Letters to the Editor 11/28/24

U.S. Post Office delivers

We complain about mail service, but I had a wonderful thing happen this week. There was a plain white envelope without a stamp or return address in my mail. I could see where a stamp had been but it had fallen off. There was a line of symbols across the bottom indicating it had gone through a post office somewhere. I was surprised and happy to find inside a Christmas card from my grandson who lives in Paris. I don’t know at what point the stamp fell off, but I am so happy the envelope was delivered.

Carolyn McDonough

Canaan

Need to investigate Wake Robin plan

Where is the leadership in Salisbury when projects that appear to be based on undisclosed economics are allowed to sail through the planning and zoning? For those wondering why there are “save Lakeville” lawn signs sprouting like weeds, imagine the weekly traffic and noise from a Lime Rock track level event held on the grounds of the Wake Robin Inn behind St. Mary’s church. It isn’t a fair comparison because traffic comes and goes during the whole day at Lime Rock but imagine 500 wedding celebrants and 100 servers converging all at once on a 13-acre site in the middle of a residential neighborhood and you get a good idea of what the impact will be.

The backers of the plan have proposed building a 10,000 ft sq. event space which is sufficient for 500 guests, a dance area, band and bar. Given the current cost of construction, the only way to convince investors to pay for this is to guarantee you are going to fill the venue and fill it repeatedly. In fact, the cost of this project, not disclosed but I believe it will be substantial, and the 100 employees it projects it will need makes no financial sense unless the backers already have the employees to run it and the celebrants to fill it.

Any rational investor would look at this project and ask how it would compete with The Interlaken and The White Hart? They would ask where the 100 employees are going to come from? The only answer to this from an investor’s perspective is that the developer already has a hook into large celebrant groups and captive employees. Someone in leadership in this town needs to investigate what’s really going on with the Wake Robin project. They need to recognize it makes no financial sense, is far too large to fit into our sewer system and avoid huge negative impacts to the residential neighborhood with traffic, noise and light.

Theodore Rudd O’Neill

Lakeville

Time to speak up to Congress to save lives

Excellent pointers for civil discourse, needed now more than ever. (‘Civil discourse needed more than ever’ by Marshall Collins, The Lakeville Journal, Nov. 13, 2024). It works well when we speak to our members of Congress, guiding them to critical legislation after we elect them. Currently they are working on passing ‘The End TB Now Act in the House,’ that could save millions of lives. Already passed by the Senate, this bill directs USAID to focus on the areas where this number one infectious disease is causing the most harm. By dealing with tuberculosis globally we are protecting us locally. TB still shows up in America like the recent case in an Atlanta high school, where 300 staff and students needed to be tested after one positive case. So why not pick up the phone and call 202-224-3121, ask your representative to push for passage of this life-saving legislation, when we talk to those who represent us, they listen.

Willie Dickerson

Snohomish, WA

Thanks for All Saints clothing drive success

On behalf of the members of All Saints of America Orthodox Church, I wish to sincerely thank our local community for helping to make our recent clothing giveaway such a success. We received approximately 1200 items of donated clothes! On the day of the giveaway 99 people came to the church to find wonderful warm coats, jackets, hats, scarves, blankets and much more. All left over items were brought to shelters in Winsted and Torrington. Thanks again to all who contributed. We feel so blessed to belong to such a caring community.

Hope Mongeau

Church council member

Salisbury