Keep Curtis Richardson at CCBA

Many of us who are regular members and patrons of the CCBA are distressed over the “parting of the ways” with Curtis Richardson, who has provided able leadership to the CCBA for over 26 years. Since that time, our area has been blessed with additional health club or sport facilities and fitness programs. But in our opinion, the CCBA is a one-and-only in the Upper Valley.

Under the leadership of Curtis, the CCBA has developed into a vibrant community center, serving not only Lebanon, but the Upper Valley. It offers programs for all ages from singles to families with infants and children, to elders into their 90s, folks hale and hearty, to folks with disabilities. It offers multiple exercise programs, water aerobics, yoga, pilates, spinning, a weight room, zumba, basketbal and more. You name it, and they have it, or will have it. Beyond the gym, swim lessons and pool activities, CCBA provides vital services for kids, through the summer day camp program, which relieves stresses for working families and expands recreation, socialization and adventure for youth. CCBA further provides community garden spaces, holds special activities such as mother/son (and father/daughter) dances, and ice cream socials and activities that strengthen family and communal bonds. CCBA is not simply a fitness center, but is the heartbeat of a vital community that reflects the full range of persons, from mothers and infants, to kids of all ages, to the gray-haired elderly, the fat and skinny, the jocks and those with special needs. The child care center provides parents the respite and freedom to work out knowing their young ones are in safe hands. The community gardens provide another form of enrichment and exercise.

Curtis Richardson in our opinion is a community hero who has steered the CCBA into inclusive programming and policies. He appears to have a happy staff who are open and supportive to members. He has administered a valuable institution that serves the total community. He performs many functions, teaching classes), calling folks to remind them of membership specials, and is not above more menial tasks as needed. We are not ready to say goodbye to such a leader and we appreciate his goals of creating a vibrant community center. The CCBA must not let him go. (Many more wanted to sign this letter.)

Eleanor Coffey

West Lebanon

Patsy Sue O’Neil

Wilder

Marge Hickey

Hartland

Brenda Perry

Newport

Nan Reed

West Lebanon

Upper Valley Failed Rob Briggs

Twenty years ago, a young man — a member of our Upper Valley community — was killed. The circumstances leading to Rob Briggs’ still-unsolved death were violent and mysterious. I was a young member of the Upper Valley community when Briggs was killed and remember driving by the small white roadside cross adorned with flowers that marked the spot where he was found.

In 2009, I interviewed Leann Briggs by phone, and in person, to learn about her son’s death. Following those discussions, I had serious questions about the Hartford Police Department’s handling of the case. After reviewing a significant amount of case-related information, I realized that significant mistakes were made in the critical hours and days following the discovery of Rob lying unconscious by three young “witnesses” — mistakes that have since made it all but impossible to secure arrests and prosecutions absent a “confession.” I’m troubled by this, as anyone would be. I’m also troubled by the ongoing lack of support offered to the Briggs family by the Hartford Police Department, or any crime victim services agency. To be honest, I’m angry with the Upper Valley community, too.

Violent crime rates are low here in the Upper Valley, a fact, I suspect, we’re all thankful for. But what have we done as a community to help resolve Rob’s case or ease his family’s pain? Don’t people look out for one another around here, or did that stop happening sometime after 1996? Why have we done so pitifully little to advocate on Rob’s or his family’s behalf? Is it because Rob wasn’t our son, brother or friend? Or, is the reason we’ve done so little because doing something — anything — would require an investment in time and energy we’re not willing to make? I guess it’s easy to assume someone else will stand up and do something, isn’t it? But nobody stood up. Nothing was done. The result is a case now going on 20 years cold.

Our conduct — meaning you, me, the police, the Valley News, everyone — has been shameful. We have let down Rob, his family, friends, our community and ourselves. We should have demanded answers and, when they didn’t come, kept pressing for them, month after month, year after year. But we didn’t. That is a sad truth that accompanies the sad anniversary of the death of one of our own.

Chris Moloney

North Hartland