Gold Dog condo public hearing extended again in Sharon

Situated on King Hill Road, this sign is one of many lining Sharon streets in opposition to the development.
Alec Linden


Situated on King Hill Road, this sign is one of many lining Sharon streets in opposition to the development.
SHARON — Planning and Zoning granted a second continuation of the public hearing for a town center housing development on Hospital Hill Road as the Commission awaits a third-party engineering review.
The plans, which are available for public viewing at the Land Use Office during regular hours or by appointment, detail 12 duplex buildings for 24 total condo units arranged around a 24-foot-wide driveway.
At the prior public hearing session, project engineer George Johannesen of Allied Engineering requested a continuation as sewer and hydrology reports were incomplete at the time.
Johannesen returned to the Town Hall meeting room floor at P&Z’s May 14 meeting with those reports, alongside a 53-item presentation responding to a review presented at the March 10 opening of the public hearing by Artel Engineering’s Dainius Virbickas. That report was commissioned by 71 Hospital Hill Road residents Pablo Cisilino and Silvina Leone, who oppose the project.
Johannesen outlined numerous adjustments and additions to the plans due to criticisms and suggestions detailed by Artel, including an overhaul of its Stormwater Management Report, added erosion control measures and infrastructure adjustments, such as the addition of a guardrail on the downhill side of a cul-de-sac. The new plans also implement sidewalks at the request of P&Z during an earlier iteration of the public hearing.
Eleven of the buildings are approximately 1,800 square feet and are arrayed opposite each other on either side of the driveway. A smaller building of approximately 1,350 square feet is positioned at the end of the cul-de-sac, which is now planned to be supported by a riprap slope per the Artel report’s suggestions.
The plot spans an eight acre stretch of sparse forest and wetlands between Hospital Hill Road and Amenia Road, of which three and a half acres of disturbance are planned. If approved, construction would likely begin in the fall and last approximately two years.
Cisilino, as in the previous hearing sessions, expressed frustration at what he described as unpreparedness on the part of the applicant, Gold Dog LLC. “This pattern of behavior itself warrants denial of the application,” he said during the public comment portion of the hearing.
Speaking outside Town Hall after the meeting, Cisilino found it telling that the Artel report had initiated so many alterations to Gold Dog LLC’s proposal.
The project has been embroiled in controversy since Gold Dog submitted the proposal in January 2025 after withdrawing a previous application in 2023. Many Sharon residents have decried the development as incongruous to the neighborhood and insensitive to neighbors’ concerns.
For its part, the applicant’s attorney Joseph Szerejko said that despite the public outcry, no one approached Gold Dog representatives directly in the early months of the application process. “The applicant and Mr. Johannesen would have been very receptive to comments but didn’t receive any,” he said.
A minority of residents have also spoken out in favor of a diversified housing landscape in Sharon. James Gillespie, who used to live in Sharon, argued that the proposed development “fits a niche.” He wants to move back to the town, and “this fits my category,” he said.
The hearing will continue June 11 at 5 p.m., two days before its 65-day extension is set to expire.
Aly Morrissey & Christian Murray
A Life Star helicopter lands on the front lawn of Housatonic Valley Regional High School on Saturday, May 16, to transport a motorcycle crash victim to a hospital.
LIME ROCK — A motorcycle crash involving a car temporarily shut down a section of Route 112 near the intersection with Route 7 on Saturday afternoon, drawing a large emergency response and prompting a Life Star helicopter landing at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
Emergency responders at the scene confirmed the incident involved a motorcycle and passenger vehicle. Route 7 was closed from Dugway Road to the intersection of Routes 7 and 112 while crews responded.
Life Star arrived at the high school at approximately 2 p.m., where a crowd gathered to watch the helicopter land as the Lakeville-based Blue Studio dance recital was about to begin. The crash victim was transferred from an ambulance to the helicopter shortly after it landed before being transported to Hartford Hospital, according to a member of the Lakeville Hose Company who assisted with the landing.
Fire departments, police and EMS personnel remained on scene during the response.
Connecticut State Police said the crash occurred around 1 p.m. and involved a car and motorcycle, but did not release additional details. A state police spokesperson said the roads reopened quickly and described the injury as minor.
However, Chris Ohmen, a volunteer firefighter with the Lakeville Hose Company who was at the scene, said the “injuries warranted a Life Star transport” and that he was directed to “clear the area and set up a landing zone.”
The incident marks the second serious crash in two days in the area. A van crashed into a utility pole on Route 112 less than 24 hours earlier, causing road closures and traffic delays. The driver of that crash was transported to a hospital with serious injuries.

