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EAST HAMPTON — Despite warnings from the attorney for the developer, the Middle Haddam Historic District Commission will oppose a proposed zone change for a property located in the historic district at the April Planning and Zoning meeting.

Developer William Wayne Rand, under the name Long Hill Estates, LLC, has proposed a zone change from R-2 to commercial for a new 1.5-acre lot that is currently part of 53 Long Hill Road, a 17.6-acre parcel that he purchased on Nov. 20, 2020. The proposed new lot is next to Sports on 66 at 265 West High St and is expected to be used for parking.

At Thursday’s commission meeting via zoom, Chair Charles Roberts said the commission held a responsibility to the property owners in the historic district, which was formed in 1977 by a 79 percent approval of 151 landowners. He said property owners in the district are required to apply for a certificate of appropriateness when making exterior changes that can be “viewed from a public way, whether that be road or river.”

“The current property owners expect the Middle Haddam Historic District in the Town of East Hampton to protect these homes and the entire district because they’ve given up some of their rights,” he said.

But Timothy Furey, an attorney with Furey, Donovan, Tracy and Daly, P.C. in Bristol, who represented Rand, said the commission had no jurisdiction or appropriate role in subdivision nor the proposed zone change that the Planning and Zoning Commission will consider on April 7.

“If you do [proceed], and you do act in an ultra vires manner, beyond your role as a commission, and if it damages us, we will explore what our rights are,” said Furey.

Furey said that according to the statute, the commission can comment on an application for a variance or a special exception but not on a subdivision of land or a zoning change of land. The commission can comment on the preservation or changing of structures, he said, but there are no structures proposed as part of the subdivision or zone change.

Furey also disputed the boundary of the historic district and said the property was not included in the original map. He warned the commission members to stop the proceedings.

“You can go forward but you go forward at your own risk and depending on what is said here, we will protect our rights,” he said. “I’ve read the statute and I understand it, and I think you’re way outside of your lane.”

Roberts responded that the commission represents the owners and residents of Middle Haddam and opened the discussion to the commission members and the public.

Ann McKinney of Long Hill Road said she gave up some rights to her home and property when the historic district was drawn.

“Have I always been happy with the Middle Haddam Historic District? No, because there are restraints, but the restraints have proved important to keep this historic district, a historic district,” she said. “Mr. Rand should have been quite aware of the fact that he was purchasing — and I’m sure he is — in the historic district.”

Resident Margaret McCutcheon Faber said the map of the historic district was filed in 1977 and the boundary has not changed. She also said that the State Historic Preservation Office determined that the historic district commission has a statutory right as a fellow land use board to weigh in on the issue in an advisory capacity.

Faber said she had been present when Rand submitted proposals in the past.

“I’ve been on the Middle Haddam Historic District commission before and Mr. Rand has a history of sending his attorney to these meetings and threatening to file suit if things don’t go his way and I think that tactic is underhanded, and I don’t think that the commission should tolerate it,” she said.

Resident Peter Parker commented that Furey “seemed rather angry.”

“I don’t understand why — it’s a perfectly normal thing in this country and in this town for us to discuss any changes that are coming up and sometimes that can lead to a better outcome for everyone involved and I certainly hope that they would take that attitude going forward,” Parker said.

Furey responded that he was sorry if he sounded aggressive or mean-spirited.

“It is my nature, fortunately or unfortunately, but the charge of protecting my clients rights is something that people sometimes take as a threat. I’m sorry,” he said.

Furey said he believed everyone has a right to be heard and urged residents and commission members to speak as individual citizens at the Planning and Zoning meeting.

“I apologize because I think people have a right to speak their thoughts about their property … but I think it’s also important that various commissions do stay in their lane, stay within their statutory authority,” he said.

The commission members voted unanimously to allow Roberts to represent them and to oppose Rand’s proposal at the April 7 Planning and Zoning meeting.

To attend the April 7 meeting, use this recurring link.

