Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 57

E1 THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1984 Service District Asks Granby for More Involvement A 'Dead' Language Lives On TOWN TALK well was dug in 1955 and the second in 1983 "in anticipation of the town's growth." Together the two wells can pump more than 600 gallons per minute, "all the water we need," Leake said, adding, "and it's the cheapest and best water in the state. We've had it checked over and over and it always comes out clean as a whistle." In fiscal 1984, Salmon Brook -District assessed itself $9,500 to supply street lights, and sold water at $1.10 for 1,000 gallons to center users. "We even give a 10 percent discount to people who pay promptly," Leake said. The district can go right on serving the town, Leake said. But it also could be dissolved if 75 percent of the membership voted to do that.

In such a case, the district's assets would probably be turned over to the town. At the public hearing 'on the apartments, Leake said ihere were complaints about occasional low water pressure in the area. Over the years, however, such complaints have been investigated and, invariably, the culprits are found to be clogged household pipes or faulty plumbing, he said. His own history in the organization began in 1963 when the Leake family bought its East Granby Road home. The former owner called to say, "Peter, you have a meeting tonight." "I do?" he asked.

It was then he learned that "membership in the district comes with the house," he said. The district is unique in the make-up of the town, a self-contained entity run by district residents, serving district residents. But, as Leake suggested to selectmen, its influence extends to the whole town. The street lights it provides benefit anyone who comes to the center, and its decisions can shape the town's growth. "What would your reaction be if the street lights were turned off one night?" Leake asked selectmen.

"I think there's a lot to be said for restructuring the district Perhaps there should be a good look at that idea in the next year." Selectmen agreed they should 'take a more active interest in district doings, and indicated they plan to attend the group's annual meeting in July. Tracing the history of the operation said Salmon Brook Water Co. was established in 1872 and the lighting district in 1914. In 1945, the lighting unit took over the other and became Salmon Brook District The first making decisions which could affect the future of the town," he said. Leake said, for example, the group recently turned down two requests for water.

One was for a condominium development still to come before the Planning and Zoning Commission, and the other was to supply water to the East Granby homeowners whose wells are polluted by chemicals. The East Granby request was rejected; Leake said, because district officers thought it would be too difficult to deal with the regulations of two different towns. The other, rejection was because the district feared its gravity flow system might not be strong enough to distribute the water. However, the district did agree to supply water to 44 proposed rental apartments on Hartford Avenue. Vincent Valvo Special to The Courant Dr.

Edward Ifkovic displays his collection of Connecticut's "forgotten" women writers. Former Best-Selling Authors Today Are 'Forgotten' Women By KATHARINE RILEY Courant Correspondent GRANBY Nobody is mad. Nobody is threatening to quit. But the volunteers who run Salmon Brook District are suggesting, gently, that maybe, just maybe, it's time for the town to take over their job. After all, they have been supplying water to the town's business center for 112 years and lighting for center streets for 70 years without any tax assistance from the town, ever.

Peter Leake, longtime chairman of Salmon Brook District, told the Board of Selectmen last week that the district does more than just meet the water and electricity needs of its approximately 200 residents and businesses. "We are taking on a lot of responsibility. We're a small group that is Hockey Gets an Assist League Exempt From Fee Hike At Skating Rink By DAVE LESHER Courant Staff Writer WEST HARTFORD The Town Council has decided there is too little for kids to do in West Hartford during the winter, and the situation shouldn't be made worse. The council voted to exempt West Hartford Youth Hockey League from a rate hike at the Veterans Memorial skating rink after the league's president said the increase could spell the end of youth hockey in town. After, hearing from league president Thomas Desmond, Deputy Mayor Christopher F.

Droney moved that rates for the league not be increased because it is one of the town's few winter activities for youth and the only sports program in town for 6- to 9-year-olds, The council agreed. "I think the town should make a contribution" to continue the hockey league, Droney said. The council did raise rates for other users of the rink, such as skating clubs and private parties, however. At present the hockey league pays about $65 per hour to use the rink. Rates will increase in July for other groups according to the time of day and the season.

The present rates range between $60 per hour and $85 per hour. The new rates will be $75 to $105 per hour. Desmond blamed past rate hikes, in part, for a decline in youth hockey participation. During the past three years, enrollment has dropped from about 300 to 220 because the cost to join has increased, primarily because of rate hikes at the skating rink, Desmond said. Desmond noted that players also must pay for equipment that sometimes cost hundreds of dollars.

