Home Care In Meriden, CT

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MERIDEN – A group of students held hands at the multilingual lounge at Francis T. Maloney High School on Thursday afternoon. They shouted out encouragements to each other in English and Spanish and laughed as they tried to fit their bodies through hula hoops in a record time.

The hula hoops were not for an athletic competition, but one designed to teach communication and teamwork skills to a group of students that are part of the ¡Adelante! Spartans. The bilingual afterschool club started meeting in November and is an expansion of the ¡Adelante! curriculum developed by the Spanish Community of Wallingford in 2010.

In Spanish, “¡Adelante!” means “Forward!” as the club is designed to give students a leg up by engaging them and teaching them useful life skills. The afterschool club is led by SCOW staffers Jennifer Avila and Melisa Juarez, who are also alumni of ¡Adelante! So far, Avila says that the club has seen a positive reception as between 15 and 18 students attend the weekly meetings at Maloney and 25 to 30 at Platt.

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Avila said that running the program was a full-circle moment for her since she was involved in leadership positions of her own ¡Adelante! program when she was a high school student in Wallingford. Because the ¡Adelante! programs have a track record of successfully engaging Latino students, she said there has long been an interest in expanding the capacity of the program to serve Meriden’s large Latino student population.

”It’s been exciting to see the expansion,” she said. “It’s exciting to see the need in Meriden grow.”

However, Avila said that transportation barriers prevented Meriden students from attending Wallingford programs in the past. Conversations for expanding the program started last spring and the partnership between SCOW and the district opened the new clubs in November. Now that the program is starting back off after the winter break, she said she was eager to get to know the students better and watch them take on leadership roles with club officer positions.

College, career readiness

In the 2022-2023 school year, 60.3 percent of the district was Hispanic, according to EdSight, the state's education data website. In addition, enrollment among students learning English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) is increasing as 17.5% of the district were multilingual learners that year.

Because of this, College and Career Coordinator Marissa Cardona said that belonging to ¡Adelante! can help students who come from a first or second generation immigrant family and might not know about college essays, community service requirements, scholarships and other opportunities.

¡Adelante! is a great way to pave more pathways for more students and have it translate into kids being successful career wise, college wise and giving back to our communities,” she said.

Samantha Gavilanez has been attending the program since it started. She said it’s a chance to meet new people and develop leadership skills that will help her apply for environmental studies programs at UCLA and the University of Chicago. She added she planned to run for the president of the Maloney ¡Adelante! Club to help shape club activities.

“Being involved in the community and all the community opportunities helps a lot with my college applications,” she said.

Sense of belonging

Cardona also said that the club can help Latino students find community and create a sense of belonging — although the club is open to students from all heritage backgrounds. She added that the new ¡Adelante! Clubs are part of several recent initiatives put in place by the district to engage their large Latino population, such as morning announcements in Spanish and a “Café and Charla” event at Maloney to connect Hispanic students and parents with sports, music and other clubs.

“A program like this helps enhance self confidence. A sense of belonging right to a community, especially if the comfort level is still not there. And of course, eventually understanding our culture here,” she said.

For SCOW staffer Melisa Juarez, going through the program was a way of increasing her own confidence, as well as giving her leadership experience. She was president of the pilot program in Wallingford that included students in 7th and 8th grade, called Pasos ¡Adelante! Now that she is teaching the program, she encouraged students to go out of their comfort zones and run for leadership positions in the club.

“I was super super shy. I did not want to talk in front of anyone. I didn't want to even pick up the phone at the office. But through that program, I really was able to learn a lot and have a lot of new skills,” she said.

In the heart of the state, Meriden is known for its rich industrial heritage, reflected in its well-preserved architecture and historic landmarks. The city thrives on a strong sense of community, offering a range of cultural events, recreational activities, and a welcoming atmosphere. Meriden presents a dynamic and inviting place to call home with its central location, diverse neighborhoods, and a balance between urban convenience and small-town charm. So whether you’re searching for apartments in Meriden, homes for sale, or want to learn more about what Meriden is known for, this Redfin article will be your guide.

1. Hubbard Park

Hubbard Park, a sprawling public park offering a picturesque landscape and outdoor recreational activities, is a renowned feature of Meriden. The park, featuring a scenic mountain summit, a beautiful lake, and a historic castle known as Castle Craig, allows visitors to indulge in hiking, picnicking, and birdwatching while savoring the area’s stunning natural beauty.

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The annual Daffodil Festival in Meriden is a celebration of spring featuring over 600,000 daffodils in bloom. Moreover, the festival offers live music, food vendors, carnival rides, and a parade, attracting thousands of visitors annually. It has become a beloved tradition that showcases the community’s spirit and the season’s beauty.

