Although the Lakeville Lake boat launch remains closed to boaters, lake officials are exploring the possibility of allowing access to car-top watercraft such as canoes, kayaks and paddleboards.
SALISBURY — The discovery of invasive hydrilla in East Twin Lake last summer has prompted the Twin Lakes Association (TLA) to make sweeping changes in how it plans to safeguard water quality and prevent further infestation in 2024 and beyond.
Plans include blocking off passage under the Isola Bella Bridge on East Twin and reverting the state boat launch to its initial mandate of providing access only to nonmotorized car-top watercraft.
TLA President Grant Bogle said the goal is to have all trailered boats and jet skis access the lake via the privately owned O’Hara’s Landing Marina, where negotiations are underway to establish a monitoring and education station.
“We are not trying to limit access. What we are trying to do is establish a method of inspecting boats that come in and off the lake,” said Bogle.
“The reason is, we are virtually sure hydrilla came in from a boat that had been on the Connecticut River and brought fragments into East Twin Lake. What we don’t want is boats bringing any more in or cutting hydrilla that’s there and taking it out of the lake.”
Meanwhile, at Lakeville Lake, also known as Lake Wononscopomuc, although water testing last fall for the highly disruptive hydrilla, also known as water thyme, turned up negative, the lake association closed its launch as a precaution.
“The launch will remain closed. We are waiting for the state [Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)] to come up with a plan,” said Bill Littauer, president of the Lake Wononscopomuc Association.
“It is possible we may allow car-top watercraft such as paddleboards and kayaks. The theory is they would be dry by at the time they went into the water.”
Littauer said he has also had discussions with the town about purchasing six to 12 electric powered boats suitable for fishing to be made available at a modest rental at the Town Grove.
“So far no one seems to know how to eradicate this weed, so the feeling now is that it’s best not to allow it into the lake in the first place,” he noted.
Hydrilla has invaded five more lakes
On the first day of summer last year, a routine monitoring of some waters in East Twin Lake by the TLA’s limnologist found hydrilla fragments in the shallow waters north of the state boat launch, making it the first lake in the state to confirm the presence of hydrilla, first noted in the Connecticut River in 2016.
Since then, said Bogle, the highly invasive Connecticut River variant has found its way to at least five other Connecticut lakes, and the highly disruptive plant has become a key focus for the TLA and the stewards of other lakes in the state, all of which are taking remedial steps.
Through the Connecticut Federation of Lakes and other working groups, the TLA has assembled a coalition of state and local officials, scientists and aquatic specialists to share information and gain a stronger, unified voice in Hartford.
Boat ban sought at state launch on East Twin
TLA officials noted that its board is working with the state and town to revert the state boat launch to its original mandate, which was to provide access only to car-top watercraft.
“It was never meant to be creating a significant volume of traffic,” said Bogle. From 1991 to 2020, he noted, it was a very isolated ramp, with huge boulders in place to keep trailers from backing down into the water.
“They were removed by the state in 2020, and what we’re asking is that they are put back in place,” said Bogle. “We are pushing for a decision” from the state.
Bogle noted that the state boat launch is not listed as ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible on its website, “and it shows the boulders in place.” He said nearby O’Hara’s Landing has accessible docks for those who require assistance.
To prevent further spread of hydrilla, the TLA also plans to have a barrier installed blocking passage under the Isola Bella Bridge, which joins the northern parts of East Twin.
“It’s been recommended that we close that bridge,” said Bogle, who noted that the area is a valued connector used frequently by canoeists, kayakers and waterboarders.
With hydrilla possibly pervasive north of the state boat launch, the TLA cannot risk the plant spreading via the natural current to the vulnerable cove east of the bridge, according to officials.
In addition, about 25 acres of water up to 4 feet deep north of the state boat launch will be restricted and set apart with buoys, beginning in April, to prevent propellers from chopping hydrilla plants and having fragments float away and root elsewhere.
The area will be controlled with a system of “floating limnocorrals” and light-suppressing mats to prevent growth at the insistence of the state, which must approve the plan as part of the association’s herbicide permit.
“We know that there is hydrilla there. We know there were some escapees from the marina even further than we treated last year,” Bogle explained.
