Turning Back The Pages

100 years ago — March 1921

At the present time while the frost is coming out of the ground the roads are in an unspeakable condition. Smith Hill is reported as especially bad.

ORE HILL — Mr. and Mrs. Harry Dean have moved to Sharon where he has employment.

LIME ROCK — Mrs. J. Winterbottom is some better.

There was a brisk thunder storm early Tuesday morning. Weather sharks say that thunder in the spring indicates colder weather.

50 years ago — March 1971

When Salisbury voters met at the Hotchkiss School Theater Friday night to hear and discuss the Solid Waste Committee’s Report and recommendations, it was something of an historic occasion. As First Selectman William Barnett pointed out when he opened the meeting, this was probably the first official meeting of townspeople held outside the town hall in Salisbury’s history. William Ford was appointed moderator because, he said in an amusing preamble, the wives of all the other appropriate people were afraid their husbands would have heart attacks at a meeting which could prove highly controversial.

Actually, as it turned out, the meeting proved more forensic than controversial. Several people came with prepared speeches emphasizing some particular point (generally in opposition to the committee’s recommendations for the Dugway site), and the group which had met in Lime Rock the Tuesday before the meeting had hired an attorney and an engineering firm to counter the report.

Army Specialist 4 Donald M. Hurlbutt, son of Mrs. Dorothy S. Warner, Indian Mountain Road, Lakeville, recently received the Bronze Star Medal while serving in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division. In addition to his most recent decoration, he has twice been awarded the Air Medal; and has received the Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Infantry Badge.

Barbara Lee Turrill, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Ferriss Turrill of Bull’s Bridge, Kent, has been named to the Dean’s List with honors at Stephens College in Columbia, Mo.

“We’re not eager to tell people what to do. We do want to help protect the town’s health and safety.” Frederick Perkins, Planning Commission Chairman, made the distinction this week in discussing a proposed set of subdivision regulations for the Town of North Canaan. The proposals go to a public hearing Wednesday night in Town Hall. Currently the town is one of the few in Connecticut without subdivision regulations.

FALLS VILLAGE ­— A surprise going away party was held this week for baseball player Terry Blass at the home of his brother Steve Blass in Canaan. About 30 people were present. Terry was presented with a warmup jacket and a purse of money. He will be leaving March 15th for Bradenton, Fla. to join his brother for spring training with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

25 years ago — March 1996

CORNWALL — Singer-songwriter and Cornwall property owner James Taylor applied this week for a special permit to mine his 106 acres of rolling fields along the Housatonic River for sand and gravel. The move startled his neighbor Jacqueline Strobel who reapplied for a permit to do the same thing just weeks earlier. “I don’t know what to make of it,” she said Tuesday. The difference between them is, Mrs. Strobel is serious about excavating 70,000 cubic yards of earth, sand and stone, and Mr. Taylor is serious about stopping her. He has before.

Mr. Taylor’s attorney, Leonard Blum, said “it’s not Mr. Taylor’s desire to mine gravel,” but if Planning and Zoning issues Taylor a permit to mine there, he will sell the land to someone who does. Tuesday, the Inland Wetlands Commission decided it had no jurisdiction in the Strobel application, which goes on to Planning and Zoning now for another public hearing.

KENT — Billy Gawel of Kent was the winner in the Ice Watch on the Housatonic River but he didn’t win because he guessed the time the ice would break with warming weather. The winner of the Ice Watch on the Housatonic was selected by a drawing Tuesday night rather than by the closest guess because when the contest kicked in officially Feb. 18 at midnight there was, believe it or not, no ice on the river.

These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.