Pope property use needs support
The recent presentation by the Pope Land Design Committee showed real progress. But there has been talk that the housing to be constructed should be limited to rentals. I’m not sure of the origin and reasoning. I think there may be some concern about complexity. But these kinds of combinations are common, and I am certain that the details can be worked out. If it would help to have some similarity in design, the Housing Trust would be happy with that. If some separation in location would help to set up contractual land arrangements, that would be fine. The town might retain ownership of the land; leasing it to the Housing Trust, which would then lease it to the home owner.
I think it is important to remember the town’s commitment to affordable home ownership and the reasoning behind it. The following is from the 2018 Salisbury Affordable Housing Plan.
Many younger adults who grew up in Salisbury would like to raise their own families here, but affordable “starter homes” are either non-existent or need a great deal of rehab in order to be livable. Demands on younger residents such as repaying college loans often leave very little household income to pay a mortgage. This statement is truer today than it was five years ago. A young family with whom we recently worked had $40,000 for a down payment could not find a house that they could afford. For another applicant family, high on our list, both parents have good jobs and both have college debts. They cannot afford to buy a home in Salisbury, without our help. In this family, both parents are engaged in town-related volunteer work.
The Affordable Housing Plan states that the Pope property on Salmon Kill Road will contain, “A mix of home ownership and rentals.” The following from Rick Cantele, president and CEO of Salisbury Bank, is also from the Affordable Housing Plan. The statement is accurate and we have applicants working at the Salisbury Bank.
“The cost of housing is a significant factor in the hiring and retention of employees, particularly younger employees. I believe there is a definite advantage for our staff, for our company, and for our communities to have our employees live locally. Customers enjoy seeing familiar faces working in their local branches. Employees who have shorter commutes are often more involved in their communities.”
We, of the Salisbury Housing Trust, will of course continue to acquire and build homes at various sites. But the Pope property with its location, size, town sewer and water, is important in our planning.
Leo Gafney
Co-President Salisbury Housing Trust
Salisbury
Winsted Phoenix was not short-lived
In your article “Nader backs new Winsted papers” published on Feb. 1, the writer, Terry Cowgill, wrote:
“The Winsted Phoenix, a mostly online venture led by former Winsted Journal editor Shaw Israel Izikson, was short-lived.”
It was not lead by me. I was the editor, but it was lead by the board heading its 501(c)(3) organization.
Furthermore, the newspaper lasted from 2019 to 2021 and was both in print and online. I have the printed issues for proof of this. So it didn’t seem short-lived to me.
Please take this as correcting those statements.
Shaw Israel Izikson
Winsted
Great Chocolate Fest again
After a 2 year hiatus, the Kent Center School Scholarship Fund’s Chocolate Fest celebrated an enthusiastic return last week! The attendance was high and the chocolate was plentiful! KCSSF would like to thank the generous donations of friends of KCS, including the following local businesses: Wilson’s, Sophie’s Bakery, Old Oak Tavern, Kent Coffee & Chocolate, Swyft, J. P. Gifford, Kent Fife ‘n Drum, IGA, Villager, Bulls Bridge Inn, Marvelwood, South Kent School, and Kent School. Over $2200 was raised to help graduates of Kent Center School with their college educations.
Kathleen Robey
For the KCSSF Board of Directors, Kent Center School
Kent
Facts about Sharon Hospital’s PCU
As the EMS Coordinator at Sharon Hospital and a practicing paramedic, I am writing today to encourage my community to understand the facts about Sharon Hospital’s proposed Progressive Care Unit (PCU).
In my role as EMS Coordinator, and as a prehospital provider, I interact regularly with the EMS providers in Sharon Hospital’s service area. These first responders are extremely skilled in providing high quality prehospital care for patients prior to their arrival at Sharon Hospital. When the patient arrives in the Emergency Department, they are met with Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physicians and highly trained Nurses, ancillary clinicians, and staff. Working together, our EMS teams and the Sharon Hospital staff provide life-saving care to patients in the Northwest Corner. The establishment of a PCU at Sharon Hospital will only enhance this already remarkable care.
