Letters to the Editor - Lakeville Journal - 6-13-19

Photo submitted

Members of the Salisbury Central School eighth grade class recently traveled to Washington, D.C., where they posed for this photograph.

Thanks for supporting our class trip

The Salisbury Central eighth-grade class of 2019 would like to thank all the teachers, local businesses, families, community members and parents who contributed so much to our eighth-grade class trip to Washington, D.C.

Your contribution to our many fundraisers did not go unnoticed, and we are all very grateful. Our trip was a great success and an educational opportunity never to be forgotten.

Throughout our trip, we learned so many valuable things and had many experiences that are irreplaceable. During our trip we went to many museums, including the Hirshhorn Museum of Art, the Newseum, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Air and Space Museum. We also witnessed a 21-gun salute at Arlington National Cemetery and visited multiple war memorials built in honor of the brave soldiers who risked their lives for our country. 

We had the privilege of going to Mount Vernon, the residence of President George Washington, the Lincoln Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the White House and the Capitol building. Our class would not have been able to do any of this without the people who contributed.

We have all felt very lucky to be a part of a school and community that cares so much about its students and our education.

Lindsay Faveau 

and the Salisbury Central Eighth Grade

Salisbury

The asphalt bungle: a few questions arise

Reading The Lakeville Journal opinion page June 6, and a letter entitled “Canaan cares,” well, my thoughts went back to May 13, when Planning and Zoning voted in favor of a new text amendment. Now I believe that this was the most dubious and undiplomatic handling of a one-sided issue. This looks to me like a coverup, because I believe the P&Z didn’t act upon Mr. Metcalf’s application properly. 

I would like to know, before P&Z passed the amendment, if it had been O’Connor Brothers Sand & Gravel or Segalla Sand & Gravel, and they submitted an application for an asphalt plant, would the town have made a big to-do for them? Let’s get real. 

A while back, North Canaan had a meeting about the Freedom of Information Act in Connecticut. Now, if 200 or more residents can come out on May 13 and only 20 or so come out at the Freedom of Information meeting, I believe the ones who are voicing the concerns.

Read those reports from P&Z prior meetings, and you just might have a different point of view.

Michael C. Parmalee

North Canaan

Thanks for the 2019 Big Rig event

The board of directors and the teachers of the Housatonic Child Care Center in Salisbury would like to thank everyone who made the Big Rig event on June 9 a success.

Businesses, vendors, families and individuals all contributed to a day of fun and fundraising.

We would like to thank the owners of the big vehicles who brought them to the child care center for children of all ages to enjoy, as well as DJ Tayo Kaufman who provided music for the event. 

Many happy children spent the day looking at, climbing on, sitting in and honking the horns of the big rigs. Without your generous spirit and gift of time, the event would not have been possible.

Each year, members of the Lakeville Hose Company have supported this event by providing food sales. We were saddened by the death of Bullet Sherwood and missed the Hose Company members this year. We are grateful to C.A. Lindell’s for stepping in to help while the Hose Company attended and provided support for Bullet’s services.

We teach and model to all who attend the center that we are part of a larger community. Your generosity shows our children that they are cared for not just by their parents and teachers, but also by a wider, interconnected community. Our children grow stronger because of your willingness to support events like this. Thank you.

We look forward to seeing each of you at our annual Wine & Beer Tasting and Silent Auction Oct. 19.

Tonya Roussis, Director

Regina Hurlburt, Ass’t Dir.

and the Housatonic Child Care Center Board of Directors

Salisbury

Rental housing in Falls Village: parallels to Kent’s experience?

Falls Village is one of three Northwest Corner towns working its way to its first affordable rental housing.

Some opposition is part of the landscape, as it was when Kent built rental housing for seniors back in 1976. Twenty-five years later, somewhat less vocal efforts against change arose when Kent Affordable Housing, a nonprofit of local volunteers, proposed 24 multi-family housing apartments.  

A Town Hall forum had featured housing leaders from Cornwall, Litchfield and Washington; their message was that their towns had benefitted from the apartments they had built in the preceding 10 years.  Kent said “yes” and South Common, designed by the same architect now selected by Falls Village, opened in 2003.  

Visitors to Kent eyeing South Common have gone to local Realtors to ask if they could buy one of the “condominiums” they thought they saw. From the outset, three-quarters of its residents have been from Kent or immediately adjoining towns.

The Falls Village Housing Trust seeks P&Z approval and state funding to create 14 affordable apartments. If Kent’s experience to its south holds true, the neighborhood will be enriched with workers and volunteers, some school children,  a firefighter, a pastor, a community theater stalwart, retirees, and babysitters.  And, as The Lakeville Journal letters have revealed, the town will gain new property tax revenues from this housing.

Bill Bachrach

Kent

A good decision in Falls Village

The Falls Village Housing Trust’s decision to withdraw their Special Permit application for a 28 unit, 50 bedroom rental development last Monday brought great relief to our little section of Falls Village, Lime Rock Station. 

It was the right thing to do. I can speak for my neighbors and myself when I say, “Thank You.” The whole process was difficult, but finally, much information was clearly revealed with guidelines to follow. 

Townspeople raised many aspects for doing things right in the future: affordability, mill rate, conservation, sustainability, size, location, services, school enrollment. Now, clearly, we need to move forward together, as the town we love, create some consensus and address housing issues for young people and families, smartly and earnestly. 

That dialogue has already started. Let’s get to work.

Colter Rule

Falls Village

An open letter on the asphalt plant

Dear Mr. Metcalf, 

Please find an appropriate location for your asphalt plant.

Not in a residential neighborhood, not adjacent to an area with significant surficial aquifer recharge potential and risk of polluting any waterway. Not in a town that clearly doesn’t want your asphalt plant.

The not-in-my-backyard reaction does not apply to asphalt production because an asphalt plant is not just a nuisance to a neighborhood; it is a larger threat to the environment and to human health from the chemicals used and a threat to our drinking water and air quality.

The focus for economic development in Canaan has to do with making improvements to our town. An asphalt plant would make tourists less likely to visit, families less likely to buy houses here, hotels and clean businesses less likely to open here. An asphalt plant would be an economic disaster for Canaan.

Please, give up on your lawsuit(s) and expensive lawyers, and help Canaan.

Patricia Lynn Fowler

North Canaan