"If the rates had gone through as recommended, I think there's no doubt we would have lost an- See League, Page E4 Assignment By TAO WOOLFE Courant Staff Writer WEST HARTFORD The "newly elected" Brevard County Board of Supervisors has a problem on its hands: where to store toxic chemical wastes that are threatening to leach into the ground and pollute the water supply. The nine officials actually eighth-graders at Renbrook School have several options. They can build a landfill on a 30-acre plot in the Brentwood neighborhood, a 30-acre plot in the Longworth neighborhood or a 30-acre plot near the Millerton Shopping Mall. Or, they can ship the wastes 800 miles away to a site approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"The supervisors have much to consider before making their decision Monday. There are the ob-ections from residents of the irentwood and Longworth neigh-orhoods, objections from the businessmen of the shopping Anyone who claims Latin is a dead language hasn't been to Farmington High School lately. Six students have learned they scored at or above the national average in an exam administered to 35,000 students across the country. They included first-year students Dane Afman, Elizabeth Gardner, Jane Fowler and Patrick Scully and second-year students Stephen Perreault and Drew Shas-kan. Perreault, son of Mr.

and Mrs. Roger Perreault of Unionville, ranked fourth nationally. This is the first year Farmington High Latin students participated in the national test, according to Latin teacher Nancy Lister, She called the results "very gratifying." Simsbury Clerk of Commissions Betty Skidmore, who is retiring June 30 after serving the town for 25 years, will be honored by her friends at a champagne reception June 15. The reception is set for 7 p.m. at Eno Memorial Hall.

"I think the town could well fall apart without her," said Kathy Hayes, Sims-bury's tax collector. "We will definitely miss her." Tickets for the reception are $10 each and can be ob-. tained by contacting Hayes at Town Hall at 651-3751, Joel Weisman at 651-3531 or Fred Reid at 658-5209. The directors of Hartford Community Television Inc. a public access' cable television station in Hartford, said they were stunned by the outpouring of public support the station received from area residents during a telethon last weekend.

The non-profit group has been producing and broadcasting local interest programs to Hartford cable viewers since 1982 through contracts with the Times Mirror Cable Television which also funds public access cable stations in five other Hartford area towns. The 27 -hour-long telethon included samples of the more than 400 programs the station's 150 volunteers have produced and aired during the past year, as well as discussions on current contract renewal problems with the' cable company. More than 400 residents called or visited the station during the telethon to applaud its efforts and urge a continuance of local interest Etrogramming, said Neta Bo-ozky, executive director of the Hartford access station. The callers came from cultural backgrounds as diverse as the programming the station produced for its English and non-English cable channels, she said. Telephone calls came from a variety of Hartford community groups representing Portuguese, Italian and black residents.

Lawyers are often accused of double talk, sometimes to each other. That was the case at Monday's town meeting on Windsor's annual budget when lawyer John A. Wall asked Mayor John T. Pier to clarify how the town planned to use $50,000 originally earmarked in the budget for an I-91I-291 lawsuit. "Are you saying the money will not be used for litigation?" Wall asked Pier, who is also a lawyer.

After Pier told Wall that the Town Council would "not make an ultimate decision for some time" on the question, Wall waited near the microphone for a further explanation. Pier looked up and smiled. "The answer is neither yes nor no, obviously." he said. "That's what I thought the answer was," Wall replied. Sergeants Are Also Teachers By VINCENT M.

VALVO Courant Correspondent WEST HARTFORD Being a modern drill sergeant doesn't mean coddling soldiers In basic training, but it's not as bad as television and the movies make it out either, said Sgt. Robert Roland of Waterbury. "We're somewhat likethe sterv eotypes. We don't baby a soldier. But there's more to it than raising your voice and yelling," he said.

Roland should know. In February, he was selected as the best drill sergeant of the West ford-based 76th Division, which covers all of New England. Recently, he was first runner-up in the national competition at Fort Monroe, competing against 13 Army reserve sergeants and nine regular Army sergeants. "A lot of people have the wrong image of drill sergeants. It's not the charging, blood-and-guts stuff they think," said Roland, a reservist for 13 years.

"Today's soldier is smarter. Seventy percent are high school graduates, and they're looking for a counselor and teachers, and you've got to be able to be it." The Army looks for a thorough knowledge of Army rules and the demands of the infantry, leadership and discipline in drill sergeants, said retired Col. John Cooper, staff training director for the 76th Division. "Our sergeants have to keep up to date with current events. For the competition, they had to write essay on their pretation of the Army today," Cooper said.

"The sergeants are teachers, and we're looking for a motivator someone to go get 'em up, whip them all day long and then get them to keep going," Cooper added. "It's a tough job, and it takes a lot out of a man. It's mostly men under 35 doing it now. After that, we usually give them other duties," Cooper said. "I vividly remember my drill sergeant," the 32-year-old Roland said.

"He's the first person you see when you get off the bus, and he's the person you remember most. I try to keep that in mind when I'm training these kids." Roland said drill sergeants have to take a different tack now than they did 20 years ago be-. cause the recruits are volunteers, not draftees. He said they're not rebelling against the Amy; they come to learn and be a part of it. Nonetheless, while it's important to be a counselor and teacher, the drill sergeant still has to be "darn tough," Roland said.

