Letters to the Editor - March 29

Working together works well

Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut is most appreciative to Deano’s Pizza for supplying us with delicious pizza for our food booth at the Tri-State Chamber Buy Local Festival, and thank the Viscariello family (Vinnie, Joette and Tony) for their assistance.

A lot gets done when we all work together!  

John Pogue, Director
Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut
Lakeville

United we stand

Thanks to Tony and Helen Scoville for so eloquently stating a concern that I, among others in Salisbury, share. Let’s not let our community follow the despicable actions in Washington.

Michael Kahler
Lakeville

Wind spread fire into the fields

Last Tuesday, a calm spring day, I obtained a fire permit to burn brush accumulated after last year’s storms. The burn-off was going according to plan when sudden winds swept the fire into an adjacent field and out of control. Without the extraordinary efforts led by the Lakeville Hose Company, supported by the Sharon Fire Department and eventually many other companies, the damage could have been disastrous.

Coordinating the work of all those people and equipment was a monumental challenge on its own. That it was successful is a testament to the quality of leadership, training and professionalism of everyone who came to the rescue. With my great respect and deep gratitude to all who helped put out the fire.

Barbara Maltby
Lakeville

Grateful for incredible fire response

Indian Mountain School is grateful for the incredible response from the area fire departments who quickly and effectively tamed the raging brush fire that spread through the marsh area bordering some of our property. We are so fortunate to have Lakeville Hose Company Fire Chief Jason Wilson as a neighbor and we rely on him and his team of volunteers on a regular basis to keep our school and its students, faculty and staff safe.

Last Tuesday’s fire was a perfect example of how important the members of the fire department are to our community and what a superior job Jason Wilson did in rallying the network of emergency response volunteers from neighboring towns. We watched him confidently lead the task force with a quiet and calm authority, and were impressed with how easily he reacted to the situation as it grew in scope and complexity. The fire came dangerously close to one of our faculty homes — a change in the wind direction could have threatened more of our campus — yet we felt sure that the assembled teams had the skill and equipment necessary to keep the fire at bay.

Thank you to all who were involved in fighting the fire on March 20 and for your ongoing service to our community.

Mark A. Devey
Head of School
Indian Mountain School
Lakeville

Response to fire saved homes

As the owners/residents of several homes that were in the path of last Tuesday’s brush fire, we would like to publicly thank the Lakeville Hose Company and the many other fire departments that responded to the emergency.

Within a few minutes of us noticing the smoke and fire, volunteers from the entire Northwest Corner were on the scene with equipment and a plan to manage the rapidly spreading fire. Their swift and skillful work contained the fire to the marsh area and away from our homes. It was an impressive demonstration of what it means to be a part of the Lakeville/Salisbury community and beyond.

Also on the scene were dozens of faculty and staff members from Indian Mountain School and a few passersby who helped us move valuables out of our homes, took care of our kids and pets, sprayed the houses with garden hoses and even jumped in to help the fire crews with their big hoses. IMS also prepared and delivered food for more than 100 firefighters from nearby Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York towns.

There were some stressful moments when it wasn’t clear which way the wind was going to blow. Having the help and support of the entire community at the ready was a huge comfort. We are thankful for everyone’s help in managing what could have been a very different news story.

Tom and Judy Stewart
Karen Kane and Andrew Torres
Lee Crawford and Dave Mallison
Lakeville

Housy dugouts are a generous gift

Last Friday, close to sunset, my husband Walter and I decided to take a walk at Housatonic Valley Regional High School on what was the end of a glorious “summer” day in March. Being baseball fanatics, what we really wanted to do was check out the Housy field in anticipation of the new 2012 baseball season.

The best part of the walk was the discovery of the perfectly brand new dugouts that were just put in earlier in the week by Anthony O’Niel and his team at O’Niel & Associates Inc. The brick and wooden structures have poured foundations, shingled roofs and substantial storage areas. The field is beautiful and certainly rivals any field in the Berkshire League by far. The old dugouts were repaired and moved to the JV field so it is clear that two full fields exist.

