dlyon  Feb 4 2005 - 8:34am  Opinion/Editorial   

By Terese Karmel
The letter is pulled from a sheaf of similar communications only this one is in all CAPS.
The tone is angry; the letter writer is at his wit’s end.
“DEAR JONATHAN:” it begins:
After a reference to an earlier letter to Jonathan’s father, the writer gets directly to the point:
DREW BLEDSOE MUST BE TRADED.
This command was sent to Jonathan Kraft, the son of New England Patriot owner Robert Kraft on Dec. 2, 2001 by Roger C. Pellerin of Brooklyn, one of the most ardent Patriot fans in this part of the world.
It was to be Bledsoe’s last season as a Patriot. Injury limited him to two games but even when he was healthy, coach Bill Belechick stuck with the guy who got him there in the 2002 Super Bowl and Tom Brady continued with his distinguished career. (“The greatest play in Pats’ history was when Mo Lewis incapacitated Drew Bledsoe,” Pellerin says, referring to the Jets’ linebacker who took out Bledsoe his last year in New England.)

dlyon  Feb 4 2005 - 8:31am  Local News   

By GAIL ELLEN DALY
Chronicle Staff Writer
STORRS — Work on the southern portion of the Student Union can once again get under way after the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees Thursday unanimously allocated additional funds to complete the project.
With $15.8 million from UConn 2000 funds added to the $47 million Student Union budget, the final cost of completion for the 95,000 square-foot facility will total $62.8 million.
According to vice president and chief operating officer Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith, the project was originally designed as a three-phase project.
The first phase, complete with movie theater, cultural centers, space for organizations, student lounges and mailboxes opened last fall.

dlyon  Feb 4 2005 - 8:30am  Local News   

By TRACI DUTCHER
Chronicle Correspondent
HEBRON — The historical society is now focusing its attention on a new site of historical interest.
The society is launching its web site on the Internet this week.
The webs ite address is www.HebronHistoricalSociety.org.
The site will provide information about the Historical Society’s monthly programs and featured speakers, offer updates on restoration work on historical properties around town, and report on fund-raising opportunities.
The society, established in 1966, is a very active one, as the web site launch shows.
It owns and maintains two properties: the Old Town Hall, where meetings are held, and the one-room Burrows Hill School House.

dlyon  Feb 4 2005 - 8:29am  Local News   

By MATTHEW L. BROWN
Chronicle Staff Writer
BROOKLYN — Two men from the Quinebaug River Valley face drug and other charges after an apartment was raided by state police Thursday.
State police at Troop D in Danielson said the occupants of Apt. 14, 5 Front St. in East Brooklyn had been under investigation by narcotics detectives for some time before Thursday’s arrests were made.
With search and seizure warrant in hand, state police with the Troop D Quality of Life Task Force, the Statewide Narcotics Task Force, the Brooklyn Resident State Trooper’s office and the Killingly Resident State Trooper’s office stormed the apartment at about 6 p.m. Thursday.

dlyon  Feb 4 2005 - 8:27am  Local News   

By TRACI DUTCHER
Chronicle Correspondent
CHAPLIN — The New England Association of Schools and Colleges has decided that Parish Hill High School’s membership should be terminated because it does not meet the accreditation institute’s standards.
The Regional School District 11 Board of Education will discuss the letter in executive session tonight.
The school was placed on probation by NEASC in 2002 for several reasons, including overcrowded classrooms and the resulting limitation of new programs, lack of privacy in the guidance and health offices, limited conference space, lack of sprinklers in some areas and limited space in the media center and the resulting lack of instructional opportunities.

dlyon  Feb 4 2005 - 8:25am  Local News   

By SEAN O’LEARY
Chronicle Staff Writer
ASHFORD — It was anything but a normal Friday morning for the 35 elderly residents of Ashford’s Pompey Hollow Senior Housing as they were forced to evacuate their homes following a water leak.
Ashford Fire Chief Wayne Fletcher said that around 6 a.m. today his department received a call for a water break.
“We got a call that a sprinkler had broke and we just evacuated everyone out of the building,” said Fletcher.
The sprinkler head had broken in a common trash room on the second floor, said Fletcher.
It was actually the second emergency call from the housing complex within a span of several minutes.

dlyon  Feb 3 2005 - 9:32am  Local Sports   

By MIKE SYPHER
Chronicle Sports Editor
HARTFORD — Three years ago, University of Connecticut football coach Randy Edsall announced his recruiting class in a trailer parked behind the North end zone at Memorial Stadium.
Fast-forward three years to the ritzy Goodwin Hotel on Asylum Street in Hartford where several hundred donors and assembled media members were introduced to Edsall’s incoming class of 26 recruits.
After making several opening statements and then huddling up with the media, Edsall went back downstairs to the atrium area at the Goodwin Hotel where he schmoozed a bit with the donors and watched a video of UConn’s 8-4 season — “A Team on the Rise”.

dlyon  Feb 3 2005 - 9:31am  Local Sports   

By MIKE SYPHER
Chronicle Sports Editor
HARTFORD — Jay Wright has coached in 322 career games — only 678 fewer than University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun — but the Villanova mentor handled the frantic finish in what eventually became an 81-76 Big East Conference loss to the Huskies at the Hartford Civic Center on Wednesday night with unimpeachable class.
Wright’s No. 24 nationally-ranked Wildcats dictated the pace and flow of last night’s showdown with No. 23 Connecticut with a 3-guard offense that had the Huskies chasing the ball all over the floor and a morphing 1-2-1-1 pressure defense that alternately settled into man and zone half-court sets.

dlyon  Feb 3 2005 - 9:29am  Local Sports   

HARTFORD — I’m not sure if University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun has ever traveled to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, but the veteran Husky mentor was definitely followed by a shadow on Wednesday as he coached in his 1,000th game.
The shadow stalking Calhoun and his Huskies was the rest of the Big East Conference as the league’s bottom feeders threatened to suck UConn back into the pack if the Villanova Wildcats managed to post a big victory over their hosts at the Hartford Civic Center.
Thanks to a gritty effort by his Huskies, Calhoun will coach meaningful games for another six weeks or so this winter after No. 23 nationally-ranked UConn (13-5 overall, 5-3 Big East) pulled away for an 81-76 victory over No. 24 Villanova (12-5, 4-4) in front of a stoked-up crowd of 16,294 fans.

dlyon  Feb 3 2005 - 9:25am  Local Sports   

Bulldogs pin down COC crown
LEBANON — Casey Yates (125 pounds) won by pin in 39 seconds for Lyman Memorial, which received pins from eight wrestlers in defeating Ellis Tech, 48-24, and in the process put the finishing touches on its second straight Charter Oak Conference regular season championship.
Mike Delmastro (130), Scott Boyle (135), Dan Leon (145), Clay Spinner (160), Billy Sedelmeyer (171), Pat Dunn (189) and Chris Martin (275) recorded pins for the Bulldogs (12-8 overall, 5-0 COC).
Tyler Panteleakos won by pin for the Eagles (5-4, 2-2).
Mighty Tigers fall