One of the central questions posed by opponents of the Luke and Fitting properties was “What about Sharon? She hasn’t committed on paper to anything. She will get all of the benefits of the new transfer station while assuming none of the up-front costs and the associated risks.” [apologies to Mike LaRose for the use of the feminine pronoun!]

Still others have asked, “What about Millerton? Would we want to invite Millerton to join us since residents there have been without a transfer station for 15 years?” Well, if you listen to my simple proposal, the answer to both of those questions will be: “Who cares about them? Build it and they will come.”

(more…)

LAKEVILLE — A relatively minor fire Wednesday morning in the basement of The White Gallery will not put the brakes on a planned student art show and reception this weekend.

Entitled “Blue & Gold,” the show featuring works by students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School will be moved next door to Borden Realtors at 346 Main Street in Lakeville, said Susan Galluzzo, co-owner with her husband Tino of The White Gallery.

The show will run from Friday, May 16, through Sunday, May 18. There will be a reception for artists on Friday evening from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., also at Borden’s. Exhibit hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Saturday. All proceeds will benefit young artists in the art program at the high school.

The show is sponsored by Borden’s and the White Gallery.

– Terry Cowgill

I have a legislative update story coming out in tomorrow’s print edition. Neither of our representatives in Hartford, Andrew Roraback nor Roberta Willis, gives the session high marks. Andrew gave it “a C+ at best,” while Roberta (a former teacher) did not want to hurt her fellow lawmakers’ self-esteem by assigning it a grade. So she characterized the 2008 session as “in need of improvement.”

Among the highlights:

• A bill passed that would uses state resources to help victims of the subprime mortgage crisis and impose tighter restrictions on lenders. Rell is expected to sign it. Lawmakers also succeed in raising the minimum hourly wage from $7.65 to $8 starting Jan. 1, 2009, and to $8.25 beginning Jan. 1, 2010.

  Willis voted for it and Roraback against it. Roraback said he had spoken with restaurant owners who were concerned that the profitability of their businesses could be placed in jeopardy by the increase.

• Both Roraback and Willis say they are proud of legislation that would impose restrictions on “greenhouse emissions” thought to cause global warming. Rell is expected to sign the bill, which will force state agencies to meet emissions goals by 2020. Connecticut is the fifth state in the nation to adopt such legislation.

• Different versions of an ethics bill that would revoke the pensions of corrupt state officials passed in both houses. The bill had attracted attention after it was disclosed that disgraced former Gov. John Rowland and other convicted state officials were collecting full pensions. An attempt to reconcile the two bills failed on the last day of the legislative session. That means that the measure died, which both Roraback and Willis described as a disappointment.

Whenever I say this about the minimum wage, many of my friends give me looks of horror. I don’t think we need one. Willis voted for the measure even though she conceded it will have little or no effect in her district, where even burger flipping jobs are paying close to $10 an hour.

This is where my libertarian streak sets in. I don’t think the government should be in the business of setting wages — minimum or otherwise. If you aren’t being paid enough, find another employer. If you can’t find another job that pays better, then you are out of luck. The vast majority of minimum wage earners are working second jobs on a part-time basis anyway.

Roberta told me that even $10/hr is not sufficient in the NWC. She indicated at least $15/hr was needed for a full-time worker to pay rent, utilities and drive a car in this area. So, why don’t we just raise the minimum wage to that level? Because there would be fewer jobs, of course.

Isn’t it better to have more people working at lower wages than fewer working at higher wages? Look, I feel the pain of those who struggle to meet the costs of living in the NWC. I myself work three jobs in order to live here. But outside of the large cities, raising the minimum wage to $8 is just window dressing — a symbolic gesture at best.

How about making Connecticut a more attractive place in which to do business by reducing the tax and regulatory burden on new and existing business? The resulting boomlet would create jobs, increase the demand for labor and drive wages up. Imagine that!

