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Call to stand against the ‘demise of democracy’
In the last several years, the demise of hundreds of millions of ash trees because of the invasive species, the Emerald ash borer, went virtually unchecked. Scientists warned that the insect was headed in our direction and would hollow out our trees which would ultimately die, and yet, we were nearly powerless to stop the invasion.
Not so now with the abject cruelty, devastation, and destruction of our current administration. We can stand up against the hatred, divisiveness, greed, and lying that are their trademarks. The social safety nets, Medicaid, SNAP, and Medicare are being gutted. Seventeen million people will lose Medicaid. Twelve million will lose health coverage. The benefits we should be receiving are instead being redirected to benefit the top 1% of the population and corporations with extended tax breaks that they, most certainly, do not need. Innocent people are being rounded up and sent to detention centers with no due process by masked government agents. The majority of theSupreme Court Justices are a party to all of this.
Get involved. Write letters, make phone calls, work to elect representatives who represent our best interests. Join us on theSalisbury Green every Saturday from 11 to noon, rain or shine, with your signs, your family, and your friends to stand together and protest the demise of our democracy.
Sophia deBoer
Salisbury
What could some senators be praying for?
Last week I saw a picture of some senators huddled together in prayer. What were they praying for?
The passage of the Budget Bill. Really? Assuming most of these men were Christians, they clearly have forgotten Jesus’s admonition to honor the least among us.
Some facts about this bill: “The Budget Lab at Yale University found that the top 10% of Americans will save about $30,000 annually under the bill’s tax cuts, while the top 1% will save nearly $100,000. To fund these tax cuts, the bottom percentage of Americans will become poorer even with small tax cuts, owing to changes in Medicaid and food assistance.”
To be specific, more than a million people in CT have Medicaid. Based on the Congressional Budget Office analysis, an estimated people 120,335 people in our state will lose Medicaid coverage and 53,091 will lose Affordable Care Act coverage in the coming years. Nationally, up to 17 million people could lose their health insurance.
Loss of Medicaid funding also means that more nursing homes, rural hospitals and community healthcare facilities may have to close.
In addition, these men were actually praying for the passage of a bill that would cut a vital food and nutritional program. Children, the disabled, etc., will go hungry here in Connecticut. Nationally, 41.7 million people would be affected by the deep cuts to the SNAP program.
Republicans have cagily scheduled the benefit cuts to start on Dec. 31, 2026, after the 2026 election, hoping that people will forget to hold Republican representatives responsible for what is coming. Where the money will go: to those tax cuts, of course, and also to building that wall, so touted in Trump’s first administration, as well as to detention centers and increasing ICE —Trump’s black-clad, masked personal force.
ICE is already moving stealthily through our streets, grabbing, not criminals but our neighbors, our fellow workers; taking away parents in front of their children, anyone without the right documentation.
Why? To meet Trump’s arbitrary numbers to deport.
This is what these men were praying for…the mind boggles.
Barbara Maltby
Lakeville
P&Z rejects in-person meeting on Wake Robin
The fact that Lakeville/Salisbury residents have had no opportunity to attend an in-person meeting regarding such an important issue as the Wake Robin project is very upsetting.Although P&Z apparently followed protocol in approving a major zoning change in a residential area, we think that that a project with such an impact on our town would have led to P&Z voluntarily calling for an in-person meeting. The failure to do so has led to anger, confusion and a lawsuit.
Michael Klemens, the head of P&Z, in discussing whether or not to hold to an in-person meeting to discuss the Wake Robin project, at the last P&Z Zoom meeting, cited reasons of fairness and accessibility as the rationale for continuing to hold meetings remotely.” It keeps us all on a level playing field,” he said. What field and who’s playing?
Also at that June 16th meeting Mr. Klemens, in a response to Roger Rawlings, a local real estate appraiser, said, “the Commission is legally bound to uphold rights of the property owner and the public, and such cannot be legally influenced by crowd behavior.”Does that mean P&Z should make such a major ruling without a full airing of the townspeople’s concerns? So far, that airing has not happened.