Christian Murray
Traffic was diverted near Wells Hill Road after a crash closed part of Route 112 Friday afternoon.
A van crashed into a utility pole on Route 112 near Wells Hill Road Friday afternoon, leaving the driver hospitalized in serious condition and forcing the highway to close for several hours.
The crash was reported at approximately 3:20 p.m., according to Connecticut State Police Troop B.
Police said a Ford Transit van struck a utility pole and the driver was transported to a hospital with serious injuries. The identity of the driver and the extent of the injuries had not been released Friday evening.
A second vehicle, a Volkswagen Jetta, veered off the road in an attempt to avoid the crash, according to state police. The driver of the Jetta was not injured.
Route 112 remained closed between Race Track Road and the Route 7/112 intersection into the early evening, according to Troop B, while emergency crews responded and Eversource Energy workers repaired the damaged utility pole.
Millbrook resident Will Dore said he believes he arrived near the scene shortly after the crash occurred. Before official detour signs were posted, an emergency responder was directing traffic at the Hotchkiss Four Corners -- the intersection of routes 112 and 41.
Dore said he was driving from Millbrook to Housatonic Valley Regional High School and was rerouted through Lakeville because of the closure.
“I was taking my daughter to a dress rehearsal for her dance recital and we were delayed because of the road closures,” Dore said. “I hope those involved are OK."
Mary Close Oppenheimer
Renee Wilcox
If you’ve ever wandered through Paley’s Farm Market, you probably know Renee Wilcox. For thirty years, she has been greeting you with unmistakable warmth—always ready with a smile. Renee grew up in Millerton, but it was in Salisbury that her family found something they’d never had before: a true sense of home. In 2003, she and her husband Bill were living in Millerton, but Bill—a volunteer with the Lakeville Hose Company—was already part of Salisbury life. When the Salisbury Housing Trust finished eight new homes on East Main Street (Dunham Drive), Renee and Bill were the first to sign on.
The story of those houses is really a story about the best parts of our community. Richard Dunham and his wife, Inge, along with the Housing Trust board, poured years of energy and hope into the project. Renee can’t help but light up when she talks about the people who helped her family settle in. Digby Brown came by to install appliances and bathroom cabinets; Barbara Niles spent hours painting; Carl Williams assembled bunk beds for the kids. Rick Cantele, at Salisbury Bank, helped them with their finances so they could qualify for a mortgage, while neighbors arrived at their door with fruit baskets and welcoming words.
For the Wilcox family, owning a home in Salisbury changed everything. The house gave them more than just a roof; it was a dream come true. Renee says, “My son—now thirty-three—was slipping through the cracks at school. He is now an avid reader. The schools have made all the difference.” When Bill suffered a serious workplace injury in 2023, the community they’d come to love rallied around them. Local businesses, friends, and neighbors showed up, offering help in big and small ways. “We are so grateful to live in this community,” Renee says, “I can’t even put into words how much it meant to us.”
But not every family is so lucky. Renee hears all the time from people from all walks of life who are upset that their kids can’t afford to live here. The numbers tell a tough story—sky-high home prices, almost no rentals, and over 100 families on a waitlist for an affordable apartment. The result? We have lost a whole generation of young people in our community.
Renee’s story is a reminder that community isn’t just about geography—it’s about making space for each other. If we want to keep that spirit alive, we need to fight for more affordable homes, more welcoming front doors, and more stories like hers.
Mary Close Oppenheimer is a member of the Salisbury Affordable Housing Commission.

