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100 years ago — 1924
Work has been going forward in cleaning up and preparing the new public playground for the coming season. The field which contains between four and five acres is situated on the level stretch in the rear of the M.E. Church. It is an ideal location for a playground. The ground is reached from what is known as Porter Street which runs along one side of the High School building. This is particularly fortunate as the school children will be able to use the play grounds at recess and noon hour as well as after school, a fact which should interest every parent as it will naturally take the child off the street and out of danger of the increasing auto traffic.
C.D. Tusca, the manufacturer of radio sets of Hartford, was a guest of Mr. and Mrs. I. Kent Fulton last Sunday. Mr. Tusca made the trip from Hartford in his aeroplane, using up about an hour coming and landing on the athletic field at Hotchkiss School. While here he treated “Sonny” Fulton to a ride greatly to the delight of that young man. Mr. Tusca returned to Hartford on Sunday afternoon, making the trip in 35 minutes.
LIME ROCK – Trains have changed time, therefore the stage does not go to any trains unless ordered to do so.
Daylight Saving went into effect in some sections on Sunday morning. The Hotchkiss School has advanced its clocks and many of the tradesmen are starting work and quitting an hour earlier. There has been considerable change in the railway schedules and none to their improvement. The general mixup is now on till Oct. 1, so grin and bear it.
The enterprising housewife is now treating the family, on a mess of hand picked dandelion greens.
“Bonnie-Boy” the German police dog belonging to Miss deLima has died as a result of strychnine poisoning. The poison was placed on Mr. deLima’s property by some one whose identity is already known. Any person guilty of such a cruel and unhuman act does not deserve to live in decent society, and will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
50 years ago — 1974
While most of the towns in the Northwest Planning Region have some type of recycling program, only Cornwall’s is making money for the town treasury. Cornwall also is looking ahead on the program and will try to find new markets for crankcase oil, scrap iron and metal and cans of mixed metals.
A second restoration of the monument on top of Bear Mountain is likely, according to A. Mitchell Finlay, president of the Salisbury Association. Mr. Finlay said he has “talked informally” with some of the trustees of the Association, and he feels the consensus is for restoring the marker again. The stone and concrete structure, which underwent extensive repairs last year, was vandalized a few weeks ago.
Sgt. Stanley Szczesiul of Lakeville has been designated a lieutenant in the Connecticut State Police. Best known in the town for his service as resident trooper from 1958 to the spring of 1971, Szczesiul continues in his present assignment as chief of Gov. Thomas Meskill’s security detail.
The Brothers Pizza House, a new restaurant for Lakeville, opens today at 11 a.m. in what was formerly the B&L Restaurant on Ethan Allen Street. Two brothers, Peter and William Stefanopoulos of Waterbury are the new owners and they have redecorated the dining room of the restaurant and enlarged the kitchen area.
25 years ago — 1999
SHARON – The voice is back. Marshall Miles, the veteran host of morning radio in the Tri-State area, will again be heard on local airwaves May 3, when he makes his debut on a new morning show on WKZE-AM (1020) One could say Mr. Miles is, in some respects, returning to his roots. For it was at WKZE-AM that he began his local broadcasting career in 1986. He left the station in April 1993, and later helped in the formation of WQQQ-FM (103.3) in Lakeville, where he served as station manager and morning host until this past February.
A wave of nausea swept through Salisbury School this week as dozens of students were sent to the infirmary with gastroenteritis. It all started April 19, when the first cases were reported. Early symptoms included vomiting, nausea, diarrhea and fever, which lasted about 24 hours. The number of cases peaked Sunday night and the school cancelled classes Monday, April 26. By that time, there were between 70 and 100 students and staff affected, according to assistant headmaster Sam Simmons. According to Torrington Area Health District director Gil Roberts, the cases developed gradually, rather than all at once, which suggested a virus transmitted person to person, rather than food poisoning. The state’s epidemiologist is examining the cases to determine the exact cause.
Items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.
The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Lakeville Journal and The Journal does not support or oppose candidates for public office.
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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.