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CORNWALL — The Cornwall Woman’s Society Rummage Sale is a standout for more reasons than just its wonderfully old-fashioned name. There’s a lot to be said for the treasure- and bargain-hunting potential of a sale when people plan cross-country vacation trips to coincide with the three-day event.
This year’s July 17 to 19 sale will mark its 60th year. It grew from the basement of the UCC Parish House to taking up all available space at the church, Town Hall and Mohawk Ski Area Lodge combined.
With its countless donated items of endless varieties, it has become a sort of sprawling outlet mall of pre-owned items.
For the society members and the countless volunteers who help out, preparing for the sale is a weeks-long process of collecting and sorting donations, and then setting up and cleaning up the sale tables.
A chance to help others
It’s hard work, and requires the society to call on a small legion of helpers. But no one complains; it’s a lot of work but its their only fundraiser.
Proceeds pay for scholarships for Cornwall students and annual donations that go to 17 organizations that serve Cornwall, the region and the world.
“We also keep money on hand to be able to donate when there is a major catastrophe in the world,� said Priscilla Mauro, who agreed to talk about the society and offer a look back on the 60 years she has been involved with the rummage sale.
The Woman’s Society has changed little over the years. Its members meet monthly at the church for tea and talk, and they discuss how they can make a difference. They have kept their focus simple and their approach as stress-free as possible, which has kept members with them for decades and continues to attract new ones.
Mauro ran the sale for at least 15 years. She recalled that at the beginning they raised about $1,000 out of the church basement.
“Last year, we brought in about $23,000.� she said.
Tables made the difference
Besides the aforementioned and the obvious, how else has it changed over the years?
“Tables,� Mauro said. “It may sound a little silly, but the whole approach to the sale changed when we got tables.�
She explained that they couldn’t afford to buy their own folding tables, and those that might be borrowed from elsewhere were always spoken for.
“We used old beds and a sofa that were in the basement to display the sale items. The church had some tables that were so heavy no one could — or wanted to — move them. When they bought new ones, we got the old tables permanently, and we were able to rethink how to do it.�
It was the tables, and the growth of the sale that eventually sent them up to the main floor. (For some reason, men’s clothing was donated in large quantities for a while, and the whole second floor of the parish house was devoted to those garments.)
The sale has grown with the support of people who donated pre-sale storage space in their barns and others, such as Steve O’Neill, who Mauro said has a great eye for antiques.
Overall, it’s the sameness each year of the sale that is part of its appeal. People look forward to it and find it a soothing tradition — even when the weather rebels and it is exceptionally hot or rainy.
After the tornado, sale goes on
But one year in the sale’s history stands out for Mauro and a few others.
It was the evening of Monday, July 10, 1989. Mauro recalls there were five women working in the parish house basement and setting up sale tables. Among them were Thalia Scoville and Jan Tenney, and Mauro’s mother, Doris Hart Cross.
“We had been working a long time and none of us happened to be wearing a watch, so I went upstairs to see what time it was,� Mauro said. “As soon as I opened the door I could feel the compression of the air change. The sky turned from dirty purple to jet black before my eyes.�
Mauro hurried back down, to send everyone home, and to get her mother into her car.
“Everyone else got to their cars and took off. It was all happening so quickly, all I could do was get my mother in and tell her to get down and move the car away from the biggest trees. As soon as I did, the wind hit and we watched it peel all the bark from the trees like peeling bananas. We watched the steeple come down on the church.�
Despite the massive destruction of that tornado, no one was killed or badly injured.
And Mauro said the sale went on as usual that year.
“I remember being very grateful everyone got out of there safely, but that we had a lot of glass to clean up before the sale.�
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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.