User-Friendly Lakeville

Last Saturday Lakeville residents came to the town Grove to brainstorm ways to make the village a better place.

The initiative is part of a plan that was hatched last year by town planners to address ongoing concerns and arrive at some larger scale planning for the village.

Michael Klemens, Salisbury’s Planning and Zoning chairman, has noted in this newspaper that developing a community “parcel by parcel” may result in losing an opportunity to look at larger scale planning. That’s what Saturday’s beginning was all about.

The Grove event, reported by Patrick L. Sullivan on Page A1 of this issue, drew about 100 people who gave their input to the P&Z commission and to Colliers Engineeering and Design of Madison, a multi-disciplinary professional services firm with expertise in land-use planning, civil engineering, landscape architecture, traffic engineering, environmental services, and surveying.

The engineering firm is being paid with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to study and evaluate potential mprovements for:

—Pedestrian access and safety

—Bicyclist access and safety

—Accessibility and utility of public greenspaces

—Traffic circulation

—Parking

—Stormwater Management

From one perspective, Lakeville presents itself as a bucolic New England town, which just happens to be on a major truck route.  Besides the volume of truck traffic, the Colliers engineers are focused on the speed factor and on the configuration of the intersection of Routes 44 and 41. A few miles west, tractor-trailer traffic is a rumbling presence in Millerton, New York, where the village shops and small-town sidewalks get dwarfed when the semis roll through.

The Collier engineers also noted a need in Lakeville to clearly establish areas designated for pedestrians — and for bikes that are separated from vehicular traffic.

The range of establishments in the downtown — from retail stores and commerce, to the post office and churches — all contribute to the diverse and vibrant life of the village and are vital to Lakeville’s future to come.

This is a promising initiative — planning for a more user-friendly Lakeville. As First Selectman Curtis Rand said recently, “It’s like a roadmap. We can gather input, decide on projects and then apply for grants.”

Kudos to the Planning and Zoning Commission for planning for the future and especially for inviting the residents and visitors to share in that work.

Latest News

State intervenes in sale of Torrington Transfer Station

The entrance to Torrington Transfer Station.

Photo by Jennifer Almquist

TORRINGTON — Municipalities holding out for a public solid waste solution in the Northwest Corner have new hope.

An amendment to House Bill No. 7287, known as the Implementor Bill, signed by Governor Ned Lamont, has put the $3.25 million sale of the Torrington Transfer Station to USA Waste & Recycling on hold.

Keep ReadingShow less
Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy
Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.
Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less