We say let’s have an in-person meeting and let the community express their opinions. That approach was workable before Covid and surely can be now. There is nothing like an in-person session to get to the heart of the matter! So what if it’s a long meeting. It’s worth it. We’re not saying all P&Z meetings have to be in-person, but this particular matter deserves an in-person airing.
We strongly believe we are not the only residents who feel this way. Let voices be heard and faces seen!
Jane Pinckney & Rich Shanley
Lakeville
An appreciation of a decades-old softball game in Lakeville
Editor’s Note: Andrew Schwartz of Salisbury wrote this for the players — about 20 or so who show up on Sunday mornings in Lakeville from Memorial Day to Labor Day. They range in age from 10 to 80.
The outlook wasn’t brilliant since those dark, cold, Covid days. The ball field was nearly empty where old guys once came to play. Sometimes six guys showed up and maybe there were eightand on occasion there may have been nine, if someone came in late.
And then things turned around one day. And players began to show. But they were crippled, old, and blind, And man, were they ever so slow.But then dads came with their kids in tow. Though small and weak, they stood.At this point on Sunday mornings, we played whoever could.
Many times, he’d get there late, but Joe could pitch that ball and Doug was out in center field and nearly caught them all.Barton and Bauman both played short and whipped that ball to first.And by the bench was Barton’s cooler. With drinks to quench your thirst. Riiska played 3rd. As did Bill, whose leg broke beneath his knee.But any ball that came to them would turn a 5-4-3.
At first sat Dave and Eric too, just get the ball to them plus Ed at first to add some depth when his legs are on the mend with Bayer at 2nd and C1 squared — lefties stood no chance with hitters like Chris who can place the ball and Rylee who sends them to France.
Millerton Mike who pitches them in and hits the front of the plate,Brady, Tyler, C2 and Josh have gone from good to great. When Murray shows up his strike calls are - heard from far and near.And Jim who pitches, he’s the big OG, we really miss him here. With part timers like Steve — and when Adrian shows up.There are some games in which they playedWe have two Jacks — that have played in the pastAnd Girl — Jane — who has skipped a grade.
This group of guys are odd at best with special needs for sure. Some can’t run and some can’t field. Not sure how they endure.
Since 1983 this club managed to take the field.We’ve seen a lot of guys come and go but through time we will not yield. We have our fans, all three of them, whose chairs are set in shade. They don’t cheer loud or at all — not even at the best plays made.
Oh somewhere beyond Community Field, there are many parks ignored, no games are played, no rain delays while kids at home are bored. There are many reasons not to play too much phone time at the core.But that’s no longer true in Lakeville because the game has life once more.
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Turning Back the Pages - July 10, 2025
Jul 09, 2025
125 years ago — July 1900
The largest fire Salisbury has ever witnessed occurred on the evening of July 3rd at about 9:30 o’clock, at which time the large residence of Miss M.M. Johnson on Main Street was totally destroyed. The origin of the fire is as yet only a matter of conjecture. The alarm was rapidly spread and scores of men flocked to the scene and through the efforts of the level headed ones the greater part of the contents of the house were removed to a place of safety. The water from the one small faucet was hardly noticeable and the hose was finally abandoned and the faucet and pump were used to fill the pails of a bucket brigade. The building was valued at about $4,000 and the insurance amounts to $2,000. It is hard to understand why, after such examples as have occurred of late in Salisbury and this place, that property owners continue to object to some organized method of fighting fire such as forming a fire district and having an efficient fire company that will amount to something in an emergency.
Miss Nellie Ryder of Falls Village started Thursday morning for the Klondike region, there to meet and marry Ulysses Grant Myres, who has been in the gold country two years. Her mother accompanied her as far as Chicago.
