Bob Deakin Short Stories

The Civil War Monument on Main Street in Kent. Photo by Bob Deakin

It has been 30 years since Kent resident Donald Connery wrote One American Town, the story of a nameless small town, its virtues, its characters and how it deals with the prospect of change. The 222-page book never mentions Kent by name, but most quickly recognize the setting. The author deliberately avoided the name so the town would symbolize other such treasured communities. The stories and anecdotes are true, and could have happened to anyone in any American town.

The book is separated into four sections-Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter-and features many unattributed quotes taken from Kent residents in 1972.

“I believe that my intention was to make it more symbolic of a very special, very attractive American community, which had retained all the old values that we treasure,” Mr. Connery said last week. “Not naming the place was hardly protective, it was mostly to symbolize a type of community in the country, which I do believe is the best way of life there is, anywhere.”

His first source of information was the late town historian, Emily Hopson. From there, he visited with others in town, as they went about their business, and sat in on town meetings.

“I would just find occasions to call on them and get their ideas about Kent,” he said of the many interviews in the book. “It’s more of a kind of scrapbook, not a narrative … I tried to give a portrait, sort of an impressionistic sense of the town and its history. Rather than taking the approach of a day in the life of a town or getting too terribly serious. It’s almost like a bunch of snapshots.”

Mr. Connery, born in New York City in 1926, was a soldier who saw combat in the South Pacific and the Philippines during World War II. He entered Harvard after the war. From there, he worked as a foreign correspondent for Armed Forces Radio Service, United Press International, Time and Life magazines and NBC. His work took him around the globe and even got him ousted from the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Blessed with a booming voice appropriate for radio, much of his work was nevertheless as a print journalist until he returned to the United States in 1968 as a freelance writer with two published books under his arm. He and his wife, Leslie, bought and settled into a farm on Skiff Mountain Road shortly after their return.

“What’s the best place to live in America?” he remembered asking at the time. “Small town New England, we decided.”

He could have the best of both worlds-living in rural New England while remaining close enough to New York and other large cities he knew he would frequent in future years as part of his work. Soon after the Connerys moved to the farm, during the winter of 1968, a fire broke out and the Kent Volunteer Fire Department managed to get to their home in time to save it. The new residents were impressed by the efficiency of the firefighters and their willingness to keep watch over the house through the night. For the next couple of days, they were overwhelmed at the hospitality shown by their neighbors. Some offered food, others offered shelter and others just offered help.

“I was so compelled by all the contrasts; the neighborliness, the rural life, everything that we prize in small town America,” said the author in an interview at his farm near the top of the mountain, which epitomizes the flavor of the country town he describes in the book.

One American Town quotes a number of legendary figures, including Thornton Wilder, Henry David Thoreau, Eric Sloan, E.B. White and Ogden Nash. Local legends abound as well, though they aren’t named. Anyone with an inkling that it might be Paul Dooley, Art Seabury, Bill or Jerry Tobin or Suzi Williams behind some brief quotes on the pages wouldn’t be far off base.

What has not changed since the book was written?

“The answer that leaps to mind,” Mr. Connery replied, “is that in the important things, the essentials, we haven’t changed. I said in the book, and I believe it still, that if the people who had been here in the 19th century could come back, they could find their way around on the same roads and see the same scenery and many of the same houses and barns. They would be really amazed at how much it is as they remember it, if not better. Basically, once you leave the middle of town, which has changed considerably, and go around, there isn’t much [different].”

The population has increased from about 1,800 to 3,000 since 1972, but Mr. Connery feels the increase is reasonable and the fact that many new homes are hidden from the road veils much of the increase. He sees the preservation of the landscape as a great triumph.

“What has changed,” he began, “is, in socioeconomic terms: it’s obviously a town where land values have gone up and it’s more difficult, by far, for young people or people with limited incomes, to continue to live in Kent. That’s not a good thing. Fortunately we’ve sort of faced up to this with affordable housing efforts, as we speak.”

He uses the term ‘heroes’ to describe people in town who have dedicated their time and effort to stand up for what they believe is best for the town, including Lisl Standen for the elderly housing and Bill Bacharach for affordable housing. He completed his sentiment by naming the numerous volunteers in town as the real heroes.

“Whenever I go to the Planning and Zoning Boards or the other commissions, I’m astonished by the willingness of people to put in all the hours they do on these issues,” he said. “I’m quite willing to use the term heroic, not in a sense of courage so much as dedication. The people who have served on the town boards have seen to it that the changes in Kent are agreeable in terms of our history.”

In terms of changes for the better, he points to the preservation of open space, especially on the Route 7 corridor. He credits the Kent Land Trust for its active and innovative approach in protecting land, the development of which would have radically changed the character of the whole area. Mr. Connery is a founding member of the Trust but credits Harmon Smith, Claire Murphy and Tony Zunino for the real work in preserving land. He views changes around Main Street as inevitable and usually positive.

“This is the kind of inevitable progress that you want in a town that shouldn’t be stagnant,” he said. “The town should be growing and thriving but the major commercial changes have all been focused in the center. Where there has been development in Kent – commercial and residential – has been very well thought out and very well located.”

As an example, he cited the current home of NewMil Bank, on Main Street, which was preserved and simply renovated on the inside in the interest of historical preservation. He also brought up the fire department’s planned move into a previously existing structure on Maple Street.

“There’s a terrific example of-if you need to expand something in the community, how do you do it in a way that it not only does the job but solves another problem,” he said. “It’d be unfortunate to have an empty building sitting there. It’s a very intelligent town. The amount of talent in this community, and the artistic component, should also be mentioned-the extent to which we’ve become noticed as an arts community and the amount of activity actually going on apart from galleries.

“That’s pretty wonderful,” he continued, contrasting the growing number of artists with the trades of the past. “When you consider, historically, that we’ve gone through these periods of farming and mining.”

Mr. Connery feels Kent is better off in many ways than it used to be. He pointed out in One American Town that the iron-mining period must have been a tough time in which to live. Most of the trees in town were cut down to fire the furnaces, which billowed black smoke 24 hours a day with run-off draining into the Housatonic River and general stores open around the clock.

“My God, you look at the photographs that the Historical Society has and these hills were just denuded,” he said. “It was awful. I can say without question that it’s a far more beautiful town today.”

The book also pokes good-natured fun at life in a small town when he wrote it. He described how a local veterinarian took out an ad in the Good Times Dispatch stating that a certain lady makes the best apple pie in the world. He also spoke of a long-time farmer in the area who celebrated his 100th birthday with his first airplane ride and came down complaining that he had been able to see only the town and not “the whole earth.”

One passage included a bit of Native American History:

The last Indian on our reservation, a slim and nobly featured man known to his tribe as Running Deer has died at age 72. He was not a full-blooded Schaghticoke, but he had spent the greater part of his life in our town, and could trace his lineage back to Eunice Mauwee, ‘The Christian Indian Princess.

Another paragraph describes a local educator whose identity one might guess is Ed Kirby.

The high school is led by an outgoing, athletic young principal who keeps a baseball glove handy in his office and likes to take youngsters on geological rambles.

“It’s been a very creative period of time since this book came out,” Mr. Connery said. “We’ve found solutions that honor individual freedom of the property owner while doing something to preserve the character of this town.

One American Town didn’t make any bestsellers list. Mr. Connery said it sold modestly but doesn’t know the figures. The book was also released in England as Small Town, a title the editors chose that still perplexes him.

“If [the book] is well received and well reviewed and read by a fair number of people, there’s a good deal of satisfaction,” he said, describing the writing of the book as a labor of love. “Instead of newspaper or magazine stories, a book has a permanence. It’s there on library shelves and it can often achieve a second life.”

The book can still be found at some of the big Internet booksellers but is otherwise out of print. The Kent Memorial Library and the New Milford Library each have copies. One American Town was Donald Connery’s third book and he has written and edited many since then, most dealing with the flaws of the justice system and its enforcers. He is currently working on another book and is busier than ever.

He has pondered the idea of writing a follow-up to One American Town but has it low on his priority list.

“What we’ve done in Kent can be a lesson to other communities,” he stated. “We preserve the best of our qualities despite the pressures of modern society.”

The following passage from the book describes the approaching spring at the Connery farm:

Now the long winter is over. Spring slipped in this evening at three minutes to eight. It is the 232nd spring in the history of our town. We can feel the earth stirring, hear creatures announcing the new season, see hope in the ripening buds of the dogwoods. The wintering birds, arguing over the sunflower seeds we have scattered on the melting sheet of snow, have been joined by a robin. We are moved by these signs of renewal and by the prospect of witnessing once again on this mountaintop the glory of the earth reborn.

Early in the book he quotes a survey from a Louis Harris poll for Life Magazine that asked what kind of life people wanted. Friendly neighbors, green grass, trees, a low crime rate and other common desires were named, as one would expect. Mr. Connery went on to write how all of those desires could be filled in Kent.

“If you go back to the American theme of the pursuit of happiness, and people striving to live the good life, I think much of what they want you find in this kind of smaller, human-sized community,” he said, echoing the sentiment expressed in the final line of One American Town.

We dare to speak the word happiness.

(Originally published in the Kent Good Times Dispatch in 2003)

Copyright 2003

Doug Branson setting up a video shoot.

Some of the barns in Litchfield County still hold hay, but so many others have become workshops for those with creative minds. Doug Branson of Kent can be found in such a place, leaning over a Macintosh computer with a synthesizer behind him and an army of guitars hanging on the wall nearby.

“I create digital media,” he said when asked for a simplified explanation of what he does for a living. “I can do it through radio, television, film, print and the Web.”

He divides his business into three entities: one for video, another for virtual tours on the Web and the third for music.

Rather than keeping a narrow focus on each service, he considers himself a producer. He firmly endorses networking, particularly within his own community, and is spending his time getting to know what talents are hidden in Litchfield County and beyond.

Nearly every question about his services leads to an endorsement of someone who has tried it before, or someone else who can help make it better.

“Artists and the people I’ve worked with often have a lot of great ideas that they never implement, or they have a tough time,” he reasoned. “I’m hoping that with the new communication techniques we’re using in new media that there’s nothing that people do that other people shouldn’t know about.”

He has renovated a barn on his property, which also contains one of the oldest homes in Kent, and equipped it with a digital production studio. Far from being a sterile environment of computers and fluorescent lights, the comfortable room with the big fluffy couch also works as a small recording and composing studio.

Mr. Branson can often be found lugging a Cannon XL1S mini DV camera-broadcast quality-around, recording an event to be put together as part of total multimedia package.

He recently captured the ArtDogs benefit in Kent, featuring an all-star lineup of artists putting their talents together for a common cause. At the unveiling of a roomful of colorful sculptures of dogs, he came with the camera, took shots of each of the works, interviewed the artists and sponsors and produced a half-hour ArtDogs presentation to preserve the event for posterity, complete with original background music and a tastefully designed cover.

Mr. Branson also recently became involved with several local chambers of commerce and a visitor’s bureau to offer virtual tours. He has shot extensive digital video footage of local roads and scenic areas to make available on the Web. A potential visitor who wants to take a look at Mohawk Mountain before making the trek from far away can simply click on a virtual tour and decide for themselves where they want to go.

In the coming weeks, he is to embark on an experimental plan to digitally videotape a fly-over of the Kent area for bigger and better views.

“It’s an easy way for people to take a look quickly at points of interest because traveling around here, it takes a while to get places,” he said.

Mr. Branson’s primary focus is on multimedia, particularly the post-production end, recording voice-overs and audio and video overdubs, but he can handle most aspects of audio recording as well.

For the singer/songwriter finally ready to lay down tracks for a high quality demo tape, Mr. Branson’s small studio is ideal. He has a wall of CDs recorded by local musicians at his studio, and if the project grows beyond his scope, he has close ties with a fellow studio owner with a more room, instruments and even musicians if necessary.

He sympathizes with those caught in the corporate downsizing trend, but experience has taught him to value the worth of the individual.

