Lacke Studio duo show
Scott Culbreth, left, and Suzanne Lacke with samples of their work
Deborah Maier
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Singer-songwriter plays Revolution-inspired songs in Falls Village summer concert series
Patrick L. Sullivan
Jul 01, 2026
Connecticut's Revolutionary War heroes come to life during a lively set of original songs by Kent Besocke.
Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE – Kent Besocke performed original songs about Connecticut’s Revolutionary War heroes and villains on the lawn of the David M. Hunt Library Friday, June 26, as part of the library’s summer concert series. Besocke, a native Californian who lives in Simsbury, Connecticut, accompanied himself on guitar, banjo and octave mandolin.
Warming up the crowd of concertgoers, Besocke introduced his instruments, beginning with his banjo. It originated in West Africa, he said, in the form of a gourd with a stick attached and a drone string.
His acoustic guitar is what bluegrass players call a flat-top, typically a type of steel-string acoustic guitar.
“I’ve lost track of how many songs I’ve written on this,” he said.
Last but not least, the octave mandolin is similar to a standard mandolin, but larger and pitched an octave lower.
As a self-described “history buff,” Besocke said he researches the subjects of his songs in libraries or online, and when he finds the right story or subject, he waits for inspiration to strike.
When he read about the legend of Abigail Hinman, who is rumored to have aimed a musket at notorious traitor Benedict Arnold during the siege of New London in 1781, he thought, “There’s a song here.”
Overall, he said his songs are “inspired by the people who had enough, who could not tolerate the intolerance of the King.”
The first song in his set, “Life for Liberty,” was meant to “conjure up memories of people who are gone” after giving their lives in the Revolution.
Besocke played a traditional English song based on 1783 pasticcio opera called “The Poor Soldier," which premiered in London as the British and Americans negotiated the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the war.
He also sang about Coventry’s Nathan Hale, an idealistic young patriot who responded to George Washington’s appeal for intelligence officers.
“Unfortunately, he was a terrible spy,” Besocke quipped.
As Hale made his way through enemy lines, masquerading as a Dutch schoolmaster anxious to get to British-controlled New York,he was foolish enough to carry identification, in the form of his Yale diploma.
In a tavern, Hale met what he thought was a fellow patriot, and divulged his mission. Unfortunately, the confidant turned out to be a British officer. Hale was arrested, interrogated, and hung the next day.
Besocke said the Revolution pitted family and friends against each other.
“It was like the Civil War, in the sense that neighbors and families were divided.”
Additional concert listings can be found at
canaanfallsvillage.org/events.
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From rejected writer to documentarian, local filmmaker gives inside look at Falls Village
Patrick L. Sullivan
Jul 01, 2026
Falls Village filmmaker Eric Veden, who has created 38 videos documenting the village and its people.
Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE – Longtime filmmaker Eric Veden is the brains behind an extensive collection of videos documenting the people, places, and happenings in Falls Village spanning 26 years. The latest video is the 38th installment in a series that began in 2000.
Veden, 82, made Falls Village his home after moving to the area from San Diego in the mid-1980s. His friend, Ted Wolford, offered up his home so the Californian could work on his fiction writing.
“I got a lot written,” he said. “I was working on novels but ended up writing short stories.”
While he did see his name in print with several stories published in magazines, Veden took a series of odd jobs to make ends meet.
These jobs included being a night watchman at Troutbeck in Amenia, New York, where he thought he’d be able to write at night but spent most of his time cleaning.
He was also the recreation director for an Alzheimer's unit in Kent, which he enjoyed. “I had what it took…patience.”
“Then Social Security kicked in and I retired from odd jobs and found video work,” he said.
Veden said making videos is much more fun than being a struggling writer.
“I’d work on something for months and get rejected again and again,” he said, referring to his writing career. “Videography is instantaneous.”
His first-ever video was about his friend, Albert Twing, who lived on Undermountain Road. Veden said Twing was unique in that he had compiled two of everything. Two tractors. Two mowers. The list went on.
“When something broke, he could just take it in his shed and fix it himself.”
The librarian at the David M. Hunt Library was Cookie Kubarek at the time. She saw the video and realized its potential.
“She encouraged me to do more,” he remembered.
When it comes to filmmaking, Veden said he is largely self-taught. He started with a VHS camera and later switched to digital, receiving technical advice and assistance from a friend, John Palinkas, a videographer who lives in Harwinton.
Veden’s videos typically have a theme. Sometimes the subject is an event, such as the Memorial Day parade, or a lecture at the library.
The bulk of the material is extended, one-on-one interviews with residents of Falls Village.
Sometimes the subjects are willing to tell their stories. Sometimes a little persuasion is needed.
Veden said he allows the interviewees to see the final product before it goes public. That puts people at ease, as does his unobtrusive style.