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Aly Morrissey
Heavy stone garden ornaments, a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston, at Trade Secrets 2025.
Tucked away on Porter Street in downtown Lakeville, Project SAGE is an unassuming building from a street view. But cross the threshold a week before Trade Secrets — one of the region’s biggest gardening events, long associated with Martha Stewart and glamorous plants of all varieties — and you’ll find a bustling world of employees and volunteers getting ready for the organization’s most important event of the year.
“It’s not usually like this,’ laughed Project SAGE director Kristen van Ginhoven. “But with Trade Secrets just around the corner, it’s definitely like this.”
Van Ginhoven points to towers of boxes containing event programs, various ribbons, elegant decor and stacks of magazines, all in preparation for the event.
Project SAGE will celebrate its 26th year hosting Trade Secrets, but it’s so much more than a garden event.
“It’s a fundraiser for domestic violence prevention and intervention,” van Ginhoven said. “Anybody who attends knows they’re supporting a really meaningful and important cause.”
The fundraiser accounts for at least 30 percent of the organization’s overall budget, she said, and attracts around 3,000 people from across the region each year, creating an unmatched opportunity for Project SAGE to share its mission and generate support.
The event, though expensive to produce, generates enough income to significantly support Project SAGE’s direct services and prevention services.
Officials said a wave of new underwriters have emerged this year.
“We’re very grateful, because we live in a time when funding is uncertain,” van Ginhoven said.
Hundreds of copies of the annual Trade Secrets guide sat at Project SAGE headquarters, ready for distribution at the event. The book doubles as a domestic violence resource, complete with warning signs, myth-busting information and scripts for difficult conversations.
Volunteers will be present throughout the event to connect with community members. Each volunteer must be certified as a domestic violence counselor in order to work with Project SAGE.
“It means they can help us drive clients, move clients, take them to appointments or the grocery store,” van Ginhoven said.
Project SAGE officials said education about domestic violence should start early. The organization has developed a comprehensive curriculum spanning early childhood through grade 12 and visits schools throughout the region. The class of 2026 will be the first graduating class at Housatonic Valley Regional High School to have received all four years of training from Project SAGE.

The organization’s partnerships extend throughout the region and include on-site training in schools and nonprofit organizations, including the Sharon Playhouse. Community support also goes directly to Project SAGE, including a recently donated array of colorful gift bags bearing positing affirmations and filled with toiletries and basic necessities from students at the Frederick Gunn School in Washington, Connecticut.
The people who visit Project SAGE have often left uncomfortable or dangerous situations and leave without any belongings.
“Some of them have nothing,” van Ginhoven said. “They just show up because they had the courage to leave.”
Project SAGE staff say many referrals come through local hospitals, police and sister agencies.
The organization serves people in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
With the stress of event planning mounting, van Ginhoven spent a “previous life” preparing for this exact moment. She spent 30 working at the intersection of arts and activism, having co-founded WAM Theatre, a Lenox-based organization focused on stories and issues affecting those who self-identify as women and girls. During her tenure, WAM donated $100,000 to 25 local and global organizations working toward gender equity in areas such as girls’ education, teen pregnancy prevention, gender-based violence, sexual trafficking awareness and midwife training.
“I love the adrenaline of putting on a show,” van Ginhoven said with a laugh. With the help of volunteers and organizers, she said she isn’t bothered by the stress.
“The show will go on,” she said.
Jennifer Almquist
Caroline Kinsolving and Gary Capozzielo at home in Salisbury with their dogs, Petruchio and Beatrice
"He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly."
Caroline Kinsolving
Actor Caroline Kinsolving and violinist Gary Capozziello enjoy their quiet life with their two dogs in Salisbury, yet are often pulled apart to perform on distant stages in far-flung cities. Currently, the planets have aligned, and both are working in Hartford, across Bushnell Park from one another. Bridgewater native Kinsolving is starring in “Circus Fire,” the current production of TheaterWorks Hartford, while Capozziello is a violinist and assistant concertmaster of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. While Kinsolving hates being away from home, she feels the distance nourishes their relationship.
“We are guardians of each other’s confidence and self-esteem,” she said.
“We met during the pandemic, a bleak time,” Kinsolving said. “On our first date, we met at The Hickory Stick Bookshop and walked outside six feet apart. We fell in love.”
They lived in a tiny studio near Averill Farm in Washington, Connecticut.
“He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly,” Capozziello said with a laugh. “When I told her I was a violinist, she mentioned ‘Appalachian Spring’ by Aaron Copland. I sent her a recording of me playing it, and it became our song.”
“For our wedding, we wanted all our friends and family out in the field listening to that music,” Kinsolving said. Capozziello’s friends from Orchestra New England performed the piece at their wedding.
“Circus Fire,” written by Connecticut’s own Jacques Lamarre and directed by Jared Mezzocchi, is a multimedia world-premiere tribute to the Hartford Circus Fire. On July 6, 1944, the big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus caught fire, killing 167 and injuring 700 in Connecticut’s worst fire disaster.
Capozziello, who grew up in Fairfield, began: “I came from very limited means, though my parents gave me the kind of support that mattered most. I had a hard time in school. My music teachers, noticing my knack for music, kept me in school.” As he became a teenager, he realized how demanding classical violin truly is. “I had the honor of playing in a master class for Isaac Stern when I was 18,” he said. “That was the wake-up call. He was relentless with my intonation, telling me I must ‘feel the fire in my belly.’”
At SUNY Purchase, he “met a wonderful violin teacher who taught me to play, study and practice five hours a day.” After studying at the New England Conservatory, Capozziello earned his doctorate from The Hartt School in 2018. He now teaches at The Hotchkiss School and performs with the Hartford Symphony.
He explained that his role as assistant concertmaster is the direct line between conductor and musicians, and that the orchestra is “a family dynamic, a democratic unit, truly a living, breathing organism.”

