Cornwall Chronicle March 1995
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,. ,.t I .• ,'It . "' , ' ~ CORNWALL CHRONICLE ) VOLUME 5: NUMBER 2 MARCH1995 NESDCto Dr. P.T. Schoenemann of Harwinton, whose "When I started, our truck field of expertise is business management. was a 1932 Sanford. It cost Schools: Reorganize Their recommendations: hire an assistant $5,000. It had no cab, so Penn Dr. W.G. Zimmerman of the New England superintendent and business manager post Higginson gave us a horsehide coat with a School Development Council, hired to tell us haste; pull the central administrative offices coonskin collar for the driver. Back then you why we're at each other's throats come bud- together for better communication and more could outfit a fireman for maybe $50. Nowa- get time, described Region One's governance efficient clerical support; rewrite job descrip- days it costs over $1,000 to put a man on the structure to a group of Northwest Corner tions on two pages each; reduce the six el- front line. Add an airpack, for going into citizens gathered at the North Canaan School ementary-school board memberships to smoke, that's another $2,000." as "fundamentally flawed." Comparing our three each and leave the principals out of Fred remembers every fire he fought: fragmented school system with more unified their meetings; and-long-range-adopt a bam fires, house fires, brush fires. Some of ones throughout the state, he sees the 4.8 region-wide K-12 school system which the the worst were in winter, like the mess-hall members of the Region One central office as report's authors claim would save us "hun- fire at Mohawk, when Bill Scius's boots froze underpaid, overworked, and bogged down dreds of thousands of dollars." to his feet, or Ted Starr's house fire on a night in clerical work. On the other hand, our Copies of Dr. Zimmerman's report are socold"ittookusaweektothawoutthehose." teaching and clerical forces he judged to be available at the Town Hall. "Before we had an ambulance," Fred con- underworked-that is, if economy of opera- -Scoville D. Soule tinues, "you got to the hospital as best you tion is our prime concern. Also overstaffed could. Doc Walker had his car fixed up so he are our six local school boards, which he sees Looking Back with Fred Bate could drop the seat and lay the injured right as cumbersome and overly concerned with in. He took me to Sharon once, when I broke day-to-day minutia. "Back then, if you could run the pump and my arm as a kid. Then sometime in the '60s · · d k · · hold onto a hose you were a fireman." Fred Dr. Zimmerman h a d mterVIewe ey c1ti- we got our first ambulance. It was an old van zens of the six towns in Region One, the prin- Bate chuckles. "Not so today. It takes six that we bought from the Board of Ed for $1 cipals of the seven schools, school-board weeks of fire school to make Firefighter One. and fixed up. We kept a "steal list" on the members, and the administrators them- And that's just the beginning." dash when we went to the hospital, for selves. He had also held three focus-group "Back then" was December 1939, when things we needed-extra pillows, blankets, sessions wi th intereste d voters to get amul ti-. Fred, age 20, was sworn in as a member of bandages. Our new ambulance, w h ich we dimensional picture of local thinking. Com- the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department. got last October, cost over $100,000, not . Fifty-five years and one month later, he pilation of these interviews, cost an d staff mg counting some $50,000 worth of equipment. figures from other sc h ool systems, and a talked about his days as a fireman and later "A little later Doc Reyelt over in Sharon two-week time log of administrators' daily as a member of the rescue squad, and about decided if we were going to play doctor we'd routines were the raw materials he drew on some of the changes that time has brought. better learn something about medicine, so he ..fo_r_hi_·_s_re_p_o_r_t._H __ e_w_a_s_a_i_d_ed_b_y_a_v_o_l_un_te_e .. r, __ MARCH 199 5 --------------(-co_n_ti..nu_e_d_o_n_pa_g_e'"l2) 1 2 W.Cornwall Judy Gafney Note: Deadline tor April Events & Announcements Merchants Association Children's Story Hour and Calendar listings is March 15. eo@•• - " J'l( t.Q 10 a.m. Cadwell's 10 a.m. Cornwall Library 9 16 23 30 Town Meeting 8 p.m. CCS Gym (see p.2) 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Scott Cady Park & Rec Agri. Advis. Comm. CCS PTA Board of Education Judy Gafney Square Dance 4 p.m. Cornwall 7:30 