Letters to the Editor - September 11, 2025

Wake Robin cartoon comes up short

The cartoon in the August 28 edition (“The Wake Robin Mahal”) is a poor excuse for a caricature that doesn’t help anyone understand the issues involved in this complicated problem.

There are strong arguments on both sides with respect to the Aradev application, with both benefits and detriments to the community, but the greatest disappointment for me has been the utter lack of effort by nearby homeownersto work with Aradev on modifications to the plan that would be satisfactory to those living in the immediate neighborhood.Surely, no one wants to see the facility simply abandoned, with all the problems that would create, and no one wants to see the return of large outdoor tented events well into the night - something that is already permitted within the pre-existing status. Given the alternatives, it’s hard to believe that the nearby homeowners and Aradev can’t find a path forward together.

If it turns out, however, that Aradev has decided that further modifications create too much economic risk to justify their investment, then P&Z will have to decide on the application as submitted(with modifications and commitments already offered). And it will have to do so in accordance with our town regulations, regardless of how any of us feels one way or the other about the project. In any case, your cartoon certainly doesn’t advance an understanding orresolution of the issues.

Mike Abram

Lakeville

Mayland nod for selectman

It is my pleasure to enthusiastically support and recommend the election to Selectman of Don Mayland.

Don served three terms as Salisbury Selectman in past years and his experience in the role is invaluable.

He also served on the Town Board of Finance for 24 years, and was Chairman of the Salisbury Water Pollution Control Authority for 10 years. In addition he was President of the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance service 9 years and as Chairman of the Board of Litchfield Bancorp 26 years and taught economics at Hotchkiss School for 38 years.

Clearly Don has the requisite experience we need for so important a position as Selectman.

In addition to being intelligent and experienced Don is kind and generous and liked and admired by all who associate with him.

I recommend his candidacy unreservedly.

Maureen Bateman

Lakeville

Wake Robin plan too big for town

The letter from Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens published in the August 28th issue of the Lakeville Journal sums up correctly why the

Planning and Zoning Commission should deny Aradevpermission to go forward with their project.

Further, as a resident of Lakeville for 27 years in a house of a little more than 2,000 square feet sited on more than two acres, Aradev’s current proposal to build four guest houses of 2,000 square feet each is absurd in the extreme.

Their size cannot be considered guest cottages and the zoning required to put four such house on 12 acres in addition to everything else that is proposed would, I think, not be permissible.

Quite simply the proposal from Aradev is too large for the site and too large for Lakeville.

The Commission has a duty to all concerned to put an endto the matter.

Inge Heckel

Salisbury

Why cartoonists often take aim at Trump

Mr. Morrison’s letter to the Journal rings true in many ways. Anyone, including friends of the Republican Town Committee, is free to submit cartoons, I encourage them to do so. We all love a break from the written word. But as for Donald Trump himself, the paper appears to be giving him just what he has always wanted: placement front and center. If Trump and his administration were not such a constant and appealing target, cartoonists would aim at other subjects.

Phil Oppenheimer

Lakeville

Understanding the job of a political cartoonist

I commend the Journal for its balanced treatment of political views in its letters to the editor section.

Mr. Morrison’s frustration concerning cartoons is understandable, but political cartoons only highlight what’s reported in the daily news — the absurdities and follies. It just so happens that one party not only monopolizes the news but also produces an abundance of headscratching episodes.

To point out such follies is the job of a cartoonist and Peter Steiner’s cartoons do that with humor and wit. Keep them coming!

Fritz Mueller

Sharon

In Waterbury, Wake Robin would go unnoticed

Would the Wake Robin Mega Project be classified as a nuisance? Not if it were in Waterbury.

Lakeville was an industrial town in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. My family owned and operated all the furnaces and forges in Lakeville, Lime Rock and on Mt. Riga beginning in 1795. There is no question that these were a nuisance.They ran 24 hours a day, bringing traffic with continuous ox carts carrying iron ore, charcoal and limestone.The forests around here were cut to the ground and burned to make charcoal. The furnaces belched toxic smoke.Lakeville was called Furnace Village back then for a reason.

The town has since changed dramatically. It is a small jewel of tranquility with the deepest lake in Connecticut, a golf course, world-class hiking trails, excellent private and public schools all set in a wooded, quiet area of less than 1500 acres and 849 homes (according to Homes.com). I urge the Planning and Zoning Commission to not issue a special permit for the Wake Robin mega project because if you do, you will unleash a nuisance on this town not unlike what we banished in the 19th century.

There is no question that if allowed to proceed, the new Wake Robin would be a nuisance that would rival our industrial period, with traffic, noise and massive interference with the character of the town. You only need to look at the volume of large parties it would need to support, what many estimate is an investment of millions of dollars. By its own Proposed Conditions of Approval, it expects to book at least 24 large, 100-plus person events each year. An event can include a wedding that would involve pre-and-post parties from Friday to Sunday and count as a single event. Depending on how those are booked during the year, it’s possible there won’t be a peaceful weekend ever again in the summer or fall, when most of us are here for the peace and quiet.

To further my point on the nature of the nuisance that the project would bring, consider how the Wake Robin project would impact Waterbury, or Hartford.Those towns are 60x-100x times the size of Lakeville. If it would go unnoticed in a large industrial town because of the noise and level of activity, it would clearly be a nuisance here.

Theodore Rudd O’Neill

Lakeville