What an incredibly generous gift Anthony and his construction team have given to our community and to our kids. Over the years, Housatonic has had a very proud and accomplished baseball history. Thanks to O’Niel & Associates they now have a field and dugouts to match. Thank you Anthony for your generosity and putting the kids first and foremost. There is so much to be proud of at Housatonic.

Good luck to all of the spring sport athletes. Go Housy!

Joanie Wetmore Yahn
Sharon

Why gasoline   prices are high

    First: In recent months American oil refining companies have reduced capacity by 5 percent by withdrawing older, less efficient cracking plants from production. We are not refining as much gasoline as we did a year ago. At the same time demand for American gasoline in the global marketplace has increased. Reduced production at home plus increased demand abroad equals higher prices at the pump in America.

    Second: The American refining industry is in the process of converting to cheap and domestically abundant natural gas to power its petroleum refineries. This has lowered the cost of American gasoline production at a time when, globally, demand for gasoline is up. Because of this, American refineries can sell gasoline abroad for a higher profit than they were selling it, domestically, in the United States. President Obama has been stating this fact by saying American gas pricing has become connected to the world price. Unfortunately this means we are, for the moment, at the sticky end of a seller’s market.

    Third: As always, Wall Street speculation plays a part in driving up prices.

    Two other things to keep in mind: 1) America is importing less crude oil than it did eight years ago. 2) America is producing four times more crude domestically than it did at the beginning of the Obama administration.

    Rather than more drilling of a dwindling resource this president advocates conversion, conservation and technical innovation as ways leading to eventual energy independence. I think he is right. I also think — as does the president — that it is time to stop tax breaks for oil companies that no longer need them. The taxpayer needs that money more than big oil does.

Wm. Earl Brecher
West Cornwall

About college costs, I disagree

Peter Chiesa’s rant about college costs (“Column revealed a lot about college costs,” March 22) leaves out many points, just as these things invariably do. I know, because I work at the most expensive college, and we are pilloried in the press nearly every day.

Here are a few of the many things that are not mentioned:

Sixty percent of our students at Sarah Lawrence College receive financial aid. The average tuition paid is less than two-thirds of the much ballyhooed “sticker price.”

The model of a tuition-driven college, which Sarah Lawrence was for many years, hasn’t worked for decades, even with our tuition revenue. We have to fundraise as aggressively as many a larger institution does for endowment and operating funds. For what? To pay faculty a competitive salary in the marketplace of higher education, and so they can meet their everyday living expenses in a high-priced metropolitan area. To maintain a physical plant that is functionally excellent and attractive to students, and much of which still suffers from deferred maintenance, given today’s costs for construction materials and labor. And to be able to offer the aforementioned financial aid as generously as possible.

But above all, a Sarah Lawrence tuition pays for a Sarah Lawrence education for our students, which is as far from trivial as you can get. Our graduates have an incredible success rate, which is about a lot more than just employment and career satisfaction. They are lifelong leaders, thinkers, artists, writers, politicians, scientists and performers, and they carry a love of creativity, innovation and learning with them throughout their years, which I would describe as priceless. Our faculty are singularly dedicated to being educators and advisors to their students, giving them a remarkably holistic experience that can be found nowhere else, and which gives our students great confidence to go out into the world. All that takes resources, more than our tuition dollars can afford, but what it adds up to is one word: value.

I’m not saying you can’t find a similarly excellent education at many other colleges and universities, too. What they all have in common is a dedication to giving their students a valuable educational experience. Talk of bureaucracies and such is ridiculously overblown.

As for diversity — though I hesitate to go there with Mr. Chiesa — Sarah Lawrence does have a chief diversity officer in its administration. To have anything less would be a disservice to all our students in terms of giving them a skewed view of the world, and an injustice to those for whom a Sarah Lawrence education requires adjusting to the dominant culture.

In full disclosure, I am a contributor to Compass, and director of foundation, government and corporate relations at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, N.Y. The opinions expressed are my own.

Fred Baumgarten
Sharon