Home Care In South Windsor, CT

A group of preschoolers from Enfield was asked to leave the splash pad at Nevers Park in South Windsor on Wednesday, prompting frustration from parents who say town officials handled the situation poorly and unfairly.

Thirty-eight children from the Enfield Child Development Center, ages 4 and 5, arrived at the splash pad for what was supposed to be a celebratory end-of-summer field trip.

“They graduate preschool on Friday, so this was kind of their last field trip and hoorah as a group,” said Christina Doughtie, a parent from Enfield. “They were all crying; they were very upset.”

But they say things quickly went south when they were told to leave by South Windsor officials, including a town councilman and the town manager.

“We noticed that town councilman Mike Oullette was there with his grandchildren, and he did approach the director of the preschool, saying, 'This is for residents only, I’m going to call the parks and rec supervisor,’” Doughtie said. “She said, 'OK, go ahead, I’ve been in coordination with parks and rec since April.' They knew the date, they knew we were coming, they confirmed that you do not need written or formal approval to show up at the park with a group.”

According to her, the situation escalated when the town manager arrived on site.

“He pretty much stood firm and said, 'this is for residents only,'” she said. “He was very abrasive, unprofessional, the situation was just handled all wrong and we’re very disappointed.”

In a statement, South Windsor Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said: “…two busloads of children unexpectedly showed up at the Town splash pad, causing an overcrowding condition and impacting residents’ ability to safely and comfortably use the facility. We offered the playground and other parts of the park to the group. Had they called ahead and worked with our Parks and Rec staff, we could have worked with them.”

Oullette responded to NBC Connecticut with the same statement.

The group eventually left, and that evening, a new sign appeared at the entrance of the splash pad, stating: “Use of these facilities by organized groups and camps is not allowed without prior authorization from South Windsor Parks and Recreation.”

Parents say no such sign was present during previous trips.

“We do this field trip every year. This is the last field trip of the preschool summer program before they graduate on Friday,” Doughtie said. “We divide the classrooms into groups of 15, so that we can rotate throughout the park. We do that to avoid the overcrowding that the town manager was speaking of yesterday.”

Despite Maniscalco’s claim that alternatives were offered, including the playground and other park areas, Doughtie said that wasn’t a reasonable solution.

“You make 200k a year, you pull up to the splash pad in your Mercedes to bully 4-and 5-year-old children, and to be disrespectful to our child’s public educators. So that’s not acceptable in my opinion,” she said.

Another parent, Lindsay Martinez of East Hartford, also voiced her frustration.

“It’s for the kids. Four and 5 years olds should be able to come and play and have a great time, just like all my kids. I’m from East Hartford, and I love coming here,” she said. “There’s plenty of room for everybody to come.”

Martinez added that if the town begins charging or enforcing strict resident-only policies, she likely won’t return.

“If they started charging, I wouldn’t come here,” she said.

In a statement from Enfield Town Manager Matthew W. Coppler, he defended the preschool's planning efforts:

“Our staff made every effort to plan the trip responsibly, including contacting South Windsor Parks & Recreation both during the initial planning phase in March and again the day before the visit. At no point were we informed of any restrictions on out-of-town groups. Based on that information, we proceeded in good faith. Despite this setback, we remain committed to offering enriching and well-organized experiences for the children in our care,” Coppler said.

Parents like Doughtie say they’re hoping for more community-minded decisions moving forward.

“I would really just like our communities to come together and be more inclusive. We’re neighbors,” she said. “I think that mindset of, 'you don’t live here so get out,' it’s just frankly wrong. Going forward I’d like to see a better sense of community.”

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT. (WFSB) - What was supposed to be a fun summer day cooling off at a splash pad ended in tears.

38 preschool students from the Enfield Child Development Center along with parents and teachers came to the Nevers Park splash pad in South Windsor as an end of the summer field trip, something that parents say happens every year.

But about an hour after arriving, the town manager came down and asked the group to leave.

“A bunch of four-year-olds were having a negative impact on the facilities and residence of South Windsor. First of all, there are children in a playground. They’re not having a negative impact. That’s what it’s there for,” said Melissa Bergeron, a parent.

She and other parents reached out to the town’s park and recreation department and the town manager.

“There’s nothing on the website stating that it’s only for residents,” said Morgan Dominguez. “We said we would make the group smaller. Do shorter increments in a splash pad. To all which he said no. So we did try to negotiate and he wasn’t willing to negotiate. He saw the kids crying and did not care.”

She was chaperoning the field trip with her two young kids. Her son has epilepsy and hearing he couldn’t cool down on a hot day was not just upsetting but also dangerous.

The parents said that the kids were rotating at the splash pad in groups of 15 to 17 kids and that the complaint originated from a town councilman who was there with his grandkids.

They’re now looking for answers as to what changed when it comes to the rules posted at the gate.

South Windsor’s town manager told Channel 3 that he has a right to ask anyone to leave and that he was not aware the school had called ahead of time.