The convention of dancing masters recently held at Asbury park has decided that hugging in the waltz is not proper, but the partner must be held off at arm’s length, with just a light touch of the finger tips. A few more rules of a similar nature and the dancing teacher like Othello, will find his occupation gone.
Judging by the rapidity with which the nations are going to war, it is hoped that no more peace conferences will be held until the year 2000. It is the rule for pugilists to shake hands before commencing to fight and it looks as if the nations had adopted the rule on a larger scale.
Quite a number of Sharon people attended the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Ellsworth Congregational Church on Tuesday.
Baldwin Reed’s son, James, who is in the Klondike region, has been very sick in a hospital in Dawson City; was so delirious that he had to be bound hand and foot to be controlled. A letter from him, dated June 1st, stated that he would soon be able to go to work again.
LAKEVILLE — A.B. Landon is now the owner of “E.J.C.” having traded his large road mare for the trotter with E.J. Chaffee of South Amenia. This horse is a good one and Mr. Landon will probably start him in some of the Wells Hill races.
A jolly party composed of A.J. Morse and family, Martin Strong, Fred Seeley and wife and T.F. Dexter and family, all of Salisbury, are camping at Warner’s Grove this week. Messrs. Morse and Strong’s steam launch will add greatly to the enjoyment of the party.
100 years ago — July 1925
The summer issue of the telephone directory, delivery of which began this week and which is effective upon receipt by subscribers, is bound in a more substantial cover stock of dark brown, a color not hitherto used on the telephone directory. With this heavier cover stock, the directory will stand up better under the constant usage given this book. The design on the cover also is new.
Mr. W.B. Lawrence, properietor of the Gateway has evidently acquired the hotel habit. Last week he purchased the Harlem Valley Hotel at Millerton, taking possession July 1st.
There is no use in trying to dodge the fact — all the good men are married, a fact which was fully demonstrated at last Saturday morning’s base ball game between the married and single men. The benedicts rolled up seven big runs while the bachelors could not even get a single solitary score. Such old timers as Sam Whitbeck, John Bohlman, Charles Barnum, George Traver, Rev. Frank Lambert, H. Roscoe Brinton, Fred Ellis, Stanley Mather, A.E. Bauman, M.G. Fenn and George Ostrum and Del MacLain carried the banner of matrimony. The flapper chasers consisted of: John Neville, Jim Smith, Vin Stuart, “Taller Head” Hoysradt, Irwin Patchen, Gerald Bauman, “Cock Robin” Melius, Clem Bauman and Theodore Garnes. These young whipper snappers never had a chance with the old war horses, as may be seen by the score, but the young blades were gritty and stayed till the last man was down. Next year they say they are going to reverse the story.
Just for the sake of decency it is suggested that some of the young ladies wear their night gowns over their imaginary bathing suits when walking the streets after coming from the lake.
50 years ago — July 1975
Passenger trains definitely will return to Millerton, Lettie Carson, president of the Harlem Valley Transportation Association, asserted again this week. Mrs. Carson cited renewed and detailed assurances from New York State officials to support her statement.
Dr. William H. Zovickian of Sharon is a pretty happy fellow this week. His borrowed tortoise is back. Not just any old turtle, but an African Spurred Tortoise, one of only six in the United States. His benefactor, and the tortoise’s, is Linda Decker, who found the reptile in the driveway of her home on Herrick Road Tuesday morning, nearly three-quarters of a mile from the Zovickian property on Ellsworth Road from which it had wandered — or escaped — last Friday, July 4. Ms. Decker, whose property adjoins the Zovickian property on the rear, heard her dog barking Monday night. Tuesday morning she found the African Spurred Tortoise in her driveway, completely unharmed. “I’m very relieved,” Dr. Zovickian said, adding that he had visions of having to replace the tortoise. It was a female tortoise, borrowed for breeding purposes as part of a program to determine whether the beasts will reproduce in captivity.
