Edward Tyburski
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SALISBURY — Edward Tyburski passed away peacefully at his home in Salisbury, on Jan 21, 2023, at the age of 89 surrounded by his loved ones. He was born on Nov. 7, 1933, in Derby, Connecticut. He was the only child of Mary and Cyrus Tyburski who had emigrated from Poland.
Ed attended St. Joseph’s Elementary School and Ansonia High School. He graduated from New Haven State Teachers School with a B.S. degree in Elementary Education and Physical Education. He earned his Master’s degree at the University of Maryland where he was a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Physical Education Department.
Ed’s parents could not understand Ed’s intense love of sports, especially football where he would often come home aching or in bandages. At Ansonia High School as a defensive end and tight end, he learned how the game was played as a member of the famed Chargers football team. He played football all through college and afterwards with the Connecticut Giants, which was a farm team and practice squad for the New York Giants.
Ed also lettered in basketball in high school and college. After college he also enjoyed playing in the highly competitive Connecticut industrial basketball league and played with the likes of future NBA Hall of Famers Connie Hawkins and Wilt Chamberlain in exhibition games.
Ed first met his future wife, Elizabeth Sopneski, when he was 11 and she was 7. They met again as young adults and immediately felt a strong mutual attraction and married in 1957. Ed was 23 years old and she was 20. The marriage was a happy one that lasted 65 years. In 1961, they brought their family from Ansonia to the beautiful small town of Falls Village, where Ed began his coaching and athletic director career at Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS). The small town atmosphere of the northwestern corner of Connecticut and the strong sense of community was a perfect match.
At HVRHS, his passion for sports flourished. Over his 37 year career he coached football, boys basketball, golf, gymnastics and girls softball and became the schools longtime athletic director. He was the only Housatonic coach to be head coach of five sports.
Ed worked tirelessly to expand physical education and athletic programs to enable a wider range of sports to be more accessible to students, and to increase overall participation. This included his active support of Title IX in 1972, a law passed prohibiting discrimination of offering educational and athletics opportunities based on sex. He was an early leader for women’s participation in sports, and his efforts resulted in HVRHS receiving substantial federal financial assistance which allowed a rapid expansion of women’s sports at HVRHS. Under his leadership, the athletic program increased from six sports and 11 teams to 21 sports and 34 teams and the creation of intramural sports programs. To ensure this expansion was successful for the students, he worked continuously to expand and improve facilities, created innovative and inspirational coaching handbooks, and published a beginner coaching fundamentals manual.
In the culmination of his tireless efforts as athletic director, HVRHS was named first place in the state of Connecticut in 1989 for excellence in high school athletic programs, receiving the prestigious Michaels Cup. Through his foundational work, HVRHS won the Michaels cup for an unprecedented second time in 1991 under the leadership of David Bayersdorfer, who succeeded Ed as the HVRHS Athletic Director.
Ed was also active in the promotion and evolution of high school athletics at the State level. He was one of the founding members and President (1986-1987) of the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors (CAAD). The primary goal of CAAD is to support, assist, innovate, and inspire excellence in athletic program development for high schools in Connecticut. In 2017, he was formally inducted into the CAAD Hall of Fame in recognition of his years of leadership in promoting athletics across the State of Connecticut.
Most importantly, Ed was a tireless and very dedicated servant to his students, coaches and the HVRHS community. He went out of his way to make sure students and coaches had support and resources to be successful in sports and most importantly, in life. He was known for his focused yet fair and patient approach, and his memorable sense of timely humor. For the annual HVRHS athletic banquet, he made sure every athlete in the school was captured and recognized in his multimedia presentation of photos and music. He also managed to recruit many prominent former pro athletes and coaches to speak at the annual banquet, including a particularly inspiring speech from Lou Carnesecca, legendary head basketball coach for St. John’s University. His passion for sports at HVRHS lives on through the Tyburski Award that is presented annually to a freshman athlete in each sport who best exemplifies skill, sportsmanship, leadership, and teamwork. The combined support and leadership of the coaches, faculty, staff and community were integral to the overall success of the HVRHS athletic programs. True teamwork in action.
Ed was also active as a leader in his community. He served on the Falls Village Board of Selectman from 1971 to 1977. Additionally, he served as the Scout Master for the local Cub Scout troop. He also participated in a number of other public and community volunteer organizations. Ed was devoted to the support of his community through all aspects of his life.
Ed also served in the United States Army Reserve 326th Intelligence Unit from 1954 to 1962 with an Honorable Discharge.
Most significantly, Ed was a devoted husband and father. He always included his sons in practices and games and everyday life at HVRHS, and taught them the importance of community service, dedication, and devotion through action. His wife Elizabeth was truly the wind beneath his wings, infusing untiring wisdom, energy and support while successfully raising 3 energetic kids. He always appreciated the fact that he could never have done it without her.
Ed is survived by his wife Elizabeth Tyburski, sons Edward (Lisa), Michael (Julie), Jeff (Rosalind), grandchildren, Stacey (Robert), Kelly (Otto), Michael (Ariel), Alex, Erin, Daniel, Max, Elise, Kyra, Andie and Zoe and great grandson Jackson. The Tyburski’s are very grateful for the outstanding support they have received from the HVRHS community and friends.
A service will be held at St. Joseph church, located at 4 Main Street, Canaan, on Feb. 18, at 11 a.m. immediately followed by a celebration of life and community ceremony with remarks and luncheon reception at the HVRHS cafeteria.
In lieu of flowers, the Tyburski’s would like to respectfully request donations to HVRHS to further promote, enhance and preserve athletic programs for students. Checks can be made payable to the Housatonic Athletics fund and mailed care of HVRHS, 246 Warren Turnpike Rd, Falls Village, CT 06031 or dropped off at the reception.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.
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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.