John Dutton
Latest News
Auto Repair
Blinds
Building/Remodeling
Floor Refinishing
Insulation
Landscaping
Landscaping
Lightning Rods
Moving
Overhead Doors
CORNWALL — On Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, John Kimberly Mumford Dutton, quietly died in the same home in which he was raised in Cornwall. He was 93 years old. Born on Nov. 28, 1930, he was the third son of the late David Garland and Constance (Mumford) Dutton.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Yvonne, and their four children; Michael and his wife Karen, Seth and his wife Karen, Alison and her partner Jay, and Colin, as well as their grandchildren Lucas, Patrick, Caleb, and Meaghan. He is predeceased by his siblings David, Arthur, and Cynthia.
John was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York and Cornwall. He attended the Poughkeepsie Day School, the Hotchkiss School, Syracuse University and Babson College. After graduating from Babson, he worked briefly in the insurance business in New York City before heading west to Vancouver, British Columbia to start a long career in the lumber industry.
While in Vancouver, he met the love of his life, Yvonne McKee from Northern Ireland. They married in 1961 in Poughkeepsie, New York and began their married life in Tarrytown, New York. Later, after moving to Toledo, Ohio, their first child was born. In 1963 they returned to New York where John joined the A.C. Dutton Lumber Company, the family wholesale lumber business started in 1887 by his grandfather Arthur C. Dutton. John spent the rest of his career in Poughkeepsie before retiring in 1995. He and Yvonne moved to Cornwall in 1996 where John felt truly at home.
He thrived on hard work, caring for others, and providing for his family. His many acts of quiet kindness may never be known to anyone other than the recipients, but he instilled in his children the same sense of charity toward others.
John was a longtime board member of the historic Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery and the Dutchess County Chapter of the American Red Cross, as well as a long serving member of the vestry of the Christ Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie. In 1970, President Nixon appointed him to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Committee, a group of industry experts charged with protecting the economy against natural and manmade disasters.
More often than not, John could be found outdoors, often creating excuses to putter around his beloved Cornwall home, usually while his entire family waited in the car to travel back to Poughkeepsie.
For many decades, John cut cords of firewood to provide cozy heat to his family, even when home heating oil prices bottomed out. He also spent many hours cutting hay and brush in the fields surrounding his home. His children continue to honor his legacy by cutting firewood and clearing brush for no apparent reason other than “that’s the way we were raised.”
He was able to regale friends and family with entertaining stories of his childhood and his experiences. He was truly interested in people and celebrated when others succeeded. His smile was infectious. His sense of humor was uplifting. His good nature and sense of social responsibility stood out in a world rapidly losing both.
No formal services are planned. His ashes will be buried at the convenience of his family at the North Cornwall Cemetery in Connecticut. A memorial gathering will be held at a later date.
Related Stories
Get Local News Delivered To Your Inbox
Subscribe to receive stories reported for, by, and about our neighbors, on the issues affecting you.
By signing up you agree to our
privacy policy
.
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.