Connecticut Postings

BRIDGEPORT –– The 33rd annual celebration by Bridgeport Black Pride of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will this year feature the Rev. James D. Peters, Jr., who both worked with King and preached in Bridgeport in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The event is set to begin Monday at 8:30 a.m. at Mount Aery Baptist Church, 73 Frank St.

Peters, the retired leader of the New Hope Baptist Church in Denver, was in the thick of the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s. He was at the founding meeting in 1957 of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and he worked directly with King during the marches in Albany, Ga., and in Selma and Birmingham, Ala. He also participated in the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, when King delivered his “I Have a Dream’’ speech.

Peters was pastor of East End Baptist Church in Bridgeport from 1960 to 1973.

The two-hour celebration at Mount Aery usually attracts more than 600 people, including a number of VIPs from the region.

It will be followed at 10:30 a.m. by a community breakfast in the lower level of the church. Tickets for the breakfast are s $12 for adults and $7 for youth 17 and under. Tickets may be purchased at Ms. Thelma’s Restaurant, 140 Fairfield Ave., or by calling 203-526-8086. There will also be a coat drive during the event.

At Silver Sands State Park in Milford late Sunday morning, parents were pulling tots ashore and packing up beach gear. A rumor was circulating: a high bacteria count had been detected in the water.

“We’re going home to the pool,” said Jennifer Dimech of Cheshire, rounding up her 6-year-old son and three-year-old triplets. “They’re saying there’s too much sewage in the water.”

The kids weren’t fazed. But their dad was grossed out: “I want to be hosed off with a fire hose right now,” he said.

He looked down at his youngest son: “Sean, do you want E. coli? No? I didn’t think so. Stay out of the water.”

Two lifeguards at the beach were puzzled by questions from several concerned beach-goers about unsafe swimming conditions. They contacted their supervisor, who said he hadn’t heard anything about a high bacteria count at Silver Sands.

Department of Energy and Environmental Protection park patrolman John Marvell blamed the scare on the rumor mill. “It’s certainly safe to swim here,” he said, adjusting his bucket hat. “The Sound flushes itself out.”

“When people come out of the water looking green,” he joked, “then we’ll close it.”

MILFORD –– Police say that they have finally arrested a suspect in the Mayflower Motel air conditioner caper.

Back on May 31, employees of the motel on Woodmont Road were stunned to discover that one of their guests had stolen a room air conditioner. And, to hide the crime, the suspect installed his own broken room air conditioner in its place.

He also checked out without paying his bill. Motel employees told police that they were out $710.

Police say that they have arrested Michael Sheftz, 50, of Jackson Avenue, Stratford, and charged him with fifth-degree larceny for swapping out the hotel’s air conditioner for his own. He was discovered after he was pulled over on Milford Point Road for driving without proper insurance and driving a vehicle with canceled registration.

He was released on $2,500, and he’s scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 20.

The live-in care taker of a 78-year-old man with Alzheimer’s Disease was arrested in Milford Friday after police said they found the patient wounded inside his home.

James Geoma, 47, of Old Foxon Road in East Haven was arrested and charged with third-degree assault on an elderly person, second-degree criminal attempt of arson, first-degree reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and two counts of breach of peace.

Police said they received complaints of a man placing a lit cigarette in the opening of the gas tank of a vehicle and a male grabbing a 67-year-old woman by the waist, causing her to scream, in the parking lot of the Foxwood Condominium on Foxwood Lane.

At the complex, officers located the suspect, Geoma, who said he is the care taker of a 78-year-old male resident who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease, police said. Police said Geoma was employed by an agency to reside with the older man in his condo.

When police entered the condo, they found the 78-year-old man with facial injuries, wounds to his extremities and other signs of assault, police said. Police said there was evidence of a struggle inside the home.

The victim was transported to an area hospital.

An adult male on a scooter suffered a severe head injury when he collided with an automobile on New Haven Ave. in Milford.

Police said the head-on collision occurred at 12:24 Monday near Merwin Avenue.

The man on the motorized scooter and an occupant in the vehicle involved in the crash were treated for injuries on scene before being transported to local hospitals, police said.

The identities of the involved parties have not been released. 

The Milford Police Department Traffic Division is currently investigating the incident and is asking anyone with information related to the accident to contact 203-783-4739.

The injury law firm Carter Mario Injury Lawyers in Milford is pleased to announce the winning students in their 6th Annual “Arrive Alive” Scholarship Program. The law firm focuses the program on teen distracted driving prevention and awards $10,000 in scholarships to 10 high school seniors across the state who have shown academic excellence and demonstrated and understanding of the dangers of texting or using a cell phone while driving. 