On May 2, Capozziello was soloist with Orchestra New England, performing the world premiere of Neely Bruce’s “Concerto for Violin,” along with “The River” by Jan Swafford and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” at Battell Chapel at Yale.
“I care about bringing classical music into communities and spaces where people may not expect it,” said Capozziello.“Music is most powerful to me when it feels alive, humanand accessible, not distant or formal.”
For 20 years, Kinsolving has acted in film, television and theater in London, New York and Los Angeles. “I was first onstage at Washington Montessori School playing Peter Pan,” she said. “I improvised a line, got a laugh and liked the feeling.”
She enjoys performing Shakespeare. “I love Titania’s monologue because it speaks to our current climate crisis. Lady Macbeth surprised me. I fell in love with her while I was doing it. I could play those scenes forever; so much range and depth to explore,” she said.
Kinsolving added, “I love Shakespeare’s comedies for the fun and rhythm. I have loved Rosalind, Viola, Olivia, Helena and Kate, yet the top of my bucket list is Beatrice. Each character reflects a shade of my soul. Shakespeare had the brilliance to illuminate them. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be a list of their names.”
Kinsolving, whose parents, poet Susan Kinsolving and author William Kinsolving, live in Lakeville, studied at Milton Academy, universities in China, and Vassar College. Her theater training includes Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Yale Drama Intensive and she is currently studying online through Juilliard.. She founded Theatre for Good, which donates its proceeds to charity.
Both artists are looking forward to June, when they will have more time to spend with their dogs.
D.H. Callahan
Esther Williams in “Million Dollar Mermaid” (1952).
For decades, Esther Williams was one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but the swimming sensation of the silver screen has largely faded from public memory — a disappearance that intrigued Millerton filmmaker Brian Gersten and inspired him to revisit her legacy.
As a millennial, Gersten grew up largely unaware of Williams’ influential career. His teen years in Chicago were spent with friends who obsessed over movies, spending hours at their local independent video store,and watching anything that caught their eye. Somehow, though, they never ventured into the glossy world of synchronized-swimming musicals of the 1940s and ‘50s.
Gersten’s life changed when he first saw the documentary “Hoop Dreams,” which follows two young Chicago basketball players as they’re groomed and recruited by scouts with hopes of college stardom – and possibly the NBA. These boys grew up just 40 minutes from Gersten’s home, yet their world felt far away. The film’s power pushed him to take his love of movies to the next level.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, Gersten realized documentaries were his passion. He enrolled at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine before heading to Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where he earned an MFA in documentary film.
Since then, Gersten has made a series of short, often heartwarming documentaries on subjects ranging from pigeon enthusiasts and hollerin’ competitions to the history of bowling in America and even Balloon Boy, the nickname for Falcon Heene, the child at the center of a bizarre media frenzy.
When he’s not making his own films, Gersten often edits and helps structure other projects, including the cycling documentary “Enter the Slipstream” and “Radical Wolfe,” a profile of writer Tom Wolfe.
It was while editing one of these projects that Gersten first encountered Williams.
“Who was this figure? What was going on in these films?” he wondered.
What he learned fascinated him. Williams starred in over 30 movies despite having no formal acting training. A champion swimmer, she made the 1940 U.S. Olympic team, but when the games were canceled because of World War II, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer saw an opportunity.
Studio scouts recruited Williams, and she took to film like a fish to water. Her confidence, athleticism and, crucially for Hollywood, photogenic looks lit up the silver screen. In 1944, “Bathing Beauty” rocketed her to stardom.
For nearly two decades, Williams starred in one or two films a year, including “Million Dollar Mermaid” and “Skirts Ahoy!”. But as Hollywood turned toward grittier fare, synchronized-swimming spectacles fell out of fashion.
Williams stepped away from the camera, and her fame slowly receded — until Gersten stumbled across a clip and dove in.
Gersten’s short documentary, “Hollywood’s Mermaid” (2026) will screen alongside “Bathing Beauty” (1944) at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at The Moviehouse in Millerton. It will also screen later this month at the Berkshire International Film Festival. Tickets are available at themoviehouse.net.

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