“An office that used to have 20 people now has 10. When people are finding that point in their life where they’re trying to re-define, well how do you tell people what you do?” he asked, describing a position he was once in. “Why tell them? You can show them also.”

He showed footage of a recently produced industrial video, hawking the advantages of a new product line.

“Here’s a guy who has a great idea and is taking it to the next level,” he said, showing a video demonstration he shot of a new children’s puzzle, backed with music he composed and recorded. “He’s created it, manufactured it and produced it and now he is distributing the information on it through new media.”

The new media to which he refers is MP3s on the Web and digital video shown on laptops at an inventors’ convention. He can put the source material on CDs, DVDs, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), VHS, audiotape or in various formats for the Web, including graphics and old photos. Old analog tapes can be transferred to new digital sources, or the bulk of material can be blended into one format.

“I hope to repackage things that people have that have not been marketed yet and get them out there for the masses,” he said, noting that could be anything from Super 8 films from the 1960s to VHS tapes from the 1980s.

He maintains several Web sites of his own and can provide an all-encompassing digital media extravaganza, but finds more and more that clients want to control and update their own sites without the use of an outside service. He focuses his efforts on the virtual tours to plant on other Web sites and his refers to the business by the name of Exit4multimedia Group (www.Exit4Music.com) and/or (Exit4TV).

Mr. Branson’s wife, Christine, grew up in the house and the family has resided there for six years. Now 42, he is originally from the Philadelphia area and still does a fare share of work there, and in Stamford, but eventually wants to concentrate his work locally.

Affable, with a strong core of friends, two young children in local schools, a profound love for music and the arts, Mr. Branson’s strong grasp on technology may have him in the right place to benefit himself and the community in years to come.

He writes music for his own pleasure and for work, playing guitar, keyboards and several other instruments, and is a member of the Connecticut Songwriters Association.

A project Mr. Branson has been working on involves old video footage from the 1980s of his days creating and selling art in the South Street section of Philadelphia with his late friend, airbrush artist Michael Tancredi, who was killed in a car accident in 1991.

The two were best friends and part of a group of street-wise artists. Mr. Tancredi was particularly well known in the Philadelphia area and in the local music scene. Mr. Branson’s hope is that the finished product will show the life of a group of up-and-coming artists, musicians and performers in the late 80s and early 90s, and create interest in his late friend’s work and life.

“We were living on South Street, during the MTV generation,” Mr. said. “We got out of art school (Art Institute of Philadelphia) in 1984 and we were a big part of it. This is going to be reality in a rough way, but I feel that I’m obligated to show people about Michael’s life.”

For those looking to explore their own creativity on any scale, his facility and a network of associates may provide an option without leaving the beauty of the countryside behind.

(Originally published in The Litchfield County Times in 2004)

Copyright 2004

Part of the Village Shopping Barns in Kent, CT.

Kent artist John Scofield is displaying an increasing, yet ever-so-subtle effect on the look of his town.

Mr. Scofield, who has applied his skills to sculpture, furniture, architectural design and other formats, is adding some of the finer details to Jim Preston’s Village Shopping Barns as the project slowly develops.

The barns are the creation of the Bridgeport Design Group, including architects Matthew Preston and Nils Weisenmullar, with help from Laura Wendt-Mieser, Umberto Cordero and colorist Janice Malone.

“It’s a nice way to work with a lot of talented people,” Mr. Scofield said on Thursday.

Concentrating on blending the look of the complex to its natural surroundings, he spent last winter under a tarp, creating the housing for the mechanicals outside one of the buildings. He calls the piece “Mountain Waves.” Few would spend as much time on a visual barrier for an air conditioning unit, but such is the attention to detail at the barns.

The concept includes painted and sculpted walls that mimic long grasses blowing in the breeze. At its base, 16-to-18 inch blue stem grass will be planted, blending fantasy with reality.

“The whole motif is something that I’ve borrowed from a really beautiful church façade in Florence, Italy; the Santa Maria Novella. It doesn’t have waves like this but does have alternating panels and colors in the pillars. The whole façade is like stripes of green and white,” he said.

The grass will be maintained high and the surround areas will begin to take on concepts borrowed from art forms and nature, sometimes confusing the two.

“Since this is a north-south valley, as just about all the valleys are around here, you’re constantly getting a little stirring breeze, which makes Litchfield County attractive in the summer,” he noted. “As it swoops through here, as the grasses wave, I’m hoping that it’s going to be very attractive in concert with the static waves on the piece.”

A small group of electrical meters stand alone in another out-of-the-way section of the village, backed by another of his creations. Made of concrete, the wall is sculpted with a motif of crisscrossing grasses, fallen debris and deep-grained hemlock.

“This is one of the great things about the Preston job, the attention to detail all over this property is kind of staggering,” he said. “Even though the architect knew that this thing was going to be here, they wanted an interesting backdrop for it. Most guys would have left the wall blank, but it just shows you what they’re interested in doing.”

Mr. Scofield’s touches will appear more noticeably as the year progresses and many of them, such as a lathe railing on a stone pillar for a handicapped parking space, will be appreciated for years to come, particularly by those with an experienced eye.

Mr. Scofield grew up in Stamford and Greenwich, attended the Rochester Institute of Technology and majored in woodworking and furniture design at the School for American Craftsmen.

Under a Tiffany Foundation grant he was a studio assistant to American furniture artist Wendell Castle and in 1972 he applied for and was awarded one of only two Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grants given out that year.

After his apprenticeship with Mr. Castle he took work in New York building art galleries and loft spaces before heading to West Africa (Sierra Leone) as a member of the Peace Corps in 1974.

In the later 1970s he assisted the late abstract expressionist painter Robert Motherwell. He worked for a year with the artist on a painting that has been at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. for 25 years called “Reconciliation Elegy.” The work is 31 feet long, 10 feet high and took the two men all of 1978 to complete.

“That was sort of the completion of my formal education,” he said of his work with Mr. Motherwell. “Even though you don’t get a degree by working with an artist, when you worked for Motherwell you basically had a reading list that you had to stay on top of in order to make it through lunch. At the end of three years of having lunch with him you felt like you’d been through a graduate seminar.”

A wooden sheetmusic stand that Mr. Scofield created in his younger days provided a harbinger of his talents when it won first prize in an international design competition sponsored by Progressive Architecture Magazine. He produced a limited number and one is still on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“Within 60 days of that piece being on display I had $50,000 in deposits,” he remembers. “That’s the power of that place.”

Another piece of his is on display at the Nutmeg Gallery in Kent called “Equestrian Bench” and is constructed of many pieces of mahogany glued together and painted with more than a half dozen semi-transparent glazes and clear-coated to lock the look in.

He was one of 5,000 entrants in the World Trade Center Site Memorial competition last year. The winning design featured a simplistic and colorless layout with a field of trees with two voids where the towers stood. Michael Arad of New York submitted the design and the jury (Lower Manhattan Development Corporation) quickly secured the services of a landscape architect to buttress the design.

Mr. Scofield’s plan called for 3,000 rose bushes to summon an image of a fallen American flag. He also used extensive pink blossom cherry trees and shadblow trees. The design had traits of a sculpture he created along the shore in Branford in the 1980s that featured a line of 30 shadblow trees.

“All the neighbors complained, ‘Isn’t that stupid massing all these shadblows together?’” he remembers. “Now every time they bloom the neighbors walk through this adjacent property and say, ‘Isn’t that great.’”

Having been familiar with the works of a few of the jury members in the competition, Mr. Scofield reasoned that a design such as his, featuring lots of color, would not have been chosen.

“My feeling is that life is for the living,” he said, indicating no bitterness, “and this park is for living people. All the winning things were so ultra-minimalist and so restrained, especially color wise, that you would say that their motto would not have been ‘life is for the living.’”

Mr. Scofield and his wife, Karen Bussolini, a professional garden photographer, moved to Kent in the late 1980s after he had been hospitalized battling Lyme disease. They found a run-down home in South Kent and decided to move in and do a fix-up.

He described a bizarre introduction to the home when the two of them arrived to find the occupants burning garbage in the yard. His first vision of Kent was a couple tubes of toothpaste smoldering in the rubble. Despite that, the couple bought the house and have since renovated it. They have a teenage son.

In one more local artistic endeavor, he is taking part in the town-wide ArtDogs event where 50 or more artists are decorating bisque statues of dogs.

“There were four of us who said that we didn’t paint dogs,” he remembered from a conversation with ArtDogs organizer Jill Zinzi. “She said fine; you’re going to make dog houses.”

And he did. His will be on display in the shopping barns for those who can find it. The doghouse is sponsored by Meg McMorrow and Brad Harding, who will be the tenants in the newest structure behind Lily’s.

As for the barns, Mr. Scofield can be seen strolling through the area in the role of liaison between architect and construction. When pressed for subtle artistic references in the complex he offered one possibility.

“We’re taking cues from all over the place,” he said. “In that sense there’s an aspect of the postmodern because we’re referencing such a grab bag of prior [works].”

The combined talents of the architects, artists and contractors have made for an enviable team. Jonathan Draper’s Corporate Construction is the construction manager turning dreams into reality.

Mr. Scofield would not be surprised if the collective creation pulled together by Jim Preston may become an inspiration for others.

“I think whether he wants it to be or not, it will be,” he concluded.

(Originally published in The Kent Good Times Dispatch in 2004)

Copyright 2004

Austin Nelson on the slopes.

Kent resident Austin Nelson is discovering that the hard work he has put into his skiing career is finally paying off. The 17-year-old member of the United States Deaf Ski Team will represent the nation in the World Deaflympics in Sundsvall, Sweden, at the end of the month.

Mr. Nelson has moderate-to-severe hearing loss in both ears and is a senior at the Green Mountain Valley School, a private ski academy in Waitsfield, Vt.

The Deaflympics, conducted under the auspices of the International Committee of Deaf Sports, began in Paris in 1924 and are held every four years. One thousand athletes from 25 countries will compete in the 15th Winter Deaflympics from Feb. 26 to March 9.

The son of two avid skiers, Janet and Jack Nelson, Mr. Nelson started swooshing down the slopes before age 2 and was something of a hotshot before he could tie his shoes. He now excels in slalom events, particularly giant slalom, which is the title he will compete for at the Deaflympics.

He just returned from competing in the Easter Cup Super Giant Slalom at Sugarloaf in Maine, but didn’t fare as well as he hoped. It was one of the first “Super G” races of his young career.

“I’m extremely psyched to compete,” he said of the Deaflympics. “It will be the experience of a lifetime. I hope that I do well and place in the top 10 in all events and gain further respect for the sport of ski racing and for the deaf community.”

He must tune his skis every night, which involves cleaning, sharpening and waxing, and his workout regimen includes extensive running, swimming, jumping, biking, stomach strengthening exercises and weight lifting-all to increase strength, speed and endurance on the mountain.

“The core [stomach] is one of the most important parts of the body in order to succeed in ski racing,” he stressed. “The main goal of dry-land training is to prepare the body for the ski season. There are many other goals of the training, including coordination, speed, decreasing the lactate threshold and increasing my VO2 max [the amount of oxygen that can be removed from circulating blood and used by the working tissues during a specified period].”

He will go to the U.S. Olympic Training center at Lake Placid, N.Y. later this month to train with the U.S. Deaf Ski Team and must compete in time trials to determine which events he will compete in at the Deaflympics.

Mr. Nelson began his competitive career when he was 11 and qualified for the finals in his category three years ago at Sugarbush.

“I qualified for the JIII Finals at Sugarbush and that was a huge deal for me,” he said. “It was [just] a step down from the Junior Olympics.”
The experience was frustrating, but he gained some respect from his contemporaries in the process. “Minutes before my first Super G run, I broke my thumb and couldn’t compete in the JIII Finals, but the injury didn’t stop me from skiing since I skied with one pole.”

Aside from skiing, the athlete plays varsity soccer in the fall at Green Valley and stays with a rigorous training program all year long. September starts with dr- land training to build his strength and endurance for the slopes once the snow arrives. He keeps a strict schedule throughout the school year with most of his time out of the classroom focused on skiing.

