Top Danbury-area stories of 2023
The Danbury area in 2023 was marked by upset election victories, plans for housing and the introduction of cannabis sales in the state.
It was also the year that two local school districts finished construction on new buildings and that Danbury broke ground on its long-awaited career academy. The area saw tragedy, too, with three murder-suicides, sparking calls for better protection for domestic violence victims, including for the vulnerable immigrant population.
Here are some of the biggest stories in the Danbury area from the past year:
Danbury Dems defeat GOP, taking mayor’s seat and winning down-ballot races
After more than two decades of Republican control in Danbury City Hall, Hat City voters elected Democrat and former City Council member Roberto Alves as the city’s new mayor. Alves defeated incumbent Republican Mayor Dean Esposito in an upset that was a rematch of the 2021 election. The Democrat prevailed in what proved to be a similarly close contest to the election two years ago.
The mayoral race wouldn’t be the only upset in November’s municipal election. Danbury Democrats prevailed in other races down the ballot — taking a supermajority on the City Council, which Republicans long held, and flipping the Board of Education and Zoning Commission. Alves and the new Democratic council members were sworn in on Nov. 30.
The election of Alves and fellow Democrats came on the heels of a decidedly bitter race, which was characterized by a bitter dispute over the cross-endorsements of the local Independent Party. That dispute was ultimately resolved by the Connecticut Supreme Court just weeks before the actual election.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Brookfield, Democrat Steve Dunn prevailed in his bid to regain his former seat as first selectman. Dunn defeated oneterm Republican First Selectwoman Tara Carr in her bid for reelection.
In other area races, Bethel Republican Dan Carter coasted to his first full term as first selectman in an uncontested race. Earlier in the year, Carter defeated Bethel Democrat Rich Straiton in a special election to decide who finished the remainder
of former First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker. Knickerbocker resigned the seat in September 2022 following his hiring as Wilton’s town administrator.
Control of New Fairfield’s top seat turned from blue to red, with Republican Melissa Lindsey punching her ticket to a first term, by defeating Democrat Pat Del Monaco. Unofficial results showed Lindsey earned 78 more votes than her opponent. With Lindsey’s victory, New Fairfield Republicans gained control of the first selectman’s seat for the first time in six years.
WestConn’s 120th year in Danbury ushers in new leadership at a challenging time
Shutdown rumors spread through the campuses of Western Connecticut State University as the university celebrated 120 years of evolution and growth in Danbury.
WestConn and other state-run universities and community colleges in Connecticut were put on notice this past spring about the “potential for campus closures” as a result of state budget cuts, as well as the possibility of full-time faculty layoffs, part-time teaching layoffs and significant tuition increases. Rumors that spring 2023 would be the final semester for WestConn’s two Danbury campuses sparked when WCSU was mentioned by name in a closed-door meeting with Connecticut education executives and state-level union leaders as the first institution to close if push comes to shove.
No sooner had the university put down the shutdown rumors as a worstcase scenario that “will not be reality” than WCSU contended with a rumor that the university would close its west side campus to cut costs. That rumor, too, was quickly debunked.
Nevertheless, WCSU welcomed students back to the campuses for the 2023-24 school year, and under new leadership.
Manohar Singh took over WCSU as interim president with a vision to have the university seen as a “first choice” institution for students locally, regionally and in the state. Singh succeeded Paul Beran, who also served as interim president after the departure of longtime president John Clark.
Three murder-suicides in one year
The Danbury area was rocked by three murdersuicides that left six people dead this year — the first of which happened in Bethel the night of Jan. 31, when 58-year-old Lester Jones shot and killed his estranged wife, 52-yearold Traci-Marie Jones, inside her Reservoir Street home before turning the gun on himself.
Traci-Marie Jones was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police, and Lester Jones was taken to Danbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Lester Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head and Traci-Marie Jones died from gunshot wounds to the head and “trunk.”
A week before the fatal shooting, Traci-Marie Jones — a mother of three remembered by loved ones as a strong-willed, compassionate person and talented hair stylist — had obtained a court order against Lester Jones, prohibiting him from having any contact with her and requiring him to stay at least 100 yards from her and surrender all firearms and ammunition. In an affidavit filed with her application for a temporary order of protection, Traci-Marie Jones wrote that she was in “constant fear of (her) safety” and that her husband of 22 years had threatened that they were born on the same day and “we will die on same day.”
