After 30 years, I'm hanging up my notebook and pen

Yahoo

01-03-2025

When I started working at The Day, the Wauregan was crumbling, deer in the Mohegan Park Zoo enclosure had been infected with rabies and I worried every day that the giant Ponemah Mill could become the next Baltic Mill fire.
Some buildings at Norwich Hospital were still occupied.
A lot has changed in 30 years, with more changes in the works. I will leave it to my Day colleagues to cover current and future issues.
I officially retired from The Day on Friday, Feb. 28. It's been quite a ride. I joined The Day on Halloween 1994 after 10 years of reporting on eastern Connecticut for a Shoreline Times weekly in Montville, The Chronicle in Willimantic and The Bulletin.
My first story at The Day was about the rabies-infected deer at the Mohegan Park Zoo that soon afterward prompted a permanent closure of the zoo. When the Ponemah Mill renovation was well underway, I got to climb the scaffolding all the way up to the weathervane.
Having covered the Baltic Mill inferno on Aug. 11, 1999, I had fears for years that Ponemah Mill would be next. There were some close calls over the years, but now I smile every time I drive by and see the bell in the tower and the work going on at the next building in the complex. A true mill revitalization success story.
I also marvel at the town of Preston for taking on the massive cleanup of the 393-acre former Norwich Hospital. With mostly volunteers and incessantly pressuring the state to fund cleanup of the mess left behind after the hospital closed, Preston claims the title: The Little Town that Did.
I have heard so many speakers over the years say they didn't want to start thanking people by name for fear of leaving someone out. I know what they meant.
What can I say about ending a job I dreamed of since childhood, when my older brothers and sisters delivered The Day in those signature canvas shoulder bags?
I have worked with so many great reporters, editors, photographers and support staff at The Day it makes my head spin. We are so proud to cover this region as no one else can, with independent status secure from big corporate cutbacks.
I want to thank all municipal and school leaders and staff at all levels who have been forthcoming with information over the years to help us to cover the communities and schools. Thank you to firefighters and police and court staff at state and federal courts.
State legislators, their staff, lieutenant governors and governors, and state agency staff all have answered our questions and took our calls.
Thank you to business owners who let us inside their operations to show how things work.
Thank you to artists and musicians for sharing their talents, and to all the incredible volunteers who make local civic, cultural and historic groups tick. The region is a better place because of your efforts.
And thanks to all the regular people who have told us incredible stories of life, love, hardships and achievements.
And to borrow from the Johnny Cash song, 'I've been everywhere.' Here's what I have covered over the years, whether briefly or long term:
Norwich, Preston, Montville, North Stonington, Bozrah, Franklin, Sprague, Voluntown, Lisbon, Canterbury, Plainfield, Brooklyn, Sterling, Killingly, Pomfret, Lebanon, Columbia, Andover, Windham, Mansfield, Eastford, Chaplin, Ashford, Scotland and Hampton.
I have covered SCRRRA, SCRPA, SECCOG, NCDC, SEAT, regional school boards and other regional agencies. You can look up what all those letters stand for.
So, now Daniel Drainville will take over as the Day's reporter for Norwich and Preston.
Drainville, a Preston native, graduated from Norwich Free Academy in 2017, and then from University of Connecticut in 2022, receiving a bachelor's of arts in Journalism. Before graduating college, he interned at the Chronicle, in Willimantic.
Since coming to the Day newsroom in July 2023, Drainville has covered the towns of Montville and Waterford. He already has started covering Norwich and Preston issues. Please don't hesitate to contact him at [e-mail] or [phone] with news and story suggestions as you have done for me over the years. He will appreciate it as I have.
And you can find me this summer attending Norwich Sea Unicorns games at Dodd Stadium, walking my German shepherd Luna at Uncas Leap and the Tri-Town Trail in Preston and Ledyard and attending plays, concerts, lectures, parades, historical events and food festivals throughout the region — without a notebook this time.