Providing a solution

Last week ground was broken on a $5.3 million project to create a new health care center in North Canaan that will serve all Northwest Corner residents with a range of services, including primary care and behavioral health services. In a Page One story this week, our reporter Riley Klein notes that besides individual therapy, there will be group therapy, medication management, women’s health and child and adolescent behavioral services.

The new facility, to be located across from the Stop & Shop and which is expected to completed in the fall of 2023, will provide this care regardless of ability to pay. It will be the third one for the Community Health and Wellness Center in Torrington, a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC). As such, it receives federal money to provide medical care to areas in need where such care is scarce and without regard to insurance status or financial means. The center’s two other facilities are in Torrington and Winsted.

Starting last May, the same Community Health and Wellness Center in Torrington started a mobile-clinic service covering the towns in the Northwest Corner with a regular weekly schedule of visits. The mobile clinics were hailed as a breakthrough that made it possible to get healthcare without traveling. In the case of West Cornwall, a visit to the mobile clinic marked the first time in three decades that residents could get medical care in their own town. On one visit, two clients were seen as new patients. Others received COVID shots, a typical need back then.

Some experts see such innovation as a significant element in future delivery of medical care to people.

The North Canaan project, funded by a bond contract of $3 million from Gov. Ned Lamont’s office and a $1.3 million grant from the Foundation for Community Health, and supported by State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64), has been years in the making. Joanne Borduas at the Community Health and Wellness Center and Nancy Heaton at the Foundation for Community Health have spearheaded the effort, recognizing a need and delivering a solution.

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Speed cameras gain ground in Connecticut, stall in Dutchess County

A speed enforcement camera in New York City.

Photo courtesy NYC DOT

Speed cameras remain a tough sell across northwest Connecticut — and are still absent from local roads in neighboring Dutchess County.

Town leaders across northwest Connecticut are moving cautiously on speed cameras, despite a state law passed in 2023 that allows municipalities to install them. In contrast, no towns or villages in Dutchess County currently operate local automated speed-camera programs, even as New York City has relied on the technology for years.

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In remembrance:
Tim Prentice and the art of making the wind visible
In remembrance: Tim Prentice and the art of making the wind visible
In remembrance: Tim Prentice and the art of making the wind visible

There are artists who make objects, and then there are artists who alter the way we move through the world. Tim Prentice belonged to the latter. The kinetic sculptor, architect and longtime Cornwall resident died in November 2025 at age 95, leaving a legacy of what he called “toys for the wind,” work that did not simply occupy space but activated it, inviting viewers to slow down, look longer and feel more deeply the invisible forces that shape daily life.

Prentice received a master’s degree from the Yale School of Art and Architecture in 1960, where he studied with German-born American artist and educator Josef Albers, taking his course once as an undergraduate and again in graduate school.In “The Air Made Visible,” a 2024 short film by the Vision & Art Project produced by the American Macular Degeneration Fund, a nonprofit organization that documents artists working with vision loss, Prentice spoke of his admiration for Albers’ discipline and his ability to strip away everything but color. He recalled thinking, “If I could do that same thing with motion, I’d have a chance of finding a new form.”

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Strategic partnership unites design, architecture and construction

Hyalite Builders is leading the structural rehabilitation of The Stissing Center in Pine Plains.

Provided

For homeowners overwhelmed by juggling designers, architects and contractors, a new Salisbury-based collaboration is offering a one-team approach from concept to construction. Casa Marcelo Interior Design Studio, based in Salisbury, has joined forces with Charles Matz Architect, led by Charles Matz, AIA RIBA, and Hyalite Builders, led by Matt Soleau. The alliance introduces an integrated design-build model that aims to streamline the sometimes-fragmented process of home renovation and new construction.

“The whole thing is based on integrated services,” said Marcelo, founder of Casa Marcelo. “Normally when clients come to us, they are coming to us for design. But there’s also some architecture and construction that needs to happen eventually. So, I thought, why don’t we just partner with people that we know we can work well with together?”

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‘The Dark’ turns midwinter into a weeklong arts celebration

Autumn Knight will perform as part of PS21’s “The Dark.”

Provided

This February, PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance in Chatham, New York, will transform the depths of midwinter into a radiant week of cutting-edge art, music, dance, theater and performance with its inaugural winter festival, The Dark. Running Feb. 16–22, the ambitious festival features more than 60 international artists and over 80 performances, making it one of the most expansive cultural events in the region.

Curated to explore winter as a season of extremes — community and solitude, fire and ice, darkness and light — The Dark will take place not only at PS21’s sprawling campus in Chatham, but in theaters, restaurants, libraries, saunas and outdoor spaces across Columbia County. Attendees can warm up between performances with complimentary sauna sessions, glide across a seasonal ice-skating rink or gather around nightly bonfires, making the festival as much a social winter experience as an artistic one.

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Tanglewood Learning Institute expands year-round programming

Exterior of the Linde Center for Music and Learning.

Mike Meija, courtesy of the BSO

The Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI), based at Tanglewood, the legendary summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is celebrating an expanded season of adventurous music and arts education programming, featuring star performers across genres, BSO musicians, and local collaborators.

Launched in the summer of 2019 in conjunction with the opening of the Linde Center for Music and Learning on the Tanglewood campus, TLI now fulfills its founding mission to welcome audiences year-round. The season includes a new jazz series, solo and chamber recitals, a film series, family programs, open rehearsals and master classes led by world-renowned musicians.

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google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.