Cate Hewitt is a reporter and Associate Editor for CT Examiner. Hewitt covers planning and zoning issues.

[email protected]

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EAST HAMPTON —Middle Haddam painter Tom Swimm has never owned or sailed a boat, yet is drawn to painting coastal scenes populated with colorful vessels.

Tracing his family lineage one day, he discovered most of the men in his family have been fishermen or seafarers, including several U.S. Navy sailors. “I think it’s something in my DNA,” Swimm said.

Although he has painted New England barns, street scenes, winter scapes and landscapes, his passion lies in marine scenes. “My subject matter is mostly things that have to do with water: coastal scenes and boats,” he said.

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“I just find it very inspiring as a subject matter," Swimm continued. "The small boats sitting there on the reflected waters are always an inspiration because the reflections are always colorful, especially at certain times of day.”

He prefers to capture scenes in the light of early morning or late in the afternoon, when the light is most interesting. His paintings are well-known for his mastery of color and light. “What I try to always capture in my work is a sense of light and luminous quality, and the water,” he said.

“Water can be challenging, but it’s very fun to paint because it’s always different, always changing, and it’s reflecting all the things that are around it,” the artist added.

Originally from Troy, N.Y., Swimm grew up drawing as a child and started his career at a newspaper right after high school. “I had always wanted to be an artist,” he said. “As a child, it was really what I aspired to do.”

After a few years at the paper, he joined an advertising agency in Albany.

“I worked my way up through the ranks, and when I was 23 years old, I left to open my own advertising agency in Albany. I was on the creative side. I was designing ads and illustrating and doing things that were artistic, but were not necessarily in the fine arts, which is what I’m doing now.”

Tiring of the snowy winters and looking for a change, at 33, he had his wife and their 4-year old son decamped to the sunny shores of Laguna Beach, Calif. The self-taught artist soon exhibited his work in the Festival of Arts, an annual event for artists in the southern part of the state.

In his first year (1988), he sold quite a few paintings, and connected with several art galleries that started showing his work. “It just kind of snowballed from there. I did the festival every year and my career just started taking off after that,” he said.

Eventually, he was showing in about a dozen galleries around the country: from Hawaii and California to Boston and Florida as well as doing commissioned paintings. He's been a professional artist for about 40 years, making a living as an oil painter.

His art has brought him around the world. He has traveled Europe extensively, finding artistic inspiration there, such as in the fishing villages of Italy and Greece. “When I came back from a trip, I would do a body of work from the trip, do a gallery show and it was very successful,” Swimm said.

“At a typical gallery opening, I would have 25 to 30 new paintings, and we would sell half of them the first night of the show,” he continued.

Two years ago, during the pandemic, the Swimms bought a house online, and settled in Connecticut to be closer to their grown son in New York City, as well as get back to their East Coast roots. Now semi-retired, he is no longer creating the body of work he did at the height of his career, but is still traveling and painting.

He works in his home studio using reference photos he takes when he travels. “I like the control of a studio, because it’s my own environment and it doesn’t change,” he said.

“I always take photos, even when I already have like a couple thousand photos of a place. I’m constantly documenting things and I use the photo reference for all my work that I create,” Swimm pointed out.

“What I try to bring to the painting is what I felt when I was there, to try to put the viewer where I was, and give them the same feeling that I had when I was in that place — the smell of the ocean or the wind or the sun,” he noted.

In addition to finding new favorite places to paint in Mystic, at the Comstock Bridge near his house or Devil’s Hopyard State Park, he enjoys whimsical works such as pet portraits. Swimm started doing the latter for friends while living in California, and has continued them here.

“Everybody here has a dog. It’s kind of a fun thing to do, and I enjoy it because I love animals,” he said.

For information, visit tomswimmfineart.com and tomswimmfineart on Instagram.

Middle Haddam — Twenty-one World War II veterans gathered with family and friends to share memories at a special picnic held in honor of D-Day, which was June 6, 1944.