Aside from athletics, he’s doing well with the books. He is currently focused on calculus and physics classes and studies journalism, advanced composition, business and German. He has also played the violin since a young age. He is readying himself for college next year, but hasn’t settled on a major or a school. He is considering Middlebury and Colby Colleges, and he wishes to continue to ski competitively.

As a member of the U.S. Deaf Ski Team he receives ski wear courtesy of Karbon, but does not have an official sponsor. His success in Sweden could change that.

Mr. Nelson has been an assistant coach for the Mohawk Mountain Ski Team in Cornwall, where his mother has been an instructor. He said that his hearing impairment has little impact when it comes to ski racing, although competitors in the Deaflympics are not allowed to use hearing aids, which has taken a bit of getting used to.

As for inspiration, his idol is Bode Miller, who was a combined silver medallist and giant slalom silver medallist in the 2002 Olympic Games.

“Bode is the best-ever American ski racer and possibly the best ski racer in the world, since he is on top of the World Cup Standings,” Mr. Nelson said.

Attending the Green Mountain Valley School has been a blessing for the skiing prospect ever since he arrived as a junior.

“I attended Canterbury School my freshman and sophomore years and felt that I wasn’t getting enough out of life,” he remembers. “I wasn’t able to do what I love-ski racing-so I felt that I would be much happier at a school where I could do what I dream of. After attending GMVS for two years, it feels like I have known everyone, including the faculty, for my entire life. I feel extremely comfortable in this environment and couldn’t be happier at any other school.”

He has a practice routine many would envy. GMVS is in Mad River Valley, 10 minutes away from Sugarbush and Mad River Glen, two of the most prized ski resorts in the Northeast.

Every day the entire school trains and skis at Sugarbush, which is an awesome mountain with lots of snow and very, very few people,” he explained. “Never any lift lines!”

(Originally published in The Kent Good Times Dispatch in 2003)

Copyright 2003

The Boston Red Sox recently accomplished the greatest and unlikeliest comeback in the history of major League Baseball, rebounding from a three games-to-none deficit to beat the vaunted New York Yankees in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series and heading to the World Series. No team ever accomplished such a feat, and what makes it all the more impressive is that the Sox had never beaten the Yanks in any playoff series.

Not only that, but Wednesday night they broke the worst bad-luck streak in the history of sport: “The Curse of the Bambino,” which dates back 86 years.

Perhaps the team’s change in luck was presaged by a discovery made in Kent. Early in the evening on Sunday, Oct. 17, not long before the first pitch of game four of the series, Kent Center School kindergartner and Red Sox fan A.J. Pearl discovered a little treasure in the dirt near the playground at the school. By staggering coincidence it was a silver half-dollar coin minted in 1918.

“We were just playing and I thought I kicked something and A.J. picked it up,” said his mother, Seana.

The coin date could be discerned even though most of the engraving was worn down. The Red Sox also seemed ground down by circumstance, but like the coin, resurfaced that night in dramatic fashion to win the game. Then they won again the next night, then again and again as New York fans in an ironic twist of fate, experienced the kind of October horror show that Boston fans have come to expect.

As the story goes for those who haven’t heard, Babe “The Bambino” Ruth, perhaps the best and most famous baseball player ever to wear a uniform, played for the Red Sox for the first five years of his career. In 1918, he led to Sox to their fifth World Series title. A year later, however, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was in financial trouble and was looking for a way to foot the bill for a Broadway play he was producing. In what was a tremendously unpopular move even at that time, he sold Mr. Ruth’s $100,000 contract to Col. Jacob Ruppert’s New York Yankees.

Since then the Yanks, who had never won a World Series before, have won 26 titles while the Sox never did it again until this week.

While the coin may not be worth much more than a few bucks, the sentimental value is priceless now the Red Sox are carrying a World Series trophy back to Boston. Young Mr. Pearl has a long career ahead of him as a Red Sox fan, and he even complained that he’d been taking a lot of guff from his schoolmates for being a Red Sox fan as the Yanks were pounding away at them. That is, until he found the coin and (conceivably) reversed his team’s fortunes.

Two years ago, in an organized effort to reverse the curse, a group of divers was organized to fish a piano out of Willis Pond in Sudbury, Mass. Legend has it that the Bambino launched the piano into the pond from his summerhouse on the shore during a night debauchery in 1918. The group figured that if the piano was retrieved from the pond that the curse might finally be dispelled. The piano was never found.

In another curse-related story, it was reported in a number of Boston newspapers last month that a beer vendor at Fenway Park found a 1918-penny stuck to the counter of his stand inside the park. After much ballyhoo about the find he taped it to the refrigerator in his stand for good luck. The week before that, the Boston Globe reported that a young man watching the game at Fenway had his two front teeth knocked out by a batted foul ball. His home address was Ruth’s former home in Sudbury.

(Originally published in The Kent Good times Dispatch in 2004)

Copyright 2004

TASK (Town Action to Save Kent), a nonprofit group formed last year in the wake of the Federal recognition of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation (STN), has hired lobbying firms in Connecticut and Washington to bolster its efforts “to bring fairness, discipline and comprehensiveness into the recognition process.”

The prominent Washington D.C. firm of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers has been hired to provide counsel and direction to TASK on the national level. The limited liability corporation has been in existence since 1991 and has worked for hundreds of firms ranging from BellSouth to Pfizer to Raytheon.

The Danbury firm of Collins, Hannafin, Garamella, Jaber and Tuozzolo is now registered as lobbyists on TASK’s behalf in Hartford. TASK president Ken Cooper confirmed this week that the firms were hired about six weeks ago. On Wednesday he complimented the efforts of the Town of Kent, the attorney general, legislators and congressional delegates who have fought the recognition of what his group considers non-authentic tribes.

“Obviously they have all brought us this far. They have all done a great job,” he said. “We now have to consult with them and determine from them the things that they believe would be most helpful to them in their efforts.”

Mr. Cooper stressed that TASK is not anti-casino or anti-Native American. He said it wants to support the recognition of authentic tribes.

“We’re against the recognition of non-authentic tribes or illegitimate tribes and we believe that the best way to pursue our objections to the best interest of everyone is through a reform of the recognition process at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).”

Kent Selectwoman Nancy O’Dea Wyrick is a former member of TASK, which now claims more than 500 members, most from the northwestern corner of the state.

“It’s a good strong organization now,” she said Wednesday. “It’s up and running really well. I think as a town we’re really lucky to have them be able to work for the benefit of the people of Kent.”

She stressed the importance of making the distinction between the town’s efforts in contesting the BIA’s 2004 recognition of the STN and the purpose of TASK, which focuses on the recognition process.

“The fact that they’ve been able to engage a lobbying firm I think certainly evens out the uneven situation we’ve had: our little town against unlimited funds the Schaghticoke have.”

Mr. Cooper pointed out that the firms employed are registered lobbyists in both Hartford and Connecticut and that their actions are “totally on top of the table.” He believes the Schaghticoke have a registered lobbyist in Hartford although he could not pinpoint one working on their behalf in Washington. Such firms are under contract and bill their clients in similar fashion as a law firm.

“We’re exercising our right to petition our elected officials and the most efficient way to do this is to employ professionals who are knowledgeable in how to do this.”

He credited Barbara Griffith of the Washington firm with a reputation for a “very high level of integrity” and for not attracting a lot of publicity.

“It is a recognized major player in Washington,” he said of the firm, “and this is a very complicated issue. All the parties involved have to understand that, because it is so complicated and far-reaching. If we are going to be of any value we have to bring the best talent to the table as possible.”

The Town of Kent has given verbal encouragement to TASK in its efforts and initially urged residents to take action on their own behalf in addition to what the town is doing to fight the recognition of the STN. TASK expenses are paid through private donations and it has a steering committee that meets monthly. Members and supporters are welcome but Mr. Cooper stressed that the number one priority is that supporters not be anti-Indian.

In a related matter, State Sen. Andrew Roraback and Rep. Mary Ann Carson have announced the introduction of Bill Number 774 in the hopes of furnishing Kent with $500,000 from the Mashantucket Pequot Fund to ease the burden on taxpayers for money spent defending the Schaghticoke recognition. The state receives 25 percent of the take on slot machines at the two casinos and the fund is designed to help ease the burden incurred by the towns affected by casinos. Senator Roraback estimated that about $100 million is redistributed to towns in what is often referred to as the “Pequot Grant.” Last year the legislature gave an additional $500,000 out of that money to five towns in southeastern Connecticut including Ledyard, Montville, North Stonington, Norwich and Preston.

“For them it’s because they’ve got kids in their schools and traffic, police and ambulance and fire companies are all overwhelmed with the direct impacts of existing casinos,” the senator said. “They have serious costs that have been [put] upon them by virtue of the presence of the casinos in their towns.”

He and Representative Carson think it important to make their colleagues aware of the burden that Kent taxpayers have assumed. They say that, through no fault of its own, Kent has been thrown into a costly fight and that it is appropriate for the state to help the town as it continues its legal battle. He cautioned that the bill has its own battle.

“There are a lot of forces at work here that are pro-recognition forces,” he said Wednesday. “The African American and Latino Caucus has been very outspoken in support of the recognition. No one’s pretending that this is going to be an easy fight, but I think both Representative Carson and I, in our heart of hearts, thought that the state should give special consideration [to the town of Kent].”

He warned that there is a long legislative session ahead but hopes to know by early summer whether the bill will pass. Thus far Kent taxpayers have appropriated $300,000 to fight the Schaghticoke recognition process, of which the town has spent about $180,000 according to the first selectman.

“My judgement is that this thing is going to take many, many years to resolve and there’s going to be a lot of court battles,” the senator said. “What I envision is an appropriation of $500,000 to be used to reimburse what’s been spent so far but also to have a pool of funds to draw upon as the battle unfolds.”

(Originally published in The Litchfield County Times in 2005)

Copyright 2005

Andray Blatche, formerly of South Kent School now of the Washington Wizards of the NBA.

The South Kent School Prep basketball team suffered a disappointing loss last Saturday falling to the Winchendon (Mass.) School 85-80 at Joseph J. Brown Gymnasium.

South Kent’s 6’11″ forward Andray Blatche suffered a leg injury early and it plagued him throughout the game. With four minutes left in the first half he re-injured it, taking a seat on the floor for a few minutes before leaving the court for medical treatment. He returned before the half was over and South Kent led 36-30 at the half.

In the second half the home team slowly relinquished its lead and with 13 minutes to go the lead was down to a point. The pace of the game quickened and the two teams traded leads until Winchendon started to take control with about seven minutes left. They hit a series of three-pointers down the stretch and South Kent held close but could not regain the lead.

With about five minutes to go, South Kent forward Rob Thomas threw down a dunk to get the team within three and shortly afterward South Kent’s point guard Mike Jackson made one of a number of outstanding plays, forcing his opponent to lose the ball out of bounds. Coach Raphael Chillious jumped up to congratulate him and fire up the team, and South Kent was holding close.

Thomas then hit another clutch shot to bring the score to 67-66. At that point Winchendon (2-3) was able to outshoot its opponent, raining three-pointers and controlling the offensive boards. Tyree Evans led the visitors with 27 points while Sylvester Seay scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Winchendon was able to get second chances and hit most of its shots during the last two minutes. Thomas hit two three-pointers in the last minute to make it close but Winchendon kept adding to its lead with each run down the court.

South Kent lost again on Sunday to Notre Dame Catholic High School in Fairfield 95-78 then split two away games later in the week. It rebounded Tuesday with a 64-38 victory over the Master’s School in Simsbury. The prep team is now 8-5 and plays the New York City Boy’s Club Tournament this weekend

(Originally published in The Kent Good Times Dispatch in 2004)

Copyright 2004

The Starbuck Inn on Main Street in Kent, CT.

Visitors coming back to Kent, Connecticut, this summer will notice a new place to stay on Main Street, just north of all the shops and restaurants. Formerly the Chaucer House, the Starbuck Inn opened on Memorial Day with newly renovated space and a bit more to come. The owners Betsy and Peter Starbuck are excited to provide another unique place to stay in town.

