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 Teresa Kramer, director of Canton Raptor Care, with Christopher, a red-tailed hawk who is one of her eight education birds. Photo: dotCANTON By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
Sitting with a visitor on a warm and sunny, almost-spring morning, Teresa Kramer looks out over her spacious backyard and briefly recalls the days when her gardens received a lot of her attention.
That, she admits with little sign of regret, was awhile ago.
 Barred owl Joey. Photo: dotCANTON Passions and priorities change as we move through life, and Kramer found a new and intriguing path about eight years ago while serving as a volunteer at Roaring Brook Nature Center. Caring for the raptors there sparked something inside her, and she set out to obtain the state and federal licenses needed to be a wildlife rehabilitator.
Kramer left the nature center in 2006 and established Canton Raptor Care, a nonprofit facility she operates on her North Canton property. She has been rehabilitating birds of prey in several spacious enclosures ever since. It’s a “labor intensive” job, Kramer says, that involves “more than just putting a rat in a cage.”
Kramer also provides a home to eight “education birds” who for one reason or another are not capable of returning to the wild: Dante the turkey vulture; Lucille the screech owl; Joey the barred owl; Einstein the red-shouldered hawk; Bobbio the American kestrel; Luna Bean the barn owl; and red-tailed hawks Christopher (a female) and Jeffrey.
 Barn owl Luna. Photo: dotCANTON “Having the birds here is such a gift,” Kramer, 55, says. …”I told my husband I wish this passion had hit me when I was much younger.”
Roaring Brook Nature Center director Jay Kaplan praises Kramer’s efforts.
“She has worked very hard to learn a great deal,” Kaplan says. “She’s at the top. She’s probably one of the best raptor rehabilitators in the state.”
Kramer plans to continue rehabbing needy raptors, but she has begun to scale back that part of her mission and move more aggressively toward education and re-nesting. Taking on “60 to 80″ birds a year proved to be “much broader than what was practical,” she says. “It became apparent that wildlife education is where I can make the biggest impact.”
Kramer says she’s at her best when she’s mentoring college students, but she also enjoys bringing her “education birds” to elementary schools, land trusts, nature centers and garden groups, where she can share her knowledge of raptors in general and talk about the natural and man-made challenges they face.
In addition, Kramer is “interested in developing pilot programs for biology students at the high school level.”
This time of year, Kramer is largely focused on re-nesting young birds of prey that occasionally wind up on the ground due to a deteriorating nest or natural curiosities gone awry (great horned owls are often the first she hears about in late March or early April).
Kramer encourages anyone who finds a young raptor to call a wildlife rehabilitator or a nature center. “They’ll ask questions and be able to determine what should be done,” she says. In many cases, Kramer says, these birds can be reunited with their parents.
More information about Kramer can be found on the Canton Raptor Care website, or by following Canton Raptor Care on Facebook.
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 A possum enjoys a freshly tossed supply of sunflower seeds Friday afternoon, Feb. 4, on Ratlum Mountain. Photo: dotCANTON (Editor’s note: Because the naked eye provides virtually no way of knowing for sure, the residents of this house long ago started to identify sexually unidentifiable wildlife as Mister Such and Such. … “Mr. Squirrel.” “Mr. Crow.” “Mr. Chickadee,” to name a few. The only exceptions are when we are certain the critter is a female. Like “Mrs. C” for Mrs. Cardinal.)
By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
According to my wife, Mr. Possum strolled down the driveway like it was his shortly after noon on Friday, Feb. 4. Eileen said he paused briefly a few times to consider scaling the Himalayas-like piles of plowed snow to his left and right … but always decided against such silliness.
Pressing forward, coming from who knows where, the marsupial made his way to the bottom of the driveway and purposefully entered the neatly shoveled narrow path that leads to the suet feeder next to the garage, one of two feeding stations here for the seed- and suet-eating birds we spoil from Dec. 1 until the bears return in spring. No doubt Mr. Possum was recalling a previous trip through the yard when he found a precious scrap or two on the ground at the base of the pole.
Mr. Possum is largely, though not exclusively, a nocturnal critter, so it’s possible, I suppose, that he was sick. But I’m seriously doubting that. All this snow has made life very tough on the wildlife, too. I’m thinking Mr. Possum was merely working a little overtime to find something to eat. Maybe it was on his mind as he tried to sleep during the day Friday, like you or I might toss and turn wondering how we’re going to get the snow off the roof and the ice dams out of the gutters.
Mr. Possum poked around the packed snow at the base of the suet feeder for a while, and apparently wasn’t a bit concerned when my remote control opened the garage door and I steered in, only about 10 feet away from our visitor, but around the corner and perhaps out of his sight. He was still there, Eileen showed me, when I got inside.