The area’s second murder-suicide this year happened Oct. 27, when a man fatally stabbed a woman before stabbing himself on High Ridge Road in Danbury. Police said a patrol officer heard a verbal
argument occurring, went to investigate and found a man standing over a woman in the road. When the officer got out of his vehicle to render assistance, police said the man turned toward the officer holding a survival-type knife and proceeded to stab himself in the chest.
The individuals were in a domestic relationship and lived together on High Ridge Road, according to police, who said they would not release the woman’s name but later identified the perpetrator as 28-year-old Santos Infante-Manzanillo. The state medical examiner’s office said he died by suicide from a stab wound to the torso. The woman, Mercy Altagracia Ramirez, was identified through an obituary, which said the 21-year-old had one child and “a very good heart.”
On Nov. 20, Danbury police investigated another murder-suicide at a Griffing Avenue residence, where authorities said 28-year-old Dheraldy Mendes Caldeira fatally stabbed his 21-year-old partner, Mellyssa Pereira DaCosta, with a large kitchen knife before fatally stabbing himself in the neck. The state medical
examiner said DaCosta died of sharp injuries to her head and neck, and ruled her manner of death as a homicide.
A friend of DaCosta — who came to Danbury from Brazil when she was pregnant with her 1-yearold child — described her as well-known and wellliked. Police said a toddler was present in the home when the murder-suicide occurred but was not injured.
Apartments inside Danbury Fair mall?
The Danbury Fair mall got everyone’s attention when it announced as part of a rezoning request that it wanted to allow apartments not merely on the 116-acre shopping center grounds but inside an actual anchor store — the space vacated by Lord & Taylor to be precise.
Although observers were not shocked that the mall was trying something new — malls in Connecticut and across the country are under increasing competition from Amazon and other online retailers — the idea of coming home and making dinner in an enclosed regional mall took some getting used to.
In the end, Danbury’s
Zoning Commission agreed to create a new zone and give the 37-yearold mall permission to chart a new future. The mall insisted that it was staying in the retail business, and only a small portion of its client mix would be apartment dwellers.
The mall’s master plan is to stay competitive during a time when big retail is declining by rebranding itself as a “24-hour environment” with apartments, entertainment and other non-retail uses.
By mid-December the city’s planning department had yet to receive an application from the mall to build apartments.
First Amendment auditors making unannounced visits to town halls
In 2023, Danbury saw some developments with regard to YouTubers, who perform what they call “audits” of their access to public buildings by recording video of their visits and posting their videos on social media, where they earn money based on the ad revenue on their videos.
In March, SeanPaul Reyes, a Youtube activist who’s known for uploading videos to his YouTube channel, Long Island Audit, of his interactions with law enforcement and public officials, was found guilty of trespassing while filming inside Danbury City Hall in 2021. He was ordered to pay a $90 fine for the trespassing charge, but was cleared on a creating a public disturbance charge.
He appealed the guilty charge but the Appellate Court granted a motion to vacate the case.
Citing Section 54-96a of the Connecticut General
Statutes, the state of Connecticut filed a motion June 30, asserting that Reyes’ payment of the $90 fine vacated the appeal. According to the motion, he paid the fine a week before filing the appeal.
As a result of the Appellate Court’s ruling, Reyes’ appeal was dismissed and the lower court’s judgment, finding him guilty of simple trespass, was restored.
Book challenges in the news
Efforts to ban books have risen across the state and nationally over the past year. As of May, the Connecticut Library Association had identified 38 active book challenges across the state, up from about nine at that time last year.
Some parents have called for books to be removed from school library shelves because they say they are not age appropriate and include topics like sex, drugs and bad language. Most of the challenged books in Brookfield and Newtown have LGBTQ+ content, but parents opposed to the books said that’s not why they objected to them.
In June, two graphic novels challenged at Newtown High School were permitted to remain on the library’s shelves following a unanimous vote by the Board of Education. The vote came weeks after a deadlock vote on whether or not to pull “Flamer” by Mike Curato and “Blankets” by Craig Thompson from circulation.
In response to the debate, Newtown’s school board unanimously passed a new policy for the selection of library media resources.