“What this business really boils down to is providing a good bed and providing a good breakfast and we don’t compromise on either one,” Mr. Starbuck said, simplifying the new venture. “It’s an interest Betsy and I have both had-of providing a place where people can come and be comfortable and visit with friends and family.”

They closed on the building in early March and have nearly completed the renovation of the building in just three months. All that remains to be built are two guestrooms above the garage and an innkeeper’s quarters below, bringing the total to seven.

Trish Namm, of Kent, handled interior design duties. Formerly the Chaucer House, it was run by Mike and Mary James for about five years. The previous owners, Alan and Brenda Hodgson, who hailed from Kent, England, named it after English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. Kent’s Albert Edwards built the structure in 1948.

The Starbuck’s have taken a page from the Hodgsons’ tribute by naming each of the guestrooms after a noted poet. The idea gained further currency from Mr. and Mrs. Starbucks’ families, who each had great reverence for poetry. One chamber is named the Lord Tennyson room, in honor of the English poet.

“It’s for fun as well. If you’re staying in the Lord Tennyson room I don’t know whether he visits you in the night or not,” Mr. Starbuck joked.

Other rooms are named for the English poet Emily Bronte, the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, Carl Sandburg and Henry David Thoreau. The rooms feature concentric walls, built with privacy in mind, and king or queen size beds with frette linens and towels. The building encompasses about 3,000 square feet and the addition should bring it to about 4,200. Each room features private baths, cable TV and Internet connections, and a two-zone central air-conditioning system was recently installed along with new electrical and plumbing systems.

Laurel Wolfe is manager of the inn, technically a bed and breakfast, and brings a host of talents along with her. She has been tending the gardens on the property for many years and ran the Chaucer House on weekends for the last couple years of its existence. She met Mr. Starbuck last fall when he was considering purchasing the property and he offered her the opportunity to manage his new business this spring.

“For me it’s all about comfort and hospitality,” she said. “The English have a great term called ‘running a house,’ whether it’s your own or something like this. You are running a house and you extend the same hospitality to these people that you would in your own home.”

She explained that her goal, as well as the owners’, is to be known as a destination for visitors to rest, eat well, and to feel as if, in a sense, they have come home.

“Some of us were lucky enough to have experienced that when we were kids – coming home and your mom making cookies or supper or whatever it may be, and that’s becoming a lost art,” Ms. Wolfe said. “As time goes by, especially this day in age, I think these things become more important.”

The Starbucks will probably market the business to attract out-of-town visitors but a vacancy sign will be displayed should anyone need a place to stay on short notice. Herb and flower gardens dot the property and Ms. Wolfe will plant an English walking garden next season. She uses the herbs in her culinary creations and decorates the interior with the flowers. Next year will see an expansion of the gardens to include tomatoes, squashes, lettuces and numerous berries. An outdoor patio for the guests overlooks the rear of the property.

For now, the Starbuck Inn will offer the traditional services of a B&B, but in the future, it may become a destination for weddings or small gatherings, given the expansive yard and multiple gardens in the rear. Guests expecting a continental breakfast will be disappointed.

“I do an enormous breakfast and it’s different every day,” Ms. Wolfe said. Local farm fresh eggs with chives from the garden, homemade, home fries with bacon and sausage, pancakes, pastries and yogurt and fruit parfaits might be on the menu on any given morning.

Borrowing from English bed and breakfast tradition, high tea is served at 4 in the afternoon. Legend has it that the Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861) complained of a lack of energy in the afternoons and instituted a “high tea,” featuring light fare such as cram-pets, scones, crust-less sandwiches and pates to keep her going’ until dinner. The emphasis was on conversation and presentation, a tradition Ms. Wolfe will continue with her array of cookies, breads, pastries or whatever is appropriate for the time of year, the guests or even the weather.

The Starbucks both have significant ties to the Kent School. Mrs. Starbuck is the chaplain at the school and he is an alumnus, as is his brother and father. The couple was recently married. She is originally from Short Hills, N.J., and he was born in Rochester, N.Y. Mr. and Mrs. Starbuck have lived in various places throughout the country in recent years and now intend to make their home in Kent.

“I’m delighted that our lives went in this direction,” Mrs. Starbuck, who recently began a Doctor of Ministry program at Princeton University, said. She has been an Episcopal minister for 10 years and the chaplain at the school for the past two. Her time has been split between her duties at the Kent School, the work at Princeton and a medical mission team she formed five years ago that travels to Honduras.

 The couple plans to include the community in the business as time progresses, particularly with displays by local artists. Mr. Starbuck, who also owns Starbuck & Co., a real estate investment and project management company in town, considered making an offer on the business five years ago and finally decided to go ahead last year.

“I was taken by the land, the size of it, and the house and the potential, but the timing wasn’t right.” he said. “We’ve just been blown away by how the place looks, Laurel and everything, and it ties in with what I do for a living.” In Season (May through Nov. 15) weekend rates are $175-$250 per night and $125-$210 midweek. Off-season weekends are $125-$210, and $100-$150.

(Originally published in The Litchfield County Times in 2004)

Copyright 2004

Members of the New Covenant Community Church in Tavares, FL load toys for the Giving Toy Box. Photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel

New Covenant Community Church’s Giving Toy Box has gotten bigger.

The Tavares church’s ministry gathers lightly used toys from schoolchildren and gives them to families who cannot afford Christmas gifts. This year, First Baptist Church of Umatilla has joined the effort.

Elisha Callanan of nondenominational New Covenant took over as leader this year.

Last year, she said, her church collected a tractor-trailer full of toys from 35 Lake County school. Each toy had to be cleaned and checked for missing parts and batteries, so the church welcomed the extra help.

“The Umatilla Baptist Church has taken on half of the Giving Toy Box this year because it was so overwhelming last year,” Callanan said. “The schools and the families are phenomenal as far as the turnout of the amount of toys we’ve gotten.”

First Baptist will cover the northeastern section of the county, including Eustis and Mount Dora.

In its first year, 2003, the ministry founded by Diane Long provided gifts for 106 families and 250 children. That number increased to 167 families and 400 kids last year. The program is for Lake County families, but church members would like to see it spread to other communities.

Part of the ministry’s success may be that it gives like-new – “pre-loved” toys as members sometimes refer to them – instead of new toys, so it’s easier to get donations.

“So many of the charities out there giving gifts, as wonderful as they are, they have to be new,” Callanan said. “It’s a shame because so many children only play with their toys a couple of times and then they never play with them again. It’s not like they’re broken or unusable.”

School guidance counselors help the churches find families in need.

Beth Getchell, a member of New Covenant and a guidance counselor, played a large role in founding the ministry.

“The guidance counselors throughout lake County are just fabulous and they’re really the main reason why this has been such a success,” Callanan said. “They talk with the families on a regular basis and know what their needs are.”

Work on the Giving Toy Box begins in September, when counselors and members of the churches start determining how many families need help.

The ministry began after Long stumbled upon a giant Elmo doll that had been thrown in the trash. She felt heartbroken that it seemed barely used and remembered a recent sermon by the Rev. Brent Bickhart of New Covenant on the importance of helping those in need.

“You don’t have to make huge strides, even just to touch a few families. That’s kind of how it all started,” Callanan said.

Parents can “shop” from 9 a.m. To 2 p.m. Dec. 10 for their children’s gifts at either church. They must register upon arrival. Interpreters will be available for Spanish-speaking families.

New Covenant is at 1650 Lane Park Cut-off Rd. First Baptist is at 550 Hatfield Dr.

For more information call New Covenant at 352-742-5034.

Originally published in the Orlando Sentinel in November, 2005

A POP curb sign from Crew Design.

Hidden away in an old dairy barn in Kent, Crew Design Inc. helps break down the last line of defense consumers have against some of the world’s largest companies-their impulses.

Founded in 1998, owners Gil Aviles and Glenn Carlin of Kent are in the midst of refurbishing the 18th-century barn on Maple Street Extension as their unique marketing and design business expands. Crew Design creates and manufactures point-of-purchase (POP) advertising displays, information merchandising and other products to lure shoppers and increase name recognition of their clients’ products.

The two artists founded the company after working in the design and marketing industry in New York City for many years. Their artistic roots go back further, including graffiti for one.

“It was a thing I did growing up as a teenager,” Mr. Aviles admitted, referring to his childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. “I’ve got to be honest, it definitely has patterned my career and how we approach design as an organization.”

He moved from subway trains to the High School of Art Design in Manhattan, then earned money painting murals in nightclubs, clothing showrooms and apartments before moving on to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

Mr. Carlin, originally from New Jersey, attended Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, focusing on illustration. The two met in New York after Mr. Aviles was called to paint a showroom at Thompson-Leeds (now Array Marketing Group), where Mr. Carlin was one of the salesmen.

“He [worked on] a custom motorcycle that Keith Herring, the famous graffiti artist, had painted, and Glenn did all the finishing on it,” Mr. Aviles remembers. “Keith was an old friend of mine.”

The two men, still in college, hit it off and occasionally collaborated on projects in the following years as Mr. Carlin continued in the design industry. Mr. Aviles found that he liked the design side of the industry and the opportunities it presented him as an artist. He also began to grow weary of standing on ladders all day and eventually took work with other firms in the industry. Eventually the two evolved and figured they could do better than some of the companies they were working for.

“Personally, I felt that the climate of our industry was a little stale,” Mr. Aviles said, “and we were part of the target audience.”

The two men founded Crew Design in 1998 when still in their early 30s. Six years later they are still avid snowboarders, wakeboarders, skateboarders and bikers. Both have married and have two children and the Carlin family has its own half-pipe for skateboarding in their backyard.

“We’re different,” Mr. Aviles said of his competitors. “We can celebrate that and it’s a natural fit for us. Change is good.”

The first word of the business title is an acronym for Creative Retail Environments Worldwide. The partners declined to divulge annual sales figures, but it is safe to say the company appears to be prospering. It has a full-time staff of nine and is expanding beyond the walls in the old barn. The manufacturing of much of its product is sub-contracted overseas but most of the design and prototypes are done in the workshops in the Kent office.

“Most ideas are just born out of necessity from a client, or Glenn and I will identify a technology that might be used in retail or hardware or where ever, but can be branded and used as a merchandising tool or vehicle.”

Once a client agrees on a concept, work begins on a prototype, materials and methods of manufacturing. The two businessmen have extensive experience in manufacturing and are well aware of the limits imposed by expensive mass production. One of the keys to their success has been the ability to affordably create innovative marketing tools. Shipping is a key point as many of the products Crew Design mass produces are distributed in the thousands.

“It’s not that everything we do is cheaper,” Mr. Aviles explained. “I think what we strive for are clients that share our same vision, clients that strive for innovation.”

Some of the other products include inflatable coolers, straw dispensers, pop-up curb signs, windsock advertisements, action figures and graphics of all sorts. Some of the company’s greatest successes include the “Case Stacker” for beverage companies’ store displays. A more sophisticated example is the “Visi-Strobe.” Placed inside store refrigerators, the motion-activated device causes individual beverage containers to light up when potential customers walk by.

Another of the company’s creations is the “Shelf Information Device (SID),” which can be seen in stores across the country. About the size of a deck of cards, it contains highly visible product information on its surface with a tiny pull-down panel to reveal in-depth information.

“These are technologies that we have invested our dollars in and have actually patented the design,” Mr. Aviles said, pointing to the SID. “The SID unit we’ve sold multiple times over and over. It’s the same thing, we just make it again.”

The Kent company will sometimes employ fabrics or other materials in a faux finish to emulate metal or other hardened surfaces to make a more cost-effective product to be shipped en masse. Mr. Aviles describes the POP industry as a child of graphic design, industrial design and product engineering morphed together to sell advertising.

“POP is pretty much, in terms of sales, the final frontier,” he described, first noting the hiring of superstar entertainers by soft drink companies for TV commercials backed by other advertising media to establish the product name and look.

