Remembering a Waterford Icon, Saving $550K

First off, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We hope you relaxed, ate a bunch of food and enjoyed watching the requiem of the New York Jets.

Despite the holiday, there was some real news this week. The most well read story and the saddest story was about the passing of John Fratus at age 67. Fratus spent his life volunteering at Oswegatchie Fire House and went on more ambulance calls than probably anybody in Waterford history, and was named Waterford’s Citizen of the Year in August.

Then, there were two stories, one about a $300,000 grant and the other a $550,000 in savings. The federal grant was received by the Town of Waterford and gives residents $25,000 interest-free loans to make improvements to their homes. The savings was from the Waterford School District, after it made some smart decisions on health insurance. For more information about the grant, click here, and the savings, click here.

On Thursday, we had the story of a Quaker Hill man who will receive a very rare honor: induction into the Connecticut Veteran’s Hall of Fame. Later that day, we printed a touching thank-you from the Kelsey Harrington Foundation to the Waterford community.

On Tuesday, the Waterford Board of Selectmen signed a resolution asking for new management to run southeastern Connecticut’s public transportation system. Also this week, police announced that they had arrested a man for allegedly going on a burglary spree in Waterford in September.

In other news, a group of Waterford girls had a remarkable win, Connecticut’s unemployment rate went up, a developer is looking to put in a new subdivision in Waterford and we had a touching story about a how a woman got out of her depression. O, and then there was this story about the dangers of Facebook and if perceived mistakes in one’s personal life should mean the end of their professional life.