He said he uses the bare minimum of equipment and personnel: a digital video camera with a microphone attached, a tripod, and himself.
His interview technique is simple. He introduces the subject from off-camera, and the subject takes it from there.
“It’s very easy-going,” he said of the interview process. “I just ask people to tell their life story and let them go from birth up to the present day.”
He finds his interview subjects primarily via recommendations from previous subjects or from friends.
Asked if the supply of subjects is starting to run thin after 26 years, he said it is a concern.
“In fact, if anybody has an idea for an interview, call me,” he said.
As an octogenarian, Veden has no plans to retire from filmmaking.
He said he does it for the love of the process and because it keeps him in touch with "interesting people,” who often become friends.
Asked if he makes any money from them, he said flatly “no.”
And after 26 years and 38 episodes, he has come to a conclusion about Falls Village.
“It’s a nice place and the people who live here love it.”
Veden’s Falls Village videos are available on DVD at the D.M. Hunt Library and on YouTube under “Eric Veden Video.”
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Housing emerges as key priority in Sharon planning update
Alec Linden
Jul 01, 2026
Delays in a project to renovate the former community center into four affordable apartments were a focus of discussion between the Planning and Zoning Commission and housing advocates at a meeting on Wednesday, June 24.
Alec Linden
SHARON – Officials say diversifying Sharon’s housing inventory remains a long-term priority, even as litigation, funding challenges and state regulatory hurdles continue to stall several affordable housing projects.
Affordable housing is one of three major priorities identified during Sharon’s update of its state-required Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), which is due by the end of the year. The discussion came during the third meeting on the plan, following earlier sessions in April and May focused on economic development and conservation.
Janell Mullen, a Sharon native and land use consultant hired by the Planning and Zoning Commission to prepare the update, described the POCD as “a road map for the next 10 years of planning and development” during the commission’s meeting Wednesday, June 24, attended by commissioners and several members of the public.
Mullen said responses to a survey distributed earlier this year showed broad support for not only expanding affordable housing opportunities in town, but also a desire for diversifying Sharon’s housing stock. Residents identified a need for quality housing, senior housing, middle-income housing, village center options, workforce housing, small-scale multifamily housing and housing specifically dedicated to full-time residents.
Much of the discussion throughout the meeting centered on proposed and existing projects that have faced challenges.
P&Z Chair Laurence Rand III said one such project was approved but “remains in limbo.”
The project, known as the Gold Dog housing development, is a controversial condominium development on Hospital Hill Road, which prompted months of contentious public hearings last year. The project calls for 12 duplexes arranged along a new cul-de-sac on a forested hillside below the Sharon Hospital Medical Arts Center.
Since the project’s April 2025 approval, the project has been tied up in litigation brought after widespread neighborhood opposition during the approval process.
Several, however, spoke out in support, arguing its middle-income target price would fill a gap in the market and allow working families to settle in town.
Other ongoing developments and current housing opportunities have faced difficulties recently. The Sharon Housing Authority is an independent agency charged solely with the management of Sharon Ridge, an affordable housing complex opened in 1992, and its sister complex, known as Sharon Ridge Expansion, built in 2013. The group manages a total of 32 subsidized units across both neighborhoods.
Jennifer Baird, secretary of the Authority, said it has found itself in dire financial straits, partially due to what she described as a governing model that has made fundraising and maintenance difficult. At a town meeting on June 29, which also saw the budget passed, residents approved contributing $60,000 in town funds to help the authority cover emergency maintenance and repairs projects and to commission study to aid future grantseeking efforts.
Speaking at the June 29 town meeting, Authority Chair Don Castonguay justified supporting Sharon Ridge and the Expansion: “It’s one of the nicest affordable housing projects in Litchfield County, and we want to keep it that way.”
In planning for future handling of affordable housing initiatives, Baird advocated for a “really integrated and unified approach,” such as a municipal affordable housing commission, similar to other towns in the region like Salisbury, Cornwall and North Canaan.
Back in the town’s commercial center, a project from the Sharon Housing Trust to add four additional units of affordable housing at the former town community center on North Main Street – adjacent to six already occupied affordable apartments – has been stalled by state-level red tape even after having broken ground last year.
“We’re sort of at a stalemate there,” said John Hecht, who sits on the board of the SHT but spoke as a resident at Wednesday’s meeting. He said that a state historic preservation agency had prevented the group from re-siding the three occupied buildings, its first step in renovating the entire complex into a unified affordable housing “complex.”
The community center renovation is also at a standstill as it awaits approval from the state historic preservation agency. “There are four units that can be rented to families and we’re being held back,” Hecht said frustratedly.
Regardless of setbacks, Mullen said that Sharon was one of the most supportive towns she has worked with when it comes to affordable housing.
P&Z member Betsy Hall, who earlier in the meeting acknowledged “astronomical” rents in town, said she knew why: “Sharon is a town that wants to solve its problems.”
