WINSTED — Though no cuts were made to the town’s proposed 2012-2013 budget Monday night, Oct. 1, this year’s fourth town budget meeting saw considerable controversy. In the end, 65 residents approved sending the budget to voters to decide at an Oct. 27 referendum.The proposed budget — the fourth created by the Board of Selectmen this year — contains a zero tax increase, after three previous budgets were defeated, starting in May.The latest proposed budget for fiscal 2012-2013 is $30,932,241, an increase of $199,718 from last year. The increase in spending is offset by $199,718 in new revenue, hence the zero tax increase, officials noted.If passed by voters at a referendum on Saturday, Oct. 27, the town’s mill rate will stay the same as last year, with the tax rate at 25.43 mills.Arguments begin meetingThe drama for the night started right before the town meeting as the Board of Selectmen held its regular meeting.The board was reviewing minutes from a special meeting held Monday, Sept. 24, when Selectman Kenneth Fracasso said Town Clerk Sheila Sedlack did not list in the minutes that the board approved a budget.According to a copy of the minutes obtained by The Winsted Journal, while motions that were made to alter the budget are listed, the minutes do not list a final budget number or a motion to approve a proposed budget.“Nowhere does it say that we voted to send the budget to a referendum,” Fracasso said. “There are only votes for amendments and a motion to move the question on the budget. Nowhere in the minutes is a listing of budget numbers. It is my belief that we cannot hold a town meeting tonight because we haven’t adjourned it properly. In all the years that I’ve been here, when we decide on a budget we made a motion that we adjourn a town meeting and a budget at a specified amount.”While Mayor Maryann Welcome asked Fracasso if he wanted to amend the minutes to reflect the vote at the regular meeting, Fracasso said no and insisted that a town meeting could not be held. “I believe that it is an illegal meeting,” Fracasso said.Selectman Candy Perez disagreed with Fracasso.“I think there have been times that we’ve adjourned with only the motions made to adjust the budget in the minutes,” Perez said. “The budget was adopted at the meeting as per the town manager’s recommendations. The dollar amount was stated on the recommendations.”Fracasso then questioned Sedlack’s ability to keep meeting minutes.“Is it at Sheila’s discretion to determine what’s important to put in the meeting minutes and what is not?” Fracasso said. “I don’t see anything in the minutes that say that we voted on a budget with a dollar amount. I think we should play the meeting tape back for Town Attorney Kevin Nelligan and ask him what we should do.”“I did not pick and choose what to put in the meeting minutes,” Sedlack said. “Candy put a motion on the floor. Once it’s a motion I can’t cut things out of it. What is listed in the minutes is the complete motion according to the CD of the meeting.”Welcome then called a recess in order to discuss the situation with Nelligan.Nelligan, who arrived right before the town meeting was scheduled to start, said that despite what was listed in the meeting minutes, the town meeting could still go ahead.“I’m looking at the minutes and they appear to be sufficient enough to go forward,” Nelligan said. “There was a motion, the amendments were all set forth in the minutes. I haven’t listened to the meeting, but based on the minutes I believe that the meeting can go forward.”Despite Nelligan’s legal opinion, Fracasso still disagreed and insisted that he listen to a recording of the meeting.“These minutes are sufficient enough to move forward, that’s my opinion,” Nelligan said. “You should move forward to the town meeting.”Subsequently, the selectmen approved the minutes for the Sept. 24 meeting by a vote of 5 to 2, with Republican Selectmen Fracasso and Glenn Albanesius voting against approving them.Meeting goes forwardDuring the town meeting itself, Fracasso continued his efforts to try to halt the meeting as he called a point of order to moderator Judith Dixon right before Board of Education Chairman Susan Hoffnagle was to give a presentation on the school district’s budget.“The town charter, in section 107, states that a budget will be up for the public to review 14 days before the town meeting,” Fracasso said. “Up until this morning, budget documents were not available to the public. Several residents have told me that they stopped at Town Hall last week and they were all told that no budget documents would be available until after tonight’s meeting.”Fracasso said that the town meeting should be adjourned for a week in order for residents to review the budget.Dixon said she would not entertain Fracasso’s point of order until Hoffnagle spoke.Dixon revisited Fracasso’s point of order after Hoffnagle spoke and Sedlack proposed a date for a budget referendum.Winchester Tax Association member David LaPointe repeated Fracasso’s point of order and said it was in line with the charter.LaPointe asked for an opinion on Fracasso’s point of order from attorney Nelligan.“I myself just received this budget today,” LaPointe said. “Why are we here tonight if we just received the budget this morning? How can we pass a budget onto the people for a vote if people could not look at it before tonight’s meeting?”Dixon then held up the meeting to consult with Nelligan.After two minutes, she came back and said Nelligan’s opinion is that the proposed budget did not have to be available for viewing until the town meeting was held.Fracasso then made a motion to postpone the remainder of the town meeting for a week.The motion was defeated by residents by a vote of 44 to 21.While none of the members of the Board of Selectmen gave a presentation on the budget, Hoffnagle used her presentation time not to speak about numbers, but to urge residents to approve the budget.“It is time for a budget to be passed,” Hoffnagle said. “The Board of Education line item is at the state mandated level. If there is a motion tonight to cut the budget that will be an illegal cut and it will be subject to fines of twice the budget shortfall.”Residents did not make any motions to cut the budget at the meeting.The next step for the proposed budget is a budget referendum for Saturday, Oct. 27, to be held at Pearson Middle School from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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The organic runway at HVSFW puts sustainable style among the apple trees at Stone Ridge Orchard.