Now in its eighth year, the event was organized by Pierre Faber and his wife Margaret McCutcheon Faber at their residence at Highveld Farm in Middle Haddam.

Charles Alex, age 99, of New Britain, who was the oldest veteran at the picnic, served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. At the end of 1940, he joined the Army as an infantryman in the 43rd division, serving in the Pacific in New Guinea and the Philippines for three years. In 1944 and 1945, he served in Germany and France.

“I got out of the service for four years but I stayed in the National Guard and got called back to active duty in 1949,” he said. He served in Korea and was later called to serve in Vietnam. He entered the military service as an “E1” and retired 29 years later as a Lt. Colonel.

This year was the third time he had been at the Fabers’ picnic. “I got an invitation from a friend.”

Alex said he admired Pierre Faber for putting the event together.

“Anyone who’s doing what he’s doing has to be truly American,” he said. “It’s terrific that he would go through all of this expense and time to recognize the veterans.”

George Ruhe, 93, who sat near his wife, Helga Ruhe, said he joined the Army and went to World War II when he was 18 years old. He grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Ruhe said that when saw destruction “like I had never seen in my life” during the war.

“We knew we were moving up close to where there was activity. The artillery and the flashes in the sky made it obvious that something was going on, but we didn’t know what. We approached with trepidation and at that point I said, ‘God, don’t let me be a coward, don’t let me be a coward.’”

He said his most shocking experience was seeing the concentration camp at Flossenburg.

“Getting in there and seeing the depravity man can commit against man, we saw bodies lying all over the place,” he said.

Ruhe met his wife, Helga, in Germany where she was working in an American Post Exchange, known as a PX. After he left Germany in 1946, the two wrote numerous letters to one another until he proposed in January 1947.

Now married for 71 years, Ruhe smiled and said they hope to die together and that “they put us in one big casket.”

Angelo Bartolotta, 94, of Middletown, joined the Army when he was 18 and fought at Omaha Beach and in the Battle of the Bulge as an anti-aircraft artilleryman.

“It was quite an experience,” he said. “I was lucky, I was never wounded.”

Pierre Faber said he and his family started the event eight years ago to honor WWII veterans after he got to know a few veterans in Middle Haddam.

“I come from a background where WWII veterans are held in very high esteem and great honor, so finding WWII veterans was a big deal for me and an amazing opportunity. I thought why not get a bunch of them together.”

The event gathered 11 veterans from the area the first year and grew from there to about 50 or 55 people a few years ago.

“The more people heard about it, the more people wanted to be part of it,” he said.

As the veterans are aging, the number who come to the picnic is diminishing.

“We’re fighting a losing battle and we know that,” he said. “And that’s just the nature of what we do, it’s going to get smaller and smaller.”

Even though the memory of World War II is fading, Faber said he wanted the general public to remember the war and how it affected the United States.

“Maybe 10 or 15 years ago a lot of people still had grandparents who were involved in the war but more and more people are losing that connection and forgetting — it’s sad. The people who are conscious of history and study history are always going to understand it, but the general population is losing touch,” he said. “I want people to remember how important it was, how big it was and what this generation did for us and the extent to which the rest of us are benefiting from the sacrifices they made and the triumph that they achieved.”

Cate Hewitt is a reporter and Associate Editor for CT Examiner. Hewitt covers planning and zoning issues.

[email protected]

MIDDLE HADDAM — “It’s almost like you’re on a different planet. The fact that the animals are in charge, you’re a guest there and you realize that pretty quickly. This is their habitat. This is their world, and you’re visiting,” said Pierre Faber, co-owner of Classic Africa, a safari company that custom designs trips to southern and eastern Africa.

“That’s a very different feeling from what you’re accustomed to if you’ve grown up in the developed world so it’s a very powerful experience,” he said. “People fall in love with it. A lot of our clients are very well traveled and almost all of them will tell you that it’s the most amazing trip they’ve ever taken so far.”