3. Proximity to Boston and New York

Centrally located in Connecticut, Meriden’s proximity facilitates effortless access to the vibrant energy of New York City and the historic charm of Boston, establishing it as a perfect hub for commuters and travelers. Furthermore, this advantageous location allows residents to enjoy these iconic cities’ cultural richness and diverse experiences.

4. Silver Industry

Meriden gained its “Silver City” nickname during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thriving in the silver manufacturing industry. The city’s expertise in crafting fine silverware earned international acclaim, cementing its status as a leading silver industry hub. Meriden celebrates its heritage in this field by showcasing historical artifacts and highlighting the lasting impact of its craftsmanship.

5. Meriden Markham Airport

The Meriden Markham Airport is a general aviation airport that serves as a vital regional transportation hub. Additionally, the airport provides facilities for private and corporate aircraft and flight training services, contributing to the city’s connectivity.

It was a chaotic morning for Erika Thiel as she was taking her daughter to day care.

First, Thiel had an encounter with a driver filled with road rage. The next minute, she was dealing with her toddler's tantrum and, at one point, nearly collided with a tractor trailer.

"So, I'm starting to feel the effects of the morning and those emotions that any person starts to feel when they're just trying to do everything, and it feels like everyone is coming at them," said Thiel.

That was until Thiel made it to a four-way intersection on Research Parkway in Meriden and noticed a woman dancing to the radio in her minivan.

"She is bumping, and she is singing. I could tell whatever she was listening to was a vibe," said Thiel.

Thiel said as they made eye contact, the woman smiled at her and kept on dancing. Her positive attitude was so infectious, Thiel said she started to dance.

"I just started laughing," she said. "That woman, she is just loving life right now, and I love that for her."

Later that day, Thiel posted about the encounter in a Facebook message, thanking the driver.

She went on to say how much she appreciated that moment as she was on the verge of a "full-blown anxiety attack." The woman's positive energy turned Thiel's whole day around.

She wasn't expecting the driver to see the message, but she did, and she commented on it.

"It was the first thing I read in the morning, and it just made my day. I wasn't even awake 20 minutes, and I saw it, and I was like, I have to tell her it was me," said Felicia Jones of Durham.

Jones helps people with disabilities find jobs in the community. She said "jamming out" is something she does regularly with her clients and when she is alone.

"I was just jamming out to Shania Twain. My normal everyday thing that I do is just jam out to music, and I just start dancing in the car," Jones said.

The interaction happened on Wednesday, and already, hundreds of people have reacted to Thiel's post.

Many have also shared in the comment section how this made their day better.

"I was like, I'm going to dance. I'm just going to continue dancing, and we just locked eyes, and I just kept going," said Jones.

A bad day made better all because someone stopped to spread some kindness.

Meriden Mayor Kevin Scarpati was born at Meriden-Wallingford Hospital 34 years ago and lived in an apartment next to the hospital for eight years. But he and other city residents — many of whom were also born at the hospital — are long past any nostalgia for the hulking structure, which has sat abandoned and decaying for a quarter-century.

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“We’ve got to do something with the building,” Scarpati said. “It’s something that needs to be addressed.”

After decades of broken promises from developers and dashed hopes, Meriden officials are starting 2024 with aims to finally tear down the city-owned hospital, which looms over the outskirts of downtown and occupies five acres of property at 1 King Place.

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The hospital’s boarded-up windows, graffiti and overgrown grass currently add to the atmosphere of blight in the Cook Avenue neighborhood.

“It’s sad to see it in the shape it’s in,” said Meriden Economic Development Director Joseph Feest, who was also born in Meriden-Wallingford Hospital. “It’s definitely something the city wants to redo in a way that works and fits into today’s needs.”

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Due to the hospital’s age and condition, city leaders are focusing on demolishing the structures on the property and offering a developer the empty land.

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“We would be better off starting from a clean ground site,” Feest said. “There's a lot of things going on around the city that help with economic development, and that is definitely one piece of the pie.”

Left behind as hospital moves

The site of a hospital for a century, the complex at 1 King Place consists of historic structures dating from the 1800s and a series of modern additions that rise as high as seven stories. With its 200-car parking garage, the complex totals more than 300,000 square feet of space.

The building was left empty in 1998 when the hospital rebranded as MidState Medical Center and moved into a new 94-bed facility at 435 Lewis Ave. in Meriden.

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A series of developers promised new mixed-use developments at the 1 King Place site but failed to secure financing, leading the city to acquire the property through foreclosure in 2014.

One win for Meriden in subsequent years was a $4 million package of state grants and loans that helped clean up contaminants at the site, bolstered by a $300,000 grant from MidState. But the pandemic tanked the most recent developer plan to revamp the complex, and now city officials are eager to see the decaying buildings come down.

“It's very daunting, it doesn't lend itself to a convenient use of any one kind,” Scarpati said of the existing buildings.