p.m. Town Office 7:30 p.m. Firehouse 7 p.m. CCS Lib. presents budget to 10 a.m. Cornwall Library Benefit for Extras for Library {see p.4) Board of Selectmen Inland Wetlands Special Olympics Comm. Board of Finance 7-10 p.m. CCS Gym 7:30 p.m. Town Hall 7:30p.m. Town Hall* 7 p.m. Tow~ Hall 7:30p.m. CCS Library (see p.4) itt A 12 13HVRHS Bd. of Ed. 14 Repub. Town Comm. 15 16 17 ST. PATRICK'S DAY 18 Poetry Reading 7 p.m. High School 7:30p.m. CCS Cont. Rm. Board of Finance Judy Gafney Cornwall Assn. 8 p.m. Cadwell's 7:30p.m. CCS Library 10 a.m. Cornwall Library p.m. Prentices' Art Show, Scott Zuckerman Dem. Town Comm. 4 129 Lake Road 3/13-4/8 Cornwall Library 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Board of Education 5 p.m., CCS Library P&Z _a Housatonic Riv. Comm. 7:30p.m. Town Hall l!fl. 7:30p.m. CCS Library 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Bd. of Selectmen 1 Yale Glee Club 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Benefit for hospital in Haiti 8 p.m. Hotchkiss School itt (see p.4) 26 27 28 29 30 31 ZBA Elderly Health Screening, Comedy Night/ 7:30p.m. Town Hall* CCS (see p.4) Spaghetti Supper Benefit for Conservation Comm. Special Olympics, HVRHS 7:30 p.m. FirehousA Call Gordon Ridgway for time, time and place at Town Office 2 CORNWALL CHRONICLE MARCH1995 (continued from page 1) When there is no snow, Justin trains with set up a first aid course. When the EMT pro his cart, but when there is snow he uses a gram came in I got certified. I took the exam dogsled. If he is not training around Sharon with both hands bandaged from having fro and Cornwall, Justin, a student at zen my fingers in a fire. From then on I Middlebury College, trains his dogs at the worked on the rescue squad. At first, some of college, where he keeps them on a campus the older doctors didn't think we knew baseball field. much-we were farmers-and some of the Tightening the Budget Screws This shows that in Cornwall, you never nurses resented our getting into their terri The first draft of the selectmen's 1995/96 op know what is going to surprise you around tory, but after a while we were accepted. erating budget, as detailed to the Board of Fi the next comer. -John Zinsser "Cornwall was the first town in the state nance on February 16, earned high marks to have a woman in the fire service. Joan La from that body. The bottom line shows a two "Poetry and Song" a Winner Placa. Dick Dakin was fire chief, and at the percent reduction as compared to 1994/95. Pews packed with appreciative listeners ap monthly fire chiefs' meetings the other chiefs The capital expense side is more conjectural plauded Sam Waterston and the Litchfield would talk about this new truck or that new at this point but looks to be equally encour County Children's Choir at their perfor firehouse and Dake would say, 'Yeah, and aging. "Impressive" and "hard work" were mance on Sunday; February 12, at the United I've got the only pregnant fireman in the some of the accolades thrown at presenter Church of Christ. The rapt audience relished state of Connecticut.' There was some resis Gordon Ridgway. He attributed the hard work Sam's versatile and sensitive reading of some tance at first to having girls on the squad, but to all those involved in the budget process. of his favorite poems; and I wasn't one. They're better at dealing with In other business last month the select they enjoyed the choir, kids and elderly ladies than men, and be men, in conjunction with the Board of Educa which includes Com sides, they're damn good at their jobs. tion, called a town meeting for Friday; March wall singers Maja "I guess I've seen just about everything," 3 (8 P.M.) to vote on some proposed changes Gray, Davina Piker, Fred says, "shootings, stabbings, suicides, in the Board of Education's election regula and soloist Kate car and motorcycle accidents, drownings. tions: (1) reduce term of office from six years Sandmeyer. The About the only thing I've managed to avoid to four (to provide time off for good behav choir, directed by is helping deliver a baby; for which I'm just ior?); and (2) have open elections without re Christopher as pleased. I had the training for it, though. I gard to party affiliation in order to increase Shepard, sang a va- remember Doc O'Connell telling us, 'You competition, the only proviso being that no riety of challenging want to make sure you've got a good more than four members of a given party selections with catcher's mitt, 'cause they're slippery little may serve on the board at one time.