Southington by the Numbers: Some Current Statistics

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Not every statistic tells a story, but some do. Below we have compiled a few numbers that have come across our desk recently which offer glimpses of life in town.

Cost of Living

Lowest advertised price for gallon of unleaded gas at local station: $3.939

Increase since December: +51.5%

Average rent for a one-bedroom in Southington, according to Apartments.com: $1,520

Increase since last year: +12.1%

Average home value in Southington, according to Zillow.com: $438,217

Increase since last year: +4.9%

Overall town budget for 2026/27: $193,510,798

Increase since last year: +2.7%

Government

 

Number of property foreclosure forms recorded by Town Clerk’s office in May: 7

Number of marriage licenses issued: 19

Number of hunting and fishing licenses issued: 81

Number of dog licenses issued: 316

Number of land documents recorded: 441

Number of marriages recorded: 16

Number of births recorded: 32

Number of deaths recorded: 36

Number of permits approved by Building Department in May 2026: 409

Increase in this number since last year: +139

Number of vehicles served by Bulky Waste Transfer Station on May 9, 2026: 644

Number of vehicles served by Bulky Waste Transfer Station on May 16: 720

Number of vehicles served by Bulky Waste Transfer Station on May 30, prior to closure due to Chuck & Eddie’s fire: 242

Number of technical rescue incidents reported by Fire Department during May 2026: 2

Number of vehicle fires: 2

Number of structural fires: 4

Number of outside fires: 6

Number of false alarms: 20

Number of motor vehicle crashes: 22

Number of EMS incidents: 30

Number of hazardous conditions calls: 46

Number of citizen assists: 47

Number of overlapping incidents: 72

Number of safety inspections and plan reviews: 90

Number of training events: 502

Number of nip bottles sold in Southington from October 2025 through March 2026: 709,576

Total ‘environmental fee’ collected: $35,478.00

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Special thanks to Town Clerk Kathy Larkin for sharing the data from her office and to Councilor Mike Del Santo and Town Engineer David Nourse for passing along the statistics from the Building and the Highways Department. The numbers for the Fire Department were found here; the nip bottle figures, here.

PHILIP THIBODEAU PHOTO

Home At Last: Recovered Remains of WWII Airman To Receive Military Burial

Notice of Donald Dorman from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

On March 22, 1945, Technical Sergeant Donald A. Dorman and eight fellow crew members listened as the engine of their B-17G ‘Flying Fortress’ bomber slowly cranked to life. Their aircraft was about to embark on a long and dangerous journey that would take it from an airfield in Italy over an oil refinery in southeast Germany where they were to drop their payload.

Dorman would never see the airbase again, nor his hometown of Southington. As it neared its target, the B-17 was attacked and struck by German fighter planes. Two crew members parachuted to safety and were taken prisoner; Dorman and six others went down with the plane, which crashed in a field in southwestern Poland.

Dorman's family was notified, his name was placed on the rolls of the honored dead, but his body was never recovered. That situation changed last summer. A team of archaeologists and forensic experts from Alta Archaeological Consulting were digging at the site of the crash, which had been identified several years earlier. Along with pieces of the bomber, they identified a small set of human remains. The remains were carefully preserved and sent to a lab associated with the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Last September 19, the Agency announced that with the help of DNA sequencing the remains of Sergeant Dorman had been identified.

Rachal Wache, the chair of Southington’s Veterans Committee, heard the news from a woman who is a cousin of Dorman. For her it was a deeply moving revelation, because it meant that at long last Dorman, whose name is listed on the town of Southington’s WWII memorial, would finally be buried at home.

Plans for Dorman’s burial and belated homecoming have now been finalized, with four events scheduled for June 22 and 23. Dorman’s cousin and several members of his extended family are expected to be in attendance. That said, all four events are open to the public; according to Wache, members of the community are welcome to join in celebrating Dorman’s life and honoring his sacrifice: “whether you just come to one, or all four, everyone is welcome.”

Monday, June 22

Wake

Plantsville Funeral Home, 975 South Main Street

5-7pm

Tuesday, June 23

Memorial Service

1^st Congregational Church, 37 Main Street

10 am

Burial with Military Honors

Oak Hill Cemetery, 95 Flanders Street

around 11am

Celebration of Life

Aqua Turf Club, 556 Mulberry Street

around noon

Southington's WWII Memorial PHILIP THIBODEAU PHOTO

United Way Cocktail Competition Raises Spirits, and Funds

The United Way Cocktail Competition at the Aqua Turf JILL R KELLY PHOTOS

An essential part of the Cocktail Competition the Southington United Way held last Tuesday were the recipes - like the one that prescribed how much basil, ginger, orange, lime, and agave to mix with vodka in an Electric Bloom, the cocktail that won Spelunker’s bar the first-place overall award. Part of the fun of the evening was to skim the lists of ingredients in each competitor’s drink and try to decide whether it might be a winner:

The official aim of the contest was to determine, through the votes of the ticket-holders sipping samples in the Aqua Turf hall, which cocktail had the most creative combination of ingredients, the best taste, the best presentation, or scored the best in all three categories. At the end of the evening, the following winners in these four categories were announced:

But there were more winners last Tuesday than just the mixologists. The Cocktail Contest is a major fundraiser for the Southington United Way; between the tickets, which cost $50 a piece, sponsorships, a silent auction of athletic memorabilia, and a raffle, the proceeds are substantial. “This is one of our two largest events,” said Britt Lynch, the nonprofit’s Executive Director. “We do get a lot of our revenue from it. It’s very important because the more we raise, the more we can help.”

Southington United Way Executive Director Britt Lynch

In a sense, then, the most important winners of the competition are the people who benefit from the organizations the United Way awards grants to. Two years ago these organizations included

Southington Bread For Life

The Giving Back Food Pantry

Friends of Southington Community Services

The Prudence Crandall Center, a safe house for victims of domestic violence

The Margaret Griffin Child Development Center

Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut

Southington Community YMCA

Senior Transportation Services, Inc., which provides rides for seniors

Donations to the United Way thus end up going towards basic human needs: food, shelter, education, health, transportation.

The beneficiaries of the United Way’s fundraising are always local. “We make sure our funds go specifically to Southington residents,” Lynch said. This localism is a point of pride: “In Connecticut, most United Ways are consolidating and becoming regional. There are only three United Ways left that serve just one town, and we are one. We’re proud to be hyperlocal.”

As for the original idea for the competition, that was the brainstorm of Taylor Deegan, president of the United Way’s Board of Directors: “This was all Taylor’s idea,” said Lynch. “He is the manager of Worldwide Liquors and the president of our Board. They have competitions like this in the liquor industry, but they are not generally open to the public. He manages that side of it, and I take care of the public-facing side.”

Other fundraisers will supplement the proceeds from the Cocktail Competition. This year the Southington United Way branch is observing its one-hundredth anniversary, which it will celebrate at another fundraiser this fall. “It’s our centennial, and we’re going to have a gala,” Lynch said. “It will be 1920’s-themed because 100 years ago was 1926. It’s going to be a big party, dinner and dancing and a really good time. It’s at the Aqua Turf on Friday, October 16.”

And for those looking for a more off-the-wall kind of event, that’s in the works too. This year the United Way is going to hold an adult tricycle race on the first Saturday of the Apple Harvest Festival, October 3. Teams of four will race up and down Main Street starting at 11am that day. Each team must raise $500 to participate, and in turn will get to keep the trike, as well as being eligible for various prizes. For more details, see the website.