In July, the Brookfield Board of Education debated and ultimately voted 5-2 to keep “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson, which is available only as an ebook through the Brookfield High School library, after it was challenged by some parents.
Brookfield Board of Education also voted in October to keep “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel on the shelves.
Super 8 saga over unhoused locals ends
One of the most controversial neighborhood issues in Danbury in recent memory came to an end in 2023 when people experiencing homelessness were moved out of a west side hotel and into a new 20-bed dormitory-style building recently purchased by the city.
Around the same time as unhoused locals were moved from the former Super 8 motel to the city’s new Elm Street center downtown, a judge ruled in favor of the city’s Zoning Commission and against a Stamford nonprofit that sued when it was denied permission to convert the motel into permanent homeless services.
The west side neighbors of the Super 8 wanted nothing to do with shelter in a commercial zone and let city leaders know it.
Now all that remains for the nonprofit Pacific House is to figure out what to do with the hotel it bought during the pandemic with state money.
Cannabis retailers open in area
Connecticut’s first recreational cannabis stores opened back in January 2023, but it wasn’t until April that there was a retail shop in the Danbury area for customers seeking to buy weed and other products legally.
The Botanist originally opened as a medicinal cannabis dispensary on Mill Plain Road in 2021 a few months after Connecticut
made recreational sales legal. The city of Danbury later granted the Botanist permission to expand its operations as a hybrid medicinal dispensary and retail store.
The shop, located in a former bank near Exit 2 off Interstate 84, was the first of two approved recreational cannabis shops to open in Danbury in 2023.
The second shop, BUDR Cannabis, opened in October in a converted garage on Federal Road with a line 15-customers deep outside the door.
The opening of the all-retail cannabis shop featured a ribbon-cutting ceremony with local dignitaries, special discounts for customers, a shred funk band and the Tasty Yolk breakfast food truck.
Budr Cannabis, which also has a retail location in West Hartford, is also a family business. Derrick Gibbs, a founder and part owner of the firm, markets cannabis with his mom and other family members.
Danbury is the only municipality in the region with regulations permitting four types of cannabis businesses in limited amounts and in specific zones, all generating tax revenue for the city.
Housing growth in Danbury
New housing in Danbury was in the headlines with the opening of a new apartment building on the downtown’s Main Street and with the construction of 180 apartments at the Summit on the west side.
Among the features of the downtown’s newest apartment house, a 149-unit residence called Brookview West, are a second-story rooftop pool overlooking Main Street and a pedestrian sky bridge over Padanaram Brook that connects the new apartment house with the developer’s existing apartment building on Crosby Street.
At the Summit, a 1.3 millionsquare-foot office complex on 100 acres, the first half of 360 apartments are on pace to begin leasing in the spring.
Amenities include everything from a 15,000-square-foot exercise center and a yoga studio to an espresso bar, an indiestyle bookstore, a dry-cleaner, a hair salon, a café and a putting green.
There are also plans for a pool, a clubhouse, a restaurant, a convenience store and a selfstorage facility.
Other housing projects in the planning stages include:
Transform a downtown Main Street corner;
A plan to with 100 apartments and restore the empty 1899 state courthouse for new city uses;
A 208-apartment project for downtown;
A Danbury’s South Main Street
New schools open in Brookfield and New Fairfield; Danbury project underway
Danbury officials broke ground last February in an effort to transform the former Cartus Corp. headquarters into a new campus that will serve 1,400 middle and high school students. The new campus, whose opening officials hope will alleviate overcrowding at Danbury High School, is expected to open in the fall of 2025. Danbury school officials this year implemented a new comprehensive career academy curriculum for high school students that is intended to coincide with the new campus’s opening.
Brookfield’s Candlewood Lake Elementary School welcomed its first group of students this fall with its long-awaited opening.
The new building at 100 Candlewood Lake Road was a $78 million project, which consolidated the former Center and Huckleberry Hill elementary schools into one building and brought fifth graders from Whisconier Middle School into the building.
High school students in New Fairfield moved into a new 143,000-square-foot building this school year, as all major construction was completed.
New Fairfield taxpayers approved the $84.2 million project in 2019. Project manager O&G Industries touted the new building as having “a collegecampus feel,” with new features like a dining commons and academic wings. Some of the project’s cost was offset by state funding.