Behind the Curtain of Cheshire Connecticut’s Facebook Groups "Cheshire Today" and "All About Cheshire Ct"
All About Cheshire Ct
Richard Reggie Smith Research/Editor Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0
In a town of roughly 29,000 residents, the traditional “town square” of Cheshire, Connecticut has steadily migrated from the steps of Town Hall to the ever-refreshing feeds of local Facebook groups. What was once discussed face-to-face is now debated, documented, and archived in real time online. These digital spaces have become essential—whether someone is searching for a lost pet, promoting a community event, or weighing in on school board decisions. But behind the posts and comment threads lies a more complex ecosystem, where each group operates with its own philosophy, tone, and boundaries.
The Curated Community: Cheshire Today
At the center of Cheshire’s more structured digital discourse is the Cheshire Today Facebook group, an extension of the broader Cheshire Today e-magazine. Its mission is clear: preserve and present the positive, historical, and human-interest stories that define the town.
The group is currently experiencing a shift in leadership dynamics. While Richard Smith—often known locally as “Reggie”—maintains a limited role, he is on hiatus to focus on expanding his independent platform, All About Cheshire Ct, along with his two YouTube channels, All About Cheshire Ct YouTube Channel and CtSportsTv.
While Cheshire Today prefers to offer only what Ron Gagliardi calls O.P.I.A.O (Only Positive In And Out material), Richard is focusing on all aspects of Cheshire's news, history, people, places and things of the good the bad and the ugly.
In his absence, daily operations of the group fall to automated Assistant, Ron Kochman, who serves as webmaster, and Ron Gagliardi, who works behind the scenes as editor.
Cheshire Today Facebook Group
Moderation Style: Highly curated. Business promotions and event flyers were often redirected to an official page, ensuring the group feed remains focused on storytelling and community documentation. However with the departure of Richard Smith's over sight the Group has been less restrictive of late.
The Vibe: Informative and archival—less a free-for-all forum and more a digital historical record in progress.
A Multifaceted Hub: The Cheshire Today Platform
Beyond Facebook, Cheshire Today functions as a hybrid media ecosystem. Its structure blends journalism, commentary, and archival preservation:
“My Take On Cheshire”: A dedicated section for Richard “Reggie” Smith’s editorial commentary and research-driven perspectives on town life.
Multimedia Channels: Embedded video content ranging from local government meetings to high school sports highlights, largely driven by Smith’s long-standing work in video production dating back to 2000.
Local Spotlights: Features on residents, restaurant reviews, and coverage of cultural sites such as Ball & Socket Arts.
Historical Archives: Deep dives into topics like the construction of the Farmington Canal and the origins of the Cheshire Country Club.
The Traditional Hub: Cheshire CT Community Forum
If Cheshire Today is curated and archival, the Cheshire CT Community Forum is its opposite counterpart: immediate, expansive, and often unpredictable.
With thousands of members, it acts as the town’s digital “central nervous system.”
Moderation Style: Active but sometimes controversial. Administrators must constantly balance open dialogue with maintaining civility.
Content Range: Everything from contractor recommendations and restaurant reviews to emotionally charged discussions on national politics that spill into local threads.
Recent Tension: Some members have raised concerns about comment restrictions or perceived censorship on sensitive topics, prompting the creation of alternative forums.
Despite periodic friction, its utility remains undeniable. Real-time updates—traffic alerts, emergency notices, missing pets—flow through the group faster than traditional channels.
The Fragmentation: “Official” vs. “Original”
As with many online communities, disagreement has led to fragmentation. Competing groups have emerged, often differentiated more by philosophy than by name.
The Original Cheshire CT Community Forum (Est. 2016): Positions itself as the authentic, first iteration. Its guiding principle is simple: maintain civility through a “don’t be a jerk” ethos.
The Official Cheshire Community Forum: Created in response to perceived over-moderation elsewhere, this group emphasizes open expression and encourages members to share opinions without fear of removal.
Independent Groups: Niche communities, such as parent-focused groups, operate independently of town oversight and provide candid, sometimes unfiltered feedback on schools, services, and local issues.
Together, these groups illustrate how even within a single town, digital spaces can splinter into distinct micro-communities based on trust, tone, and tolerance for debate.
The “Good Old Days” Escape
For residents weary of modern discourse, nostalgia offers an alternative. Groups like “I Grew Up in Cheshire, CT, and Want to Talk About the Good Old Days…” serve as digital time capsules.
Policy: Strictly non-political. Posts that veer into divisive territory are removed.