“Eighty percent of the purchases are impulse buys,” he said. “If there’s any way that organization can create any kind of buzz or awareness at the point of sale (in the store), that’s going to drive their sales.”

The location of the office in Kent enables reps to meet the occasional client in New York City though many are located elsewhere. With the use of email, a Web site and the major shipping companies, Crew Design is visible anywhere.

“I think if we were more of a design-type agency or selling graphics, it would be more important to be in New York City,” Mr. Aviles said. “We’re here for the long haul. We purchased the building in March last year. We’ve been renovating here and the crews are still busy.”

The facility is inside the large barn on Maple Street Extension, the former home of Stephen Chase’s farm. The rustic exterior walls of the 18,000-square-foot former dairy barn belie the scene inside, filled with a showroom under construction filled with modern-looking and brightly-colored racks, stands, signs, graphics and contraptions to keep the curious mind busy amid the sounds of construction throughout the building.

A journey downstairs takes visitors to the research and development area, packed with prototypes and projects in progress, a casually dressed staff and rooms in various stages of construction. Lots of computers, of course, also dot the landscape.

A frightening Coors Light promotion, to appear in stores this coming Halloween season, is already nearing completion. To increase the scope of sales for it, 50 samples must be manufactured to pitch the idea to distributors around the country. The rest of the building has ample storage and the entire facility has undergone a facelift to adapt to local building codes, encompassing phase one of the construction plan. Phase two will entail renovating the silo beside the barn for a very unordinary, three-story office building. Some paving of the parking lots is also scheduled but the remainder of the industrially zoned three-acre property will remain available for future growth.

The company is also developing its own sign division, titled Automatic Sign, using local talent and catering to local businesses and beyond.

“I think our biggest challenge now is to manage the growth. It’s coming fast and furious now and we’re working a lot,” Mr. Aviles said, describing the increasing demands on his and his partner’s time for business and family. “It’s hard. I’m not complaining. We’re lucky, but it’s not easy.”

(Originally published in The Litchfield County Times in 2004)

Copyright 2004

Members of the Board of Finance (BOF) brought up the possible affect of the land rush at St. John’s Peak last weekend where 50 lots, ranging from 5 to 20 acres each, were sold in a few hours for a total of about $12 million.

“That’s going to make a huge difference in our grand list every year,” remarked member Paul Abbott.

“It’s incredible but at the same time it’s also scary,” Chairman George Jacobsen replied as board members thought about the possible implications for the town.

“One has to guess that the vast majority of people that are starting to buy those houses are not going to be demanding school services,” Mr. Jacobsen added. “There may be a couple but the vast majority are going to be people who are buying houses to get away for the weekend and so on and so forth.”

“But they may be demanding services that they presently are [receiving] that we don’t offer,” board member Jim Samartini offered.

“One of the difficulties in looking at this is you can point to all those homes and say, ‘Oh yeah, they’re all weekenders’ but if anything changes, that is a habitat that would be filled with people with lots of kids,” Mr. Jacobsen theorized, warning of the resulting effect on the schools. “You could go from 800 kids to 1,500 kids in a heartbeat.”

The 570-acre tract was purchased for $3.9 million earlier this year. The woodland tract had been subdivided in the 1980s, but the previous owners had failed to push the project through to completion. After three years of negotiations, a sale was completed to American Landource and Redstone Properties of Williamstown began to groom the grounds for potential sale.

All details about the lots were worked out in advance and those who came Saturday and Sunday to see the 50 lots, ranging from 5 to 23 acres, were handed packets telling them exactly what needed to be done to bring them to a state of readiness. The lots were priced from $149,000 to $500,000, depending on the “amenities,” according to Robert Scerbo of American Landource. The lots sold for an average of $250,000.

Board members resumed discussion of the ongoing issue of health care costs for town employees. For the past two years, members have questioned whether town employees and teachers in the Region 1 school system receive too much of a benefit in health care. Complicating the issue is that the teachers and most members of the town’s Highway Department are members of unions, which stipulate the contribution to health insurance.

Selectwoman Nancy O’Dea Wyrick performed an in-depth study of the issue last month pertaining to town employees. She revealed that the total salary for five full-timers-the selectman’s administrator, combined tax assessor and planning and zoning clerk, park and recreation director, land use administrator, highway foreman and two elected officials-came to $249,488, while the total compensation for town employees is $399,731. Included in the benefits are paid holidays, vacation and sick days, Social Security and pension. Each contributes six percent of the bill for the Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Century Preferred program.

Teachers contribute 10 percent, according to the BOF. One of the points of debate was that those who have families receive significantly more from the plan.

“Somebody who is getting a family benefit is getting a health care benefit which is 62 percent of their salary,” Mr. Jacobsen stated. “That’s a staggering number, it seems to me. Somebody who’s getting a single person coverage is getting a benefit which is [about] 24 percent.”

He said the difference bordered on discrimination and that the term “benefit” was beginning to take on a different meaning. He also quoted a statistic that stated that in 2003 the average cost of health insurance premiums for American families was $9,000 and that the town is paying $14,500. Mr. Abbott, whose wife is a teacher in town, noted that town hall employees are a small percentage of the individuals that the town covers and has direct control over.

“It’s staggering to me the insurance program that the Kent Center School teachers have and I am a direct recipient of it,” he said. “It is beyond logic that the town should be spending that kind of money.”

Members eventually agreed to approach the Board of Education with their concerns over insurance, although no meeting has been scheduled. The teachers have two more years on their contract.

Mr. Jacobsen read a letter from the town’s bond counsel to the first selectwoman and confirmed that the town could bond for a new firehouse if it chooses to do so. The inquiry was raised at the last BOF meeting during a conversation about actions the town could take to complete construction of the new firehouse. The Kent Volunteer Fire Department still needs to raise about 2 million for renovations to convert the Maple Street building into a firehouse with an ancillary space to be rented for industrial use.

For the sake of debate, Mr. Jacobsen asked, “If we’re going to go the bonding route, should we just be looking at the firehouse or should we be looking at other issues?”

No other issues were raised, but finance board members Paul Abbott, Chris Garrity and Jim Samartini will take part in the new “firehouse committee” meeting on Wednesday.

“The fundamental question seems to be are we going ahead with THE plan? Are we looking to revise THE plan and what other issues are out there?” Mr. Jacobsen asked, referring to the meeting.

The Fire Department is facing a Dec. 31 deadline to raise funds to purchase the building from the town although the deadline could be extended. The town’s auditor, Lyn Meyers & Company, informed the finance board that it is still awaiting the financial details from the Sewer Commission’s accountant. Board members mentioned that its accounting was delayed last year as well, and that it might hold up publication of the annual town report that the BOF plans to deliver to residents at the annual town meeting in November.

(Originally published in The Kent Good Times Dispatch in 2004)

Copyright 2004

Kent, Connecticut native Ed Nelson came back to his hometown last week to talk about a recent mission to India to help victims of the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami.

Dr. Nelson, a general practitioner, and his wife Sue, a nurse, led a group of 36 from their Pennsylvania church on a mission to visit a hospital and an orphanage and to provide needed medical attention and school supplies in India.

The group had adopted the inland town of Bethel and the trip had been planned for months, but, as he told a group at the First Congregational Church last Saturday night, plans changed in a hurry.

“We were pretty much ready to go with regard to what our plans were-to go to the Bethel Agricultural Fellowship and to Bethel Hospital and work there,” he explained. “We were to leave the sixth of January.”

The area they expected to visit was a bumpy seven-hour van ride from the coast hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami. He compared the affected coastline to the distance from Atlantic City to Florida.

“Yes, we were planning on going inland to Bethel but our heart was saying that we really needed to be able to provide some relief to the people that were affected. I didn’t know how it was going to happen.”

The group heard a few days before it left that the Indian government put out a mandate to halt relief aid. It didn’t make sense to him but he figures it may have been national pride or perhaps the overwhelming number of offers to help. The thought of being so close without helping weighed heavy on the volunteers’ hearts.

“You could kind of liken it to the Parable of the Good Samaritan, where the priest and the Levite walk on the opposite side of the road and see something terribly hurting and dying and just walk by. We kind of felt that if we go over there and we don’t do anything for these poor victims, it would be like [that].”

The timing of the trip drew local publicity in Pennsylvania and, as a result, another $100,000 was donated for the Tsunami cause. Still, the church group did not know how it was going to help. As a result of the moratorium on outside aid, the volunteers were stopped at customs in India when two suitcases of medication were discovered. Eventually, the wife of a local church official they knew heard of their plight and, through her connections, they were allowed to reclaim the suitcases a day later and to be on their way to Bethel.

The group continued its original mission while at the same time the official’s wife worked out a plan to allow some of them to travel to the coastal areas to help tsunami victims. After two days in Bethel the group sent a contingent of three physicians and nurses on the ride to the coastal district of Cuddalore on the southeastern coast. An Indian physician, nurse and interpreters accompanied them.

They arrived two weeks after the tsunami hit and were welcomed with open arms. Dr. Nelson said one of the things that most amazed him was that upon their arrival government officials invited them to pray.

“Amazing that we would be coming to this government, secular hospital and they would be asking us to come out and pray for the tsunami victims,” he said.

After a few rounds through the hospital the group headed to a fishing village where all homes had been leveled and large boats were resting in the streets. Everyone had lost family members and fishermen had lost boats and equipment.

The government and UNICEF supplied fresh water and rice but little else was available in the remote area. The team set up a camp in the middle of the village and people simply walked up for treatment. The most common ailments were respiratory infections resulting from inhaled water as well as cases of typhoid fever and dysentery. The doctors had brought 36,000 tablets of the antibiotic, Cipro, which were donated, as well as lots of Tylenol for bumps and bruises.

In three days they set up three camps in three villages and treated 600 people.

“Probably the most therapeutic thing we did was we listened to them, we talked with them and we prayed with them,” he said. “There was a lot of post-traumatic stress disorder. You can imagine all the stress these poor people had to undergo with the loss of loved ones and livelihood and homes.”

The cost to replace a fisherman’s boat is about $300, the nets cost $400, and homes about $1,300-all expenses well beyond the residents’ means in a short period of time. People from the York community have thus far raised more than $170,000 to help get people back on their feet in the area the church has chosen to help.

Dr. Nelson showed slides and videos of the destruction and of villages devastated by losses. Destitute people lined up by the hundreds for bowls of rice.

The couple and their two sons live in Pennsylvania, are members of the Living Word Community Church in Red Lion, and paid their own way for the trip. The Living Word church has raised money and made trips abroad in past years to help people in Cuddalore. Their mission is similar to the one undertaken by members of Kent’s Congregational Church in Honduras.

Service to the community runs in the Nelson family. Last year their son Ryan-who went to India with his parents-bicycled across the U.S. to raise funds for the American Heart Association. Dr. Nelson’s sister, Betsy Levesque, and her family have long been volunteers with the Congregational Church as has his mother, Mary Ellen Nelson. Her late husband, George “Swede” Nelson, was also part of the family tradition. Dr. Nelson was born in Kent and lived here until 1970.

(Originally published in The Kent Good Times Dispatch in 2005)

Copyright 2005

In sports parlance, it might be considered a two-for-one trade, although Kent didn’t have to give up anything for what it received. As part of the deal that brought a new basketball coach to the South Kent School, a new personal fitness trainer has also arrived in town.

A former college basketball player at the University of Victoria in Canada, Charlene Chillious comes by way of Maryland with her husband, Raphael, the new basketball coach at South Kent. He may be bringing fundamentals and teamwork to the prep squad, but she’s offering a unique form of strength training. Mrs. Chillious previously owned her own business teaching Integrated Functional Strength Training, had developed a steady clientele and had seven employees, all using training techniques she learned after a series of knee operations that ended her basketball career prematurely.

“After six knee surgeries, and one on my ankle, I couldn’t play sports anymore,” said the 32-year-old former standout player who managed to stay healthy enough for three seasons. She is nearly 6-feet, 2-inches tall, and her knees took a beating playing high-level college basketball.

