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COPAKE — By all accounts, Saturday was a good day, especially for those present to see a decade of planning and hard work come to fruition with the opening of the Roeliff Jansen Community Library.
“It was a glorious day. It would have been a glorious day even if it were snowing, but we were lucky because there was glorious sunshine,†said Meg Wormley, co-chair of the library’s capital campaign.
About 150 people attended the ribbon cutting for the new library and community room, which will serve the towns of Hillsdale, Copake and Ancram. In addition to the throngs of residents investigating the aisles of books, new computers, framed artwork, reading nooks and spacious rooms in the 7,500-square foot building Saturday morning, there was a ventriloquest/comedian/magician and a musician singing children’s songs and performing for the youngsters.
“The kids were all wrapped up — it was great,†Wormley said. “The parents brought their children just for that.â€
In the evening there were performances by the Karl Easton Jazz Group, the Taconic Hills Jazz Band and the Taconic Hills Drama Club. Many returned on Sunday for a presentation by David Nasaw, from East Taconic, who recently wrote a biography on Andrew Carnegie, famous for funding public libraries. Author talks and other lectures will be a regular happening at the library once its schedule is set; other community events will also be encouraged at the new space that boasts not only book shelves and a community room but a children’s library, play area, conference room, study hall and tutoring space, and also space for its historical collection and oil paintings. The building can fit the previous 1,000-square foot library inside many times over. The old library is not going to waste, however; following some renovations, the circa 1925 building will be used as the new Hillsdale Town Hall.
The attraction of the new library, and its allure as a gathering place to area residents, is something those involved in its creation couldn’t be happier about.
“It’s such a lovely place,†Wormley said. “This is going to be a place where people can come to see each other to chat and say hello. It says something important about a community that it has a library. And the fact that this community, that the people of Hillsdale, Ancram and Copake donated so far $1.4 million, speaks very well of the library and that it’s important to them. If reflects on their past, present and the future.â€
Stimulus money also contributed to some construction costs. Funding amounting to $320,000 paid for paving the parking lot with a porous concrete that allows the rain to seep through and filter through the soil before entering the Roe Jan Kill, which feeds into the Hudson River. The funding was part of the Green Initiative Grant Program, to help protect the watershed area. The parking lot is actually the largest area of porous concrete in New York state as of this moment.
The building meets other “green†standards: It has solar panels on its roof, is positioned to take full advantage of the sun’s heat and has light shelves to bounce the light off the south side of the building so less artificial lighting is needed to illuminate the building both inside and outside.
There is still some work being completed on the new library, but it is fully functional and open to the public. Its hours of operation are Mondays and Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays, noon to 7 p.m., Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Sundays. The library’s mailing address is 9091 Rte. 22, Hillsdale, although it is physically located in the town of Copake. Its phone number is 518-325-4101; its website is roejanlibrary.org.
“I hope that it will be continually busy, and that it will be used for many new purposes and contribute to the intellectual and cultural life of the area,†Wormley said, adding that the library is still fundraising to help pay off “very high interest†on loans it took to construct the building. To make a donation, go to rjclcapitalcampaign.org or call 518-329-0182.
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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.