I tend to think a lot about the woodland residents this time of year, especially on frigid nights, or when the snow is deep and crusted as it is now.
About a week ago I was looking out a window into the woods behind the house when a decent size flock of birds arrived, seemingly in disorganized fashion, flying in a variety of directions. They were robins. At least a dozen, I’d say. Jay Kaplan, director of the Roaring Brook Nature Center, says it’s likely these robins weren’t the ones who summered here, but rather migrants from the north who are wintering in the area.
A few from the flock glided into the young white pine near our deck and began to sample some of the remaining red berries from the climbing bittersweet vine that I have long put off removing. Then they were off, flying around the side of the house toward the front yard.
I followed and watched out another window as a few robins worked their way through the thorny barberry across the yard, picking fruit, and then I watched three or four birds fly toward the house and into the holly, which was largely covered with snow. For them, the hope of more berries … for me, a delightful surprise: Among these robins I spotted the yellow of a cedar waxwing who apparently had decided that his similar dining interests made the red breasts worthwhile pals in the search for food.
Mr. Possum, apparently convinced that he would find no more morsels of suet, began to slowly work his way around the tall pile of plowed snow at the base of the driveway and toward feeding station No. 2 and it’s black oil sunflower seeds. I’m sure he knew exactly where he was going, that he’d also been there before.
Just a couple of hours earlier I had tossed half a scoopful of sunflower seeds onto the cleared ground beneath the baffled tube feeder, so I knew our guest was about to find a slice of heaven on earth. I felt good about that.
Good luck, Mr. Possum.
And good luck to all of you with your roofs and ice dams.
dotCANTON Classifieds Page Open For Business
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.)
dotCANTON Classifieds Page Open For Business
 Mike Zhao and his daughter, Lilly Zhao of Char Koon 1800. Courtesy Char Koon 1800 By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
Though she grew up around her father’s restaurant in Glastonbury, Char Koon 1800 owner/manager Lilly Zhao didn’t expect to be a restaurateur after graduating from Simmons College in Boston in May of 2008.
A finance and economics major at Simmons, Zhao, 24, worked briefly in customer service for TD Bank before taking a position in sales with Primerica, a financial services company. She was with Primerica for about a year, she says, before deciding the job, which included working alone much of the time, wasn’t for her.
Enter Mike Zhao, Lilly’s father, who wondered out loud whether his daughter, a graduate of Glastonbury High School, might be interested in running a restaurant.
“It was exciting,” Lilly recalls thinking about the idea, “but it was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ ”
“Oh, wow” turned into “OK,” and Mike Zhao, who opened Char Koon in Glastonbury 17 years ago, set out to find a place. “He never thought of coming to Canton,” Lilly says, “but when he saw the building, he liked it.”
The building, of course, is the 210-year-old structure at 144 Albany Turnpike (Route 44) that was home to Margaritas, the popular establishment that served Mexican food from 1981 until it closed in December of 2009.
Mike Zhao bought the property and began an extensive six-month renovation of the premises. At the same time, Lilly was brushing up on her restaurant skills in Middletown at Forbidden City, which, she says, is partly owned by her father.
Char Koon 1800, which features a variety of Asian cuisine, opened in Canton in mid-July of 2010. Six months later, Lilly is continuing to settle into her role — with help from her father — and likes what she is doing.
 Char Koon 1800 at 144 Albany Turnpike (Route 44) in Canton. Photo: dotCANTON “I’m learning a lot of stuff I didn’t learn in school,” she says. Specifically, she mentions the science of marketing. “I think I only took one course in marketing (in college),” she says. “I wish I had taken more.”
And, Lilly says she enjoys interacting with her customers and other “business people” she works with.
Lilly says strengthening its customer base remains a work in progress at Char Koon 1800. The dinner business had been doing nicely — particularly on weekends — until the holidays, she says. It slumped a bit then, but it has bounced back. Takeout business for both lunch and dinner is growing, according to Lilly.
Finding a consistent sit-down lunch crowd has been the biggest challenge, but Lilly says she’s being more aggressive in her marketing in an attempt to lure a larger number of midday customers. She says the economy could be a factor for the sluggishness, and, she says, “a lot of people out there still don’t know we’re here.” Others have told her that Char Koon 1800 looks “fancy,” so they suspect the “prices must be high.”
Lilly says items on the lunch menu range in price from $7.95 to $10.95, and that dinner entrees range from $10.95 to $16.95.
As she continues to move Char Koon 1800 forward, Lilly has been getting plenty of input from her father. “We talk about the business every single day,” she says. “He has a lot of ideas.”
