Development has begun at 135 Millerton Rd., Sharon. As seen from the Sharon Land Trust nature trail across the street, construction of a long, winding driveway on the farm has begun.
SHARON — Paley Farm’s new owners have begun to develop a multi-million-dollar home on the property despite pending resolution of an injunction request to block construction.
In March 2022, a couple from New York purchased 187.33 acres of protected farmland at 135 Millerton Rd. Since then, the owners, David and Liza Bainbridge of Rye, have received approvals to construct a residence on the historic farm.
The land known as Paley Farm was owned by the Paley family going back to 1939. In 1982, the Paleys moved to the location of the current Paley Farm Market and sold the original farm on Millerton Road.
In the early 1980s, farmland in the state was being swallowed up by developers. Morris Paley set out to protect his family’s farm with the help of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (DOA) and American Farmland Trusts.
The team succeeded in conveying the development rights of three parcels totaling 187.33 acres to the DOA, thus conserving the land for farming. In total, the state paid more than $300,000 for the conveyance. The New York Times reported on this effort under the headline, “Trust Acts to Save a Farm in Sharon.”
With development rights now in the hands of the state, Paley sold the property to Timothy and Patricia Parry. The land changed hands twice more in the 1990s and made it to 2022 when the Bainbridges bought the farm in its protected state. Land sale records show the purchase price in 2022 was $1,475,000.
The land is still used as a farm today, specifically for hay production. The hay is harvested by a nearby dairy operation that requested to remain unnamed.
After purchasing the plot, the Bainbridges applied to DOA for building approval in November 2022. The application proposed a two-story home with a two-car attached garage, pool, outdoor spa, septic system/leach field, well, electricity installation including buried utility lines and three utility vaults, back-up generator with transformer and wood-clad fence, driveway, driveway court, and garage court.
Sharon Land Trust (SLT) and a group of concerned citizens took steps to intervene in late 2022 and early 2023. When lobbying efforts to DOA, state legislators and the Council of Enviornmental Quality yielded no results, the group offered to buy the farm from the Bainbridges.
By summer of 2023 a verbal agreement to purchase the land had been reached at a cost of $1.5 million, set to close on or before Aug. 31 of that year. On Aug. 17, 2023, DOA approved the Bainbridges’ application to build, and the land sale agreement was abandoned.
In its decision, DOA stated, “the Department has determined that the proposed residence does not materially decrease the acreage and productivity of arable land for crops and that due consideration was given to the impact of any decrease in acreage or productivity of arable land upon the total farm operation.”
The Bainbridges have continued to seek building permits in 2024. Most recently, on July 15, a building application was approved by Sharon Land Use Administrator Jamie Casey, who reported that the applicants met all planning and zoning requirements. The application was not put before the Planning and Zoning Commission since dwelling construction is considered a by-right activity of landowners and does not require a special permit.
Permits were issued to the Bainbridges to construct a foundation, valued at $371,000, and a wood-framed home valued above $3 million. More than $30,000 in permit fees were issued to the Town of Sharon by the Bainbridges.
Before the permit approval, on July 5 legal proceedings were filed by SLT and Carol Flaton (concerned citizen) with Torrington Superior Court. SLT and Flaton are represented by Cohen & Wolf P.C. of Danbury and the Bainbridges are represented by Halloran & Sage LLP of Hartford.
The plaintiffs claim DOA “misconstrued the 1984 conveyance and applicable statutes” in its decision to approve construction.
The filing states the Connecticut regulatory definitions have changed over time and DOA must consider the language in place at the time of conservation (1984). A statute in the regulations allows for “other improvements” that are directly incidental to agricultural enterprise, but the language of this statute has been modified since the conveyance went into place.
“Thus, whether the residence materially decreases land for crops is irrelevant — the only relevant consideration is whether a proposed residence is ‘directly incidental to farm operation’,” the filing states. “Neither Morris Paley nor the Department of Agriculture in 1984 intended to allow for large weekend homes in the middle of prime farmland.”
SLT requested a court-ordered injunction take effect to prevent construction on the property while court proceedings are ongoing. On Aug. 9, Torrington Superior Court requested accompanying documents for the injunction. The Bainbridges received a summons to appear in court Sept. 26 for an opportunity to dispute the injunction. The plaintiffs expect to learn if the group has standing to bring the case at the Sept. 26 hearing.
