Public health hearing set for Friday

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Aspartofthe Killingworth Library’s Author Series, Lisa K. Winkler will speak on Tuesday, March 19, at 7 p.m. in the Meeting Room.

The author of “Tangerine Tango” and “A Black Cowboy’s Ride Across America” returns to her hometown to offer this free program.

Winkler grew up in Killingworth in the 60s and 70s. She attended Killingworth Elementary School and Morgan High School. Her father, Martin Klein, was a poultry farmer and the entire family – Winkler’s mother, two sisters and brother – worked on the farm. After graduating from Vassar College, Winkler wanted to be a journalist. She worked as a reporter for the Hartford Courant and the Danbury News-Times.

Winkler moved to London, where she worked as a

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freelance journalist. She returned to the States, where she became certified through New Jersey’s Alternate Route program, designed for people from other professions to enter education. She continues to write, for professional journals, interviewing authors of literature for children and young adults, and creating study guides for Penguin and others.

Winkler’s first book, “A Black Cowboy’s Ride Across America,” tells the story of Miles J. Dean, a Newark, N.J., schoolteacher, who rode his horse from New York to California to celebrate the contributions African Americans made in the settling of the United States.

“Tangerine Tango” came about after Lisa’s one-year anniversary blogging under www.cyclingrandma.wordpress. She invited several writers, mostly other bloggers she’s befriended, to join the project. The title was inspired by her love of alliteration and for the color orange. “Tangerine Tango” includes essays and poems about parents, families, jobs, food and memories.

Her other writing includes two essays published in book anthologies; one in “I’m Going to College – Not You! Surviving the College Search with Your Child” and the other in “Wisdom of our Mothers.”

Winkler writes for Education Update and JerseyMan magazine. She is an avid reader, knitter, yogi, cyclist and grandmother.

The event is free but space is limited. Register in advance by calling the Killingworth Library at (860) 663-2000 or stopping by in person.

The state General Assembly’s Public Health Committee will hold a public hearing in Middletown this Friday.

The hearing will take place at 11 a.m. at Beckham Hall, 45 Wyllys Ave., at Wesleyan University, according to the hearing agenda.

According to the agenda, the committee will review bills pertaining to approval for residential nursing facilities; requirements that psychiatrists give notice that patients pose a threat to themselves or others; behavioral health assessments for children; mental health services at schoolbased centers; and other topics pertaining to psychiatric and physical health.

The hearing is being held locally as part of an effort to involve communities more directly in the legislative process. Middletown is among the first communities to host such a hearing.

The Public Health Committee is co-chaired by state Sen. Terry B. Gerratana, D-6, and state Rep. Susan M. Johnson, R-49. State Sen. Jason Welch, R-31, and state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, R-31, are the ranking Republicans on the committee.

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