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 Photo: dotCANTON With darkness settling in on Monday, Jan. 31, and with new snow expected to begin falling overnight, the work continued to unburden already stressed roofs of old precipitation.
In the photo above, Donovan Valley, left, and Joe Blakley Jr. of Valley’s Lawn & Landscape in Canton use shovels and snow blowers to clear the roof of the building that’s home to Rosenberg Orthodontics at 227 Albany Turnpike.
Below, an unidentified worker shovels away what he can from the roof of Rice Fields in Canton Village.
Forecasters are calling for two days of nasty winter weather — beginning after midnight Tuesday morning and ending sometime Wednesday night — that’s expected to include snow, sleet and freezing rain.
Wednesday is Groundhog Day. Anybody expecting Punxsutawney Phil to deliver some good news?
 Photo: dotCANTON
 Pewter, a female Russian blue.
Pewter is a young Russian blue who had a rough start in life and is now available for adoption.
She was rescued from the streets of Hartford shortly after giving birth to a litter of kittens. She had a serious tail injury at the time, and she and her kittens would not have made it if she hadn’t been rescued.
The kittens were bottle fed in a foster home and then placed in new forever homes when they were old enough. Attempts to save Pewter’s tail were unsuccessful, and it eventually had to be removed.
Pewter is very sweet and very friendly. She loves to be with people, but prefers not to be petted.
If you are interested in adopting Pewter, please call Animal Friends of Connecticut at 860-827-0381 for an interview and to make an appointment to meet her.
– Animal Friends Of Connecticut Inc.
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By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
I thought the flu shot was supposed to protect you from the kind of monster that barreled into my world early this past week.
A brute that’s not quite done with me. Still.
All right, so maybe it’s not the flu. Easy for you to say. But here’s what it is, and you can write this down: It’s ugly and it’s ornery. It turns your head into a water balloon, and reduces your brain to mush, and it demands that you get your butt in bed … and stay there, fool!
And still it keeps coming, delivering vicious left and right hooks to ribs already sore from sneezing and coughing, and heartlessly cementing your sinuses tight, even when you could swear you just felt a tiny bubble of oxygen fight its way bravely through your right nostril and into your lungs.
Argggghhhh!!!
One night this past week — there’s absolutely no chance of remembering which without the aid of a hypnotist — I somehow was able to assemble a concoction of over-the-counter meds (purely by accident) that provided me a couple of semi-lucid hours, hours when my head wasn’t compelled to fall forward, chin resting on chest, or backward, eyes staring upward at the dreaded popcorn paint.
You know what I did with this precious time? I used it to assemble the seventh dotCANTON newsletter. That’s what I did. And now you know for sure how sick I was!!!
But there’s more fun to share. Oh, yes. Saturday morning. After a virtually sleepless night, following a day when I was certain (wishful thinking) that I had made progress against this demon, I defied all the rules of sanity and headed out to a 9 a.m. Independent Media Network conference at the University of Hartford.
On the way, I pulled into the Dunkin’ Donuts by Staples on Route 44 for my first Joe in days, and I ordered one of their egg sandwiches, figuring maybe the caffeine and food would somehow get me through the three-hour sit-down.
The nice, young man at the drive-thru window told me my tab was $3.96. I think. He handed me my coffee, I handed him a five, and he gave back a buck as I waved off the pennies and groggily drove away.
It wasn’t until I reached the light by Walmart that the empty passenger seat to my right exposed an annoying reality: I had neglected to claim my egg sandwich.
I wondered, for a few seconds, if the nice, young man had called to me as I pulled away from his window. Or if he had just laughed at the idiot in the Honda. Me.
I shook no one’s hand at the conference and swore to them it wasn’t personal and that they would thank me later. And then I listened to ways independent websites like dotCANTON.com might soon be sharing content and revenue from large advertising buys. Interesting stuff, but through it all a nagging voice in my swollen head kept pounding away with the same simple message:
Go home and get your butt in bed, fool.