In the interim, Judge Walter A. Menjivar permitted the defendants to begin driveway construction. Development of Paley Farm began Aug. 12.
When contacted, David Bainbridge offered no comment. Ken Slater of Halloran & Sage LLP confirmed he was representing the Bainbridges but declined to comment on the ongoing case.
State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) described the situation as “very disappointing.” She noted that the conveyance of development rights at Paley Farm was among the first such easements in the state. In conversations with DOA, she gathered that the department “felt like it didn’t have the authority to enforce it the way they wanted to.”
Sharon Land Trust Treasurer Allen Reiser worried about the precedent this sets. He said there are several other properties in Sharon protected by 1980s conveyances that could be developed if DOA allows.
“As a land trust obviously we’d love for as much land as possible to be preserved. But this is a property the State of Connecticut paid, in today’s dollars, a million dollars to be conserved and they’re not enforcing the easement properly,” said Reiser. “It rubs me the wrong way as a taxpayer and it rubs me the wrong way as a Sharon Land Trust member. That being said, we recognize and support the ability of property owners to build and modify residences to whatever extent is allowed by local zoning rules.”
Norma Bosworth
125 years ago —
April 1901
SHARON — Mrs. Luther Brown is seriously ill at her home with erysipelas. The Misses Brown are also sick with the grip. Mrs. Samuel Skiff is helping care for them.
Adv.: The E.W. Spurr Co. Dealers in Lumber, Coal, Hardware and Feed. Pillsbury Best Flour, Clover, Timothy and Red Top Seed. Evergreen and Southern White Corn. Baled Hay. Gents Furnishings.
100 years ago —
April 1926
Henry Ford is now a billionaire. Seems as though more flivvers than that were running around.
The mercury has registered from 16 to 20 almost every morning the past week. Winter has certainly been lingering in the lap of Spring with a vengeance. The surface of the lake still remains covered with ice. Not in many years has the lake remained closed so late in the spring.
50 years ago —
April 1976
State Sen. Harold Hansen (D-30th) said this week he remained optimistic about passage next year of the controversial “Bottle Bill.” The bill met defeat last Wednesday in the State Senate by a 20-16 vote.
A maple tree in Sharon which “could be up to 200 years old,” according to Robert Carberry, may qualify as a “Bicentennial Tree.” The tree stands on Anna Golden’s property on Route 41 between Lakeville and Sharon. The gnarled trunk has a circumference of 23 feet, two feet from the ground.
Three Laotian refugees, the Mitsri family, arrived in this country last Friday night and are now settled in Lakeville. Sponsored by Gretchen and Jerry Doolittle of Cornwall, they came from a refugee camp in Thailand. Doolittle, who served as a press attache in the Laotian Embassy, said he wanted to do this because “they are among many people who bet on America and we owe them something.”
CORNWALL — It is still possible to rent a kid to do housework or yard work during the week starting April 19. The Junior Young People’s Fellowship of the First Church is willing to work to raise funds for the Cornwall Child Care Center and the Little Guild of St. Francis. If you have leaves to be raked or attic to be cleaned, call Pat Blakey or the church office. A fee of $1.50 per hour is considered reasonable for a job well done by a “rented” kid.
Connecticut ranks second highest in the nation in local property taxes per capita, but it is 43rd among states in total state taxes per $1,000 personal income as of 1974, a study by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities showed. Only Massachusetts ranks higher than Connecticut in per capita property taxes, according to the study.
25 years ago —
April 2001
Eugene L. “Gene” Brooks was a man who affected so many lives. As an educator on both sides of the border (Dutchess and Litchfield counties) residents all over the area are mourning his April 7 death. After retiring from the Webutuck school system, Mr. Brooks was tapped for assistant principal of Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
It’s been a breathtakingly busy year for students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School involved with the school’s first ever robotics team. After winning high honors at a regional competition in Hartford, the team went on to the finals in Florida this month. There, “Reggie the Robot” did his team proud, not winning but still coming in about 43rd in his division of 84 top national contenders.
These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Author Thomas E. Johnson, Jr. speaks on public libraries in Falls Village
FALLS VILLAGE — Author Thomas E. Johnson, Jr., told an audience at the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village Saturday, April 11, that public libraries have played a critical role in American communities since the Revolutionary era.
Johnson, whose book “Common Place: The Public Library, Civil Society and Early American Values” examines 12 case studies of public libraries, including the Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury.
