DeLauro, Murphy seek stiffer penalties for memorial thefts

 

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, talks with Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri, bottom left, Joseph Berube Sr., center left, and state Rep. Linda Gentile, bottom right, after a press conference announcing the Protect Veterans' Memorials Act at the Woodbridge Avenue Honor Roll and War Memorial in Ansonia Thursday. At far right is Jamie Cohen, president of the Valley Community Foundation, who announced the Veterans Memorial Plaques Restoration Fund. Arnold Gold/Register

By Phyllis Swebilius
Register Staff
ANSONIA — The theft of two copper and bronze plaques from a veterans memorial hit Pete Giovacchini hard.
Three Giovacchinis are named on the memorial: Pete, of Seymour, and his two brothers, John and Salvatore.
“That day, I actually cried a little bit here,” he said Thursday at the Woodbridge Avenue Honor Roll and War Memorial.
Formerly of Ansonia, Giovacchini, 84, is on the neighborhood committee that installed the memorial a half-century ago. He has helped build it up from wood, to brick left over from his own home, and now granite. He remembers raising the flagpole.
 

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 Two plaques were stolen from the Woodbridge Avenue Honor Roll and War Memorial in Ansonia. Arnold Gold/Register