“Is it an inconvenience? Yes. We recognize that, but we feel it’s the right thing to do. We are trying to get ahead of this to the extent we can,” explained Bogle.
Lake management budget soaring
To that end, the TLA board has spent the off-season establishing three sub-groups focusing on fundraising, lake management and boat launch access.
Bogle noted that the cost of lake management has skyrocketed.
The board estimates the TLA will spend about $250,000 in 2024 on lake management, and similar amounts in future years to control invasives and eradicate hydrilla. The association’s new budget dwarfs any previous TLA budget, and it far exceeds estimates of only months ago, said officials.
The good news, according to the TLA newsletter, is that the organization has the funds to get through 2024 due to generous donations and a campaign that raised $101,600 in December when all members were asked to consider contributing $500 to $1,000.
The campaign garnered 86 individual donations and an anonymous matching contribution of $30,000. Those funds complement an expected $75,000 from the Town of Salisbury and a $75,000 state grant that is expected to be confirmed by early spring.
“We are thrilled with the response from our fundraising request. It speaks volumes as to the commitment of our members and the community,” said Bogle.
Because fundraising on the needed scale is beyond its volunteer board’s current ability, the TLA has hired Deko Design, a local tech systems and support consultant to organize and integrate the TLA website, dues collection, newsletter, membership rolls, fundraising campaigns and accounting.
According to officials, the board has authorized up to $2,500 for this work this year, and an anonymous benefactor is footing the bill.
Despite the challenges that lie ahead this coming year and beyond, Bogle said he is optimistic “that we are in a much better position than we were last year.”
Robin Roraback
Garth Kobel, Art Wall Chair, Mary Randolph, Frank Halden, Ruth Giumarro, Project Chair, Maria Bulson, Barbara Lobdell, Sherry Newman, Elizabeth Frey-Thomas, Donna Heinz around “The Green Man.”
In honor of National Quilt Day, a tradition established in 1991, Hunt Library’s second annual quilt show, “Quilts of Many Colors,” will open Saturday, March 21, with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. The quilts, made by members of the Hunt Library Quilters, will be displayed through April 17. All quilts will be for sale, and a portion of each sale goes to the library.
At the center of the exhibit is a quilt the Hunt Library Quilters collaborated on called the “Quilt of Many Colors,” inspired by Dolly Parton’s song”Coat of Many Colors.” Each member of the Hunt Library Quilters made two to four 10-inch squares for the twin-size quilt, with Gail Allyn embroidering “The Green Man” for the center square. The Green Man, a symbol of rebirth, is also a symbol of the library, seen carved in stone at the library’s entrance. One hundred percent of the sale of this quilt benefits the library.
Ruth Giumarro, who led the Hunt Library Quilters in this project, explained that the quilting group started last year with the theme “Playing With Art,” which was inspired by children’s book illustrator Eric Carle. Giumarro said, “We had so much fun last year that everyone said, ‘Let’s do it again!’”
“This has been exciting,” said Giumarro. “We started off small with seven people. This year more people came, and there are more who want to come.” The range of experience varies from none to years of sewing and quilting. All are welcome; be a resident of Falls Village is not required.
“It’s all practice,” explained Giumarro, who has been sewing since she was in seventh grade. “Getting a straight line is hardest.”
On March 6, the quilters gathered at Hunt Library to bring their own creations for the show and admire the finished “Quilt of Many Colors.” After looking at each other’s quilts and pricing them, they celebrated with cake.
The Hunt Library is located at 63 Main St. in Falls Village. More information is available at huntlibrary.org
D.H. Callahan
New works on display at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent
Since 2018, Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent has been displaying an impressive rotation of works across a range of artists and mediums. On Saturday, March 14, art enthusiasts arrived to see a new exhibition at the gallery featuring a wide variety of new pieces.
Large-scale paintings by David Collins and Melanie Parke alongside small 3-by-3 inch oil-on-panel works by Sally Maca.
An intricate woodcut print by Eve Stockton and the organized chaos of Margaret Neill’s abstract drawings dazzled the eye. But much of the show’s distinctive texture came from its sculptural works.
Catherine Latson’s wire structures, tightly wrapped in hand-dyed threads, bring to mind pastel- hued sea anemones and become more impressive upon closer inspection. Translucent, hanging cast-resin vampire bats by Tristan Fitch blend into the ceiling until viewed up close, when they become an inescapable presence.
