The recent arrest and charging of Lebanon Police Lt. Richard Smolenski on a misdemeanor count of stalking is alarming (“Police lieutenant charged with stalking,” May 8). Smolenski, who has pleaded not guilty, is alleged to have harassed and threatened a woman, using the specter of force and violence — a nauseating abuse of power. This man was responsible for directing significant operations for the Lebanon Police Department, including being the tactical team commander.
This incident calls into question the operations of Lebanon police dating back years. What investigations or tactical operations were conducted or influenced by this man who is alleged to have so willingly abused his power? How can we have any confidence that department staff have the community’s best interests at heart when this man was elevated into a leadership position? Most significantly, how can we continue to grant such powers to a police force knowing this could easily happen again?
The only way to ensure it does not is to reduce the scope, size and power of the Lebanon Police Department. In theory, we as residents are supposed to have this ability. Unfortunately, under the current system, the current city manager (a former police officer) can negotiate the police department’s contract in secret, present it to City Council to be rubber-stamped, and then use that contract as a cudgel to counteract any changes to the police budget that are proposed by residents.
We have not yet seen any public statements from the Lebanon Police Department or the city manager about this incident. I am sure they hope to sweep it under the rug.
It’s time for residents to regain control over these public employees, instead of having the police run the city.
RENDI ROGERS
West Lebanon
The Friends of the Meriden Library have been engaged in many ways to support our little library. Though we have enjoyed the library, and made the most of its small space, we are very excited about the prospect of it becoming a little bit bigger and more accessible for all community members. We are on the cusp of having our town approve a new and improved, ADA-compliant, energy-efficient Meriden Library, and we are thrilled!
This has been many years in the making, with countless volunteer hours and donations making it a reality. Thanks to the generosity of the people of Plainfield and beyond, the estimated $1.15 million budget for the project is now accounted for in pledges and existing funds. Of course, funding for additional costs will continue, and donations are still appreciated.
We feel it’s important to share what happened regarding the library fundraiser. The Friends and the Meriden Library Building Foundation were doing all we could to raise money for the new library when the pandemic struck. We were hoping the town would approve the library at last year’s Town Meeting, but it was taken off the docket due to the pandemic. A great deal of money had been raised — $594,000 — but the trustees were going to ask the town to give the balance from tax dollars. Because of COVID-19, the trustees committed to completing this project with no additional money to be raised from taxes. That might have seemed impossible, but our community stepped up and raised an additional $302,000 in one year. Thank you to everyone who has donated to this community-centered cause.
We are days away from the town approving the building of the new library. We hope that Plainfield residents will come out to vote on Saturday and support this project, which has been a true community effort.
Now more than ever, it’s apparent just how important community spaces to meet and support one another are. Thank you, again, to everyone who has made this dream a reality.
VICKI RAMOS-GLEW
Meriden
The writer is president of Friends of the Meriden Library. This letter was also signed by members Leeli Bonney, Emily Boynton, Shannon Decker, Sarah George, Amy Lappin, Susan Nugent, Caren Saunders and Betsy Underhill.
Marianne and Edward Faulkner chose to reside in Woodstock in 1898. She continued to do so for 60 years, until her death in 1958.
Their generosity was evident as early as 1904: Practicing Protestants, they funded the rebuilding of Our Lady of the Snows after a fire. The Catholic sanctuary still stands today.
After her husband’s death in 1926, Faulkner rescued the local golf course with an interest-free loan and area hospitals received generous funding. Yet she is most renowned for the creation of three icons in Woodstock.
In honor of her late husband, Faulkner began building a trail on her property in 1934, traversing the southern face of Mount Tom and opened it to the public in 1937, admission-free.
In 1943, she gave her mill property to the educational corporation Woodstock Associates Inc. to create the Recreation Center.
In 1953, she created a charitable corporation, The Homestead Inc., then donated the land and building for an assisted living facility.
She chose the model of nonprofit ownership for public benefit repeatedly.
Today, 84 years later, Faulkner Park and Trail is still cherished. The Rec Center has been in operation 71 years, The Homestead, 64. Thanks to her last will and testament, all three gifts have continued intact, without change in ownership.
Faulkner’s will speaks volumes about her generosity, vision, financial acumen and compassion. It set up a trusts to benefit the Rec Center, and The Homestead and Faulkner Park. Her directives state the park could be owned and managed by a Vermont corporation formed for charitable purposes.
The bank selected as trustee has changed ownership several times since 1958. The current trustee, JPMorgan Chase, proposes transferring ownership of Faulkner Park and Trail and a tiny fraction of trust principal to the town. This would remove the park as a beneficiary of the trust and end its access to trust principal. Faulkner’s will states repeatedly that political beneficiaries like the town are not an option. Her directives are clear. The trustee’s proposal is contrary.
WENDY WRIGHT MARRINAN
Woodstock
The writer is a member of Friends of Faulkner Park.
Israel has been vilified in social, print and broadcast media since the recent conflagration between Arabs and Israelis began. Unfortunately the bitter anti-Israel criticism provided pretense for an uptick in incidents of blatant antisemitism, the oldest of all hatreds. Aside from perpetrators who welcomed the cover of Middle East conflict to attack, there were those spurned to act based on misconceptions about the conflict. For example, consider the alleged Israeli crime of Palestinian expulsions from a neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Boston Globe journalist Abdallah Fayyad recently wrote a piece that tugs at our heartstrings as he relates a story of learning to ride a bicycle on the Sheikh Jarrah street in East Jerusalem where he grew up, the street where he claims he can no longer ride.
The warm, misty-eyed feelings Fayyad’s childhood remembrance evokes quickly ice over as he turns his memoir-esque rite of passage story into a screed excoriating Israel for every ill afflicting today’s Middle East, not the least of which is Israel’s very existence. It didn’t have to be this way.
Had Palestinian leadership embraced any number of proposals, starting with the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 followed by, among others, the Oslo Accords (1993), Camp David (1978 and 2000), and Olmert’s Peace Plan (2008), this holy land indigenous to both Jews and Arabs might today be shared by two independent, sovereign states.
Sadly, Palestinians encouraged by their otherwise ineffectual leadership of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority continue refighting the 1948 War of Independence. In that battle only the nascent state of Israel, singed but not destroyed, emerged.
That is why Fayyad is not able to ride his bike in Sheikh Jarrah today.
DAVID GREENFIELD
Grantham