State legislators hoped to get judiciary committee approval this week for a bill that would limit personal injury lawsuits stemming from incidents at popular recreation areas.HB 6557, An Act Concerning Liability for the Recreational Use of Lands, is a response to a personal injury lawsuit decided last year, in which a Rocky Hill woman was awarded $2.9 million after she broke her neck in a bicycle accident. Maribeth Blonski of Rocky Hill sued the Metropolitan District (MDC) in 2002 after she collided with a steel gate at the district’s West Hartford reservoir. Despite reports that Blonski had been traveling in the wrong direction and not looking where she was going, a jury declared her only 30 percent responsible for the collision, with the MDC primarily negligent for not posting a sign declaring the gate closed.The decision sent shock waves through the legal and outdoor-enthusiast communities, and forced municipalities to reconsider their policies on keeping recreation areas open to the public. MDC announced last year that it was considering closing all bike trails and swimming areas to the public, and an outcry from residents followed. Connecticut legislators began scrambling to come up with legislation that would grant towns and organizations like the MDC immunity from litigation.More than 700 people appeared at an MDC town meeting regarding the issue last July, and hundreds have testified in support of changes. Legislators introduced 14 different bills, with 35 different supporters, to address the problem. State Representatives Kevin Witkos (R-17) and John Rigby (R-63) were early proponents of legislation that would exempt the MDC from litigation.In January, HB 6557, An Act Concerning Liability for the Recreational Use of Lands, was drafted, with 21 cosponsors signing on. The act, which has strong bipartisan support, would grant immunity from personal injury litigation to municipalities, political subdivisions of the state and special districts which own publicly traveled recreation areas.In a letter to members of the Connecticut Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, Chairman Tim Linehan wrote this week that the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association, the Sierra Club and more than 20 other organizations were lobbying for passage of HB 6557. There was an increased push for approval by members of the Joint Committee on Judiciary this week, with Friday, April 15, marking the deadline for action.State Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) said Monday that she believes the bill will make it through committee and get a shot at passage in the General Assembly. “We need to close the loophole and give some protection to towns from personal injury lawsuits,” Willis said. “We all incur risks when we go out hiking. I went out hiking this past weekend and I thought I was going to break my neck because the trail was just ice. It was challenging. But if I slipped and did myself in, it would have been my own responsibility.”As one of the proponents of early legislation on the issue, Willis said Connecticut residents should be free to explore designated recreation areas without fear that they’ll be shut down the next time someone breaks an ankle.“The threat of litigation not only puts the fear of God into a town, but it also increases the liability insurance costs,” Willis said. “The bottom line in our area is that outdoor recreation is part of who we are in the Northwest Corner. Hiking, biking and boating are all things that we enjoy, and we are seeing an increasing public investment in recreational land. I think there’s an expectation when we make those investments that the public is going to have access to enjoy these places for recreation.”Despite some resistance from trial lawyers, Willis predicted HB 6557 would make it through the judiciary committee this week and eventually make it to the House floor. “There is no cost connected to this, so I would assume it could pass relatively quickly,” she said. If voted into law, the provisions would become effective Oct. 1, 2011.
Latest News
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.
“I was a library kid. I walked to the library after school,” she said.
For Sher, the library is as much about the people as it about the books.
“Part of the job I love so much is that running the library is such a community,” she said.
She treasures the relationships she has built, whether recommending books, celebrating accomplishments or helping patrons through difficult times.
“I am thankful that our community is so supportive of the library, unlike what is happening in some other places where librarians are villainized,” Sher said.
Sher takes pride in the Hunt Library’s reputation for being “open and welcoming to everyone. People come in and see things and get pulled into things they weren’t expecting. Our library is seen as a positive force.”
Sher came to Falls Village after being awarded a fellowship at Adamah Farm, then a program of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. She worked at pickling, in the greenhouse and later in the development office. She also worked as a nanny.
At the same time, “I was in the library all the time,” she recalled. “I’m a voracious reader. The library is where I met a lot of my first friends in Falls Village.”
She became assistant librarian at Hunt and worked in that position for almost a decade before becoming the executive director four years ago.
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.L. Tomaino
Sher met her husband, Adam, while working at Adamah. They had their wedding there in 2012. He now emcees many events which she co-organizes with the Falls Village Recreation Commission.
Sher and her family live near the library.
“It’s an easy commute,” she said with a smile. “My kids run back and forth. I can go home to walk the dog if I need to.”
“My kids have grown up here.” Her oldest son, Eli, “loves volunteering. He helps with Augustfest and often helps set up chairs for ArtWall gatherings.” Her younger son, Noah, is often at events and was eager to taste cookies at last year’s holiday cookie swap.
When she is not at the library, Sher likes to hike with her family. Bella, their Portuguese water dog, often accompanies them.
