February 2010 Issue

Public Hearing
Anti-Blight Ordinance

A public hearing will be held on this Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 7 P.M. at the Haddam Town Hall, 21 Field Park Drive. For the full Legal Notice,
click here, read it on our Calendar page, or go to the Haddam Town website.
The full proposed Anti-Blight Ordinance, in PDF, is linked
here and in the left column of this page


Made in Higganum
by Ed Schwing

Kenyon factory in Higganum
If you buy any complex technical equipment these days, chances are, the components and final assembly will have been made in China or another country.

For a younger generation of residents, it is hard to imagine that not so long ago almost everything used in Haddam, from thumbtacks to complicated machinery, would have been made somewhere in the United States.
Even Higganum, from the mid 1800 to 1920’s, was a prime manufacturing center of farm equipment sold all over the world. Self-sharpening hoes were made by the Scovil Hoe Company on Candlewood Hill Road and plows and many other farming devices were manufactured at the Clark Cutaway Harrow Company in Higganum Center.
Indeed, at the start of the Industrial Revolution, waterpower was the main source of energy for many manufacturing shops and Higganum had plenty of it. This inspired local entrepreneurs like the Scovil brothers to run their small factories along the Candlewood Hill Brook. When steam and later electricity became the energy sources of choice, plants could be constructed anywhere and Higganum’s streams and brooks lost their appeal as energy sources to run machinery.
And as we know, more recently with the advent of oil, extensive transportation networks, and cheap labor in some countries, many US manufacturing companies decided to move many of their operations abroad. For that same younger generation of Americans, “outsourcing” is a term much more familiar than “manufacturing.”
Gone are the days when items “Made in Higganum” would be shipped to all corners of the world.
But are they really? (Full Story here)

Ed Vynalek standing at the Candlewood Hill dam
Ed Vynalek on the levee in front of the restored Candlewood Hill DamVynalek, a Higganum resident and member of the Economical Development Commission , is a strong supporter of hydroelectric power.“Coal, oil, gas, and atomic powered generators add pollution to the environment,” said Vynalek. “Electric rates are going up , yet we have this renewable non-polluting hydroelectric power right in our own backyards being wasted away.”Vynalek believes the state should do more to help people like Ron and Bobbie complete projects like this one.