The Infamous Crystal Mall Slip-and-Fall; Tax Break for Farmers

This week of news was like a shotgun blast: no one dominant piece, but a bunch of little pellets of information that wound up covering a large area. And yet no story was as well read as the woman who sued the Crystal Mall for a Black Friday fall.

The woman, who lives in South Glastonbury, was shopping on Black Friday 2009 at 4:30 a.m. when she slipped and fell on a puddle of water within the Crystal Mall. She suffered a litany of injuries her lawyer deemed permanent and is suing the mall for money and other damages.

On Monday, the Waterford Representative Town Meeting delayed a vote on a new ordinance that gives a tax break to farmers. The RTM didn’t voice any opposition to the ordinance, but pushed back the vote because of a technicality. The break would cost Waterford very little in terms of collecting taxes, and farm land is among the most profitable land to have in any town from a property tax perspective, according to RTM members.

The most discussed story of the week was about Doreen Wadsworth, who Patch found cleaning trash alongside the road Monday morning. Wadsworth said she was doing it because she hated seeing the trash alongside the road and wanted to make a difference.

On Thursday, we had a piece about a group looking to add lights to the softball field at Lisa Dedrick Memorial Park. The project is expected to cost around $100,000, although the group is arguing that new lights would allow the girls to use the field much more and even facilitate the beginning of a women’s softball league.

And then, we had two stories about two great kids. One was fourth-grader Kyle Caulkins, a boy dedicated to making a difference, to the point he plans on starting a “Change the World” club at Oswegatchie Elementary School. The other was about 12-year-old Skyler Henry, who found a bunch of wallets and purses behind her house. Henry turned it in to the police department, who managed to return most of the purses and wallets to their rightful owners.

In other news, we had a piece about how Waterford’s police department is fighting crime and eliminating boundaries via social media, property values were sent out to Waterford homeowners and the Waterford Christmas tree was lit. O, and then there was that story about the woman who missed her sister, so she sent her a sign from beyond the grave…