This Year In Stamford: Failures, Fictions, and Prostitution Rings

Here we stand on the home-stretch of 2011, and if the first quarter of 2012 is as interesting as 2011's, the beginning of the new year could be bittersweet for some Stamfordites.

Born on January 1, 2011 at 5:41 a.m. in Stamford Hospital, Dairy Fernanda Ardon Vasquez became the .  Weighing six pounds eight ounces, she is the first daughter of Jaimy Santiago,22, and Jose Fernando Ardon, 32.

Later that week, Stamford Professional Firefighters Association president Brendan Keatley drafted a letter to Mayor Michael Pavia, calling the latest revision of his fire service plan a "failure" and a "fiction." Debate over Pavia's fire plan began well before 2011, and would continue well into it.

Former Stamford mayor Dannel P. Malloy was into the CT governor's chair on Jan. 5, and near the mid-month, Stamford legend Bobby Valentine accepted a .

Caroline Sadowska, a Stamford resident who's been a Patch contributor since 2010, went inside the .

On Jan. 28, Linda McMahon would once again come into public focus, leading many to speculate if she'd announce a new Senate run in 2011.

A North Stamford fire on the first day of February. Stamford residents, reeling from the snow, ice, and frigid wind, in Father Winter's backyard.

On Feb. 7, the CT Rail Commuter Council for Feb.16, where they would discuss perceived problems with Metro-North. CRCC would stay active throughout the year, both fighting and alerting residents to a tax increase on Metro-North fares. The first in seven years, the tax increase in Jan. 2012.

Martha Stewart Fairway Market on Feb. 12, commanding a modest line of people waiting to have their copy of Stewart's "Power Foods" signed. Patch readers were split when asked if they preferred for Valentine's Day '011.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy his state budget at the first Town Hall meeting of 2011, the first of many times he would with his 2011 budget plan.

Carlo Leone defeated Bob Kolenberg in Feb. 23's for the 27th District State Senate, winning 4,294 votes in Stamford alone. Leone was quickly asked to the Veteran's Affairs Committee, and currently oversees several veteran's programs throughout the state.

The start of March gave Stamford rail commuters a welcome sight: the colorful interior of a , and Trinity Catholic High School Tony Pavia as its next principal.

Scott Mirkin was as a Board of Finance member, replacing Joe Tarzia, who resigned, but would make an unsuccessful bid for the Board of Finance in October alongside Bob Kolenberg. 

The Stamford Board of Education conducted its in mid-March, the end result being a clarification of the roles which the local Board of Education serves in. Borders announced the , including its store on High Ridge Road, which closed by the summer.

Emotions ran high during the week of March 22, as former fire commissioner E. Gaynor Brennan of 80, and CT itself mobilized to find Isabella Oleschuk, a 13-year-old girl who went missing from Orange, CT. She was later with a friend, unharmed.

Police in late March, which was the location of an alleged prostitution ring. Stamford police caught many of the suspects in the midst of sexual acts, and arrested its "madam" before seizing all property.

As March became April, would have its final say for the season.

But not the .