Continue reading Char Koon 1800 Revisited
 Marcia Marsted in her room at the McLean rehabilitation facility in Simsbury. Photo: dotCANTON By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
Marcia Marsted will be discharged from the McLean rehabilitation facility in Simsbury on Saturday, Jan. 15, 106 days after an automobile accident on Avon Mountain left her in critical condition.
The 67-year-old artist and author is going home.
“It’s been very nice here,” Marsted said, “but I’m going to be happy to be home in my own bed, with my husband (Jeff) and with my kitty (Luna).
“I want to sit in front of the fire.”
A two-time cancer survivor, Marsted is continuing to recover from an Oct. 1 crash that involved three vehicles and left her with multiple broken bones in both arms and both legs.
On Thursday, Jan. 13, Marsted rose to her feet on her own and used a walker to escort a departing visitor to the lobby at McLean. Her rehabilitation will continue at her Canton home.
“They’re going to come to me to do the therapy until they don’t think I need it anymore,” Marsted said. It’s possible, she said, that she eventually might require another operation for a bone graft in the area of her left knee.
The Avon Mountain crash occurred as Marsted was returning home from a fishing trip with her husband to Idaho and Wyoming. The couple flew into New York the night before, stayed at their New York City apartment and reunited with Luna, who had been with the Marsteds’ daughter Amanda in Manhattan.
 Birds and squirrels have been having a fine time outside Marcia Marsted's room at McLean. Photo: dotCANTON The Marsteds and Luna drove back to Connecticut on the morning of Oct. 1, and Jeff got out at his office in Hartford. Then Marcia and Luna continued heading home.
“I don’t have any recollection of the accident,” Marsted said. “The only thing I think I can remember is the cat sitting on the passenger side floor.”
Marsted learned later that Luna had some lacerations and that she was taken in a police cruiser to a vet. The (“2 or 3-”) year-old Maine Coon has fully recovered and has visited with Marsted at McLean.
Marsted, a longtime member of the Canton Artists’ Guild, was at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15, when she was discharged and admitted into McLean. Two days later an infection forced a return to St. Francis, where she remained until Oct. 25. With the exception of a 12-hour visit to her home on Christmas Day, Marsted has been at McLean ever since.
Jeff Marsted, Marcia’s husband of 46 years, doesn’t hesitate when asked to describe her recovery.
“It’s a miracle,” Jeff said. “I think it’s a miracle that it was just bones (that were injured) and not (her) brain or spinal chord.”
Jeff Marsted’s voice cracked when he recalled the telephone call summoning him to the hospital — “I didn’t know if she was alive or dead” — and he remembers the “long days” immediately after the accident, when his wife underwent two lengthy operations.
But, he said, “From the time she got to the hospital, she was fighting.”
Continue reading Marcia Marsted Going Home
 The 1840 stone building on the old Collins Co. property would be turned into condominiums, according to Julius Fialkiewicz, the owner of Realty Works in Collinsville. Photo: dotCANTON By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
As the curtain goes up on 2011, a development group working on plans for a mixed-use complex along the Farmington River in Collinsville believes newly constructed condominiums at the former Collins Co. site could be occupied sometime in 2013.
Conceptual plans for the 19-acre parcel drawn up by the engineering firm of Fuss & O’Neill were presented to Canton’s inland wetlands & watercourses agency last year, and the response was positive, according to town records. The development group now is hoping to have fully engineered drawings of the site by the end of this year and to then begin the process of obtaining final approvals from the town.
 A look at the former Collins Co. from the Route 179 bridge over the Farmington River. Photo: dotCANTON Conceptual drawings of the site have been on display at Realty Works on Main Street in Collinsville since late September, according to Julius Fialkiewicz, the owner of Realty Works and a member of the development group known as GCF, LLC.
Fialkiewicz says about a dozen parties have shown serious interest in purchasing a condominium at the site and “have reserved a place in line for location.” That interest, according to Fialkiewicz and other members of the development group, is crucial to the process of obtaining investor backing for the project.
Those members of the development group say they are approaching the “threshold” of buying interest in condominiums that’s necessary to satisfy potential investors, and when that is reached, perhaps early this year, Fuss & O’Neill would be able to begin crafting the detailed drawings necessary to take to Canton officials.
Investor support would include new ownership for the parcel, according to R. Michael Goman, another member of the development group.
“Our agreement with (current property owner James “Rusty” Tilney) allows us to do this development work on behalf of GCF,” says Goman, who served as president and CEO of Konover & Associates, the large Farmington-based real estate developer, from 1996 to 2008. “The goal is to sell (the property) to somebody who executes our development program.”
Goman says he expects an ownership change “probably within the next six months.”
