Club Getaway owner addresses longstanding tour bus issue

Club Getaway is located in New Milford, but arriving tour buses often enter through Kent.
Alec Linden
Club Getaway is located in New Milford, but arriving tour buses often enter through Kent.
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.”
WINSTED — Gilbert Kenneth Schoonmaker, of Monroe, Connecticut, passed away peacefully on July 24, 2025, at the age of 77. Born on Jan. 18, 1948, in Winsted, Connecticut to Gilbert and Alta (Bierce) Schoonmaker, Gil spent four decades enjoying life on Highland Lake before settling in Monroe.
He is lovingly survived by his wife of 56 years, Sally (Gustafson) Schoonmaker, and his two daughters, Lynn Sindland and her husband Lee of Lead Hill, Arkansas, and Deb Pikiell and her husband Tim of Bristol, Connecticut. Gil was a proud grandfather to Ozzie, Tommy, Betsy, Katie, George, Lucy, Maddie, Joey, and Julia, and he cherished his time with his eight great-grandchildren. Gilbert leaves behind his siblings Ann, Gary, Gail, Jan, and Tim.
Gil met Sally, the love of his life, while attending Housatonic Valley Regional High School.He went on to attend Northwest Community College before serving in the United States Air Force. Professionally, he was the longtime owner of Universal Business Equipment in Bridgeport, a role he held with pride for more than 20 years.
Gil had a lifelong passion for the outdoors and was an avid golfer and fly fisherman. He also enjoyed birdwatching and gardening. Perhaps more than anything, Gil will be remembered for his love of cooking. He took great joy in preparing meals for family and friends. Right up until his final days, he was finding joy in discovering new ways to cook the vegetables he grew in his garden.
Friends and family are invited to attend a funeral service at Stepney Baptist Church, 423 Main Street in Monroe on Tuesday, July 29at 11:00 a.m.
To leave an online message of condolence, please visit Gilbert’s tribute page at www.OBrien-FuneralHome.com
Author and cartoonist Peter Steiner signed books at Sharon Summer Book Signing last summer.
The 27th annual Sharon Summer Book Signing at the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon will be held Friday, Aug. 1, from 4:45 to 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 2, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Aug. 3, at noon.
Friday’s festivities will honor libraries and the power of the written word. In attendance will be 29 locally and nationally recognized authors whose books will be for sale. With a wide array of genres including historical fiction, satire, thrillers, young adult and non-fiction, there will be something for every reader.
The event will include a selection of hors d’oeuvres and drinks, followed by eight festive author dinners where writers will read and discuss their work one-on-one with attendees.
Saturday will feature a new Page to Plate program that merges the literary and culinary worlds. Just as writing is a practice of patience and love, so too is the art of cooking. Cookbooks and food writing make cooking teachable to those excited to learn and celebrate the art of a perfect meal.
Through a combination of demonstrations and conversations, acclaimed cookbook authors and chefs will cover a variety of delicious topics. Highlights include a discussion with Chris Morocco, food director of “Bon Appetit” magazine and “Epicurious.” Sharon resident and chef Jessie Sheehan will demonstrate recipes from her cookbook “Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes: 100 Easy-Peasy, Savory Recipes for 24/7 Deliciousness.”
With the combination of vetted recipes and thorough discussion from food experts, attendees are sure to leave knowing how to cultivate the ultimate act of service: the gift of a full stomach.
Sunday will be brunch at a private Sharon residence hosted by Graham Klemm and Cody O’Kelly to celebrate author Carolyn Klemm and her cookbook “Culinary Collection: Favorite Country Recipes.”
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit hotchkisslibraryofsharon.org
All proceeds support the programs at The Hotchkiss Library of Sharon.
Ukraine Emergency Fundraiser at The Stissing Center in 2022 raised over $120,000 for Sunflower of Peace.
The spirit of Ukraine will be on display at the Stissing Center in Pine Plains on Sunday, July 27. Beginning at 5 p.m., the “Words to America from Ukraine” fundraiser is set to showcase the simultaneous beauty of Ukrainian culture and the war-time turmoil it faces, all the while fundraising in support of Ukrainian freedom.
“Words to America from Ukraine” aims to remind and spread awareness for the suffering that often gets forgotten by those who live in comfortable worlds, explained Leevi Ernits, an organizer for the event. “We are trying to make an attempt to remind people that we are human, and we are connected with human values,” she said. “With very few words, poetry can express very deep values.”