He also said that by next week, he wants to put a fee in place for any non-residents who try to come to the splash pad.

Copyright 2025 WFSB. All rights reserved.

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (WFSB) - A devastating fire leaving a South Windsor family without a home and leaving their more than 150 cows with little access to water.

On Friday afternoon, the fire breaking out at Burke Ridge Farm, cutting water supply to the family’s farm.

Now, the community scrambling to help the family in any way they can, trying their best to keep the animals alive.

The first small win for the Burke family, giving their animals something to drink.

“These folks have lost absolutely everything,” said Kelly Juleson. “It’s not just their home, it’s their livelihood.”

Kelly Juleson, a customer of the farm, starting a GoFundme to help the Burke’s.

The family’s home on the third generation farm burning down Friday afternoon. Firefighters doing what they could to keep the flames at bay. But the closest fire hydrant was 3,000 feet away, leaving the house a total loss. The families dog and cats passing away in the fire too.

“They have lost absolutely everything,” added Juleson. “A diamond ring, their pets, the loss is innumerable.”

Burke Ridge Farms much more than just that house though, its also the home to more than 150 cows, the fire cutting their water supply.

Neighbors helping the family restore some water supply Saturday morning... But it might not be enough.

“20 gallons a day, each of those cows’ drinks. And, on a day that was as hot as yesterday, it was probably even more,” noted Juleson.

Over the years as a customer, Kelly becoming friends with the Burke family.

Their kindness and work ethic like none she’d ever seen.

“Seeing how hard these folks work day in and day out, and especially during this awful tragedy, that they continue to show up because they have to,” expressed Juleson.

Now, doing what she can to help them get back on their feet, starting a GoFundMe that’s already raised more than $10,000.

“There’s no time for a break, there’s no time to grieve, they just have to go on,” said Juleson. “And to be able to do that, they need our support.”

For more information on the GoFundMe, .

Copyright 2025 WFSB. All rights reserved.

After a fire ripped through the fifth-generation Burke Ridge Farms in South Windsor in July, the South Windsor Fire Department reportedly noted in its report that the area of town had no nearby hydrants and they were laying a supply line from more than 3,000 feet away.

That sparked concern for State Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor. He said if a hydrant were in the area, perhaps the outcome could have been better.

This past week, Anwar met with fellow lawmakers and town leaders in South Windsor to discuss how they could strengthen fire safety and water access for rural fire departments, an issue that plagues a number of towns throughout the state.

Joining Anwar were State Rep. Tom Delnicki, Mayor Audrey Delnicki, Town Manager Mike Maniscalco, Fire Chief Kevin Cooney, Deputy Fire Chief John Hoffman, Deputy Fire Chief Jared Pelletier, Fire Marshal Walter Summers, Vincent Stetson, public works director, Craig Patla, president of Connecticut Water, and other officials for a focused discussion on fire safety and emergency response infrastructure.

According to Anwar, the meetings centered around whether fire service coverage and response capabilities are consistent across all areas of South Windsor — including neighborhoods without direct municipal water connections through Connecticut Water or the Metropolitan District Commission.

“The goal was clear: To ensure that every resident, regardless of location, has dependable fire protection and access to essential water resources during emergencies,” Anwar said. “We reviewed protocols for timely response in areas with limited or no public water supply, procedures for mutual aid, and coordination of apparatus and equipment readiness with neighboring towns. Additionally, we explored strategies to strengthen collaboration with Connecticut Water, monitor evolving water system changes and assess their impact on fire service accessibility and public safety.”

Cooney, who was the first to arrive at the fire on July 25, said the Burke Ridge Farms family home was an exception for South Windsor and that the town is well hydrated.

“We don’t really have a large rural area. It’s been a handful of sections of town that have a lack of hydrants, less than 1,000 feet,” Cooney said. “We had the (Burke Ridge Farms) house fire a couple of Fridays ago where that house was about 2,800 feet from the closest hydrant. That’s one of the few areas in town that is like that. Most of our community is very well hydrated.

“We’re not really a rural community, where I would strongly say that we’re a suburban community that is has plentiful hydrants. So unlike, you know, going next door to Ellington, East Windsor, or further out, Ashford and Somers those are much more rural communities,” Cooney added.

Cooney said he isn’t certain closer access to a hydrant would have made a difference on the Burke Ridge Farms property. The official cause of the fire is still undetermined.

“Every fire is different,” Cooney said.

“That fire was extremely well involved when we arrived. So even if there was hydrants closer, I don’t know if it would have had a large outcome difference, just because of the amount of fire, the type of construction, all that factors go into it.”

Lauri Volkert, the Connecticut State Fire Marshall, started her career as a volunteer firefighter in Coventry and said she was familiar with fighting fires without hydrants.

“This is one of those areas where the state of Connecticut is really diverse,” Volkert said.