Sher enjoys seeking out people to offer events at the library.
“I do a lot of different community programming. It is one of my favorite parts of the job.”
Augustfest, featuring food, music and an auction, is the library’s biggest fundraiser.
“This summer we had a record 152 attendees, which was pretty incredible.”
Yonah Sadeh, a filmmaker from Falls Village, inaugurated the VideoWall this year, Sher explained.
“I’ve known Yonah since he was two. It’s wonderful to work with him as an adult.”
The VideoWall complements the library’s ArtWall, which showcases a new artist each month. Sher praised the ArtWall committee for its work and highlighted December’s popular “12x12 Show,” featuring works by local artists, each measuring 12 by 12 inches and priced at $150.
Sher added that some of the artists who exhibit at the ArtWall offer workshops to students at Kellogg School, next door to the library. In September, artist Danielle Mailer worked with the children. Vincent Inconiglios taught a class last November.
Being next to the school, said Sher, is a great advantage.
“Kids are coming after school, to see friends, work on projects, find a great book. Kids that love the library end up using the library as grownups.”
This past year, in partnership with Adamah, the library and school created a garden, with excess produce made available at The Center on Main.
This year is Sher’s second year participating in the Troutbeck Symposium in Amenia with James King, director of the library at Salisbury School. The Troutbeck Symposium is “a gathering of a year of student historical inquiry across the region” in which students “uncover stories that have been overlooked, forgotten, or never recorded.”
Last year, Sher and King began a project with a group of students researching Irish immigrants in Falls Village, exploring ancestry and creating small magazines about their findings.
They continued this year, visiting St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery on Dublin Road, cleaning seven gravestones and even righting one with the help of stonemason and gravestone restoration expert Karl Munson. Paul Kozeazny, a representative of the Catholic archdiocese, helped secure access to the site.
A film documenting their activities will be shown at the symposium in spring 2027.
A full schedule of programs and events, ranging from tech help to ceramic mug-making, can be found on the library’s website.
Despite spending her days surrounded by books, and a busy schedule of programming, Sher still loves to settle in with a book at home.
For more information on library programs and events, visit huntlibrary.org
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
Touré was born in northern Mali in 1981. His father, the renowned guitarist Ali Farka Touré, came from a family of soldiers and wanted his son to join the army. The younger Touré studied drums and the calabash and practiced guitar in secret. He earned his father’s blessing to pursue music shortly before Ali died in 2006, and they played two tracks together on Vieux’s debut album.
Touré is known for his deft, polyrhythmic playing, and his songs grow out of riffs that repeat and layer to hypnotic effect. He draws on rock, blues, Latin music and various African traditions. This distinctive blend builds on his father’s work adapting the sonic traditions of Mali’s arid north to the guitar.
Vieux’s album “Mon Pays” (“My Country,” 2013) honored Mali’s culture after Tuareg separatists and extremist groups seized the north in 2012. “Samba” (2017) was recorded before about 50 listeners in Woodstock, New York. In 2022 came “Les Racines” (“The Roots”), a return to his father’s desert blues, and “Ali,” on which he and the trio Khruangbin reworked eight of the elder Touré’s songs.
Touré leads the Ali Farka Touré Foundation, which focuses on cultural and educational work in Mali. Around the anniversary of Ali’s death, it holds a festival in Bamako, Mali’s capital. Bamako has been under blockade for much of the past year, besieged by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Against this backdrop, Touré continues to carry the music of Mali to audiences abroad.
At the Nov. 5 concert, Touré’s desert blues will share the bill with Gnawa, the music LanGus plays, which developed in Morocco among West Africans who were brought north across the desert as enslaved people. Gnawa is religious music traditionally performed at all-night healing ceremonies called lila, intended to carry participants into trance.
Samir LanGusProvided
LanGus was born and raised outside Agadir, Morocco, and began learning Gnawa from its masters at age 8. He plays the sintir, a three-stringed bass lute made of wood and camel skin. The player strikes a low string with the thumb to create a deep, resonant pulse. Iron castanets clatter over the sintir’s bass line, and vocalists trade call-and-response refrains.
LanGus infuses the tradition with jazz and improvisation. In New York, he founded the ensemble Innov Gnawa. His first solo album, “Gnawa Love,” came out in February.
Touré and LanGus’s Nov. 5 concert is one of the last public events at Race Brook Lodge, which is for sale and ended full-service operations at the end of 2025. The lodge’s final scheduled event, on Nov. 6, is an evening of Rumi’s poetry with translator and vocalist Haleh Liza Gafori, cellist Isabel Castellvi and ceremonial bard James Bird.
For tickets, visit rblodge.com.
James FitzGerald is a student at Yale Law School, where he focuses on ecological restoration and international environmental cooperation. He splits his time between Lakeville and New Haven.
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