If the PCU is approved, our EMS teams will continue bringing all patients in need of care to Sharon Hospital, just as they currently do. These patients will have access to the same pre-hospital and emergency care as they do today, and when they arrive at the ED, they will still be able to receive high quality critical care—including oxygen for respiratory support including ventilation, and telemetry monitoring—from the same staff currently providing this care in the ICU today. The difference is that they will receive this care in a centralized unit located just up the stairs from where the ICU lives today. This new unit will be enhanced with modern technology and will serve patients with a wider range of care needs, meaning that as they recover, these patients will be able to stay in the same unit for the entirety of their care. This will ultimately create a more seamless, consistent inpatient experience at the hospital.
As a rural hospital, Sharon Hospital is already in the practice of triaging, stabilizing, and transferring patients who require specialty care not offered outside of larger medical centers. We practice this every day by leveraging a comprehensive network of EMS personnel, including EMS teams from both New York and Connecticut, Nuvance Health system EMS services, other commercial EMS providers and—for patients with the most urgent care needs—LifeStar and LifeNet helicopters via Sharon Hospital’s newly updated helipad. Our ability to provide comprehensive treatment and stabilization prior to transfer of this small number of acute patient population in this area is a key contributing factor in our ability to remain a five-star hospital.
The establishment of a PCU is the right decision for Sharon Hospital. It will create a more modern and consistent experience for our patients, and a more efficient use of space and resources for staff.
David Jensen
Poughkeepsie
Work on view for Hudson River artist
In reference to the recent article in the Compass concerning painters in the Hudson River School of Art, I might add that my great-great grandfather, Jasper Cropsey, was one the original founders of that school. A museum, with most of his works, is located in Hastings-on-Hudson, adjacent to Cropsey’s studio/home.
Peter Cropsey Smith
Taconic
Act now to keep Sharon Hospital ICU open
What will happen if Nuvance is allowed to close the Sharon Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and replace it with a Progressive Care Unit (PCU)? Nuvance falsely claims in its public outreach that a PCU will provide our community with the same level of critical care that it currently provides.
This claim is contradicted in Nuvance’s official filings with the CT Office of Health Strategy (OHS), in which it states:
• Its proposed PCU is akin to an “intermediate care unit” and, therefore, not equivalent to an ICU that treats acutely ill patients.
• Patients with clinical conditions requiring ICU level nursing care cannot be admitted to the proposed PCU; instead, they must be transferred to another facility that has an ICU.
• 10% of the patients currently treated in the ICU will no longer qualify to be admitted to Sharon Hospital and will have to be transferred to another hospital.
What would this change mean for our community? While the Sharon Hospital Emergency Department would receive and stabilize ICU level patients, Sharon Hospital would not admit them. Instead, patients will be transferred to another hospital, up to an hour away (weather permitting).
The sickest patients could no longer be treated at Sharon Hospital, and families of those patients will have to travel significant distances to be with them. Consider what the inter-hospital transfer of patients would involve — long wait times for transport, reliance on third-party paid services (for which patients get billed), and the physical issues that arise when transferring a patient (moving a very ill patient from a hospital bed to a stretcher, detaching all monitors and reattaching them to mobile equipment, getting the patient into an advanced life support ambulance for transport of an hour or more, moving the patient out of the ambulance, transferring the patient into the new hospital and then into a room, moving the patient again from the stretcher to the hospital bed, reattaching all the monitors.)
Yes, this will all happen if the downgrade to PCU is approved by OHS. And, ironically, Nuvance admits in its filings with OHS that its plan will cause Sharon Hospital to lose more money.
It’s not too late for you to help. You can oppose Nuvance’s application to close the ICU and replace it with a PCU by providing written public comment to OHS by February 22. Just email a letter to CONComment@ct.gov and reference docket #22-32504-CON. Thank you for your support.
David C. Singer
Salisbury
Church’s Guantanamo columns so important
I commend Charles Church, a Salisbury resident for his recent columns in The Lakeville Journal (1/12 and 1/19) about Guantanamo detainees for whom Mr. Church, a lawyer, has been working steadfastly — to protect their habeas corpus rights. Mr. Church has reported on detainee pre-Guantanamo torture and their deeply flawed case management and treatment at Gauntanamo. As his reporting confirms, basic human rights in many cases have been trampled on. Clearly, some Guantanamo detainees deserve their imprisonment, although most have not to date had trials. And few among us would condone the horrific crimes committed by Al Queda.
