noble horizons

Our Homes, Our Future

Our Homes, Our Future
Bill Pond 
Photo by Mary Close Oppenheimer

On the heels of the greatest health care challenge of our lives, Noble Horizons has had to deal with staffing shortages that were unforeseen three years ago. In many ways, this challenge has rivaled those which were seen during our COVID crisis. If we don’t have enough staff, we cannot meet the needs of those who depend on us for their care.

The ‘new normal’ is that the ‘old workforce’ has been dramatically affected by the damage done during the pandemic. There are fewer people available for traditional roles in the healthcare industry. For the past three years we have struggled to compete with others in our industry in our efforts to recruit new people to our doors. Our location here in the northwest part of Connecticut doesn’t help and housing costs are a major obstacle.

What do we do to fix this problem? We have had our greatest success in recruitment by offering innovative forms of housing including free housing! We’ve designated one of our cottages to the cause and created a ‘dorm’ style means of housing for new staff or staff secured through agency opportunities. We’ve provided empty rooms on a temporary basis in our nursing home. We’ve been able to house people, on a temporary basis, who otherwise would have had to travel from as far away as Albany, Hudson, Hartford, Pittsfield and even New Haven.

Noble Horizons would definitely benefit from better housing options. If temporary housing is working for us at Noble, think about how more permanent, affordable housing would benefit our town and other area communities. Think of how our area businesses and industries could create a stronger, more vibrant local economy if there were more possibilities for people to live and work here.

I’ve been in Salisbury for over five years now as Administrator of Noble Horizons. I’m also involved in the Salisbury Rotary Club. Salisbury has much to offer. It also has an aging population signifying the importance of having a proactive approach to attract the next generations to our community who wish to become part of its fabric, ensuring future growth and vitalization. Housing can be that conduit to a stronger, more viable community.

 

Bill Pond is the Administrator at Noble Horizons and a member of the Salisbury Rotary Club.

noble horizons
The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Lakeville Journal and The Journal does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Latest News

To mow or not to mow?

To mow or not to mow?

A partially mowed meadow in early spring provides habitat for wildlife while helping to keep invasive plants in check.

Dee Salomon

Love it or hate it, there is no denying the several blankets of snow this winter were beautiful, especially as they visually muffled some of the damage they caused in the first place.There appears to be tree damage — some minor and some major — in many places, and now that we can move around, the pre-spring cleanup begins. Here, a heavy snow buildup on our sun porch roof crashed onto the shrubs below, snapping off branches and cleaving a boxwood in half, flattening it.

The other area that has been flattened by the snow is the meadow, now heading into its fourth year of post-lawn alterations. A short recap on its genesis: I simply stopped mowing a half-acre of lawn, planted some flowering plants, spread little bluestem seeds and, far less simply, obsessively pluck out invasive plants such as sheep sorrel and stilt grass. And while it’s not exactly enchanting, it is flourishing, so much so that I cannot bring myself to mow.

Keep ReadingShow less
the ungardener

Where the mat meets the market

Where the mat meets the market

Kathy Reisfeld

Elena Spellman

In a barn on Maple Avenue in Great Barrington, Kathy Reisfeld merges two unlikely worlds: wealth management and yoga, teaching clients and students alike how stability — financial and emotional — comes from practice.

Her life sits at an intersection many assume can’t exist: high finance and yoga. One world is often reduced to greed, the other to “woo-woo” stretching. Yet in conversation, she makes both feel grounded, less like opposites and more like two languages describing the same human need for stability.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Capitol hosts first-ever staging of Civil War love story

Capitol hosts first-ever staging of Civil War love story

Playwright Cinzi Lavin, left, poses with Kathleen Kelly, director of ‘A Goodnight Kiss.’

Jack Sheedy

Litchfield County playwright Cinzi Lavin’s “A Goodnight Kiss,” based on letters exchanged between a Civil War soldier and the woman who became his wife, premiered in 2025 to sold-out audiences in Goshen, where the couple once lived. Now the original cast, directed by Goshen resident Kathleen Kelly, will present the play beneath the gold dome of Connecticut’s Capitol in Hartford as part of the state’s America250 commemoration — marking what organizers believe may be the first such performance at the Capitol.

“I don’t believe any live performances of an actual play (at the Capitol) have happened,” said Elizabeth Conroy, administrative assistant at the Office of Legislative Management, who coordinates Capitol events.

Keep ReadingShow less
performances
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Hunt Library launches VideoWall for filmmakers

Hunt Library launches VideoWall for filmmakers

Yonah Sadeh, Falls Village filmmaker and curator of David M. Hunt Library’s new VideoWall.

Robin Roraback

The David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village, known for promoting local artists with its ArtWall, is debuting a new feature showcasing filmmakers. The VideoWall will premiere Saturday, March 28, at 6 p.m. with a screening of two short films by Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker and animator Imogen Pranger.

The VideoWall is the idea of Falls Village filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, who also serves as curator. “I would love the VideoWall to become a place that showcases the work of local filmmakers, and I hope that other creatives in the area will submit their work to be shown,” he said.

Keep ReadingShow less
film

A bowl full of stars

A bowl full of stars

A bowl full of stones.

Cheryl Heller

There’s a bowl in my studio where pieces of the planet reside. I bring them home from travels, picking them up not for their beauty or distinction but for their provenance. I choose the ones that speak to me — the ones next to pyramids, along hiking trails, on city sidewalks or volcanic slopes.

I like how stones feel in my hand: weighty, grounding. I don’t mind them making my pockets and suitcase heavier. The bowl is about the size of an average carry-on. It has been years since it was light enough for me to lift.

Keep ReadingShow less
writer's notebook

One-woman show brings Mumbet’s fight for freedom to Scoville Library

One-woman show brings Mumbet’s fight for freedom to Scoville Library
One-woman show brings Mumbet’s fight for freedom to Scoville Library
One-woman show brings Mumbet’s fight for freedom to Scoville Library

On March 29, writer, producer and director Tammy Denease will embody the life and story of Elizabeth Freeman, widely known as Mumbet, in two performances at the Scoville Library in Salisbury. Presented by Scoville Library and the Salisbury Association Historical Society, the performance is part of Salisbury READS, a community-wide engagement with literature and civic dialogue.

Mumbet was the first enslaved woman in Massachusetts to sue successfully for her freedom in 1781. Her victory helped lay the legal groundwork for the abolition of slavery in the state just two years later. In bringing Mumbet’s story to life, Denease does more than reenact history.

Keep ReadingShow less
performances
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.