Jill S. Ghi
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NORTH CANAAN — Jill S. Ghi, 87, of North Canaan passed peacefully surrounded by family on August 18, 2023. She was a loving sister, aunt, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend. She was the widow of Anthony A. Ghi and daughter of the late Dorothy and Kenneth Stackpole, of Harrison, Maine. Jill was born in Valhalla, New York, grew up in Pleasantville, New York, and graduated from Pleasantville High School in 1954. She attended Hartford Hospital School of Nursing where she graduated as a registered nurse in 1957. Shortly after graduation she got married and went to work at Winsted Memorial Hospital. After moving to North Canaan in 1960, she helped run the family sign company with her husband of 40 years.
She was on The North Canaan Recreation Commission for 30 years, was a voting machine mechanic, active in the Red Hats and assisted her husband with his duties as the local building official. Jill was a frequent volunteer at Red Cross blood banks, well baby clinics, blood pressure clinics and administered flu shots at Wangum Village from 1960 to around 1990. As she began to back off from her duties involving the sign business she began to spent more and more summers in Harrison, Maine at her “camp” which was right next door to her sister Jane. The two of them made it their job to attend church suppers, pancake breakfasts, pot pie dinners and any and all other local events in the town. When she wasn’t supporting the community she was no doubt entertaining her children and doting after her grandchildren.
One of Jill’s favorite jobs was being the alumni coordinator for her nursing classmates. It was of special interest that she kept tabs on all her nursing school contemporaries and when a classmate didn’t respond to her calls, letters or e-mails she used her vast network to track them down and get the scoop.
Jill collected angels. If you had ever been in her home or ridden in her car, you, no doubt, saw the dozens of angel pendants, angel stickers and angel figurines scattered about. Some were plain, some were fancy, and others had sayings on them like; “Believe in angels”, “Don’t drive faster than your angel can fly”, “Believe in miracles”, “Reach for the stars” and “Have a dream”. All very sage advice. Jill is with her fellow angels now.**
Jill is survived by her sister Jane Seeds, her brother Joe Scelza, her sons Frank and Philip, her daughter-in-law Maria, six grandchildren, Jordan, Samantha, Dominic, Lily, Francesca and Alexis and her great-granddaughter, Maggie.
A special and heartfelt thanks to all the wonderful doctors, nurses, CNA’s, administrators and staff at the Stephens Memorial Hospital, Norway Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Androscoggin Home Healthcare & Hospice in Norway, Maine. Their kindness, caring, understanding and professionalism made all the difference at a very difficult time.
Please send any donations to Hartford Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association Scholarship Fund.
The wake will be held at Newkirk Palmer Funeral Home in North Canaan on Sept. 11 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
There will be a mass at Saint Martin of Tours, St. Joseph Church in North Canaan on Sept. 12 at 10:00 a.m. The mass will be followed by a brief graveside burial at St. Joseph’s Cemetery and a reception at the VFW Post 6851 in North Canaan.
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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.