Detail of“Specimen 42” by Catherine Latson at KBFAD.H. Callahan
An intriguing sculpture by Julie Maren features acorn caps affixed to the wall, filled with vibrant, shimmering colors.
Paintings and a sculpture crafted from reclaimed wood by Maine-based artist Matt Barter demonstrated the range of mediums represented by a single artist.
While some of the works are already spoken for, all are on view through late April.
For more information, visit kbfa.com
Jennifer Almquist
Harriet Newman Cohen
Harriet Newman Cohen weathered many storms in her five-decade-long journey to become one of the nation’s most celebrated divorce attorneys. Voted one of the top 100 attorneys in New York for many years, Cohen served as president of the New York Women’s Bar Association and has been a champion of divorce reform. She and her co-author, journalist David Feinberg, will give a book talk about her memoir, “Passion and Power: A Life in Three Worlds,” at the Norfolk Library on Sunday, March 22 at 2 p.m.
What began as a personal record of her life, intended for her family, grew into a memoir that journalist Carl Bernstein describes in his endorsement as “wise and riveting.” Born in 1932 in Providence, Rhode Island, to parents who immigrated in 1920 from Ukraine and Poland, Cohen traces the arc of her life and the challenges she faced entering a legal profession that was overwhelmingly male at the time, leading to her success as a maverick divorce attorney fighting for women’s rights and equity in the law. She received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School in 1974, one year after Roe v. Wade was decided. She is a founding partner of Cohen Stine Kapoor LLP in New York City, a family and matrimonial law firm she formed in 2021, at age 88, with her daughter Martha Cohen Stine and Ankit Kapoor.
Provided
Cohen writes fearlessly, with a good dose of wry humor, about her own struggles balancing marriage and divorce, raising four daughters, entering Brooklyn Law School in 1971 at age 38, and her ensuing legal career. According to Bernstein, “Passion and Power” is as much about the reshaping of American cultural norms as it is about one remarkable woman’s role at the forefront of legal and social transformation.
Cohen’s work in the legal profession has been pivotal to social change. A 2021 HBO documentary, “Nuclear Family,” directed by Ry Russo-Young, chronicles the landmark custody struggle of Russo-Young’s parents, a queer couple who hired Cohen as their lawyer.
Cohen is an honest storyteller, unflinching in admitting her mistakes and rightly proud of her accomplishments. Her story ranges from tales of her father’s fortune made producing the Hula-Hoop to her memory of schoolmate Kiki Bader — Ruth Bader Ginsburg — as a cheerleader waving pom-poms in Brooklyn. She also writes of her deep love of family, the stultifying suburban life of her first marriage, mentorship by legal icon Louis Nizer and riding the wave of social revolution that buoyed her career.
Norfolk author Gillian Linden writes of her step-grandmother, “Harriet Newman Cohen is a funny, edifying guide — precise, curious, warm. Entirely unsentimental. Marriage and its many paths is rich territory. This book is filled with the strange, glamorous, desperate and sadistic characters you hope to meet in the very best novels.”
For details, visit norfolklibrary.org
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Aly Morrissey
Ram Miles and Donna Lloyd Stoetzner.
Donna Lloyd Stoetzner and Ram Miles have been friends since kindergarten. With decades of shared memories stretching from grade school through high school, the two have spent a lifetime in each other’s orbit. Today, they both work at Indian Mountain School, just a short distance from where they grew up.
On Saturday, March 28, Miles and his band, The Harlem Line Band, will perform their seventh semi-annual concert at the White Hart Inn in support of the Jane Lloyd Fund, a grassroots organization that helps local families facing cancer-related financial hardship. The night promises live music, dancing and friends gathering for a cause deeply personal to Stoetzner.
Miles and Stoetzner grew up attending the same local schools. Their families knew one another, and music was always in the background.
“We’ve known each other since kindergarten,” Miles said. “I knew the whole Lloyd clan.”
In high school in the late 1970s, Miles was already playing rock and roll in local bands, performing at house parties across the tri-state region. “We’d show up and there’d be 100 kids at a house party,” he recalled. “Once the homeowner came out with a shotgun and everybody ran for the cars. The drums were rolling down the hill.”