“It really started with rehabilitation-just seeing how discouraging that whole process can be,” she said of the strength training techniques she learned on her own, from others and in school. “Personal training is a term I don’t really like that much because most personal trainers don’t have the education,” she said with a smile. “I like to set myself apart a little bit so I call myself a personal fitness coach.”

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in kinesiology, the study of human movement. The term became popular in the 1960s and connotes a combining of Western techniques and Eastern wisdom to achieve physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Though Mrs. Chillious wants her clients to achieve such balance, the focus of her business, which she has entitled Core Essentials, is on physical training. She also is an assistant trainer for some of the sports teams at South Kent School.

“It’s not about looking perfect, it’s about feeling good and not having pain,” she said. “Core Essentials means it’s essential to have a strong core. We work from the inside out.”

Once she knows her clients, their health history and what they want to achieve, she begins in the middle with the deep abdominal muscles (transverses abdominus), the deep lower back muscles (multifidus) and the pelvic floor.

“Those three form the core. I always start with that because if you don’t have a strong core you don’t have anything. All of your power and all of your strength comes from there. If you’ve just got really strong biceps from doing bicep curls, who cares.”

Mrs. Chillious does not specialize in any age group or level of fitness. One of her greatest successes, she said, was an 84-year-old client with whom she worked with for two years. His posture was getting worse with age, causing increasing discomfort and taking the enjoyment out of his golf game. Mrs. Chillious progressively got him to straighten his posture and strengthen his core and increase his cardiovascular exercise to boost his endurance. He liked to walk the course rather than take a cart.

“Everyone’s goals are different and I listen to exactly what they want and we decide how we’re going to get there,” she said. “I start gentle. The first session my goal is that they enjoy it and that they feel better than they did when they came. I never want anyone to leave feeling discouraged. I think one of my strengths is to challenge someone in the right way.”

The first thing she does with a client is a postural assessment, looking for imbalances and muscle abnormalities. She doesn’t use X-Rays or medical equipment in her assessment, nor does she pretend to be a doctor or attempt to treat a serious injury. She trusts her eyes in watching a person walk or perform light exercises, and feels around the body focusing on trigger points. She will use some weights and usually brings along dumbbells, a stabilization ball and stretch tubing.

“Every session is different,” she said. “There will always be a focus but I make it exciting and fun, otherwise what do you need me for. I’ll always work toward the client’s goals. I just may have to re-educate them to get realistic goals.”

A common wish might be for someone to lose a few inches around the waist and tighten up the stomach.”We go to the deepest muscles that actually hold your organs in place, the transverses abdominus, and it’s not going to happen by doing sit-ups or crunches, so forget it,” she said.

She recommended lying on the back-neck and spine totally aligned-and not moving the upper body. “You have to learn how to draw your belly-button in towards your spine and then move your legs to provide the resistance, and that strengthens your core,” she said, demonstrating the exercise.

Much of technique is based on straightening posture by creating a neutrally-positioned lumbar arch in the lower back and working from there to strengthen the core.

“Results can be totally different from what they thought they would be,” she said of her workout. “What they do see is, ‘Oh my gosh I look different because I’m not slouching anymore. I’ve added two inches to my height and I feel more confident.’ It’s usually things they don’t expect that happen first.”

She gave a tour of the well-stocked weight room at the South Kent School, pointing to machines found in every such facility and exclaiming, “I’d never use that.”

She prefers squats, lunges and various movements and stretches. She prefers free weights and focuses on standing or sitting straight and feeling the lifts throughout the body.

“Everything is connected so if you have an ankle injury, that’s going to affect your knee, your hip, your back and everything,” she said. “When you train you need to use the muscles together as a functional unit. I don’t like to isolate the biceps, for instance,” she said, mimicking a curl.

“When do you ever do this in everyday life? You don’t. Everything I do in my training is to mimic something that you do in life.”

Who would benefit from seeing her the most?”The de-conditioned,” she replied. “The person who hasn’t done anything in a while who doesn’t have any energy. Definitely not the one who goes to the gym all the time and is trying to lose 1 percent body fat. I’m interested in regular people who just want to feel better.”

She no longer takes part in sports and wouldn’t even try to run, as her right knee has no cartilage left. Still, she stays in shape with her own workout that lasts only about 40 minutes, she said, because she involves the whole body in the exercises centering on the core.

Mrs. Chillious is continuing her education, studying with the National Academy of Sports Medicine for a Certified Personal Trainer certificate and has many other training-related certifications in Canada. Following graduation from the University of Victoria, she worked with a physical therapist and then a chiropractor, dealing with clients rehabilitating from injuries.

“That’s really what got me into this. I needed to figure out how I could be healthy and not have to run and do all of those things. The thing is, if I had known what I know now that wouldn’t have happened. I had a lot of imbalances. Nobody, even doctors and orthopedic surgeons, could tell me what was going on.”

She likens her system to a strategy for a football team.

“It would be as if a football coach said, ‘OK, this season we’re going to try something new, each individual is going to practice for one hour a day and then we’re going to come together on game day and see how that works.’ It’s the same with the body. It would work terribly because [the muscles] would never practice as a team. All the muscles are meant to work together as a kinetic chain. They’re not meant to be isolated.”

Life is good for the 32-year-old as she adjusts to the rural lifestyle in Kent, which, she says, reminds her of her hometown in Canada. She is looking forward to staying in the area and would like to teach just a few clients the advantages of Integrated Functional Strength Training.

“I want them to feel good about themselves and feel good in their bodies. That’s where my focus is and that’s why they should come to me rather than go to a gym and trying to feel good about their outer shell. Life is so much bigger than that.”

Her rates are between $80 and $100 per hour and she prefers to train clients at their home but can make other arrangements. She will travel anywhere that is within roughly 30 minutes.

(Originally published in The Litchfield County Times in 2004)

Copyright 2004

Under the National Defense Act of 2000, all veterans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces are legally entitled to military funeral honors, signifying the country’s gratitude for their honorable service.

The sequence of honors depends on the branch of service, but most military funerals include the presentation of arms, three or four rifle volleys fired over the grave, the folding and presenting of the American flag to the family, and the playing of “Taps” on a bugle.

That last entitlement has become a concern.

According to Lee Caulder, deputy director of the South Carolina Office of Veterans Affairs, between 1,200 and 1,500 veterans a week die, and the number is expected to increase to 1,700 a week by 2008. In recent decades, the increasing numbers have led the Defense Department to put the burden on funeral directors and veterans organizations to organize military funeral honors. With the number of military funerals increasing and the numbers of available military personnel decreasing, a full military funeral detail is often difficult to schedule-particularly with a live bugle player.

Law and custom permit substitution of an official recording of “Taps,” but for some families that is not acceptable.

To arrange for a bugler, the family of the deceased may contact the funeral honor guard coordinator of the National Guard, and it will contact one of the nine armories in the state to arrange for a military bugler. The only buglers the Guard uses are military veterans.
Funeral directors can provide a civilian bugler or, in some cases, a veteran, to play “Taps” at the funeral. The Defense Department has provided most funeral homes with a kit that contains, among other things, a directory of regional funeral honors coordinators and a CD of “Taps,” recorded on Memorial Day, 1999, at Arlington National Cemetery.

The composition of “Taps” is credited to Union General Daniel Butterfield in 1862, though many historical accounts claim it is a revision of an old military bugle call instructing soldiers to end the evening’s drinking and return to the garrisons. It became standard at military funerals in 1891.

Most veterans agree that a live bugler is a prerequisite for an appropriate funeral, but not everyone agrees.

“We find that’s quite the contrary,” said Ed Bendler, funeral director for the Connecticut Office of Veterans Affairs, who often helps arrange military funeral honors. “Many of the family members are elderly and they specify that they don’t want anything loud. They usually prefer the recording.”

“Ninety-nine percent of the time we get a live bugler,” said Sgt. Maj. Leonard F. Dube of the Connecticut State Guard Reserve, who is the military funeral coordinator of Northwest Connecticut and is the veterans service officer in Torrington. The problem, he said, is that the services’ full-time musicians perform with military bands around the country.

“You just can’t find people to play it,” said Kent Gilyard of Bantam, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War. “That harks back to when a community was a community and every town had its own marching band.”

Mr. Gilyard feels a live bugler would be more appropriate, but he said he would prefer the recording to no “Taps” at all.

“I think the recording is just as fitting,” said Post 44 commander and Army Air Force veteran Arthur St. John. “Army regulations say the bugler should be out of sight and at a distance from the grave, so it really doesn’t make a difference.”

“I would certainly prefer a live bugler,” said Al Despins of New Britain, the Connecticut Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialist and an Army combat medic from the First Infantry Division, or “Big Red One,” in World War II.

Other aspects of military funerals are more easily arranged.

An honors detail of two or more uniformed members of the Armed Forces must be present, of whom at least one member must represent the branch of service in which the deceased veteran served. By tradition, the person presenting the flag to the family must be at least the rank of the deceased veteran.

The City of Torrington, CT provides the Veterans Service with an office and the use of a phone. Any additional expenses are provided by private donations or out of veterans’ pockets. According to Sergeant Dube, the funeral squad members receive $50 a day for memorial services, regardless of how many services take place, from the National Guard Fund.

Squad members must buy their own uniforms, rifles and blank ammunition. The Veterans Office has a van to transport squad members and equipment, but it now needs a new engine, so members are using their own vehicles. The office’s photocopy machine and computer software also need replacement, and no one is sure where the money will come from.

Sergeant Dube has three squads he can call, and it’s usually not a problem to cover the requests, so long as there are no overlaps and adequate notice is received.

The funeral honor guard coordinator of the National Guard will provide the flag to the family, free of charge. A family member must go to the local post office, provide proof of military service and fill out a request form, and the flag will be shipped.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the honor guard can no longer use military-issue weapons for the salute, for security reasons. Formerly, M16s were used, firing blanks, but most honor guards now use an M1 Garand or a .30 Springfield rifle.

One recent Tuesday, Sergeant Dube arranged for four fellow veterans and a civilian trumpet player to serve as honor guard for the funeral of a Navy veteran at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

“We get a request from the funeral home, most of the time a fax,” he said. “Within one hour we’re supposed to acknowledge confirmation to the state headquarters at the National Guard Armory in Hartford, and back to the funeral director. Then we commence to line up squad members for the service. One day last year we had seven requests for the same day. You have to cover it all. We were able to handle four, and I called other squads to handle the other three.

“Don’t ask me why, but we’re the last ones to find out,” he said. “No one ever calls us and asks us to coordinate what are good times. They just call and tell us when the time is.”

According to Sergeant Dube, it takes roughly three hours to fill out the paperwork for every military funeral. Most of it goes to the state comptroller and the National Guard.

This day, Don Cochran of Waterford, CT, Bob Castle and Bob Havens, both of Torrington, Frank Fabbri of Litchfield and George Schuster of Goshen made up the guard. Each man showed up early, was impeccably dressed in uniform, remained at attention throughout the service and performed the sequence of duties and handled the rifles flawlessly.

Bugler Joseph Zabrowski of Naugatuck played “Taps” standing roughly 75 feet from the grave, positioned just out of sight of the mourners, in keeping with tradition.

“We prepare ourselves to be here early enough so that we can check out the site, check the ground and make a hole for the flag next to the grave,” Sergeant Dube explained. “When the flag is put on the casket, the field of stars must be displayed over the heart and left shoulder.”
There have been instances were the squad has followed snow plows into cemeteries for the service. Sergeant Dube said the smaller cemeteries don’t have a winter storage facility for the bodies, as larger ones do, and must bury them without delay.

Many families acknowledge the veterans’ efforts, not only with thank you cards but with donations. The efforts of Sergeant Dube, who has been in the military for nearly half a century, and the other members of the squad did not go unappreciated in Watertown that day. Several family members rushed over to them as they walked away from the service and gave them a heartfelt thanks.

“Thank you, gentlemen,” said the son of the deceased. “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. That was the most beautiful service I’ve ever seen.”

