This year’s Ridgefield High School Senior Internship Program saw the addition of four RHS seniors to the staff at Town Hall. In addition, a 2015 RHS grad joined the Town Hall team for a total of six interns!
First off is current freshman at University of Maryland Ryan Carey, who was working closely with Memorial Day Parade coordinator Denis Loncto to help write the script for the parade. Beyond that, he has been touring all of the conference rooms in town and working to bring them up to ADA standards by equipping them with the correct assistive hearing equipment.
Next is RHS Senior Brendan Pallant, who is anticipating his attendance at University of Toronto in the fall. One of his projects has been exploring the old schoolhouse off of Branchville Road and deciding what to do with it. Brendan informed us that the house hasn’t been leased since the mid 70’s, and hasn’t been opened up in over 40 years. He is currently working to obtain the keys to unlock the door.
Gwendolyn Ellis, also an RHS senior will be attending Lafayette this coming fall. She is currently researching and analyzing different town ordinances in hopes of being able to address some pressing concerns of Ridgefield residents. Gwen spoke in great detail regarding her research on the food truck debate and how they should be limited throughout town. She noted that there’s an important balance that must be maintained when it came to food trucks setting up near permanent establishments that require far more provisions than a travelling business such as a food truck. Beyond that, Gwen wrote Mr. Marconi’s speech for the Memorial Day Parade.
Jake Seem, soon to be of Boston University has been researching the hot button topic of legalization of marijuana. In the previous year a bill was introduced to the state administrative panel suggesting the legalization of marijuana, it died soon after. In anticipation of the bill’s reintroduction, Jake has been looking into the ways legalization has been handled in other states and researching the positive and negative effects. By doing so he has become quite well informed as to how to respond upon the reintroduction of the bill to the state.
Angela Sun can be found working in the Town Health Department with Director Ed Briggs. The focus of her internship project has been sampling the water in all municipal buildings across town in order to ensure that there are safe levels of lead in all water sources around town.
Last but not least is Catherine Crespo, who has been working closely with Gwen Ellis on research regarding the food truck debate. She also serves as the communications point-person as she works to create a contact list of all town volunteers and keeps track of the party affiliations of all Ridgefield residents.