Author: Ross Lager

Keefe Center holds first community health fair

By Ross Lager

The Keefe Community Center in Hamden hosted its first free community health fair on Saturday, April 13.

The event lasted from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. and had over 20 providers present, offering information about health concerns and benefits including, dental care, nutrition, eyesight, food banks and therapy.


The Keefe Community Center held its first community fair Saturday. (Photo: Ross Lager)

The Keefe Community Center held its first community fair Saturday. (Photo: Ross Lager)

Nancy Juliano, a Hamden resident and member of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer committee, had her Paint Hamden Pink station to spread awareness for breast cancer.

“Events like these are very important and should happen more often,” Juliano said. “People can learn about breast cancer but I can also spread awareness and grow support for the people and families affected by this disease.”

Attendees had the chance to learn about and seek possible treatments for diseases such as sickle cell anemia, breast cancer and AIDS.  

The Quinnipiack Valley Health District, Yale-New Haven Health Hospital and representatives from the Town of Hamden were present, providing information about services for mammograms, diabetes and how to better care for your body.

Nearby universities such as Quinnipiac University, Yale University, the University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State University each had a station with student representatives available to speak about topics such as AIDS care, cancer and nutrition.

A food pantry truck was set up for an hour to give away free fresh products such as vegetables, fruit, cold cuts and drinks.


Attendees visit the Connecticut Food Bank truck. (Photo: Ross Lager)

Attendees visit the Connecticut Food Bank truck. (Photo: Ross Lager)

The Community Services Coordinators at the Keefe Center, Y’Isiah Lopes and Anne Marie Karavas, said they believe the first health fair was a success.

“It was a good turnout,” Karavas said. “There were about 160 people here today.”

While attendance numbers are important, Lopes said he is happy to provide services for the community and help any number of people in any way possible.

“As long as we are offering the community something, you can never predict the number,” he said. “We could have had five people or 500. In the end, I can leave happy saying that we provided information and education for those who may need it.”

Lopes explained that this event will serve as a pilot program to help the Keefe Center understand how community members will respond to a health fair and how to better serve their needs for the next one.

He stressed the importance of bringing more awareness to the event as the Keefe Center’s goal is to spread the word as much as possible.

“I think we should work with the faith-based organizations like churches and have them help spread this information to their congregations,” he said.

Lopes said that he and his team have a lot to learn from this event about ways to improve it in future years. He said he hopes to make next year’s event bigger and better.

“We are going to recap from this event, see what we can do better, what we did well and what we can change moving forward,” Lopes said.

Recent shootings spike fear in Hamden

A shooting incident in a Hamden parking lot has residents worrying once again about crime in their town.

A shooting incident on March 17 outside the Off The Hook Restaurant shortly after closing left two bullet holes in the passenger side of a parked car and one shell casing on the ground.

Though no one was injured in the incident, it nevertheless left some residents worried.

Guiseppe Pellino Jr., a Hamden resident and employee at the Wood-n-Tap restaurant, said he was upset to hear about the shooting on Dixwell Avenue.

“It’s scary to hear that, especially when it is so close to home,” he said. “That’s literally around the corner from me.”

This is one of several crimes involving firearms that happened in Hamden recently. Last month, in a two-week span, there were two armed robberies and a woman was shot in her home

Pellino said he loves Hamden and is worried about the increase in crime.

“Growing up, this was a great town, and it still is… I don’t know what really has changed over the years,” he said. “I worry because I love being in Hamden and I don’t remember this being an issue before.”

The recent shooting in the Off The Hook parking lot is not the first shooting there. In September, a man shot another man in his ankle and a woman in her thigh.

Michael Cheng, the manager at Green Laundry, which is two stores over from Off The Hook, says he thinks the police should have a larger presence in this part of Hamden.

“I don’t think this neighborhood is that safe compared to others, especially at night,” he said. “I think there should be more police patrols in front of this parking lot because of the restaurant [Off The Hook].”

Cheng has managed Green Laundry for three years and says he feels crime has risen since Off the Hook moved into the neighborhood in 2017.

