Symposium looks at challenges small towns face

LAKEVILLE — Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand said that addressing the shrinking population of Salisbury and other Northwest Corner towns begins with housing.

Rand was one of six panelists at a “Symposium on Issues Facing Our Towns,” held at The Hotchkiss School on Monday, April 8. The event was sponsored by the Salisbury Republican Town Committee, the Hotchkiss Democrats Club and the Hotchkiss Republicans Club.

David Bayersdorfer was moderator-in-chief. Questions were asked by student moderators and by the audience.

During the first panel, on the impact of declining populations on jobs, Rand said that Salisbury is in good shape, with two commercial centers, banks, post offices, a grocery store and three private schools.

“Other towns are not as lucky.”

But he noted that people from Torrington and Winsted commute to Salisbury to work, in part because of the lack of affordable housing in Salisbury.

“Can we resolve the entire problem?” he asked. “No, but we could start by creating some housing.”

Mike Harney, vice president of Harney and Sons Tea, said his family came to Salisbury when housing was relatively inexpensive.

“We need to figure out how to get the next generation of Rices and Kosciuskos” — looking at fellow panelists Jacquie Rice and Skip Kosciusko — “and a few Harneys here.”

He said the combination of high taxes, an aging population and a lack of manufacturing jobs contribute to the flow of younger families out of the state.

The next panel, on the impact of declining populations on schools and volunteer services, started with Salisbury Selectman Don Mayland observing that while the town’s population has shrunk, there are not a lot of empty houses because of the increase in the number of part-time residents who buy second homes.

“It’s not such a bad thing,” he continued. Weekenders hire people to maintain their properties and do not usually send their children to the public schools.

“But we’re losing the year-round residents,” Mayland said. And that has a negative impact on volunteer services, such as ambulance and fire.

Rice, speaking for the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service, said both the ambulance and the Lakeville Hose Company are having trouble finding new members.

Part of the problem is an increase in the number of hours of training required by the state. 

She said the average age on the ambulance squad is 55.

“We’ve got several in their 70s; not so many in their 30s.”

Region One School District Superintendent Pam Vogel, responding to a question about declining school enrollment, said that two of the six town kindergarten to grade eight schools in Region One (North Canaan and Salisbury) are “fairly stable” in terms of enrollment.

She noted that Cornwall’s school board offers an out-of-district tuition of $2,000 to attract students to that school, an experiment that has proved successful.

And she said the worst-case scenario for a town is for enrollment to get to the point that the question must be asked: “How small is too small?”

She said there have been discussions about creating a regional middle school.

“Personally I think it would be wonderful,” she said, but added that a regional middle school would certainly have a major impact on the town schools. 

The final topic was “The Drug Crisis.” Kosciusko, an EMT in Cornwall and self-acknowledged “recovering drug addict,” told his story of addiction, conviction  and redemption.

He said it has been 29 years since he last used drugs or alcohol. “My sponsor says that’s a good start.”

He said he doesn’t know what to do about the current crisis in overdose deaths, and was ambivalent about the prospect of legal recreational marijuana. 

“The introduction of another drug doesn’t sit too well,” he said. “By the same token, if alcohol is legal …”

“It’s alarming to me.”

He was asked if recovering alcoholics and addicts ever speak in the schools. Kosciusko said such programs exist to an extent.

“I wish it wasn’t quite so cumbersome,” he said. “I’d like to see it built up.”