Thankfully, on Feb. 3, it was reported that Majid Khan, who finished his term of imprisonment (and one of the few cases that went to trial), was released to Belize, the first release in several years — even though apparently 20 of the 34 remaining prisoners have been approved for release. The cost of Guantanamo incarceration as Mr. Church reports is over $15 million per detainee, yet Supermax prisons in the United States average $78,000 per prisoner.
What a monumental waste of taxpayer funds. Let’s hope that the Biden administration is able to find foreign refuge for these prisoners in the coming years. Aside from our feelings over these complex issues, that hard earned American taxpayer money could be more wisely spent.
Oren Rudavsky
Lakeville
Troutbeck’s proposed expansion may pose threat to shared aquifer
I write this letter to ensure that Connecticut residents (people in the town of Sharon in particular) are aware that the proposed expansion of the Troutbeck Hotel and Conference Center near the border of Amenia and Sharon could seriously impact on the aquifer that is shared by portions of both towns. The fact that this aquifer is shared by both states makes this a Connecticut environmental/water usage issue as well as New York.
In the public hearing at the recent Town of Amenia planning board meeting, it was made clear that no actual hydrology study on the potential impact to the affected aquifer has been done. The newest version of Troutbeck’s proposed expansion will use, by Troutbeck’s own estimation, approximately 7,500,000 gallons of water annually, to be drawn from this shared aquifer. As a homeowner near Troutbeck, (on property that borders Sharon) I can attest to the fact that last year’s drought adversely affected the gallons/ minute of our own well. The pressure on this aquifer, if Troutbeck were to use 7.5 million gallons/year, may cause serious water problems for households in both New York and Connecticut, especially during times of drought.
I voiced my concerns to the Amenia Planning Board about this water usage issue in that hearing, and none of the planning board members or Troutbeck representatives seemed to know what the present water usage at Troutbeck is, to compare with the proposed 7.5 million gallons of estimated annual usage. The town of Sharon, Conn., the N.Y. and Connecticut depts. of Environmental Protection and Conservation, legislators and any other agencies concerned should be made aware of the potential threat posed to this shared aquifer, and need to ensure all required impact studies are completed before approval be given to Troutbeck to proceed with the expansion.
I implored the planning board in a letter submitted to the town of Amenia to delay any final decision on approval or disapproval of the Troutbeck plan until all potentially affected parties are satisfied that all applicable environmental impact studies have been completed. I also voiced concerns publicly that the changes at Troutbeck could adversely affect the quality of water in the Webutuck River that flows through the property.
This river is in the Housatonic River watershed, and the Housatonic’s designation as a Federal Wild and Scenic river could warrant that further studies be completed before the Amenia board acts. A Connecticut Environmental Quality study may also need to be conducted. The Housatonic River Council, River Keepers, and other river protection organizations should be aware of this situation to help clarify any potential impact on the Webutuck River, and therefore the Housatonic River as well.
With the serious concerns shared by neighbors of the Troutbeck property, I feel the Amenia Planning Board should reconsider their decision to end all public hearings on this matter. It would seem prudent that another public hearing might be necessary to dispel any doubt that all environmental impact problems posed by further Troutbeck development have been addressed.
James Paton
Amenia
What is pro life?
“I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is political statistic.”
— Winston Churchill
Churchill, the strong voice of leadership, ever concerned for his people, like PJ O’Rouke knew “infant mortality and life expectancy are reasonable indicators of general well-being in a society.”
However, for decades the United States has held the soiled distinction of being the worst nation among developed nations for both infant and maternal mortality. For each of these key civil measures, infant and maternal mortality, the U.S. ranks 50th or below — worse than Cuba, Croatia, Uruguay, right along with Sri Lanka and Costa Rica. Deaths of U.S. mothers and infants in their first year ranks among the worst in the world.