“Before they moved here, there was a crime or incident maybe every few months,” he said. “When they came, it was more and I heard about a lot of fights.”

Operators of Off The Hook could not be reached for comment.

Cheng said he believes that dangerous events like these have a negative effect on his business and customers.

Despite the feeling of people like Cheng, patrol officer Angela Vey said she thinks crime fears are overblown.

“I really do think people feel safe,” she said. “Especially when they see officers in the community and interacting with people.”

Vey said she was unable to comment on the March 17 shooting because the investigation is ongoing.

“We do a lot to ensure safety,” Vey said. “We have a lot of proactive patrols, officers are out stopping cars or suspicious people, we have bicycle and motorcycle patrols and in the summer we have walking beat patrols on certain days.”

Yet, despite Vey’s assertion of Hamden’s general safety, a website that ranks safety of cities and towns,neighborhoodscout.com ranks it in the bottom third of towns and cities in the U.S. when it comes to safety.

Unlike Cheng, Pellino says he has noticed stepped-up police patrols.

“Now, you definitely notice more of a presence,” Pellino said. “Hamden is pretty safe. I feel safe and it makes me feel good knowing there is always patrols on the street and in the neighborhoods, Honestly, they do a great job in the town.”

Quinnipiac and club sports are affiliated again

by Ross Lager


Photo by Shayla Colon

Photo by Shayla Colon

Club sports are officially affiliated with Quinnipiac University after many years of students pressing for this change — and they are thrilled about the decision.

Sophomore Kaye Paddyfote, a member and coordinator for the women’s club lacrosse team, the Hamden Heroes, could not contain her excitement.

“I was in the Student Government Association (SGA) suite and I yelled really loud and jumped up and down,” she said. “I was so happy knowing that our school has heard us beg and plead for something and they finally approved of it.”  

Club sports initially lost affiliation with QU after the school was sued for violating Title IX. The case started in 2009 when the women’s volleyball team felt they were treated unfairly. The 2013 consent decree mentions the violations QU committed, including not providing equal opportunities and financial support to female athletes and teams.

Quinnipiac was forced to comply with the consent decree that said women’s athletic teams will receive the same attention and support the men’s teams receive. QU had to maintain the women’s sports fields and they could not eliminate the volleyball team or any other division one team.

Part D of the terms section in the consent decree reads, “If Quinnipiac sponsors or otherwise provides support to club sports teams during the term of this Consent Decree, it must allocate those opportunities on a gender equitable basis.”

Following this, Quinnipiac sponsored no club sports in 2013-14. Since then, it has been an uphill battle for students to reacquire affiliation between QU and club sports.

Students were tasked with figuring out the logistics on their own to continue playing. The students funded the teams, they found places to practice and provided transportation themselves, all while trying to be an organized team to compete in games. Paddyfote mentioned these constant issues.

“Some of the struggles with being unaffiliated was having nowhere to practice and relying on a few girls who had cars to take us to games,” she said.

President Judy Olian made the announcement on Tuesday, March 5, via twitter.

Many students, along with the SGA, have spent time and effort to bring back club sports. SGA vice president Luke Ahearn mentioned that this journey started in 2015 and really gained momentum in 2017 from the efforts of Brandon Vattima, who wrote the proposal for the return of club sports to QU.

“I followed up on his (Vattima’s) efforts and we were feeling very positive coming into this year,” he said. “President Olian is very much in support of this and so we were all excited for this.”

Ahearn noted that this process just started, so many of the details are still unknown. The applications for the teams have not been sent out yet.

Ahearn thinks the number of teams will be determined by how many women’s club teams apply because it must be equal. He explained that it is an important decision for which teams will become affiliated.

“By the end of March, every team should know if they are on campus or not,” he said. “It’s not that we don’t want every team to be on campus, its that we have to abide by Title IX.”

This is major progress for club sports, especially for the Brave Hockey Club, New Blue Rugby and Sleeping Giants lacrosse team. The hockey club started in 2013, New Blue in 2005 and the lacrosse team in 2009 they have been playing for many years and are ready to play and practice on campus.

