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Lake Waramaug is situated on the borders of Kent, Warren and Washington
Alec Linden
KENT — At its July 2 meeting, the Board of Selectmen changed the voting format for the proposed Lake Waramaug wakesurfing ban from town meeting to a referendum, which is to be held July 31.
The switch comes after an unexpectedly robust turnout forced the postponement of a June 27 town meeting where the contentious ordinance was set to be voted on alongside three fire safety related ordinances that have received considerably less public attention. At the July 2 meeting, First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer told the Board that he felt conducting the vote as a referendum, separately from the other ordinances, was the best way to accommodate all the voters. The Board enthusiastically agreed.
Over three motions, the BOS rescheduled the town meeting for July 11, removed the wakesurfing vote from that agenda and set the vote to go a July 31 referendum. An additional motion established the wording of the referendum so that Warren and Washington may be consistent in their own referendums.
Lindenmayer explained that one utility of the July 31 referendum route is that it enables the other towns, who also have to approve the ordinance in order for it to be adopted, to conduct their own votes on the same day. Lindenmayer reported that he had spent several hours earlier that day with the town’s attorney Randy DiBella and the Warren and Washington first selectmen devising the solution. “That’s what we thought is fair; it brings all three towns together,” he said.
Selectman Glenn Sanchez thanked Lindenmayer for coordinating with Washington and Warren in devising the referendum plan. “I think that’s very important.”
As the three towns govern the lake jointly, any ordinance regulating lake activity must be approved by each voting bloc.
The referendum will allow for absentee voting, explained Lindenmayer. Absentee ballots will become available to residents to pick up beginning July 14.
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Salisbury marks Fourth of July
Jul 09, 2025
Lou Bucceri, dressed as Heman Allen, recited the Declaration of Independence at the Salisbury Town Grove in honor of Independence Day, Friday, July 4.
Patrick L. Sullivan
LAKEVILLE — The Salisbury Association hosted the traditional Independence Day celebration at the town Grove Friday, July 4, with a reading of the Declaration of Independence and a concert by the Salisbury Band.
The official start of the program was noon. At 11 a.m., the Grove’s lot was mostly full, and it was already difficult to find a parking space on the immediately adjacent streets.
Grove manager Stacey Dodge was manning the ticket booth. She said she was glad the day was cooler than the previous few days, all scorchers.
“My seniors won’t come out if it’s really hot,” she said.
A group of children — Hal and May Brzyski, and Frankie and Kolby Chou — were selling lemonade at a dollar a cup.
Asked if they used a mix or concentrate, the lemonade experts recoiled in horror. Hal Bryzski explained patiently that the lemonade was made from lemons the children squeezed themselves, plus sugar and water.
This is the sixth year for the lemonade experts, but the first year at the July 4 event. They usually sell the lemonade to the hot and thirsty users of the tennis courts at Community Field in Lakeville.
The proceeds go to the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service.
EXTRAS, the afterschool and summer program at Salisbury Central School, had hot dogs, chips, soda and water for sale. Business was brisk.
After brief remarks by Salisbury Association Cynthia Walsh, there was a drum roll and Heman Allen (as played by Lou Bucceri in period costume) made his way through the crowd to the small riser in front of the band.
He then read the entire Declaration of Independence, which took about 11 minutes.
Upon completion, the band played the national anthem, and as far as the eye could see were citizens standing with hands and/or hats over their hearts.
The band conducted by Brian Viets, then commenced the program, starting with Alex Lithgow’s “Invercargill Match.”
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Author Peter Vermilyea teaches history at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
Jules Williams
FALLS VILLAGE — The heroes of the Civil War were not found just on the battlefields, but on the home fronts as well. And many of those helping in the Union cause can be traced to the local area.
In his talk titled “All Honor to the Ladies: Litchfield County Women and the Civil War,” Peter Vermilyea described the role women played during that period.
“It’s a local story, but also a national story,” he told those gathered at the South Canaan Meetinghouse for the second installment of the “First Tuesdays at 7” series put on by the Falls Village-Canaan Historical Society.
Vermilyea is a familiar figure in the Northwest Corner, heading up the social studies department at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, as well as an author and speaker on local history.
Using three old newspapers as major sources, the Housatonic Republican, Litchfield Enquirer and Winsted Herald, he was able to glean a great deal of information on the topic. Since there was a long tradition of women in Litchfield County being activists back to the Revolutionary War, it followed that ladies aid societies would become popular. “They give us a glimpse of how they exercised agency and expressed their own beliefs,” he said.