Baloney! She said some nice words about party unity but Hillary also claimed that “We’ve broken the tie,” vowed to proceed “full speed to the White House” and issued implicit fundraising appeals. Those don’t sound like the words of a candidate on the verge of giving up, but rather more like the Energizer Bunny (or a Timex).

Indeed, Colin McEnroe has come up with a better analogy from pop culture to describe Hillary’s doggedness. Like the black night in Monty Python & The Holy Grail, Hillary is unjustifiably confident, has had various limbs severed and cannot really fight back. Instead, like the knight, the best she can do is taunt Obama and bleed on him.

What do you say, Mark Devey, our resident Monty Python expert? Does the analogy hold water … er, blood?

TOWN	             YES	NO	TOTAL
Cornwall	      51	7	58
Falls Village	      60	17	77
Kent	             101	51	152
North Canaan	      67	56	123
Salisbury	     110	19	129
Sharon	              48	30	78

---------------------------------------------
TOTALS	             437	180	617

Click here to download a relatively recent copy of that document (PDF- Adobe Reader required), then get over to your town hall, where the polls opened about half an hour ago and where they’ll close at 8 p.m.

Here are the thumbnails:

Polls open at noon at local town halls and remain open until 8 p.m.


Hey, if you were one of almost 600 people motivated to go to Friday’s town meeting in Salisbury to weigh in on spending $2 million for a piece of property for a new transfer station, then you owe it to yourself to vote up or down on a budget of close to $14 million.

And Marshall is right. I’m not sure I agree with Peter Halle, who said in an earlier comment that low turnout is a sign of “contentment.” A yes vote would be such a sign. Staying away from the polls shows an unwillingness to participate. Sounds more like “disengagement” to me.

I will post the referendum results in this space shortly after the polls close tonight — not that very many people will care about spending $14 million …

9:15 p.m. Charlie Vail just told me 490 people got ballots but about 13 left before voting. They are still counting.

9:08 p.m. As we wait, Sally Spillane tells me the only reason so many people showed up is that “transfer stations are the only spontaneous meetings places for adults in the Salisbury-Sharon area. That’s why this meeting was so well attended.” I would add that I’m sure the politicians want to preserve transfer stations. They love to campaign there. Just ask Andrew Roraback.

8:50 p.m. Allen Cockerline moves to take the vote and dozens of people fall all over themselves to second. Much laughter. There is confusion. 2/3 majority needed to end the debate. The only way to tell without a voice vote to end the debate is to have people stand to signify their approval. Motion carries almost unanimously. People start to fill out their yellow ballots. Cockerline deserves a medal! Bless him!

8:40 p.m. Curtis Rand gave an impassioned defense of Joe Cleaveland telling him his property is NOT for sale! Applause …

8:38 p.m. Jeff Livingston asks what “other municipal uses” the Luke Fitting porperty could be used for. He then says, “I’ve heard that language before.” Then he talks about the war in Iraq as an example of deception. Many groans …

8:33 p.m. Mike Larose is trying to start a war with Sharon: “Is she a good neighbor to us? … We are not Sharon’s dumpster. Let her step up to the plate.”

8:26 p.m. The question of whether Millerton would join in has come up. Palmer said he would not support it: “We don’t need more garbage.”

8:15 p.m. Bob Palmer is making a compelling case against staying at the Hotchkiss site. He referred to the presence of all that skunk cabbage as evidence that modern state wetlands regs would virtually prohibit significant expansion at the Hotchkiss site.

8 p.m. Blah, blah, blah, reading the call and lots of other details.

7:50 p.m. People are are still streaming as moderator Charlie Vail lays down the law. The balcony is rapidly filling up.

7:40 p.m. and we show no signs of starting. Check that, 7:42 and Mike Fitting is making the church’s disclaimer so it looks like we’re underway.

7:25 p.m. Mike says the line is still stretching out ot Main Street. We could be looking at an 8 pm start.

7:15 p.m. Mike Flint says there are people lined up out the side door of the church all the way to Rt. 44. Mike says if it we can get this many people to a town meeting, then Salisbury should buy property more often

7 p.m. and there’s already 100 people here. I’ll bet the balcony will be full.