“And so we’ve got some towns that have municipal water supply and that usually includes hydrants, but there’s a lot of towns across the state that don’t have municipal water supply so the homes rely on wells. So fire departments rely on rural supplies for water suppression and that could be water holes, natural bodies of water, underground cisterns, those types of things.”

Volkert said the departments that have no hydrants have plans in place and practice using those water supplies.

“It’s a different way to fight fires, but it’s an effective way to put out fires,” she said.

Volkert said any changes in water supply for fire suppression is up to the local town or jurisdiction.

“Water supply for fire suppression is one of the items that are intentionally silent on in the state fire code because we recognize that there’s a diversity across the state of how water suppression or fire suppression water is supplied. And so it’s up to the towns and the local fire departments to make the determination about whether water supply is sufficient in the area to put those fires out and to protect the buildings that are there.”

Bud Meyers, fire chief for the Town of Coventry Fire & EMS Department and president of the Connecticut Fire Chiefs Association, said adding a municipal water system and hydrants costs millions of dollars, money towns don’t typically have available.

“It’s not as easy as some might think. There is a huge cost,” Meyers said.

He said the challenge of rural firefighting is response time compared to a city that may be just a few blocks away and will be able to respond to a call rapidly.

“You look at a town like Lebanon where some areas are a 20 minute drive for them to get to,” Meyers said. “Response times come into play. Then when you get there and how much it is going and the bigger the fire is, the more water it requires to put it out. When you have a 2,400-square-foot-home, you’re talking probably 4,000 gallons of water. It’s got a good involvement going.

“Here in Coventry, we have dairy farm and they got a 15,000-square foot barn. If that gets going and it gets fairly involved before it’s called in, you’re looking at trying to get 15,000-to-30,000 gallons of water. Your smaller municipal systems will never keep that up. It’s impossible to maintain that kind of flow,” he said.

“So you still need some other kind of, what we call static water sources, a pond, a cistern, a river, like something to supplement that kind of system. So, you know, there’s a lot of things that come into play when we talk about the rural areas and what happens and what we’re dealing with.”

Coventry has one municipal fire hydrant on the edge of town because it runs to the University of Connecticut. The town relies on tanker shuttles and also has a few cisterns in town. The department also drafts water out of lakes and ponds. Meyers said Coventry purchased a 1,000 gallon tanker in 2018 because the chief said the town had a need for it.

“The faster you can get a gallon per minute water on a fire, the better off the results are,” Meyers said. “When you talk about needing a 500-gallon per minute flow and you only bring 1,000 gallons in one truck, that’s two minutes worth of flow. And if you’re waiting for more trucks to get there to supply you with water, it’s not like every single truck shows up in at the same time. You might get one or two usually show up at the same time, but it’s not like it’s that quick.

Even with mutual and that’s where most of the rural departments, if they know they got a working fire, they automatically start more tankers to get the water on the road because they know it could be 15, 20 minutes before that tanker actually gets to their fire.”

Meyers suggestion for legislation that could help rural fire departments would be to require sprinkler systems into new buildings.

“The cost is minimal when you are putting in new buildings and homes,” Meyers said.

“Sprinkler systems aren’t designed to put out the fire necessarily. They’re designed to keep control of it. I would say probably 90% of the time it extinguishes the fire, but there are sometimes that the fire is too hot, too quick. All it’s doing is controlling it and allowing the fire department to get there and actually get it suppressed in a reasonable amount of time with minimal water.”

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT (WFSB) - A controversy over out-of-towner use of a splash pad in South Windsor prompted a response from the town manager.

Thirty-eight preschool students from a child development center in Enfield, along with their parents and teachers, attempted to use South Windsor’s Nevers Park splash pad on Wednesday.

The Enfield Child Development Center said it was a field trip that it schedules every year.

About an hour after the group arrived this year, it said South Windsor town manager Michael Maniscalco asked it to leave.

On Friday, Maniscalco issued a lengthy statement explaining his side of the story.

Maniscalco described it as two busloads of children who unexpectedly showed up and overcrowded the splash pad, which impacted town residents’ ability to safely and comfortably use it.

“We offered the playground and other parts of the park to the group but asked them to cease their use of the splash pad,” he said. “Since then a number of disappointed parents went to news outlets and social media who have run reports based on rumors and innuendos.”

Maniscalco provided information about the town’s standard operating procedures.

He said the Parks & Recreation Department’s procedures have always required documented permission for field trips.

Maniscalco said the town had no proof that the children at the splash pad had permission slips, insurance coverage, or paid a fee.

“It is important to note that the Parks & Rec Department, as a past practice, and continuing moving forward has not allowed requests for field trips to the splash pad since the facility was not built for that purpose and is not meant for handling that type of use,” he said.

The statement continued:

Parents who tried to use the splash pad complained that there was nothing on the town’s website or at the splash pad explaining that the area was for residents only.

Maniscalco, also said that by next week, he wanted to put a fee in place for any non-residents who try to use the splash pad.

Copyright 2025 WFSB. All rights reserved.