Huh?

There's going to be alot of confusion on Election Day this year. There will not only be new voting machines on November 6, but there will be three candidates running for two seats on the Board of Education but you can only vote for one (Democratic candidate Beckie Lynne Seney, Republican candidate Ross W. Grannan, or Petitioning Candidate and current board president Andrea L. Downs.) Basically, it's going to be like the Miss America contest with the first runner up being a winner, too. To keep this race from being a mere popularity contest, Town Clerk Mary Palmer has organized a meet-the-candidates forum at Town Hall on Tuesday, October 2, at 4 PM, where you can ask them questions about their vision for the Kellogg School. The two candidates vying to represent Falls Village on the Region 1 Board of Education are also expected: Republican Margaret R. Ruotolo and Democrat Gale A. Toensing. And the Registrars of Voters will be there from 3 to 5 PM to show you how the new voting machines are supposed to work.

Kudos for Kellogg

I was reading Terry Cowgill's Blog this morning and came across this comment from one of his readers about our town's unique public school.

"Also, I thought I should say that Lee Kellogg School impressed the dickens out of me this morning when their eighth grade visited Beckley Furnace. 22 kids, all well-prepared, all armed with notebooks (which they used), and they all seemed to have attention spans about 300% of the typical 8th grade attention span. Whatever they are doing in Falls Village is working. Other towns should take note."
Comment by Geoff Brown — September 27, 2007

North of the Border

I went to the new Staples in Great Barrington at sunset last night. I felt giddy. I felt guilty. I like the idea of being able to combine a trip to Guido's
or The Triplex with a pit stop at Staples (open 'till 9 PM during the week) for printer ink, notebooks and copy paper, but I don't like that once you step into Staples you could be almost anywhere in the world. With the bright lights and powerful air conditioning, I felt like I was somewhere in Florida. This miasma in Massachusetts hits too close to home. I fear that Great Barrington, which used to be a small country village, may be on its way to becoming a generic, traffic-choked exurb. If Applebee's or Starbucks comes to town, then there will be genuine cause for alarm and despair. Let's hope the "tipping point" is a long way off.

A Word to the Wise . . .

Two years ago, Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt spoke at the 8th annual Evening of Words & Music, and he packed the house, raising several thousand dollars for the D.M. Hunt LIbrary. Laura Munson, who cares deeply about the library (following in the footsteps of her benevolent parents) vowed that she would find the next celebrity to read at the annual September event. It's taken her two years to find one with a free Saturday night in September. Enthusiastic and indefatigable, Laura has been writing letters and making phone calls to well-known actors and actresses who live in the northwest corner, and this summer she was able to get a firm commitment from Edward Herrmann, who lives in Salisbury. Mr. Herrmann, as she always calls him, is an actor with a conscience and he will be reading selections from the the Nobel Prize winning playwright and polemicist George Bernard Shaw. Laura is thrilled that Mr. Herrmann (who will be appearing in the hit TV show "Gray's Anatomy" this fall) will be bringing a serious literary presence to the evening. She is also jazzed by two musicians who will be making their Words & Music debuts: June-Elizabeth May Conti, a 12-year-old violin prodigy from Sharon, who is a champion fiddler and has already performed at Carnegie Hall. and singer Antwan Johnson of Falls Village, who won last year's Northwest Idol Competition at the Warner Theater in Torrington with his rendition of the Temptations' "My Girl." Of course, the Joint Chiefs will perform, too. The folk and bluegrass trio are loyal supporters of the library and have played at Words & Music for ten years in a row. Tickets ($18) are available at the Hunt Library, Mountainside Cafe, Town Hall and Toymakers Cafe.

Table d'hote

There are still a few tickets left for tonight's Calendar Dinner to benefit the Fire and Ambulance Departments. Each table represents a different month and is decorated by a different organization, individual or business in town. This morning, the Senior Center looked incredibly festive. Here's a preview of tables (from top to bottom) by the Falls Village Day Care Center, the Falls Village Children's Theater, Sand Road Animal Hospital, and Toymaker's Cafe, which has the most humorous table with a race-car theme and a centerpiece that includes a six-pack of Budweiser. All the centerpieces are prizes for one lucky guest at each table.