(Originally published in The Litchfield County Times in 2003)

Copyright 2003

An early 20th Century photo of the Bull's Bridge Hydro Plant Powerhouse below Route 7 on the Housatonic River in Gaylordsville, Connecticut.

In the spring of 1903, the New Milford Power Company was approaching the completion of the first commercially viable hydroelectric power plant on the Housatonic River in Connecticut.

The project, known at the time as the Bull’s Bridge Development, broke ground in spring 1902 and water began flowing through the head gate of the plant in 1903. Bull’s Bridge was named after the Bull family that had lived in the area for generations.

A 1903 newspaper clip from the Amenia Times announced the coming attraction:

The story that capitalists are to develop the water power of the Housatonic River is again in circulation. It is to the effect that the company has a capital of one million dollars to build a dam at Kent Furnace and another at Falls Village. The same company at Bull’s Bridge is constructing a dam two hundred feet long and twenty feet high. The water is to be taken through a canal a distance of two miles where is will generate electricity of seven thousand horse-power.

The world’s first hydroelectric station built for widespread commercial use went into operation in Appleton, Wisconsin in September 1882. Inspired by Thomas Edison’s plans for an electricity-producing station in New York, paper manufacturer H.F. Rogers purchased the rights for an Edison-designed central station and the Appleton Edison Electric Company was born.

The first hydroelectric plant in New England was built on the Farmington River in 1889 and it carried power to Hartford over aluminum wire transmission lines. This and the Bull’s Bridge plant were relatively small-scale, experimental facilities compared to the first large-scale hydroelectric plant built in 1893 at Niagara Falls.

At the January 1893 session of the General Assembly, the New Milford Power Company was granted “power to acquire all such land and real estate as may be necessary or convenient with the use of water power upon the Housatonic River, at or near Bull’s Falls, Gaylord Bridge and Lover’s Leap.”

The company had its charter and within a few years, former Connecticut State Senator, Comptroller and New Milford resident Nicholas Staub, with help from Issac B. Bristol, purchased controlling interests in the land needed for the Bull’s Bridge Development.

In 1900, Walter Scott Morton, who would become chief engineer and director of the project, with financial assistance from Robert N. King, Joseph W. Ogden and Charles Sooysmith, purchased New Milford Power, in addition to controlling interest of the rights to power at Fall’s Village.

The head-waters that would be harnessed by the dam at its present location were considered to be insufficient for commercial development at the time so a plan was devised to build a canal to the east, using the additional drop of the river over the next two miles and bypassing its many turns. A total head (high point of the water) of 115 feet was theorized where the water would come back down a hill to the river, two miles below, and the plan was official. Mr. Morton, using “Kutter’s Formula,” designed the hydraulic gradient slopes for the project.

In the spring of 1902, surveying and engineering began at Bull’s Bridge, and later that year, teams of Italian laborers began the daunting task of digging the canal. Records show that there were 500 to 1,000 Italian immigrants at work on the project during its various stages. Sources also report there were many Irish immigrants working on the project, as well as a few Schaghticoke Indians.

Teams of 20 to 30 men were formed, each with a foreman, and they lived in crude shanties along Route 7 near the canal.

Not much is known of the impact of the workers on the area but an additional 1,000 men must have made some noise in Kent and surrounding towns, not to mention causing a drain of supplies and services.

In a 1976 interview from the “Northeast Utilities Scope,” a company publication, Earle Henderson, an employee, recalled that his grandfather, a New Milford farmer, hired out teams of horses to contractors involved in the Bull’s Bridge Development. Mr. Henderson remembered hearing that “it was the talk of the farming communities of New Milford and Kent.”

One of the most amazing aspects of the project at the time was the plant’s distance from the intended destination of the power produced: Waterbury was 26 miles and 2,600 utility poles away. The New Milford Power Company had a supply contract with the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company, on Freight Street in Waterbury, to furnish power for its trolleys and the growing number of homes with electricity in that area.

Kent and New Milford residents had mixed feelings about the grand project commencing near their homes, according to town meetings from that time period. However, the scope of such a project had never been witnessed in the area before and the novelty of it won many supporters.

The Canal

The entrance to the canal begins just east of the main dam, a few yards from Route 7, fronted by an old rope bridge floating on the water, leading to the shore. For the next six hundred feet south, the entrance of the canal flows between two 20-foot high walls of rock before arriving at the gatehouse, which gauges the flow into the canal and sends what is not used back into the river over another concrete dam.

As much as Northeast Utilities fences the area off from curious onlookers, when the water is low, all areas can be reached by foot for observation but the loose stone, dirt walls and slick concrete make for dangerous footing next to the swiftly moving water in the canal. The gatehouse is about half the size it was 100 years ago but the rest of this area is virtually unchanged.

From the gatehouse, the canal extends two miles south to provide the thrust of water to generate electricity at the power plant below the sharp bend on Route 7, just south of the New Milford (Gaylordsville) line, with the “head gatehouse” overlooking the road and pen stocks below it.

One third of the canal had to be blasted out of solid rock, one of the most time-consuming tasks during construction of the project. Once the earth and rock was loosened, excavation went as planned and the material was shipped away or used for fill further down the canal. Guy derricks with 40 and 45-foot booms and double drum steam hoists were used for the heavy lifting.

Steam drills were also used to break up rock but the work was grueling and the most modern tools that most of the men had were sledgehammers and shovels.

The canal extends from the first gatehouse for about 1,000 feet to Cemetery Pond. From there south to the head gate, the base is primarily earth with some ledge.

The canal held for a few years until leaks started appearing. In 1941 it was drained and most of it was lined with gunite – a mixture of Portland cement and sand thoroughly mixed dry – a material now used in swimming pools. In subsequent years each of the dams and the surface areas below them were also covered with gunite.

Construction

Construction of the main dam, or horseshoe dam, was begun after a cofferdam – made of brush loaded down with heavy stones – was built north of it to hold the river back. Much of the water was diverted to the old flood plain to the west, over what is now the Spooner Dam, and back into the river just below the covered bridge. The rest was diverted through the newly built canal and drained back into the river on the other side of the covered bridge.

The horseshoe dam was built of Portland cement and rocks, some weighing as much as 5,000 pounds.

“It looked like Lincoln Logs stacked up and they filled it full of rock for ballast,” said Bob Gates (in March, 2003), the station manager of Connecticut Hydro for Northeast Generation. “When they were done with that they would pour concrete up against it and over the top as the wearing surface to keep it tight.”

The crest of the dam is made of one-part cement, one-and-a-half parts sand and one-and-a-half parts screened pebbles for a strong wearing surface. It is 200 feet long at the top and 20 feet high from the bedrock. Crest elevation is 352 feet above sea level.

The dam created a reservoir in which the upper three feet provided about 500 cubic-feet-per-second of water for 10 hours on top of the normal flow of the river. The spillway section – adjoining the first gatehouse – is made of Portland cement mortar, and that dam is 19 feet high, from ledge to crest, and 142 feet long. The gate collects debris and the water is returned to the natural flow of the river.

Spooner Dam was built at about the same time because the water backed up by the horseshoe dam would have created another gorge to the west, nullifying some of the power potential.

“It was a low spot in the river and they were trying to build as much storage as possible based on the topography at the time,” Mr. Gates said. “It would bypass our generators if we didn’t impound in both locations.”

Spooner Dam is a weir dam – sometimes called a low dam – built to regulate or measure the flow of diverted water. It still has moveable wooden flash boards on top to control the flow of water, which can bring the crest to the same level as the crest of the horseshoe dam. The dam was built with rock fill and multiple layers of concrete walls and is 14.4 feet tall and 130 feet wide.

The Head Gate and Power Plant

Steel trash racks 22 by 60 feet long are mounted in front of the head gate(house) to decrease entrance losses at the end of the canal. Passersby on Route 7 can still see workers dragging piles of branches and other debris away from the yellow head gatehouse at the sharp bend in the road.

Originally, just one 12-foot diameter steel pen stock was built from the head gate to the power plant below, but a second, eight-foot pen stock was installed in 1912 when the waterwheel units overheated because of a lack of water to feed them. The additional pipe increased the output to 8,000 kilowatts.

The main pipe at the waterwheels gets smaller and smaller as it passes each one. It then passes into the turbine barrel, through the turbines, down into the draft tubes and into the river. The draft tube creates more suction into the system by assuring that no significant air gaps get in.

The two, 100-foot surge towers – now a Route 7 landmark – are in place to handle the “water hammer effect” when the system closes. If it weren’t for the towers, the sudden back up of water would eventually compromise the seams of the pen stocks and other equipment. The towers top out at the same height as the crest of the horseshoe dam. Passersby who time it right can still see water spurt out of the top of the towers when the generators are turned off.

The powerhouse is built entirely of concrete, 48 by 115 feet, and filled with the wheels, hydraulic valves, generators and exciters. Another room to the east contains the switchboard, oil gauges, electrical connections, transformers and lightning arresters. The electrical equipment inside the station looks virtually the same today as it did when it was built.

According to Northeast Generation, the depth of the Housatonic River at the outlet of the powerhouse is about 15 feet deep although some kayakers and river enthusiasts claim it is much deeper.

Bull’s Bridge Power Plant has an 8.4 megawatt capacity (8,400 watts) and produces 45 million kilowatt hours per year. A kilowatt hour is produced after generating for an hour. When the plant was built, the capacity was 6,000 kilowatts and the double-pole transmission lines operated at 33,500 volts. Northeast Generation does not store the power, it merely holds back water as power and current is created when the water flows through.

Early on, the Connecticut Light and Power Company’s (CL&P) engineers knew they needed to increase the hydro capacity of the Housatonic, so in 1926 they began flooding what would become Candlewood Lake and built the Rocky River station in New Milford, the first large-scale pumped-storage development in the United States.

The Bull’s Bridge Power Plant is part of a five-station hydro operation on the Housatonic, which includes the Falls Village plant in Canaan (10.5 megawatts), built in 1905, the Stevenson plant in Monroe (28-megawatts [1919]), the Shepaug plant in Southbury (47-megawatts [1955]) and the Rocky River plant (31-megawatts [1928]).

The New Milford Power Company sold all franchises to the Housatonic Power Company in 1915. On August 9, 1917, it sold all franchises to the Rocky River Power Company, which, on the same date, changed its name to the Connecticut Light and Power Company. John Henry Roraback of Canaan, a lawyer and chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party for many years, was the new company’s founder. He was president of CL&P from 1925 until his death in 1937.

On December 10, 1904, a town meeting was held in Kent to amend Section 7 of the charter of the New Milford Power Company, putting the burden on the company for future work caused by the project.

“It shall be the duty of said corporation to forever maintain and keep said bridges in repair,” read the amendment, which carried unanimously. “This amendment shall apply and relate to all roads or highways that may here-after be changed, and any bridge.”

In 1998 the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation filed a lawsuit to reclaim 2,000 acres of land it claims was taken from it in illegal transactions by former overseers including approximately 48 acres of CL&P’s land – most of which is the narrow strip between the river and Schaghticoke Road on the west side of the Housatonic in Kent. Part of that includes a few acres along the road that was the burial grounds for the tribe, which was flooded when the main dam was completed.

For many casual observers strolling around the Bull’s Bridge area, the thought of the undertaking of such a project is stunning considering the topography and the seemingly uncontrollable force of the water that flows through the Bull’s Bridge Gorge (class IV and V rapids) during the spring freshet and seasonal floods.

The gorge and the river below is a magnet for experienced kayakers year-round. The fair-weather sportsmen will opt for the calmer conditions but experts can be seen throughout the winter and spring in the worst (or best) conditions imaginable.

Hikers, runners and sightseers are free to roam nearly all of the Northeast Utilities/CL&P land that encompasses the Bull’s Bridge project, and the area is kept in impeccable condition. The Appalachian Trail parallels the Housatonic River on the west side while lookout areas and parking are provided near the covered bridge. The Bull’s Bridge Inn is a short walk away, providing a hub for hikers, fishermen, boaters and tourists alike.

Northeast Generation, a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities, will celebrate 100 years of hydroelectric power next year, the anniversary of the first cranking of the generators.

