dlyon  Feb 7 2005 - 11:23am  Local News   

By KIMBERLY WETZEL
Chronicle Staff Writer
WILLIMANTIC — One of his most important goals will be to find ways to strengthen families and help families reach self-sufficiency.
Peter DeBiasi, 48, of Ledyard, has been hired as the new executive director for Access — a private, non-profit organization working with the low-income population of eastern Connecticut since 1965.
He will start his new position at Access March 7, the same month the organization will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
“The job I have now dealt with more global, statewide issues and coming to the Access Agency makes me closer to the community,” said DeBiasi. “I feel the need to be more grounded in a community.”

dlyon  Feb 7 2005 - 11:21am  Local News   

By GAIL ELLEN DALY
Chronicle Staff Writer
STORRS — Although the historic Yellow Barn’s two end wings are gone, the 1919-era structure remains visible to all those driving past the University of Connecticut’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Still, a university plan to convert some of the land there into a parking lot isn’t sitting well with one local historian.
“This barn is the last vestige of the old College of Agriculture,” said longtime Storrs resident Dolly Whitham, coordinator of the recently formed Land Grant Preservation Committee. “It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988 as part of the Connecticut Agricultural School Historic District.”

dlyon  Feb 7 2005 - 11:19am  Local News   

By SEAN O’LEARY
Chronicle Staff Writer
HEBRON — An unsupervised child playing with matches appears to be the cause of a Sunday morning fire at RHAM High School, according to police.
Local fire units were alerted to a fire at the high school at 10:36 a.m. Sunday when Troop K dispatch in Colchester received notification the school’s sprinklers and smoke alarms had been activated.
Responding fire units and emergency personnel, according to a report from Troop K police, located the fire in a common stairwell connecting the adjoining RHAM High School and RHAM Middle School.
After the fire was put out and the scene secured — there were no reported injuries — an investigation into the fire was lead by the state’s fire marshal office and the Eastern District Major Crime Squad.

dlyon  Feb 7 2005 - 11:17am  Local News   

By HEATHER LAKE
Chronicle Staff Writer
Gov. M Jodi Rell is proposing a freeze on tuition increases that in the past decade have made Connecticut colleges and universities among the most expensive in the nation.
Administrators at Eastern Connecticut State University, having not yet studied the proposal in-depth, said if passed, the freeze would mean $1.2 million in lost revenue the university isn’t prepared to absorb.
“This would effectively wipe us out,” said John Sweeney, associate vice president of finance and admissions, this morning.
Rell announced the proposed freeze Saturday and called on colleges and universities to use $50 million in unspent funds from the 2003-04 school year to make up the difference.

dlyon  Feb 7 2005 - 11:14am  Local News   

By MATTHEW L. BROWN
Chronicle Staff Writer
WILLIMANTIC — In an effort to remain open, the McSweeney Regional Senior Center is asking the public for money.
“We’re trying not to close,” Rose Fowler, the center’s executive director, said Friday. “But we do find ourselves in a low cash flow situation. Funding in general is down.”
Fowler said the grant funding the nonprofit center depends on has been slow to arrive.
“The state is slow in paying our grant funding,” she said. “We’re taking remedies,” she said. “We don’t want to close McSweeney down.”
The center is funded by federal grant money dispersed by the state.

dlyon  Feb 7 2005 - 11:13am  Local News   

BY JESSICA SCHAEFFER-HELMECKI
Special to the Chronicle
WILLIMANTIC — For the past quarter century, the Willimantic Food Co-op has been a unique member of the local business community — one with more than money on its agenda.
In fact, it may be incorrect to call it a business at all.
With a rainbow flag proclaiming “Peace” hung above the cash register, this array of aisles and produce is much more than a store.
According to a posting on the wall, it is a place emphasizing a “concern for the community, democratic member control, autonomy and independence and education.”
It’s not exactly the traditional corporate mottoes driven home by the food industry.

dlyon  Feb 5 2005 - 11:56am  Local Sports   

By JASON VRABEL
Chronicle Sports Writer
WILLIMANTIC — There were a lot of questions regarding the Windham High boys basketball team as they entered a key Eastern Connecticut Conference-Medium tilt against Bacon Academy Friday night at Callaghan Gymnasium.
With leading scorer and staring guard Shawn Gilblair sidelined with an injury, the Whippets knew they would have to get answers from both its veterans and inexperienced bench to come out on top.
Buoyed by a career-high 15-point performance from junior guard Christian Leon, the Whippets handed the Bobcats their eighth straight loss by a 35-32 decision.

dlyon  Feb 5 2005 - 11:49am  Local Sports   

Panthers win title
SOUTH WINDSOR — The celebration is probably still going on this morning for E.O. Smith girls basketball coach Earl Henrichon and his team.
Celebrating their efforts in putting a gigantic wrap on the Central Connecticut Conference East Division Championship.
Amy Peters scored five points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining, which gave them the lead for good as E.O. Smith pulled out a gutty 37-34 CCC East victory over South Windsor Friday evening.
The win for the Panthers (10-6 overall, 5-0 CCC East) is their fifth in a row and in the process gave them what is believed to be the first time since 1987 that the program has won a regular season championship.

dlyon  Feb 5 2005 - 11:45am  Local Sports   

By RICH ZALUSKY
Chronicle Sports Writer
HARTFORD —There were three things that were important out of everything written on the board in the locker room by UConn coach Geno Auriemma before Thursday night’s game against Rutgers.
First, their attitude had to be different. Auriemma wanted his team to attack against pressure to score while at the same time putting pressure on Rutgers to force what they wanted to do.
Second, they needed to keep their composure. When things got out of hand, instead of going haywire, as things did in their loss to Notre Dame, Auriemma wanted his team to stay cool and collected.

dlyon  Feb 5 2005 - 11:43am  Local Sports   

By Mike Sypher
Jim Calhoun remembers the first men’s college basketball game he ever coached in, even though the whirlwind of memories created by 32-plus seasons of stalking the sideline very easily could have clouded his memory a bit.
“It was 1972 and Ron Mitchell was the coach at Sargent Gym at Boston University,” recalled Calhoun following Wednesday night’s 81-76 Big East Conference victory by his University of Connecticut Huskies over Villanova at the Hartford Civic Center. “There was an altercation of some sort.”
Game 1 of the Calhoun Era had begun at Northeastern in style that night when he led his first pack of Huskies into action at BU. The rookie coach steered his Northeastern squad to a 19-7 record in that inaugural 1972-73 season.