Local bookstores call for curious customers
A New Leaf in Pine Plains, N.Y.
Ruby Citrin
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In the age of modern technology, convenience is king. Though online markets allow people to shop from the comfort of home, physical stores provide value beyond the products they sell. Take bookstores, for example.
Ruby Citrin
Oblong Books
Millerton, N.Y.
Dick Hermans and Holly Nelson opened Oblong Books in the spring of 1975. Over the past 50 years, the store has moved to four different buildings in downtown Millerton, before settling at 26 Main Street. In 2001, they opened a second location in Rhinebeck, New York. Hermans’ daughter, Susanna, now runs the operations. Oblong offers a large collection of titles, including an extensive children’s section, as well as a calendar of events for readers of all ages. The colorful store beams with an assortment of records, puzzles, notebooks, and cards.
Ruby Citrin
A New Leaf
Pine Plains, N.Y.
A New Leaf was opened in 1999 by Ginger Dowd and James Polk and sits at Rural Route 199 in Pine Plains. Soft lighting washes over the decor of old paintings, sketches, and photographs, while lamps and armchairs make up cozy reading nooks. The supply of used books – accumulated from library sales and donations – is well-preserved and remarkably organized. Sprawling little rooms lead to a blooming, green backyard, where customers can soak up stories and sunshine all at once.
Laced with the personalities of staff and customers, each bookshop has its own unique charm. These inclusive spaces for congregation and conversation do not exist online. Their survival depends on continued support from local community members.
Ruby Citrin
The Merritt Bookstore + Toy Store
Millbrook, N.Y.
Founded by Scott Meyer in 1984, the Merritt Bookstore displays an array of toys, cards, crafts and, of course, books. Stories fill the Front Street space in Millbrook, all neatly stacked on wooden shelves or piled in carts and bins. Kira Wizner took over after Meyer’s death in 2015, maintaining his magic and adding her own touch. Deeply woven into the community, the store presents book signings by local authors, makes weekly appearances at the summer farmer’s market, and partners with Millbrook schools to instill an early affinity for reading.
Ruby Citrin
Johnnycake Books
Salisbury, Conn.
The history of antiquarian booksellers in Salisbury, Connecticut, dates back to 1930. Dan Dwyer established Johnnycake Books – at 12 Academy Street – in March of 2000. The name has both literary and personal references: Growing up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Dwyer spent countless rainy afternoons at the Whaling Museum atop Johnnycake Hill, which is also the setting for the opening chapter of Moby Dick. Dwyer’s collection of rare books reflects his own interests and those of his customers. On shelves, tables, couches, and easels, books are displayed like artwork.
Ruby Citrin
House of Books
Kent, Conn.
House of Books – located at 10 North Main Street in Kent – opened in 1976 and is now owned by Kent Barns. For decades, the store has attracted spirited readers who want more than a solitary experience of literature. While books themselves have inherent value, the passion of the people who appreciate them floods the store with wonder. “House favorites” (staff picks) sprinkle carefully curated inventory and browsers act as booksellers themselves, exchanging suggestions and dialogue. A literal house makes up the children’s section and instrumental music twinkles amongst glittering white shelves.
Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.