah, I get that it’s been happening since the beginning of time, but fourth grade is so young for stuff like group texts and social media to come into play. Yet we have to touch upon it because it’s relevant in their lives and is only going to become more relevant.

“We do have to tread lightly, though, because some girls don’t know Facebook or Instagram even exist, or in many cases they know it exists but they don’t have access to it because their parents restrict what they can do on their phones and computers,” she said. “It’s too big, too broad and too new for us to have all the answers.”

When they started Just Girl It, Ms. Hanson and Ms. Krys didn’t intend for anti-bullying tactics to play such a vital role in their confidence-building program.

“The sad thing is they can’t get away from it at home, like we once were able to do. The bullying follows them right out of the classroom and into their room at home,” Ms. Krys said.

The most important tool they bestow on the girls is to have confidence in themselves, and that’s where the fitness regimen plays a huge role in balancing the mental, expression-based component of the program.

“We keep trying new activities each week,” Ms. Hanson said. “But good old-fashioned relays seem to work the best, and they run for about 30 minutes and it’s good, because by the time they’re done they’re all exhausted and aren’t fidgety anymore — they just want to share and get into that group discussion after they write in their journals.”

Although it wasn’t a mandatory part of the fall session, 17 out of the 25 girls in the program signed up and completed the Great Turkey Escape 5K in Redding with their mothers on Thanksgiving.

Ms. Hanson, who is a marathon runner, said the message she and Ms. Krys spread before the event was that it was not a race and that the most important thing was staying positive, no matter if the girls were running, walking or jogging.

“All we kept saying is mind over matter — the mind needs to be trained like the rest of the body,” Ms. Krys said. “This is another way to help young girls get exercise that you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.”

She added Just Girl It only touches on nutrition, with the focus being “always be mindful,” a slogan the mothers incorporate in all lessons about awareness, not just ones pertaining to eating habits.

“There’s a fine line to make this be about body awareness rather than body conscious,” Ms. Krys said. “We’ve talked about it — everybody is different, all we want is for you to have a fit mind and a fit body and make solid choices.

“We never want them ashamed, we want them proud of themselves,” she said. “We keep telling them, Mental will is a muscle, and just because it’s a lot harder to do it when you’re taller and bigger than it is when you’re smaller, it doesn’t mean you can’t each accomplish the same thing.”

A phrase they don’t allow their girls to say is “I can’t,” which they say promotes “negative self talk.”

By staying away from negative thoughts and feelings, Ms. Hanson and Ms. Krys hope the girls will be better prepared for the next step in life, which for them is middle school.

“These girls are only in elementary school, but the point is that some of them are moving on to middle school next year and have no choice but to learn about this stuff and learn ways to handle the pressure,” Ms. Krys said. “It’s better to prepare them with what’s out there than to shield them from it, because it’s a slippery slope after elementary school.”

As for expanding the program, the mothers are launching an after-school session for middle school girls at St. Mary’s in January before continuing in the spring at Veterans Park, where they will open the program up for second graders.

They hope to spread Just Girl It into other schools in the district and are keeping the focus local here in Ridgefield and possibly Redding, although their efforts have gained some international recognition.

“I have family in Canada and in the Midwest that love the idea, and they may be able to do more with it than we can because it’s a more laid-back lifestyle — a different culture — out there,” Ms. Krys said. “We’re doing what we can here with an hour per week, and we’ve found people think that’s enough of a commitment.

“The difficult thing in this area is finding time — everyone is always booked solid,” Ms. Hanson said. “If we expand, we need to find leaders for that next step.

“We’ll see how the program goes, though,” she said. “We’ll have to make that decision as we go forward.”

Ridgefield Boy Scout Troop 116 will collect Christmas trees for recycling on Saturday, Jan. 4.

Families looking for assistance in having their tree removed and recycled may reserve a pick-up online. Tree should be left at the end of the driveway by 6:30 a.m. that morning.

Last year, more than 85 scouts, alumni, and their families worked a full day to collect trees that were chipped and resulted in nine tons of mulch.

The troop is suggesting a $17 donation per tree. The funds collected help support the troop’s activities such as High Adventure and community service projects.

The troop also donates a portion to Boy Scouts of America and to local Ridgefield conservation projects.

To make a reservation to have a tree picked up, visit www.ridgefieldtroop116.com.

The Ridgefield Woman’s Club is seeking applicants for the Phipps Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship was started in 1926 to aid deserving students.

The award of $1,000 is granted to women based on the basis of future promise, scholastic ability (a minimum average of 3.0), and financial need.

Applicants must have completed two or more years of study at an accredited institution of higher learning. It is open only to Ridgefield women.

For an application package, email rwcphipps14@yahoo.com before Feb. 10.

Due to the tremendous growth infants experience in the first year of life (tripling of birth weight), the composition of their nutrition is extremely important. In addition to increase in weight and length during the first 12 months, research showed that health in later years has its origins, among other factors, in the nutrition people receive when infants.

In future columns we will discuss various issues pertaining to infant nutrition. We will review the nutritional needs of infants and the means of providing them. Today’s article will be dedicated to breast-feeding.