Paddyfote is hopeful that QU will provide the correct support and attention that club sports teams deserve.

“I think they should pay for buses for away games, and provide us with space on campus to practice and actually hold home games,” she said.

Ahearn spoke to the Quinnipiac Athletics Department briefly about the plan moving forward and he believes that it will provide “some financial support” and the players will have annual dues to pay.

According to Ahearn, administrators are meeting next week to further discuss how to handle this process before the applications go out for club teams to fill out.

The Associate Athletic Director of Intramurals, Mike Medina, confirmed that more information will soon be available for everyone.

“All information pertaining to the new Club Sports Initiative will be distributed to the campus community in the coming weeks via social media platforms, including the application process,” he said.

Paddyfote can’t wait to start playing on a club team that is affiliated with the university.

“I’m looking forward to having matching uniforms with my team and an actual coach or a student-coach because we don’t have one and I think that would polish our team,” she said.

Ahearn thinks that five or six club teams will be affiliated by next fall. Since he is also a member of New Blue Rugby, he has high hopes that the team will be playing their games on the QU pitch.

“Next fall, we’d like to see New Blue Rugby play the inaugural club sport game, I would like to see that be the path we take,” he said.  

Quinnipiac will spend estimated $135,000 to replace faulty soccer and lacrosse field

By Ross Lager

Quinnipiac lacrosse and soccer teams haven’t always enjoyed a home-field advantage over the last year — in fact, they haven’t always had a home field to play on at all.

When the university built the $28 million lacrosse and soccer stadium two years ago, it chose to use a crumbly cork material to cushion the field and help the field’s artificial grass to stand up.

According to the Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning, Sal Filardi, the university chose cork because it thought the material would have less impact on the wetlands bordering the field than the crumb rubber alternative. What it didn’t count on was that the cork would freeze in the wet winter weather, rise above the grass and create a slippery, unplayable surface.

“When the field freezes, the teams are not able to practice,” Filardi said. “Last year they missed roughly two dozen days of practice. Several games have also had to be rescheduled or moved to a different site.”


Quinnipiac Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium turf

Quinnipiac Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium turf

The setbacks didn’t affect the soccer teams during their season (which took place in the fall). In October, the men’s soccer team hosted the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) finals on their home field. The issues with the turf are affecting the teams in the spring.

Now, the university wants to replace the cork material with synthetic rubber at a cost of $135,000, Filardi said.

“The cork infill gets wet and freezes,” he said. “The rubber doesn’t absorb water and the black color absorbs the heat of the sun even on below freezing days.”

The work must be approved by Hamden’s Inland Wetlands Commission, which is concerned about the impact of the potentially toxic runoff from the rubber on the wetlands to the south of the facility.

Filardi acknowledged the negative impact the field has had on Quinnipiac’s teams.

“Coaches have clearly expressed their dissatisfaction with the frozen field,” he said.

Sophomore soccer defenseman Simon Hillinger agreed.

He said when the team came to school in January, they practiced for two weeks inside because they couldn’t practice on the turf — it was too icy and slippery.

“I still think it affects us a lot,”  Hillinger said. “Now in spring season, you can work on the details but when you practice inside, it is smaller and all we can do is play five on five, we can’t do any tactics.”

The wetlands commission has voted that it will approve the change, but only under three conditions.

First, Quinnipiac must pre-wash the rubber in a way that meets the approval of the commission.

Second, the university must provide an annual inspection report about the level of synthetic rubber particles in the wetlands and to ensure proper drainage from the stadium.

Finally, the university must change its snow plowing procedure so that snow is pushed to the northern side of the field, opposite the wetlands to the south.

Filardi said the biggest condition is that the infill needs to washed before it gets installed.

“The thinking is that washing removes some of the chemicals that may leach out over time,” he said.

In any case, Filardi said he did not think the work could be done until spring at the earliest.

“We are still identifying the process to wash the infill and determining next steps,” he said. “I don’t believe we will address the field until after the current athletic seasons are over in April.”