NOR’EASTER CAUSES PROBLEMS
Residents across New England are waking up to cars caked in heavy wet snow, a messy commute and widespread power outages. Earlier this morning, Eversource reported more than 124,000 outages. The hardest hit towns in Southeastern Connecticut were Montville with more than 45-hundred outages. More than half of Salem, Voluntown, Old Lyme were in the dark today. The National Weather Service says some areas of Connecticut got more than two feet of snow in a storm that started late Wednesday and pummeled the region through the night while most people slept. Only about three inches of snow fell in New London.
FLOOD WARNING ISSUED
A flood warning has been extended for the Pawcatuck River at Westerly until Saturday evening. At 10: 00 p.m. Wednesday, the river was at 6.9 feet. Flood stage is 7.0 feet. Minor flooding is expected. The forecast is for the river to rise above flood stage by after midnight tonight and continue to rise to near 7.5 feet by early Friday morning. The river will fall below flood stage by Saturday early afternoon.
PONEMAH DEVELOPERS AT IT AGAIN
The owners of the Lofts at Ponemah Mills in Norwich have purchased a nearby building at 3 North Second Ave. and plan to renovate the 1895 structure and fill it with commercial businesses. The building is a short walk from The Lofts at Ponemah Mills, which began housing tenants in late 2017. The developers have not begun advertising for new tenants, and are not sure when renovations will begin.
MYSTIC MIDDLE NAME CHANGE UNDER CONSIDERATION
The Stonington school board will be voting tonight on whether to rename Mystic Middle School after the town, the street it’s on or the local man once credited with discovering Antarctica. Their choices will be Stonington Middle School, Mistuxet Avenue Middle School or Nathaniel Palmer Middle School. The school board has elected to close the Pawcatuck Middle School and send its students to the larger Mystic Middle School due to declining enrollment.
MICROBREWS’ LIMITS MAY INCREASE
The Joint Committee on General Law spent several hours hearing testimony on House Bill 5036, which would lift limits on the amount of beer a microbrewery manufacturer can sell to one person on one day, which currently is nine liters. Groton Rep. Christine Conley, Groton State Sen. Heather Somers and Beer’d Brewing Company, co-owner Precious Putnam were three of many at the hearing to offer testimony in support of the bill. Nearly 70 pieces of written testimony submitted were overwhelmingly in favor, but wholesalers also showed up to oppose the measure.