Some clients have come back 10 times or more and the company continues to find new places for them to explore, said co-owner Margaret McCutcheon Faber.

Their clients have no shortage of destinations — the company offers safaris in nine countries: Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mozambique, and the Seychelles.

Most want to see the wildlife, Pierre said, and the predominantly savannah habitat in southern and eastern parts of Africa supports the highest level of mammalian diversity on earth.

Pierre said he and Margaret work to tailor the experience to the client’s desires, which can also include an urban experience, perhaps in Cape Town, or a beach experience in Seychelles or Mozambique.

“But broadly the majority of people that we work with are going first and foremost for safari and it’s those countries of southern Africa and East Africa where we focus on where they go to see the wildlife,” he said.

“From an early age I developed a love for the African version of wildlife,” said Pierre, who grew up in South Africa and whose family vacationed by traveling into the bush.

He became a wildlife veterinarian and planned to specialize in wildlife fishery medicine, but his path diverged when he won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend University of Oxford, where he earned his doctorate in business administration.

“At that point, this is in the early 90s, South Africa was just emerging from apartheid and there was a whole emerging concept of ecotourism globally … It was just a very, undiscovered part of the world,” he said. “There were phenomenal natural resources there and ecotourism was this emerging industry and so I thought I have this scientific background and I’ll get a business degree and then come back and work in this emerging ecotourism industry in southern Africa.”

Margaret grew up in Middle Haddam about a mile from where the couple lives with their two sons. She attended Connecticut College and transferred to New York University where she studied cultural anthropology and art history. A few years later, while managing a field station in Yungaburra, Australia, she received news that she had been accepted to Oxford where she earned a Master of Studies in ethnology and museum ethnology and a PhD in cultural anthropology.

Margaret was a rower but the athletics team at Oxford needed discus throwers for an upcoming varsity match versus University of Cambridge.

“They needed throwers, and I was strong at the time so they recruited me and Pierre was my coach, so he had to teach me how to throw the discus in two weeks,” she laughed. “I decided he was kind of nice so I gave up rowing and transferred over to throwing events in athletics. We became weightlifting partners and the rest of that was history.”

For her field work, Margaret traveled to Madagascar a number of times and Pierre visited her from South Africa.

“I was planning to become a professor of anthropology incorporating history into it and archaeology, so I had a different path in mind. But we started and I knew he was interested in ecotourism and I was certainly interested in the cultural aspects of Africa and so we thought it might be a good match,” she said.

Pierre said it was obvious to both of them that they had a strong connection to Africa.

“We both had an interest in different elements of Africa and we wanted to do something together. We wanted to follow our passions but also do something where we could work together and create something together. And that’s where Classic Africa was born,” he said.

The biggest challenge of a safari is traveling to Africa, which can entail 16 or 17 hours of flying time on a direct flight, Pierre said.

“Once on the ground, there are very few challenges particularly because of the types of places that they stay. When you arrive at the airport, someone meets you and from that point you’re hosted every step of the way,” said Pierre. “It’s expensive. You’re paying a lot of money, but you’re very well cared for, you’re very hosted.”

The level of dining is a highlight for many clients, said Pierre.

“The chefs put a real effort into the food and the presentation, the wines. Farm to table is popular right now and especially with safari camps in more remote areas. It’s a much more sophisticated experience that people are expecting. A lot of people have in mind sort of eating over fire, but most of the camps have their own gardens and they have highly trained chefs often with international experience,” he said.

Safaris are expensive, Pierre said, but some of the funds go toward conservation.

“For the governments of Africa, the natural resources are a very valuable asset from which they generate revenue. For the local people, it’s important that the wildlife is a benefit to them because when you’re living alongside things like elephants and lions, it is very hazardous and it’s very difficult to be a farmer adjacent to a wildlife area,” he said. “So it’s important that the animals being there is worth more to the farmer than the animals not being there.”