(Editor’s note: The point of this story: If you haven’t yet signed up for the dotCANTON.com newsletter, go to the top of the left column, click on the envelope and you’ll be done in seconds.)
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Canton High School’s 10th annual Prisms Concert: A Show of Shows is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Canton High School auditorium. The snow date is Sunday, Feb. 6, at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets, which will be sold at the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens.
This year’s concert, according to producers, will feature talents beyond those found in the high school’s popular instrumental music program, and will include contributions from the English and theater art departments.
The Prisms Concert will be a show about different kinds of shows, including music and themes taken from the likes of the Big Apple Circus, Cirque du Soleil, and early 20th century opera.
The concert will feature the high school’s concert and symphonic bands, the jazz workshop and jazz band, and many chamber groups, including the flute choir and percussion ensemble.
Students from throughout the high school will be contributing a range of talents, including dance, theater, art, and lighting effects, to enhance the show.
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The town’s Economic Development Agency is seeking input from residents on how Canton should deal with the rising costs of local services, including police and education, and the possibility of declining help from the state, which is currently facing a significant budget deficit.
The following letter has been circulated to local media outlets. We present it unedited and in its entirety:
Dear Canton Residents,
We are Canton’s Economic Development Agency, a group of 5 volunteer Canton residents that are concerned with the responsible development of new commercial and industrial businesses for our town, as well as the retention and health of our existing business base. We believe that for Canton to prosper, we need to maintain a healthy mix of residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural tax base, as well as to preserve our open spaces and small town culture.
In this regard, during the next few years, our Town will be facing an ever-increasing dilemma as to how we pay for the rising cost of educational, protective, public works and social services. You see, we will soon be experiencing the renewal of municipal contracts for police, public works employees, and teachers. And there can be no doubt that these contract renewals will result in higher costs for our town. And with our State facing a $3 ½ billion budget deficit, we can expect little or no state help.
We really have only 3 alternatives to pay for these inevitable labor increases:
• Reduce costs in other areas of government. This is extremely difficult as our labor costs account for the vast majority of our total town budget.
• Increase residential property taxes, which are already quite high when compared to neighboring towns.
• Support substantial development of new commercial and industrial businesses. This would create additional non-residential tax revenues to alleviate some of the growing tax burden for our homeowners.
It seems that everything that matters most always involved a tradeoff. In this case are we willing to trade off some concessions with respect to our love of open spaces, and small town feel, for the additional tax revenues that could be generated from new commercial and industrial developments such as the Shoppes. Did you know that the Shoppes pay more taxes each year then our next 10 largest taxpayers combined!
We would like to hear from you. As a residential taxpayer, are you in favor of encouraging additional responsible commercial development (like a mixed use project on the site of the Collinsville Axe Factory) if it results in more modest residential real estate tax increases going forward? Or are you willing to bare more substantial real estate increases if that can better preserve our small town quality of life. We again stress that we would only support new commercial projects if they can be done in a tasteful and environmentally sensitive manner.
Your input will really help us determine our goals and objectives as a planning agency going forward. Please contact us with your valid input at Town of Canton Economic Development Agency, 4 Market Street, P.O. Box 168, Collinsville, CT 06022.
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Friday, Jan. 28, is deadline for completing an online, Canton Board of Education survey on the quality and effectiveness of school district communications.
The board’s communications subcommittee says “the information we gather will become transparent in our decisions and goals for more open, two-way communications.”
Click here to take the survey.
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The Canton Chamber of Commerce will hold a “Business After Hours” gathering on Tuesday, Feb. 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Rice Fields in Canton Village.
Complimentary Asian/Chinese/Japanese hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine, soda and water will be served at this opportunity to mingle with other members of the business community.
All business owners and professionals are welcome. There is no charge.
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Guest speaker Mary Marcuccio of “Parents 4 A Change” will address the issue of drugs in our own backyard on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. in the Canton High School auditorium.