He said New England is the “epicenter” of public libraries, beginning with what he considers the first truly public library, established in 1790 in Franklin, Massachusetts.
The residents of Franklin wrote to their town’s namesake, Benjamin Franklin, asking for a bell roughly along the lines of the famous Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.
Franklin sent books instead.
Johnson noted that the Franklin library was located on the town’s common, along with the post office, the Congregational Church where town meetings were held, and the town’s poor farm.
It was no accident that the library was adjacent to the physical location of important town institutions.
There was a squabble about the books Franklin sent. At first the Congregational Church held on to the collection, and was stingy about access.
But a formal town meeting made the books available to all.
Johnson counts the Scoville Memorial Library as the second public library in the country as of 1803.
He said the criteria are that the library actually has books, and a permanent space for them, and is open to the public without charge.
He said the Salisbury library initially charged a fee, and was not open continuously at first.
He also credited the Scoville Library for being the first public library to receive public tax dollars.
Looking ahead at the future of public libraries in the age of the internet and artificial intelligence, Johnson said libraries can help citizens sort through the barrage of information – much of it unreliable – about current issues.
He also emphasized the public library’s role as a civic institution contributing to the common good.
Johnson reflected, “Isn’t that critical to the commons, to how we govern ourselves?”
Christian Murray
GOSHEN — State transportation officials pointed to mounting infrastructure challenges across the Northwest Corner, from aging bridges to deteriorating roadways, even as a major Route 44project in Norfolk is now expected to be completed nearly 18 months ahead of schedule.
Speaking at a Thursday, April 9 meeting of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments — which represents 21 towns in northwest Connecticut — Garrett Eucalitto, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said infrastructure across the region is under increasing strain.
“Most of the infrastructure that was built back in the ‘50s and ‘60s is now aging out and needing to be addressed and replaced,” Eucalitto said. “That’s why we see more and more bridges having to be addressed — either repaired, replaced or refurbished to extend their life.”
He pointed to ongoing bridge work on Route 8 and across the Northwest Corner as an example of that approach, noting that the state has increasingly turned to a process known as metallizing to extend the lifespan of bridge structures rather than replacing them outright.
“So you’ll see a lot of metallizing to make sure that we can extend the life of the bridges — get the most from our bridges instead of trying to come in and just replace them,” he said.
The process involves removing existing paint — often costly due to lead — before applying treatments to preserve the steel and extend the structure’s life by decades.
“So what metallizing is, is you remove all the paint … then we actually apply some linseed oil over it to protect the steel, and then paint over it,” Eucalitto said. “That can extend it another few decades.”
While the underlying structure of many bridges is still sound, officials said increasingly severe weather events are accelerating deterioration across the transportation system.
“We have … weather events that are more extreme, and so that is really having an impact on a lot of our culverts and bridges and roadway infrastructure,” Eucalitto said.
Harsh winters are causing challenges for the DOT. Officials said this past season brought supply challenges in terms of road salt, requiring both state and local public works departments to carefully manage their resources.
Despite those challenges, the state has worked to reduce salt usage through technology that monitors road and weather conditions and guides application rates in real time, Eucalitto said.
But Eucalitto pointed to a bright spot in Norfolk, where a major state project on Route 44 in Norfolk is going to be completed ahead of schedule.
The roughly $44 million project — which began in April 2024 and includes retaining wall replacement, slope stabilization and roadway reconstruction — is now expected to be completed by the end of 2026, more than 500 days ahead of schedule.
“We were able to pull in the finish date to hopefully the end of this year,” Eucalitto said, crediting a more efficient construction approach identified by the contractor.
The project has been one of the larger projects in the Northwest Corner for some time, which has long disrupted regional traffic patterns.
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Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE — A proposed $2.49 million spending plan for Lee H. Kellogg School in 2026-2027, representing a 4.2% increase, was presented to the Board of Finance Thursday, April 9.
The proposal totals $2,490,716, an increase of $100,451 over the current year.
Falls Village’s assessment for Region One is $1,752,589, an increase of $208,904 or 13.54%.
Combined, total education spending for the upcoming fiscal year would reach $4,243,305, an increase of $309,355 or 7.86%.
The meeting was brief, with Board of Education Chair Pat Mechare and Principal Andrew Deacon delivering the presentation. Mechare, who also chairs the Region One Board of Education, left early to attend a public hearing on the regional budget proposal at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, which overlapped with the Falls Village meeting.