An estimated 600 Sharon residents turned out on a near-perfect day last Friday to attend the July 4th picnic sponsored by Sharon Heritage ‘76. Picnic baskets in hand, they began assembling on the Sharon Green well before the 11:30 a.m. starting time to enjoy a day of fun, games, music and socializing.
Officials in Amenia and Sharon this week continued their search for possible new town landfill sites. Owners of the present Amenia landfill have said it will close in less than three months.
The State Labor Department’s quotation last week of a 16.5 unemployment rate figure for Salisbury in May has local officials puzzled. The state describes the unemployment rate in Salisbury as having risen from 14.5 in April to 16.5 in May. However First Selectman Charlotte Reid sees little real evidence of an increasing unemployment problem here. “The town picks up emergency short-term” cases of persons who are waiting to receive aid from state agencies, Mrs. Reid said. Therefore the town situation should reflect the unemployment picture accurately.
Work at Wangum Village, the Canaan housing for the elderly project, is more than half completed, according to Housing Authority Chairman Arthur Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin said Tuesday that he has now paid the contractor for 51 per cent of the work. Baldwin said that all buildings have now been erected and that most of the doors and windows are in. The plumbers and electricians are at work and sewer lines are being laid to the buildings.
25 years ago — July 2000
LIME ROCK — It was a fitting activity for the man who has made faster Internet access a personal crusade. David Maffucci, owner and founder of Visionary Computer here, took a high-speed turn around the race track at Lime Rock Park last week. Although not exactly the type of souped-up vehicle one expects to see on the track, Mr. Maffucci’s Crown Victoria did fulfill one requirement for track access that day: it was Ford-powered. At last week’s Shelby American Auto Convention, all cars were required to have Ford engines. Mr. Maffucci said the Crown Victoria “has a little more go” than the Jeep Wrangler he normally drives. It’s probably a bit less tippy on the turns as well.
The discovery of a framed photograph in the Douglas Library basement, probably stored there for decades, is very timely. As Elm Watch volunteers form an alliance with the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and heighten efforts to save the area’s trees from Dutch elm disease, an enlarged photo of “The Famous Elm” has come to light. This week, Elm Watch volunteer Tom Zetterstrom painstakingly removed the old paper, wood and newspaper backing on the matted photograph, replacing it with an acid-free board and re-hanging it in the library.
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‘No Kings’ protest
Jul 09, 2025
L. Tomaino
About 100 individuals gathered in Salisbury Sunday, July 6, to protest the presidential administration.
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Generations of Wismar familygather to celebrate farm’s 100th year
Generations of the Wismar family gathered Saturday, July 5, for a reunion to celebrate the family’s 100th year at its Music Mountain Road farm.
FALLS VILLAGE — On Saturday, July 5 some sixty Wismar family members and friends celebrated the family’s 100th year at the Music Mountain Road farm.
Just over a hundred years ago the Rev. Dr. Adolph and Christiana Wismar purchased the home and property on what was then Barrack Road.The property at that time consisted of a tenant’s farmhouse with adjacent barn and an additional two timber frame barns and outbuildings a quarter mile up the road — all situated on about sixty acres.
The main house, formerly the home of the late Frederick Dean and his wife, had burned to the ground a few years before.In the 1930’s, the Wismars erected a modest home on the foundation of the former Dean home.
That house became home to a succession of tenant families and, later, as the retirement residence of the late Bishop Cyril and Sylvia Wismar and, later, CB Wismar and the recently deceased Kathy Wismar. The upper house and property were recently purchased by Jonathan and Emily Lally.
In the 1920s, Adolph Wismar was pastor of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Manhattan, the oldest Lutheran Church in America, having been chartered by the British in 1664.
It was a time before air conditioning, and summers in New York City were brutally hot, and the Wismars were among the New Yorkers seeking relief in northwest Connecticut.
Since those days successive generations of Wismars have enjoyed “the farm” as a place for summer activities and recreation.