Home Care In Torrington, CT

TORRINGTON — Rodger Mort used to stop into a bar a few years ago to play some Keno, have a drink and make some business calls.

“This guy used to sit next to me,” he said. “He would start about 2:30 p.m., and I would get there about 4 p.m., and he’d be into the triple vodka. His wife would call every night at 5:15. ‘Is Joe there?’ And I’d be like, ‘Oh, he went next door. He’s at the store.’”

That would satisfy Joe’s wife, at least for a while. And it gave Mort an idea.

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“I’m gonna save a lot of marriages when I buy a place,” he would tell people. “I’m going to name it The Store.”

Now, a sign outside The Store Bar & Grill, which opened in October, has a tagline: “The best excuse in town.”

Mort and his son own the building at 99 Turner Ave., and his fianceé, Dena Franks, is and equal partner in the business. When they met five years ago, Mort was working at Packaging and Crating Technologies in Watertown, where he is still a partner and COO. Franks was working in human resources at Connecticut Junior Republic while tending bar Monday nights at Big Shots, where The Store now is located.

“She stopped bartending about three years ago when COVID hit,” Mort said. When the bar reopened, it no longer needed a bartender on Mondays.

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At this point, the couple had known each other two or three years, but only as friends. Then they both became single, and decided to go out on a dinner date.

“It was kind of weird, but it was fun,” Franks said.

“We already knew the history,” Mort said. “It’s not like you’re getting together and you don’t even know and you have to explain everything.”

They have been engaged about two years. During most of that time, Franks missed her Monday night bartending gig.

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“So he was like, ‘Let’s open a bar, a restaurant.’ I’ve been here full time since October 11, and I’m so glad. I feel so much better being here," she said.

With her 20 years of experience as a bartender, Franks developed a following, and Mort understood that, she said.

“Let me at least bring the crowd in,” she told him.

“She's loved by everybody,” Mort said. “When she works on Saturday, every now and then 30 people show up just because she's working.”

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In his top leadership position at PACT, Mort had no prior hands-on food-service experience, but, “I eat out a lot, and I travel a lot, and I entertain a lot of customers worldwide,” he said.

It is important to trust a restaurant to have the same quality of food and service every day, he said, adding, “If you’ve got to guess whether Wednesday’s the good day or Thursday’s the good day, yeah, we stop going to that restaurant."

The Store has two full-time chefs and one part-time chef. “They work together on recipes. They make sure that it’s the exact same thing, seven days a week. You walk through that door, you get the same meal every time,” Mort said.

Friday and Saturday nights after 5 p.m., The Store serves prime rib, which he said is very popular. The potato-encrusted salmon with blackberry cream sauce, served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables, is a big seller, he said.

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One of his chefs, Sam Yasmer, came up with a recipe for pork Marsala, a twist on the traditional chicken Marsala. It is served with mushrooms, bacon, scallions and a cream sauce with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and a vegetable.

“We’ve had people tell us it’s the best Marsala sauce they’ve ever had,” Mort said.

Mort and Franks are proud to represent local and independent breweries. Their menu lists lagers and IPAs from Colebrook, Winsted, Canaan, Thomaston, Stratford, Bloomfield, Oakville, Suffield and Southbury, as well as many small out-of-state breweries. Patrons won’t find Budweiser, but the popular Guinness and Stella labels are available.

Many top-shelf bourbons are available, some at surprisingly low prices, Mort said. Brands of red and white wines are well represented, Franks said.

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“It’s what I love to do,” Franks said. “The people that I know, I love to talk to them, of course. But then I love to meet new people, just to make them happy and make them feel welcome. ... Like they have a good place to come where they can get a good value.”

Mort said, “It’s just a family-run business that wants you to come in and be part of our family.”

The Store Bar & Grill is located at 99 Turner Ave., on the corner of High Street. It is open Sunday through Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to midnight.

For order pickup and delivery, call 860-201-5611 or go to www.thestorebarandgrill.com.