Where are our teens getting drugs, and what can we do about it will be addressed by Marcuccio in the forum for parents and the general public and sponsored by the Canton Community of Concern and Substance Abuse Council.
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The Canton Police Department will host its second “Coffee with the Cops” on Thursday, Feb. 3, from 8 to 9 a.m. at the police station, 45 River Road (Route 179).
All members of the Canton community, including residents, businesses, government officials and media, are invited to attend and share your thoughts, concerns, suggestions and questions on how the department can best serve the town.
Light refreshments will be provided.
A meeting will be held on the first Thursday of each month.
dotCANTON Classifieds Page Open For Business
 A little string bag, all made from scrap fabric. By Jackie Kunkel
As quilters, we sometimes tend to gauge our progress by how many project finishes we have in a year. It isn’t necessarily to have started them in that same year, but they must be finished.
 Diaper bag for infant nephew. Being a devoted and passionate quilter, I am no different than any other — I keep track. So I thought you might like to see some of the projects I was able to complete in 2010.
Interestingly enough, my first project, right, wasn’t even a quilt. I completed a diaper bag for my newly born nephew. I thought my brother and sister-in-law would like something stylish that didn’t quite resemble a traditional diaper bag. They loved it. It actually flew halfway across the world at that time, as they were in China.
 Started about three years ago. My second finish, right, was a quilt I had started about three years earlier. It was from a class that I taught at the local quilt shop, and I was finally able to finish my own sample. As you can see, it graces our bed.
My next project (see image at the top of the story) didn’t take very long. It was a challenge from another quilting blogger. I made this tiny little string bag, just big enough for some spending money, license, and cell phone. Love the colors on this, and it was all from scrap fabric!
 New pattern from a friend. Again, another bag! This one, right, was a new pattern from a friend and fellow quilting blogger. She had begun to design patterns and asked me to test it for her. I think it turned out great and, yes, it is quilted, too!
Next, I had a very important quilt to complete. My nephew was turning 7, and he kept asking his mom, “When is Aunt Jackie going to make me a quilt for my big boy bed?” No self-respecting, quilting aunt could turn down this opportunity. So within a month this quilt was completed. (See image in the gallery below.)
Of course, I threw in a project just for me. I love these floral fabrics, and so this lap-size diamond quilt was created! (See image in the gallery below.) It shouts spring, and I know we all could use a little of that right now.
 "Fabulous." The first time Steve Wilder wrote about me on dotCANTON, he showcased me with my first published quilt. This is also just for me, and it was featured in Quilt Magazine! It is called “Pop Squares.” (See image in the gallery below.)
The next one, right, is very indicative of some of my favorite colors. The magentas and fuchsias always call my name. Sprinkle a little purple and yellow and you have a quilt named “Fabulous.”
My next finish is a large one that I started years ago, as well. I love it! It is called the “Weathervane Quilt.” That is the name of this traditional block. (See image in the gallery below.)
 Gift for daughter. My quilting, blogging friend designed yet another bag pattern she wanted me to test for her. This hip bag is called “The Loft Tote,” and it was fun to put together! (See image in the gallery below.)
Last, but not least, was probably the most important quilt of all. This one, right, is a traditional block called the Hunter’s Star. A few years ago my daughter asked me to make her a black and white quilt with a little bit of teal in it. So I began this quilt in 2010 and finished it in time to give it as her Christmas gift. Needless to say, it was well received.
I hope you have enjoyed a look into my year in projects for 2010! Stay tuned for upcoming projects and a continued look into the world of a very dedicated quilter.
Jackie
To check out larger versions of the images below, click on any of the five and use the arrow left or arrow right button at the bottom of the larger image that pops up. To return to this page, click on the full image you are viewing.
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Jackie Kunkel is the owner of Canton Village Quilt Works. Her posts will appear occasionally at dotCANTON.com.
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