"You're unmilitary if you're complaining and moaning about your job. it rubs off on the young soldier," he said. That fierce dedication can cause people to mistake the drill sergeant for someone without feelings, someone who is only out to make the life of the trainee miserable. Roland, who is married and the father of two children, spends most of his time as a chemical operator for Uniroyal Chemical in Naugatuck. He said of the national competition, "What surprised me most was here were all these sergeants from across the U.S.A.

and, you know, they were all just regular guys." "In essence," he said, "they were reaffirming the old values for millions of women when those values were changing. It was the time of the suffragettes and the vote for women. These writers were telling women in the town, 'It's OK, the life you're living is Nonetheless, the authors were a study in con-'. tradiction. They wrote that a woman's place was in the home, serving husband and family, while they paved the way for serious women writers in the male-dominated publishing field, Ifkovic said.

Most were either widowed or divorced, and were trying to support their children and them- selves on their own ability. The work is difficult to judge from a feminist view, Ifkovic said. The authors were pioneers, but they wrote about a subservient life for worn-' en. "I haven't heard any complaints on the display from feminists yet," he said, "but I'm sure they'd see this in the historical light. This was the only way they could get published then.

They couldn't be if they defied the established tradition." And, said the collector of more than 3,000 volumes of turn-of-the-century popular literature, the books also served as escapism for the read-, ersthen. "They were like the Harlequin romances of today," he said. "Virtually all of them were set in a world of romance, or as an escape from ugly realities. By VINCENT M. VALVO Courant Correspondent FARMINGTON As authors go, these forgotten women writers of Connecticut were pretty bad.

Nonetheless, that didn't stop their turn-of-the-century works from being best-sellers, says Dr. Edward Ifkovic of Tunxis Community College. At the Tunxis library, Ifkovic is displaying through next week a portion of his collection of "forgotten" women writers from across the state. Included in the display are works from Ann S. Stephens of Derby, Sarah McLean Greene of Simsbury, Sarah K.

Bolton of Farmington, Ella Wheeler Wilcox of Branford and Lydia Sig-ourney of Hartford. "The stuff is just awful. It's all overblown romance, just dreadfully written," he said. Of all the writers represented, the work of only one remains in memory today, Ifkovic said. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, considered one of the best poets of her time, still is remembered for one line: "Laugh and the world laughs with you.

Weep and you weep alone." "But all the women were best-sellers of their time. Why were they popular then, when they wouldn't be now? Because it was the end of the Victorian Age, and they wrote about popular subjects," said Ifkovic, an English professor at Tunxis. "They wrote about the value of the home, the beauty of childhood and women's role as a homemaker and guardian of religion. Puts Students in Roles of Officials Wright said the members of the Board of Supervisors will be targets of various lobbying efforts in the halls and will constantly be reminded that they are in danger of not being re-elected if the vote does not go a particular way. Some of the supervisors, Wright said, asked what they should do if they are bribed with Twinkies or similar treats "just like real life," Wright said, chuckling.

The supervisors must also consider that building a landfill would cost $2.3 million and that shipping waste out of the county would cost $1.4 million. John Anderson, DEP deputy commissioner, who spoke to the students recently, said of the study: "It's very innovative because the parents of that generation have their heads in the sand about what do with all that waste. It gives fresh minds some insight into the problem, and I'd love to see that kind of curriculum go statewide. It is a statewide problem i The students have been busy conducting research and hearing speakers on the subject, said Wright and Jane Hoben, head of the English Department, which is co-sponsoring the study. The speakers include representatives from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the state, Department of Health Services and the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, as well as state Rep.

Teresalee Bertinuson, D-East Windsor, who is chairman of the Environment Committee. In preparing for the interdisciplinary study, the school sent home a questionnaire with the students asking parents where their trash is taken, who takes it, if trash is recycled and the percentage of various materials in the trash. Rebby Carey, a student representing a landfill owner, said her parents "knew just about as much as I did about waste which was nothing. It's interesting to find out that parents don't know mall. There are the arguments of the county planner, who says the county can make money if the wastes are not shipped to an outside site, and of potential landfill owners, who are out to make a bundle.

Sound familiar? That's the whole idea behind the school's study of the problems of solid and hazardous wastes. The students have set aside three weeks to study and come up with some solutions to the problems. "The gist of it is for them to realize what a complicated problem it is through role playing," said Howard Wright, head of Ren-brook's science department. "The Board of Supervisors may not be able to reach a decision by next week, but that's like real life towns just can't reach a decision." Today and Friday, students' representing the various opposing groups will present their arguments before the Board of Supervisors. The supervisors have been given until Monday to reach a decision..