SALISBURY — After a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Salisbury Fall Festival returned over the Columbus Day weekend to fine weather and big crowds.
Friday, Oct. 7, was the warmest day, and a casual prowl around Main Street in Salisbury turned up colorful quilts at the Congregational Church, off-the-cuff history lessons from Lou Bucceri at the Salisbury Association, and used books at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Saturday, Oct. 8, was packed. At 2 p.m., there were cars parked on either side of Route 44 to Salmon Kill Road and beyond. It was a similar situation on Factory/Washinee Street, and on Undermountain Road (Route 41) as far north as Conklin Street.
The Scoville Memorial Library lawn was a seething mass of humanity, much of it young and energetic.
The Salisbury Center School (SCS) eighth graders scored big with the popular and highly entertaining (for spectators, anyway) “Hit the Face with a Wet Sponge” game.
Indian Mountain School students guided the younger set in the manufacture of slime, in vivid colors. Slime consists of contact lens solution, baking soda and food coloring. Tiny little foam balls were optional.
Amelia Corrigan of Lakeville, age 5, showed a reporter her small tub of vivid teal-colored slime.
Elsewhere on the lawn small children decorated pumpkins under the aegis of SOAR, the SCS enrichment program.
The crowd was hungry. By 12:30 p.m., the Lakeville Hose Company Ladies Auxiliary had sold out of macaroni and cheese.
On a somber note, Larissa Vreeland and friends had a table in front of the General Store, dedicated to the cause of Nikki Addimando of Poughkeepsie, who fatally shot her partner to save her own life but has been sentenced to years in prison. (Go to www.westandwithnikki.com for more information.)
Magician Peter James plucked coins from ears and enlisted young assistants during his magic show by the church on Library Street, and a little later the Salisbury Band Quickstep Hotshots entertained the crowd with familiar tunes.
At 3 p.m. there was a new wrinkle for the festival. In the garden on the southwest side of the library, two iconic Martha Graham dances, “Lamentation” and “Satyric Festival Song,” were performed by members of Graham 2, a “pre-professional dance company drawn from the most advanced students of the Martha Graham school” (according to the Graham 2 website).
The Salisbury Artisans were set up (mostly) in front of the White Hart. Vendors hustled to keep up with the crowds.
Things were a bit more sedate on Sunday. The crowd at the White Hart was still robust, and the Joint Chiefs band began playing around 1 p.m.
Custom chairmaker Andrew Jack was entertaining a group of small boys from his work bench — and cautioning them to stand back.
Two Republican candidates for the state Legislature, state Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107), who is running for the state Senate, and Chris DuPont of Goshen, who is trying to unseat state Rep. Maria Horn (D-64), were doing some politicking on Main Street Sunday afternoon.
And at Satre Hill, the Salisbury Winter Sports Association Brew-Ski event had more than 30 breweries participating. A ticket bought access to live music, food and a tasting of the wide assortment of craft beers and ciders.
Pumpkin-flavored ales prevailed, with such options as “Pumpkin Roadsmary’s Baby” by Two Roads Brewing Company of Stratford.
Students from Indian Mountain School ran a slime-making clinic during the Salisbury Fall Festival. Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan
Guests of the 12th annual Brew-Ski Fest sampled beers and ciders from over 30 breweries on Sunday, Oct. 9. Photo by Riley Klein
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.