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For a 16-year-old growing up in the ’60s, the vocal harmonies and the protest songs sung by Peter, Paul and Mary were a vital part of my world. “It’s the hammer of justice, it’s the bell of freeeeedom!†“The times they are a-changing.†“To everything, turn, turn, turn.†I wore out the LPs on my little mono record player in Westchester, where, in 1966, I went to see the trio perform at the County Center. Not quite 20 years later, I got a call to fill in for Mary’s pianist at a benefit concert, and so found myself rehearsing at her 7th Avenue apartment, and then on a plane (she sat in the smoking section) to Nashville. She was easygoing and casual, and enthusiastic about a newspaper column she was writing. She spent an enormous amount of time in those days as an activist as well as a performer, and I felt very honored to be in her presence and to spend a few minutes with her before the event. The audience loved her, of course. Her singing had lost a lot of its luster by then, but her energy and passion for what she sang about were as fiery as they had been when the group was at the top of the charts, the biggest names in folk music.
There were just not enough tributes to her in the media this week. If the times changed, it’s partly because she and Peter and Paul were there, not just to witness the events, but to shape them.
The leaves are beginning to turn, and with them the sounds of music drift into the concert halls of area schools and colleges. Vassar is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the exploration of the Hudson River with a choral concert in its chapel on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. Billed as a “Musical Bridge Concert,†it features Christine R. Howlett, Edward Lundergan, and Lee H. Pritchard, conductors with the combined 200 voices of the Cappella Festiva Chamber Choir, Camerata Chorale, Kairos, Ulster Choral Society, and the Vassar College Choir. On Oct. 11 at 3 p.m., the celebrated male chorus “Chanticleer†will bring a program titled “In time of . . . Songs of love & loss, war & peace.†More information at music.vassar.edu/concerts.
Another quadricentennial celebration is taking place Oct. 1-3 at the Hudson Opera House, which will present “Diamond Street,†a newly commissioned one-act opera by Harold Farberman and librettist (and Hillsdale resident) Andrew Joffe about the scandalous history of the city’s red-light district, much frequented by Albany politicos, among others, in the late 19th century. “We are enormously gratified to have initiated this project,†said Gary Schiro, executive director of the Hudson Opera House. “Farberman’s first opera was commissioned by Lincoln Center, and his most recent one was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize so we feel tremendously grateful to be engaged with such an esteemed composer. This new work is musically brilliant, with a downright hilarious story.†The opera will also be the first production in the opera house in more than 40 years. Seating is limited. The final show on Oct. 3 will be capped off by a champagne reception with the artists. Tickets are $25 each, or $50 for the benefit. More info and tickets at 518-822-1438 or www.hudsonoperahouse.org
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and my blog:sosin.blogspot.com
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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.