Barbara has lived in Woodbury since her marriage to Peter Perkinson in 1974 when she adopted Woodbury as her hometown. Both Barbara and Peter taught in the Watertown School System for over 36 years, both retiring in 2005. Barbara received her B.S degree from the College of St. Elizabeth in New Jersey and went on to earn a M.S. in Family and Consumer Science from St. Joseph College in West Hartford.
They have two daughters, both of whom went through the Region 14 school system. Sarah Virginia Tracy lives in Manassas Virginia, and Anne Enright Sansolo resides in Cheshire, with her husband, and their children (Lucas and Jack).
Barbara’s first involvement with service to Woodbury began with her membership in the Junior Women’s Club. In 1990 she was elected to the Region 14 Board of Education and served 12 years. While on the BOE, Barbara was chair of the Policy Committee, as well as a member on the Transportation, Curriculum, and Finance subcommittees. She also served as town representative in 2011 on two Region 14 search committees. During this time, she was also a member of the building committees for Nonnewaug High School, Bethlehem Elementary School and the Agri-Science building. Barbara then went on to serve on the Zoning Commission for 6 years from 2003-2009.
Barbara was also a member of the Plan of Conservation and Development sub-committee in 2011. She chaired the Recycling Ad Hoc Committee from 2009-11. She was the town representative to the Council of Governments (COG) for 4 years.
She was asked to chair the Reservoir Property Management Plan sub-committee after the purchase of the Aquarian Property.
Barbara was elected to the Board of Selectmen in 2009 and had been a member of that board until December 2018, when she was selected in January, 2019 to fulfill the duties of the First Selectman.
Outside of her dedication to her town and its people, Barbara spends as much time with family as possible. Her greatest commitment is to her grandsons. Both of whom can be occasionally seen in the Shove office and the Woodbury library.
Barbara enjoys her life-long passion of cooking, entertaining friends and family, creating computerized embroidery designs, sewing and now quilting. She also enjoys the study of history, theatre and the creative arts.
Karen Reddington-Hughes has lived and worked in Woodbury,Ct since 1990. She is married to John Hughes -a graduate of the US Naval Academy and former US Naval Officer. She and John have a son John who is a graduate of Nonnewaug High School.
Karen is the Western Ct Convention and Visitors Bureau representative for Woodbury Ct., previously served on the Library Board of Trustees, member of the Flanders Nature Center Art Committee,a founding member and on the Board of Directors for the Ct Summer Opera Foundation, Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition, President of the Woodbury Antiques Dealers Association, President of the Woodbury Ct Chamber of Commerce, member of the Woodbury Jr. Women’s Club,and Chairman of the former Woodbury Ct Business and Economic Development Committee. This past year Karen received the Rosenberg Award for community service.
As President of the Woodbury Antiques Dealers Association and the former Business and Economic Development Committee, she was part of a group that created the State of Ct Antiques Trail. Many visits to Hartford to see Senator Rob Kane and 2 senate bills later- the trail was established, and signage granted.
Karen received the State of Ct Governors Award for Tourism Partner of the Year in 2018 for the excellent marketing efforts of both the Ct Antiques Trail and the Town of Woodbury. She has participated in tourism focus groups on a state level and Economic Development summits throughout the region.
Celebrating her 15th year as a business owner of Abrash Galleries on Main Street in Woodbury, the town is very important to her. Woodbury’s unique character is what brought her here and highlighting Woodbury’s strengths, embracing its beauty and showcasing its history have always been her focus.
In her spare time Karen enjoys reading, photography and travel.
Paul A. Zulpa is a candidate for the Woodbury Board of Finance. He has lived in Woodbury for the last 21 years. He is married to Roberta DePalma Zulpa and has 2 children – Jason, a sophomore at Iona College and 2020 graduate of NonnewaugHigh School, and Alexandra, a 7th grader at Woodbury Middle School.
Paul received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Hartford. He recently retired from IBM Corporation after 40 years with the last 37 of those years in a Management and Technical Leadership role. His most recent job in IBM was to design, develop and manage a hardware quality management system for IBM Systems Supply Chain. This was a complex, multi-year, multi-million-dollar project which had somewhere in the range of 10 full time programmers and is currently utilized by over 1000 users world-wide. Along with the technical responsibilities, his fiscal responsibilities included developing a budget, securing the funding from IBM Finance through justification of the proposed elements of the project and managing the project to that budget. His work in this area led to IBM winning the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s High Achiever Award in the Enterprise Integration Technology Leadership category for Migrating Supply Chain Quality Workload to Cloud
Paul is currently the treasurer of the Polish Falcons of America Nest 65 in Union City and has held that position for the last 10 years. He is past treasurer for Boy Scouts of America Troop 54 located in Woodbury where he also implemented the Introduction to Leadership training for Scouts. He has volunteered hundreds of hours in the Region 14 school system, working with the Drama Club and Art Department in building sets for several plays.
While municipal finance is very different from business and non-profit finance, his financial experience from those 2 areas will allow him to contribute to our town. His leadership skills, honesty and integrity along with his complex project management experience will be an asset to the Board of Finance. He understands that transparency and risk management, while keeping the taxpayers in mind, are important factors to maintain the fiscal responsibilities the town requires. He would love to use his knowledge and skills to help the Board of Finance fulfill their mission.
John Hughes has lived in Woodbury for 30 years. He graduated from the US Naval Academy and spent 14 years as a Naval Officer. (active & reserve service). He served on the local congressional service academy selection board from 2007-2012.
Semi-retired form a career in international aroma-chemical sales, John presently serves on the Planning Commission. Previously he has served on the Zoning Board of Appeals.
He has been an active member of St Teresa’s men’s club, taught catechism at St Teresas Church, and organized a Christian boys youth group in Bethlehem, Ct
Matthew Amatruda is a graduate of St John’s School in Watertown and Nonnewaug High School. He was active in local sports and Boy Scouts of America. He completed Plumber apprentice training with Industrial Management & Training Institute in Waterbury and after a few years of working in his field decided to continue his education. He is currently a sophomore at Thomas More College in Merrimack, NH studying Humanities. He looks forward to giving back to our community and is eager to serve on the Board of Assessment Appeals. He plans to continue to live in Woodbury on a permanent basis after graduation.