The flier addresses “Belgo Road Residents” and states in bold letters, “DO NOT let the town transfer station (the dump) move into our Belgo Road backyard … If approved, we would face increased traffic flow on our road, noise from the transfer station, as well as smells that will emanate from that location.”

It is not clear who produced the flier since it is unsigned. Belgo Road resident Michael LaRose placed the ad in today’s paper. LaRose denied any involvement with the fliers.

“I believe you have a duty to stand up and speak your mind,” he said in an interview. Of the possibility that the flier was not produced by someone on Belgo Road, LaRose added, “That crossed my mind. Anonymous material doesn’t pass the smell test.”

At Monday night’s public hearing on the proposed 2008-09 town and education budgets, First Selectman Curtis Rand told this reporter a town contractor had found a copy of the flier on Belgo Road. The flier bears little resemblance to LaRose’s ad.

The flier informs weekenders that absentee ballots will not be accepted at the May 2 town meeting to accept or reject the purchase and to call Rand “if you find this unacceptable.” The flier also touts the purported advantages of remaining at the current site owned by The Hotchkiss School. Rand has said the nearest homes on Belgo Road are at least a mile away from the proposed site.

LaRose, a part-time resident from Sparta, N.J., has been passionate and aggressive on several fronts in his opposition to the proposed purchase of the Luke and Fitting properties, especially at the two informational meetings that were held last month.

“This deal stinks, but it’s not the garbage,” he quipped.

LaRose said the Luke and Fitting properties are too expensive. He characterized the last-minute offer by Hotchkiss for a new 50-year lease as “extremely generous.” And he is particularly concerned that the town of Sharon, with whom Salisbury has partnered at the Hotchkiss site since 1975, is not sharing in the financial and legal risks associated with purchasing the Luke and Fitting properties.

“I’m sure they’re laughing at us,” LaRose added.

LaRose’s sentiments were echoed by 22-year Belgo Road resident Betty Mitchell, who also denied knowing anything about the flier: “This is just not a well thought-out plan.”

— Terry Cowgill

In-vitro meat? It’s an interesting plan, if a bit impractical. Animal cruelty aside, you’d think there would be fewer environmental consequences from producing animal tissue in a test tube than there would be from all the hog, chicken and cattle farms spread across the world.

But any time I read an article about PETA, I’m always struck by how overheated the rhetoric gets from these people. The contest has evidently sparked something of a civil war among PETA members, since many “are repulsed by the thought of eating animal tissue, even if no animals are killed.” Hmmm … I thought one of the tenets of veganism is the cruelty and barbarism in killing animals for human use. So what could be wrong with growing tissue in a tube? No animals suffer and I can still get a cheeseburger at Applebees.

The NYT quoted one PETA member who objected to fake meat as saying, “My main concern is, as the largest animal rights organization in the world, it’s our job to introduce the philosophy and hammer it home that animals are not ours to eat.” Then my question is: “Who does have the right to eat animals?”

On more than one occasion I have watched my daughter feed her gecko. She dumps a few crickets into his cage, he spies one, wiggles his tail a bit, and pounces on his meal (although sometimes he misses and gets a mouthful of sand instead). I agree that animals should not be subjected to gratuitous or unnecessary cruelty, but if I go into my backyard and grab a squirrel with my bare hands, doesn’t it become “mine to eat?”

Does PETA argue that animals shouldn’t eat animals either? Indeed you could make a good case that animals are more cruel to each other than we are to them. I once saw an episode on Animal Planet that left me speechless and nearly sick. As soon as a female chimp had finished giving birth, a couple of males snatched the newborn from her and started munching on its tender tissue. It was easily the most barbaric thing I had ever seen and it was performed by animals on each other.

I think the PETA people should listen to a variation of the mantra of abortion rights advocates in the U.S. and become pro choice: “If you don’t like meat, then don’t eat it.”