TORRINGTON — Finding a way to shelter residents facing homelessness is a huge hurdle for the hundreds of agency members across Connecticut, but all are dedicated to finding ways to eradicate the problem for good.

During the last legislative session, homelessness service providers asked for $50 million for the homeless response system, in part to annualize the cold weather funding; but the bill to offer that money wasn’t approved through lawmakers’ budgeting process, according to ctmirror.org. Instead, $5 million was allocated, out of which Litchfield County is supposed to receive $251,000.

Until the state funding is released, towns in Connecticut such Torrington, New Britain, Waterbury and Bristol can't open a shelter. The cold weather shelter opening date is Nov. 15 and continues through April. That funding, from the Department of Housing, is marked for shelters but everyone's still waiting. Torrington has also been unable to find a building for the winter shelter.

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Deirdre DiCara, executive director of FISH of Northwest Connecticut shelter and pantry in Torrington, organized a forum at the Torrington Library, calling it a "call to action," on Friday, Nov. 10.

"We are leading a call to action to get the funding we need and to find ways to work together with our legislators and our governor," DiCara said.

The event's attendees included Matthew Brokman, a policy advisor from Gov. Lamont's office; Sarah Fox of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness; state representatives John Piscopo, R-Thomaston, Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, and Jay Case, R-Winsted; and other members of the Torrington community.

During the roundtable, Brokman said he would reach out to the state's Appropriations Committee, to find out why the much-needed funding isn't being released.

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Case helped lead the discussion, along with the Gathering Place/New Beginnings Director Nancy Cannavo, Fox, DiCara, Jessica Gueniat, Director of the Torrington Library, and Leo Ghio, project director with the Northwest Hills Council of Governments. Fox said she wanted to bring the state's many agencies together to create a Homelessness Response System that actually works, calling the methods of helping homeless now "a broken system."

Fox said she and her family have experienced homelessness themselves, which makes her even more in tune with the fear and instability of not having a place to sleep.

"We need a better alert system, because it's inhumane, that people are sleeping in their cars. It's inhumane, that seniors are living outside. I want every mom to feel that their kids are safe," she said. "We need a unified approach from state leaders and policy makers. Today is about having a discussion about this, and working it out together."

In Torrington, the process of finding a place to stay begins at an agency like the Gathering Place. There, they can get services, take a shower, do laundry and pick up mail. They are led through an application for housing, and sent to the Community Soup Kitchen at Trinity Lutheran Church for a meal, Cannavo said.

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But with a shortage of affordable housing, waiting lists, increased rents and other costs of living on the rise, people find it difficult to find a place to live. Housing is in short supply, and getting funding takes time.

Landlords often won't accept a person with a housing voucher from the state, said Katie Vaill, Winsted Social Services Director. "They can't get a place," she said.

Evictions are also a problem, because of the housing shortage, Cannavo said. She meets with older residents on fixed incomes, and when their rents increase, they can't pay.

"Between September 2022 and September 2023, the Gathering Place helped 1,075 people," she said. "All needed housing, and about 40 have been placed. Twenty of the people we've worked with now have housing vouchers, but they can't use them ... they're in tents in the woods. It's inhumane for people to be sleeping outside, as it gets colder and colder."

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"We have 93 unsheltered homeless in Torrington right now," Cannavo said.

Gueniat, who runs the library with a staff of part-time and full-time employees, said the building has become "a daytime shelter."

"People facing homelessness come daily to the library," she said. "I'm not a therapist, or a social worker; I'm a librarian. But what we do is, we can find answers here, and people come to us with many questions.

"The homeless know they are welcome here," she said. "They are generally respectful, and from November to April, we are very busy. Homelessness is still stigmatized as a public problem, but it's more than that. Now we see an increase of problems that include mental health and substance abuse, and that has made it very challenging for the library staff. They don't always feel safe.

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"But we often act as a daytime shelter, because otherwise these people would have nowhere to go," Gueniat said. "They come to us for help and we direct them. What we see a lot of times is when we're dealing with a resident, they're afraid. They're worried about what they're going to do when we close for the day."

"We need a shelter, where people can be helped," Gueniat said.

