Brunetti’s Market on Main Street announced it would close after nearly 30 years in the meat and grocery business, the March 8, 1990, Press reported. According to its owner, the market’s closure was because the business was unable to keep up with expenses even though sales had increased over the past year. Brunetti’s had been an institution in Ridgefield.
The Brunetti name had been associated with the food business since 1915. That year Ernest Brunetti and Nazzereno Gasperini bought a store on the corner of Prospect and Bailey avenues from Benvenuto Carboni. Known around town as the “Italian Place,” the store served the growing Italian community in Ridgefield. Ernest Brunetti died in 1940 and left his part of the store to his son, Joe. After Joe returned from the war in 1945, he sold his part to Mr. Gasperini. In late 1946 Joe began working for Perry’s Market on Main Street, where Deborah Ann’s chocolate and ice cream parlor is located now. After a few years he went to work at the A&P grocery store on Main Street. In 1962, Joe Brunetti decided to branch out on his own. He opened Brunetti’s Market in the Bissell’s building where the restaurant now exists. He modeled his new business after Perry’s Market, a market where 80% of the business was in meat sales. “The success of our business has to do with the service and the high quality of the meat. … While Brunetti’s Market specializes in choice, it also stocks a complete grocery line,” said Mr. Brunetti in a 1979 interview. Mr. Brunetti ran his store until 1983, when he sold it to two of his butchers, Ron Manna and Ed Bowie. They ran the business for a few years and subsequently sold it. After a series of new owners the business folded in 1990.
WREF, the AM radio station with offices on Danbury Road, marked its fifth anniversary. The station was established by Bartholomew T. “Black Bart” Salerno, who spent some 15 years in applying for an FCC license. (Mr. Salerno owned and rehabilitated the Big Shop complex on Bailey Avenue, which at the time he bought it was nearing collapse and demolition. The Big Shop building was originally a carriage manufactory that stood at the corner of Main Street and West Lane where the Congregational Church now exists. In addition to the carriage business, circuses and menageries took place there in the 1800s. One section of that building was saved and moved to its present location.)
Mr. and Mrs. Evo Bellagamba of Scodon Drive announced the engagement of their daughter Deborah to David Vallerie of Danbury.
The Police Commission gave its approval to start a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (DARE) in Ridgefield. DARE was to be a cooperative effort between the Police Department and the schools in which uniformed officers visited classrooms to teach students about drug abuse and how to prevent it. The proposal needed the approval of the Board of Education and the selectmen. According to Lt. Philip Mitchell, the department had known about DARE for some time, but due to a shortage of officers, it could not supply the necessary staff to start a program in town. “It’s successful in use across the country,” said Lt. Mitchell. “It reinforces the relationship between cops and kids.”
Ever watching pennies, the Board of Selectmen cut increases in three budget items that week. “Cut down this food for prisoners,” said Selectman Mike Venus of a requested increase by police Chief Thomas Rotunda. “Keep them mean and lean,” quipped Selectman Peter Yanity. Later in their budget meeting, the board reduced food for dogs in the town pound and cut back money to buy food for firefighters after a fire. “We’re not feeding the prisoners, we’re not feeding the dogs, and we’re not feeding the firefighters,” said First Selectman Liz Leonard. “I’m going to open up a soup kitchen.” In the end, the selectmen trimmed more than one-half-million dollars from their budget, bringing the non-school budget to below $17 million. The police had their request for eight more officers trimmed to three. Funding to provide for four part-time officers was retained. Only the crossing guard for Veterans Park School, which Chief Rotunda had said was the most dangerous spot, survived the cuts. The golf course’s $350,000 request to revamp the clubhouse was chopped to $100,000 for repairs to the bathrooms and porch. “We don’t want to build a country club,” said Selectman Peter Yanity. The fire department got one new firefighter to provide six people per shift, and money for exhaust fans for the building. However, the $4,000 for repairing the communications room was rejected.
Fire Chief Richard Nagle suggested to the selectmen that the town look into charging a fee for ambulance calls that were then free. “The town should investigate the feasibility of recouping some of the cost through third-party insurance billing,” said Chief Nagle. Residents who used the ambulance would get a bill from the town to send on to their insurance companies. At the time there were only 800 ambulance calls per year and the cost to the town was about $230 per call. A private company was providing a paramedic and a car under a contract with the town.
Erin Futterman, a 1988 graduate of Ridgefield High School and daughter of Jane Belote of Ridgefield, was named to the dean’s list at the Newhouse School of Communications, Syracuse University.
John Pambianchi, Gilda Pambianchi, Norma Contessa, and Robert Morganti received plaques for their outstanding contributions and support to the Regional Hospice. It was the second year in a row that Mr. Pambianchi and Mr. Morganti had been so honored.
Two “Welcome to Ridgefield” signs were stolen, and the town asked that they be returned, no questions asked. “They’ve been stolen, and we’d appreciate whoever stole them dropping them off,” said First Selectman Sue Manning. “Take them to either the transfer station or the recycling center, public works — any town employee down in that area. We just want the signs back.”
Attorney Sue Reynolds (now Connecticut Superior Court Judge Reynolds) was elected chairman of the Republican Town Committee. At the time, Mrs. Reynolds was a partner in the Ridgefield law firm of Marvin, Kennnedy, Reese and Hirsh. The GOP committee also re-elected Rex Gustafson as vice chairman and Beth Yanity as corresponding secretary. New to the committee were Robert Smith, Judy Fulkerson, Jerry Kiernan, and Joan Hume. Mrs. Reynolds described her ideology as mixed. “I’m sure I range from conservative to liberal, depending on what the issue is, and I think that’s the way most people in Ridgefield are. People don’t vote straight party lines anymore. They pick an issue and make a stand depending on their conscience and their needs and they go with it.”