Southington News

One of the hottest trends in heating or cooling your home uses the warmth of the earth to keep your home comfortable.

A slow-moving truck veered off a busy street about 11 a.m. and sheared off part of a West Main Street business, before stopping a few feet from a utility pole, police said.

Dress your table for the prettiest garden party in town. Amelie Michel , an Essex company specializing in high-end French table linens, holds a Warehouse Sale Friday through Monday.

Southington _ Oil prices are soaring and homeowners are already looking at ways to cut down on their heating costs this winter.

A Hartford man who was the driver in a central Connecticut robbery spree last year was sentenced today for his role in the hold-ups in Avon, Bristol, Farmington, Plainville and Southington.

Hector L. Barreto, 51, received a 25-year sentence, suspended after he serves 12 years in prison. He will be on probation for 5 years when released.

Baretto, wearing a sunflower-yellow prison jumpsuit, stood silently in shackles in a New Britain Superior Court hearing room as Judge Joan Alexander cautioned him to take advantage of counseling in prison to conquer his serious heroin addiction before his eventual release on probation.

Font When all hope fails a ray of sunshine enters. Emilio's Italian Ristorante's new owners Alex and Danielle Cirikovic have managed just that in the old Giovanni's Restaurant in downtown Southington,Ct.. My ...

One Southington family has learned that when Catholic school officials say they have a no-refund policy, they really mean it.

The town appears to be on its way to becoming a popular place to spend the night, with two hotels planned for a growing area.

Last month, the planning and zoning commission approved plans for a 126-room Courtyard by Marriott.

And earlier this spring, the commission rezoned another parcel on West Street.

Town Planner Mary Savage said she expects that a developer will submit plans for a hotel there soon.

Town Economic Development Director Louis Perillo said he expects the second hotel to be a Hampton Inn.

Apparently, Connecticut's teacher shortage is not so severe that those faculty members who prefer bikinis to burkas can't be run out of town on a wheelbarrow.

Meriden _ A 19-year-old male had been stabbed in the back and transported to Hartford Hospital by Life Star right before 7 PM Tuesday.

- Marie Jarry, the former second-grade teacher who resigned abruptly in May after taking a paid sick day to appear on the 'Howard Stern Show,' is suing school officials and claims she was forced into resigning.

The suit was filed June 27 in U.S. District Court in Hartford and claims Jarry was denied due process, including the right to contest any charges against her.

Jarry is demanding that she be reinstated and receive back pay from when she resigned. Named in the suit are the board of education, Superintendent of Schools Joseph Erardi and the Southington Education Association, which is the teachers union.

The topic of the high school discussion was homosexuality, and almost everyone in the class expressed the view that 'it's OK to be gay.'

Jennifer Landry believed otherwise. 'The act is horrible,' she said, 'but the people are in need of sincere love.'

She immediately felt the harsh sting of reprobation from her classmates. 'They all verbally attacked me,' recalled Landry, now 23 and living in Southington. 'That was the moment when I realized there was a problem.'

That problem, in Landry's view, is the everything-goes ethos embraced by most of her generation. These days, though, she no longer feels so alone: She found kinship with like-minded young people through the Family Institute of Connecticut's nascent youth wing.

The Hospital of Central Connecticut will host a free cholesterol, HDL glucose and blood pressure screenings at the Southington Community YMCA July 22 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Please RSVP by calling 860-628-5597 ...

High food prices, even higher gasoline prices, food safety scares, and the increasing popularity of organic foods have combined to set off a virtual explosion in backyard vegetable gardening this year.

'We haven't been able to keep certain starter plants in stock; they are just flying out of here,' said Sue Andreski, manager of Agway of Southington. 'People are looking for fresh cucumbers and pickles. Tomato plants are flying out. All the starter squashes - winter squash, summer squash - we've been running out. And our growers can't keep up.'

After a heated and contentious public hearing Tuesday, the town council approved a bond ordinance that the town hopes will improve parking downtown.

The council voted 6-2 in favor of issuing $400,000 in bonds to finance the acquisition of 148 Center St., the former site of My Bar, which was closed after a police raid in February.

Economic Development Coordinator Louis Perillo said the town, which plans to use the site for municipal parking and solicit proposals for reuse of the building, will likely place restrictions on what a developer can do with the site in order to maximize its contribution to the downtown area.

A developer is offering the town a deal to clean up the old Beaton & Corbin site, a vacant and polluted eyesore on North Main Street.

The Whelen Modified Tour support events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when the Sprint Cup Series rolls into Loudon have long been described as the best race of the weekend.

Local police say they plan to arrest three teens who are considered suspects in a vandalism spree that has been labeled a hate crime.

Police Capt. Domenic Angiolillo said the three teenage boys, who are all under the age of 16, committed 16 incidents of vandalism early Tuesday. The trio sprayed 'KKK' as well as racial and ethnic slurs on cars, street signs, buildings such as Tyrrell Middle School, and other personal and public property, police said Thursday. He said the teens also stole items from the cars they spray-painted.

To cover the rising cost of living and attract employees, many Connecticut companies are giving across-the-board raises, in the range of 25 cents an hour, to lower-wage workers.

The General Assembly approved a similar pay raise this spring, overwhelmingly passing a bill that would boost the pay of minimum wage workers from $7.65 to $8 an hour beginning in January and to $8.25 in 2010.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the 35-cent raise, though, saying she didn't want to 'take any action that will negatively affect businesses or jobs during a national economic downturn.'

Southington police have charged two teenagers with desecrating a church by spray painting satanic symbols, swastikas and obscene language.