Tom Tibbats, a Marine Corps veteran, moved into the FISH shelter in October. "I was sleeping in my car, and in a tent," he said. "My family and kids are still up in this area, so I really wanted to be in Torrington. Since I moved into FISH, I've been adjusting and trying to find a job; I also want to try and give back, so I try to help out. I want to make this a short stay."

FISH houses a number of veterans, individuals and families; DiCara said there are eight children living at FISH right now. The clients at the FISH shelter have longer-term stays, and get assistance with employment and finding a place to live. Often several people will go in on an apartment together, making it affordable for them to move out.

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But FISH is small, and there are many more people facing homelessness than there are beds for them, anywhere, she said.

Christine Bishop, who visits homeless camps with supplies and support, became emotional as she spoke to the group. "It feels like Litchfield County doesn't care at all about these people," she said. "I love Litchfield County, and my family has deep roots here, but seeing the suffering has been horrible. They don't need sleeping bags or tents. They need to get out of the woods."

Ultimately, Fox said, ending homelessness is something with which everyone should be involved.

"We've been saying for a long time that we want to end homelessness, but there's so much more that's needed," she said. "However, Connecticut is a leader in the nation for what we've done, and we need to keep going. Cold weather shelter funding should be annualized, to make sure people aren't outside."

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Nov 16, 2023

By Emily M. Olson

Emily M. Olson is the community editor for the Torrington Register Citizen, the New Haven Register and the Middletown Press.

She is a 1997 graduate of Western Connecticut State University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.

She started her career at the Patent Trader newspaper in Westchester County in 1998. After a brief period as a reporter with the Register Citizen in 1999, she joined the former Housatonic Publications group as a reporter. She was managing editor of the former Litchfield Enquirer and helped run the weekly newspapers at Housatonic and the Litchfield County Times. She returned to the Register Citizen in 2009.

TORRINGTON — New Opportunities' CT Food for Thought's hydroponic farm is growing steadily with more customers and plans for more greenhouses.

The indoor farm on Technology Park Drive grows five types of lettuce in its three greenhouses, and more are being added to the property, which opened in Oct. 2021. Using a system that recirculates much of the water used to feed the thousands of lettuce plants — Bibb and red oak leaf, for example — the farm efficiently and quickly grows enough greens to distribute to 14 Big Y grocery stores, as well as Labonne's, Bantam and Northville markets, several Geisslers and Adams food markets, and New Morning in Woodbury.

"We're serving different community market concerns, as well as Big Y," said Jon Jensen, who came out of retirement in 2020 to be a consultant and advisor for the hydroponic farm, and finding new opportunities to sell their products. "In fact, we're getting ready to ask Big Y to let us use their distribution center, because we're serving so many of their stores."

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Employees sort, wash and package the lettuces, pack them in boxes and store them in the farm's huge walk-in refrigerator, where they are prepared for delivery. "We pick them, pack them and sell them," Jensen said. "There's nothing more fresh than this."

They'll be adding arugula and kale to the farm's offerings in the additional growing spaces, Jensen said.

The yield fluctuates, based on the amount of sunlight the greenhouses get each day. During the summer months, the farm can harvest up to 11,000 heads of lettuce a week, with a growing cycle of six to seven weeks. Everyone is cross-trained and can pick, harvest and package the greens quickly, said William Rybczyk, the agency's president and CEO.

The farm uses an underground water system with three 1,700-gallon tanks that circulate water to the many grow tables. Each tiny plant is fed by a small tube, and the water continuously moves through the system, checked by a series of pumps and gages that test for the proper balance of nutrients.

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The response from retailers to the lettuces from the Mayfield farm has resulted in CT Food 4 Thought adding more growing space. General Manager Brandon Schroen, who joined the agency in January, is also looking at other crops to grow, like strawberries.

In a sunny corner of a greenhouse, where employees checked lettuce plants and water lines, unripened strawberries and blossoms hung thick on vines that were being grown upright, with an accompanying irrigation system.