A New Town Tradition

The Falls Village Children's Theater Company is sponsoring the community's first Scarecrow Contest. You can enter as an individual, a business, a team, a not-for-profit organization, a family (and you don't have to live in Falls Village to participate.) You do have to show up at the Falls Village Community and Cultural Center (103 Main Street) on Saturday September 29 between 9 AM and noon to pick up the wooden cross bar and a bag of hay that must be used in the scarecrow's construction. The entry fee is $10. You have four weeks to make your scarecrow, and must bring it back to the Falls Village Community and Cultural Center on Saturday October 27, between 9 AM and noon. You will be assigned a spot on Main Street from Route 7 to the Town Green, and then the whole town will judge the scarecrows from noon to 3:30 and vote for the best in the following categories: Scariest, Funniest, Most Theatrical, Best Look Alike, Most Falls Village. There will be prizes in each category. The FVCT hopes you will leave your scarecrow on display through Halloween to give the town a festive (and frightful) look, though you can take it home if you like. If you cannot pick up your scarecrow fixings on Sept. 29, you can still participate by calling Vance Cannon at 824-0799 to arrange to pick up your hay and crossbar at a mutally convenient time.

Dive In

In mid July, at the height of Music Mountain's
concert season, the entire water supply was cut off. The main water pipe, deep in the ground since 1930, had burst. It was a logistical and financial disaster for the not-for-profit cultural insitution. When Christine Gevert, director of the Crescendo Baroque Orchestra, heard of the water crisis she offered the perfect musical solution: a benefit performance of Haydn’s “Water Music.” The concert will take place in Music Mountain’s Gordon Hall on Sunday, September 16, at 3 p.m. with Crescendo playing the complete Water score just as it was first performed in 1717 for King George I as he and his entourage sailed the River Thames, the musicians following on their own barge. The “Water Music” opens with a French overture and includes minuets, bourrees and hornpipes divided into three suites. The Crescendo Baroque Orchestra performs on period instruments of the 17th and 18th century using originals or modern replicas. Modern instruments have been altered to increase the volume and range. Tickets are $50 ($25 tax deductible) and available online at www.musicmountain.org or (860) 824-7126.

A New Life for a Landmark

New England is full of historic church buildings, but 103 Main Street has a quirky, unexpected grace and grandeur, which seems a perfect reflection of Falls Village itself. Last winter, the Falls Village Children's Theater (FVCT) rallied residents to raise $150,000 to purchase the one-time Methodist Episcopal Church (later Emerson's Booksellers), because they wanted to save this architectural gem. Alas, the elegant shingled structure is showing its age, and the 106-year-old building will require extensive renovations before it can reopen as the Falls Village Community and Cultural Center (FVCCC), which will become a venue for art exhibitions, lectures, dances, concerts, classes, meetings and parties. The first priority is a new roof to preserve the historic interior, which includes original woodwork, chandeliers and stunning stained glass windows. (The roof is estimated to cost $50,000.) The FVCT has been awarded a $20,000 matching grant from the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, which means it must raise $20,000 from the community before it receives the grant. If you have never been inside 103 Main Street, it may be difficult to imagine just how awesome the building is. If you would like a tour, please email me or call me at 860.824.5582 and I'll show you the haunting interior. You'll see that this magical building has unlimited potential not only as a community and cultural center but also as a catalyst for a Main Street revival. (The interior pictures here were taken by Lakeville's John Gruen.) If you would like to help the FVCCC gets its matching grant as soon as possible, you can send tax deductible donations to the "FVCT Fund" at 25 Deer Road, Falls Village, CT 06031. FVCT is a 501 (c)(3) not for profit corporation. For more information, call 860.824.4303

Green Acres

While the grownups drinks Greenman Grog at Saturday night's Silent Auction Cocktail Party to benefit the D.M. Hunt Library, six local teenagers dressed in Greenman T-shirts will be passing scrumptious hors d'oeuvres by Jackie Heriteau of the Country Bistro in Salisbury. One of the special things about Falls Village is that children learn from a young age the importance of contributing to their community. I can't imagine there are many American towns where teenagers are willing to give up a Saturday night to volunteer for their local library. In other places, it would be nerdy. In Falls Village, it's cool. The volunteer waiters are [above from left to right]: Mark Rosenbloom, Amanda Lindquist, Hannah Lovejoy and Molly Lovejoy. Missing from the photo are Dominic Sanchez & Jacob Horowitz

Snap, Crackle, Pop?

At last night's meeting of the Canaan (Falls Village) Board of Education, chairperson Andrea Downs announced that a long range planning committee was being formed to study ways to make sure the Lee H. Kellogg School stays viable. After all, a school with only 101 students in kindergarten through 8th grade is a bit of a luxury, but Falls Village would lose its soul if it lost its school. Because Kellogg's future is an issue that effects everyone in town--impacting property values, taxes, social life and community character--the Board of Education is inviting interested citizens (with our without school-age children) to apply to join this working committee, which will include teachers, parents and members of the Board of Education. If you want to have a say in the future of Kellogg (and thus the future of the town) contact Andrea Downs or Principal Maria Bulson.

An observation about last night's meeting: All of the decision makers at the table were women: four members of the board of education (the fifth member who is also female was absent), the principal, and the superintendent of Region 1. Is it sexist of me to wonder whether a male perspective is needed?