In stark contrast, the U.S. has the highest spending on medical care among all nations – 60% more spent per capita than by the second highest rated Switzerland. U.S. moneys and political wrath are not for safe birthing, are not for mothers or infants pre or post birth living, they are staunchly for partial pro life, for some pro life, for pro life as a campaign slogan not a policy, commitment, or outcome for mother and infant health.
In the U.S., high incidence of mortality for mothers and infants is attributed to lack of pre-natal and post-natal care. The U.S., in contrast to the 10 countries with the lowest mortality rates/best care for mothers and infants, has significant lack of access to pre- and post-birth care along with a dearth of compensatory support.
In the United States feuds, angry debates, fisticuffs, gun attacks are rampant regarding women’s reproductive health and personal choice. There is pitiful, if any, attention paid to the survival of mothers and infants outside this political dispute.
Just what does pro life mean? Marches, bombings, violent attacks, perpetrated on clinics and physicians regarding women’s health. Abortion, legal for half a century, is being rescinded with some advocating a woman be incarcerated for having a miscarriage.
According to some state officials, religious groups and avid individuals there is no reason for a woman to make a choice about her life, her family, her health related to pregnancy. There is no legislation to enhance prenatal and post natal care — no goals — no asking for proof that fewer babies and new mothers have died.
Again, what is pro life in a nation fraught with guns — 393 million guns — and rising mass shootings? What is pro life when access to obstetrics for women in rural and urban areas declines? An obstetrics desert is spreading with millions of women without birth services within 30 minutes, including our own Sharon.
“One man can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain’t nothin’ can beat team work.”
— Edward Abbey
Kathy Herald-Marlowe
Sharon
We are for affordable housing, just not this
Dear Fellow Citizens, last August Congresswoman Jahana Hayes announced a $750,000 “award” to the Falls Village Housing Trust to address the “dire” need for affordable rental housing in Falls Village, i.e. the “River Road” development in Lime Rock Station.
The “award” was the result of a solo appeal by First Selectman Henry Todd, written on town stationery. The “award” application is not available for public viewing nor covered by the Freedom of Information Act. Mr. Todd’s actions were never vetted or approved by any Town Committees.
This singular move by Mr. Todd is typical for this outgoing Town Chief Executive. Over the last four years, Mr. Todd muzzled and resisted a townwide dialogue about River Road. Frustrated, a petition for a Town Meeting and yay or nay vote on River Road signed by 71 citizens in 2020 was thrown in a wastebasket.
A comprehensive letter of questions and grievances signed by 33 citizens was similarly dealt with. Mr. Todd for three years stated the town would have no fiduciary relationship with the private Falls Village Housing Trust or River Road until he changed his stripes and went all-in. Mr. Todd’s relationship with the Town’s Economic Development Director, Felicia Jones, (who just happens to be on the Board of the Housing Trust) has apparently finally borne fruit with citizens’ questions unanswered or ever addressed.
Where will the (approximately) $5 to $7 million of financing to complete the project come from? What will the effect on the already sky high mill rate be? Will the Town be holding the bag if the finances for this 16 unit, 29 bedroom project don’t appear or the development can’t cover it’s costs. Why must this development be concentrated in Lime Rock Station, fully six miles from a supermarket and two miles from Town in a small neighborhood of 20+ houses that already has four Habitat for Humanity homes well placed. The Falls Village Housing Trust doesn’t even own the land, Habitat for Humanity does.
Why is Habitat for Humanity which purports to support Home Ownership willing to cash in it’s chips and throw in for rentals. How does a prospective renter justify spending money that will not create equity for them but enrich a landlord who will privately own the development after 30 years? Other local wealthier towns crow about their affordable rental housing.
These towns’ immense Grand Lists and low mill rates CAN support these projects. The $750,000 Federal Grant will be sufficient to purchase the property and do land clearing and site prep. If financing doesn’t come through, we will be left with an empty lot and a scarred landscape in the future Wild and Scenic Housatonic River Valley.
We state it time and again: We are not against affordable housing. We support smaller Falls Village scaled in-town units walkable to schools and amenities, part of the social fabric, enjoying the perks of community living. It can be achieved. Mr. Todd, let citizens voices be heard.
Colter Rule
Falls Village
"Cow," by Joelle Sander.Cornwall Library
Lala TamarProvided