He said there are a number of stakeholders in support of conservation in African countries and it was important that the local people benefit as well as the government of the country.

“That’s something that we have to help people understand in terms of why safari is so expensive, that there are a lot of constituencies that depend on safari and conservation, and the contribution that your trip is making towards conservation,” he said.

Pierre said he travels twice a year to check on the safari sites.

“For example, in a few weeks, in April, I’ll be heading over to South Africa and Botswana on a reconnaissance trip. It’s important that we have experienced all of the innovations and all the properties because whatever we recommend to our clients, it’s important that we’ve personally experienced it and seen what it’s like so that we can match people to places,” he said.

Before the pandemic, the company worked with about 400 clients a year and business is slowly starting to return.

“Basically, pretty much around this time last April, all the countries of Africa shut down or went into lockdown. They started emerging in July or September. So, from the second half of last year, the countries were open for people who wanted to travel,” he said. “We’ve had a handful of people who have traveled since then.”

The abrupt shutdown last year was difficult and most clients wanted to postpone. This year a handful of new bookings have appeared and the company is now working about two months in advance.

“For the first time since the pandemic began, we have more clients that may want to travel. We’re starting to see that, barring unforeseen circumstances, we’re turning a corner,” he said.

As more people are vaccinated, countries may drop testing requirements, which will make travel between countries in Africa easier.

“Hopefully by the peak of summer season we won’t be dealing with these challenges so much, but right now every time you move from one country to another, you’ve got to get a test,” he said. “It’s definitely an additional complication that we’ve never had to deal with before.”

“Our philosophy with conservation is basically summed up with ‘conservation for education’ so most of the projects that we support are focused on resource research or educating the local people,” said Pierre. “The strategic thinking there is that the more people that recognize the value of wildlife, the more likely they are to protect it.”

The company donates a portion of annual profits to conservation and community projects in Africa, focusing currently on elephant migration in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.

Classic Africa also offers a scholarship program to help high school students in Zimbabwe pay for their education since high school there is not free. In addition, the company funds four annual postgraduate scholarships for African students at Oxford’s Linacre College.

Over the next five or 10 years Pierre said the company will continue to offer the same high quality trips it has been known for since 1999, with some potential for expansion.

“More and more people have heard about the forest becoming a more established type of vacation so I think there is definitely growth potential,” he said.

Margaret said she has worked to create a handmade experience for guests and plans to maintain an individual level of attention to detail.

“We create their travel documents with leather bound books and I’m tying everything up with raffia and using a fountain pen, so everything is curated and has that handmade kind of approach,” she said.

She said she is hoping to stay small and hands-on enough that the client is always dealing with the owner.

“We spend a lot of time with it because attention to detail is extremely important, so everything has to be perfect,” she said.

For more information, call 888-227-831, email [email protected] or visit www.classicafrica.com.

All photos are courtesy of Classic Africa

Cate Hewitt is a reporter and Associate Editor for CT Examiner. Hewitt covers planning and zoning issues.

[email protected]

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HADDAM — The town’s top official declared a state of emergency Wednesday night, acknowledging she has exhausted all resources dealing with the repercussions of a massive, six-mile-long ice jam backing up the Connecticut River.

“I want to be more proactive than reactive,” said First Selectwoman Lizz Milardo, considering the weekend is coming and that the town has a non-paid fire and EMS force. “Everyone in this town is a volunteer.

“It gives me the tools to put everyone on notice to say, ‘This is what we have to do.’ If I have to force any evacuations, I can. If I need to close roads, I can.”

Her appeal to the governor cited “a condition of danger to life and property.”

Temperature fluctuations are the culprit. The river froze, then melted with the rain last weekend, then froze again, Milardo said. “We don’t really know how thick it is or how deep it is.”

The U.S. Coast Guard cutters Bollard and Hawser are working in tandem to penetrate the fields of broken-up blocks of ice after meeting in Essex Thursday at 10 a.m., Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier said Thursday afternoon.