Sponsored by the Town of Stanford, Friends of Ukraine, L.E. Design LLC, Bartelby & Sage, Oblong Books and Borshch of Art, the fundraiser will host the recitation of war-time Ukrainian poetry. Readings will include the works of Vasyl Sagaydak, Oksana Lutsyshyna, Serhiy Zhadan, Victoria Amelina, Marjana Savka, Ostap Slyvynsky, and Mariana Harahonych.
“Poems are fishhooks into our souls,” added Mark Lagus, another event organizer, explaining why poetry was chosen for the main event.
Guests will also enjoy a performance by Ukrainian Village Voices, a New York City- based band dedicated to preserving and promoting traditional Ukraining Folk music. The evening will also feature speakers Jed Sunden and Maria Genkin, along with a live auction. Food and drink will be provided by Bartelby & Sage, a sustainable, local and female-owned company.
All ticket proceeds, bids, and donations will go directly to Razom for Ukraine, a U.S.-based nonprofit. Razom, meaning “together” in Ukrainian, has the mission of “contributing to the establishment of a secure, prosperous and democratic Ukraine,” through “creating, inspiring, and collaborating on initiatives that motivate people to think, partner and do.”
Tickets, donation opportunities, and more information are all available by visiting www.wordsfromukraine.org
Celebrating its 45th year, the Grumbling Gryphons will perform at HVRHS Friday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m.
The Grumbling Gryphons Traveling Children’s Theater is preparing to celebrate its 45th year — not with fanfare, but with feathers, fabric, myth, chant, and a gala finale bursting with young performers and seasoned artists alike.
The Gryphons’ 2025 Summer Theater Arts Camp begins July 28 and culminates in a one-night-only performance gala at Housatonic Valley Regional High School on Friday, Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. Founder, playwright, and artistic director, Leslie Elias has been weaving together the worlds of myth, movement and theater for decades.
“We’re a touring company that is participatory,” Elias said with her trademark storytelling cadence. “Even when there’s no pre-performance workshop, it’s still participatory. Always.”
Founded in 1980 “in a little basement apartment on the lower east side with co-founder Vanessa Roe,” said Elias,Grumbling Gryphons (recipients of the 2003 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award) has long occupied a unique niche: part performance troupe, part educational outreach, part community ritual. Whether dramatizing Greek myths, Native American legends, or original tales about bees and bogs, the company’s ethos centers on inclusion, transformation, and hands-on engagement.
This summer’s camp offers children ages six and up five fast-paced days of storytelling, acting, mask-making, and rehearsal. The first three days will take place at Elias’s own home studio — a tucked-away space filled with costumes, puppets, and instruments — before moving into full performance prep mode.
“In the ideal world, we would have more time,” she laughed. “It’s a lot of pressure to be performing for the public after five days. But we’re going to do our best.”
The gala performance, she explained, is a kind of theatrical mosaic — scenes and excerpts from Grumbling Gryphons’ vast repertoire, some showcasing seasoned adult performers and others giving campers center stage. The cast will include returning campers, newcomers, and guest artists drawn from the Gryphons’ decades-spanning circle of collaborators including mask maker and artist Ellen Moon.
“We’re still figuring out exactly what we’ll do,” said Elias, “but it’s kind of like a smorgasbord… a celebration. And it’s open — if anybody wants to get their kids involved, or even volunteer, we welcome you.”
Photo provided
Elias’s own theater background winds through early improvisational schools, Viennese dance traditions, and experimental spaces like Henry Street Settlement. As a child on Long Island, she studied with jazz pianist Ivan Fiedel and dancer Rosalind Fiedel, eccentric mentors who nurtured her taste for the surreal and spontaneous.
“Mr. Fiedel was a character,” she recalled. “He would smoke a cigar… and take the cigar in his ear and the smoke would come out the other end. I don’t know how he did it.”
Elias built Grumbling Gryphons with this sense of magic — not as a traditional company, but as a living, evolving story in itself. Whether working with preschoolers or middle-schoolers, audiences in botanical gardens or historic town halls, the Gryphons invite kids to become creators — to chant, to improvise, to embody archetypes from ancient lore or environmental parables.
And that’s what this summer’s camp and gala are all about. “It’s more than theater,” Elias said. “It’s myth, poetry, movement — it’s about building self-esteem, imagination. It’s about transformation.”
For more information, to register a child for the 2025 Summer Theater Camp, or to inquire about volunteering, visit grumblinggryphons.org