Jay Ballesteros
That’s the question behind Hudson Valley Sustainable Fashion Week[end], a two-day celebration of sustainable style, local makers and the possibilities of keeping clothing in circulation. The weekend lands at Stone Ridge Orchard, a 200-year-old working farm, on Sept. 25 and 26, pairing an evening fashion show with a new all-ages Slow Fashion Fair.
“To me, slow fashion means intentional fashion. Careful, thoughtful, human,” said Joanne Louis-Paul, the event’s communications director. “Slow fashion is the speed at which one person can sew an intricately detailed dress. It’s taking the time to go to a thrift store or clothing swap and sifting through an unknown bounty of possibilities. It’s extending the life of a piece of clothing for as long as possible.”
In everyday terms, she said, “It’s stopping to think before purchasing anything or giving anything away.”
Friday’s fourth annual Organic Runway brings Hudson Valley designers to the farm for a sunset showcase of garments made from repurposed textiles and produced locally. Designers include Clare Bare, ennui, Kacy Coyle, KNUD, la vie après l’amour, Last Night on Earth, So Vicki and Touch Threads. The evening runs from 4 to 8 p.m., giving attendees time to pick apples and sip local cider before settling in for the runway.
“We’re all about the whimsy here at HVSFW,” Louis-Paul said. “The runway is so incredibly dreamy. Being outside makes for an unpredictable, one-of-a-kind backdrop every year, and there’s just nothing like that sunset glow.”
Models walk the organic runway at HVSFW. Ilan Harel
The unlikely pairing of fashion and farming is also part of the point.
“Once you’re sitting amongst the apple trees, you realize how much sense it makes to mend the relationship between fashion and nature,” she said.
Saturday introduces the inaugural Slow Fashion Fair, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with workshops, mending, fiber art, vendors, music, eco-friendly kids’ crafts and a clothing swap. There will even be sheep.
“We wanted to have a fair so we could invite more people in the eco-friendly ecosystem into the fold,” Louis-Paul said. “We get to highlight not only designers, but makers and artisans of all kinds.”
The organizers hope the fair appeals not only to people already thinking about climate and sustainability but also to those encountering the ideas for the first time. With mending, a clothing swap and hands-on workshops, the emphasis is on showing visitors things they can actually do.
“There are so many things anyone can start doing today,” Louis-Paul said. “From something as simple as sewing a patch onto a stain or tear to hosting a mini clothing swap at your house with friends and family, there are tons of ways to engage with your wardrobe more thoughtfully.”
She speaks from experience. Before becoming involved with the event, she said, secondhand shopping held little appeal.
“As someone who never liked the idea of thrifting, I am now completely sold on circular fashion,” she said. “I recently sewed a broken strap on a dress I got at a clothing swap, and I felt so accomplished! Being in this world has shown me that conscious consumption is attainable and fun.”
But behind the fun is a serious concern about what happens to clothing once consumers decide they no longer want it.
“Just because you throw it away doesn’t mean it goes away,” she said, pointing to discarded clothing accumulating in other parts of the world and the microplastics shed by synthetic fabrics. “The planet and people are suffering because of this throwaway culture we’ve adopted. If an outfit is new but super cheap, believe there’s a high cost to someone else.”
For more information and tickets, visit hvsfw.org
Susan Schneider, owner of Shandell’s in Ashley Falls, in her studio.
Susan Schneider, owner of Shandell’s in Ashley Falls, in her studio.
She has been creating lampshades for 25 years and has settled in Ashley Falls, where she is renovating a barn behind her house for a larger studio. Her mission: “Changing the view on plain white lampshades, one at a time!”
