Carol Donovan Hulst
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AMENIA — After 94 years of life well-lived, Carol Donovan Hulst passed peacefully away. Born in Chicago to Florence and Elmer Donovan, Carol spent most of her childhood in South Addison, Maine, with her dear older brother Raymond. As with many children of the Depression, she did not have an easy childhood, but it did teach her to value hard work and to save everything.
Reading and education were of great importance to her. She graduated high school at 16 and entered college at the University of Connecticut. After two years she left to marry Leland Hulst, Jr., a young veteran back from World War II. While raising their 5 children in Amenia, Carol finished college by going part-time for many years. She went on to earn her master’s degree and taught reading for the remainder of her career. She loved reading to children and instilled a love and respect for books and education in all of those she touched.
Carol weathered many storms with grace and good faith. She survived the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944, and endured divorce and the sudden loss of her eldest son Lee in 2022. Her youngest son, Curt, was diagnosed with two kinds of leukemia as a teenager, defining a pivotal time in both of their lives. Through many long and determined months together at Sloan-Kettering Hospital, Curt beat his less-than-1% odds. They remained very close and Curt would call her every day.
After retirement, Carol had the joy of taking many trips to Europe, staying in senior hostels. She also enjoyed riding a bike, cross-country skiing, and swimming in the frigid Maine ocean. Carol moved from New York to Cumberland in 1999, where she spent many happy years. She later lived in her independent-living apartment at 75 State Street in Portland, Maine, right around the corner from her oldest son Lee’s house.
Carol loved family gatherings. Her favorite part might have been going through the checkout line at the grocery store with a giant turkey and more than enough food to feed an army. She loved telling the cashier that she had a big gang coming and a lot of cooking to do. One of her last phrases, out of the blue, was saying she was lucky she had 5 great kids. “Gram” is very loved, and her family is so grateful to have shared a life with such a special person. She had a life well-lived and will always be well-loved.
Carol was predeceased by her son, Leland Hulst III; ex-husband Leland Hulst, Jr; and son-in-law Joseph Murphy. She is survived by her children, Peter Hulst (Ann), Janice Hulst-Murphy, Curtis Hulst, Cheryl Hulst-Benoit (Vance); son-in-law, Mitch Ledford; nieces, Deb Page (Ken), Rindy Higgins (Jon) and Dee Dee Mandino (Rob). She is also survived by her grandchildren, Kathryn Hulst (Ryan Albert), Evan Hulst, Ashley Davis (Blake), Shannon Hulst, Dylan Murphy, Jack Benoit, Charlotte Benoit, and Lillian Benoit; as well as her great-grandchildren, Adelyn and Amelia.
A funeral will be held at 1 p.m. on June 14 at the Congregational Church in Cumberland UCC, 282 Main St, Cumberland Center, Maine. Arrangements are under direction of the Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home of Portland, Maine. To view Carol’s memorial page, or to share an online condolence, please visit www.Conroy TullyWalker.com
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Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.