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FALLS VILLAGE — Bright colorful balloons directed visitors to the second annual Music Mountain Family Festival on Aug. 11 and helpful youngters directed hundreds of cars throughout the day into the grounds and the parking lot across the road.
The free daylong event was blessed with extraordinarily good weather. Early in the morning, the grass was still damp from the rains of the previous day, and from an extremely heavy dew that morning. But the sky was cloudless and the temperatures were warm but not too much so.
Children and their parents swam like schools of brightly colored fish from the inside of the concert hall (where they were treated to performances by Cornwall’s Grumbling Gryphons, Falls Village pianist and composer Josh Stone and Joseph FireCrow of Winsted performing his Grammy-nominated native American flute music) to the rolling lawns outside.
Baked goods galore were for sale at the ticket booth (along with ice cream and soft drinks sold by Mountainside). The D.M. Hunt Library tent displayed items from the upcoming silent auction and the Falls Village volunteer firefighters sponsored a food tent. The firefighters also sold spicey sausage grinders along with the traditional hamburgers and hot dogs. At the entrance to the concert grounds, old-fashioned cotton candy and popcorn were available.
Adding to the circus atmosphere: life-size puppets from Mark Alexander’s Mortal Beasts and Deities, and mimes and clowns from Matica, who helped participants juggle, balance on oversized inflatable balls and twist rattling hula hoops on their hips.
Despite the excellent weather, the day must be described as a Dog Day: Music Mountain President Nick Gordon wandered the grounds with his oversized friend, a Newfoundland named Boulder, who patiently sat and panted as children ran up and stroked his smooth back and head. Juliet Moore of Sharon brought her new golden retriever puppy, Abigail, who was happy to greet any youngsters who came her way (and there were plenty).
“I looked down at one point during the day and Abigail was just sitting on this boy!� Moore said. (Needless to say, the boy was having a grand time with his new puppy friend.)
Family Day was founded as a way to get families and youngsters familiar with Music Mountain, one of the premier concert halls for chamber music in the country. Gordon (son of founder Jacques Gordon) feels it is essential for the future of classical music that young people learn to feel comfortable with the music. The Bergonzi String Quartet performed Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, and the Light Opera Company of Salisbury gave a preview performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Iolanthe,� which they will perform over Labor Day Weekend at The Hotchkiss School.
Somewhere between 700 and 800 people attended the event, though Gordon said it’s hard to know exactly how many people showed up.
“We count the cars, but each car has several people in it,� he said. He was delighted with the turnout and with the general atmosphere of peace, tranquility and fun.
“There was no discord, no raised voices, everyone was just having a good time,� he said. “It was a delightful day, all the acts were wonderful and everyone seemed to love it, especially the kids.�
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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.