In the 1830s, many traditional responsibilities were replaced by machinery, so women were looking for something else besides their “moral obligation” to raise children. The war provided a purpose for women to get together. The aid societies took root in Bridgeport, primarily filled with well-to-do women. But they grew to more than 20,000 chapters across the north and saw expanded memberships.
Vermilyea elicited laughter when he said at first, “The primary purpose for women was to ‘remain cheerful.’”
When it was discovered women were very capable in several areas, such as recruitment of soldiers, they were tapped to perform certain duties. But as Vermilyea emphasized throughout the talk, they were welcomed “as long as they remained in the women’s sphere and didn’t try to do the work of men or else they were pushed back.” Handling money was not something with which women were entrusted.
Hartford became the clearinghouse for the societies, from where information was disseminated about what the troops needed. For example, the women of Norfolk made flannel shirts for soldiers in Missouri. A large number of items were collected from Bethlehem, where a huge rally to protest the war was held and a slogan saying, “Let it no longer be said Bethlehem is a secession town,” was displayed. The women of Kent knitted socks designed with tiny images of Jefferson Davis with a noose around his neck.
Vermilyea spoke about calls going out across the nation for lint, but it couldn’t be that from cotton because the fabric contained acid. Only lint from linen was usable for making bandages. He shared the long list of items that the women gathered and sent to the troops.
The talents displayed by the ladies aid societies can be traced to the start of several women’s movements, such as suffrage and temperance, Vemilyea said.
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Club Getaway is located in New Milford, but arriving tour buses often enter through Kent.
Alec Linden
KENT/NEW MILFORD — A years-long push by South Kent Road residents to ban Club Getaway-bound tour buses from the winding country road is finally seeing headway, and David Schreiber, who owns the all-ages resort, is thrilled.
“It’s not going to happen overnight, and we do have to work together, but it’s moving in the right direction, which is beautiful,” said Schreiber on July 3, a week and a half after the New Milford Town Council agreed to work with the town of Kent towards effective regulation for large commercial vehicles on the roadway.
Schreiber said he’s heard complaints from neighbors for fifteen years regarding buses shortcutting down the narrow lane and has tried “everything” to get the bus companies to reroute via larger roads, but his lack of jurisdiction outside the resort’s boundaries, as well as the fact that the affected road lies in two separate towns (with the state owning the Kent section), has made things difficult.
Club Getaway is a woodsy retreat center that offers youth programs, family stays and adult camps. It sits on South Kent Road just below its intersection with Route 341.
Buses coming from the south often choose South Kent Road for the final stretch of the journey, despite a recent adjustment to Google Maps – requested by Club Getaway – so that it no longer recommends the stretch of the road between Gaylordsville and Spooner Hill Road in Kent as a route.
Schreiber said that he was “touched” that Kent First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer turned up to the June 23 New Milford Town Council meeting to commit to finding a solution that keeps buses off that section of the road, where residents have complained about tight or impossible vehicle passes and scary moments walking the dog.
Schreiber said the recent progress has been largely due to a May 30 Facebook post in the Kent community group by South Kent Road resident Kristin Barese, who initiated communication between Lindenmayer and New Milford Mayor Pete Bass and presented the Town Council with a 145-signature petition calling for action, and one of his employees getting yelled at the Kent Station Pharmacy.
On June 26, Lindenmayer explained steps were already being taken towards that end: “Mayor Bass and I will work with our legislators to ensure we get the right routes marked appropriately while our two Public Works departments will work with CTDOT to mark roads and keep our local residents safe and the buses on track.”
“Shouting at one of my employees in public, especially, when they are not on the clock, is disgraceful,” Schreiber said in his own post in the Kent group, dated June 10. He also noted the employee, like anyone else working at the resort, had nothing to do with what routes the bus companies decided to take.
Reflecting on July 23, he described the incident as a boiling point due to “built up frustration,” but that the behavior was still unacceptable. “I want this to work, and I’ll do anything to make it happen, right?” he said, “but really, there’s a time and a place, you know — call me.”
Despite the ugliness, Schreiber said that he’s glad the issue “is all out in the open now,” and that progress is being made.
When all this is over, he hopes both the bus drivers and passengers alike will be glad to avoid the country-lane pace of South Kent Road. “It’s gonna be great for the community, it’s gonna be great for Club Getaway, and it’s gonna be great for Club Getaway clients,” he said. “It says on a GPS it’s four minutes shorter going down South Kent Road, until a bus actually gets on South Kent Road, and it’s ten minutes longer.”
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