Date: Fri 22-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Jim-Shortt-feed-store

Full Text:

w/photo: New Feed Store Opens In Sandy Hook

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Jim Shortt opened his "Feed & More Store" on Riverside Road after nearly 20

years in the construction industry, but his interest in agriculture dates back

to his childhood.

A 1975 graduate of Nonnewaug High School's agricultural program, he raised

chickens as a kid growing up in Newtown and listened to his father talk about

growing up on a farm. But like his father, he wound up in construction where

there was more money to be made.

Now, almost two decades after he established Jim Shortt Construction, Inc.,

Jim finally is getting back to his first interest. In the building that many

residents may remember as the former John Stefanko warehouse, he opened a feed

store and gift shop next to the garage bays where he keeps his construction

equipment.

There are 30 chickens - Rhode Island Reds - out back which provide the fresh

brown eggs that Jim sells in the store. This week he's installing a cooler to

sell milk and orange juice along with the maple syrup, honey, pancake mix,

preserves and other specialty items that he stocks.

"I used to keep trucks in this space back in the 1980s when I had my own

residential remodeling business and had men working for me," he said. "But I

gave up that kind of work to do commercial remodeling about five years ago

because I was doing a lot of work for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals in

Danbury and they have enough to keep me steadily busy."

The closing of Newtown Feed & Cider on Route 302 left the town without a feed

store, a niche that Jim Shortt decided he could fill.

"People had to drive to Monroe, Bethel or Southbury (to buy feed) and I

thought this would be much more convenient," he said. "People seem to be very

positive about it."

He sells all types of animal feeds, from those for pigs and goats to llamas

and rabbits. There's a full line of Purina and Nutrena feeds, plus loose

grains and bird seeds, wood shavings, feeding and bedding hay. There are

gardening tools, plants from Mr Shortt's adjacent greenhouse, fertilizers and

natural pesticides plus hard-to-find items like Bag Balm (traditionally used

on cow's udders but also a popular winter remedy for chapped hands).

Last June Jim's mother, Laura Shortt, opened Dolly's Gift Shop, at the store,

where she sells some antiques and collectibles plus small giftware such as

planters and potpourri. There are handmade candles and stained glass ornaments

made by local crafters.

On a front table are gift baskets specially made up for different interests.

One features garden implements and bird seed, another has honey, maple syrup,

pancake and biscuit mixes, a third has dog biscuits and the like. On the front

of the shop, which is set several hundred feet behind the large commercial

building at 52 Riverside Road, are wreaths made from fresh greens, priced at

just $5 and $7.

Next summer Jim Shortt plans to expand the variety of organic vegetables he

grows in a quarter-acre garden behind the shop. The vegetables are picked as

they ripen and displayed on tables alongside the building.

"I plan to run a canopy the length of the building over the tables next

summer," he said. "And I intend to raise 150 turkeys to sell fresh for

Thanksgiving. I raised and sold 24 of those when I was a youngster, too."

On the weekends his fiance, Toni Richards, helps out in the store and

sometimes his dad, James Shortt, Sr, is there, too.

The store has been growing slowly but steadily because Jim Shortt believes in

paying as you go, not in borrowing money and running the risk of

over-extending as he tests the market for his products. He's pleased to find

that what he was interested in as a child is coming back into public

appreciation slowly but surely.

"Life's a circle - what's old is new again," he said, scratching the head of

the shop cat, Stubby, a tail-less maimed stray which he adopted and nursed

back to robust health.

In the winter months, the store is open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm.

For more information, call 426-9283.