SLT applies to renew accreditation; seeks public comment

SHARON — The Sharon Land Trust is applying to renew its accreditation seal and encourages residents to submit comments concerning SLT’s application to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission.

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission is an independent body that reviews the ethics and activity of land trusts around the nation, awarding the seal to trusts “meeting the highest national standard for excellence and conservation permanence,” according to its website.

In a recent press release, SLT Executive Director Carolyn Klocker stated the importance of the program: “Accreditation is critical to ensuring that we’re not only following best practices to protect land today, but also creating a sustainable framework to fulfill our promise of conserving these lands for generations to come.”

As a regular component of the application review process, the Commission invites members of the public to submit signed comments. The Commission requests that comments must be related to SLT’s adherence to the national quality standards of a land trust, which concern its ethical and technical operations, according to the press release. Further information on the national standards for accreditation can be found on the Commission’s website.

Comments may be emailed to info@landtrustaccreditation.org, or mailed to the Saratoga Springs, New York, office at 36 Phila St., Suite 2. Letters should be addressed to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, with the attention line: “ATTN: Public Comments.”

In its press release, SLT stated that comments will be most useful if received by March 22 of this year.

Latest News

State intervenes in sale of Torrington Transfer Station

The entrance to Torrington Transfer Station.

Photo by Jennifer Almquist

TORRINGTON — Municipalities holding out for a public solid waste solution in the Northwest Corner have new hope.

An amendment to House Bill No. 7287, known as the Implementor Bill, signed by Governor Ned Lamont, has put the $3.25 million sale of the Torrington Transfer Station to USA Waste & Recycling on hold.

Keep ReadingShow less
Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy
Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.
Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less