No action was taken.
The finance meeting had technical difficulties. Online participants could see the meeting but there was no audio.
The finance board’s regular monthly meeting was held Monday, April 13, and the proposed spending plans from the school board and the Board of Selectmen were on the agenda.
Alec Linden
SHARON – The Sharon Board of Finance voted at a special meeting on March 31 to send the municipal budget, which includes increased funding for several local nonprofits, to a public hearing.
The selectmen’s operating budget totals $5,798,251, an increase of $499,688, or 9.43%, from the current fiscal year.
First Selectman Casey Flanagan said the increase is largely driven by three areas.
A line for the town ambulance increased by nearly 50% in the fiscal year 2027 budget draft, from $195,900 to $290,000. Flanagan said the hike was due to a need to fund more paid staff shifts.
Another big increase was for road repairs under the Highway Department, moving from $300,000 to $430,000 for the upcoming fiscal year. The increase will not fully cover what Flanagan described as “an underfunded line item,” but he says it indicates that the town is committed to “getting us closer to where we should be.”
The final major cost increase appears in the Miscellaneous category. On April 16, voters will decide whether to authorize the town to enter into an agreement with NBT Bank to finance future road and bridge projects. If approved, the Board of Selectmen anticipates interest on the $7 million borrowing would total $117,000, resulting in a nearly 130% increase in the Miscellaneous line item.
Some smaller town programs and nonprofits also saw increases. The Sharon Playhouse is proposed to see a $1,000 or 15% increase, which Flanagan said is intended as a modest contribution to help the organization keep up with rising operating expenses. The organization’s ticket sales only cover a portion of expenses, he said, and donations are key. “They just need more,” he said, “like a lot of local nonprofits.”
Sharon Day Care is marked to increase from $40,000 to $45,000, but Flanagan said that since its budget line hasn’t moved in the previous five years, the amount is reasonable. “We haven’t kept up with the rate of inflation, and if you take that into account, it seems like a modest increase,” he said.
The Mudge Pond Association is also budgeted $6,000 for fiscal year 2027, an 140% increase from last year’s line. The increase will help the lake protection group pay for another lake study on water quality and invasive species, Flanagan said, making for three consecutive years of data, which increases the Association’s chances of getting state funding.
The Historical Society is slated to get a hike by nearly 50% as it undertakes programming for the country’s 250th anniversary this summer.
Riley Klein
Anthony Foley plays short stop.
WINSTED – Housatonic Valley Regional High School’s varsity baseball team defeated Gilbert School 7-2 on Friday, April 10.
Chris Race pitched the full game for HVRHS and rang up 12 strikeouts in a dominant performance. The junior surrendered two hits and walked two batters.
It was the first win of the year for the Mountaineers, who opened their season the day prior at Eastern Connecticut State University baseball stadium. HVRHS lost 7-3 against Nonnewaug High School in that one.
The game against Gilbert was played at Walker Field in downtown Winsted. Conditions were ideal for a day on the diamond – partly cloudy and about 65 degrees.
Chris Race pitching.Riley Klein
The fast-paced match moved quickly through the innings and remained scoreless through five. Cole Scacca was the starting pitcher for Gilbert and gave up no runs during his five innings on the mound.
HVRHS got on the board in the sixth inning when Carson Riva hit a double that sent Race home and advanced Wes Allyn to third base. In the next at bat, Wyatt Bayer brought them both home to put HVRHS up 3-0.
Gilbert scored in the bottom of the sixth inning with an RBI double by Jackson Decker.
Jerron Nirschel swings.Riley Klein
In the top of the seventh Anthony Foley launched a fly ball deep to center field, driving in two more runs for HVRHS. Race and Riva both logged RBIs in the inning to improve HVRHS’s lead to 7-1.
In the seventh inning, Gilbert scored the final run of the game: a one-run single by Ben Jacquemin that brought the final score to 7-2.
HVRHS tallied 11 hits total. Allyn, Race, Bayer and Hunter Conklin each collected two hits. Foley, Riva and Tyler Roberts got one hit each.
The result improved HVRHS’s record to 1-1 and Gilbert moved to 1-2. The Mountaineers hosted O’Brien Tech in their home opener on Wednesday, April 15.
Wyatt Bayer after hitting a 2-RBI double.Riley Klein
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