Stoetzner remembers those days well, especially the dancing. Her sister, Jane Lloyd, whose memory now inspires the fund, was a regular at Miles’ shows. “Jane was always up for something — moonlight walks up the mountain, skating on a pond, music festivals. She loved it all,” Stoetzner said.
When Jane was diagnosed with breast cancer at 34, the community rallied around her. One of the first fundraisers was held at the White Hart Inn, with Miles’ band performing for a packed crowd. More than 300 people attended, raising roughly $6,000 to help cover Jane’s medical bills. After her death, the community’s support inspired Stoetzner and others to create the Jane Lloyd Fund, formally established in 2006.
Since then, the organization has quietly helped hundreds of local families, providing financial assistance for medical bills, utilities, gas and other basic needs during treatment. Stoetzner estimates the fund has distributed more than $1.3 million in grants. “It’s bittersweet,” she said. “It’s so gratifying that we have it — but you wish people didn’t need it.” Applications are submitted anonymously through social workers and reviewed by a volunteer advisory board.
That same spirit keeps the Harlem Line Band concerts going. The band formed 16 years ago when Miles assembled a group of Indian Mountain School parents for a school auction and stuck together long after their children graduated.
“Every one of the band members has been touched by cancer in some way,” Stoetzner said. “They could be making big money playing somewhere else, but they do this for us for free.”
For Miles, the night is more than music. “It’s like a reunion,” he said. “Everyone’s there because they want to be — to dance, listen to great music and support a great cause.”
During the set, the band always performs “Sweet Jane,” a tribute that brings the crowd together on the dance floor.
The event will take place Saturday, March 28, at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury. Music begins at 8 p.m., with $20 donations accepted at the door benefiting the Jane Lloyd Fund.
“It’s just a beautiful night,” Stoetzner said. “Great music, great people, and a lot of love in the room.”
Lakeville Journal
Rebecca Serle (right) and novelist Jessica Anya Blau shared laughs and literary secrets during a lively conversation about Serle’s new novel “Once and Again” at the The White Hart Inn in Salisbury on Wednesday, March 11. Serle is the bestselling author of “In Five Years,” “One Italian Summer” and several other novels beloved for their emotional twists and reflections on fate and second chances. The talk was part of the White Hart Speaker Series presented with Oblong Books and the Scoville Memorial Library.
C.E. Tripler
The Salisbury Winter Sports Association’s ski jumping team travelled to Lake Placid,NY, the weekend of Saturday, March 8, in a multi-club jump competition.
Ten athletes from SWSA joined a field of 20 other ski jumpers from across New York, New England and Canada.
Competitors jumped in one of two heights, the 10-meter and 20-meter jumps. Additionally, athletes competed in a cross-country ski racing event, in which competitors skied a half-kilometer course at the bottom of the ski jumps.
Athletes completed two to six laps covering a distance from one to three kilometers in distance depending on their specific competition group.
Ski jumpers competed in their age classes with the youngest jumpers in the 10 years and younger group jumping first.
SWSA’s Bodhi Thomas of Falls Village jumped to a gold medal in the U10 boys with a distance of 26 feet.
In the U12 division, Charlotte Milner of Lakeville jumped to a silver medal with a distance of 44 feet for the girls.
Wyeth Taylor of Somersville, Massachusetts and Salisbury took the gold medal jumping 48 feet and Henry Sheil of Lakeville took the bronze medal with a distance of 44 feet.
In the open category, Augustus Tripler won gold with a jump of 51 feet on the large hill.
Aerin Sheil of Lakeville skied to a bronze medal finish in the U10 girls Nordic combined with a time of 6:15 in the 1K. Mather Eckert of Lakeville took second place for U10 boys with a time of 7:07.
In the longer distance categories Wyeth Taylor grabbed silver with a time of 9:56 and Henry Sheil earned bronze with a time of 12:41 for the 2K distance U12 boys category.
In the open category, Augustus Tripler finished in second earning his second medal of the day.
While conditions were less than ideal with the warm air and strong sun, all the jumpers seemed to be having fun. One of the younger jumpers, Oona Mascavage, 7, from Lakeville said “It was great! I had a lot of distance on my jump” and Francesca McLoughlin was happy with the overall event saying “I had a lot of fun!”
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