The following clip from the Amenia Times describes the Bull’s Bridge Development shortly before the canal was filled with water for the first time in 1903:

The work at Bull’s Bridge, which for the past year and more has employed from ten to twelve hundred hands, is rapidly approaching completion. The permanent dam now spans the river from shore to shore. The canal is cemented the entire length, and in due time the power house will be equipped for operation, and electric light from Bull’s Bridge, forced by the mighty power of the old Housatonic River, will shine forth in towns and cities throughout the land.

Originally Published in The Litchfield County Times in 2003

Copyright 2009

Kent School welcomes a new chaplain to campus this year in the Rev. Jonathan Voorhees. Originally from Central Valley, California, he comes to the school after serving as chaplain at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He was also chaplain at prep schools in Utah and Oregon.

The 38-year-old Episcopalian minister has already plunged into the life of the town’s largest school and employer, teaching English and theology and coaching basketball and lacrosse in addition to his duties heading the Chapel Program.

Kent School was founded as an Episcopalian school in 1906 by Fr. Frederick Herbert Sill, who remained as headmaster until 1941. It’s current headmaster, the Rev. Richardson W. Schell was also the school chaplain before being appointed to his post in 1981.

“I would say Kent has maintained its religious identity as well as any school,” Father Voorhees said in an interview inside the chapel last week. “We’re in a complex world in a pluralistic time and I think we’re involved with that conversation as well.”

He has seven years in prep school chaplaincy and five in college but this is his first experience in New England. He graduated from the Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., a consortium of 11 seminaries. He is also a West Point dropout, which he proudly looks back on as a “situation of blessing.” He said he developed a deepening sense of the initial experience of faith and he took his lead from his parents, both teachers with deep-rooted religious values. His father was a Passionist monk and his mother an Episcopal laywoman.

The school holds chapel for students and parents three times a week and is used by alumni for weddings, confirmations, baptisms and other events.

“School chaplaincy is different in that you may be an ordained minister in the church but your responsibilities are much wider,” he explained. “I’ve found that the more contact with you have with students academically or athletically, socially, the more they see you meaningfully in the role of chaplain. Kids don’t come to you the same way parishioners do. If they have a relationship with you established in some other context, that’s how the role of chaplain becomes meaningful to the students.”

What is unique about Kent School?

“It’s much different from a West Coast school in a lot of ways. It is more traditional and in a sense more formal. I’ve really enjoyed the school, but it is a change.”

He said Roman Catholics form the largest faith represented at Kent, in addition to many Episcopalian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim students. He also enjoys his time with the atheists.

“I find them as fun to relate to whether it’s in a theology class or [explaining] what chapel is or can be; those sort of questions.”

All students must attend religious services. The Roman Catholics attend Sacred Heart in Kent, Jewish students go to Temple Sholom in New Milford and Muslim students have prayer services led by a Muslim teacher at the school. The Rev. Voorhees will represent the school to the Diocese of Connecticut and he has preached at community services with the three local churches in Kent.

“I’m here for the school and it’s very important to be completely present here,” he said. He is fully prepared for the full-time dedication required of private school teachers.

He said Kent School’s Chapel is the largest church in the Diocese of Connecticut. It can hold as many as 550 at a time, but 300 students and family members is typical for a Sunday morning.

He takes over the position from the Rev. Betsy Starbuck, who has since taken a position with a church in New York City. Although the school facilities and housing are expanding, there is no change to the work of the chaplain.

“It’s a pretty demanding lifestyle,” he said, speaking for the faculty in general. “We work seven days a week; all of us.”

He also has a demanding passion away from the chapel, although not that far away. Presently unpublished, he has two completed novels and another on the way.

“I think the second will sell before the first but I think that they’ll both go at some point,” he said confidently. He loosely compares his work to that of Anthony Trollope or Susan Howatch, with the writing style of Thomas McGuane.

“It’s modeled on, in some ways, the Church of England type of theories,” he said, joking that if one compared it to the Mitford Series (Jan Karon) he might lose his lunch.

“It’s a little edgier, funnier. I think it’s timely but it takes a little bit of work to convince people that they need a new genre because I don’t get placed easily in terms of what it is.”

He admits that some of the work may appear autobiographical and that “every person who writes with a ring of truth has to write, to some degree, from experience.”

He’s also learned from his experience with publishers.

“The rejection process always makes it better. You’re not ever really done. Initially, you think this is some sort of obstacle, but then you realize there’s a winnowing, honing process that’s really vital. The feedback you get is always important. You have to have thick skin but I have to say that that’s not a problem. I believe in it.”

He keeps a disciplined writing schedule, working from 4:30 to 7 a.m. each morning. “The reading and writing I do for sermons flows into it and there’s a kind of confluence of energy,” he said. “I can write all morning and then be ready to teach.”

“The Church of Lost Hats” is his first work and the most recently completed is “Holy Animals”-set in the context of current controversy over the gay bishop in New Hampshire. One of the elements of “Hats” is the spiritual awakening by a main character that survives cancer.
He feels optimistic that the publishers’ rejections have begun to change.

“The first few years it was just straight form and no response to the content at all,” he said, adding that at least now he knows the pages are being read.

“I’ve gotten to the point where I see it not as a rejection process but as finely tuned a relationship as romance,” he said. “Finding the right agent, publisher and relationship with all of the above I think just takes the right fit.

“I think if you get published before you’re ready, your own creative process can be interrupted,” he reasoned. “The phrase that’s become most helpful to me is, ‘I don’t write to get published, I’ll get published because I write.’ And it’s almost irrelevant at a certain point whether it happens or not.”

He searched two years before settling on the Kent School position. The school was high on his list and he said no to other schools to take the job, saying that Kent has “a sense of tradition, but not a fear of moving the furniture. [It's] not watered down, but not dogmatic either.”
He interjects a youthful approach to religion, teaching and relationships with students and uses a bone-dry wit to make his points.

Father Voorhees lives on campus with his wife, Amy, and their 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice. His wife just graduated from law school and is studying for the Connecticut Bar and the couple has another child on the way.

“The challenge has not been the vocation of priesthood but how someone with my interests could uniquely fit within the church structure. School chaplaincy is just a perfect fit,” he concluded.

(Originally published in The Litchfield County Times in 2005)

Copyright 2005

Kent School Chaplain Betsy Starbuck recently returned from a peace pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine with Sabeel International, an organization showing solidarity with the Palestinians.

Sabeel, which loosely translates to “The Way” in Arabic, is a worldwide movement committed to helping Palestinian Christians reach out to other faith-based organizations in the world and to achieve “justice through non-violence.” South Africa’s Archbishop Bishop Desmond Tutu is the honorary patron of the organization, which has representatives in North America, United Kingdom, Australia and many other nations. Tutu has called for the U.S. to demand that Israel withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank and likens the situation to that of apartheid against the Palestinians.

The Rev. Mrs. Starbuck, an Episcopalian priest, attended the conference in Jerusalem with 600 other religious leaders from 40 countries for two weeks in April. Members of the group got a chance to study close up many of the facets of the long-standing conflict while traveling throughout the area with the exception of Gaza, which was closed.

Since a Palestinian uprising (Intifada) four years ago, a shootout during which clerics were held captive in a church in Bethlehem, the dangerous climate prevented it Mrs. Starbuck from making her desired pilgrimage. She was invited to take the trip with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, which introduced her to Sabeel.

“Most Americans still have a difficult time looking at what’s happening in the Middle East,” she stated last week. “It looks like an enormous conflict that will never be solved. It has escalated to such a horrific level that people are being drawn there from all over the world from various Christian and activist groups to show their solidarity with the people who are suffering.”

The conference, which lasted a week, was followed by a week of travel in both Israel and Palestine and was titled “Challenging Christian Zionism.” Sabeel, in a press release announcing the conference, “categorically rejects Christian Zionist doctrines as a false teaching that undermines the biblical message of love, mercy and justice.” The group rejects the alliance of Christian Zionist organizations with “extremist elements” in the U.S. and Israeli governments. It also feels the April 14, 2004, meeting between President George Bush- and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has moved the conflict into a new phase of oppression of the Palestinian people that will lead to more violence.

“I can only tell you my experience when we were there,” she said. “We spoke with several Palestinians who said their homes had been
demolished, their families have become homeless, and it’s in a moment’s notice. One village in particular had demolition orders for 400 homes (to expand Israeli settlements) and you don’t know when they’re coming to demolish your home.”

She walked along the ongoing construction of the 30-foot high wall being built around Israeli settlements in a virtual maze throughout the region.

She and the group visited Yasser Araft’s compound in West Bank city of Ramallah, spoke to the governor of Nablus, the mayors of Bet Ommar, Bethlehem and Nazareth. She reported sick people and women in labor held up at checkpoints waiting to go to a hospital but, in one of the few pleasant surprises of the trip, was encouraged to see doctors at the checkpoints helping, coming from other countries through the Ecumenical International Accompaniment Program.

She also saw Israeli mothers, Jewish, Christians and other activists, who monitored Israeli soldiers at some of the checkpoints to try to make sure that they give proper help to all in need.

“I didn’t hear any threats toward Israel or America,” she said, “but these are peace makers who want us to be aware of the situation. My story was to find out about the suffering of the people: both Israeli and Palestinian.

“The average American cannot have the excuse anymore that it’s a Middle East problem and it’s never going to change,” she declared. “I believe the tide is gradually turning, that more and more voices are becoming involved and the more people in the world see that if it doesn’t change, it’s going to be one of the greatest catastrophes in history.”

Mrs. Starbuck said a common occurrence for Israeli soldiers is to tear gas a neighborhood, to start firing shots so people retreat, then to take over the homes. She did not sense a military presence in Palestine, just the knowledge of the suicide bombers.

“We know the Palestinian government has been involved in corruption and there are rumors that suicide bombers are convinced by people like Arafat (President of the Palestinian Council governing the West Bank and Gaza Strip) to do this,” she admitted.

“We cannot turn our backs on Israel and Palestine,” she urged. “They cannot resolve this themselves. There is no trust left to do that except maybe through the religious groups that have joined together. We’ve known this for decades but is has worsened to the point where Jerusalem is empty. When we went to Bethlehem we were the only ones visiting and the shopkeepers and the venders are quite desperate because they can’t sell their wares to visitors. More and more people are falling into extreme forms of poverty.”

She does have some hope for peace some day, encouraged by the fall of the Berlin Wall and by Bishop Tutu’s efforts in ending apartheid.
“I put myself on the line by talking about it,” she said. “What we immediately learned over there is if you say anything about the Palestinian suffering you are marked as anti-Semitic.

“From my perspective, the Palestinians did not speak of hate to any one of us, but seemed to have been humbled to the point of just wanting enough peace so that they can live their lives safely, so they can have their own land rights back again.”

According to an Associated Press report from the April 14 meeting of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Bush strongly supported Mr. Sharon’s plan to keep control of some settlements in Gaza and parts of the West Bank. He also reportedly endorsed a plan for Palestinian refugees to settle in a future Palestinian state, not in Israel, which Yasser Arafat claimed would irreparably harm the peace process. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia expressed similar views.

Prime Minister Sharon expressed a desire for Israel to retain large parts of the West Bank with Palestinian refugees not allowed to return to land inside Israel as part of any negotiated agreement.

After the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the Arabs (Palestinians) lost the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and the West Bank and in 1968, Yasser Arafat became leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Mrs. Starbuck feels the trip, which members funded themselves, was well worth the effort.

“I embrace Sabeel’s vision of two sovereign states, Palestine and Israel, or a one state solution with three diverse cultures (Muslims, Christians and Jewish Israelis) and religions living in harmony,” she said. “By being present with someone, you can send a whole other message of hope. When someone dies and you’re a member of the clergy and you visit them, there isn’t any word that you can give them that will comfort them but your presence brings hope. They know that we left our comfortable homes and our security to cross their checkpoints and borders and put ourselves at risk to be with them in their suffering.”

(Originally published in The Kent Good Times Dispatch in 2004)

Copyright 2004