The next planning session for the POCD is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22, and will focus on farmland preservation to make up for the last meeting, where time constraints prevented discussion on the topic.
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More than 50 gather to honor Revolutionary War veterans buried in Sharon cemetery
Ruth Epstein
Jul 01, 2026
Attendees of a June 27 cemetery talk settle in to hear historian and teacher Peter Vermilyea speak about the 21 Revolutionary War soldiers buried at Ellsworth Burying Ground.
Allison Gollenberg
SHARON – More than 50 people gathered at Ellsworth Burying Ground on Saturday, June 27, to honor the town’s Revolutionary War veterans, as historian, teacher and author Peter Vermilyea brought the lives of the soldiers buried there into focus.
Vermilyea, who spoke for about 40 minutes, told attendees they were surrounded by men “we are here to honor.” Following his talk, many visited the graves of the 21 Revolutionary War soldiers buried at the cemetery, each marked with a small Betsy Ross flag.
“Many pass through cemeteries seeing only dates or names,” Vermilyea said, “Every one of these men lived through one of the most extraordinary moments in human history. Every one of them faced choices that would shape not only their own lives, but the future of a nation.”
Bringing the history of the Revolutionary War close to home, he invoked the names of Sharon citizens who answered the call to serve. Among them were Joseph Bailey, Ebenezer Everitt, Joel Israel Chaffee, Silas, Daniel and Timothy St. John, and Lemuel Young.
Calling on the attendees to rely on their imaginations, Vermilyea asked them to picture the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, who, in 1775, was the minister of the Sharon Congregational Church. He was preaching one morning when he announced from the pulpit that blood had been shed at Lexington and Concord. “The Revolution had come to Sharon,” Vermilyea said.
The British had imposed the Coercive Acts, and when the colonists rebelled, the Port of Boston was closed. Sharon citizens, like many others, refused to tolerate such action, gathered food and money to send to Boston, while noting, “If it could happen in Boston, it could happen here.”
Most of those who went off to fight were farmers who realized their property went hand-in-hand with liberty. Property made it possible to provide for their families and contribute to their communities. A farm meant independence.
“These men were not fighting for abstract principles alone,” said Vermilyea. “They were fighting for the communities they knew, the land they worked and the future they hoped to leave their children.”
The men could either join local militias, where they were expected to serve for a short period, or the Continental Army, where their future would be much more uncertain.
Vermilyea also highlighted other local soldiers whose names appear on the surrounding tombstones. One was David Downs, who commanded Colonel Charles Burrall’s regiment. Another was Asa Rice, who fought at the ill-fated Battle of the Cedars in Canada.
But while the British were the obvious enemy, Vermilyea spoke of the invisible killer—disease. Smallpox claimed thousands of lives during the war. He painted a bleak picture of the hardships Connecticut men endured during the winter of 1776-77, often fighting without adequate clothes, shoes, blankets or food.
“Their perseverance may have been their greatest contribution to American independence,” he said.
Vermilyea asked the audience to look around at the stones, saying it’s easy to focus on the Founding Fathers when studying the Revolutionary War.
“But the Revolution was won by communities. And by ordinary men. Today we stand among them. Their war is no longer a distant event in a textbook. It is part of the landscape around us. And that is why places like Ellsworth Cemetery matter. They remind us that history remains here.”
The event also highlighted the cemetery itself and the volunteers who work to preserve its history.
“This is one of the oldest burial grounds,” said Carol Ascher, a member of the Ellsworth Burying Ground Committee. The volunteer group, which organized the event, helps maintain and care for the historic cemetery.
She also showed visitors the grave of Joseph Lord, who donated the land for the cemetery to the Ellsworth Society. Originally buried on Tichnor Road, Lord’s remains were moved across the road after flooding made the original burial site unsuitable, making him the first person interred at Ellsworth Burying Ground.
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Thank you for helping meet the match
Lakeville Journal
Jul 01, 2026
This spring, the board members of LJMN Media offered a $75,000 matching challenge in support of The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News.
Thanks to readers, donors, neighbors and friends across the region, we met that challenge.
Every gift made during the campaign was matched dollar for dollar by members of our Board of Directors, doubling its impact. We are grateful to everyone who gave and to the board members who made the match possible.
The money raised will help support the work already underway across the organization: improving how the news reaches readers; expanding reporting; strengthening arts and lifestyle coverage; supporting student journalism; and continuing to produce the local news our communities rely on.
That work depends on many kinds of support. Subscriptions, advertising and donations all help keep The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News strong as nonprofit newspapers.
At a time when many local papers are shrinking or disappearing, this community continues to show that local journalism matters. We do not take that for granted.
Thank you for helping us meet this year’s challenge, and for continuing to support trusted, independent local news in Northwest Connecticut and eastern Dutchess County.
— James H. Clark, CEO/Publisher
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