With temperatures hovering around freezing, crews “got underway assessing the river to see if there are any major pockets of ice, and to look for debris,” he said.

Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard deployed the tug Hawser from New York to relieve its 60-foot cutter Bollard, which was turned back Tuesday at Essex.

The vessels attack the ice together, Strohmaier said.

“It got to the point where the capability of the cutter itself maxed out and there was a lot of debris and unknown objects in the river,” he said.

The weather is a big factor in Coast Guard operations, he said. “If the temperatures get cold again, it is possible that could create a return of ice, so they’re trying to cut a path so the ice can proceed downriver and eventually proceed down to the (Long Island)Sound.”

Their mission has become more urgent with warmer weather anticipated for the weekend, Strohmaier said.

The ice is jammed up in two locations, said the hobbyst photographer and Higganum resident Eweather, who declined to give his real name due to his vocation. He’s been documenting weather in his area along the Connecticut River for a decade.

Since Tuesday, Eweather has provided images, videos and time-lapse footage of what nature can do in winter on his Twitter account and Facebook page.

Numerous meterologists and reporters have cited the social media posts he’s pieced together from his observances and others’ on social media.

“When we originally went through that cold spell, the river froze, so it was one big sheet of ice across. It reminded me of when a pickup truck drove across the ice in Haddam,” he said. “When the rain came, it warmed up.”

Then the river levels rose, ice chunks broke up, began to flow downstream, and got caught in places like the East Haddam Swing Bridge, he said. “They all pushed together.”

The ice originally formed Saturday. “Sunday, it broke loose and we saw a lot of damage,” he said, destroying docks, retaining walls and some houses.

The river rose and it was warmer when we got the rain, he said. “There are still big pieces, chunks, of ice a foot thick moving down the river.

“The power is incredible. It takes out anything in its path,” he said, noting his mother’s yard sustained damage to part of her patio terrace. One of his videos shows giant slabs of “very, very, heavy rocks, splitting within seconds from the enormous pressure.”

The sound left him dumbstruck, he said.

Eweather said there’s a smaller ice field in Essex, just north of Hamburg Cove, and the colossal one just north of the swing bridge, which spans through to Pratt & Whitney in Middletown.

Milardo said she’s concerned and frustrated at the situation of not knowing what is happening with the ice.

“Today it’s a little better,” she said Thursday afternoon. She’s hearing from residents that low-lying areas in town and across the river in Haddam Neck — both sides of the Connecticut River — are experiencing significant flooding in spots.

“It’s getting to the point, ‘Where is all the ice going to go?’ The water line is coming up pretty far considering we’re in winter,” said Milardo, who was reassured a bit Thursday afternoon after a conference call with the Coast Guard.

“Even the snowfall we just got would only cause a half-inch to an inch of additional water” in the river, she said marine officials told her.

She’s encouraged that the cutter seems to be making progress. That, combined with rain expected to come Tuesday, could help unclog the channel, she said.

The tugs are plodding along, making headway, Milardo said, cutting a little bit at a time, then watching where the ice is going. “They, they go back to make sure it’s stacking on the shore.

“They don’t expect (the cutters) to get to the Swing Bridge until Saturday then move up toward Middletown after that. They’re moving very slowly, but they sound hopeful. They’re chipping away at it little by little, following the deep part of the channel. I’m hoping that’s going to do it.”

Milardo said she’s consulted selectmen from surrounding towns, fire chiefs and staff at the Region 2 Department of Homeland Security for their opinions.

“The big if is ‘what’s going to happen?’ The question for me is — and time will tell — if they’re able to break through, how much water is going to come?”

Meanwhile, the Connecticut River at Middle Haddam is under a flood warning through 6 a.m. Saturday, according to the National Weather Service, which expects river levels to slowly recede through Saturday morning.

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at [email protected].