Goman, who currently owns two real estate investment and consulting businesses, says investors with an eye on development are not eager in the current economic climate to get involved too quickly. “You have to get permitting as far along as you can and then show you can sell the units,” Goman says. “…That’s what will get the property sold.”
The conceptual drawings of the site put all the housing on land downstream from the trail bridge over the Farmington River, in an area below Spring Street to the north and New Street to the east. All commercial development would be upstream from the bridge.
Exactly how many housing units would be built and how large or small they would be is a matter to be determined “by what the market dictates,” according to Fialkiewicz.
That could mean 58 to 78 condominium units in an eclectic mix of styles, including townhouses and lofts, and most with two bedrooms, Fialkiewicz says. The stone, 1840 building located near the trail bridge, “is the jewel of the entire project” and would be converted into condominiums, according to Fialkiewicz.
Richard Correia of Correia Commercial Realty, the third and final owner of GCF, according to Goman, estimates the number of people eventually living in the residential area at about 200.
“We’re not trying to create a gated community,” Goman says. “We’re trying to create a new neighborhood that blends with the existing neighborhoods in Collinsville.”
It’s possible, Goman says, that some residents of this new neighborhood would walk to work in the commercial portion of the development.
Conceptual plans for the commercial area above the trail bridge include a 40- to 50-room “boutique hotel,” a parking garage and, possibly, an entertainment venue, according to the investment group. A mix of space for a restaurant, offices and retail businesses would be located in the cluster of highly visible ax factory buildings near Bridge Street (Route 179). Those buildings, which are currently home to a variety of small businesses, would be renovated, but in a way to retain their signature look.
Goman says the process of obtaining final approvals mostly would require appearances in front of the inland wetlands, planning and zoning panels. “It takes time with complicated projects; you can run into barriers you have to fix and solve,” Goman says. “If everything runs smoothly, 2013 would be the earliest (residents would be living in the new condominiums).”
The building that houses the Canton Historical Museum on Front Street and the three-story, former Collins office building on the corner of Front and Main streets are not owned by Tilney and would be unaffected by the development.
 Conceptual plans drawn up for the former Collins Co. site call for mixed use commercial development upstream from the trail bridge (green) and residential development downstream from the bridge (yellow). Courtesy Fuss & O'Neill
 "Retirement" / Jim Koplar By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
Collinsville artist Jim Koplar was in Falls Village about three years ago when he spotted “a row” of rusted old vehicles in the snow. He snapped a few pictures and eventually created an image of what he had seen, calling his work “Retirement.” Koplar might not have known it at the time, but his “Rust In Peace Series” had just been born.
 Jim Koplar in his studio. By now, that series has expanded to the point where Koplar is considering a calendar next year dedicated to those works.
“To me, they have a personality,” Koplar says about the useless old vehicles, which can be cars, trucks or tractors. “When I see them in a field, rusting, I think about their past, maybe what they had been used for. I kind of feel sad for them. They look kind of sad and lonely.”
Several images from the Rust In Peace Series will be on display in the upstairs gallery when Gallery on the Green kicks off its 2011 program on Friday, Jan. 7. “Who I Am,” a members show, will open downstairs that day, and artist Grace Epstein will be featured in the Spotlight Gallery on the second floor.
 "From The Barn" / Jim Koplar An opening reception is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 8. The public is welcome. All three shows will run through Feb. 6.
Koplar, who grew up in Torrington but has lived in Collinsville since 1992, will have 32 pieces on display upstairs, all of which, he says, were created “from 2008 forward.” Though he’s technically not a part of the “Who I Am” show, Koplar decided to follow a similar theme by showing a “cross-section of things I do that are of interest to me,” specifically: portraits, still lifes, local scenes and works from Rust In Peace.
Mostly self-taught — though he earned an arts degree from Tunxis Community College in 2004 — Koplar describes himself as a “pastelist.”
“It’s the medium I’ve been using lately, and I enjoy it,” Koplar says. “You can work quickly with it.”
Koplar, who became Burlington’s building official in July of 2009 after serving as an assistant building official in Avon for 10 years, says he tries to get into his home studio three or four times a week. He also runs an “Art Jam” at Gallery 101 Main in Collinsville every Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The “drop-in class,” as Koplar calls it, costs $10. Drawing boards, drawing easels and materials are available, and Koplar says he’ll offer his assistance if asked.
“A lot of people are regulars,” he says of the jams. “It’s a very nonjudgmental (environment) for newcomers. Koplar says participants range from high school age to adult.
Koplar also has copies of the 2011 “Greetings From Collinsville, Connecticut” wall calendar that features reproductions of 12 of his works. Call 860-508-4630 for more information about the calendars.
Gallery on the Green, located at Route 44 and Dowd Avenue in Canton, is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.
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