Besides using marbled paper, she uses papyrus, silk and hand-painted papers for the shades.
Shandell’s on Main Street, offers a large selection of marbled decorative home items on its website — trays, coasters and bookends, to name a few — as well as scarves and belts. Schneider will also customize items and creates custom wallpaper, gifts and favors for weddings and special events. She offers consultations by appointment.
Schneider explained how she began making lampshades.
“I was in business as an antiques and textile dealer, needing lampshades at the time (the early 1990s). I had a dealer who used to make lampshades. She was moving and sold me everything she had in her barn for making them. Arcs, templates for lampshades, and tools.”
Schneider used the marbled paper from the endpapers of old books to make small lampshades.
“I collected those voraciously.”
The papers were too small for the larger lampshades she wanted to make. To get paper in the size she needed, she decided to learn how to marble.
That was 10 years ago. She now has 20 tanks for marbling, including one 10-foot tank that allows her to make 3 yards of fabric at a time.
As she demonstrated the marbling process, making covers for journals, it was easy to see why she “got hooked.”
Susan Schneider, owner of Shandell’s, creates a variety of products with marbleized surfaces in her Ashley Falls studio.L. Tomaino
She explained that marbling takes a couple of days of preparation. She prepares water mixed with carrageenan the night before so that it thickens and becomes a viscous liquid onto which the acrylic paints can be dropped. Paper or fabric must also be prepared with alum, which “makes the paint stick,” she said, a day or two ahead of time.
When she was ready to start, Schneider first used a level to make sure the tank was even. Then she pulled a squeegee across the surface of the carrageenan mixture to break the surface tension, followed by strips of newsprint for the same purpose. She also dipped small pieces of newsprint into the mixture.
“The hardest thing to teach people is to break the surface tension first,” she noted.
Next, she used droppers to place rows of paint onto the mixture.
“It’s a joyful process,” she said as she chose more colors. “It’s totally the pleasure of the colors.”
She explained, “The colors are stopped from spreading by the surface tension.”
Then she added newsprint around the edges of the tank to break the tension again and added another layer of color. Next, she used a marbling comb, slowly dragging it back and forth across the width of the tank to create a feather-like design.
Combs come in many sizes, with teeth spaced at different intervals and in different patterns. She chose another comb to drag through the length of the tank, making the design more intricate before laying two pieces of paper on the surface. After a second or two, she lifted them, perfectly capturing the pattern, and carried them to the sink for a rinse with water.
Once she squeegeed away the paint left in the tank, she was ready to begin the process again.
Next, she created a different type of design, dripping colors in a less ordered array, then twirling them into curving lines and circles with a thin rod.
When the surface was ready, she laid a journal cover on top, then lifted it out, covered in a vibrant pattern of swirling colors.
For observers, the process can seem magical.
Schneider loves to share the delight of marbling by teaching classes at Dewey Hall in Sheffield. Upcoming classes will be held Nov. 20, 21 and 22. Beginning in November, she will also offer private classes in her home studio. Schneider had never pictured herself having a business like Shandell’s, but she discovered a passion for creating, as she says, “things that make you smile.”
For more information about her work and upcoming classes or to contact her for a consultation, visit shandells.com.
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Muriel Stockdale, left, and judge Roger McKee during the awards announcement at the juried art show at Trinity Episcopal Church. Stockdale\u2019s \u201cKevin\u201d was the second place winner.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Organizer Theresa Kenny said the show attracted some 66 artists, 10 of whom were new to the show.
Judge Roger McKee, who recently retired as an art teacher at Salisbury School, said of the winning work, “The technical mastery here is overwhelming.”
Roger McKee naming the winners with the first place entry over his left shoulder. Patrick L. Sullivan
Hwang was unable to attend the reception, but the second- and third-place finishers were on hand.
Second place went to Muriel Stockdale’s “Kevin.” McKee said the piece “has just enough to be compelling without getting too caught up in the details.”
Muriel Stockdale’s “Kevin” took second place in the juried art show at Trinity Episcopal Church.Patrick L. Sullivan
Joan Macfarlane’s “Branching Out” was the third-place winner. McKee described the piece as “a compelling balance of realism and interpretation.”
McKee and Emily Cox served as judges. Cox could not attend the reception, but McKee said they began their work by looking at the entire show, then went through it a second time, taking photos with their phones of the standout pieces before comparing notes.
“There was a lot of overlap,” he said. “We argued a little bit and then came to an agreement.”
The show is open for viewing Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26 and 27, from noon to 4 p.m.
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