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WINSTED — Just weeks before his 91st birthday, Stan Staszowski, former golf pro at Greenwoods Country Club, was inducted into the Connecticut Section PGA of America Hall of Fame in a ceremony Nov. 16. Staszowski retired from Greenwoods Country Club as the pro in 1986 after 50 years.
Staszowski was born in 1917 to Joseph and Anelia Staszowski. Joseph was the golf pro at Greenwoods for many years and everyone in the family helped him run the course. Stan was the second oldest child in the family, with Frank the oldest, and Von, Janet, Babe and John following in his footsteps. Everyone had an active role in the golf course and when Stan turned 18, he took over as the course’s pro.
When World War II broke out, Stan Staszowski had to leave his post at the country club for nearly four years to serve in the South Pacific. With his father now gone, passing away at the age of 46, Frank was the head-of-household and could not go into military service. He took Stan’s place as golf pro of Greenwoods Country Club until he was able to return home.
In 1939 Stan joined the PGA, qualifying at just 21 years of age and earning the title, at that time, of the youngest pro to qualify for the National PGA Championship. He continued touring throughout the 1940s — playing in the winter and managing the course the remainder of the year.
“The tour was very small and only played in the winter so the pros, when the golf clubs closed down, they would get in their cars and go to these tour stops,� recalled Mary Ellen Vaccari, Staszowski’s daughter.
Staszowski played hundreds of great games of golf in his career, but several stand out as “great rounds.� In 1939 he played against Gene Sarazen in Hershey, Pa. In 1947 he led the Miami Open with a four-under-par through the first round of competition. Later that year he placed 10th in the Western Open. But his greatest success was in the Connecticut Section Tournaments.
In 1957 Staszowski played in the Connecticut Pro/Amateur Championship with Winsted resident Dick Heneage. Heneage was the principal at Pearson Middle School at the time and the duo played two rounds of golf, possibly still holding the record, said Vaccari.
“They had a two-round total of 127, 17 under par,� Vaccari said.
Staszowski held the title of Connecticut PGA Champion several times, as well as Connecticut Senior PGA Champion. In 1969 he won both titles in the same day, playing the CT PGA Championship in the morning and the Senior Championship in the afternoon.
In addition to his own success, Staszowski was partially responsible for the success of many other pros throughout the years.
Former students who turned pro included John Wylie, John Vaccari, Bobby Gage and Paul Julian.
Staszowski married Bunny in 1950. Together they had three children, Mary Ellen, Joe and Jim, all of whom worked with their father on the golf course. He now has eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Staszowski, who retired from Greenwoods in 1986, is a member of St. Joseph’s Church, the Winsted Elks, the Winsted Senior Center and the National Polish Alliance. He will be 91 on Dec. 17.
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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.