Dr. Eitan Kilchevsky

Extensive research has shown that breast milk protects infants against infections such as otitis media (middle ear infection) and diarrhea. It also improves infants’ response to immunizations, reduces the risk of inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and may offer protection against sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and the development of obesity. Mothers also benefit from the process of breast-feeding and experience less bleeding following delivery, improved bone metabolism (with lower risk of osteoporosis at an older age) and faster return to pre-pregnancy weight. Of course, the above benefits to babies and mothers are not present in all infants and mothers involved in breast-feeding, but research suggests that breast milk is indeed the most natural nutrition to infants in the first six to 12 months of life.

There are misconceptions surrounding the issue of breast-feeding. Some mothers expect the process to be painful; this is not correct. While brief tenderness may be experienced when the baby latches to the breast, if the latch is correct the mother should feel no pain.

There are mothers who think that their diet must be restricted. This, too, is incorrect, and we encourage mothers to maintain a healthy diet and continue prenatal vitamins for the first six weeks following labor.

Mothers can also express milk and provide it to their babies via a bottle. The benefits of breast milk are present whether it is provided via nursing or from a bottle. While it is true that freezing breast milk for a few months (breast milk can be frozen up to six months) may affect some of its properties, it will still remain an excellent source of nutrition.

It is important to remember, though, that there are a few situations in which mothers cannot nurse their infants — for example, when mothers are on certain medications or when the baby was diagnosed as having galactosemia.

Some mothers elect to feed formula. As pediatricians we are trained in providing families with the most up-to-date information about infant nutrition; we respect the mother’s right to select the feeding method she is most comfortable with.

The issue of infant formula will be discussed in a future column.

Dr. Eitan Kilchevsky, former director of the Center for Breastfeeding at Danbury Hospital, is a neonatologist with more than 25 years of experience and is currently practicing at Ridgefield Pediatric Associates.

The town is not responsible if snow from a plow knocks over a mailbox (it may be responsible if the plow actually hits the mailbox, though).—Press photo

The Highway Department is responsible for keeping 420 town roads cleared of snow and passable during snow storms like today’s, reports Dave Buccitti, foreman of the Department of Public Services, who is asking townspeople’s cooperation in keeping roads clear.

“The help of every resident is required to successfully accomplish this important task in a safe and timely manner,” he said.

The Highway Department says:

• Do not park any vehicle in the street before or during a snow storm. Town ordinances prohibit this and your vehicle could be ticketed and/or towed by the Police Department.
• Do not plow or push snow into the town road. This practice creates hazardous conditions for other drivers and Highway Department personnel. Fines will be levied to the homeowner, so talk to your plowing contractor.
• Do not place objects such as garbage cans in or near the edge of the road. Highway personnel cannot stop at each house to move the objects, and therefore, they may be damaged. Placing objects in or near the road (within the town’s right of way) is at the owners’ risk.
• Be sure that your mailbox is firmly attached to its post and that the post is securely buried in the ground. Check the condition of your post — if it has been in the ground for a few years, it may be rotted even if it looks okay. Additionally, be sure that your mailbox and post are correctly installed based on the Town of Ridgefield guidelines (see website below). The Town of Ridgefield does not assume any responsibility for the replacement of mailboxes or posts that are within the town’s right of way — unless they are physically struck by the equipment. Damage from snow thrown from town plows is not the town’s responsibility.

“Coping with winter storms is never easy,” said Mr. Buccitti. “The Highway Department asks for your assistance and indulgence as they make every effort to keep our streets passable and safe for residents, visitors and emergency services.

For more information on specific town storm polices click on the Public Services link under Departments on the town’s website, www.ridgefieldct.org.

5:15 — Two-car accident near the post office on Catoonah Street. No injuries.

3:25 — The library is closing at 4.

3 p.m. —  The Ridgefield Guild of Artists will be closed today, Tuesday, Dec. 17

2:40 — Roads are getting slick and completely snow-covered. Town plow reports car has gone off Route 102, Branchville Road, between East Ridge and Ivy Hill.

2:10 p.m. — The Inland Wetlands Board and Planning and Zoning Commission meetings have been postponed from tonight until Wednesday, Dec. 18^th, same location and time (Town Hall Annex, 66 Prospect Street, 7:30 p.m.)

11:20 a.m. — the Department of Motor Vehicles is canceling all road tests for today

10:45 a.m.—  ROAR is closed to the public today.  Staff and volunteers will be in to care for the dogs and cats.

9:10 a.m. — The Aldrich Museum is closed today.

5:20 a.m. — Ridgefield schools are closed today because of the forecast of snow.  The National Weather Service says two to four inches will fall on the area, starting sometime after 6 a.m. and lasting into the late afternoon. This is the second “snow day” this school year — and the second Tuesday cancelation in a row. While classrooms are closed, school administration offices will be open today.

Email announcements of closings, cancelations or postponements to
news@TheRidgefieldPress.com

A special reading of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore, will take place Thursday, Dec. 19, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Garden House at the Keeler Tavern Museum.

This poem which has been enjoyed by children every Christmas season for almost 200 years will be read by a professional actor in the costume of the early 19th Century in front of a burning fireplace.

Youngsters of all ages are welcome.

Cost of $20 per child includes is a 4 x 6 inch color photo of the child/family in one of the museum’s antique sleighs. Also included is a photo frame which each child will decorate that evening.

Refreshments will be served.

Reservations are required. Call 203-438-5485 or visit keelertavernmuseum.org.