Letters to the Editor - August 28, 2025

Wake Robin proposal would destroy Lakeville

My husband and I have attended almost every Salisbury Planning and Zoning CommissionZoom meeting regarding the Aradev proposal to redevelop and expand the Wake Robin Inn in Lakeville. Despite repeated attempts by the developer to adjust their hotel expansion plans to accommodate the many objections to it, we think the current proposal, if approved, will still destroy Lakeville.

During the Wake Robin hearings, the Salisbury Planning and Zoning Commission has never acknowledged that Lakeville is a village located within the Town of Salisbury. We have our own statistical geographical place that is subject to its own census count, possesses its own zip code, and is defined by a clear boundary. When it comes to municipal governance, Lakeville is part of the Town of Salisbury, but the village has its own history, identity, and local characteristics that distinguish it from Salisbury. Most importantly, we are smaller.

In the 2020 census, the population of Salisbury was 4,194 and the population of Lakeville was1,059 (about 25 percent that of Salisbury). An expansion of The Wake Robin Inn from its current small size into a large, high-end hotel with a party event room, a restaurant seating 180 people, and a destination site for party events, would be a shocking change for Lakeville to absorb. It would cause direct harm to the surrounding residential neighborhood, not to mention harm toLakeville as a whole. We say this because an expansion of this size will lead to an increase in automobile traffic and traffic congestion, noise and light pollution, and a noticeable increase in trash and delivery trucks necessitated by the operations of the hotel. All of these things would have an impact on the quality of life of those living in the vicinity of the hotel, and lead to a devlaluation of our homes.

Lakeville already has a destination site for large parties—the Interlaken Inn. Unlike the WakeRobin, with only 12 acres, however, it sits on 30 acres, and its restaurant seats 60 people, not 180. Importantly, the White Hart Inn, located in the business section of Salisbury, is also a destination site, but it offers only 16 rooms, with restaurant seating for around 75 people (with additional porch seating is available when weather permits).

In the end, everyone needs to ask, what good is there in permitting a hotel expansion and renovation in the middle of a zoned residential area that’s currently remarkably quiet? And what good does it do our village to become a destination site for parties?

We urge the Planning and Zoning Commission to do the right thing and vote this proposal down.

Laurie Fendrich

Peter Plagens

Lakeville

Save our universities and protect our future

Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, attacked the state university system, first targeting New College, a small liberal arts college in Sarasota. He appointed politicians instead of academics to the boards that govern Florida’s higher education. He directed them to purge hundreds of general education courses he considered left leaning.These courses now have become elective and don’t count toward graduation requirements. Professors fled the state, and Florida faces a serious teacher shortage. This was considered by conservatives as a blueprint of what to do across the country.

Trump now is attacking private and public universities. At Brown University in Rhode Island, they are now permitting government oversight of admissions which could reduce the number of minority and female students accepted, instead of choosing the brightest students. Universities count on federal grant money to fund department chairs and research, but that should not give Trump the right to control them academically.

The U.S. was considered the brain drain of the world as the top students from abroad fought to come to our universities. On graduation the brightest were offered jobs at medical laboratories and businesses and often they became Americans. Many American winners of the Nobel Prize are foreign born and naturalized citizens. With Trump’s attack on our universities and research institutions, European countries are now welcoming our scientists, three Yale professors have already moved to a university in Canada.

Like many blue states, Connecticut sends more tax money to Washington than we receive in federal benefits. We have many colleges and universities in Connecticut. We must create laws to protect them from Trump’s demands for money and federal academic control. Our Connecticut university graduates are the future doctors, lawyers, nurses, researchers, scientists and politicians who help make us a powerful country.We must protect our future.

Lizbeth Piel

Sharon

Resource: Learning Center courses

Arriving in Salisbury in 1990 with a new baby, my long medical training just completed and about to launch my solo practice, I was tantalized by periodic articles in The Lakeville Journal about the class offerings at the Taconic Learning Center. Semester after semester I’d choose the most interesting classes I’d take someday, when I would have time to sit for a couple of hours and learn.Of course life only got busier, and it wasn’t until 32 years later, after retirement, kids grown, that I was finally able to enroll in some TLC classes.In the three years since I’ve enjoyed about a dozen classes, subjects as disparate as Zen Buddhism and The Roberts Court.I’ve learned more history, of the Middle East and the U.S., than I ever did in school.I’ve spent glorious winter mornings listening to Stravinsky and Miles Davis. I’ve participated in lively discussions of literature.And, best of all, I’ve met so many interesting and learned people, both teachers and participants.

TLC classes are offered from 10 to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. for up to eight weeks.There is a break in the middle of each class for refreshment.No homework, no quizzes, no final exams. Attendance is not taken.The cost is $60 a year, for as few or many classes as you like. Go to www.taconiclearningcenter.org/index3.php for more info, the list of course offerings, schedules, and registration.We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful resource for learning, right here in the Northwest Corner.

Hope to see you in class!

Laurie Slotnick

Salisbury

Trump’s leadership is decimating our country

The Trump cartel is decimating our country. It has reached the level of such criminality and toxicity its hard to recognize the United States. Now the gerrymandering happening in Texas is the latest despicable crime being committed. Republicans are trying to deliver five new GOP congressional districts to Donald Trump by cracking Democratic districts. Doing this will let King Trump cling to power which is what his administration is all about.

Does anyone wonder what will come of the meeting between Putin and Trump? Putin is a tyrant and dictator without regard for anything but power and money. King Trump greatly admires him and seems to be following Putin’s playbook with his own administration. The contrast between Trump’s reception of Zelensky, a leader trying to save his country, and Putin, a corrupt and cruel overlord shows King Trump’s affinity for total dictatorship. Trump’s minions are at his beck and call no matter how illegal or immoral his orders are.

Where are all the jobs, lower food prices and gas prices, infrastructure repair, and tax cuts for working Americans instead of his billionaire cohorts? King Trump’s plan to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the only agency that monitors big banks and corporations predatory practices, will hurt working families. He clearly doesn’t care about childcare, healthcare, and grocery and gas prices.

King Trump has bashed diversity, equity, equality, and inclusion initiatives. DEI officers have been fired and private institutions are being pressured to end DEI practices. Isn’t our country supposed to reflect an acceptance of all people regardless of ethnicity or sexual orientation? We have moved so far away from the ethics that made our country a place of freedom. We have fought wars, laid down lives in defense for liberty and King Trump is tearing all that down. Not just him, but all his henchmen, groupies, puppets,and stooges hanging on his coattails.

King Trump is a master of chaos so he will continue to deflect, lie, cheat, and make billions of dollars for himself and his cartel. We, the people, will continue a downward slide watching him say to us “Let them eat cake.”

Gretchen Gordon

Sharon