"We'll be able to grow them all year," Schroen said, looking at the green fruit on the vines. "This is something we're looking into."

The farm was founded by New Opportunities' President and CEO Dr. James H. Gatling, who wanted to fund his organization in a sustainable way, with less dependence on grants and donations, said Rybczyk.

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"We are looking to be sustainable, and that's why we're able to add more greenhouses," he said. "There's a demand for our food, and that allows us to provide services through New Opportunities, from child care to employment services."

Gatling's dream began as a fish farm, which evolved into a hydroponic farm for herbs and greenhouse vegetables. After finding the right location, Gatling worked closely with state Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington Mayor Elinor Carbone and other officials. Gatling retired in 2020, but pledged to stay involved in the project until it was finished. The facility was named the Patricia H. Mayfield Hydroponic Center, after one of its supporters who is now deceased.

New Opportunities is a nonprofit community action agency in Waterbury with offices throughout Connecticut including in Torrington. It recently moved from its Field Street office to a space at 62 Commercial Boulevard, close to the state Department of Social Services and Department of Children and Families, Rybczyk said.

"We were looking at different spaces, and Commercial Boulevard has those state agencies," he said. "We share a lot of the same customers and clients as those agencies, for everything from fuel assistance to employee training, applying for benefits, and providing family services. So it made sense to move closer to them."

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Today, the farm has eight full time employees; once the new greenhouses are completed later this year, Rybczyk expects that number to increase to 15 or 16 people.

"That will also be part of our model, hiring people and offering training opportunities," he said. "We are working with the state Department of Corrections to help with employment, and give them opportunities for work. These employees will gain skills that make them more marketable somewhere else, or a valued employee here."

Rybczyk is happy to see Gatling's dream come true. "It's exciting to have people see it from a concept, under development, to a working operation," he said. "We're still in startup mode, but we are seeing revenue. We hope to have steady revenue, going forward.

"This is the future of American produce," he said. "It's local, and its harvested and on the shelves, sometimes in just one day."

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Oct 2, 2023|Updated Oct 3, 2023 8:29 a.m.

By Emily M. Olson

Emily M. Olson is the community editor for the Torrington Register Citizen, the New Haven Register and the Middletown Press.

She is a 1997 graduate of Western Connecticut State University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.

She started her career at the Patent Trader newspaper in Westchester County in 1998. After a brief period as a reporter with the Register Citizen in 1999, she joined the former Housatonic Publications group as a reporter. She was managing editor of the former Litchfield Enquirer and helped run the weekly newspapers at Housatonic and the Litchfield County Times. She returned to the Register Citizen in 2009.

TORRINGTON — Nancy Cannavo, director of the Gathering Place, a drop-in center for people experiencing homelessness, was hopeful this week that the city had found a building to use as a winter shelter.

She and others involved in the shelter program learned at about 3 p.m. Friday that the potential site was not available after all.

"I'm disappointed because we don't have a place yet, and it's getting colder," Cannavo said.

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Operation Overflow, a winter shelter, was once completely run by volunteers at local churches. But the pandemic changed the face of the program, and finding a place to run an overnight shelter for the winter has been a big challenge.

"It's back to square one, and we'll keep looking," Cannavo said. "We are imploring the public; if they have a building that they'd like to offer, please call me."

Cannavo can be reached at 860-601-8569.

Operation Overflow provided those who are homeless a place to sleep during the cold winter months, with a meal upon arrival and breakfast at the Community Soup Kitchen in the morning. The overflow shelter opened in mid-November and stayed open until the end of March. Two volunteers, a male and female, stay at the shelter each night.

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The shelter operated out of Trinity Episcopal Church for two months then moved to Center Congregational Church then Calvary Baptist Church and United Methodist Church, each church serving for a month. Volunteers received training before the shelter opened, and the effort was coordinated with city officials and other agencies.

But the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for this system to continue, based on a lack of volunteers. In 2020 and 2021, former Northwest CT United Way Director Owen Quinn ran the overflow shelter at the old St. Mary School building on Forest Court, part of the church campus that is now being converted into apartments.

