By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor The Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School Board suffered a sudden attack of what I would call “Juda syndrome” at its meeting Monday night. Needless to say, no board member or probably any reader is familiar with the Juda story or why it is...
Story of Civil War casualty, Ontario settler is well suited for Memorial Day
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor Bob Breidenstein of Ontario has been poking around in the closets lately, uncovering some fascinating stuff. Once a man retires and sells the cows, one never knows what he might find to occupy his time. Lately Bob has turned his...
Community revitalization is yeoman’s task
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor By any measure, the health and future of small rural towns is a cause for cynicism. So many factors are working against us: We experience a brain-drain effect as our high achievers leave after high school; farm consolidation...
High-voltage line a hard sell
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor So there they were again, the beleaguered folks from American Transmission Company, trying vainly to sell a product that no one wants. As they discovered Thursday in Norwalk, it's particularly hard to sell high-voltage lines to the...
Sandhill cranes: Food or off-limits fauna?
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor Just a few miles from home, I heard a familiar sound early in the morning a few weeks ago. I stopped the car and grabbed my camera as a half-dozen sandhill cranes paraded about no more than 100 feet away. I grabbed the camera, but...
Pieces of Basi Legani Resort auctioned off
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor Anyone who has lived in the Kickapoo Valley for a while becomes accustomed to boondoggles. Local folks create some, but newly landed residents also come with schemes and have the resources to bring their dreams to fruition. Or...
New state legislation on sex education is autocratic
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor Pity the poor high school health teacher. Sex today is exactly what it was yesterday and the day before and ever since Adam figured out Eve had more to offer than a bushel of ripe apples. But that truism never seems to dawn on the...
April Fools’ story brings home meaning of viral
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor I am of an age that the word "viral" brings to mind a day off school spent flat out on the sofa with a box of Kleenex and a jar of smelly Vicks. That was then, and this is now. Then we got a virus; now things "go viral." Oh, my, do...
Castle Doctrine Law makes a homeowner ‘judge, jury and executioner’
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor A few news items the past few weeks brought back a dark memory from my youth. It was a month before our gang of four planned to head off to different colleges, and to celebrate one of the last times we were all likely to be...
Perhaps Wilton Village Board should have admitted mea culpa
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor Everyone who has a problem admitting they have been mistaken should serve at least a six-month term as a weekly newspaper editor. After nearly 30 years of saying "sorry," the word flows like sweet wine across my lips: "Sorry I...