Students were asked to submit presentations to the firm to help educate their friends and other teens on the grave dangers of texting behind the wheel. Each winning student received a $1,000 scholarship from Carter Mario and was honored at an event held at the fffices of Carter Mario Injury Lawyers in Milford on May 5 

The 2011 Carter Mario Injury Lawyers Arrive Alive Scholarship winners are:

•  Elise Uberti, Nonnewaug High School (Woodbury, CT)  
   
  •  Christine Pitino Watertown High School (Watertown, CT)  
  •  Krista Pregony Ellington High School (Ellington, CT)
  •  Alyssa Battipaglia Hamden High School (Hamden, CT)
  •  Gaelyn Etienne-Thompson Central High School (Bridgeport, CT)
  • Christian Broome Manchester High School (Manchester, CT)

   

   

   

  • William Ryan Hertler

    Xavier High School (Middletown, CT)

  •  Yue Jay Lin, Norwich Free Academy (Norwich, CT)
  •  Casey DelBasso Lauralton Hall (Milford, CT)
  •  Bailey Cornell Haddam-Killingworth High School (Killingworth, CT)

  Since the scholarship program’s inception in 2006, Carter Mario Injury Lawyers has awarded over $44,000.00 in scholarship money to graduating high school seniors in Connecticut. In 2010, the law firm introduced a series of advertising throughout Connecticut on busses and billboards, all aimed at drawing awareness to the epidemic of distracted driving in the state. This campaign became the catalyst to raising the awareness in Connecticut on the issue of teen distracted driving, and led to the unique shift in focus of the Arrive Alive Scholarship Program. This year, the firm launched an innovative anti-distracted driving mobile application for use on Blackberry mobile devices with CA-based appsFX. The firm proudly introduced 300 copies of the app free of charge to the people of Connecticut on its website GetCarter.com in May of 2011, as another way to combat driving while distracted in addition to the Arrive Alive scholarship.

  For more the Arrive Alive Scholarship Program or Carter Mario Injury Lawyers, visit www.getcarter.com.

    

MILFORD — Bridges…A Community Support System, Inc. will offer a free course in Mental Health First Aid in honor of national “May is Mental Health Month.” On May 13 and May 20, the agency will train 25 business and public officials, school personnel and other community members from Milford, Orange and West Haven to help them to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness.

Mental Health First Aid is a 12-hour interactive training course designed to give members of the public key skills to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, the organization that brought Mental Health First Aid to the United States in 2008, certified Bridges to provide the training in 2009. Bridges conducted the first training for local first-responders and others in January, 2011. The agency intends to develop the program as a regularly scheduled course for area professionals and residents who wish to become certified.

Bridges is a private, non-profit comprehensive behavioral health agency serving over 6,500 adults and children in Milford, Orange, West Haven and the surrounding communities. For more information or to participate in Mental Health First Aid training contact Dawn Roy at Bridges, 203-878-6365, ext. 406 or email droy@bridgesmilford.org.

From the desk of arts writer Phyllis A.S. Boros

Wanted: Kids who love music.

That’s the word from Barbara Upton, who has announced that  the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras will offer an open rehearsal for prospective members on Sunday, April 10 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Roger Ludlowe Middle School, 789 Unquowa Road in Fairfield.

Upton, the GBYO executive director, said that the GBYO ensembles are open by audition to  area students who will be entering grades 5 through12 in the fall of 2011.

Students are encouraged to attend with their parents or guardians and/or music teachers. (Visitors are asked to enter the school on the lower level.) The GBYO is seeking new members in all instrumental categories:  strings (violin, viola, cello and bass); woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon); brass (French horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba) and percussion.

Each student who attends will be given audition information and a free ticket  to the GBYO’s Spring Concert on May 15, Upton said. Parents of current orchestra members will give tours of the rehearsal areas and answer questions. Refreshments will be served. 

 The Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras, founded in 1961, now offers five developmentally sequential performing ensembles: the Principal, the Symphony, the Concert, and the String orchestras, and a Wind Ensemble.  The GBYO currently includes about 250 young musicians from dozens of municipalities in Fairfield and New Haven counties.   

Rehearsals are conducted throughout the school year on Saturday mornings; every member is given the opportunity to perform at concerts throughout each season. A nominal tuition is charged for each student in the program, although Upton noted that no one is turned away because of an inability to pay the fee.

For additional information, visit www.gbyo.org  or contact  Upton at 203.452.0003.