Since last year, Meriden has tried multiple times to secure a CT Communities Challenge Grant from the state to cover the $6 million needed for demolition of the old hospital, but has yet to win funding.

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Meriden needs a developer’s commitment to get the demolition funds, the mayor said.

“What the state wants to see more than anything is housing, and because we don't have that developer on the line and agreeing to conduct the work once the building is razed, I think that that goes against us,” Scarpati said.

Site could diversify city’s housing stock

Housing is a logical choice for the property considering the statewide boom in new apartments, Scarpati said. Although Meriden’s population of about 60,000 stayed flat between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, new housing complexes are popping up throughout downtown with state encouragement.

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The size of the hospital site could allow for some alternative housing development in Meriden, the mayor said.

“Let’s look at diversifying our housing stock by way of either some single-family homes or condos, duplexes, townhouses — something other than high-rise apartment buildings,” Scarpati said.

Even without the demolition funds or a developer deal in hand, the city council’s Economic Development Committee plans to meet early in the new year to plan action on the hospital site, Feest said. In addition to housing, uses like an industrial park or warehousing will be on the table, he said.

Adding urgency to the case for demolishing the old hospital is a new plan to redevelop the site of a nearby old medical office building at 116 Cook Ave. Located across the street from the vacant hospital, that 76,000-square-foot structure has been damaged by fire and vandalism and is set for demolition.

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“We just instituted a building committee for a senior center and health department, which will be built on that site,” Scarpati said. “So as we look to build up and clean up that neighborhood, 1 King Place is an integral part of that discussion, and needs to be dealt with in the very near future.”

“Ultimately, something needs to be done,” Scarpati said. “ That building cannot continue to sit in its current state, which is just adding to the detriment of the neighborhood.”

MERIDEN — The Saguay family recently opened “Sabor de Mi Tierra,” a deli, juice bar and restaurant at the remodeled site of the former Agway agricultural store at 744 Murdock Ave.

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Owner Karen Saguay said that the remodeled restaurant was the result of a three years-long remodeling and renovation process done by her father’s roofing and siding company, called the McKoy Group LLC, as well as other local electrical and plumbing companies. In the process of remodelling, they demolished an old barn, changed the property’s uneven cement floor, installed a new transformer, added sinks, and remodeled the facade.

“It's easy to just reopen a new restaurant where there was an existing one prior, but to convert something, it's a whole thing,” she said.

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Joseph and David Greenbacker sold the Agway store along with the family's dairy farm when the price of milk was not enough to sustain the farming activity. Saguay purchased the 6,000 square-foot building for $270,00 in 2018.

Michael S. Rohde serves as City Council’s Chairperson Economic Development, Housing & Zoning Committee and remembers when there were a number of farms along Murdock Avenue, including Greenbacker. He explained that the area slowly became less agricultural and more industrial, especially toward Wallingford. He also noted that the city is home to a growing number of successful Latino-owned restaurants, such as the Green Deli near the Meriden Green.

“We've always been interested in cultural restaurants. They come into town, we have a lot of them now because we have such a diverse population. It's good to see them starting up new businesses,” he said.

Fresh-made menu

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“Sabor de Mi Tierra” means “taste of my country” in Spanish, even though the specific menu is still being revised. Saguay described the menu as “a little bit of everything,” although they specialize in home-style Ecuadorian fare with fresh fruit juices. On weekdays, she said the restaurant is serving daily specials with some variation on rice, beans, plantains, soup and a choice of meat. On weekends, she said they are serving more complicated dishes like seafood and Guata, an Ecuadorian tripe stew that is difficult to find in the U.S.

Meriden is home to a growing number of Ecuadorians. The 2020 U.S. Census reported 1,391 Meriden residents came from South America overall, up from just 289 in 2000. Nationwide, the U.S. Census bureau estimated about 813,000 Ecuadorians lived in the U.S. in 2021, up from an estimated 261,000 in 2000.

The Saguay family immigrated over 20 years ago and have since built a number of businesses in a few different industries. As the third generation to own a Saguay business, Karen Saguay said that the response to her family’s new restaurant has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We're so grateful. We couldn't be any happier. And we've had a lot of support from our local neighbors. Everyone's so excited that there's a new business and they're excited about the juice bar as well,” she said.

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The juices are prepared fresh by Galo Herrera. He’s from the Imbabura Province in the northern Andea part of Ecuador and explained that his native country is very tropical and has a lot of fruits and vegetables — especially bananas. While he was living in Ecuador, he learned how to make smoothies while owning his own juice shop and said that many fruits and vegetables have natural properties that can boost the immune system. For example, he said that he can make a juice with radish, spinach, green apples, celery and kiwi to combat anemia.

“It’s the natural medicine that has worked since the time of our grandparents and it really does give results,” he said in his native Spanish.