Focus: Shared memories—landmarks, schools, local hangouts, and long-gone institutions like the Cheshire Cinema.
Here, the debates are lighter: which pizza place reigned supreme, or what it felt like growing up in a different era of the town.
Richard “Reggie” Smith: Local Documentation and Media Continuity
Richard Smith’s credibility is rooted in sustained, ground-level documentation of Cheshire life over decades. As one of the founding contributors to Cheshire Today, he is explicitly associated with “People, Places & Things”—a designation that reflects a focus on hyper-local storytelling and community coverage.
His experience extends beyond writing into multimedia production. Since around 2000, Smith has worked as a sports videographer and digital content creator, documenting local athletics, public meetings, and community events. This type of longitudinal coverage—particularly of school sports and municipal proceedings—creates a continuous visual and narrative archive that few residents maintain.
Equally important is his lived experience. Growing up in Cheshire, Connecticut and attending local schools places him within the generational fabric of the community. That continuity—from student to veteran (U.S. Army, late 1970s) to media creator—positions him not just as an observer, but as a participant in the town’s evolving identity.
His editorial approach, especially through All About Cheshire Ct, reflects a research-first methodology: gathering historical data, curating it, and redistributing it through modern platforms. In practical terms, this makes him a decentralized archivist—bridging informal memory and structured local history.
Ron Kochman: Visual Historian and Community Witness
Ron Kochman’s authority comes through visual documentation and civic presence. As a founding contributor to Cheshire Today focused on travel and photography, his work is explicitly tied to capturing both the town and its people.
His impact is most evident in moments of community significance. Coverage of events such as vigils and public gatherings demonstrates a role that goes beyond passive photography. His images have served as a “definitive visual record” of community responses to social issues, effectively preserving moments that might otherwise be lost or fragmented.
Kochman’s personal history further informs his perspective. As the son of refugees who fled Nazi Germany and resettled after wartime displacement, his background adds a layer of historical consciousness to his work. When combined with his decades living in Cheshire (since 1986), his photography often intersects with themes of memory, identity, and civic responsibility.
Additionally, his involvement in local-access style programming (“30 Minutes with Ron” and similar projects) reinforces his role as a documentarian of town life. In smaller communities, this kind of consistent visual record—parades, meetings, interviews—becomes an important supplement to formal archives.
Ron Gagliardi: Institutional Knowledge and Formal Historical Authority
Among the three, Ron Gagliardi has the most formalized credentials in local history. He has served as Cheshire’s Town Historian, a role that directly ties him to the preservation and interpretation of the town’s past. His work has included archival discovery, such as uncovering Revolutionary-era documents and Civil War artifacts while working with the Cheshire Historical Society.
His authorship also contributes to his authority. Books like Cheshire (Arcadia Publishing) compile centuries of the town’s development—from its 17th-century origins through modern growth—using curated photographs and narratives that bring local history into accessible form.
Beyond writing, Gagliardi’s career spans multiple institutions and roles:
Leadership within historical societies and museums
Educational work as an elementary art teacher
Public engagement through lectures, media, and exhibitions
This combination of scholarship, curation, and teaching places him within the formal ecosystem of historical preservation. In a town with deep colonial roots (dating back to 1694), such institutional knowledge is critical to maintaining continuity between past and present.
Even moments of public dispute—such as his well-documented conflict with the Cheshire Historical Society—underscore his visibility and engagement in local historical affairs, reflecting a figure actively involved in shaping how history is managed and interpreted at the community level.
Combined Credibility: Three Lenses on One Town
What strengthens their collective authority is not just individual experience, but how their roles complement one another:
Smith provides continuous digital documentation and editorial synthesis.
Kochman contributes visual storytelling and community-centered imagery.
Gagliardi anchors the work in formal historical research and institutional memory.
Together, they mirror the broader structure of local knowledge in a town like Cheshire:
Informal memory (residents and lived experience)
Recorded media (photos, video, commentary)
Formal archives (historical societies, publications)
In a modern context—where Facebook groups and digital platforms act as the new town square—this combination of skills translates into a credible, multi-layered understanding of Cheshire’s past and present.
Bottom Line
Their expertise is not abstract—it is cumulative and place-based. Each has spent years, in different but overlapping ways, documenting, interpreting, and participating in the life of Cheshire. Whether through archives, cameras, or commentary, their work contributes to an ongoing record of the town—one that increasingly lives as much online as it does in traditional historical repositories.
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| All About Cheshire Ct .com |
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| Cheshire Today .com |
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