In 2022, the shelter ran at the Winsted Health Center, a cooperative effort between that agency and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, as well as The Gathering Place, FISH of Northwest Connecticut and Torrington. The shelter was operated by the Winsted shelter at the YMCA on Main Street.

This iteration was difficult, said FISH Executive Director Deirdre DiCara, because homeless people seeking shelter in Torrington had to be transported to and from Winsted each day.

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"The transportation was a real issue," DiCara said. "Staying in Torrington, for the overflow shelter, is ideal because of the transportation problem. It's just better here; we are the hub."

Funding has also slowed the process of finding a location. Each year, the state decides how much funding will be allocated to each of the state's regional assistance networks, or Coordinated Access Networks (CANs), using a calculation that looks at the number of people who are homeless in the area.

The Litchfield County CAN is expecting to receive more than $250,000 from the state Department of Housing, which allocated $5 million to be divided between the state's CANs, said Cannavo.

"The funds haven't been released yet," she said. "We still need volunteers. We need to set up. We are all supposed to open (winter shelters) by Nov. 15."

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Nov 6, 2023

By Emily M. Olson

Emily M. Olson is the community editor for the Torrington Register Citizen, the New Haven Register and the Middletown Press.

She is a 1997 graduate of Western Connecticut State University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.

She started her career at the Patent Trader newspaper in Westchester County in 1998. After a brief period as a reporter with the Register Citizen in 1999, she joined the former Housatonic Publications group as a reporter. She was managing editor of the former Litchfield Enquirer and helped run the weekly newspapers at Housatonic and the Litchfield County Times. She returned to the Register Citizen in 2009.

TORRINGTON — Trinity Episcopal Church has applied for a permit to run an overnight homeless shelter in its building on Prospect Street, according to its pastor, the Rev. Carrie Combs.

The permit from the Planning & Zoning Commission, if approved, would allow Trinity, which also is home to the Community Soup Kitchen, to provide overnight shelter for people facing homelessness this winter, with sheltering continuing until April.

Trinity's application comes just weeks after Northwest Hills Community Church on Prospect Street applied for its own permit to run a shelter. The public reaction to having the shelter there prompted Trinity to act.

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"We're hoping to be an additional site option for the shelter," Combs said. "We're just offering to be a host site, and to be an additional support, if needed."

A hearing on Northwest Hills church's application is set for Dec. 13 with the PZC. If that permit were to be denied, Trinity could step in, Combs said.

Northwest Hills Community Church is next-door to St. John Paul the Great Academy, formerly St. Francis School, attended by nearly 200 students in grades K-8. Parents and supporters of the school spoke before the City Council and other community partners involved in the homeless shelter during the council's Nov. 20 meeting, and expressed concerns about their children's safety and potential exposure to violence.

In a letter to the city, the school and parish's pastor, the Rev. Imhedu Emmanuel, said the plan put children in jeopardy. Parents voiced worries about people with addiction issues endangering the school, and wondered how people with mental health issues would be taken care of overnight. Others asked whether shelter occupants would be vetted and searched for drugs or weapons before being admitted.

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The overnight shelter would operate using staff from the Northwest CT YMCA, which operates housing for people experiencing homelessnes. The shelter in Torrington would open at 8:30 p.m. and close at 7 a.m. for the day. During the day, the Community Soup Kitchen at Trinity Church will open at 5 p.m. and will have staff from the community partners there, along with kitchen staff.

Trinity Episcopal was one of a group of churches that, before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, ran a volunteer overflow homeless shelter using trained volunteers. The shelter rotated between the churches, moving to a new building each month through the winter. Because of a lack of volunteers and limitations caused by the pandemic, that effort changed in 2020, and providers created a coalition using the Gathering Place, Charlotte Hungerford Hospital and other facilities and caregivers to run the shelter, which ran at a vacant building on Forest Court, a former school, in 2020 and 2021.

In 2022, the shelter was held at the Winsted Health Center. This year, although a search began in August for a shelter location, officials said they were unable to find a suitable building.